The Arrival

Blackwater Files | Case: 888 | Subject: Aeric Hearth | Page 2 of 5

If you missed the previous chapter, click the link below!

Part 1: The Invitation

Shades of amber, emerald and burgundy flew past Aeric; a beautiful portrayal of nature's knack for creating living art. Red maple, Northern Red Oak and White pine all smeared together in a masterpiece of autumn expressionism to highlight Mother Earth’s descent into winter, encouraging a feeling of serenity after the bright, bustling summer. It allowed Aeric to realize he was on his own descent, but this time he knew not if it was into madness or into cognizance.

He had opted for a human driver over the provided auto-uber. Too many unfortunate souls he had seen and stories heard of loved ones lost to the grievous errors of self-driving cars. Regrettably, there was still no means of any human connection. That had all been severed after the initial Covid-19 pandemic, followed by its nastier sibling SARSCoV-34. 

Aeric was grateful that chaos was long over, it was a dark time for him, but humanity still hadn’t recovered and possibly never would. If not for Elysium cracking the code of the cure, it was likely that the world would have been left in shambles–more than it already was. This saw the rise of Elysium as one of the most prevalent pharmaceutical companies in the world, even more so after they racked up quite the impressive list of achievements from entirely curing diabetes, rabies and dementia. In a way, for all that they had done, Aeric felt that he owed them his help, however, this was not the only reason that he decided to come at Dr. Karasevdas’ request. The vision left him with questions that needed to be answered. 

He stared out over Cape Cod, wondering how many more boats there would have been in the times before the virus. Presently, he could only see a few vessels dotting the dark, shadowy water that was shaded by a wispy overcast. Seeing the ocean reminded him of the memory he had recently experienced; the final moments of Robin’s life. He shoved the thought away. Instead, he brought his focus to the quaint, deserted villages that they passed along the peninsula. Known in the past to be popular tourist destinations, they now only served to remind Aeric how much the country was now a shell of what it was. 

The intercom on the roof lit up, casting a dark blue glow over the black leather interior. He could see the cabbie speaking from the other side of the thick plexiglass, his monotonous voice spilled out through the speakers, “We’re about 25 minutes out from Provincetown, sir.”

Aeric acknowledged and decided that he wanted to spend the last part of the trip listening to his favorite music and indulging on his favorite snack. Somehow he doubted that he would have the luxury of either of them during his stay at Elysium’s facility. 

He reached for his backpack and pulled it onto his lap. His earbuds, SirenSong™ 4.0’s, came out first, followed by his scrumptious Poutine Puddin’™. The custom fitted earbuds slipped into his ear canal perfectly, allowing the background noise to fade into a gentle hum as he prepared his snack. Clicking the button on the side of the snack package flash fried the cheese-filled fries. After thirty seconds he removed the shiny film revealing perfectly crispy stuffed fries and warm, gelatinous gravy pudding. Before digging in, Aeric tapped the button on his holographic smartwatch and brought up his music. He knew exactly what he wanted to listen to and seemingly the watch did too, since it was at the very top of his list. He clicked on his favorite song, “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” and let the music carry him away while he feasted.

Aeric closed the cab door behind him and took in the scenery around him. He had been dropped off at the very tip of the peninsula on the outskirts of Provincetown, which was now deserted and decaying. The beautiful foliage gave way a few miles back, leaving the bright fall colored leaves behind in exchange for brown pine needles and spindly coastal shrubs. Ahead of him, a stark white compound that looked decidedly out of place against the hazy, overcast coast, stretched out to the shoreline. Perfectly centered at the top of the building it read “Elysium Pharmaceutical Headquarters” and just above it a giant eye hovered, staring down on him. 

Originally, Aeric had thought that the eye he saw within the email was what he saw in his vision, but standing here now, he understood that this is exactly what he had seen. He was exactly where he needed to be.

Upon heading into the facility, he was met by a few friendly employees that all wore pitch black uniforms, a welcome contrast to the bright white interior. Each uniform was adorned with the company's ophthalmic logo over the left breast pocket. It was slightly unsettling to Aeric with glaring eyes seemingly everywhere he looked; giving him the impression that he was being surveilled constantly—which was likely. His worry faded once he affirmed to himself that he had nothing to hide. 

