Chapter 9
The man pulled something out of his pocket and started talking into it.
“Alice, I just sent some poor humans up to you, can you take care of them please?”
A woman’s voice came out of the thing in his hand. It looked like a strange phone. “Sure, what am I doing?”
“Oh, nothing too special. Beth had one of those painters eaten by Pooly, I’m sending the other two up. She tried to have him eat young Royden Doble as well. He’s with me.”
“Oh alright. What about their van?” Alice’s voice said.
“Smash it up a bit. It was a terrible crash, one fatality.”
“Got it.” Alice said. A click ended the conversation.
The man put the device back in his pocket and hit the button for the elevator. “My name is Mr. Bringum.” The man said as they waited for the elevator.
“Oh.” Royden grunted. All he could think about was poor Jim. Royden watched Pooly eating the poor man over and over again in his mind.
Mr. Bringum nodded. “It’s going to be hard.” He whispered kindly. “Very few humans ever get to step foot in here, and you get to live here. That can be rough at first.”
Royden managed to push Jim from his mind just enough to listen. “I hate this place.”
The elevator’s doors opened and they got in. Mr. Bringum pushed the button for the first floor. “I don’t blame you.”
Mr. Bringum led Royden to his office on the first floor. It was the main office there, the same one Royden and Bill found the key to the roof in. That felt like a million years ago now. Mr. Bringum pulled his chair from behind his desk and set it across from the other chair in the room. They sat down. Royden stared at the floor. He felt dirty and weak. He would have much preferred to go up to his apartment and sleep.
“There are a lot of different kinds of people in this building, as you well know.” Mr. Bringum said. “We have to find a way to live together peacefully, and it’s hard sometimes. If you have any questions, now is the time.”
Royden hated feeling Mr. Bringum’s gaze on him. He refused to look up from the floor. “Why does this place exist?”
“There’s a whole lot more to the universe than anyone could ever realize. More than you or I can even imagine. There are several places throughout the worlds that allow for those of us from far away to visit and sometimes live in other parts of the verse, whether uni or multi. Most habited worlds have these places. Some don’t have a problem and those from far away can live in the communities near the portals to their own worlds. Others, including this one, choose to keep those beings secret.”
“What are these places?” Royden asked. “I mean, what makes them special?”
“That is a long and complicated answer. Let me just say that a long time ago there was a person who had a key that opened other dimensions. Those doorways to the other dimensions can never close. This is one of those places. The very space that surrounds this building is very special. My grandparents built the Discovery Apartments as a way to hide that space from society. They wanted to make sure that those of us from far away might have a chance to live here and experience Earth society from close up.” Mr. Bringum sat back and looked off into the distance, as if remembering a particularly clouded memory. “Before the Discovery Apartments were built my family, who have always been the caretakers of this special space, had a small bed and breakfast. Well you can imagine that all sorts of beings stayed there. It was nice, so I hear. There was less room and so less beings for less time. When my grandparents built this building they made it so the beings could live here for years at a time. My family is still trying to deal with that decision, and now it’s my turn. How do you keep so many beings from so many places happy? It’s hard.” He shook his head. “Anyway, is there anything else you’ve been wondering?”
Royden shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Oh dear!” Mr. Bringum said. “You must feel awful. Here, let me get you some help.” He pulled that device from his pocket again. “Alice, are you done?”
“Just finished, sir.”
“Good, come on over to my office. I need some of your skills.”
Royden didn’t like the sound of that. What sort of skills were needed?
A woman, presumably Alice, arrived a moment later. She looked human enough, but Royden never knew for sure. She immediately began moving her hands carefully around Royden’s ankle, which was beginning to hurt tremendously. Almost instantly the pain vanished and his ankle felt as good as new.
“Wow.” Royden breathed.
“I know right?” Mr. Bringum said. “Alice is a miracle in human form.”
“Yeah, she is good.” Royden said.
“No,” Alice laughed. “I really am a miracle in human form. I can heal anything.”
“Oh.” Royden was highly impressed.
“You name it I can heal it.” Alice said while moving her hands up and down Royden’s body. All negative feelings left instantly. “I just got through healing those painters. It was mostly mental for them.”
When Alice finished she left the office.
“See,” Mr. Bringum said happily, “not everything here is so negative.”
“Can she heal Jim, the one eaten by Pooly?”
Mr. Bringum frowned. “If found alive, even barely, she can heal them. If not then no. Though I did hear that her parents can, so maybe she just needs more training.”
Mr. Bringum clapped his hands. “Any other questions before I send you on?”
“I guess not. I just want to get out of here. This isn’t a place for people like me and my parents.”
Mr. Bringum frowned, studying Royden with his eyes. Royden tried hard not to notice. “You have a chance here Mr. Doble, to see the world in a way no one else like you can. This may seem bad now, but wait until you get used to it before making that decision.”
“I almost died twice today.” Royden said. “That’s not something I can deal with every day.”
“Trust me, what you went through was not an everyday occurrence. Most days will be like that night you helped Bill.” Mr. Bringum said kindly. His eyes shined with caring.
Royden looked up for the first time. “What?”
“I know everything that goes on here.”
“You do?”
“Sure do.”
“Then why didn’t you help me today?” Royden asked, trying hard to stay calm.
Mr. Bringum nodded slowly, his head down. “I should have. That’s my fault. By the time I felt I was needed, you were already in Pooly’s den. That’s not a place I can get into. But I have to ask: how did you get out alive?”
“I tricked Pooly into thinking I was Beth.”
“Amazing.” Mr. Bringum said in awe. “You are the first person to get out.”
“Why have that thing here? Can’t you get rid of it?”
“I can’t force anybody out, especially those with man-eating pets.”
Royden shook his head. “Doesn’t sound like you’re in control around here.”
“My job isn’t to be in control, it’s to manage all the beings that live here.”
Royden crossed his arms and sank lower into his chair. The events of that day tired him of living there, no matter what Mr. Bringum said it wouldn’t change his mind.
“Don’t you want to look back on your life one day and say that you were one of the only humans on the planet that knew the secrets to the universe?” Mr. Bringum said, as if reading Royden’s mind.
“Not really.”
“Then I ask you to wait until the end of the week to decide if you really want to leave. If you want to move out on Monday then I will find a way to tell your parents they need to leave, in a nice way of course. They don’t know anything yet, do they?”
“Not that I know of.”
“Good, let’s keep it that way, at least for now.”
Royden stood up. “I agree.”
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“One more thing, Royden, if you leave, you won’t remember any of this. Everything you went through today will cease to exist in your memory.”
“I’m alright with that.” Royden said, a slight bite to his voice.
“Think about it.” Mr. Bringum insisted. “Every memory is important, even the bad ones.”
Royden nodded and opened the door. He glanced back. “Are you a human?”
Mr. Bringum smiled. “I’ve lived here my whole life, but my family is from far away.”
Royden nodded and left the office. He went to the elevator, got in, and hit the button for the fifth floor.
“I’m impressed, if that matters.” A voice said.
“It doesn’t.” Royden responded.
He didn’t know where the voice came from or who it was, and he didn’t care either.