Displaced - Book One of the Alternate Reality Series

Chapter 29

James stood inside of Victor Vane's apartment, unsure of what to do. He just witnessed Victor murder Alice, a horrid affair that filled him with blood-raged anger, but fury quickly gave way to confusion.

Mike, who also witnessed the murder, entered Victor's apartment, only to exit without warning. Before he went, he seemed to lack every trace of consciousness. Then after he disappeared, a troubling notion crept over James. Mike might've exited to hunt down Chad.

James' breathing deepened as he considered this, then his eyes shot open, when his shoulder suddenly moved, softly at first, then harder.

Unable to account for the alien body syndrome, he grunted frustration, then aimed his pistol about, looking to blast away the evil spirits possessing this Godforsaken place. Then after convulsing yet again, he slipped his finger over the trigger, but held off when a voice called from the heavens.

"Hey!" Kim said. "James!"

Eric ripped off his immersion sets, and there Kim stood, hovering over him, her hand on his shoulder.

"Where the hell did your friend go!?" she asked.

"Shit!" Eric responded, bolting upright, the world spinning from the abrupt change in realities. "I don't know. He jumped out without saying anything."

"Yeah. That's what I saw."

Eric tried to stand, but lost his balance while getting up on rubbery legs.

"Easy!" Kim said, lowering him back onto the couch, then sitting beside him.

As Eric's blood filled the vacuums in his veins, he spotted Kim's vid feeds pasted along the wall. "Did you see it?"

"Yeah. All of it. Pretty Goddamned sickening."

Eric nodded. "Did you record it?"

"All of it."

Eric drew in air. Was he grateful for their success or not? He wasn't sure, not with the bedroom vid feed showing a blood-soaked bed. That partly made him want the event destroyed–the film, the perpetrator, his memory of it, everything. But if a time ever existed where emotions needed checking, this was it. After all, one person on their team had already gone off the reservation, and reeling him in would require clear-headedness.

With Eric's senses back online, he took a final deep breath, then stood. "I need to go to the Vale's."

"You can't contact the bot?" Kim asked, typing on her computer.

"I'm gonna try, but judging by Arvin's look, I'm not sure I'll get through. Something tells me he's offline right now and isn't checking his messages. If so, I need to see him in person."

"Okay. I'll try reaching him from here, since I got his contact info from his bot data file. If you run into him, make sure he doesn't do anything stupid, and tell him to contact me immediately."

Eric spoke over his shoulder while heading towards the kitchen. "Why the urgency?"

Kim turned. "What was that?" she asked, as Eric rummaged through kitchen drawers. When he found what he was looking for, her face fell. "You gotta be kidding me."

Eric looked up from his knife, nodded, and exchanged the blade for a meat mallet. He test swung the weapon, looked up once more, and nodded with added vigor.

Kim face remained sunken.

"What?" Eric protested. "You saw what that sick maniac did to Alice. You think I'm going over there empty handed?"