2

Joseph drew an outline of a rectangle in the air with his fingertip. Seren stared in amazement. The line not only formed in the air despite everything she knew about the world suggesting that was impossible but also looked like Joseph was cutting the air, revealing a dense black void behind the world she could see and feel.

‘What’s that?’ she asked, pointing to the thin expanse of dead, black space inside the line.

‘That’s the Void,’ said Joseph. ‘The world of Carcer Ridge is only as real as you want it to be. If you crumple it up and throw it away, the Void is what is left over.’

‘The Void…,’ said Seren, rolling the concept around in her mind. She did not understand what it was but she knew it was important.

Joseph could see the young girl was having trouble with the concept of the void and stopped what he was doing. He knelt beside her and drew a rectangle in the sand.

‘See this rectangle? That is the Void.’ He drew a circle inside the rectangle, and two stick figures inside the circle. ‘This is the island we are standing on right now, and those are us. Now if we decide to throw away the island…’

He brushed out the circle from the sand as he spoke.

‘…Then we are left standing in the Void. It is all around us. We can walk on it just like we can walk on the sand.’

‘Is it like a carpet?’ Seren asked.

‘In a way. It’s also like the sky. It’s all around you whether you can see it or not. You can use it to build things, like the balls we made. They come from the Void and when you want to throw them away, they go back into the Void and you can make them again later, if you want.’

Seren thought this concept over for a few minutes before saying: ‘I think I understand. It’s like my toy box, only bigger and we can climb in it.’

‘That’s right,’ said Joseph. ‘Now would you like to see your mother?’

‘Yes!’ shouted Seren, bursting with excitement.

‘Okay,’ said Joseph. He pointed at the lines floating in the sky. ‘Look at the rectangle I drew here and concentrate really hard for me. Try to turn the rectangle into a phone.’

Seren scrunched up her face as she concentrated. The lines in the sky began to glow a faint yellow, then a bright yellow, then turned white. Inside the rectangle, a two-dimensional screen flickered into existence.

‘Yaaay!’ shouted Seren. ‘This is easy now!’

She half walked, half skipped over to the screen and put her hands on her hips. ‘Phone my Mummy, please!’ she commanded.

The screen flickered with mock static. A bleep-bleep rung out from it. It took three more rings before a heavily bruised woman with barely focussed eyes and a bandage around her head appeared. The name “Matsumoto Riko” appeared in the bottom-left corner of the screen, along with the woman’s location.

‘Mummy!’ shouted Seren, jumping up and down with delight. ‘Ogenki desu ka?’

The woman on the screen looked surprised but managed a smile nevertheless. ‘Okagesama de, Seren-chan. But you should speak English in front of your friend.’

‘Sorry, Mummy. Sorry, Mr Joseph.’

Joseph smiled. ‘There is no need to apologise, Matsumoto-san,’ he said, in perfect Japanese. ‘I understand what you are saying. We can translate all languages here.’

‘Ah, of course,’ said Riko. ‘I forget that you all operate differently over there. How is she settling in?’

Joseph looked down at Seren, who was stroking Freddie and appeared to only be giving the barest attention to the screen now she knew her mother was alive and as close to being well as she could be under the circumstances.

‘I think she’s going to be fine but it will of course take a little while to adjust.’

‘How are you feeling, Seren?’ Riko asked.

‘I’m okay, I guess,’ said Seren. ‘When can I come and see you?’

‘I’ll come and visit you soon, darling. Just as soon as I get out of hospital, okay?’

‘Okay. You have to get well soon, Mummy. I miss you.’

‘I miss you too, sweetheart.’

Joseph stepped away from the conversation and turned his attention to Freddie while mother and daughter chatted for a while. He lost track of time while playing fetch with the dog, who never seemed to tire of chasing a ball across the tiny island.

It was only when Seren started to scream that he snapped back to the task at hand. He ran up to the young girl and dropped to one knee beside her.

‘What’s wrong?’ he asked.

Seren pointed at the screen. ‘Mummy! They’re hurting mummy!’

Joseph looked up at the screen. It was blank but he could hear sounds of a struggle coming through it.

