Floating Ink (4 page)

Ruth twisted her head around slowly. She
didn’t want to hurt her neck or cause any additional movement of
her head, which could result in more pain. She spotted a poster on
the wall of a kitten wearing glasses. As she squinted she could see
the words “Reading” on the poster, but couldn’t make out the bottom
text. A logo was nestled in the corner of the poster. Hoping to
reveal a clue, she stood up and began making her way over.

“Welcome to the Thomasville Library” came a
voice over a speaker. Ruth shrugged and stopped approaching the
poster for a location clue. “Please ask a librarian if you need any
help finding anything or accessing the WebDewey system. In
addition, our book sale will begin in the Emerald room in 5
minutes. Buy a bag for $10.”

As the voice faded, Ruth looked around and
saw that one of the doors had a stack of paper grocery bags near
it. The bags had the words “Friends of Thomasville Library” printed
on them. Why had the ink blot creature taken her here? She decided
to venture out and ask someone.

The metal bar in the middle of the door
pushed in, and she heard a click. Ruth pushed the door open into
another hallway. Inside that hallway was a small line of people
looking at their phones and watches.

“Excuse me,” Ruth announced, “Is there a
librarian around that could help me? I am not really sure how I got
here.” She shrugged her shoulders and continued massaging her
temples. The headache was starting to go down.

“You used the door!” Quipped a young man in
the line. A woman hit him in his chest.

The woman spoke up, “Yeah, just go down this
hallway and take a right. That’s the main part of the library.”

Ruth ignored the man and walked directly to
the woman. “Thank you,” she said, smiling sheepishly.

Ruth walked down the long hallway and noticed
several rooms to the right. Each room was either not lit up or
appeared to be smaller than the room she was just in. She
eventually found another hallway connecting to this one. She went
right down the hallway, which opened into a large library setting.
Ruth looked around and spotted a sign that said “Information”. She
walked over to that sign and the woman sitting there. In the
woman’s lap was the green book Ruth had been reading earlier. It
was open, and the woman was scratching her head.

“Excuse me, this may sound odd, but I am not
sure why I am here. Or, really where here is.” Ruth said, placing
her hands on the counter and talking to the woman.

The woman ignored her and continued to move
her head back and forth, reading the book.

“Excuse me?” Ruth said a little louder when
she didn’t get a response.

The woman didn’t take her eyes off the book
Ruth had been reading. Instead, the woman began to speak in a soft
tone, as if to the book instead. “You are a caretaker. They are
just not sure what kind.”

“I believe I am supposed to be an
accountant,” Ruth said, crooking up an eyebrow, a smile touching
the corner of her mouth.

“No. You were not supposed to be an
accountant. You became an accountant and something else. They think
something must have gone wrong, and they want to find out what.”
The woman replied as she looked up from her book.

As she looked up, Ruth could see her entire
eyes were black. Black cracks formed from her eyes and over her
face. The woman smiled, closed the book, and sat back in the
chair.

“And… now I said too much.” the woman stated
in a calm tone, her mouth scrunching to the side.

The black cracks in her face grew swiftly and
encompassed her entire body. She soon looked like a fire had
consumed her, as she was entirely covered in black. The chair then
creaked forward slightly, and the woman fell. As the woman hit the
ground, ash spread around her.

Ruth stared at the woman, mouth wide open,
ready to scream. She nearly lost her balance as she felt a small
tug against her clothing.

“Excuse me, librarian, can you help me? I am
having trouble with the WebDewey system…” came the tiny voice
behind her. It belonged to a small child who had a pink bow in her
hair. Ruth wondered how much the child had seen and then looked
around the room. No one had even moved a muscle in alarm. The only
one who was surprised by a woman dying was Ruth. What kind of
library is this? Ruth wondered to herself.

“Sorry… just give me a moment, please,” Ruth
replied in a shaky voice. She leaned over and plucked the book the
previous woman had been reading. The child waited patiently and
with obedience. She balanced on her heels and watched Ruth.