One of the employees, a slender man, approached him and straightened before giving Aeric the rehearsed welcome package, “Welcome to Elysium, and by extension, the Blackwater Project. Here are the forms that you are required to sign before being admitted into the program. They consist of typical things like an NDA, a waiver, contractual obligations and a packet regarding everything you need to know about the program. If you have any questions feel free to let us know. When you’re done, return them and we will have a nurse bring you down to begin. Please hand over all personal belongings; they are not permitted in the facility. We will keep them safe in a secure locker.”

After handing over everything that he had brought with him aside from his clothes, Aeric sat in the waiting area on a stiff, uncomfortable modern couch and took no time at all signing through the legal documents. He could care less for the legalities; he came here of his own free will and submitted himself entirely to the experience. If something malicious was within the fine print, then so be it. However, when it came to the program packet, he studied it carefully so that he knew everything he would be going through. He returned the documents and was prompted by the same man to relax on the couch until the nurse came to get him. 

He waited for around twenty minutes and listened to some interesting music playing over the speakers, including another one of his favorites, “Out of Sight”. Finally, the doors across the large room hissed and slid open to reveal a male nurse in a white lab coat. The burly, dark-skinned man walked up to him, allowing him to see the name imprinted below the infamous logo, Lewis Grahm, RN. 

“Aeric Hearth?”

“I sure hope so, Lewis,” Aeric replied sarcastically, giving the man a warm smirk. This action was premeditated. In all of his time working with people, a majority of them reacted well to humor and it helped to form a relationship. Most of the time. 

Lewis’ face was unmoving—his demeanor cold as ice. He glared at Aeric for a moment, unamused by his attempt to bond. Lewis handed him a pair of shoe covers and gestured towards the doors where he had come from, “Put those on and let’s go, Mr. Hearth.”

Aeric said nothing more and obeyed the man’s demand. He was not about to start off his experience at Elysium by making enemies. After placing the covers over his cheap faux leather boots, Lewis led him back and through the automatic sliding doors from whence he came. After a brief walk, no longer than a football field, they arrived at another set of doors; no, not doors, an elevator. 

The stiff nurse held his hand up to the unmarked wall and a set of lights began to glow from underneath the pristine white finish. He tapped the back of his hand against the wall and the doors opened to reveal an elevator with seamless mirrored walls. Aeric assumed that there was a chip in the man's hand, which gnawed at him. If the employees all had access to the facility through the implanted chips, then it would be entirely impossible for anyone, that wasn’t an employee, to escape from this place if they needed to. 

Upon stepping inside the elevator, it was almost as if entering another dimension. When the doors glided to a close, his reality suddenly compartmentalized next to seemingly endless tunnels of alternate realities where exact copies of Aeric and Lewis existed. If not for the floor being a solid white, Aeric’s senses could have been easily fooled into believing he was in the fourth dimension; a place where three dimensional time and space could be neatly stored away in a four dimensional universe. 

Out of the corner of his eye, deep in the mirrorscape, he caught the glimpse of something behind Lewis. He did not react to the presence, since he knew it to be there for him—something he was used to. Only time could tell what the reasoning for its attachment to Lewis was. 

The elevator ride lasted all but a few minutes, plunging him into the depths of the facility. When the doors opened, Aeric stepped outside of the mind-bending box and stopped in awe of the sight in front of him. A wide, tall corridor stretched out before him; It was entirely transparent and gave way to a view of the ocean floor, as well as the rolling tides far above. One of the things that benefited from the culling of humanity in 2034 was nature and wildlife. The sea floor was teeming with life of all kinds.

“No time for sightseeing, Mr. Hearth, let’s go,” Lewis demanded, nudging him by the arm. Aeric had been staring for longer than he thought—his mistake. They continued on until they came to the end of the corridor, thus ending the magnificent view under the ocean's surface. Once they passed through another series of doors, they had entered the research chamber, prompted by the holographic sign above the doors that read. “Research – Authorized Personnel Only”.

