Eerie’s eyes widened, and then she shook her head, and looked as if she was going to speak. After a brief struggle, her expression went slack again, and then she simply looked back down to the ground. Margot glanced over at her, and then shook her head.
“I think we should go somewhere else,” Margot said as she walked past, Emily feebly protesting as she was dragged along. “She has been talking about this boy since the other day in the cafeteria.”
Emily went silent, and then gave Alex a panicked look as she was pulled off towards the party by the vampire. Sarah followed them, laughing at the whole scene. Despite the cold, Alex felt himself break out in sweat. Had he really been left alone with a girl who hadn’t managed to say anything coherent to him, one who wasn’t even human? In front of Emily? Alex was having serious doubts about the soundness of the whole situation.
“I don’t get it.”
Eerie’s voice was oddly musical, but vaguely inhuman, like a reproduction of a human voice made by a beautiful, but wholly alien, device.
“Um, yeah… you don’t get what?”
Alex scratched the back of his head nervously, and shifted from one foot to the other.
“Margot says that you are an idiot. She says that you fought with Steve the other day because you are stupid…”
She trailed off shyly, one hand toying with the edge of her skirt.
Alex shook his head slowly.
“That is a very real possibility,” Alex admitted. He finally got her to meet his eyes — and was stunned to discover that they were dilated to such an extent that her irises were nothing more than millimeter-thin colored rings around a reflective black space. He wasn’t certain that he’d ever seen anyone’s eyes look that way, and wondered what kind of drugs did that to you. “But, I prefer to think of myself as impulsive.”
Eerie crumpled and discarded the Skittles wrapper, and then started digging through the bag again, seemingly oblivious to Alex’s presence.
“So, it seems like you and Margot are pretty good friends, huh?”
Eerie didn’t look up, she just continued rummaging.
“Friends? I don’t really get stuff like that,” she said quietly, pulling a handful of red liquorices twists from the paper bag, “but we live in the same place.”
Alex took a sip from his beer, and rapidly considered his options. Renton and Vivik had disappeared, as had Margot, Sarah and Emily. As a matter of fact, the entire party was conspicuously distant from them. He was obviously on his own, and he’d need a pretty good excuse to walk away. That meant he’d have to finish the beer, as rapidly as politeness allowed, since going to get another was the only reason to walk away that he could come up with. This still left him needing something, anything to say to the girl standing next to him.
“You seem to really… like candy,” Alex observed, lamely casting about for a topic, any topic.
Eerie seemed to give the question serious consideration, nibbling on a Red Vine, before nodding gravely.
“But, I have been practicing eating other food. Actually,” she added, looking thoughtful, “that’s why I was in the cafeteria the other day. I don’t usually go there.”
Alex felt mildly encouraged. He was starting to get the hang of her bizarre intonation, and her last statement had even referenced what he had wanted to talk about. This, Alex thought proudly, was communication.
All of a sudden, then, Eerie was standing very, very close to him, on her tip toes so that her eyes would be level with his. Her pupils were black and glittering and huge, and he could see a ghost image of himself reflected in them, looking far more nervous and less cool than he would have liked.
“You’ve only just been activated. But it’s already started, hasn’t it?”
Alex backed away a step, and then shook his head.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
Eerie took another step forward, dropping the paper bag into her knitting basket and then clutching the basket handle in both hands.
“Don’t you remember, Alex? Hasn’t this happened already?” Eerie voice was distant, her eyes wet and unfocused. “Are you dreaming now, Alex? Isn’t it hard to tell?”
Alex shook his head, utterly dumbfounded. He had no idea what the girl was talking about, but at the same time, it made him terribly nervous. Something he had dreamed, maybe, a strange sense of deja vu… he wasn’t certain. He was, however, certain that Eerie was standing too close to him, and he half-stumbled a few steps away.
“I don’t understand.” Alex felt hot, almost feverish. There was a strange buzzing sound that seemed to emanate from the back of his neck, like static from the base of his skull. “Why are you asking me all these questions?”
“Can you feel it already?” Eerie asked softly. “The slippage. Dislocation. Oh, so very lonely. Haven’t I already told you my secret?”
Eerie’s eyes were half-closed now, and her arms were wrapped around herself tightly. She stumbled forward, dazed, almost colliding with Alex in the process. He caught her awkwardly, trying to push her away and stand her upright at the same time, without much success in either endeavor.
“The Church of Sleep, Alex.” Her melodic voice was barely a whisper, and he had to strain to hear it. “Surely you’ve noticed. Don’t you fall asleep earlier and earlier, since you came here? Can you remember going to bed when you wake up?”
“Yes,” Alex replied, his throat hoarse, “and no.”
Eerie clutched herself even tighter, the folds of sweater pulled tight across her chest in a way that he found quite distracting. Her skin was flushed, and icy cold where Alex’s fingers brushed against her shoulder. She pressed her forehead against his chest, and he was afraid that she really would fall over, she seemed so out of it.
“And when you wake up, sometimes, and you feel like someone is there with you.” Eerie’s voice had lost all of its interrogative qualities, replaced with something that sounded more like a bald statement of fact. “And sometimes, when you wake up, you know things that you didn’t know before. But you’ll never remember another dream, now that you’ve come here.”
“H-How,” Alex stammered, “how is it that you know these things?”
“The Church of Sleep, Alex.” Eerie looked at him as if she had answered his question in full. “When we sleep, we are programmed. What else could sleep be? But who does the programming, and to what end? To where do they drive us?”
Li put his hand on Alex’s shoulder, and the strange atmosphere immediately deflated, Eerie retreating back from him hurriedly, as if she’d only now realized how close they were. Alex felt confusion as well as a profound sense of relief.
“Try not to overwhelm Alex,” Li said to Eerie, patting her on the head affectionately. “You can’t try and tell him everything all at once.”
Eerie’s shoulders slumped and she looked distraught, and for some reason, Alex immediately felt guilty. What was it with this girl? He didn’t understand anything. But his head was starting to clear, and whatever strange effect the girl’s words had on him was already fading.
“I’m sorry, Alex.” Eerie looked at him, unaccountably sad. “I didn’t mean to do anything wrong.”
“Everything is fine, Eerie,” Alex insisted. “Nothing bad happened.”
Eerie looked one way, then the other, and then leaned in close so that Alex could hear her whisper.
“I’ll help you out with something, then, to make up for it.” Alex felt a bit nervous with her standing this close, but this time he didn’t pull away. Whatever it was Eerie had to say, he was sure he wanted to hear it. “Walking in the snow, under a grey sky, you will wonder if it is okay. I won’t be able to say it, then, because I’m shy. Alex,” Eerie whispered, her lips so close to his ear that he could feel her breathe. “It’s okay with me.”
Eerie straightened back up, and then smiled at him. Her oval face lit up when she smiled, and he was struck by how familiar she looked, how nostalgic, in a way he couldn’t put his finger on. Alex could only stare at her and wonder what any of what she said had meant.