THE INVALIDS
by William Pauley III
“Someone is killing all the women in our apartment building,” Samantha said, with a smirk. She was standing in a posed position, with her legs outstretched and her arms wrapped limply around the middle of her torso. “Real nasty too. Whoever it is, he’s really ripping ‘em apart.”
“What do you mean, ripping them apart?” Norm said, fumbling with his cell phone. He pointed at the ceiling. “Look up.”
Samantha lifted her head. He raised his phone and took a couple snapshots. She rolled her eyes.
“I don’t know how else to say it,” she said. “The guy doesn’t just go in with a knife and make a couple jabs, he literally rips them apart. Arms, legs, head, everything. Popped right off.”
“So it’s a guy then?”
“Well, I mean I don’t know for sure, but come on, this has middle-aged white male written all over it.”
“How many have been killed?” he asked.
“Four, so far. One a night for the last four nights. Suppose he’ll be coming for me soon.”
“Four? Jesus,” he said. He took another picture. “You don’t seem too worried.”
“I can take care of myself. Always have.”
He chuckled.
“Yeah, but the guy lives here in the tower with us. That isn’t even a little unnerving?”
She looked at him suspiciously. The amount of arrogance in his words carried real weight, as if he knew without a doubt the killer was one of the residents and he wasn’t just making an assumption or trying to scare her into taking safety seriously.
“You know this guy or something?” she asked.
“What? No. He’s killing women in the building every night, so it’s only logical to assume he’s a resident here in Eighth Block Tower,” he said. “I can’t believe this is the first I’m hearing about it. I haven’t seen any squad cars around.”
“Oh, please. You know the police, Norm,” she said. “If people are getting killed in Eighth Block, they turn their heads. Always have. It’s almost like the killer is doing them a favor by taking us out. They can’t be bothered with saving us.”
“Well, we may be poor, but we’re still people. They should help.”
“You live here, right? It’s not because we’re poor. This place is completely fucked. All the residents are insane. We should be put out of our goddamn misery. I mean, really, what good would it do to save any of us here in Eighth Block? What good are we doing? How do we contribute to society? Well, in a positive way, that is…”
“So you and me, we’re the only sane ones, huh?” he said, and then laughed. He tugged at his collar, trying to signal for her to pull her shirt down, but she didn’t respond to it.
“If you say so,” she said.
“Take out your tits,” he said, tugging at his collar again. She pursed her lips and shook her head.
“You’re a fucking pig,” she said, and then started after her purse.
“Wait, where are you going? You’re not leaving are you?” he asked.
“That’s a stupid question,” she said. “You know that’s exactly what I’m doing, and you know why too.”
He held his hands up in front of her, desperately trying to think of a decent way to apologize before she made her way to the door. He was never too good at thinking while under pressure. She pushed past him.
“I told you I didn’t mind you taking photographs of me for your little project as long as things didn’t get weird,” she said. “I thought I made it clear I wasn’t into doing nudes or porn or whatever it is you’re trying to get me to do right now. Gross. No thanks, man.”
“But wait,” he said. “That’s not what I meant.”
She laughed.
“Norm, you told me to take out my tits. How else am I supposed to interpret that?”
“I, uh,” he stammered. “I just meant show a little cleavage. Not for you to take all your tits out. Two tits, I mean. I didn’t mean to say all your tits, you clearly have only two. Not that I was looking… at them?”
He trailed off into insanity.
“Not only are you a pig, you’re also an idiot. We’re done here,” she said, and walked to the door.
As she was leaving, he caught sight of something he had never seen before. He wasn’t sure how he’d missed it all those years living inside his apartment, because now that he was seeing it, it seemed to stick out, as plain as a bullet hole in a sheet of glass. Just above the front doorway, there was a black mesh pyramid, about the size of a fifty cent piece, and it stuck out at least a full inch from the sheetrock.
“What the hell is that?” he said to no one in particular.
She had just made it to the door as he muttered the question. She traced his line of vision to the pyramid jutting out from the wall just above her head and studied it.
“It’s probably a smoke detector or something,” she said.
He shook his head.
“Don’t you live here in the tower?” he said, mirroring her comment from earlier. “Do you really think we have smoke detectors here? No way.”
He studied the design of the object from about a foot away, as close as he could get in a standing position.
“How have I never noticed this before?” he asked, pulling up a chair to stand on so he could get a closer look. The object was not sealed or fastened to the wall in any manner, from what he could tell anyway. It looked to be resting there limply inside a hole cut into the sheetrock. He pinched the pyramid between his fingers and pulled. It seemed to be anchored inside the wall somehow, even though it was loose to the touch, so he pulled again, harder this time. It worked. He removed the object from the wall completely.
“I’ll tell you what it looks like to me,” she said. “But if it is what I think it is, then this is creepy as fuck.”
