Project Blackwater: Reject the null

The joint project that I just couldn't help but jump on.

Hi friends, so sorry for this late Monday night post, but oh my goodness, I read the new joint story concept by

The Chronicler

called Project Blackwater and I could not pass up contributing or ignore my inspiration tonight. Here is the original post:

Project Blackwater

I cannot wait to see what everyone else does for this, but in the meantime, check out what else the Substack community has to offer from the last brilliant joint project that was The Suff here:

Now with that established, I want to thank this awesome community, and submit this for everyone to see.

(Also please, be gracious with grammar and typos. The turn around was too fast for my own good, but I had to strike while the iron was hot!)

Please enjoy Reject the Null…

Derek wasn’t a stranger to taking weird pills and waking up in new places, but this felt different. First, his body ached all over. His head throbbed as he opened his eyes. He was on the floor in what looked like an old run down motel room. The floor was covered in stains and trash - it reminded him of the place where he visited his parents when the courts let him. There was a single window with light shining into the room, but when he looked out of the window, there was nothing but the light on the other side. Derek put one hand to his head, trying to ease the pain. His other hand went reflexively to his back - he couldn’t stop thinking about the needles going in.

He always hated needles - no tattoos, no injections, no blood tests… but this? There was $17,000 and for what? Some needles, free food and some sleep? How could he say no?

Derek turned away from the window to face the door on the other side of the room. He continued rubbing his head as he reached for the door and pulled it open. As the door cracked open on unstable hinges, he looked into the lobby. It was a dirty old motel, with the faint smell of cigarette smoke, and the sort of muzak that these kinds of places played to feel legit. Derek scoffed and thought about the woman who used to bring him here. What was her name? Debbie? 

It didn’t matter.

He walked to the front desk and leaned against it. On the other side he saw the mugshot he knew all too well. Derek glared at the picture and made an obscene gesture before turning away and surveying the rest of the space. Over top of the door was a picture from his first birthday. He remembered on his 18th birthday when he ripped up that stupid picture and scattered it across the lake outside the city. His parents smiled on either side of the unthinking toddler’s smile and he felt a pang of shame. Look how happy they were.

Were.

He shook the feeling away and walked to a nearby window - he couldn’t help but wonder if this one was the same as the one in the room he woke up in. He glanced outside and let out a gasp as he backed away. He tripped on something and fell onto his back. He landed next to an old empty pill bottle with his father’s name on it. He felt the chalky texture gagging him and he wished he could dream up some water. 

When he looked back up at the window from the ground, a blue eye was staring back at him. Unblinking, he saw each little muscle jerk as the eye surveyed him and the lobby around him.

“This one isn’t going to work. The data is way outside the SEM - we’ll have to consider it an outlier.” The voice was cold and calculating. It sounded like the voice from that weird video he started dozing during. The nurse had to wake him up to take the pill… then he woke up here. Why even bother taking a sleeping pill if he was already asleep? Science didn’t make any sense. There was a distant murmur somewhere far away. Derek couldn’t make it out, but the doctor replied,

“Pupils dilated, sensory threshold decreased, consistent gamma waves, decrease in body temperature… cortisol levels slightly elevated… not wrong, but not within normal parameters. He won’t handle too many spikes before things go sideways. This lab rat doesn’t have the heart.” Derek scoffed and the eye blinked. The murmur called from far away. The doctor replied, “Hm? Oh, it’s nothing.” The eye pulled away from the window and the lobby dimmed, the watchful eye taking away the light. 

Rat? Didn’t have the heart? He wasn’t sure what that other stuff meant, but he knew when he was being talked down to - it was all he knew. Derek dusted off his ripped up joggers and got back on his feet. To his left a door he hadn’t noticed before sat in waiting. It was the sort of glass double doors he had pushed his way through at a million different convenient stores. These ones just happened to look just like his favorite one. That old gas station that never had any gas. What was it called? Something weird. The spot on the door where the name would usually be sat just outside his focus. When he tried to look at it too long his head began hurting even more than it already did. 

To hell with it. Derek pushed open the door.

Derek woke up.

Again?

Derek woke up, rubbing his head and glancing around the trash strewn motel room. Didn’t he just leave this place? He walked to the window and the light without a source shined through. He impulsively grabbed his back again, and he felt his chest beginning to hurt in a way it didn’t before. At least the deja vu was gone now. He turned around and reached for the door. His thin bony fingers wrapped around the cold brass handle and the light went out. He was in complete darkness. 

Nothing good ever happened in the dark. His grip tightened around the handle, and he felt it warming with his sweat. Man, it felt so real. He turned the doorknob and threw the door open. He stepped forward, ready to rush into the lobby, but on the other side was a dimly lit parking lot.

