‘Can you take me through the first time you saw Her?’
The fluorescent lights hurt his eyes. No matter where he looked he couldn’t escape the intense buzzing glow, and it gave him a low-grade headache. He’d lost track of the time, wasn’t sure whether it was day or night anymore, and he ran his hands over his face wearily.
’Again?’
‘Please, Mr Harper.’
‘I’ve gone through this twice already with the other guy.’
‘Agent King was thorough and took many notes, but I’m here to make sure that we don’t miss anything.’
Adam looked at the man across the table. He was as thoroughly nondescript as the last guy had been: a dark suit that covered a man of average height with dark hair and a plain face. If Adam had seen this man on the street he would have forgotten him the second he passed by. Must be in the job description, he thought.
‘Fine,’ Adam said. ‘But how about we mind our manners? You know my name, but I don’t know yours.’
‘My name is Agent Barker, Mr Harper.’
‘And what agency do you work for again?’
Agent Barker smiled, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. ‘Now now, Mr Harper. You know that’s classified. How about we skip this part and you just tell me your story?’
It had been a long shot, but he’d wanted to try anyway. Ever since he’d been brought here he’d experienced nothing but a barrage of questions in two separate interrogations. He assumed these people worked for the government, but beyond that he was in the dark as to their purpose. Resigned, he sighed, sat back, and then began telling his story for the third time.
‘I was at this party in the woods about a two hours from town. Dave, one of my friends, knew a guy named Chris who told him that there was this big bonfire party that was going to happen out there this weekend. We had nothing else to do—none of us were working, and things have been pretty quiet socially. So we jumped in Dave’s car and headed down there.’
‘Just you and Dave?’
‘No, our other friend Corey came with us too.’
‘What time did you get to this party?’
‘I’d say we got there just after eight.’
’Okay,’ Agent Barker said as he wrote some notes. ‘Did anything of note happen on the way?’
‘Not really. We listened to music and just talked.’
‘What did you talk about?’
‘Nothing, man. Just life.’
‘You didn’t see anything strange?’
‘No, I told you.’
‘Did you stop off along the way?’
‘Yeah, at this little petrol station about halfway there.’
‘Did anything out of the ordinary happen there? Anything even slightly odd?’
Adam opened his mouth to say no but something triggered in his memory.
‘Yes Mr Harper?’ Agent Barker said, one eyebrow raised.
‘It’s nothing, but we stopped to get fuel and something to eat. None of us had had dinner and we weren’t sure whether there was going to be food there. Corey filled up the car, Dave went to the toilet round back, and I went inside to pay.’
Adam fell silent. He hadn’t really forgotten what had happened, it just didn’t seem important next to everything else that had happened that night. Now that he thought about it though, it seemed really strange.
‘What happened, Mr Harper?’
‘I walked up to the counter,’ Adam said slowly. ‘I was the only one in the store besides the guy at the register. He was pretty old. Looked like a sneeze would do him in. He looked at me and then off somewhere to my right, then back to me again, then said “And where are you two off to tonight?” Just like that: he said you two. I didn’t think anything of it until now. Thought it was just him being old and senile or something, so I said we were going to a party, paid, and then left. Maybe he thought it was just me and Corey, and didn’t see Dave get out of the car.’
Agent Barker scribbled some more notes. Adam tried to read them, but it was indecipherable from where he sat. The harsh lighting didn’t really help his eyes, either.
‘Is that important?’
’We can’t be sure until you tell us the whole story, Mr Harper,’ the agent said, still displaying no emotion. ‘Please continue.’
‘Well, once we got there things had already started. We found a spot near the bonfire and started drinking. After a while, Dave went off to speak to some people he knew from Harrisville, and Corey slipped away when he heard some of the girls were going to go for a swim in the lake.’
‘Leaving you alone, correct?’
‘Yeah. But it was fine. I just sat and drank. I wasn’t really up for socialising anyway to be honest.’
‘Why not?’
Adam rolled his eyes. ‘You know why. I—’
‘You told Agent King, yes I know Mr Harper. Just pretend this is the first time you’re telling this story.’
Adam heard the weariness in Agent Barker’s voice. It was the first time he’d thought the man across the table was anything other than a robot.
