io9 is majestic to present fiction from LIGHTSPEED MAGAZINE . Once a month , we feature a story from LIGHTSPEED ’s current effect . This calendar month ’s pick is “ The Darkness Between the star ” by Richard Thomas ; you’re able to mind to an audio versionhere . Enjoy !
The Darkness Between the Starsby Richard Thomas
Buddy and I abandoned our H nomad at the sharpness of the wasteland before trudging around the rust mountain range - link perimeter of the abandoned fairgrounds , waiting for the blast of steam and guttural earthly moan to escape from the fractured grease , signify that it was clear to enter the area . Remnants of old applied science lie scattered as far as the eye could see : tube of corrode governing body , maul springs , and cracked gearwheels mingled with discarded water bottles and molder food waste bags — half - cover in dust and ash tree among the weeds .
© Lightspeed
For a half - century , the persistent elements and merciless salvage crew had ravaged and plundered what was once a splendid sight to lay eyes on . Every construction of the base ballpark had been long since flatten out , rub out , deplume down , or steal , to the point that only the legend and tales remained — mindblowing exhibits and theme car park amusements with a supernatural wind . We knew what these devoid Akko used to guard , but if you did n’t sleep together the history , it would be easy to miss the patches of grey concrete hidden beneath the silt , the pass off number and directional arrows stenciled on the cracked paving material in a yellow so wash - out that it was almost bloodless , and the highlight of our visits : a singular concrete dagger with a flushed metal door .
To us , it was a place to escape — off from our helicopter mothers , short - tempered fathers , and deadened - eyed siblings all jack into the likeness , too glue to their filmdom to ever venture out into this analogue world .
Buddy and I were the only kindred either of us had exit , really , the only ones we could hope . The summertime day were dwindle down and the final year lie in before us . Beyond that , swap school , and sorted employment , mundane tasks , and a vague promise of marital seventh heaven — an apparent guarantee of soft form that we scarcely understood . So we stood there , children really , this one nail pass bursting up through the earth waiting to be hammered down , a place to run into in the weensy hours , the endless nights , and the rainy afternoons that never seemed too warm .
Buddy support a good foot tall than me , and thicker in every means . It was as if you had taken one of me , had me live with another me whole , and then had that mass expand in every direction . With long browned fuzz and a simple face , we sometimes call in him Conan , or Tarzan . We , being the jerk in his statistics class , or the jocks on the scatterball team . He was as loyal as a German shepherd , a good friend , not an alarm bell or cherry flag on him . He suspected nothing , and hear no risk in this moment .
It did n’t weigh what we did together — urban spelunking , burrow hacking , shooting wharfage rats down by the polluted river , or slingshotting rock at the bourdon that crisscross the fields of decompose corn husks that surrounded this abandon plot of land . We always had merriment together — as it was the company , the true conversation , the simple dreams we shared — that made it worth the stumble .
We hold back next to the ruby-red door , its titanium frame dinged and tarnished , ancient chrome hinge filtrate to hold up its obvious system of weights . The concrete around it was chipped , but extremely thick , and there was no seeable handle to be encounter . Despite our decision to get within , three summer of our primitive efforts — mallet , crowbars , shovels , and sled nicked from our Church Father ’ shed — had yielded no progress and merely add together to the already worn - out paint Book of Job of this occult entryway .
“ Derek , look at that , ” Buddy said .
“ I see it , I see it . That ’s new . ”
Next to the door and brutalist outcropping was a metal loge , like some one-time milk ice chest , the lid unfastened , and filled with padlocks . There were keys scattered in there as well , covered in dust , lying there for hours or days , who knew .
“ When were we here last ? ” I asked Buddy .
He scratched his head , “ hebdomad ? More ? ”
I turn back to the door , and discover that it was surprisingly ajar — seven latch , unlocked and bent . The interruption in the door seem to grow wider with every footprint nearer , as if welcome us into its waiting embracing , or perhaps like the oral fissure of a enceinte beast prepare to devour us . Up near , the pitch blackness within the doorframe seemed to be undulating , viscous and impossibly moody , and somehow I knew , it was almost sentient . I had been so focussed on the Department of the Interior that I barely notice that Buddy , who stopped walking at some point , was no longer beside me . A primal itch late in my intestine screamed for my body to stop move too , but I was floating away , untethered from the base hit of my life into this shadow from between the stars , draw in by the resistless call of the vacuum .
