Invisible Things and other Weird Stories by David Rees-Thomas

Author:David Rees-Thomas
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Acid Publishing
Published: 2021-08-21T06:00:00+00:00

David Rees-Thomas

Nishinomiya, Japan

July 2021

Invisible Things

Doris watches the invisible world which exists within the deep shadows of the Cardiff streets. It’s her world, one in which she passes people wearing new clothes, eating new food, and talking new things, and they don’t see her. They don’t see any of them, except in the periphery.

And when they do, their eyes widen, and they hurry past

Her thin lips tremble, and her claw like fingers tug at the filthy dress that hangs off her bag-of-bones body.

Too long she’s been down here, so that she sees the streets in terms of different markers, the alley where Taverner sleeps, the best corner and time of day to get the most cash, the best day of the week to raid the rubbish bins before the council arrives.

But something moves in a slithering unpleasant manner today, something is striking from the shadows, that feeling she knows, the one where something doesn’t belong.

The streets of Cardiff have been polished over, built and rebuilt, smoothed and sanded until the past is just a Photoshop image of the truth behind her terror. It’s shops, and shops, and shops, with a little faux history thrown up around the edges, signs in Welsh and English, dragons everywhere.

There is nothing truly Welsh about this. Like any modern capital, the city is a fabrication of history, a pastiche of itself, a commercialized plastic horror show.

It’s four in the afternoon according to the dragon emblazoned clock plastered to the side of the Saint David’s Center. It’s that time of the day when the avenues that people travail start moving both ways, shoppers still shopping, and some office workers beginning the trek home, on their way to catch the train from Queen Street or Cardiff Central. Valley's Lines all the way.

Doris knows she didn’t always feel this way, but she can’t remember when, and she can’t remember why.

She watches Samuel fold down his cardboard, ready to set up his little home for the night. He’s got a good pitch, been there for years, tucked in a narrow doorway near the cemetery fence, unseen from the street.

Doris has to make do with the back door of the library, not at street level, down a few steps, which at least gives her a bit of protection from the fish-salted frozen Atlantic winds that strike in from the Bristol Channel.

Samuel waves toward her, a piece of cardboard in his hand, a trace of a smile buried beneath the beard and dirt.

And then his arm is gone, confusion on his face as something flashes past, something that clouds the evening light.

He stands in the middle of the graveyard opposite the library, and his arm is gone, the cardboard on the floor.

The thing is on him again, this time ripping at his face, moving at incredible speed, and then two more of the creatures are on him, and all this within just seconds, until Samuel slips to the floor.

Doris retches, and fumbles for her medicine, shoving her hand in every pocket until she comes out with some pills.

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