A Distortion of True Events

On a warm June night last year, I found myself enjoying drinks with Akiko and Mike on my patio. It was 11:00 and I was starting to get a bit drunk. Akiko was quiet as usual while Mike and I were passionately debating ridiculous topics that, in truth, neither of us really felt strongly about one way or the other. Under the yellow glow of the streetlight I spotted a redheaded woman in a mint green dress and red cape walking down the street.

It girl and dress were both beautiful, but they both seemed out of place. The way she walked seemed so urgent, as though every stride was guided by some powerful force, an invisible hand pushing her onward. There was something so mournful in her face, like her life was intertwined with tragedy and pain. The combination of cloak and long dress seemed like something from a parallel world. Not modern or from any real previous period of time, but from an unreal moment that seemed vaguely familiar and entirely possible. It gave me the impression that she was a princess of some sort of fantasy land that never was. She wasn't wearing shoes.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The girl was odd, but she was soon gone and we forgot about her. That is, until she passed by again at 1:30 am. Now, it's one thing to walk around in a cape and green dress in the late evening. But this time was well past midnight. And it didn't stop there. At 3:00, she passed by again. She was making rounds of some sort. Why would a woman dressed like she's on the cover of a fantasy novel take to walking by my apartment in the late night?

A little after 4:00 in the morning, she passed by a final time. I was fully loaded by this point, and decided to speak up.

"Cape girl!" I yelled, "What are you doing?"

She did not look up. She did not even seem to notice me. I continued to holler at her.

"Look over here!"

"Where are you going?"

"Are you a ghoooostt?" (Said spookily)

"If you want, you can come up here hang oouuutt with uusss." (Still spookily)

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

We passed out soon after, but for all I know she continued to pass by my house until day break. I thought of her a few times after, but ultimately forgot about it.

A few weeks later, while out on the patio late one evening I saw her again. She was dressed exactly the same way. I may have become hysterical for a bit. I pointed, sputtered, and rubbed my eyes, but the girl was still there. I ran inside to point her out to Akiko, who had seen her the original time, but when we went outside the caped girl was gone.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

When I saw the girl in the green dress and red cape a third night I knew I had to do something. I leapt from my chair and rushed outside, leaving my apartment door ajar in my haste. It took a bit of running but I managed find the girl.

She was approaching an elderly couple walking a schnauzer. The cantankerous old man of the pair was loudly complaining about the price of living. Like a leaf flitting to the ground she sped up slowly and silently as she approached him. When she was close her heartbeat could have been surely heard, she reached out and delicately touched the back of his neck. He did not seem to notice, and continued walking and complaining. I was certain that I must be hallucinating. She peeled back his skin easily, as though a flap had been previously cut.

Rather than exposing muscle and spine a light seemed to be emanating from the open hole. The caped girl first peered inside and examined the light. Then, with the precision of a trained surgeon she reached her long thin fingers in. After a brief moment she pried out a sticky, stringy substance coloured black and purple. She rubbed her fingers together and the substance evaporated into a thick smoke and wafted away, upwards into the night sky.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

When faced with a sight, a person has two choices. The first is to go home, to safety. Your life can go on in the same way it had been previously, and if you tell your story you only tell it to those who you trust won't think you a crackpot. But never finding out what the things you saw meant may very well keep you awake.

Your second choice is to pursue the truth behind what you have just experienced. This second choice is possibly deadly, and most certainly filled with terror. And the truths that investigation may reveal are not guaranteed to be the kind you were meant to know. The pragmatic would take the first option, but I've always had a terribly idealistic, curious streak that despises lying awake at night.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

I caught up with the girl after she stealthily left the vicinity of the elderly couple. I grabbed her by the arm; she turned around to face me. She did not look pleased.

"Ah- Uhm, what did you just do to that guy?" I stuttered.

She studied me for a moment.

"I opened up his neck cabinet."

And with that she turned around and continued walking.

"N-Neck cabinet... What do you mean?" I asked "What was the goo that you pulled out of him? And what was the light?"

"The light was his light, and the goo was his goo. I got rid of the goo."

"What do you mean they were his? How did he get them, where did that all come from? What will happen to him?"

"They came from him... How dense can you be?" She was frowning, "And he'll die, that's what will happen to him."

"He'll die? What, like right away? Why did you take away his goo, then?"

"I took away his goo because that is what I do. And now he will die soon. Everyone dies. But it is bad to die with goo. Now please leave me alone."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

I let her go off. But the next week when I saw her walk by my apartment one evening, I went out to follow her again. She didn't seem to be either upset or happy. All she said:

"Don't go near when I am doing my job."

So when she went to remove goo I waited. Often, she would break into houses and apartment, and when she did I loitered around outside. If I asked her a personal question, even as simple as if she liked music, she would always respond "that is none of your business". To this day I don't know so much as her name. She never once asked me anything about myself. But oddly, most of the questions I asked about what she was doing she would answer. That is, as long as it didn't mingle with anything to do with her.

"Are you death?" I asked.

"What I am is not for you to know."

At the end of the night she told me to leave again.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

But I made a point of coming out with her whenever I saw her pass my apartment. The next time she went out, I saw something odd. As she approached a jogging middle-aged man, he turned around and spotted her.

"Good evening, young lady!" he said with a smile.

She did not reply, and took an abrupt turn on the next street. When I caught up to her - she never waited for me - I asked her why she didn't open his cabinet.

"I wouldn't have been able to take out his goo, he noticed me."

"So you mean if a person sees you they won't die?"

"They will still die, but a bit later."

"So it's a bit like cheating death or luck, in that case?"

"Death comes to all in the end, and you cheat luck from the moment you are conceived."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Can I help you with your work?" I asked one night.

"No, your hands are heavy and clumsy. You would need a touch at least as light as the intangible, and gentle enough to massage the eyelids of hummingbirds."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

I started to notice certain things. For instance, the light that came out of the neck cabinet was always a little bit different. Often they were tinged with colours, and some pulsed slightly while some remained steady. And the goo too! It came large or small amounts. Some goo was black as night while some was a deep brown, and it could have tinges of any number of colours as well. Further, some was oily, some was stringy, and some was like dough. Even the smoke it turned to would be different; some thick and sooty, some thin and swirling.

I asked the girl in the cape about the differences.

"You can read a person's entire life in their cabinet."

"That's what you do before you put your hand in? What's it like?"

"Like a play and a painting and a book and a map all at once."

"You mean you can see everything that has happened to the person?"

"I can see the general idea of the person's life."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Can you open my cabinet? Not to take out the goo, but just to see what it says?"

"I can", she said "but only if you agree to one thing. You can't come out with me any more if I do. You will see me once after and only once."

"Only once more... When might that be?"

"You should be smart enough to figure that out."

I accepted, we shook on it. She went behind me, I didn't feel a thing, not even a tingle.

"What did you see?" I asked.

She smiled for the first time I'd known her.

"I never said that I would tell you that."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

I've watched out, but never seen her since then. Of course, I can't say I'm looking forward to our next meeting. And as to my sleep, I'm not sure it has been any better it would have been if I had never followed her at all. But at the same time, I can't help feeling glad, perhaps even with a tinge of smugness, that I was brave enough to follow her.