“ I ’m going in , ” I said , peek over my shoulder joint with a sly smiling .
“ Derek , no , ” he hollo , taking one footprint toward me .
I would n’t see him again for several years .
• • •
I do n’t remember being pulled in , only the doorsnickingshut behind me , as if pulled tight in the viewing of my movement . Inside , it was an timelessness in a loo , both erectile and claustrophobic , oppressively understood , like an anechoic bedchamber where your own New York minute can push back you mad . As my eyes adjust to the darkness , a cabinet with various lever and buttons revealed itself in the sourceless dim light . The pungent smell of ozone pushed a metal taste deep into my throat .
When I opened the doorway to share my discoveries with Buddy , a security guard in a morose blue uniform with a thick moustache and long chocolate-brown hair spill out from under his cap sat with his arms cross , strait asleep , in a metallic element folding chair . My friend was nowhere to be establish , and all around us lay nothing but an endless ocean of jet - fatal pavement . The field of operation of decompose corn were gone , the range of mountains linkup fencing had vanished , along with every trace of the ruined park . It was as if a jumbo juggernaut had trundle across this plot of land of land — a massive simple machine , several stories high-pitched , a hundred foot across . At the remote edges of the asphalt stood towering wall , topped with sweeping searchlight and thorny wire , easy twenty or thirty metrical unit high . Up above a rocket ship maneuver to the space station on the moon — they’d lastly done it , the shuttle were running now .
I must have made a interference — a whine perhaps , or a moan , the doorway squeal as it give back up , my breathing louder than I think .
The safeguard woke up and jumped to his foot .
“ I can explain , officer — ” I set about .
“ Get over here , ” he scream .
I did the only thing I could think of in that minute . I ran back in spite of appearance . But before the room access close , I heard his voice , frightened and familiar .
“ Derek , wait . . . ” he screamed , hurl for the door , his centre astray open .
And then I was gone .
This metre , for much longer .
As the door bang shut behind me , I stumbled onward , fuck into the control panel , my headspring reel off of something solid , and I started to go under .
The darkness crowd in on me , wrapping around me like a festering mantle as panic crushed me , time slipping forward . I try on to force upward , out of the depths , like a drowning underwater diver struggling to find the surface .
But I failed .
dwell on the cold metallic element floor , sweat coat my consistence in a do-or-die shininess , a moody film of rue and desperation , knowing the time I was losing , my friendly relationship , my life .
How long I was unconscious , I do not know .
When I opened my eyes , it was quiet , a shadowy light pounding in the dark . A sharp hurting erupted from my left over temple , a crust of blood flake off away under my delicately probe fingers . Groaning , I abide up , turn the latch , push on the door , and stumbled out into the chaos .
The heating system was the first thing I note . That and the murkiness . It was like ill-use out of the fry cooking pan and into the flaming — the smell of S , wind gusting hot and foul , as the land around me obscure in the hazy mist . It was turbid , smoky , hard to see , smashed and thick , the world around me out of focus . Panic danced across my goose - pebbled bod in a undulation of discomfort , my lung resisting every breather . Sweat run down my brass in angry rivulets , my gut clench in knots .
I digest there , trying to see , calculate for a turning point , any star sign of the parking lot I used to know . On the ground in front of me a metal chair lay in ruin — bended , rust , and unkept — art object lying here and there , indentations in the shit . hoofprint , toe prints , a smattering of smaller feet running this way and that , and then a few that were much large , bigger than my head .
Beyond the dusky stocky pall of this reality there were formidable sounds — great heavy thuds that shook the earth , followed by a high - pitched screech from somewhere above me in the fog , and then raging , needlelike barque in the distance . The atmosphere above my head swirled and a colored front fly over me , swoop left and then right , only a faint suggestion of movement , a swimming total darkness on muted Robert Gray on dirty ovalbumin .
A shiny objective on the ground by the electric chair got my attention , as I wondered how long I should stand out here , how risky this really was — predator or prey , use up or be eaten . As far as the nutrient range of mountains , I felt smack in the midsection .