He continued his study of the object’s design. There was a black cylinder, about an inch thick, that was attached at the base of the pyramid, previously hidden inside the wall. At the opposite end of the cylinder, there was a wire, about the same thickness of coaxial cable, and it was split, exposing smaller wires on the inside. This must have been what was anchoring it to the wall, he thought.
“What do you think it is?” he asked.
“Well, it looks to be a microphone of some sort,” she said.
He screwed up his face.
“A microphone? Really? But why would there be a microphone in my apartment?”
“Beats me,” she said. “But if you want my thoughts on who the perpetrator might be, I’d put my money on that chimp you hang out with all the time.”
He thought for a second.
“You mean Dale?” he asked.
“If that’s what you call him,” she said. “You two have a weird obsessive thing going on with each other. I’m honestly surprised he’s not here with you right now.”
“You think he’s obsessed with me?” he asked. “We don’t hang out that much… do we?”
“Oh, come on, Norm,” she said. “You two are basically Siamese twins. But whatever, it’s none of my business. I was just making an observation. Well, I’ll be seeing you around, I’m sure. Later.”
“Wait,” he said. “You’re still leaving, even after finding the, uh, the thing?”
He held up the microphone and then tossed it onto the couch. She looked at him in a confused manner.
“Yes, I’m still leaving. You’re still a pig,” she said. “Why would you think finding that thing would make me stay?”
He shrugged his shoulders.
“I dunno. It’s kind of like a mystery now. I thought we’d, like, try to solve it or something.”
She shook her head.
“Let’s not,” she said, then smiled sarcastically and opened the door. Standing on the other side, with a surprised look on his face and his fist up in the air in a knocking position, was Dale.
“Ha! Perfect,” she said. “Later, Dale!”
She pushed past him and made her way down the hall, headed to her apartment. Dale looked at Norm and smiled awkwardly.
“So… what was that, huh?” Dale asked.
“What do you mean? I was only taking pictures. Trying to build a portfolio so I can one day get out of this fucking tower.”
“Who was that? Is that the girl from the cafeteria?” Dale asked.
“No, her name is Samantha. We hang out sometimes. She’s just helping me with this project.”
“Sure, okay,” Dale said, then smiled. He tried pushing his way into Norm’s apartment, just as he had done every day for the last year or so, but Norm stopped him from coming inside. He thought about what Samantha had said, about how the two of them seemed obsessed with each other. That didn’t sit well with him. He didn’t really care so much about what other people in the building thought of him, but he couldn’t help feeling uncomfortable at the realization that he was in an unhealthy relationship with one of his mates. He enjoyed Dale’s company, of course, but he certainly didn’t want Dale to get the wrong idea regarding their relationship. A little space is necessary, he thought, and pushed Dale away.
“Hey, I’m not really feeling too well at the moment,” Norm said. “You mind if we do this another day?”
Dale looked hurt, but recovered almost immediately.
“Sure thing, man,” he said. “Hope you feel better.”
Norm nodded. Dale stood there awkwardly for a few moments.
“So…I’m going to shut the door now.”
“Wait,” Dale said. “Are you really sick or are you just not wanting to hang out with me?”
“That’s a weird question. No, I’m really sick.”
“Yeah, you say that, but…” Dale looked down the hallway, in the direction Samantha headed only moments before. “You were just hanging out with Samantha, so, uh, I was just wondering if something is up with you and me?”
You and me… ugh, Sam was right, Norm thought. Space was definitely necessary. Lots and lots of space.
“Why do you think she left? I’m sick. I need to lie down. Plus, it’s pretty late,” Norm said, slowly pushing the door closer to the frame.
Dale nodded.
“Okay then,” he said. “Well, I’ll see you tomorrow, or something. Get better! We’ve got humans to kill!”
They both laughed. Dale was referring to Destroy All Humans!, a video game Norm had picked up recently at the used game shop for five bucks where the main character was an alien visiting earth who destroys every human it sees. It was easily the best five bucks he’d ever spent. The amount of entertainment contained within that little game was worth ten times the price. It had basically consumed their lives for the last two weeks. Serving now as yet another reminder as to why they needed to pull away for a bit. Jesus, we really do spend pretty much all of our time together, Norm thought.
“Later!” Norm said, waving Dale off. He shut the door.
Seeing Dale felt awkward now. He hoped the feeling would eventually pass, because he truly enjoyed hanging out with him, he just wanted…well, less of him. He shrugged off the thought and turned on Destroy All Humans! Dale’s visit had gotten him in the mood for it.
As he picked up the controller, his phone dinged. It was a text from Samantha. It read: “Guess what I just found at my place?”
Following her text was a picture of a small black pyramid protruding out from her wall, along with another text that read: “Get your ass over here right now, and don’t say a single word when you get here.”