There were no stars in the sky. No clouds. No atmosphere at all. The only thing that lit the lot were flickering street lights. He took a few ginger steps forward. The hairs on the back of his neck rose in warning, but he refused to turn around and see what they saw. He pushed forward into the parking lot. In the distance he saw what looked like a generic handyman store. He had spent years standing out in front of one store or another, it was no wonder his mind couldn’t pinpoint which one this parking lot belonged to. It was cold out, and he began to shiver. Across the way he saw a shopping cart stuffed full of newspapers. Derek knew what was inside. He felt his hands begin to shake, and his legs became weak. He pushed himself forward, practically dragging himself until he could lean against the shopping cart. Someone had stuck cement blocks between the wheels, so he could at least stabilize himself.

Derek peeled away layer upon layer of newspaper. Deep inside he saw what he knew would be there.

A young boy.

Staring back at him with terrors and eyes of wonder.

The boy was wrapped in a comfortable looking blanket. The same blanket Derek still carried in his backpack everywhere he went. Even if there was no room, there was always room for that blanket. He sighed and reached down, “Hang on little man, I got ya.” He picked the boy up  - he couldn’t have been older than 5 or 6 - and scooped his forearm under his bottom and rested his head against Derek’s shoulder. “No place for a kid, you know?” Derek said to the boy. The boy didn’t reply. He felt the boy shivering. Derek knew if he could get him back to the lobby, maybe he’d be warm. Safe.

Derek turned to walk back towards the door, but stopped short. Where was the door? He saw the empty streets, the diner up the hill, with that fancy old hotel overlooking all of that even higher up the hill. Still, no door. 

“Well… shit.” He looked at the boy, “Don’t guess you know a way out, huh?” The kid was sucking on his thumb. Derek felt a pang of embarrassment. The boy shook his head. “Yeah… me neither.” He bundled the boy up and began walking back the way he came. Maybe it was like a magic trick or something. Maybe he just needed to get closer.

As he walked, the flickering lights began to flicker faster. The constant flashing of the lights brought on another throbbing headache and he groaned. This was his mind wasn’t it? He was in charge, right? The thoughts emboldened him, “Hey!” He shouted up into the sky, “Would you knock that shit off?” The flickering stopped. 

Then, row by row on either side of him the lights went out.

Until there was only the light illuminating him.

Wait… no… he didn’t see it at first, but now he did. There was another light. Far off to his left by the entrance to the parking lot. He turned to get a better look at it, adjusting his arm to better support the child, “Don’t worry I got ya.” He said to the boy. He focused his eyes over and saw a figure under the light.

It reminded him of the sign on the door, it was blurred out, confusing. The longer he looked at it, the more his head would throb. His body began to shake, and he had to squeeze his eyes shut just to peel himself away from the strange formless figure under the light. “What is that?” He whispered out. The child whispered in his ear,

“The ancient one.” Derek froze. What did he just say?

“Wh - what… what is that?” The child went quiet again, not responding to Derek’s question. In the silence, he finally found the will to open his eyes again and look back to that thing.

It was gone.

The single light in the distance had nothing beneath it and Derek and the boy were alone under the other light. Derek felt his heart settle into his chest, this was his mind, he was in control. He turned back to where he was certain the door was and there it was. Just as things should be. He steadied his breathing and began approaching the old motel door in the middle of the parking lot. He let out a chuckle and a sigh of relief,

“Don’t go saying weird shit like that, you hear me?” He said to the boy. The boy nodded his head,

“They wait for you.”

“And we’re leaving whatever it is. No more of that weird talk, you hear?” He felt like his own father.

“You don’t understand.” The boy said back. Derek shook his head and rubbed his hand against the boy’s matted hair,

“What’s there to understand, little man?”

“They won’t let you leave.” Derek forced out a fake laugh when he really wanted to tell the little boy to shut his mouth. He knew the boy wouldn’t listen anyways.

He finally reached the door and with his free hand he reached for the handle, turning the cold knob once again. The door didn’t give, and he could hear the locking mechanism pushing back against his demands to open the door.

“Told you.” The boy whispered in his ear.

“Yeah well…” Derek began but froze. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up again. Something was there, something was watching him. “Hey, little man?”

“Yeah?”

“Somethin’ behind us?”

“Yeah.” The boy was calm and nonchalant. Like Derek asked him if he was ready for dinner.

“What’d you call it again?”

“The ancient one. It waited for you.”

“Yeah. Didn’t need to know that second part, bud.”

“It’s coming.” The boy whispered. Derek tried the door again, but it didn’t budge. He began kicking at the door, but still nothing. “They’re getting closer…” The child sang in his ear. Derek’s heart began to pound, his head rocked with electrical pain, he couldn’t see straight, but he still saw the door.

He threw his shoulder into the door, the child bounced around on the other shoulder not seeming to notice. He slammed into the door with the full weight of his body and he felt the wood splinter. “You’re not gonna make it.” The boy’s voice warned. Derek’s whole body felt like he was burning from the inside. He could barely control himself as he thrashed around, attacking the door, clawing, banging, pleading.

The boy was gone, Derek didn’t know where, could barely think about it.

But the last thing he heard was still his voice as clear as day. Whispering into his ear, 

“We need you.”