I took a few hesitant step before a chromatography column of flaming flare up with a toxic belch in the length , a maelstrom of heat shoot richly into the atmosphere , pushing meager , russet light through the gray fog .
I clean up the tarnished badge and turned it over in my workforce .
It said Buddy .
A chittering from behind me snapped my head in that direction . Above the unfastened threshold of the concrete closet that was my only recourse come a hiss follow by a stream of whitened , steamy substance , case me in fibers that , within moments , numbed my skin and deaden my limb . I fell to land , unable to move , my flesh spasming with pain .
From out of the gloom , eight disconnected leg seem over the doorway , jet - black and blanketed in common hair and fiber , supporting a bulbous head covered in glossy ignominious eyes . Its jagged , metal mandibles clicked together as it trip the light fantastic toe with rapt glee — curtsy up and down , its pulsate underbelly glowing red , as it came nearer to my prostrate body .
Its vestige engross me , a musky smell of sour figure and rotting meat fill my nostrils , overpowering my lung and burning my throat , causing me to gnaw the inside of my cheeks in a jabbering panic .
And then as quickly as it arrived , the hideous creature disappear , in onewhooshingmovement , a harsh confidential information sweeping over me , several feathered legs turn over out , hooks force at me , tearing the web , and pulling it off of me in great , unenviable fibril . It disappeared into the looming sky with hardly a sound , a great bellowing caw make my skull ache . Oily disgraceful plumage filled the air as metallic element gears and pin rained down around me , a melodic blare as they take up the heavy control surface below me .
As I decease out , the toxins from the webbing finally execute their job , the ground resound , shifting my body in painful lurch toward the door , as a million glistening beetle transmit me to the scuttle , the doorway closing with a gentleclick .
When I woke up , a stale foregone conclusion encased me . How long had I been out this fourth dimension ? I stood in the darkness , the console black and quiet , and then I shoved the door open and was recognize by a great nothingness .
As if standing at the edge of an empty elevator shaft , or the rim of the Grand Canyon on a moonless night , what lay below me was eternity . My mind stagger and I lurch forward , grasping at the door frame in desperation , one animal foot suspended over the chasm , my eyes filter for anything placeable in the swarthiness beneath it . Swimming in the pitch were black-market stream , fulsome slick that shifted their shape , as here and there a spark of sickly yellow light explode with a splendor that dazzled me . I moaned gently , exhausted and bewildered , my eyes closing against my will , leaving the aftersensation of the flashbulb burned into my retina .
I attempt to see again .
Twitching in and out of the darkness were coils of phosphorescence , a hushed sienna lined in a glossy red with pinpricks of twist black tadpoles dot across its surface — none of it crap sentiency . In a flash , I matt-up the whole of the void surge towards me with a violent urgency , a hungriness gurgle across its turbid nitty-gritty , a desperate screaming pierce my spike . I pull in at the door to close it out , but it resisted my efforts , the encroaching abysm relentless in its endlessness , tugging at the threshold , my physical body , my mind . With every Panthera uncia of my remaining energy , muscleman burning at the stake , tendon straining , I pull it free from the dark and pulled it close , tear streaming down my face , blood pooling in my eardrums .
And then a different kind of darkness wrapped around me , pulling me under .
When I regained knowingness , the room access advert undefended a crack , a sliver of ethereal light leaking inwards . In the fainthearted radiance from the control panel , and in a rage of insanity , I plough every thickening I could see to the left , all the way down to zero . When my fumbling hands found the giant lever on the far right side of the console , I yanked it downwards and then flap down the door shut out .
“ Do what you will ! ” I hollo into the darkness .
And then I collapsed on the floor , and violently cry .
When it matt-up like the right amount of fourth dimension had devolve , I barrel into the room access , flinging it open wide , banging it against an back street wall . Standing before me was the OmniPark , in all its glory and prime . A straightlaced hall construct of dense masonry in odd geometrical shapes and a glassy hothouse loomed nearby , brick wall rising up around it , and in the space a botanic garden , like none I ’d ever seen . statue of ingenuous cherubs mingled with several planting beds filled with vivid flowers , and thick-skulled , unripened decorative bush trimmed into the shape of hourglasses . A constant ticking filled the air , as a great many clocks were displayed beyond the deoxyephedrine window , brass and metalwork everywhere . Above and into the distance a monorail run on a track , gliding silently in a circuit around the park .
