or: Why those with overactive imaginations
should avoid the cinema
No. This is not a post by Dr. Morewordsthannecessary Suresh.
It’s me, Claude Rains, the Invisible Man. Wanted to post about what Tarot and I have been up to since she last posted. Like she told you lot, we hadda leave our last town thanks to Zombies. Fortunately the Puppet Master made short work of the undead infestation. We found another town, this one with no Zombies (I checked) and it had this great building with a shop and a half decent flat over it for rent. Perfect place to set up shop again. Which we did. Of course this town that we’ve set up shop in would have to be one of those playing that new movie Paranormal Activity. And, of course, Tarot wanted to go see it. While I don’t mind movies- I get in free for obvious reasons- I was concerned about the effect this particular movie would have on Tarot. The conversation went something like this:
“C’mon I really wanna see this!” She said, pleading.
“You’re gettin’ your own ticket if we go.” I said, a serious expression on my face.
“OK. Just promise you’ll sit near me?” she replied, still pleading.
I sighed. I’d thought that refusing to sneak her in to this film would have been a deterrent. “I will but are you sure this is a good idea? Every bloody time you hear our current building settle at night you go daft on me.”
“It’s a movie on a subject that fascinates me.”
“I had noticed. Thought you got your fix for that watchin’ it on the telly.”
She gave a me a look. Not a dirty look but one of those half really pleading for me to go along and totally determined to go alone if she had to looks. I knew then that Tarot was going to see the movie, regardless of what I said, and nothing short of tying her up would stop her. The thought did cross my mind, but tying up Tarot would eliminate any chance of having her attract the attention of the Carnival we both want to find, so I said, “OK, fine. I’ll go with you and I’ll sit with you, but you are buyin’ your own ticket and don’t blame me if you’re too scared to sleep afterwards.”
“Thanks!” She said smiling and gave me a hug which I returned awkwardly. Not really one for domestic stuff, me.
So off to the theater we went. The movie was quite good. Not gonna give you too much there. I’m no reviewer and there are plenty o’ those out there, so you can read what they wrote if that’s what you’re lookin’ for. What I will tell you is it that clarified somethin’ I’d told Tarot about why the Company had me executed rather than sent to level 5 when I went rogue: people fear what they can’t see. It’s that simple. It was a lesson about to be reinforced unintentionally later that night.
Sometime much later, we returned to the flat we were renting over our shop. I woke up in the middle of the night and I was thirsty. I decided to get up and grab a beer from the fridge. Now I should mention, after 7+ years of bein’ in hiding, and bein’ on my own, I have a habit of going invisible when I wake up. I’m still workin’ on trying to stay invisible when I sleep. I reckon you can’t shoot someone you can’t see and this had never been a problem before, even after I started travelling with Tarot. Until that night, that is. I should also point out that the building we’re currently in is rather old with plenty of creaky floorboards. I had my socks on, but not my boots, and anyone in the building would have heard me walking to the kitchen, even though I was makin’ an effort to be quiet. I got there and when I reached into the fridge to grab a beer I heard Tarot let out a blood curdling scream behind me. I turned round to see what had scared her and I realized that it was me, or rather the fact that Tarot had thought some unseen force had been making noise and opened the fridge. I let go of the beer and headed for Tarot to stop her screaming, taking her into invisibility as I made contact with her.
“Bloody hell, woman! It’s me! I just wanted a beer for goodness sake!”
She looked relieved and stopped screaming,
though I did have my hand over her mouth as having the police show up really wouldn’t do. I took my hand away when I was sure she wouldn’t scream or anythin’ like that.
“I’m sorry, Claude. I had this really weird dream and then I heard something while I was still half asleep and when I saw what I thought was the
fridge opening by itself…”
I shook my head. “I tried to warn you. If I’d been a demon or whatever, what would I have wanted with the fridge? I’d like to think, that if I were somethin’ supernatural aimin’ to scare you that I’d have been makin’ a lot more noise as well.”
“Yeah. As usual you’re right.”
“Back to bed with you. Don’t need you gettin’ a migraine. We both know you can’t read when you get one and if you can’t read we won’t have any customers or any chance of gettin’ the attention of the Sullivan Brothers Carnival.”
Tarot went back to bed and since her room is huge (I’d taken the glorified closet- “two bed room flat” pah!) I moved my bed in there. I’m a light sleeper, and beyond the usual old building settling noises, I didn’t hear anythin’ strange. I know Tarot finally got some sleep, I heard her snoring, but she didn’t sleep very well. If I thought I could trust him, I’d see if the Haitian was about. Tarot was barmy enough before this. The last thing I need is Tarot going insomniac, as well.