Adam's Ladder by Michael Bailey & Darren Speegle

Author:Michael Bailey & Darren Speegle [Bailey, Michael & Speegle, Darren]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Evolution
ISBN: 9781626412682
Publisher: Written Backwards
Published: 2017-10-16T22:00:00+00:00

STRINGS

Tim Lebbon

I wake in the early hours and hear scratching, and moaning, and the secretive whisper of something brushing along walls. When this happened before, Margot and Ray were still my friends and staying with me, and I believed their lovemaking to be the cause of the sounds. Trying to keep quiet for my sake, the height of passion took away their caution. The scrape of fingernails against a wall. The steady touch of bedding shifting somewhere beyond my room. Their groans, low and long as if such ecstasy could last forever.

This time, I know the noises aren’t caused by them, because Margot and Ray left three days ago. I suspect I’ll never see them again. They became worried about what we were attempting to do, though I think their fear is misplaced. I think they’re cowards.

I lie awake and listen, trying to place the sounds and their source. They seem to be originating from inside my head as well as without, as if dreams can have echoes. I suppose they can. All this has happened because of a dream I had so many years before, a fervent desire that inspired and invigorated the three of us to try things never before imagined. That’s me: the dreamer. I was the driving force, the passion, though they were the ones with the knowledge. We all had to give something, and I was happy to be the guinea pig.

Another scratch. A deeper groan. I can’t yet understand what the noises mean, but in that cool, motionless darkness I realise that the time will soon come when I do understand. They’re clearer now than they were last time I heard them. Clearer, louder, and closer.

It’s working, I think, and the one thing I cannot do is open my eyes. Even in the dark, I fear that I will see.

~

“Don’t mind him,” Margot said, “he’s just being a prick.” I saw the look she threw Ray when she said it, and the brief flicker of some complex expression on his face. Part of it was annoyance, part excitement. I knew some of what he was feeling. Margot and I had been engaged until three years before, and I understood more about her than he’d ever know.

That’s what I liked to think, at least. In truth, I believed our work was tearing us apart even on the day I slipped the ring on her finger. Ray wasn’t so invested. He was here, he was helping, but he wasn’t touched by what we were trying to do. For him, this was all about money and fame, his future and not anyone else’s.

“All I’m saying is, I think you need to be careful,” he said. He took another long swig of red wine. He drank it from half-pint glasses, and he’d already put away a bottle during dinner. “Your vitals always look weird after a dose, and that effect is growing.”

“Maybe the instruments are on the blink,” I said. “I’m feeling fine.”

“You sure?” Margot asked. She leaned forward in the armchair and touched my knee.

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