hen she next opened her eyes, the room was sun bright, and Robert was gone. She wrapped her nudity in a sheet, since there were windows and neighbors and her clothing was in the living room, and went to find Robert, tantalizing wisps of the night's story floating through her head.

The apartment was small, and it didn't take her long to find him. He was in the living room, a small metal ball in his hands. But it wasn't really a ball, since there were several points sticking out of it, and when Robert pushed it in places, there were little clicks and whirring noises from within it.

He spoke without turning around, somehow knowing she was there. "I got this three weeks ago at a pawn shop downtown. The guy said it had been there when he'd bought the shop fifteen years ago, and no one had ever been able to figure it out. He thought it was just one small part of some bigger machine, but I don't see anywhere it might connect to anything else. He just about gave it to me, he was so eager to actually get rid of it. I think it had climbed in his mind a little. They do that pretty often."

He paused to manipulate the shiny ball for a moment.

"When you push it on the square plates, it whirs and sometimes gets warmer for a few seconds. The octagon plates are a different texture, maybe even a different metal, and they move a little on their mountings. I've about given up on figuring it out. I may have to cheat and open it up by force, but I'm afraid I might break it that way. That happens sometimes, but I can usually get them without cheating. Usually." Julie wanted to ask him about his childhood, his story of the power line, but it seemed impossible here, in the bright light of day. Such talk was secret, for dark nights and darker conversations. Surely it would wither in the sun.

Robert got up abruptly, and handed her the orb, which she took automatically, but gingerly, for it felt very fragile. He walked into the kitchen, the words "You want eggs or cereal?" thrown back over his shoulder. 

She wanted neither, but before she could answer the thing in her hands claimed all her attention  It was alive. Whirring and clicking, the plates vibrated and hummed. She felt the orb getting warmer. Not hot, but warmer, like something black left in the sun. It wasn't black, though, it was shiny, polished silver. It weighted about two pounds, Julie thought, heavier than she'd have expected for the size. Her thumbs depressed one of the square panels, and the whole thing vibrated, almost seeming to pulse.

As suddenly as it had started moving, it stopped, cooling instantly, leaving only the memory of motion and heat on her hands. Had she just imagined it? Julie set it down hastily, eager to have it away from her, wanting the comforting presence of Robert near her. It rattled on the glass table, rocking back and forth between two of the points. The sound was horribly clicking, like metal insects coming after her. She hurried into the kitchen, holding the sheet around her tightly, not wanting to get dressed with that thing on the table next to her.

Robert was rooting around in the refrigerator, his hands already full of vegetables.

"That orb thing. When you handed it to me, it started moving and clanking and got warm. It was really weird." Julie felt her voice on edge a bit and clamped down on the fear. She was a grown woman, not shaken as easily as that. She wanted to ask him about the power line.

"They do that sometimes, people tell me. I think being near me somehow activates their little motors or whatever, and when they get the normal energy of someone else, they come back to life for a minute, or at least get closer to it."

"What do you mean, they? The other things you collect too, or what? What are you talking about?" Julie clamped down on her emotions again, feeling herself on the edge of hysterics. She thought of Robert's mother, crying silently on the chocolate cake, bewildered by the sudden change in the properties of fire.

"I can't explain it. Stuff just happens. I don't think it's random, though. I said it last night, but I still think it's true. Something missed me, passed by, and it's coming back, following me through the years. I think it's a little like the power line, swaying back and forth. It swings in really close, just misses, and weird stuff happens for a while. Then the pendulum goes up further, and it's gone. It's close now, as close as it's ever been."

Now that the subject was broached, Julie found the courage to follow it. She wondered why nothing like this had ever come up in the previous months she'd known Robert. How could he have kept such weird information inside him? Julie felt the truth of one of her longest assertions, that you had to fuck someone, or at least try, to really know them. She kept the momentum, tossing out her questions before the sun could burn their smoky substance away.

"What did you mean by 'ajar'? And what about the smell and the mirror?"

She wasn't sure what she was talking about, since everything from last night was sort of mixed up in her memory, but she just had to ask. The overwhelming emotional intensity had faded from her mind just as the orb's heat had faded from her hands, and she felt under control again.