Ruth began to exit the building. She didn’t
have many answers, and now even more questions. Why had the flying
ink blot creature knocked her out, just to put her in the library?
And why had that woman told Ruth she wasn't an accountant, followed
by dying in an odd manner.

Ruth walked outside of the building to find a
rural town being beaten down by a hot sun. Trucks and people roamed
the streets in a sluggish daze. It seemed like a dusty town, and
Ruth would not have chosen to come here for any reason. Near one of
the gas stations stood a sign that read “Welcome to Thomasville!
Home of Devil’s Rock. Population: 3000”. Ruth looked around to see
if she could spot any ink blots floating around. She didn’t spy any
of the creatures. A thought then came to her; what if this town was
like the cabin she had encountered earlier? What if this was all
inside one of those bubble things?

As she walked down the street, she didn’t
notice many people outside, and even fewer vehicles. Wherever this
was, they were used to staying within the town confines. As she
continued forward and turned a corner, she met with a brick wall
going across the street. She thought it was weird that the wall
covered the street and that no signs warned of a dead end. She
turned right and continued walking down the street.

About a half hour later she was in a less
populated neighborhood. Many residents of this neighborhood had
taken up farming practices. What stuck Ruth as odd was that it
appeared that the fields were full of people. Why would people be
farming so aggressively? It began to dawn on her as she spotted the
wall in the distance. This town had walls on all sides. That’s why
there were so few cars.

The feeling of being a caged rat prickled on
her neck. She tried to think of excuses on why there would be walls
surrounding the town. Perhaps whatever beast she had encountered
earlier would be deterred by these walls. Perhaps they had sand
storms here and needed to block out all the dirt coming in. Maybe
they were worried about noise or dirt and this was a way to keep
those things out.

Ruth decided to stop someone in the field.
She didn’t notice it at first, because of the farmer’s wide brimmed
hat. The person’s eyes were a solid black, just like the
librarian’s eyes had been. Ruth wanted to look in a mirror to see
if her own eyes were now solid black. Why was this town separated
from outside? Were these people infected and that’s why they were
separated? Was she now infected with whatever killed that
librarian? Questions swirled in Ruth’s head. However, one question
began to pulse slowly in her head. It started quietly and thrummed
louder and louder. Why hadn’t she seen any of those odd bubbles
here?

Walls

Ruth’s legs burned from running all over town
looking for an escape. She was no closer to finding the truth.
People still behaved like people. Trees, sparse as they were, moved
in the wind. The sensation trickled down her back. What if the
world was the same and it was just her that had changed. What if
she had no place, no home to go to? That cold feeling stopped her
where she stood. Spotting a bench nearby, she sat down. What if she
didn’t belong in this world? Should she mask her emotions and
pretend to be like them?

Did it matter anymore? Ruth felt hollow
inside. She was surprised to feel wetness on her face. The old her
would care who saw the weakness. After all, it wasn’t polite form
to be sad. Feeling as disconnected as she did now, Ruth no longer
cared for polite form. She watched the trees sway peacefully. The
grass danced back and forth on the rhythm of nature. In a state of
disconnectedness, she cried. Soon, her tears began to float
away.

It wasn’t something she noticed at first.
Like little spheres of soap, one in five tears floated away from
her face. Each of these small bubbles reflected more light than was
natural. It was as if she were crying diamonds that floated away.
It wasn’t until she saw a black bubble that she panicked. She
immediately grasped her face and stopped crying. Was this
confirmation that her eyes had turned black like the rest of the
people in this town?

As she stared into the black bubble, she saw
little floating dots. Her mind tried to understand what she was
seeing. It wasn’t like the specs floated in the dark bubble.
Instead, it was as if the bubble was a window into the night sky.
Ruth forgot her sadness and curiosity took over. It looked exactly
like the night sky. It wasn’t until she saw the moon in the image
that her thoughts were confirmed. She looked around the bubble;
clearly it was still day out.