‘Matsumoto-san! Can you hear me?’ he cried. The sounds from the screen did not change.

Joseph turned back to Seren, who was staring at the screen and crying. ‘Seren? Seren!’ He shook the girl to get her attention. ‘I need you to show me what you saw. Look at me, Seren. Try to picture sending me a video of what you saw.’

‘I don’t understand,’ the girl said between tears.

Joseph put together a brief information dump about what he needed her to learn.

‘Look at me, Seren. Concentrate on me.’

He pushed the information into her mind. She stepped back in shock.

‘Do you understand now?’ he asked.

She nodded.

‘Then show me what you saw.’

The images hit him like a wall of terror. It was all he could do not to scream in transferred dread. While Matsumoto-san had been telling Seren about the zoo they would go to when she came to visit, three hideous figures appeared on the screen. They did not walk in, nor were they simply not there one moment and there the next. They seemed to melt into view, taking shape as if they were being moulded from hot wax.

The figures descended on the stricken woman without a word, tearing into her flesh and rummaging around in her insides as if they were searching for something. Matsumoto-san shrieked and tried to fend the creatures off as best she could but the three of them easily overpowered her. She kicked and bucked, catching the video screen with her foot and sending it tumbling to the ground. The screen went blank and Joseph pulled himself back out of the vision.

Seren stood in the sand in front of him, shaking in fear and blubbing the largest tears Joseph had ever seen. He hugged the girl tight and tried to shush her. She ignored him and continued to cry on his shoulder.

Joseph willed a connection to the French embassy to Carcer Ridge. Now running at his own preferred speed rather than the standard time he had adopted to interact with Seren, it felt like eons before anyone answered.

‘Bon soir. Français Ambassade. Je vous aidez?’ said the man on the other end of the connection.

‘This is Introducer Joseph Dexter of Carcer Ridge. You have an incident at Hôpital privé La Louvière in Lille. A woman has been attacked.’

‘We will send police to investigate. Please transmit any corroborating information you may have on the incident.’

Joseph packaged the vision he had received from Seren and sent it across to the Embassy. After giving his contact details, he closed the connection.

‘It’s going to be all right, Seren.’

‘What’s happening to my Mummy?’ Seren sobbed.

‘I don’t know,’ said Joseph. ‘But I know how to take the pain away.’

He looked Seren in the eyes and explained how to delete parts of her own memory.

Carcer Ridge, 18 March 2841

Waking up on a desert island with no idea how you got there is something that would unnerve even the most self-assured of people. When it happened to five-year-old Seren Oileán it should come as no surprise that she spent the first few minutes screaming and shouting for her parents before the enormity of her situation sunk into her psyche.

The island was small enough that she could see the other side of it from her position standing on the beach; her brand new, pink-and-white trainers quickly filling with water. She wished she had worn something waterproof, and immediately her running shoes were replaced by pink and white wellington boots.

‘Weird,’ she said, staring down at her feet. Normally things like that did not happen to Seren.

She walked across the tiny desert island, passing the single coconut tree that grew in the middle of what was really little more than a large pile of sand with delusions of grandeur. Two coconuts were hanging from the tree and looked ready to fall if she as much as looked at the tree the wrong way.

When she reached the other side, she found the view was exactly the same as from the other side. The island was surrounded by a vast expanse of flat, blue ocean. Clouds hung in the otherwise empty, deep blue sky. There was no wind and the only sound was the gentle lapping of the sea on the shoreline.

‘Well this sucks,’ said Seren.

‘Mind if I come in?’ asked a man.

Seren spun around and saw a tall man with short, brown hair and a beard made of stubble standing in the ocean a short distance to her left.

‘Where did you come from?’ she asked.

‘It’s difficult to explain right now,’ said the man. ‘I expect you are wondering how you got here?’

‘Where’s my Mum?’

‘Ah, yes. I’m afraid this will come as a bit of a shock. Your mother is in hospital, Seren. I’m sorry to say you were both in a car accident and unfortunately you did not survive.’

‘I want to see my Mummy!’