‘How about I make you a deal,’ Adam said, trying his luck. ‘I go over all my private stuff again for you, if you give me some kind of hint as to what’s going on here.’
Agent Barker sighed heavily, then sat back in his chair and closed his eyes. ‘Mr Harper,’ he said, eyes still closed. ‘Please don’t make this difficult. I can’t tell you much, but I can tell you that we’re honestly here to help you.’
‘You can help me by telling me what’s going on.’
Agent Barker’s eyes opened suddenly. He sat back up and looked at Adam, looking annoyed.
‘Just continue, Mr Harper.’
It unsettled Adam to see the emotionless mask slip back over Agent Barker’s face. He was talking to a robot again.
‘Fine,’ Adam said, feeling more tired than ever. ‘I didn’t want to talk to anyone because I’d just recently broken up with my girlfriend and I wasn’t really feeling super happy about that, okay?’
‘Was it a mutual decision to break up, or had one of you made the decision?’
Adam stared. ‘How the fuck is that relevant?’
‘Answer the question, Mr Harper.’
‘It was mutual.’
Agent Barker rummaged through some of his papers. Once he found what he was looking for, he read from it while not looking at Adam.’
‘According to what you told Agent King, it was not mutual. You said “She broke up with me becau—’
‘I thought you said to pretend I’d never spoken to Agent King,’ Adam interrupted. Hearing his words read back to him so casually make his stomach burn.
Agent Barker actually laughed. ‘That’s true,’ he said, still smiling. ‘But I did not say you should lie to me.’
’Fine. Whatever. She broke up with me.’
‘Why?’
Adam felt his face flush at the question. It didn’t help that his head was throbbing and his tongue felt dry and thick. Why were they making him go through this all over again? It just seemed… cruel. And completely unrelated to what happened in the woods. But he was tired and beginning to feel a little sick. He just wanted it to be over, and it seemed the only way that was going to happen was to stop fighting.
‘She said it was because we were on different paths or something,’ he said. Christ, I’m actually getting a lump in my throat. He swallowed, which was difficult to do given his mouth was so dry, and continued. ‘Bullshit excuses, you know?’
‘You didn’t believe her?’
‘No.’
‘What do you think was the real reason?’
Adam had known this question was coming. Even though he’d answered the same question twice before, he knew it would still sting to say it out loud a third time. ‘I think she found someone else. An older guy, goes to college, drives a nice car. Rich parents.’
Adam waited while Agent Barker wrote this down. It was a strange feeling to watch him record this so indifferently, without emotion. Because when Adam had first realised that his girlfriend might be seeing another guy behind his back his whole world had collapsed. It had felt momentous, like the entire world beneath his feet had shifted, but looking at Agent Barker write it down you would think he was just recording a phone number he didn’t want to forget.
Adam braced for more questions about the break up.
‘So, you were alone at the party and weren’t in the mood to talk to anyone. What happened next?’
‘Oh, err…’ he stuttered. He had expected more questions about his break up. ‘I was just sitting there, drinking and watching the fire. I’d just finished one of my beers and was thinking about grabbing another when I thought I heard someone call my name.’
‘Someone? Did you recognise the voice?’
‘No.’
The lie came easily. At the time he’d thought it had been his ex calling out to him, but he’d managed to keep that to himself so far. He didn’t want some stranger preying into how pathetic Adam had felt when he looked up at the sound of his name, hopeful that his it was his ex coming to apologise, to say she had made a terrible mistake and begging him to please please please forgive her.
‘Did you see who called you?’
‘Not at first. I looked around but no one was looking at me, so I just assumed there was someone else named Adam. A few minutes later, it happened again though. I looked around again and saw someone looking at me. She was standing on the other side of the fire, but further from it than I was, and kind of behind a group of people I didn’t know. At first I just assumed she was involved in the conversation. But then, just as I was about to look away, she called my name again.’
He remembered the feeling of shock hearing his ex’s voice come out of the woman’s mouth. It felt wrong. And yet, at the same time he had experienced an almost irresistible urge to go towards her, to hear her speak his name in that voice again. It had been alluring in the way only forbidden things can be.
‘What did She look like?’
‘She was wearing white, just a white dress and had some kind of white flower in her hair.’
‘Could you see Her eyes?’