"Did I talk about all of that? I must have been just wandering around in my head. I felt so special towards you after all the effort you put into the hopeless sex, I said more than I knew. I was just rambling, none of that stuff meant anything."

His voice was steadier than most people's ever got, but Julie could tell he was really on the edge. He knew exactly what he'd been talking about, and didn't want to mention it again. She'd be damned if she'd let him off that easily.

"No, you spoke clearly and thoughtfully, and you're going to do it again. I want to help you. There's more going on than strange machines and weird childhood events. You know what it is, don't you? You won't even admit it to yourself, but you know just what's going on. Please tell me, Robert, I want to help." Julie was amazed by her outpouring. She sounded so in control and settled, rehearsed, while her insides were seething. She felt like the little sliver orb, and someone was pushing her square panels. All of them.

Robert paused for a moment in his sorting of vegetables. It looked like he was planning the mother of all omelets. As Julie thought about food, her stomach growled suddenly, a tiger in a pit. She realized it had been hours since she'd eaten last, but she controlled her physical body as well as her emotions. It would be too easy to let this conversation slip away. She had to work and make Robert spit out the whole story, or she might never get it again. She felt like there was danger, too. Not from Robert, but for him. There was much more here than simple delusions.

Robert put down the onion and red pepper, and stepped towards Julie. She stepped back reflexively, almost afraid of him, but then held her ground. His eyes were abruptly aglow, haunted by some inner flame. "Follow me closely, and don't ask any more questions right now."

He led and she followed, but they didn't go far. Robert led her to the guest bathroom, across the hallway from the guest bedroom where he had his desk and computer. It was dark inside, and not really big enough for two people to do more than stand still, but he pulled her inside, and closed the door behind them. Slammed it, in fact. Julie wanted to ask, but she obeyed his last command for the moment.

She let his hands rest on her shoulders, humoring him for the moment.  It had been her idea, after all, and he'd asked her to keep quiet. After a long minute Robert opened the door and pulled her out after him. He pulled the door shut, hard, making sure the knob clicked.  With the bathroom door shut, he pulled her along, hurrying, and from there into the hall and into the spare bedroom.

It was bright in the room, the white hide-a-bed sofa against the wall reflecting the light from the window opposite. The small desk was almost entirely covered with a computer and several piles of papers. There were several puzzles on the desk too.  Neither of them spoke.  Julie could feel Robert's heart beating fast, as he leaned against her back.

A minute passed, then Robert moved, pulling the door open, pushing Julie out into the hallway, and slamming the door behind them. She turned to look at him and he pointed behind her.  Julie looked over her shoulder and saw that the bathroom door was now open, just a little.  Ajar.

As she watched the door moved open another inch, then stopped, vibrating slightly.  What the fuck?  Robert was holding her still, but now he was trembling.  Julie felt a bit like shaking herself.  The door had been closed, she was sure of that, she'd heard the latch click in.  Somehow she couldn't think of any rational explanation for this, and dread crept down her spine. She pulled away from Robert and forced herself to walk over towards the door ajar.  Just as she reached it there was a loud click behind her and she jumped at least a foot.

Whirling around, Julie was just in time to see the spare bedroom door opening slowly.  Robert was right behind her, too far from the door to have opened it himself.  Feeling her hair standing up, Julie stared with wide eyes as the door opened about six inches, vibrating slightly. There was a faint smell in the air, like... Julie couldn't place it for a moment, then she realized it was so obvious she couldn't believe she'd missed it. Pork, burning pork. Like bacon almost, but sweeter, more pungent.

Robert stepped up next to her and shoved the bathroom door open all the way open, nearly falling into the room. Julie saw that his hand was shaking a little as he reached for the light switch, and for a moment, standing paralyzed with fear in the hallway, she hoped he didn't touch it. Something had opened the door, even if it was just ajar, and it was still in the bathroom! The light came on before she could even begin to move to stop him, and it revealed nothing. It was just the same bathroom it had been a minute earlier. The same except for the pork smell. It was stronger, but faded quickly. Sudden resolution came over Julie, and she turned and strode to the guest bedroom door, seizing the handle and trying to shove it open.

Nothing happened for a moment, she felt like she was trying to move a tree.  What had Robert said about "the push" getting stronger? He remembered ten seconds ago; he'd nearly fallen into the bathroom as he shoved open the door. Something was there, resisting. Holding the door ajar.

