Tunnel

By Brian Dyko

Alex and Stella make an eternal blood oath. The power of it opens portals to other dimensions that sweep them up and threaten their very love and existences. Take your mind on a tale of psychedelic science-fiction that will send you all over the universe and across space-time -- all from the comfort of your own chair/sofa/whatever it is you sit on.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brian Dyko
• Release date: Jul 6, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301361205

Brian Dyko

I love Leslie, candy, and space.

Book preview

Tunnel

By Brian Dyko

Copyright 2013 Brian Dyko

Smashwords Edition

This book is available in print at most online retailers

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or other unauthorized use of the material or artwork herein is prohibited. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author's imagination and used fictitiously.

To Leslie, my love; and to my mother

****

Table of Contents

Part I: The Tunnel

Part II: The Chaos

Part III: Los Angeles

Part IV: The Island

Part V: Cleveland

Acknowledgments

About the Author

****

PART I: THE TUNNEL

I

Alex plunged the needle into his index finger. Letting his wound bleed freely onto the plaid couch, he passed the needle to Stella. She stuck it into the tip of her finger, and let the needle fall to the floor.

They touched their tips together and shared their blood as they kissed and swore eternal union.

The power of their blood oath shot through the roof of their third-story apartment, into the nighttime sky. It soared past the earth’s atmosphere and into outer space. It glided by the sun and its planets, and headed for the black hole at the center of our galaxy. Within the singularity of every black hole lays the border between time and timelessness. And within that border rests the realm of the Chaos.

II

Neither Alex nor Stella had ever made such a magnanimous gesture before, and were left looking at each other and wondering what was next as their blood ran through each other’s bodies. His deep blue eyes absorbed the ecstasy and awe in her beautiful brown eyes, and reflected it back at her. They stayed in this trance for countless moments until Stella at last suggested.

Let’s paint something.

They got the acrylics out and placed a medium-sized canvas on the ground.

So what do you want to paint? he asked her.

Paradise, she replied with a smile and a shrug, and made a broad violet brushstroke of an arch.

Now you go, she said.

Alex accentuated her arch with a soft yellow one that fit snugly under hers. He silently invited her to make a move. She offered a shiny blue blob that hinted at a pond, and Alex more clearly defined it with green specks that suggested themselves as shrubbery.

As they neared completion on their pastoral scene, it started to rain quite heavily. And then the lighting came, and soon the thunder followed.

Alex grew kind of melancholy.

What’s wrong? she asked him.

He shook his head sullenly, Nothing.

She looked at him, half-pleading and half-concerned. There was no point in resisting her.

It rained just like this eight years ago today…the night my mother passed away.

Oh Alex, she embraced him, I’m sorry, I never knew the day.

I guess it’s still hard for me to talk about.

She nodded in acknowledgment.

I know it is.

I just wish you two could have met, that’s all. You would have loved each other.

There was a moment of silence.

I know it might sound crazy, but I feel as if I do know her, through you. And I love her very much. Sometimes I could swear that I feel her presence here with us, but I don’t want to say anything about it because I don’t want to upset you.

He did not offer a response right away, but kissed her on her forehead and held her body closely to his own body.

III

Elizabeth was in eternity, a part of a whole with no individual thoughts or desires. A fullness so full it was closer to nothingness. A place that was not a place. Conscious, yes, but contained within the context of the whole. She wanted nothing. Expected nothing. Existed as billions before her now exist – ethereal, amorphous, timeless.

And then when the blood oath her son had made with Stella cut through the Chaos and reached into the sphere of eternity, she was awoken. It was the only oath ever powerful enough to penetrate the barrier of timelessness and coat it with its essence. Reinvigorated by the sensation of coming back into contact with her own blood, Elizabeth’s spirit separated and floated away from the whole. She did not know why her spirit was independent again, but by instinct traced the tear the oath had made back to the point where the sphere of timelessness began.

There was a hole in the border, but only large enough for Elizabeth to see through with one eye. Through the hole she saw utter darkness and confusion. And something down there seemed to be breathing, but erratically.

Hello? She called out, Is everything okay down there?

Leaning in closer to try and hear it better, she lost her footing and fell through the hole into the realm of the Chaos.

She dropped through the darkness for some time before she hit solid ground. When she picked herself back up, she noticed that she could no longer float freely around. In fact, she could only walk now. She could see the hole from where she had fallen, but realized that there was no way for her to get back up there.

From the hole in eternity, the path the blood oath had torn into the Chaos stretched way off into the opposite direction above her. Not having anything else to guide her, she followed underneath it.

IV

Alex sat at his black desk with crumpled papers scattered all around him. He had been there for hours now. It was quite late, and Stella was peacefully sleeping in the other room.

Stella was in her last semester of college, while he had graduated a few months ago. He had the rare good luck upon graduation of being offered a book deal with a national publisher. Over the course of undergrad he had completed a manuscript, submitted it, and gotten an offer. There was a condition, though. Parts of the main plot and a few of the characters needed to be re-worked to more easily fit into the current market demographic the publisher had in mind for Alex’s story. Try as he might, though, he couldn’t seem to make these simple changes. He had already turned in a few revised drafts, and each time the publisher told him close, but no cigar. In fact, they were growing impatient with him now, and told him in no indefinite terms that if in three weeks he did not have what they were looking for, they were going to pass on his project.

