When Jake told me he had something to show me, I was curious,
but also a little worried. It'd been my best friend since junior high,
and I loved and trusted him like a brother. But I also couldn't forget
that three months earlier he had been in an institution instead of living across town.
The story of that had ended up with him being diagnosed with schizophreniform disorder
and sent for impatient treatment. But it started by Jake freaking out in a
college algebra class. I wasn't there, but supposedly he was screaming in some
language no one understood and attacked his professor, And in the days that followed,
he told the doctors that he'd been dreaming for weeks about living in another
part of the world, though he wasn't sure where. According to his parents,
he didn't remember screaming and biting his man professor at all. With therapy
and meds, he got better over time, and if you asked him if
any of that stuff had been real, other than the biting, of course,
he'd look embarrassed and shake his head, tell you that it had all
been crossed wires in his head, and that who was better now? And
I think most people believed him, but I knew Jake well, maybe better
than anyone, and I could see it in his eyes when he looked my
way he was lying, or at least holding something back. We started hanging
out again, fairly regularly as life allowed, but I still felt tints around
him, not because I thought he was dangerous, but because I wanted him
to be okay, and I felt responsible for watching him closely for any sign
that he still needed help. But when he showed up at my apartment twenty
minutes later, I could see he was excited, and it actually made me
relax a little. The meds made him calmer and flatter in some ways,
and while that was probably a good thing, it also made him seem different.
This was more like the old Jake, full of energy and ready to
tell you or show you something funny or awesome. He'd referenced the video on
the phone, and when he came in I saw he had his laptop under
one arm. I raised an eye brought him what we couldn't look it up
on YouTube or something. He grinned as he said, the laptop on the
kitchen counter and opened it up. Nope, not this, it's special.
On his screen was a website showing what looked like video from a camera perched
high up on a pole or building and pointed out over a multi lane freeway
and part of some city on the far side. There, the sun was
bright and you could see steady streams of cars going in both directions, and
in the upper left part of the camera's view you could see a long pedestrian
bridge with people passing to and fro. Oblivious to our scrutiny, I glanced
at him, is this live or a video? Jay grinned, it's live.
It's Kuala Lumpa, Malaysia. I glanced back at the video. That
made sense. It was after ten at night where we were, but it
was probably the next morning there. But still, I mean, that's neat
and all. But I've seen city cameras before, lots of places livestream.
Now, is there some shut up? Here she comes? I followed where
his finger was emphatically jabbing the screen. Coming towards the camera along the footbridge
was a squat woman with black and gray hair that looked to be in her
late fifties. The image, while good quality, wasn't clear enough to show
a face in any real detail. But a movement was stiff and strange,
as though she were aching with every step, or maybe had slip walked the
entire way there. I looked back over at Jake. Who is that?
He gave a small laugh. I don't know a name. It doesn't matter,
but I know her. She's the one I've been dreaming about for months.
My stomach began to curl in on itself. Jake, have you taken
your meds today? He didn't look at me, but I saw his jaw
clench and jump before he spoke. I did. But it doesn't make a
difference. I'm not crazy, I never was. Just shut up and listen
to me. He tapped the screen with the woman had come to a stop
in the middle of the bridge. This woman, I knew she was going
to come to the bridge because I made her do it. I spent half
the afternoon picturing it until I knew it had set in. My mind was
racing with what I should do next. Do I call someone, try to
get him to go to the doctor. What if he got weirder or even
violent. Maybe I should just hear him out and then go from there.
I don't really understand what you're talking about. Still looking at the screen,
he let out a long breath. Yeah, I know it sounds crazy.
That's why I want to show you. Give me just the second I have
to concentrate. Jake led his arms hang down by his side as he stared
intently at the video feed. After over a minute of awkward silence, he
started to raise his right hand, first to his head, then above it,
stretched up and straight, like he wanted to answer a question in class.
I was about to ask what he was doing when I saw it.
The woman on the bridge was raising her hand to heart pounding. I looked
between the video and Jake. He was raising his other arm in the same
way, and about three or four seconds behind, the woman was doing the
same thing. He turned to beam at me, and to my horror,
I saw the woman turning to smile in our direction as well. What the
hell is this some kind of internet trick? He snorted, No trick,
I'll show you. Ask me to do something, something simple. I don't
have good control yet, I started shaking my head. Look, I don't
know what this is, but it's freaking me out. Jake scowled at me.
Don't be a wasss tell me to do something Simon says, taking a
step back. I rolled my eyes in irritation to hide my growing fear.
Fine, jump up and down, giggling. He nodded and began jumping up
and down while keeping both arms up. After a brief delay, the woman
started doing the same thing, and when he stopped a few moments later,
so did she Okay, So how are you doing it? No? I
can tell you still think it's fake. Pick something else, something harder.
Look, I really don't want too. His face darkened into a scowl.
Just do it, okay, gritting my teeth, I nodded. Fine,
slap yourself in the face hard. I thought this would call his bluff.
Either the video woman wouldn't have done that, or if this was some elaborate
hoax where he paid some stranger to mimic him through a hidden camera he brought
with him, or something she'd hesitate to hurt herself one way or another,
it might stop whatever weird nonsense he was trying to pull. But no,
he just smiled wider as he took a step back and placed a hand on
the counter for support. Now that's more like it. The first slap across
his face sounded loud as a gunshot in the small kitchen, and he let
out a gasp of pain as the right side of his face immediate started to
redden I was so focused on him that it took me a moment to realize
I was seeing her mimic him in my peripheral vision, same spot, just
as hard. Jeez what. He hit himself a second time, even harder.