Turning her fear into anger, Julie leaned into the door, putting her full weight on the door.  It gave slightly, feeling like a rubber band pulled so tightly it had no more give, but held her out.  Her bare feet slid on the carpet, and suddenly there was no more resistance, and she fell into the room, dropping to her knees but hanging onto the door handle.

She almost expected some... thing... to drop on her from inside, but there was nothing there.  The window across the room let in plenty of light to see that this small spare bedroom was empty, besides her.  She looked at the door carefully, and the floor.  There was nothing there. No marks, no holes, no levers, no cords, nothing.  She couldn't see any possible way for the door to have been so hard to open.  It swung freely for her now.

She stood up and backed into the hallway, closing the door behind her, and releasing the handle.  Robert put a hand on her shoulder and she jumped and backed quickly away from him.

He looked at her, his steady gaze as calm as ever.

"I think that there's undiscovered country in all of us." Robert's calm words soothed her, or at least distracted her from her racing thoughts.  His voice was a life preserver, thrown to her sanity as she was swamped by frantic, mad thoughts.

"Unexplored terrain, like those old maps of the world, where the oceans the cartographer didn't know about were vast and terrible. They marked them 'Here thar be Sarpents'.

"I think there's a part like that in all of us, but for some reason mine is closer to the surface. Maybe that power line brought it out, or maybe it was always closer and that's just an event that I remember clearly. There's something out there though, and it's after me. It gets into rooms once I've been there for a while.

"I've always needed the puzzles. Harder and harder ones over the years. I have companies sending me their prototype puzzles, and old ones they find models of, but no solutions for.  I figure them out and send them back the solutions. It's the least I can do.

"I guess I think if I can figure them out, maybe I can figure myself out too. The little gadgets are the best catharsis I've found yet. I take something no one else has been able to figure out and solve it, discover its meaning, its purpose. I'm next. There's got to be a reason they're after me, whatever they are. If I can just find it, maybe then I'll be safe."

Julie digested this, but couldn't see the logic to it.  How could puzzles help with doors that would stay closed?  She thought the puzzles were what Robert used to keep himself sane, and she couldn't fault him for that.

"Once, three years ago, the pendulum was low, like now, and I was in a dressing room at a suit store. There were mirrors on three walls, so if you looked into the one on the left, you'd see the one on the right, and that reflection, to the left, etc.  Like an endless hallway with an infinite number of me in an infinite number of dressing rooms.  You can't see forever, of course, that's the Inverse Square Law, light is inversely proportional to the distance it travels. 

"Anyway, I'd been in there for a while, trying on several different suits, trying to decide which one was worth $500. I would put one on and look at my reflection, trying to ignore me, and just see the suit.  You see I've never liked mirrors, since it doesn't look like I'm quite lined up straight. I can't meet my eyes in a mirror, I'm always looking a little to one side or the other.  Sometimes I wonder if I'm really seeing me, or seeing some doppelganger version of me that lives in the reflection."  He gave a little laugh.

Julie didn't speak.  This was too weird.  She didn't think he was insane, nor did she want to run screaming into the street, but it was all she could do to listen and try to understand.  Her mind was reeling too wildly for her to join in, to turn the soliloquy to a dialogue.

"Are they out to get me?  I wish they were, then I'd feel like I could fight back.  But they aren't after me, they are just out there, watching.  Waiting for something? I don't know why weird things happen.  Electrical failures, birthday cake candle failures." He smiled at her a little nervously, and blushed, "Fucking failures."

"I was afraid that would happen last night.  Whenever I want something really badly, it often becomes impossible to get.  Except for the puzzles. They always work for me."

Julie felt a joke come to her lips, and she blurted it out before she lost her nerve. "You should try to convince yourself you don't want to buy the winning lottery ticket."

Robert smiled, and went on. "I once read about some lady in England who kept ruining computers and toasters and stuff whenever she touched them. Like she had so much electrical charge naturally occurring in her that it shorted stuff out. Maybe that's all there is to it? Maybe I've got some weird magnetic charge, like my personal Van Allen Belt, and it moves in and out somehow. But what about the doors? And the mirrors?"

