chapter 24 unfinished

Chapter 24
Garden
Late Evening







The Yard tended to be empty at this time of day; empty that is except for Seth. He was still there, as he always was now.
He sat at his desk and floundered in his thoughts.He felt lost and not a little unsure about what to do next.
The Inspector had asked him to look up on Robinson, the Doctor's butler, but then the Doctor and Evelyn had asked him to look up old Garden and its history. They all had the same idea: to solve the crimes that had rocked the City these past few days.
He wasn't sure what to do.
He was due off of his shift at the Yard in a little while, and he knew he must decide by then. He fidgited at his desk, thinking of the three people that had asked him to do different things.
The Inspector was his superior, this was sure and stable territory. Yet, the Doctor and Evelyn knew Garden and had smart, capable heads on their shoulders. They had figured out, about the same time as the Inspector, that these crimes were based on a perverse view of the seven days of creation.
He also found himself giving them a lot of credit for the effort they had put in so far. The effort was dangerous and could have ended terribly, but it hadn't yet.
He found himself grinning when he thought of them, and suddenly he was sure what he was going to do.
He was not even sure why, he couldn't have said even if had wanted to explain it.
***What was it though? *** He asked himself. *** It was not that he distrusted the Inspector and his task, but he wasn't from Garden, and Seth found out that it mattered. ***
The small bell at the back tolled, and almost at the same time, in a simultaneous display of coherence, Seth stood up at the same time. He grabbed his small knapsack and walked out of the door, passing DuMont who was to taking his place at the Yard that night.
He headed directly south when he got out, his apartment was not that far away in that direction.
He wondered what he would do to complete his task given him.  The normal history was fairly well known, but what lay behind that mask of the ordinary?
He intended to find out.
The later afternoon's fog was slowly disappearing; it almost seemed to be fighting to stay around till evening. The sun, though hidden, seemed to shine brightly and through the cloud cover, a few rays escaped.
He whistled as he walked, and just like his reason to choose the Doctor's and Evelyn's task rather than Mondieu's, he was not able to say why he whistled. He had not done so since this whole business started, and why he should do so now, was a complete mystery to him. *** I wonder if it is because I have something to do that might have a bearing on solving the case, rather than just reacting to everything that happens afterward? *** He shook his head, it was useless to think about.
He approached his apartment, and walked up his steps slowly. He had stopped whistling and felt a strain to do something, anything besides walk in his front door.
His strides got shorter and shorter, and his walk much slower as approached his door. He fumbled with the knob for a second, and then he was over the threshold.
The scene inside burst on him as if it were a firework that had gone off the moment he had walked in.
It was much darker than it should have been, something associated with dark, dank places that never saw the sun's rays.
He was rooted to his doorway, he couldn't move. He wondered detachedly if it was due to the darkness itself or some fear of the unknown that strove to keep him in place.
The living room was a maze of crisscrossing lines and shadows from the small light allowed from the slightly open doorway.
There were irregular masses and lines that had not been there before. Illogical turnings and branches, his living room was a maze of something that crossed and threaded itself all around.
He could even smell something richly aromatic and earthy, of what he was not sure, but it reminded him of the darkness he saw now in his living room.
Seth found he could move his arm a little and gripped the jam to give himself extra strength to find his way inside.
He moved one foot slowly and then another. He was a little inside now, completely free of the doorway.
It was still the same, perhaps worse, as he went farther into his apartment.
He wondered if this had something to do with the most recent crime. The flooding of the City could have done something to his apartment; could have changed the features and texture entirely.
He shook his head to clear it. He was about halfway inside now, seemingly having to wade through his own living room. It didn't feel as if there was anything strange about his apartment, rather, it felt as if his own legs opposed the motion and had to be forced to do so.
Now that he was further in, he could hear a steady noise, almost a beat the seemed to reverberate within the walls.
BEAT
He just stood there, now he was completely rooted to the spot. He could not, as hard as he tried, to move anywhere.
BEAT
The living room pulsed slightly, with the noise. It was not an extreme movement in any way, rather the pulse of a gently sleeping room.
BEAT
He felt it now, rather than heard it. The room was the sound now, it was all around him. He was inside the drum that created the beat.
BEAT
The room pulsed slightly on that beat, the vibrations stirring and legato. He could feel the vibration growing in frequency and amplitude within himself. The wave grew till it expanded out from him and into the room.
He couldn't se it, but it was there, he could feel it still. There was no lag now, the pulse was constant at some frequency. He found he could move his hand again, and he reached out to feel it.
His hand vibrated and shook slightly, in tandem and resonant with the wave.
He withdrew his hand slowly.
He suddenly knew what this was.
BEAT
He was no longer there, in the strangeness of his own living room anymore; he stood in front of Garden's main entrance. Mondieu stood next to him.
They were clad in the guise as travelers.
****insert Pilgrim's Progress reference**********
Mondieu wore a brown cloak that trailed long into the dust. It was threadbare and worn and matched much the state of his shapeless hat.
Seth's trappings were much the same, except that he carried a large, heavy looking bag on his back.
They were standing outside the City, on a small hill on the main road that led into Garden. They could see most of the City laid out before them like a chessboard. There was the Dome in the center, rising tall and proud in its own sparkling, sun drenched on glass way.
The IT Tower stood a distance away, also clearly visible to their eyes. The City looked intact and whole, but it almost seemed to shiver in crouching menace, but, in this dream, Seth was not surprised. He wondered at that briefly, but turning to Mondieu, it seemed he was not either.
"The City...." Mondieu said, in response to Seth's glance. "It is troubled.... I do not think it is anything I can investigate without losing focus." He shook his head as if to clear it.
Mondeiu clearly was not himself, but Seth again, found himself unsurprised. It seemed that everything was according to his own plan and interpretation in his vision.
"I need to do something... Garden is in trouble!" Seth found himself saying without a thought about it. "I can do something to help."
"Help? We all need something lad, do you think you can help everyone and everything?" Mondieu asked wearily.
Seth could only shake his head.
"There you are. We should go." Mondieu turned and started to walk away. Seth again, found himself in the familiar ground of unable to move.
"I can't...." He hesitated here; it seemed that this was the crux of it all and all the more difficult to put into words because of it.
"





//Seth will finish the vision in his room and use that to start his investigation
//maybe that will include a late visit to Marie? Or Marie comes to visit him?
//I don't know that Seth will discover anything tonight, but he will just be studying from his own history books of Garden
// He will not reveal anything to Mondieu tomorrow, he will just be on edge the whole time