‘Your mother isn’t here, Seren. I’m here to look after you until you get adjusted to your new life here in Carcer Ridge.’

‘I don’t know where that is but I want to see my Mummy right now!’ said Seren. She did know where it was, however. Her father had explained what it was at length until she got bored and stopped listening. It was a magic place where people went to live when they couldn’t live with Seren and her parents any more. Just like when Freddie, her dog, had been hit by a car and went to heaven.

The man walked slowly out of the ocean and onto the beach. His clothes were bone dry despite walking out of the water, which did not seem to react as if he was there at all. It continued to lap against the shoreline without any ripples as he walked, as if he was not there at all.

The man knelt beside Seren and smiled at her. ‘The doctors are making your Mummy better right now. How about we play a game while we wait for them to finish, then we can talk to her?’

Seren thought about this for a while. She was still not happy but it seemed like the best offer she was going to get.

‘Is my Mummy going to be okay?’ she asked. ‘She’s not going to go and live with Freddie and leave me behind, is she?’

‘Who is Freddie, Seren?’

‘He’s my dog only he got run over by a bad man in a car and now he lives in heaven and I don’t get to play with him any more.’

The man nodded his head slowly. ‘No, she’s not going to live with Freddie. She’s going to be fine, Seren.’

Something clicked inside Seren’s mind. Nervously, she asked ‘Am I going to go and live with Freddie now?’

The man smiled again. ‘Do you want to see Freddie?’

Seren nodded vigorously.

‘Okay then. Close your eyes and think really hard about Freddie.’

Seren scrunched up her eyes as tight as she could and thought about when her Dad had taken her to the big dog shop where Freddie had been left by someone who couldn’t look after him any more. She had picked Freddie out from a pack of other dogs because his ears flopped when he ran and she thought that was really funny.

Something prickled in the back of her mind and then she heard a familiar barking behind her. She turned around and opened her eyes to find Freddie running toward her along the beach.

‘Freddie!’ she shouted and ran to hug him. ‘I missed you so much!’

She hugged the dog tight, the feel of his soft fur bringing back so many memories. He had been gone for almost a year and there was hardly a day that had gone by without her wanting to see him again. Now he was here and she was happy.

But Mummy said he couldn’t come back, said a voice in the back of her mind. Mummy wouldn’t lie. How is he here?

Keeping her arms around the dog, Seren looked up at the man. He had not moved an inch while she was distracted.

‘Where am I?’ she asked. ‘Am I in heaven?’

The man knelt down and stroked Freddie’s head. The dog sniffed him then, as if deciding he was acceptable, went back to staring at the ocean.

‘No, you’re not in heaven,’ said the man. ‘You’re in Carcer Ridge. Do you remember going to the Backup Centre with your parents?’

Seren nodded.

‘Did anyone explain why you were going there?’

Seren nodded again.

‘What did they tell you?’

‘That it was in case something bad happened. If I got hurt I could go on like nothing had happened.’

‘Well, Seren, something bad did happen. You got hit by a car, just like Freddie here, but now you’re all right again.’

‘I don’t understand.’

‘I know. It will take a bit of time to get used to. Let’s play a game with Freddie, shall we?’

‘He likes to play fetch.’

Freddie wagged his tail vigorously at the mention of the word ‘fetch’. The man smiled and patted his pockets.

‘Oh dear,’ he said. ‘I don’t seem to have a ball with me. Do you have a ball, Seren?’

Seren shook her head.

‘Not to worry. Maybe if we both close our eyes and concentrate really hard, we can make a ball appear.’

‘Don’t be silly,’ said Seren. ‘You can’t really do that. That just works in playing.’

‘I think it works here, too. Watch.’

The man closed his eyes and held out his hand, palm up. He made a face that looked like he was concentrating really hard.

With an audible poof, a ball appeared in his hand. It was small, red and made of rubber. He held it out for Seren to see.

Seren laughed and clapped her hands vigorously.

‘Now you try,’ he said.

Seren closed her eyes and thought of the miniature football Freddie had used to chase around the garden. She held out her hands and wanted the ball to appear. After a minute of nothing seeming to happen, she opened her eyes.