He paused for a moment, seeming to search for the thought. Julie blinked and shook her head, his spell briefly broken. She felt like she was unable to move, paralyzed in the hallway. Standing there, still wrapped in just a sheet, she listened intently. Robert's voice lulled her into the dream state again almost immediately. But it was different, the voice and the dream. A little rougher or darker. Nightmare time.

"I almost forgot to tell you about the mirrors." His voice had taken on a new pitch, perhaps a bit of eager or nervous. It made Julie a little anxious.

"The place I was trying on suits, the mirrors on each side of me lined up perfectly. I think one of them wasn't mounted straight on, since otherwise I would have just seen myself in the middle, and only the mirror to the corners. You know what I mean right, the tunnel you see?"

Julie managed to nod once.

"Of course it's just my reflection I'm seeing, I kept telling myself, just me over and over again. Not some other thing impersonating me, but me, me!

"Then out of the corner of my eye, as I was hanging up the suit jacket, I saw something move.  I was afraid to look, so I stayed how I was, facing the door, the one wall that had no mirror. After a minute it moved again, and I could see it was on both sides of me, way down deep in the tunnel.  Something black, unreflective, but moving closer. Like it was climbing from one reflection to the next.

"I collapsed backwards, to the bench, and looked to the left, down the tunnel.  I thought maybe it would stop moving once I was looking at it.  But it didn't.  For the next five minutes, I sat paralyzed, watching the black stuff pour into the each new dressing room, where it would engulf me, sitting on the bench.

"It kept getting closer and closer, and I could see it better and better, but I still couldn't see it. It was just blackness, pure and total, like a living oil slick, but without any texture.  It wasn't like liquid running over me, it was like that dressing room, that reflection of my dressing room, would just cease to exist

"I wanted to run, or break the mirrors, or something, but I was hypnotized.  If the salesman hadn't knocked on the door just then, I don't think I'd be here with you now. I jumped up and rushed out in my t-shirt and one pair of suit pants, almost knocking him down.  I told him I'd take them all, and he went in and picked up the other two suits, and my jeans and shoes.  I kept waiting for the blackness to leap out of the mirror, or for him to see it and scream.  Nothing happened. So it's after me, just me.  No one else."

Robert took Julie's hand, pulling her away from the wall she'd been leaning against. "Let me show you something."

She followed him on wooden legs, all her concentration going to keep her legs moving and the sheet covering her body. She didn't think she'd ever been so frightened in her entire life. It wasn't just the story, for although it was interesting, it was too strange to terrify her. It was Robert. He'd told the story without pause, his steady voice mesmerizing.  Like a robot, or something impersonating a man.

He led her to the end of the short hallway, to a door she'd never really noticed before. It was set in the corner, between the master bedroom doorway and the living room.

"This is supposed to be a linen closet, but I keep the sheets in my dresser. This room has another purpose."

Julie looked back at Robert as he opened the door and propelled her into the tiny room, but could see nothing in his face, for his eyes were closed. It was pitch black in the closet, and sudden terror convulsed her, driving her to struggle in his grip.  He was not shutting her in here!

He didn't try to, but stepped into the darkness with her, pushing her back in front of him.  Julie's terror overcame her manners, and she shrieked and pushed him with all her might, but had no effect.  He was as hard and strong as he'd been last night, and she did nothing but hurt her hands smacking at his chest. He wasn't trying to hurt her, just pushing her back and blocking her exit.

A sudden blinding light came on overhead and distracted Julie for a moment.  She could see the room, and far from being some horrible torture cell, or some sort of modern day Bluebeard's closet, as she'd been expecting, it was a room the size of a phone booth, with mirrors on the three side walls.  As Robert pulled the door shut behind him, Julie screamed again, hurting her throat with the effort.  The door was a mirror also, and it clicked shut like a tomb.

Robert then grabbed her, ripping the sheet from her shoulders, throwing her back into the corner.  At this Julie's last bit of concern for him vanished, and she attacked.

Her knee drove up into his groin, hard enough to lift him up on his toes, but he showed no effect of the blow.  She was stunned, that blow should have dropped any man alive.  Before she could press her attack further Robert hit her, driving his fist into her stomach.  The blow was painful, but worse it drove the air from her lungs and she went limp. She would have fallen if he hadn't held her up by the neck with his other hand, his fingers like iron tongs.  Julie's panicked eyes saw him holding her off into infinity to the left, as the mirrors lined up perfectly.  She realized the ceiling was mirrored also, with just the end of a light bulb poking out of a hole.