Adam frowned. It was a strange question to ask, and one the other agent hadn’t asked him. But it was a good question because he hadn’t actually been able to see them. It was like they were hidden in shadow.
‘No,’ he said slowly. ‘It was weird, but I couldn’t see them at first. Not until later.’
‘Okay.’ Another note, then: ‘Go on, Mr Harper.’
‘Well, it got weirder. Because I was about to stand up and go to her, but then I realised no one in the group she was standing near were actually reacting to her in any way. Like, she was basically in their little circle but they didn’t seem to notice her. Even when she had called my name.
‘But then she was gone. It was like a glitch or something, because one moment she was there, and the next she wasn’t. Time seemed to have passed, because I had another beer in my hand, half gone already.’
Agent Barker was silent now, but Adam didn’t notice. It was as though the story had wanted to come out of him one more time, and he found that he didn’t want to stop. Even though his head still throbbed.
‘I felt drunker too, and I really needed to piss. When I stood up, I realised I was definitely more drunk than I expected. I almost fell into the fire because my head was spinning so much. But I managed to avoid that, and then walked away to try and find a spot where no one could see me. There were so many people though. Whenever I thought I’d find a spot where I could piss without people seeing, I’d find another group talking, or a couple making out, or someone smoking.
‘Eventually, though, after I’d walked pretty damn far away from the fire, I found a spot. It was so quiet there. I remember thinking how it was strange that it was so quiet, because I wasn’t that far away from everyone else. I could still hear them, very faintly, but it mostly felt like I was alone there.
‘Anyway, I finished and started walking back to the fire when I heard something behind me. I thought straight away It’s her, and I turned around and there she was. She was so much closer now. I could… I could smell her perfume.’
He remembered that part very well. It had been the flowery, almost cloyingly-sweet scent his ex had used all the time. When he recognised what it was, he had felt the lump in his throat begin to grow.
He must have gone quiet for too long, because Agent Barker spoke suddenly. ‘Did She say anything?’
‘Yeah. She said “It’s okay, Adam.”’
‘That’s all She said?’
‘At first, yeah. I asked her who she was and she didn’t say anything. For some reason, I didn’t want to look directly at her. I kept looking down at the ground. I saw her feet, and noticed she wasn’t wearing shoes.
’Then I heard Dave calling out to me, wanting to know where I was, saying they were all going down to the lake. I could barely hear him. That’s when she reached out for me and said “Don’t listen to them Adam. They’re trying to trick you.”
‘It was such a weird thing to say, so I forgot my hesitation and looked up at her face. She had some kind of cloth wrapped over her eyes, but it felt like she could still see me. Her hand was still held out to me, almost like it was reaching for me. It was hard to think, man. I couldn’t hear anything else anymore except our breathing. The smell of the perfume was so strong it was making my eyes water. I started getting real dizzy and then suddenly there were lights everywhere. People were screaming at us, shouting for us to get down on the ground, to take cover or something. She was still looking at me, ignoring everything happening around us, holding out her hand.
‘I tried to look around, but it was hard to tear my eyes away from hers. Eventually I managed to do it. I saw people aiming guns at us. I didn’t know what to do. I was just frozen in place man, and couldn’t decide what I wanted. But at the very last second, I thought about grabbing her hand. I actually started to raise my arm when something hit me in the neck and everything went black.’
When he’d woken up, he’d been in this strange place. They’d begun interrogating him immediately.
Agent Barker hadn’t said anything; he seemed to be waiting for more.
‘That’s it. That’s all I’ve got to tell you.’
‘I don’t believe it is, Mr Harper. There’s something you’re not telling me. A few things, I believe.’
Adam breathed out heavily, leaned back in his chair and put his palms over his face. Even his eyes felt dry and raw. He was so tired.
‘I don’t know what else you want from me, man. I’ve gone over this three fucking times now.’
‘And we’ll keep going over it until you tell me everything.’
It was hard to think clearly. The lights were too bright, and his head swam with tiredness. He felt slightly delirious. What else was there to say? He’d held a few thing back, but that was just stupid shit about his ex. They didn’t need to hear that, and there was nothing else.
Except…
‘I dreamed of her, I think,’ Adam said. He was so exhausted that he wasn’t really considering what he was saying.
