The Mountain - XIII

XIII.

                Thorne had plenty of time to think about his next moves as he waited for Cairn to communicate to him. Ever since he told him to march two hours ago he had heard only once that progress was going well. Only there now to guide him if need be Thorne was lost in thinking. When this case was over he’d be able to put his hat in to be promoted, he was sure of that, the fact that he would be going against Greed was only a slight thorn in his side. The man, though a mentor in some respects, was still showing a side of himself that Thorne wasn’t sure kept in lock step with his previous notions. A man who had lost his family, who was cold and calculating yet a shade unhinged was starting to show its true colors. The previously held notion that Greed was taking Thorne under his wing was being destroyed by his actions over the past few weeks. Thorne could see that the man was starting to crack under the pressure and Thorne, wanting to show his strength, would fill in that power vacuum. He harbored the least amount of ill will towards Greed but their friendship was thin at the best of times.

                Thorne recalled one of the first times they had worked together. Thorne was fresh as a detective and Greed had been doing the job for five years already. There was already a general disdain at the station since Thorne was promoted with help from his father and others were overlooked for the job they rightly had a shot at getting. Thorne at the time was young and more brash and dismissed their disdain but their contempt was plainly painted on his first outing. A gun battle was taking place after a man took hostages in a bank. Thorne and the rest of the precinct were on the scene. As the negotiators failed to talk down the gunman he emerged from the bank gun pointed at a young woman. Thorne was the closest to him and had a shot but he hesitated. In the confusion the gunman pulled the trigger ending the woman’s life. Greed had to take the shot that Thorne was too scared to take. Since that day everyone brandished him a coward but he played it off.

                In attempts to change his perception he tried to be the funny guy, or the aloof guy, or the big talker. All personas he adopted dug him a deeper hole. No one said it to him but he was sure if they cared enough, if it would have affected them either way, someone would have told him to just shut up and do his damn job. He felt that even when he wasn’t the butt of the joke. He was the pariah but no one could say a thing lest the wrath of the banker father and his money rain down upon them. So in lieu of being ejected he was given nothing jobs until now.

                He wanted so much to prove himself to wipe away that view that he was useless and despite his feeble friendship with Greed he was willing to throw him under the bus to move ahead. It was his last recourse or else he stay the flea on the back of the police never moving ahead and never being flicked away.

                In the dark as he sat, he took note of the noises around him. The ticking of the clock down the hall. The wind howling outside pulling on the metal rooves. The sounds of the neighbors through the thin walls. For a well to do doctor, Thorne was surprised to find he lived in a poorer part of town. The doctor had mentioned that it was a family place, passed down, so maybe it had been here long before and divided up into smaller apartments over time. He didn’t care to ask. Taking a cue from Cairn’s silence he left the room to get a drink. Sitting in the dark waiting to speak to a man who was asleep was less than exciting so in the meantime, keeping an ear on the bedroom he poked around. The rooms were a mess, covered with papers and books. He wondered if he would be included in the new book the doctor was writing. Surely he would be. That alone would help his credibility tenfold.

                He smiled in the dim light of the living room lamp. Finally some credibility from his own work and not from his father. Having his father’s name made that difficult but hopefully this case would be the first of many to catapult him forward.

                He heard a murmur and returned to the bedroom.

                Cairn blinked and cascaded forward with ease towards the mountain. It felt like he had been flying for days. The shadows grew in number as he was transported forward over the twilight plane. They looked on as he traversed the rocky base of the mountain with ease. There was a start beauty to it that he couldn’t put into words. He had seen the mountains of the Appalachian range but this peak that still loomed large before him made them look like foothills in comparison. The wind began to howl as he finally reached the trees at the base. Cold and dark and barren the trees made a barrier barring entry. He could squeeze between one here and there but he father he got the denser the trees got. It was unnatural how close they were. They seemed to form a wall blocking his progress. He blinked out of the forest and looked for another path. Up and down the horizon he saw no entrance. He thought for a second then blinked up and he found himself above the trees in free fall. He scouted out a way through. Beyond the trees a league away was the trail that lead up the mountain weaving back and forth and up. He blinked again, flying above the trees, sending himself up and letting himself fall over and over.