Robert spoke, his lips inches from hers. "We're terribly sorry to do this. You've been very understanding, but we can't last very long in this form. Robert is hard to duplicate, with all his little quirks and mannerisms, but we're stuck in his form most of the time, since it was our first.

"Everything we said about the mirrors was true, except Robert was too brave and curious for his own good. He got in his bathroom, and set up two mirrors, then tried to smash them when we were on his final reflection, thinking that would end the menace.  He was too slow, and we were out, and we took him. Now we like it here."

Julie felt fear like she'd never imagined.  He was completely insane, his fantasy of something in the mirror had cracked him.  What was he going to do with her in this room now?  She had her breath back a little, and resolving not to go without a fight, she kneed him in the balls again, and clawed at his face.  Her nails were not long, but she opened 4 bleeding gashes, spitting at him as she felt his blood spray onto her face and run down her fingers.

He was motionless, but spoke, "We like your form better."  Julie screamed again, right into his face, and maddened beyond fury. Why wasn't he beating her?  Why wasn't he bashing her into the walls?  Why didn't his impossibly-strong fingers crush her throat?  These thoughts ran through her head as she did the unthinkable, and drove her thumbs into his eyes.

Just as her left thumb sunk into the open eye, as she could feel the soft flesh give before her finger, Robert vanished.

Julie fell forward, striking her head and arms against the other side of the room.  She threw herself into that wall, hoping it was the door, but it didn't even budge.  She'd gotten turned around, and had no idea which was the door, and there was no handle of any kind, Robert had just pulled the whole door shut when it was open.  How could she get out?  And where had he gone?  There was no way he'd left the room, he'd been holding her, and she'd had his face in her hands.  His blood was still running down her naked body, and her hands had left smears on the glass.

She tried to breath deeply and calm herself, willing her mind to settle down, her heart to stop palpitating. All she had to do was to find the door and find how to open it.  This was a closet in an apartment, not a coffin. The was no danger here.

Try as she might to settle down, Julie felt her heart beating to break her ribs.  Where had Robert gone?  If he was just insane, how did he vanish into thin air?  That was impossible.

Trying each wall in turn, she leaned hard into them, hitting them with her shoulder like cops breaking down a door on TV. As she did it she caught herself looking into the mirrors.  It was impossible not to notice herself, she could be seen from every angle and direction.  Her belly and butt were getting a little big, she'd have to get on the Stairmaster a bit more.

Julie had to laugh at herself. Trapped in a sex fiend's dream closet, and still worrying about her figure.  She'd die too fat to make her mother happy. "Men like a nice slim girl, Julianne." her mother's voice filled her head.

"Shut up!" She screamed, and threw herself into the walls, trying to tell which one was the door.  It had to have a little big of give, or to show a crack on one side. She screamed again, screamed for help.  This was an apartment after all, not some deserted farm house.  There were neighbors on both sides and upstairs, they'd surely hear her!  She screamed again, feeling encouraged.  "Help!  Help me!  Fire! Rape!"

Her voice cut off with a peep as her eyes widened.  There was a black dot far down, into the tunnel through the mirror.

The strength ran out of her legs like water down a drain, and Julie dropped to her knees.  From this lower angle she could see farther into the tunnel, as the reflections moved from side to side of the closet, off of the ceiling, and on and on.

It was just as Robert had described it, a small black blob, growing closer.  As she stared, gasping for breath, it came closer.  Eating her.  One reflection at a time.

Suddenly her wind returned and she howled, frightened beyond words now, her throat tearing with the effort.  She surged to her feet and threw herself from side to side, actually leaping into each wall, not feeling the bruises  she was getting on her hips, elbows, and shoulders.

There was no escape, and the blackness was growing closer. Exhausted, Julie leaned into a corner, sobbing.  She throbbed with pain, blood was running down her forehead from where she'd split the skin hitting the wall, and both her fists were bleeding as well as one knee.