‘What?’ Agent Barker said sharply. ‘When? What was the dream about?’
Adam rubbed his eyes. He saw spots of colour that slowly disappeared. His face felt hot. ’A few days ago. I was walking through this big open field. The sky was so blue, man. And not a cloud anywhere. Like someone had scrubbed it clean.’
‘And where was She?’
Adam looked at Agent Barker, finally hearing the change in the tone of his voice. ‘Why?’
The slightest pause. Then: ’Please, Adam. Tell me.’
Adam sighed, too spent to fight. ‘I felt her before I saw her. It was like… like you can feel the sun even though you can’t see it. I turned to where I felt her, and ran through the field. Eventually I came to this clearing, like a big crop circle or something. She was standing in the middle of it, smiling at me. Like she was so happy to see me, man. It reminded—’ he stopped suddenly.
‘Reminded you of what, Mr Harper?’
‘Nothing. It was just a dream.’
Adam could see a little muscle in Agent Barker’s jaw twitching. Through the haze in his mind, he knew the man was agitated. Why was this so important? Like Adam had said: it was just a dream.
‘Okay,’ Agent Barker said, and stood up. ‘I think we need a little break. I’ll get you something to drink. Water?’
‘A Coke if you have it.’
‘Of course.’
Agent Barker left the room and a formidable-looking bulky man in military fatigues walked in and stood behind Adam. He noticed for the first time that there was no mirror in this room. It was solid cement walls all the way around, with cameras mounted in each corner. There was no way to tell where he was, or even what time it might be.
He also noticed how quiet it was. It was like being locked in a deep tomb, and made him think of the pyramids in Egypt. He’d been obsessed with ancient Egypt as a kid after being gifted a book that had drawings, foldout maps, postcards, and letters he could pull out and hold in his hands. It had fascinated him, and he eventually moved on to more mature material. Unfortunately, he had started to imagine what it would be like to be stuck in one of the pyramids after it had been completed, wandering in the darkness, terrified to hear the sound of movement, or feel the cold touch of a mummified hand. His parents had taken his Egypt paraphernalia off him when he started having night terrors.
The door opened and Agent Barker strode back in, holding a can of Coke in his hands.
‘Here you go Mr Harper. Maybe the sugar will do you some good. You look a little peaky.’
‘I wonder why,’ he said dryly, but he took the Coke from Agent Barker. It was already open, and he could hear the fizz of carbonation. He took a sip. It had a slightly metallic, almost irony taste, but his brain lit up as the sugar hit his tongue and he downed the can greedily. He put the can down on the table and leaned back in his chair.
‘Better?’
Adam shrugged in a non-committal sort of way. ‘Give me a moment,’ he said, his eyes closed.
After a few minutes he could feel the Coke was having an effect on him. He felt more lucid, like the fog was lifting from his mind. He opened his eyes and sat up straighter.
‘Okay, ask away.’
‘Good,’ Agent Barker said, then looked at his notepad. ‘You were saying about this dream you had, how you saw Her in the field and She was smiling at you, and that it reminded you of something.’
Adam looked at Agent Barker, not intending to say anything, but found himself saying, ‘That’s right.’
‘What did it remind you of, Mr Harper?’
‘It reminded me of the way my ex looked at me back when we were first together.’
Why had he said that? It was the truth, but he couldn’t believe he had just blurted it out to this stranger.
‘Mmhmm,’ Agent Barker said, jotting down a quick note. ‘Can you go into a little more detail?’
Fuck no, he thought, but his mouth didn’t seem to get that memo from the brain. ‘I thought we’d be together forever. After our first time, we were laying in bed and my head was spinning it had been so good. She had laid her head on my chest and looked up at me. There was something in her eyes that made everything fall away and it was just me and her. I fell in love with her right then. I’d have given her anything.’
Inside, Adam was panicking. He didn’t understand why he was saying these things. He had never said them to anyone, had barely even let himself think them. But here he was, telling this robotic fucker his most private thoughts. And the man was just taking notes like it was another day at work.
He looked at the empty can on the table, and remembered the metallic tinge to the drink. The aftertaste remained on his tongue, and he wondered if they had drugged him.