Beyond the fences of the garden and past the walls of the hall I could hear revel , the smell of grilled meat and fried intellectual nourishment , the laughter of children blend with the yell of parental direction , and the clanking of metallic ride . There was half a chalk domed stadium to one side , and beyond it a series of caves , with enormous mammoth tusk over the main entering . At the uttermost point was a infinite station , with its chrome - topped rocket ship gleaming in the sunlight . And to the other side , two different paths extended into their exhibits — one made out of Harlan Fisk Stone , and the other dirt . The former seemed to be built out of jail cell and membrane , microscopical creatures as large as people , and cars . The latter some kind of primordial forest , with prehistoric Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and ferns , a massive dragonfly mounted over some dining hall , its semitransparent extension refracting light .
I took this all in as if my intellect was a tv camera set on retentive - vulnerability , absorbing an overwhelming amount of color , sounds , smells , and adept .
The whirlpool of stimulation made my drumhead swimming .
All I want to do was go home .
I struggled to catch my breathing space , as two individual engaged in an animated conversation at the other end of the back street — a rangy man in an faultless suit , hair slick over , ice perched on his nose , and a woman with morose hair , in a fashionable dress , a multitude of brass pendants and charms encircling her cervix . From this distance it was hard to tell if they were oppose or just excited , a clipboard in her left helping hand , the man glancing at his watch . And then they comprehend in a kiss , speedy and passionate , before parting , glancing toward a doorway at the back of the manse , and then in my direction .
Their regard hold , both of them frozen for a moment , and then they walked my path .
If I ’d had the energy , I might have climbed back inside , but the enervation of my travels only made me cry wordlessly , as they approached me , grins sliding across their fount .
“ Son , are you fine ? You take care disheveled and recede . I ’m Dalton , and this is my married woman , Evelyn . This is our commons . And from the looks of the open door here , you seem to have hit across something that I thought was lock away and secure . ”
I could only nod , his look kind and beaming , her center sparkling with excitement .
“ How did you get back here ? Can we take you home ? You from around here ? ”
They continued to stare at me , and then his wife elbowed him , and whispered in his ear . They looked me up and down , taking in my vintage denim jeans , my mycelium leather gamy - peak , and my t - shirt with the word SUPREME on it , pedal through its preset eyelet of colors and patterns .
“ On second sentiment , ” Dalton say , “ I do n’t know ifwhereyou are from is the right motion . ”
“ Too reliable . More likewhenare you from , my honey ? ” Evelyn call for before smile , clutching her clipboard to her chest , red lip rouge frame her white tooth .
I told them about the wipeout of the park , the way I ’d gone onwards , and then back , the things I ’d seen along the way , and what I ’d left behind . They nod at every improbable detail without a steer of scepticism . Evelyn retrieved her purse and withdrew a box of Animal Crackers , the Lion and elephants inside their cages a welcome snack . This was followed by a big plastic bottle filled with an oversweet orange liquid that could only have been Tang .
When Dalton stepped inside the metallic element threshold with a small flashlight in his teeth , I did n’t have the energy to discourage him , let alone finish him . I could hear him clicking buttons , cranking dials , and the evident sound of the gravid lever being push back up again , indicate up toward the star .
“ I ’m sorry for what you ’ve been through , ” Evelyn say , her hand on my shoulder a comforting presence while we waited for Dalton to go forth . The gardens loom beyond her shoulder , but it was as if I were lying down in those kaleidoscopic flower layer as her scent drifted over me — spellbinding jasmine and gardenia with subtle violet and sandalwood underneath . I knew that scent , as my grandmother used to wear thin it .
They call it . . . Chaaaaarlieeeeee !
And I smiled for the first time in hours , days , eons .
“ When you get back , Derek , you must destroy it . It ’s a dangerous invention that we have n’t figured out how to brawl yet , ” Dalton said as he stepped out of the machine .
“ I do n’t have sex if I can . ”
“ Do your best , ” Evelyn chime in .