                The exhilaration he felt from the constant flying and falling made his heart explode. Traversing the dream was seamless now. He felt that he had gained control and didn’t need Thorne to instruct him anymore from the waking world. He had complete control of his faculties now. The world flew by as he ascended the path beyond the trees. He touched down and walked a few steps then returned to blinking himself farther and farther up. A feeling in his heart, a yearning pulling him forward grew stronger and stronger the higher he climbed. At points the path ended and he had to grapple up outcroppings of rock but this was done with ease. Hand over hand, as if he were weightless. At times he’d throw himself off and fall before blinking himself farther up. It was a trivial game to him now. He clamored up and felt the truth was near. At the peak he’d find what he was meant to find.

                Elation flowed over his mind and soul as he came to the peak, an expanse wide enough to place a house if he were so inclined. It seemed to defy physics. From a distance the mountain seemed to extend to a pinpoint but at the top it was wider than he could make out from below. If he could sleep forever he would use this as his home and traverse the wide wasteland that he spied from above that extended in all directions. There was a mist that rolled over the desolate ground obscuring sight of the shadows below, the shadows he knew weren’t created by light but were ebbing and flowing as if beings moving in a fluid.

                His heart was pounding with anticipation drawing his eyes over the landscape until his eyes caught the glimpse of something glinting in the mist. Atop the mountain stretching out far and wide was a lake. Its water was motionless and metallic looking. It shimmered as the twilight bands danced in the sky above. Cairn moved forward to touch the liquid and found that it was stable and didn’t flow like water should. More like a giant mirror on the ground. It however wasn’t the source of the glimmer. In the middle of the lake was something floating. He squinted then blinked to get closer. This time it was an actual mirror. As he got closer he felt his skin start to vibrate and the ground around him start to shake as well. The metallic water he stood atop started to warp and bend. It felt the same as when he was being forced awake by Thorne.

                “No damnit! Not yet! Don’t wake me up.”

                The ground started to hum and buzz as the shaking increased. The mirror was within reach now and he grasped it on its sides. It was as large as him floating and he saw himself but there was a hollowness in his eyes. He touched his face and the reflection did the same. The world violently shifted below him. He tried to pull away but his legs no longer obeyed him. He was locked in place before the mirror. The ground kept shifting and vibrations cascaded through his form but he didn’t wake up. His reflection stared back at him with hollow eyes and he felt a pain in his chest.

                Time moved faster and the twilight bands above rippled and shot across the sky like lightning bolts but he still didn’t wake.

                “What’s going on?” he said but his mouth didn’t move in the reflection.

                “It’s time.” A voice echoed from above.

                With that the reflection smiled and started to distort. It moved backwards with speed revealing a dark expanse extending forever. Cairn stared inside the black hole and his arms reached without his say so. In an instant he was inside the blackness and felt the world speed past him. He was in freefall with no concept of the ground or the sky. There was nothing, only black. He tried to scream but the sound was stolen before it reached his ears. Silence, expansive, nothingness. His body was wrought with cold fear and his heart beat out of his chest. Falling, falling, ever falling. His vision was overtaken by the darkness now. The faint glow he had given off, being something alive in a place so devoid of life, faded and he was enveloped.

                Then he heard a scream in the distance. It felt less like an actual sound and more like the memory of one. Then again, then the world gained texture again. As if he was being pulled up now instead of falling down. Lifted and pushed towards the surface of a body of water. Wrenched forth back to the world of existence and out of the darkness.

                His eyes snapped open and he found himself sitting in a white room at a table. Before him sat a man chained and silent. With a quick glance he noticed he was in an interrogation room.

                When did I get here? Cairn thought. What day is it? At his fingertips were a folder written on it were the words: The Butcher.

                It took a second of silent composure before he realized he was set to question the murdered as he had always expected to. The mirror was the link, perhaps it simply teleported him to the future? His mind was hazy but he shifted in the chair and opened the folder. He had work to do.

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