One of the fluorescent lights flickered slightly. Agent Barker was frowning, looking more concerned the more he wrote. Eventually, he looked up at Adam.
‘Okay I think we’ve got enough for now. Thank you Mr Harper,’ he said, standing up and and looking his watch, then at one of the cameras. ‘Interview concluded at 0334 hours.’
He stood up, and the suddenness of the interrogation ending surprised Adam. Agent Barker had packed up his notepad and the folder with all the notes from the previous sessions, and had made his way to the door before Adam’s mind suddenly caught up with what was happening.
‘Wait! Does that mean I can leave now?’
Agent Barker paused, his palm on the door, and turned slightly to look over his shoulder at Adam.
‘I’m sorry Mr Harper. You can’t leave this facility. Not until we capture Her.’
‘What do you mean?’ Adam shouted. He tried to stand but the guard behind him forced him down with powerful arms. ‘I’ve told you everything!’
Agent Barker looked sad. He turned back and stood in front of Adam, his arms crossed holding his folder against his chest. ’What happened to you is not over, Mr Harper. This experience you’ve had, what you saw, has only just begun.’
’What do you mean? Can’t you tell me something? Anything!’
Agent Barker sighed. It was a weary sound. ‘She’s known as the Woman in White, or sometimes Lady Eve. To cut a very long story short, She targets men like you, men who are vulnerable in specific ways.’
Adam couldn’t really understand what he was hearing. ‘What do you mean? What does she do with them? Rob them?’
Agent Barker laughed humourlessly.
‘No, nothing so pedestrian. We don’t actually know what She does, but we know that no one has ever survived once She targets them. No one.
‘You need to understand, Mr Harper, that She doesn’t give up. She will never stop trying to get you, no matter what you do. You could move to another continent, and She would be there waiting for you. The only way we can stop Her is to contain Her. That’s what this organisation was created for: to contain things like Her. We’ve gotten pretty good at it, too.’
‘So you can capture her, right?’ Adam said, hearing and hating the desperation in his voice. ‘And then I can leave?’
‘I wish it were that simple, Mr Harper,’ Agent Barker said, then turned and left the room.
Later, after the guard had blindfolded and then escorted him down several long corridors and one elevator back to his cell, Adam lay on his bed, his mind whirring. He had been in this position for a while, and at some point, the lights had turned off, all but one dim red light in the corner near the door. It gave the cell a dreamlike quality. Or a nightmare, depending on your perspective.
He was trying to convince himself that this was all an elaborate joke, or even some kind of mental breakdown. Anything would be better, he thought, than accepting he was being stalked by a ghost or a spirit or whatever the fuck this woman was and that she was going to kill him.
Now that he thought about it, he wondered why he should even believe these people. He was only getting their side of the story, wasn’t he? And Agent Barker wouldn’t even say whether Adam could leave if they ever caught her. They were hiding something, he was sure of it.
‘They’re trying to trick you, Adam.’
He sat up, heart pounding in his chest. In the dim red light he could see her standing in the corner near the door. How had she gotten there? The door definitely hadn’t opened.
She took a step forward, causing the shadows to deepen around her face, and held out her hand. Then the smell of her perfume hit him, and all at once he felt almost intoxicated. The world around him dimmed at the edges.
‘Let me help you, Adam. Let me make it better.’
It was his ex’s voice again. Without realising it, Adam had started crying. The interrogations had torn open wounds that had not properly healed yet. The pain was fresh, and he didn’t want to feel it anymore.
‘I can’t help you unless you let me, Adam. Take my hand.’
He stood up, tears still cascading down his face, and stepped towards her. He heard a sound in the distance. It sounded like an alarm, but it was so far away, and wasn’t important next to the sound of his ex’s voice and the smell of her perfume. He took another step and reached out. When their hands met, he shivered with pleasure. She let out a sigh, and closed her hand around his.
Adam looked up at her. His tears had stopped, and he was smiling. She smiled back at him, that same smile he remembered from his dream.
But then, in the faint red light, the smile changed. Her white teeth, vivid in the dim light, looked like small, sharp knives.
Another look came over her face, and for a moment Adam didn’t understand what he was seeing. Everything was happening so quickly. Then, as her grip on his hand became like a vice, he realised what it was.
Hunger.
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