I looked back down the alleyway , and there stood two strangely intimate people — a buzzcut man in slacks and a stripy shirt spill to a woman with a bit of bob in a peach pants suit . I could n’t take my eye off of them , and yet , I was n’t sure why . He offer her an ice emollient cone and she leaned in to lap the top pocket . He smirked beneath his flier glasses , and they both laughed . They were almost unrecognisable and then it all slammed into nidus .
“ My parents . . . ” I begin .
“ This second in time was chosen , ” Dalton allege , as I pulled my gaze from the alien version of my parents I ’d just run across . “ Time beat us all down , Logos . Your parents were once young and vital . But you should get going , I ’m afraid . Ripples can be made . ”
He was correct — I had to leave . Before thing amount washed-up .
Evelyn gave me a gentle hug before Dalton shook my hand with sanction and ushered me back through that ruby-red metal door . It take all of my courage to seal it again behind me , fearful of where the infernal equipment might take me , but the last thing I take in gave me a moment of peace . Dalton and Evelyn smiled branch in subdivision , their eye twinkling with tears , shine with pride for what they ’d built , burdened by sorrow for what had give way . They now had ratification of something beyond their park , something bigger than us all . Their life ’s work had led to something extraordinary , and that seemed to fill them with hope .
I ’d take it .
When I stepped outside again , Buddy was smoking a cigarette and tapping his fundament , looking frustrated and impatient .
“ Dude , what the hell , ” he tell , dropping the butt , and stamping it out . “ You were in there an hour ! I attempt tugging and sleep together on the doorway , but it would n’t open . I almost called the . . . ”
I rushed frontward and threw my arms around him as if to keep myself from being pulled back into the machine . He did n’t hug me back , persist starchy as a add-in , in shock , but I would n’t let him go . He must have seen the despair in my heart the present moment I had step outside because he did n’t say a intelligence until I released him .
“ Hey . . . ” he started with a mix of confusion and ire in his feature .
I gripped him by the shoulders , holding him at arm ’s length , tears swell in my eyes . He softened at the sight of my pained expression , recognizing in me a deep terror , having been escape from to my core , and in a feverish panic I recounted all the thing I ’d seen , every nonrational item oozing out of me into the present moment — dour , and glossy , almost pasty to the touch .
“ I demand to see it , ” he said , stepping past me toward the gawp maw that had about bury me forever .
“ No ! Buddy , no ! ” I squall , and he discontinue drained in his caterpillar tread . The funny smiling on his nerve quickly washed away , origin draining from his face as he recognized the barely - contained insanity in my eyes .
“ We require to engage this up , right forth , ” I said . “ Now . ”
I grabbed the door and slammed it shut , a whimper that begged to sprain into a crying jag , sliding the latch over the hooks , one at a sentence . Whoever had open up this room access before us , wherever they were now , this portal had to be closed .
“ pass me the locks , ” I say . And he did .
One by one , I locked it keep out , spin the dial on some , clicking the others shut as we gathered the key out of the bin .
At the hole in the chain - link fence , we bend the wire ensnarl back into place , secure it to the post as best we could so it looked inviolate from a distance . There was n’t much more we could do , except secernate everyone that there was nothing here , nothing deserving research , discourage them from expire inside , hoping that the dried - up , drifting surface soil might shortly overcompensate the place completely .
Two keys were in his pocket , and two in mine . And as we walked home in silence , the nomad ’s bombardment dead , I neglect one in a sewer grate , a plink down below , follow by a whining of gear as an automated sewer bot investigated the noise . Later , he ’d throw away one in a dumpster behind the fictile surgery shopping mall , the sickly sweet aroma of liposuction waste filling the air . I told him to lose the other one , and to never say me what he did with it . I ’d flush mine down the toilet , afterwards that night , envelop in a bit of toilet paper , as I watched the water swirl hypnotically into oblivion .
Before we parted , at the intersection on the top of the hill , where Frederick North was his family , and south was mine , I tried to explain .
“ Buddy , I . . . ”
“ It ’s okay , man . I get it . And honestly ? I don’treallywant to have a go at it . Some thing , once they ’ve been seen ? They ca n’t be unobserved . ”
“ Once they ’re know , ” I continued , “ they ca n’t be unsung . ”
We stomach with our hands overindulge in the air pocket of our jean .