Lewis hurried Aeric over to his room, and showed him inside. He knew it was his by the nameplate that read “VIP Hearth, A”. To his surprise, the room was much more homey than the rest of the facility. The walls were alive with an animated oceanscape, waves gently lapping at a sandy shore. A fluffy queen sized bed sported tan covers that matched well with the beach. There was a good-sized, ocean themed bathroom that included a shower and separate tub along with premium hygiene products. A small bookshelf held a variety of books for him to read, a few board games to play and some crafts to make. All in all, this is the last thing Aeric had expected. 

“You’ll have time to explore later, get dressed. I’ll be back momentarily.” Lewis gestured towards the folded pile of clothes on the edge of the bed. After he left, Aeric slipped into the light blue jumpsuit and removed his shoes. He felt the creep of anxiety start to work its way through his body, so he opted to meditate while he waited. Not only would it help to calm him, but it would allow him to get in the right headspace for the experiments he was about to experience. 

True to his word, Lewis appeared a few moments later with what Aeric could only assume was the “life vest” he had read about in the program packet. Again, he caught a glimpse of something behind Lewis as he walked into the room. 

“So, what is it?” Lewis was taken aback at Aeric’s question. 

“What?” he replied.

“What’s your issue with me?” Aeric prodded the man, “You’ve been a little hostile since you met me and everyone else has been pretty friendly. I choose to believe that you are too, so you must have an issue with me.”

Lewis tossed the vest on the bed next to him, “Not a fan of your kind.”

“And what kind would that be?”

“Mediums,” He all but spat the word from his mouth. “You’re all a bunch of frauds that play off people's emotions. I think Dr. Karasevdas is wasting his time with you.”

“Ah, I see,” Aeric maintained direct eye contact, showing Lewis he had nothing to hide. “I apologize that my profession offends you, but I understand more than most that imposters are more prevalent than real mediums.”

“Real mediums,” He scoffed, “No such thing. Now let’s ge–”

“They forgave you long ago, you know.”

Lewis stopped reaching for the vest, but he still did not look at Aeric. He continued staring absently at the vest he was reaching for, “What are you talking about? Who?”

“Can you feel them with you?”

Slightly angered, Lewis returned his glaring eyes to Aeric and raised his voice, “Who?!”

“Lewis, you know who. Your brother and your nephew.”

His face flushed a few colors lighter and his brow relaxed. Anger still touched his voice, “How the…How do you know about them?”

“You know how.” Aeric reached his hand out, “Allow yourself to have a little faith and grab my hand.” Lewis was hesitant, but he did as he was asked. “Now, please, close your eyes, relax your mind and think back to the moment your life changed.”

Although Aeric could feel his reluctance, he watched Lewis close his eyes and relax. He focused, his mind’s eye open, and allowed Lewis’ energy to flow through him. It was so intense that without much effort, he found himself right in the middle of a memory.

He was driving a car down a pitch black country road. Giant, green trees appeared and disappeared within seconds in view of the headlights. Glancing next to him, in the passenger’s seat, a small boy that could not have been older than thirteen slept. When his focus returned to the road, it was met with glaring lights heading straight for him. Reacting fast, he jerked the wheel and avoided a large truck that nearly collided with them head on. The car began to fishtail, throwing its weight around, quickly taking control away from him. Within a few blurry seconds, the car jumped off the road, ramped off of a ditch and slammed into the trees. Everything went dark.

From the darkness, light sprouted once again. This time he found himself in front of an apartment door—it was familiar. He knocked, but the door swung open gently. Upon entering, a foul smell assaulted his nose. Barging inside, he ran to the back bedroom, stopped and fell to his knees at the sight of the body slumped on the floor. In one of the stiff hands, a note protruded. Fetching it was no easy task, but it came free with a pop.

I can’t go on without him.

God forgive me.

I’m so sorry Lew.

The memory faded to black before once again revealing a new one. He sat at the edge of his bed, in a room that was destroyed, sobbing into a picture of his brother and nephew. The other hand came up to his mouth and pills went down his throat. He laid back in the bed, clutching the framed picture, eyes closed and tears gently rolling down his face. He opened them one last time only to see his nephew staring straight back at him, shaking his head. Seconds later he was vomiting up all the pills uncontrollably. Everything disappeared and Aeric returned to the room with Lewis.