If she could reach in and grab a book out of
a bubble, what would this do? Would night suddenly occur? She
slowly reached toward the bubble, finger trembling. That finger
inched closer and closer to the bubble. It then pressed against the
bubble. The surface tension of the bubble held for a moment,
allowing her to push in slightly.

The bubble then popped and a small circle of
night remained in the air. A giant wind immediately picked up from
all sides, all forward to the bubble. Ruth turned around and held
onto the bench. Trees, shrubs and rocks began to fly toward the
circles of night. As they hit, a small portion was suck through the
night, leaving a hole in the substance. It flew out, then twirled
back around getting another hole ripped out. Ruth held onto the
park bench with every muscle she had in her arms. Her legs were
dangling toward the circle of night. It was as if two tornados were
lined up next to each other, neither deciding to budge. Soon, the
circle of night had a small barrier of dirt circling around the
hole. Ruth didn’t have time to observe why this was happening.

A tree from the edge of the park ripped out
of the ground. It toppled end over end and hit the park bench. The
jolt from the hit made Ruth lose her grip. She screamed, but the
sound of the circle of night quickly consumed that as well. When
she was an inch away from the circle, it vanished. The moment it
disappeared, so did the wind and the rings of debris. It all felt
to the ground. Thick tree branches and twisted metal landed near
Ruth. A small wire cut her near the side of her eye. If she had
been a quarter inch to the left, it would have sliced her eye open.
She felt the blood trickle down her dazed face.

A man came running from a nearby building. He
ran toward Ruth, helping her up. The man had black eyes, like the
rest. He also wore a jean jacket and a cowboy hat. He was clean
shaven, and Ruth thought that the callouses on his hand felt right
in place.

“Thank you,” Ruth said, not trying to stare
into his eyes. She adjusted her clothing and tried to push her hair
back in a semblance of pattern.

The man let go and stared at her. His head
cocked to the side one way, then the other. He looked around at all
the wreckage, then up at the air. He opened his mouth to speak and
left it wide open.

Trying not to stare, and assuming it was an
expression of shock, Ruth ignored the man. She began to walk away
when a siren erupted from the man’s mouth. It was an unnatural
sound, high pitched and wailing. The man did not move his mouth to
make the siren noise. Ruth knew a warning siren when she heard it.
She began to dart away from the man. He lifted his hand and pointed
at Ruth.

As she ran, others began to stop what they
were doing and looked in her direction. One by one, they opened
their mouths and sirens poured out. Each person pointed where she
was, while they stood still. She picked up as much speed as
possible, unsure of where exactly she could hide. She risked a
glance back and saw everyone on the block was pointing in her
direction. She looked up and saw people from the buildings were
also pointed at her, their mouths open in a siren.

Wanting to escape the noise she kept running.
She tried to find places that didn’t have these black eyed people.
Perhaps she could lose this tide of people pointing and hide. She
began to panic, and thoughts of hiding in the dirt went through her
mind. Would it be possible to dig her way under the wall? She
hadn’t tried that and in her panicked state it made sense. She
reached the nearest wall and set to work.

Sand

Ruth dug frantically at the base of the wall.
She threw sand and rocks out of the way in an attempt to build a
gap underneath. She uncovered that the wall submerged in the
ground. Her mind raced with the idea that the next inch would be
the bottom of the wall. When it was revealed that the next inch was
more wall, she convinced herself to keep digging. After all, it
could be the next inch.

About a foot down into the soil, the sirens
from all around Ruth went silent. As Ruth stopped and looked
around, she saw she was surrounded by floating black ink creatures.
Blood and sweat dripped down her face as she looked wildly for
escape. She picked up a nearby rock and tried to hold it in a
menacing manner.

One of the black ink creatures floated
forward slightly. A soft male voice came from the creature. The
voice wasn’t metallic or far away, it was as if a person stood in
front of Ruth.

“Hello there. My name is Ryan. Are you okay?
You seem hurt.” came the polite voice from the creature.