She squeezed her eyes shut, screamed for help one more time, and dropped into a coughing fit, her throat aching in pain.  Keeping her eyes shut, she tried to breath, to calm herself.  It hurt.

If she couldn't see the reflection, it couldn't exist, so the blackness couldn't keep coming.  If there really was a blackness.  If she wasn't just insane.

What if he was really gone?  He'd said at the end that "he" was "they", some sort of plurality of consciousness, the blackness in the mirror.  And "they" had said they liked her form better.  Better than Robert's form.  So they were gone back into infinity, the 7th dimension, wherever.  But they were coming back, out of the depths of the mirror, to claim her?  To take her form, as they'd taken Robert?

She couldn't keep her eyes open any longer, and when she looked she broke into fresh howls of terror.  The blackness was closer.  Much closer.  There were just three reflected Julies in the wall, and as she threw herself to the side, punching at the mirror in her horror, smearing blood across the glass, the third Julie vanished.

"Help meeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" The words tore from her throat like a fishbone, echoing around the small room. The second Julie, kneeling on the floor, her head up and screaming, vanished.

Julie battered the wall again, trying to break the glass, even if it shattered her bones.  The pain in her forearms and fists was agonizing, and she screamed again, though her voice was nearly gone.

Her reflection vanished, was blacked out in an instant.  All around her, all four walls, even the one she was beating on, went black, ebony glass with nothing but smeared blood on it.  Julie pulled back, horrified to touch the corrupted glass, and as she gasped for breath a crack of light appeared in the corner to her right.  The door!

There was no reflection in these black walls, and Julie threw herself at the opening wall, hating to touch the black glass but so desperate to escape she couldn't help herself. Someone was pulling it open from the outside, and as she squeezed through the stench assailed her.  Hot, stinking flesh, burning, like someone had dropped an entire pig into a pot of boiling oil.

That was the smell Robert had lived with all these years, the scent of burning flesh.  The stench of his father and brother being boiled in their rain slickers by a broken high voltage wire, the voltage blowing their shoes off, blackening their fingernails, bursting their eye balls. The stink of his own back burning as the sparks melted right through his clothing.

Julie fell to the floor and dragged herself across the hallway, staining the ugly orange carpet with crimson splashes.

Her terror made her quick and she was past the legs of her rescuer and down the hallway in a flash.  She crashed into the wall there pulling her knees up to her chest as she trembled uncontrollably, sobs and pain racking her.  She could see the open door of the room, black glass smeared with her blood.  Would it come for her?  Was she safe?

Only after ten seconds did she look away, to see the two men staring at her with wide eyes.  One was clearly the apartment super, he had a huge tool belt and key ring.  The other was a security guard, a can of mace in one hand and a night stick in the other.  He was looking into the mirrored closet, and then at Julie, obviously perplexed.

"Uh, hi.  We heard screaming, a neighbor called the office, so we came in.  Are you... um... okay?"

Julie wanted to laugh.  How stupid she must look, locked in a closet alone.

"Jeez lady, you are really bleeding." The super said. "I'd better call an ambulance.  Get some bandages on her, Joe."

Joe looked confused, and walked over to her as Julie got to her feet.  Joe's eyes showed concern and more, as they took in the naked flesh before him.

"Are you here alone?  Mark in the office said this apartment was rented to Robert Dalk.  Did he lock you in there?"

Julie suddenly knew what she had to do, and grabbing the nightstick from Joe, she ran to the closet and smashed the mirror on the open door.  The black glass shattered, shards of it flying like shrapnel.  She bashed it high and low, breaking every part of the door, and then she reached into the room just enough to do the same to both side walls.

Nothing happened, other than glass breaking. Nothing leaped from the mirrors to consume her soul. Robert didn't appear on the floor, broken and shattered like a fallen mirror. None of the walls vanished into nothingness.

Julie broke the glass on the rear of the closet, feeling sharp shards digging into her bare feet, but ignoring it. Only when the last of the glass was broken did she step back, gritting her teeth at the pain in her feet.  Joe took the night stick from her quickly and a little warily, and pulled her into the living room, where he pushed her down onto the sofa and pushed a towel at her.  She held it to her left forearm, which was bleeding heavily, and leaned her head back, her tears cutting clear tracks through the splatters of blood on her cheeks.

Yes, that's it.

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