I met James in middle school, back when his family still lived in Bedford. He used to be quite an average guy, by all means. The transition between that state of apparent normalcy, and his subsequent paranoia-bound mentality took place over a summer. How — and most importantly — why that happened I never got to know for sure, but I do associate that drastic change, at least partially, to his parents divorce. Having no other means to cope with that, James avoided the external world by plunging himself into the depths of internet conspiracy groups.
I thought, at first, that it was just a momentary thing — that he'd eventually let go of the fad and come back to his senses. But he didn't.
Most of the times it didn't bothered me — he was just a weird guy with an odd way of interpreting things — and of finding connections where anyone else would find absolutely nothing. Who'd have guessed his skills would serve a purpose so much time later...
The first question that crossed my mind as soon as I was allowed into the house, was 'why?'. It's not like I was expecting to be welcomed into a fancy suburban home, by a happy family with two kids and a golden retriever — but I wasn't expecting to find myself locked up in a tinfoil cave either.
The house was cryptic. Most of the walls had been shielded with sheets of some copper-like material, which glimmered under the lights of a dozen reflectors scattered around. Wires, power cables, exposed circuitry, fans — hundreds of them — computers of many sizes and shapes; the place had a hum of its own, it made me feel inside the guts of a mechanical beast.
Luna tiptoed around me, dodging every now and then from stuff that could easily get stuck on her horn. I definitely wouldn't want to know what could possibly happen if one of those cables got ripped apart.
"I gotta say Todd; I'm surprised." James said, pushing a sliding door aside to reveal a small living room. "As you might have guessed, I don't get many visitors."
"To be honest, I'm quite surprised as well." I exchanged glances with Luna. "That goddamned evacuation zone split my property in two halves. I had to leave Bedford. Not like I was planning to stay there any longer, anyway." I said. "The place is doomed."
James started to nod — his sequentially boring nods — as he spoke.
"I presumed it had something to do with that. But I'm not buying it, Todd. That's not how evacuations work." James played with the curls of his hair as he paced around. "It bothers me deeply to see those things happening so close to my safe-house."
"What do you mean?" I asked. James didn't answered. Maybe he didn't cared enough to answer.
"Tell me, why are you here? Of all the places you could've fled; why Corning — why me?" James rested his arms on top of a wrinkled leather chair. He didn't seem to be annoyed or anything, I guess he was just genuinely surprised to have another human being nearby.
"Believe me James, I'd rather be somewhere else as well — I'd love to — but there's something I need to deal with before moving on." I said. "And you're the only person I know that may be able to assist me with that."
"What is it?" James asked, a cloud of uncertainty seemed to drift on the back of his eyes.
"You better have a seat" I said.
"Why?" James stepped back a little.
"It's hard to explain — you need to see it for yourself — but you gotta promise me that you won't freak out." I told him.
"Dude, nothing in this world freaks me out anymore." He let out a chuckle, but even that couldn't hide the underlying uneasiness in his voice.
"I wouldn't be so sure about that." I insisted.
"C'mon Todd, I've already let you in. Nobody comes here unless they have a good reason to — I know you're probably in deep shit bro; spill the goddamn beans." James said.
"Alright... Alright." I nodded. "Luna, come out."
"What's happening to your friend?" Luna asked, approaching carefully as I made my way towards James. His pale face seemed devoid of any blood.
"He's gonna be fine — give him a sec, alright?" I said, preventing Luna from walking any closer. "I'm so- so sorry bro."
James had been wheezing into a paper bag, clutching the thing as if his life depended on it. I made no opposition. No one is truly ready to see a blue unicorn.
A few minutes later, when we were all spread around on the floor, James opened his mouth to speak.
"Yeah... I'll be." He gasped. "Todd, be a gentleman — there's mountain dew in the fridge, bring it over. I need to relax." He muttered.
"What is a mountain dew?" Luna asked me in a whisper.
"A very dangerous drug, you don't want it." I said, making my way to the kitchen, and back to James, who took the soda can from my hands as a gift from the gods.
There was an odd silence as he gulped down the whole thing. I'd rather not know what Mountain Dew did to his brain over the years.
"There you go." James sighed, tossing the can aside. "Now..." He vaguely pointed to Luna. "That's something I wasn't expecting. Congratulations."
"It's a long story." I said. Boy, it really was.
"You can bet your ass it is." He chuckled in disbelief, covering half of his face with the palms of his hands. "A unicorn, for god's sake!"
"Alicorn, actually." Luna added.
"Oh, right, my apologies. Still getting used to the nomenclature, you know?" James said. "So lemme get this straight; by the time you finally leave Bedford behind, you bring an alicorn under your arm. I mean — dude — I'm really missing out. Your brother knows about this, I presume?" He asked.
"Billy is dead."
Death always brings with it a certain heaviness. Even if it's not intended; there's no escape from the weight of the hand of fate, who manifests itself whenever it's mentioned.
"I shot him by accident. We were in the middle of nowhere — I couldn't help him." I did my best to control my nervous tic. "James... things are very bad — you need to help me."