Her hands were empty.

She started to cry. Freddie whined and pawed at her in concern.

‘Hey, it’s okay,’ said the man. ‘There’s no need to cry. It can take a bit of time to learn how to do it. Try again. This time, try to feel the ball in your hand while you wish for it.’

Still unhappy, she closed her eyes and held out her hands again. She thought about the ball and tried to remember how it had felt when she threw it for Freddie. This time she felt something in her hands. She opened her eyes and laughed with delight. The ball was there, real as day.

‘I did it!’ she shouted. ‘Look Freddie, I did it!’

The dog barked and wagged his tail.

She threw the ball across the island. The dog raced after it, almost tripping over himself as he grabbed it in his mouth. He brought it back and dropped it at her feet, his tail still wagging. She picked it up and threw it again.

‘Well done,’ said the man. ‘You’re really getting the hang of this.’

Seren looked up at the man. ‘Who are you?’

The man smiled. ‘Can’t you tell?’

Seren shook her head.

‘Look at me closely,’ he said. ‘You should be able to see who I am.’

Seren stared at the man with the kind of intensity only a child can manage. He was right, she could see who he was. There was information floating around him. Not visible information, not like his suit was visible, but it was still there, floating around him like a cloud she could only see because she was looking for it.

The information that surrounded the man told her a lot about him. His name, where he was from, the fact that he was over three hundred years old and where he lived, amongst many other things. She had never met anyone that old before and she was surprised to find he looked so young. She decided age must go back and forth, like a swing. You’re young when you’re born then you grow old and when you get to the end of growing old, you grow young again. That seemed the only way to explain how the man could be older than her grandmother but look younger than her father.

‘Joseph,’ she said. ‘You’re called Joseph.’

The man smiled again. He smiled a lot, Seren thought. He must be really happy here.

‘Well done,’ said Joseph.

‘Can I see my Mummy now?’ asked Seren.

Joseph looked off into the distance for a moment, then turned his attention back to her. ‘She’s out of surgery now. Shall we call her?’

Seren grinned and clapped her hands with glee.

The following was written during a “writer’s dash” event in Second Life, where participants have 10 minutes to write a poem or story using a selected word. The word in this case was “notice”.

The Lodger

The notice on the post office door read ‘lodger wanted. 2 bedroom flat, £120 pcm. 21 east way.’ Having grown up in the area, I knew the address well. It was a respectable part of town and I felt the price was too good to be true.

On arrival, I was surprised to discover I had been the only enquirer. The advertisement had been on display for two weeks and the landlady seemed overjoyed that anyone had come to enquire about it. She told me she had almost given up hope of ever letting out the room again.

‘Again?’ I asked. The fact that a house as old as 21 East Street had been home to previous boarders came as no surprise but I do like to know a little about the place I may be about to live in, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to make some enquiries.

Mrs Dodson, the landlady, told me the tale of the previous lodger, a young Mr Wainwright. Apparently he had complained for days of a strange malady that left him feeling somewhat drained of energy although there was no visible sign of this illness at first.

He had been sick for several weeks when Mrs Dodson finally convinced the poor man to see a doctor. By all accounts, his friends’ insistence had fallen on deaf ears.

The doctors could find nothing wrong with him and yet Mr Wainwright continued to deteriorate. By now his skin was hanging loose on his bones. Death followed soon after.

‘So you see,’ said Mrs Dodson.  ’With all the talk around town of what happened to Mr Wainwright, I have had so much trouble finding someone to talk his place. There are rumours that something in the house was responsible for his death and now everyone is so scared of the place that they won’t come near, let alone live here.’

Well I have to say as a recent graduate from Ansley University I felt myself above such superstitions and I took the room on the spot.  I even paid two months rent up front; which is money I am now certain I shall never see again.

The first night of my stay was uneventful. I moved in what few possessions I had and spent the evening laying out the room in a way that did not look too unpleasant. The wallpaper was old and faded, which gave the room a disconcerting feel even without the story of the previous occupant echoing in my mind.