“What…in the hell…just happened?” Lewis, who was now breathing hard, took his hand from Aeric quickly and stared at him with wide eyes.

“I saw everything,” Aeric replied sorrowfully. 

“H-how?”

“That’s not important, my friend. What is important is that you need to forgive yourself.”

“I can’t. It’s my fault they’re,” Lewis swallowed heavily, a tear running down his cheek, “…gone.”

“Lewis, listen to me. You could not have stopped the events that took place. Both your brother and nephew love you more than you know. Hear me, though. They are still here because of you.”

“...What?”

“Your nephew stopped you from doing something rash, and that made you question everything. With your view of mediums, I assume that you’ve seen a few of them and they were indeed frauds that have been running you in circles; leading you to believe that you can contact them and have a conversation with them about how sorry you are.” Aeric paused to make sure Lewis was doing alright.  “They know, Lewis, and they forgave you long ago. Your incessant need to contact them has kept them bound to this reality, in limbo.”

“No…that can’t be true.” Lewis shook his head; he seemed to dissociate from the situation.

“I wish it weren’t, but it is.” Aeric was not afraid of being blunt when it involved souls that were being kept from moving on. “You must allow yourself to start healing, but more importantly, to let go of them.”

“How can I just…let go of them? They are…all I have.”

“Take my hand one more time and close your eyes.” Aeric reached out once more, “This time though, do not focus on a memory—focus on feeling them.”

Lewis did as he said without hesitation. Aeric too, closed his eyes. His focus intensified, allowing his energy to mingle with Lewis’. In some cases this allowed the other person to take on his abilities, but only momentarily. He could only hope that Lewis was allowing himself to be open enough to receive this gift, as he did not bestow it upon many. 

“Feel them, they are here with you, begging for you to let go.”

Lewis stayed quiet for another moment before he began speaking, ”Jeremiah, Dwayne, I feel you. God, I’m so sorry…for everything.”

“Let them go, Lewis.” Aeric was not asking; it was the responsible, necessary thing to do. Holding anyone's soul to this plane was selfish and wrong.

“Both of you,” Lewis swallowed heavily, “need to move on. I’m so sorry for keeping you here. I will be with you both again, one day…this is not goodbye.”

Aeric felt the energy in the room shift as the two souls finally found their peace. When he opened his eyes he could no longer see or feel either of them attached to Lewis. He took his hand and placed it on the grieving man’s shoulder, offering him his empathy and reassurance. 

Finally, Lewis opened his eyes and they fell upon Aeric’s, “You’ve…you’ve done for me what I have been trying to do for almost a decade now. I cannot put into words how grateful I am for you and your gift.”

“It’s what I have been put here to do, my friend.” Aeric squeezed his shoulder and offered a warm smile, “I am glad that they have been able to find peace, and that you are able to start grieving and healing. How’s that for ‘my kind’?”

“You’ve made a believer, and a friend, out of me, Mr. Hearth.”

“Aeric, that’s what my friends call me.” He allowed Lewis a moment to collect himself before bringing his attention back to the matter at hand, “Now, shall we proceed with the beginning of the tests”

“Oh, yes. That would probably be a sound idea, wouldn’t it?” Lewis gave him a sad smirk, “I no longer have any room to doubt you, or Dr. Karasevdas. Is there anything I need to go over before we begin?”

“Nothin’ you can go over that I haven’t already committed to memory from that program packet. Elysium calls our subconscious ‘the undertow’ and found that it can affect my physical state, so you use the ‘life vest’ to monitor my vitals and what goes on in my subconscious, as well as use it to pull me out if I go too deep. Once I go under I should find myself at the place called ‘the lobby’ and will be free to explore my subconscious—sorry, the undertow—from there I should start in what is called the shallows and move deeper from there. I imagine there is more to it, but I don’t get hung up on details.”

“Wow, you really did your homework.” Lewis grabbed the life vest and gestured towards the blank wall to the left of Aeric’s bed. “If you’d follow me, we’ll head into your personal testing area. Please take a seat on the bed and take your jumpsuit down to your waist.” Lewis stepped up to the wall, which lit up after sensing his presence, and waved his arm over the hidden sensor. A sparse, white room with a medical bed and a few machines opened up; he followed Lewis inside and the door closed behind them. 

