The Umbral Gate Part II

“He said his regular calls were to oust loitering teens from coffee shops, take vandalism reports, and bust underage drinking, old guys who got off flashing Goth girls, and occasional possession of illegal substance kind of stuff. He said the only real gang activity was drugs, supplying the area’s insatiable demand for coke, x, and pot. This just meant that he kept a look out for possible drug activity to bust gangbangers, which earned him some attention down at the station. A cop needed a few big busts to get better assignments. So when he noticed some suspicious activity in an alley one night, he radioed in his location and set off investigating it.

“The alley was behind a building he said the police called the Warren. Abandoned for years, the ownership was constantly in question; it was filled with homeless kids and squatters. It was a different world inside. As Torrance headed down the alley, the two figures that caught his attention spotted him and bolted, climbing over the cyclone fence that blocked an entrance to the Warren and over a makeshift wooden barricade, disappearing inside. The wall where they had been standing had been tagged.”

Rex interrupted. “Like our wall?”

“I don’t know if it was like our wall, but Torrance said it was some pretty crazy graffiti, like nothing he had ever seen. He assumed it was a new gang moving in on the territory. He radioed in his location and told the dispatch that he was going inside the Warren after two suspicious male youths.”

I pulled out my brown paper lunch bag and pulled out a tomato. Being a bachelor meant not being picky about what you ate, and all I had in my fridge was three beers, this tomato, a container of potato salad, which scared me because I can’t recall the last time I bought potato salad, and a package of lunchmeat. I began eating the tomato and wiping juice off my chin.

“Inside the Warren was a different world. Torrance had said he had only heard stories about cops who went in, about how there are people everywhere, sleeping on top of conduits, in holes in the walls, and how the entire place seemed to be teeming with life that you can’t see. At night, by himself, Torrance was scared shitless, but his cop instincts told him to keep a cool and calm exterior. He moved through the halls quickly, his flashlight guiding him. He stepped over bags of clothes taken from salvation army drop boxes, kicked empty bottles of vodka and absinthe out of the way, and kept a close eye on the shadows.

“He could sense being watched, though he couldn’t see anyone. He realized that most likely the two men he was chasing had a much better knowledge of the layout of the Warren than he did. He knew he would have to proceed cautiously in case of an ambush.

“As he crept through the halls, he noticed a young girl slumped against the wall. Her head was pressed to her knees. He shined his light on her and asked if she had seen anyone come by in the past few minutes. She didn’t respond to him so he stepped closer and repeated himself. He was right up next to her, leaning over slightly, the flashlight held steady on her. Torrance began to repeat his question. The girl’s head snapped up. Torrance, already nervous due to being in the Warren by himself, startled and dropped the flashlight; which bounced and rolled into the trash. The bulb shattered from the impact, though it was supposed to be immune from such simple bumps and knocks.”

I paused. I could feel my heartbeat racing. I still remember Torrance describing all of this to me in such vivid detail. I wiped my mouth with a paper towel I was using as a napkin. Rex seemed enthralled, waiting for the next part.

“Her eyes,” I continued, “were just empty sockets. The skin of her face was as white as porcelain, as white as this piece of copy paper. Tattooed all around her eye sockets were intricate black markings – many looked like the graffiti Torrance had seen in the alley.

“She spoke to him in a raspy voice, a voice that sounded much older than the body it came from. ‘You don’t belong here,’ she said to him. ‘You should leave, you are in danger.’

“Torrance shuddered at the sound of her voice and the sight of her, though he couldn’t really see her now without his flashlight, but the brief moment he saw her face was burned into his mind. He was deeply affected by this girl, but he wasn’t going to let her know he was freaked out. In his most authoritative ‘move on, nothing to see here’ cop voice he asked if anyone had been by in the past few minutes. She answered in her raspy voice, ‘the ones you seek went up the stairs, but you won’t find them, they are not of your world and you have no authority in theirs.’”