So he couldn’t blow it. Not only would it destroy his confidence irreparably, he and Stella were poor as hell. Her student loan money was already practically gone, and they had no other source of income. This book offer was his only opportunity. If he messed that up, he’d probably find some job somewhere, eventually. Hopefully. But he’d be a shell of who he once was.

Stella did not put the same kind of pressure on Alex as he put on himself. She loved him unconditionally. And because Alex knew this, he didn’t want her to have to love a loser.

Feeling stir crazy trying to find inspiration in the only room of their apartment other than the one Stella was sleeping in, Alex decided to take a walk. He went into the bedroom and gently kissed the top of her long amber hair. She seemed to smile as he re-tucked the sheets around her.

They lived in the thick of the campus housing that rested just north of the university in Columbus, OH. It was a short walk to campus, and Alex figured that maybe the beauty of its landscape and architecture might be enough to inspire him. He walked around the university for a while, but could not clear the void that blocked his mind. Eventually the fresh air made him tired, and he headed back home.

He laid his long body to rest next to Stella, who unconsciously purred as he joined her under the covers.

V

Elizabeth stared at the gash in the Chaos as she walked below it. The strange breathing noises she had heard before she fell from eternity seemed to be coming from there.

She was distracted by it, and did not notice that a giant funnel cloud was rushing towards her from the side. It overtook her, and tried to shove her back through the hole in the border between the Chaos and eternity.

The hole was rapidly closing in on itself, though, and she was not fitting through. The energy increased around her and made a greater push, but still could not do it. Then the hole closed completely, and she dropped back to the ground. She lay there, crumpled at the feet of a tall shadow man.

Immortal trespasser!

He bellowed down at her. She looked up and saw that the shadowy figure wore a crown, and that he was holding a small tornado in his hand.

I demand you state your business, or be ground out of existence!

VI

Alex was back on the university quad, standing on the neatly trimmed grass with no shoes on. The art building was on fire. A blue blaze surrounded it, but did not seem to be consuming it.

Screams were coming from the basement. They sounded like children. Alex ran towards the building. The screams were getting louder as he neared a tunnel that led under the main entrance. He ran down the eastern staircase, into the fire. It was not burning him, though – it wasn’t even hot. But the screams intensified.

A cartoon man was graffiti’d onto the wall of the tunnel. He had two heads, in profile, looking away from one another. One orange and one red. They were the one’s that were screaming. They had spiral eyes and their mouths were howling in pain. The heads shared one neck that spun down into one red orange body.

Alex scratched at the wall to try and peel him off, but he seemed to be trapped inside of it.

How do I help you? Alex shouted at him over his screeching. Please, I don’t understand how to get you off this wall.

And with that, the man lifted his red right arm off of the wall, and pointed across the tunnel to a room that led into the basement of the art building. A locked steel door closed it off from the tunnel, but there were two windows that looked into the room. As he peered through them, he knew at once that the source of the fire was in this room. It was so bright in there that it was like looking into the sun. Alex tried again to open the door, but it was definitely welded shut. He turned back to the man, who was still pointing at the room, howling in pain.

It’s shut, man. What do I do?

The man’s arm grew longer, as if to emphasize the door leading into the room. Alex tried to grab the extended arm to yank him from the wall, but his arm was nothing more than a hologram. He went to pull the door once again and it felt like it was finally giving way. But then, as often happens in dreams, Alex was somewhere else entirely.

He was on the banks of the Cuyahoga River. It was the river that ran behind his childhood home, a few miles back into the valley, and eventually spilled out into Lake Erie. He was standing at the bend in the river where his mother’s ashes were spread eight years ago. His family was there, as they had been during the actual funeral ceremony, and he watched as the water at the bend flowed in every direction at once while his father prayed before the scattering. And then he woke up.

The sun shining through the blinds was what woke him. The morning light had roused Stella, as well, but she was far from fully awake. He reached his arm over her shoulder and spooned her from behind. He stayed awake with his eyes closed, breathing the scent coming off the back of her neck where it met her auburn hair. And they lay there together for some time, facing the sun as it came down on them through the window.

VII

Alex and Stella ate a breakfast of eggs, toast, and coffee. Afterwards, they made love and took a walk around the block. It was a beautiful summer day – hot, humid, and fragrant with freshly cut grass and the singing of birds. Her long hair cast a purple tone as it bounced around her shoulders, and her eyes sparkled as she talked and laughed.

When Stella stopped so that she could more intently gaze upon a branch of low-hanging yellow tree flowers, Alex said,

You know, I just can’t tell.

You can’t tell what? she asked.

Whether you’re stopping to admire the flowers, or if they’re stopping to admire you.

She blushed.

You’re really on a role lately, aren’t you?

I got a way with words. You should tell that to the publisher.

I’ll do more than that. I’ll send them a bomb in the mail if they mess around with your story much more.

They both laughed. Thanks, Stella.

Then she looked at him like she was looking at the flowers a second ago – with wonder and tenderness.

All kidding aside, though, how are you doing?

Just fine. What do you mean?

The other night was the first time that you really started opening up to me about your mother, and then you just kind of dropped it. I don’t want to push the issue or make you uncomfortable, but I don’t know, I guess I want to make sure that you’re doing okay and that you know you could always talk about her with me.

I know that and I really do appreciate it, but let’s just enjoy the walk for now.