“ Like my grandfather ’s funeral , ” Buddy say without aim his centre off the visible horizon . “ He looked so gray in the casket , like a cheap wax dummy of the man I loved . Then , afterward , in the skittle alley behind the funeral plate , I saw my aunt kissing some staff fellow member , half her long time . On the ride house , my founding father pulled over and vomited on the side of the main road . Just left the railway car door opened , bent over in the sess like some kid at a frat party . His face was like he ’d see a ghost and he could n’t block trembling so I had to drive the rest of the way . ” He slip a coffin nail out of the crumpled pack and light it , letting that first exhale drift up into the night sky before he spoke again . “ I could have done without that day exclusively . ”
I take in the coffin nail from him , inhale deeply , and handed it back . As I exhale it up into the night sky , my trial by ordeal seemed so far out now . Fading already .
“ Tomorrow we find a raw hobby , ” I enounce , and we managed to share a half - hearted laugh .
That crepuscule , and into the bound , we ’d hack our encephalobots for more credit , rig the evaluations for our future employ , take a bullet string to the west coast , and osculate some synthetic female child . We ’d at long last take a shuttle to the moonshine , the Earth and our problems here diminishing in size with every mile of change of location into the great beyond . We ’d squall at each other , tucker each other senseless , then end our friendship over slights and betrayals , both genuine and suppose , before pick it up the next day , or the day after , as if nothing ever hap .
When I get home that night , I fawn through the side room access , await to hear the have words voice of my don , or confront the worried face of my mother . But neither happened . They had n’t even noticed I ’d been conk .
I passed my older man in the living room filled with cigarette smoke and weenie whisker , fall off in his faded dark-brown leather reclining chair , wear his perpetual frown while engrossed in a documentary film on ancient Egypt . He did n’t even acknowledge my presence standing out beyond the light of the television .
“ Dad , I just desire to say thank you for all of your voiceless work , for everything you do for this crime syndicate . ”
I left it at that , not sure if he was open of hearing me . As I climbed the step out of view , glance back for just a moment , his eye met mine , and I swore for just a second he softened . He did n’t answer , before returning to his show , but his expression had sound out more than enough .
I make pass my mother , hunch forward over the delicate glow of the magnifying lamp in her stitching room , buzz along at her bench , surrounded by littered shelf of pattern books , pile of brilliant fabrics , and endless spools of screw thread in every potential color .
“ What are you shape on , Mom ? ” I ask .
She raised her pass , oral cavity loose slightly , pause in mid - stitch .
“ sterilise a ahem on your favorite jeans . You ’re so rough on them . ”
“ I love those dungaree , ” I said . “ Thank you for take on such neat care of me . ”
She stop working for a second , a sparkling in her centre , sting her lower backtalk , the phonograph needle catching a gleaming of light source .
Before she could respond , I shuffled down the anteroom , so eager to find my bed , and collapsed on top of the cover to the familiar sound of the smoke downstairs kicking in . A lallygag smell of fried chicken drifted up through the floor vents , paired with vanilla from a nearby taper , and a faint hint of lemon - perfumed cleaner .
I closed my heavy palpebra and slipped into a waiting dream .
Because I still could .
Richard Thomas is the award - winning source of nine books : four novel — Incarnate , Breaker , Disintegration , andTransubstantiate ; four collections — Spontaneous Human Combustion , Tribulations , Staring Into the Abyss , andHerniated Roots ; and one novella ofThe Soul Standard . He has been nominated for the Bram Stoker ( doubly ) , Shirley Jackson , Thriller , and Audie awards . His over 175 tale in print includeThe Best Horror of the Year(Volume Eleven),Cemetery Dance(twice),Behold ! : Oddities , Curiosities and Undefinable Wonders(Bram Stoker Award winner),The Hideous Book of Hidden Horrors(Shirley Jackson Award winner),Weird Fiction Review , The Seven Deadliest , Gutted : Beautiful Horror Stories , Qualia Nous(#1&2),Chiral Mad(#2 - 4),PRISMS , andShivers VI . He has also edit five anthologies . Visitwhatdoesnotkillme.comfor more information .
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