There we were; me, my alicorn companion, and my paranoid friend. Sitting on the carpeted floor of a dim lit living room, which vibrated and hummed a thousand hums of unknown processors and machines. That was our sanctuary.
"Alright." James nodded, his expression was then of concern. "Tell me what's going on."
Luna curled herself on a spot beside me. "It's okay." She said, nuzzling my cheek softly.
I sighed. That would be tough.
"Some time ago — I don't know — about a month or so, we started to notice some things around the farm. Nothing relevant at first, but our stuff was out of place." I said.
"What kind of things?" James wrapped another curl of his hair around his index finger.
"Stupid things, like — we had this old wooden cart behind the house, one morning we went outside and the thing was gone. As simple as that. No tracks — no nothing; just vanished in midair. A couple of days later Billy found the cart in the middle of the fucking crops." I shrugged. "Stuff started to vanish and appear in random places — then it kind of transitioned to very specific locations — like the forest edge, or near the road."
"That's a bit creepy." He noted.
"It wasn't at first, but the feeling started to build up, you know? It felt as if... we were being mocked. Things were mild until Billy saw a fucking 'blur' in the woods — then I saw it too — and it became an almost daily occurrence. Whenever we saw the blur, something disappeared, or moved, or burned — or hell knows what."
"So the alicorn was messing up with your heads?" James asked.
"I wasn't—" Luna snapped. I placed an arm around her shoulder, and that seemed to be enough to assure the pony I wouldn't blame her.
"That's what I initially thought." I said "We saw her on the forest one night; I instantly associated her with the blur. Billy helped me to set up a hunting strategy; a plan. And that went on for some time, until I started to realize that it wasn't her. It couldn't be her."
"How could you be so sure — I mean..." He pointed at Luna, who frowned a bit. "No offense, but we have no idea."
"That's the thing; I wasn't sure. Not until I planted a bullet on her leg. It didn't felt right. And it also didn't stop the mockery. The thing — whatever it is — was laughing at our expenses. It was playing with us. Billy didn't wanted to admit it, because he had put so much effort into that plan, but deeply, he knew it." I stated.
"And what she thinks about the so called 'thing'?"
That was a peculiar question; I felt stupid for never having asked Luna about her own perspectives. But again, she seldom shared anything with me.
Now she had our mutual attention.
"Well I — I'm n-not sure — I am not very... Uh- reliable." She looked at me with a puzzled expression, not unlike a cat begging to be saved from a tall tree.
"It's alright; you can talk, it's safe." I reassured her.
She pondered my words for a while, but eventually agreed to speak.
"I don't know for how long I've been lost in that forest." She said. "I was confused — I couldn't seem to find a way out — it felt as if every time I was close to the edge, something dragged me back. I was scared."
"But did you saw that thing? The blur." James insisted.
"I couldn't see anything, but I don't think I was alone either. Before I ended up in those woods I remember being in this train — and I definitely wasn't the only one there."
"I don't think it matters that much now. Borealis is chasing us — I'm not worried about the 'thing' anymore." I said.
"Whoa — hang in there McRaven — that's too much data for me. Let's follow the sequence of events."
I sighed. I couldn't let anxiety take the best of me.
"Anyway. Like I was saying; Billy wouldn't let Luna alone. One night we found her unconscious by the road. He wanted me to finish her... But I didn't. We struggled, the gun fired." I said, as if the rest was self-explanatory. "It was then when I had the certainty that something odd was looming over that place. There's a bunch of fucked up shit happening in Bedford; Billy's death was just my share of it."
"You mentioned Borealis. I heard they're involved in the 'operation' around Bedford." James asked.
"Yeah, they definitely are." I said. "Do you know anything about them?"
"Not much, to be honest. Just enough to be suspicious." He said, lazily dropping his body on a chair. "You, on the other hand, seem to know a bit more."
"Just chunks of information here and there. Mostly stuff that has happened to Luna and a YouTube guy" I told him.
"Ah — so you're a Borealis child?" James said to Luna.
"They held me and my sister in possession. I am no child of them." She said.
"Well, so it seems, I guess." James reclined further on his chair, letting out a sigh. His bored undertone had acquired an inquisitive quality. Knowing James, I'd tell he was gathering pieces of information; theory fuel.
"Have you considered the possibility that Borealis main goal is not actually capturing Luna, but rather something else?" James postulated. "I'm not saying that they aren't looking for her — they definitely are — but like Luna said; she wasn't the only thing in that train."
"It might be true — but what do we know about those people anyway? If it wasn't for the wreckage, we wouldn't even know about their shady-ass business" I said.
"Actually, we kind of would." He said. "I don't know much about them — but that doesn't means no one knows. You mentioned there's a YouTube video. Please tell me you downloaded that."
"I actually did. I was kind of hoping you could tell me who is this person." I handed over my USB drive.
James inspected it under a lamp, as if the object itself could reveal its stored secrets.
"We'll see about that..."