Through The Cracks

Chapter One

I’m not the kind of guy who can be fooled easily. I’ve seen all kinds of crazy shit, but I’ve never been tricked into believing some crap that wasn’t real. But then weird things started happening. So weird that I couldn’t gaslight myself into believing that it was fake. My gut somehow knew. Things really changed when I went to my girlfriend’s ballet performance.

Listen. I’m not into that ballet stuff, but I’m a good boyfriend, or I try to be, so I go to my girlfriend’s performances. Alone. I’ll be damned if any of my friends spots me in a ballet theatre even if it is to support my girl. It's humiliating enough for me to watch some dude in white tights with his hands all over my girlfriend, I don’t need my friends watching. So, here I am. Sat smack in the middle of the theatre trying to stay awake as an orchestra plays me to dreamland when suddenly there’s a flash. It makes me jump. It’s so bright and vibrant that it had to have been a light bursting or something. But no one reacts. I assume the show must go on, but then it happens again. And this time it’s more of a tear. As if the air itself is ripping open, revealing a brilliant light behind it. Then it’s gone.

“Did you see that?” I whisper to the old man sitting next to me.

“Shhh!” He says rather rudely.

Again. No one is reacting. But I’ve got a weird feeling about all of this. I’m not sure what the hell is going on, but it doesn’t feel normal.

The number finally ends, and the curtain closes for intermission to a burst of applause from the captivated audience. Or the sleepy audience. Take your pick.

“Ballet is fucking beautiful.” I turn to see who said it. It’s the girl sitting next to me. She’s probably close to my age, in her early twenties with dirty blonde hair which has two purple streaks. She doesn’t look dressed to go out, in fact she’s very obviously a painter with a paint spattered a white cotton crop top, quite clearly suggesting she isn't wearing a bra. Her skin is tan and the expression on her face is one of incredible excitement.

“It is.” I say, lamely, trying not to notice again her rejection of the bra. I’m here for my girlfriend. Who the hell am I noticing this… girl.

“The way they display the human form in such a vulnerable and graceful way. It’s peak art. It really is.”

“Yes. Did you happen to notice-”

“The tear? Yes.”

“The what?”

“The tear. The burst of light from a rip in reality.”

“Rip in reality?” I ask.

She looks at me for the first time, enthusiasm lighting up her whole face.

“You saw it too didn’t you? You’re the first one I’ve met who can see them!”

Shit. What is this? Am I going crazy?

“Don’t worry. You’re not going crazy. I’ve done my research. It’s trying to tell us something.”

“It?”

“Well, I haven’t really figured it all out yet. It’s really fucking complex, but I’ll get there at some point. Soon. I’ve been sketching them.”

She pulls a tiny sketchbook out of her pants pocket, which I am now noticing is covered in paint splatters as well. She hands me the sketchbook, practically shoving it into my hands. I flip it open. Sure enough, she’s sketched the brilliant tear in reality, an unknown light seeping through. I flip the page and find other sketches, some big, some small, I keep flipping. There must be at least twenty in here. Then I flip to a page of several nude figure drawings and quickly shut the book.

“Interesting.”

“I know. I thought I was going fucking crazy! But you saw it too. I could tell.”

“Yeah. Well, don’t rule out crazy just yet.” I say.

“I’m Quinn.” She says, putting out her hand to shake. I accept. Her grip is strong though her skin is soft. Why the hell am I thinking about her skin!

“Cy.” I responded.

“Fuck. That’s a dope name.”

“Short for Cyes.” I say. Is my face hot? Am I blushing?

“Even more badass. So, you here for the art, or the girl?”

“The girl.” I say, surprised to find that I’m pretty sure she knew this all along. She grins. I notice a small sparkling nose stud glinting in the lights.

“Which one is she?” She asks, whipping out the program to the show and flipping to the cast bios.

“Giselle” I say.

“Shut the fuck up!” Quinn has grabbed my arm and is leaning towards me in excited surprise. “She’s fucking incredible!”

“She is, isn't she?” I say, pleased.

“She’s gorgeous! The pinnacle of human form! Lucky man.”

I am pretty sure I’m blushing again.

“I am, aren’t I.”

“Well, I gotta go piss before it starts up again. Be back in a sec.” She leaps up from her seat, squeezes past me, her backside in my face, and hurries out.

My head is reeling. The tearing of reality? I’m going insane. Maybe I’m schizophrenic or something. Is that how schizophrenia works? I don’t fucking know. All I know is I have to sit through the second half of my girlfriend's mind numbing performance and then pretend like it’s the best thing I’ve ever seen.