Aeric sat on the bed and unzipped the jumpsuit, lowering it to his waist. Lewis walked in front of him with the life vest allowing Aeric to eye the long needles that sprouted from the spine of the vest—he hated needles. 

“By the look on your face, I assume that you are not a fan of needles?” Lewis, behind Aeric now, placed a hand on his shoulder just as Aeric had done for him moments ago, “I’ll do my best to make it quick, but I will not lie to you; it will hurt.”

“I appreciate your honesty, just get it ov—”

The needles plunged between his vertebrate starting from the base of the lumbar spine, moving up like a zipper to the cervical spine. Aeric’s eyes went wide and the grunt that left his mouth sounded inhuman. Lewis moved around to the front and secured the thick velcro straps to make sure the vest stayed in place.”

Aeric breathed out a long sigh of relief that it was over and was thankful the pain was minimal afterwards. “You enjoyed that, didn’t you?”

Lewis smiled, a little deviously, “No, but I had to make sure to secure it in place while your muscles and spine were relaxed. If you knew it was coming, you’d have tensed up and it would have been more painful—not to mention, I might have had to reset it.”

“Fair point,” Aeric replied. “Thankfully it stays on until I leave. I don’t think I could handle that multiple times.”

“Oh yes, the initial hundred or so subjects were not very happy about repeated applications of the life vest. Thankfully we figured out that it wasn’t necessary to take it off. Now, after that doozy, I am sure that an IV is the least of your worries, right?” 

Aeric nodded and allowed him to slip an IV into the nook of his arm. Finally, all the needles were out of the way and he could truly relax again. He watched as Lewis checked over the initial diagnostic results on his holographic tablet.

“Healthy as a seahorse.” Lewis quipped. He bent over and grabbed a bottle of pills and a cup of water from underneath the medical table. “Now this is the vessel that will take you into your subconscious. Before I give it to you, there are a few things that Dr. Karasevdas wanted me to go over with you.”

“I’m listening.”

“Usually we play a recording for new patients where Dr. Karasevdas gives you a motivational speech and goes over what is going to happen. However, he has opted not to show that to you in hopes for more objective test results. He wants you going in with an entirely open mind—something I feel you will have no issue with.”

“Right you are, my friend.” 

“What he did want me to relay is that you are being kept isolated from the rest of the patients here at the facility for the six week duration; this is so that no other patient's experience may affect yours in any way.” Lewis paused to see if Aeric would object to that, but was not met with any resistance. He continued, “Each dive should last about 8 hours. Afterwards you should come out yourself or we will bring you out for food and rest.”

Aeric nodded nonchalantly, accepting the procedure as if it was nothing new. “Sounds like a plan.”

Lewis handed him the blank, white pill and cup full of water. “You have my word that I will make sure everything goes perfectly, Aeric.”

“I’ll hold you to that, Lewis.” Aeric winked at his new friend right before he downed the pill, flooding it down his gullet with cool water. 

“Now just lay back and allow the pill to take effect. It should only be a few moments.”

Five minutes passed. 

Ten minutes passed.

Fifteen.

Twenty.

“Uh, Lewis, I don’t think it’s working.” Aeric sat up to talk, “What’s going on?”

“I’m not sure, no one has ever stayed awake and lucid for longer than 7 minutes before.” Lewis scratched at his stubble, pondering the issue. “Give me a moment and let me check something.” He stood and walked around to the backside of the medical table.

“It would be quite interesting if my mind was too strong for these te—” Aeric swung around to joke with Lewis, but he was nowhere to be found. Aeric froze, unable to process that Lewis was there one moment and gone the next. 

White Rabbit began to play, echoing around him as if it was inside his head. He turned back around, his eyes leaving the bare, white medical room, only to be met with a mind-bending transition. Still on the medical bed, he found himself smack in the middle of what seemed to be a mystically ornate temple where he was able to spot the source of the music; an antique gramophone.

Aeric took a deep breath and allowed his senses to take in the surroundings. The energy he felt was humming around him, ever so gently lapping at his body. It was peaceful, but also unsettling; like the powerful waves of an ocean.

“The Lobby,” he whispered to himself.