Faster on My Own: Chapter 28
< Previous Chapter | First Chapter | Next Chapter >
Arnold took a deep breath and stepped into the room. He expected to find himself in Juan’s living room, the floor covered in cracked wood-laminate and no posters on the walls, but instead was bathed in light. Even once his eyes adjusted he couldn’t see any walls, but could see a hundred copies of the same face—white, scruffy beard, dark rings under the eyes—staring at him. They closed in and created an unbroken circle around him. He gave them a wave hello, his hand only half opened and his face wearing an obvious expression of confusion. They didn’t say anything, but continued staring. Of course, of course, he was in the center of the circle for a reason.
“Hello. I don’t know what has brought, um,” Arnold coughed, “each, of you here. But we are living in a world already drowning in fascism. And…” He pressed his fingertips to his forehead and took a deep breath. All of the faces surrounding him blinked at once, so much worse than if they hadn’t done it at all.
“And it’s time for us to band together. Because we are, in an important way, alike.” Arnold swallowed. Were these men aware they shared a face? A body? A mind? Were these men aware? Were these men? “We are all the bodies on which this empire is built. Alone, none of us can raise ourselves to stand beneath its wait. But if we all stand up together, we can throw it off and send it tumbling to the ground.”
Arnold pointed at one face, who did not seem to recognize that he’d been singled out. “Why are you here?”
So loud. Arnold could feel the cacophony vibrating in his bones, his organs. They had said something. Was it in English? Was it any kind of sentence at all? It could have just been a sound. A hellish yowl before they close in. But none of them moved. They all still just stared at Arnold, waiting for him to start talking as he breathed and sweat and wondered how he had come to this place.
“Why… why are you here?”
Arnold clasped his hands over his ears. The sound overwhelmed him, dropping him to his knees. This monster was toying with him, screeching at his questions. But they would respond to nothing else and Arnold would rather die doing something than nothing.“Why are you here? Why am I here?”
“We’re going to die if we don’t fight”
“Yes! That’s right!” Laughing, Arnold sprung to his feet. “Now you’re with me. Together, we can be powerful. We can end the world as we know it and from the ashes grow a new one.”All of the faces snapped into a smile, though they didn’t stop staring. Creepy as they might be, as much as Arnold’s stomach still roiled at the sight of them, they were with him. He laughed again as the fear rushed out of his body and dissolved into the air. As his laughter faded, he could hear something. A voice. A voice so soft he couldn’t pick out the words, or even the real sound of it. Nothing beyond its presence. He took a step forward to chase it, to hear just a little more and find out what it was saying.
But where was he going? “We’re going to diiiiiie.” No matter, he burst from the circle and sprinted toward the voice. All of the faces followed him and all of the bodies stayed behind.
“If we don’t fiiiiight.”
“Yes, yes. But please, comrades. Someone else is trying to speak right now.” The quiet voice on the horizon grew stronger, a familiar tone even as the words eluded him.
“We’ll diiiiiie.” Arnold ran faster, though by now he knew the faces were there to stay. But as he sprinted and sweated and made the most of the breath inside him, the voice got louder. A woman’s voice.
“We need help.”
“We all need help, sister. Please, come forward and together we can help each other. That’s what we’re all here for.” Arnold panted. Something about the air? He’d run plenty over the last decade, and none of those times had wrenched his lungs like now, as if someone held his lungs in their grip, loosening only to permit the faintest gasp of air in.
An enormous face came together from the powder blue clouds above him, hanging in the violet sky. Charlotte. When she spoke, a powerful wind blew and Arnold had to crouch to the ground just to stop himself from being blown away. The circle of faces remained, unbothered but for the rustling of their shaggy haircuts.
“We’re not gonna be able to get this started. I know you want it to happen, and we’re the best chance you’ve got. But we need resources.”
“Charlotte, who are you talking to?” But the sky didn’t answer him. Instead a reply to Charlotte vibrated through the earth.
“This is manipulation. Tell Ashwin to contact me directly and we’ll talk.” The deep voice, which Arnold heard from the center of his skull, was equal parts powerful and peevish. Such strength, used entirely on annoyance. It, too, was familiar. But not the same way Charlotte’s was.
“I am Arnold! Is that who you’re looking for?” He looked past the faces, hoping to find some indication of where he was supposed to speak in order to be included in this conversation.
The wind picked up when cloud Charlotte rolled her eyes. “Ashwin is gone, idiot. You got him arrested and he never. Came. Back. We need cash, we need soldiers. Conditions are ripe, you saw to that. All we need is a little push and we can get this thing moving.”
“Rob a bank. You’re risking this entire project for your vanity.”
“Like you can talk.”
How did Charlotte know this planet which spoke in the familiar voice. One which Arnold had heard over and over. On television! “Charlotte!” He yelled at the sky. The faces all pointed up and joined him, wailing “We’ll diiiiiiie” at the clouds.
Nothing could grab her attention as lightning struck from her open mouth at the mountain peaks in the distance. The earth rumbled beneath Arnold. “The conditions are ripe. You said it yourself. Fine, you want to deal, let’s deal. I can skim a few mill without anyone noticing, the books are wild these days. You’ve got no idea.”
“I’m sure I don’t.”
“A few million? Charlotte!” Arnold didn’t know why he continued to try, unsure if he could even be heard over the faces’ wailing. “What are we selling ourselves for? What does he want from us?”
The earth’s rumble grew stronger and Arnold found himself riding on waves of earth and stone as the wind stung his eyes and forced him to take shelter within a cave of his own arms. Lightning, thunder, explosion, all around him the elements mingled in violence. The faces only said “die” now and Arnold understood it as a recommendation. One wayward bolt or sudden boulder could end it and he had no power to resist such might. But the skies calmed and the earth grew still. Rain drizzled and flowers bloomed around him in brilliant blues and pinks and sparkled when he touched them. Peace which threatened as loudly as war.
The cloud Charlotte was gone from the clear sky, but as the breeze passed his ear he heard her. “You made the right decision. You’ll get your revolution.” The circle of faces all turned away from him now, reunited with their bodies. Arnold wrestled out from between them and felt sick as he gazed upon the endless field of colors.
He recognized the voice.