It’s hardly a minute before Quinn is back, shuffling past me and sitting down in her seat, mere seconds before the music begins again and the lights go down.

I am so damn tired. I’m going to fall asleep. And Lucy is going to see me dozing off and she’ll never forgive me.

The curtain opens and Lucy isn’t on stage. It’s another group number or whatever. The girls flitting across the stage in their fancy shoes. Sure, they’re beautiful, but damn it’s boring.

Until.

Next to me I hear Quinn gasp. She grabs my arm. Which I am uncomfortable with, for the record.

But then I see it too. Several of the ballerinas, they’re not… not human. Their skin has gone translucent. And then, to my horror, one of them stops dancing and looks right at me, opens her mouth, and screams. I’ve never heard anything as horrible as that sound. It was so violent it surpassed my ears and stabbed my heart with some sick twisted horror. I got up from my seat out of instinct. No one else seemed to be noticing a thing. Except me. They noticed me standing. Quinn stood next to me and we both squeezed past our row and started running. Running because the ballerinas, the ghostly ones, had left the stage, and were moving towards us. Screaming.

We reach the doors and burst out into the lobby, the creature following close behind. The ushers jump back in surprise as we shove past them. I race straight out of the building, Quinn has passed me now, and is leading the way down the busy street. I don’t know if I have ever felt fear this intense and paralyzing. I’m just relieved that I am able to move my body because my mind is absolutely frozen.

Suddenly I am jerked backwards. I cry out. The ballerina has grabbed me. There are multiple. Their hands on me like Ice. Their screams numbing my mind. My vision starts to blur.

“Help!” I cry out. More of the terrifying creatures have caught up now, cold hands grabbing me. Their screams permeating my skull, sending me into the worst migraine I’ve ever experiences. It’s the feeling that my head is going to split open at any moment. In fact, maybe it already has. An intense chill is also spreading through my entire body, as if I am literally turning to stone.

“Help!” I cry out again. I am sinking to the floor in the lobby. The ballerinas, now with sharp fangs, screaming in my face. I fight back but I feel incredibly weak. Something about their screams is too much for me to handle. It is as if it is quite literally sucking the life out of me. Then suddenly, they loosen their grip. Several of them have been yanked backwards. I have enough strength to throw the remaining three off of me. They stumble back, screams faltering. I realize it is Quinn who had pulled the first several off of me. She’s now locked in a fist fight with several of them. They have not stopped screaming, but it’s less powerful now somehow.

A ballerina seems to regain her courage and dives towards me. I hit her hard in the stomach, and she stumbles backwards, scream gone. Next thing I know Quinn is grabbing my hand and we’re racing out the front doors into the street. The night is cold adding to the chill that still hasn’t left my body. Quinn is dragging me, sprinting full out along the sidewalk. Cars zip past us. I chance a look back and see that we are not being followed anymore.

“Quinn. They’re gone.” I say, panting. I’m embarrassed at how drained I feel compared to Quinn.

Quinn stops running.

“How the hell did you get them off me?” I ask.

She pulls earplugs from her ears.

“Earplugs. I bring a pair everywhere I go incase i get overstimulated, which is a lot. That was definitely overstimulating.”

“What the fuck just happened.”

“I don’t fucking know. That was literally insane. But now I know, the magic, the monsters, they don’t want to be seen.”

“I guess. I just don’t understand what this means. Is magic real? Are monsters real?”

“I think you know the answer.” Quinn says with a smirk. She punches my arm lightly.

“But that’s impossible.” I say, my mind is exploding. It doesn’t help that I still have a headache from the screaming.

“Clearly it isn’t.” She shoots back.

“But, Quinn what does this mean about the world we live in?! I mean, this changes everything!”

“I’ve always said there’s more to the world than meets the eye.”

“So what do we do?”

“I don’t know about you, but I’m going to try and figure out more.”

“Yeah. I mean, I kinda have to.”

“No one has to do anything. It’s always a choice. Remember that, Cy.” And with that, She turned and started walking away.

“Hey! Quinn! Wait.”

She turns, surprised.

“What’s up?” She asks.

“Don’t you think we should… I don’t know… get each others numbers or something? Incase this kind of thing ever happens again?” I feel my face go red. This is bad. I’m just doing this because she saw the same thing I saw. Not because I’m attracted to her. Right?

“Sure! Good thinking.” She winks at me, whips out her phone and opens up a new contact. She hands it to me, I hand her my phone.

I punch my number in and hand the phone back.

“Thanks.” I say. She smiles and turns, walking off into the night, leaving me alone to grapple with the insanity of what just happened.