She did the same, and this time they were both bleeding from the
nose when they straightened back up. Stop, just stop. He gave a
soft laugh and then struck himself a third time, hard enough that he seemed
unsteady on his feet. When I looked at the woman, she was holding
onto the bridge railing like it was the only thing keeping her upright, I
turned back to Jake and grabbed his arm. Stop that right now, you're
hurting yourself and her. When he grinned at me, this time I could
see a film of blood on his teeth. So you believe me now,
shuddering, I gave a nod. I guess so, I mean, yes,
I do, stop hitting her and you. I just how And then
he told me I started having strange dreams a year ago. It was like
falling asleep as myself and waking up as another person. I've had dreams like
that before, but not this long and detailed and real. I could move
around for several hours sometimes and I remembered all of it. I'd go out
and into the city. I figured out it was Kuala Limpo, and when
I was there, I could read and understand the language, even though I
don't know any of that stuff when I'm awake. But the weirdest thing was
I was always the same person when I was over there, this woman on
the bridge. It was like we were swapping. Now, I'm not crazy,
And for a time I just assumed it was some kind of like lucid
dreaming or something. I was dreaming versions of the same dream and just fooling
myself into thinking it was real. This went on for months, and then
one day I dozed off in algebra class. I really don't remember what happened,
because I wasn't there. I don't know if this woman is normally asleep
in my mind when I'm awake in hers, but this time she's sure the
hell knews something was going on and freaked out. Thanks to her, I
wound up in the looney bin, and now I have everyone looking at me
like I'm Jeffrey Dahmer. Even you, Nah, don't deny it. It's
okay. I don't blame you, but I hate it too. So I
decided I needed to figure out what this was and try to either get rid
of it or control it. I started trying different things in the hospital,
reading books on meditation and self hypnosis, even astral projection. Most of it
is hippy nonsense, but I got a few ideas that helped me to focus.
I started feeling like I could feel her a little even when I was
awake, and over time I started thinking I could maybe make her do something
if I could concentrate on it hard enough. The first few tries, well,
it's hard to say. It's not just in your imagination, right,
I mean, how the hell am I going to know if some lady in
Malaysia picks up a pencil because I wanted her to. One night, when
I was inside her in my dream, I went walking through the city.
It was early afternoon there, and I remember walking for miles until I got
to this freeway and this bridge, and it was then that I saw the
camera up above. I asked the teenager that was passing, what kind of
camera that was, and that's when he said the magic words. It's a
streaming webcam. He gestured at the woman on the bridge again as she started
to wander off. I've been practicing this for weeks now. This is only
the third time I've gotten her to the bridge, But once she's there,
I can see that it works, and when I'm done, I just kind
of let go and she wanders on back home. I just stared at him.
Jeez, man, that's a person. Even if this works, like
you're saying, that's messed up to just take someone over and hurt them and
stuff. Jake grimaced at me. First off, saving moral judgments. You're
the one that said slap in the face, not me. I've never heard
of for Oh really, what the hell do you think she thinks when she
wakes up halfway across the city and doesn't know how she got there. He
looked uncomfortable at that, but gave a shrug. I don't know, and
yeah, I have thought about that, but I don't know her, and
I don't know that she's not responsible for this in the first place. Whatever
it is. What I do know is that I'm not having people think I'm
a nutter butter for the rest of my life. And if I don't know
how to turn it off, I'm going to figure out how to prove to
people that it's real. I let out a sigh. Damn, I get
that. Not that I think you're crazy, Not really. I just thought
you had like a breakdown or something, you know, But this, I
don't know that it's even safe to tell people about it. He frowned that,
what do you mean, well, even if you get people to leave
you, does that really help you. How do you know somebody won't just
snatch you up to experiment on you or something. Shake's eyes widened. I
hadn't really thought of that. I nodded, Yeah, I mean, it
sounds like a movie. But what part of this doesn't sound like some horror
movie sci fi nonsense. I reached out and gripped his shoulder. Maybe just
leave it alone. I know you want to like vindicate yourself or whatever,
but I know it now and in time other people will forget and treat you
normal. When he started to shake his head, I gripped his shoulder harder.
And if they don't, screw them. But you don't know what this
is, You're messing with, and you're messing with a stranger who either doesn't
deserve it or is maybe causing it. Just close the door and see if
it goes away over time. Tears in his eyes, he began to nod
as he leaned forward and gave me a quick hug. Thanks, man,
you're probably right. When we parted, I kept a smile on my face,
despite the dark thoughts churning in my head that the Jake I knew would
never hurt some one else, even to prove the point he was trying to
make, and that when I looked over his shoulder at the webcam feed the
last time the woman had stopped wandering away, she was standing further down the
bridge, looking at the camera, staring right at me. Two more weeks
went by, and while I didn't see Jake, he taxted most days and
he seemed to be doing better. Said the dreams were still there, but
he could usually get out of them after just an hour or two. We
made plans to go hiking next weekend, but then two nights ago, he
was banging my door in the middle of the night. When I opened up,
he came rushing in, covered in sweat and clearly terrified someone's after me.
Man I shut and locked the door behind him, before turning to follow
him into the living room. What are you talking about. Who's following you?
He shrugged. I don't know for sure. I haven't seen them good
enough. But it's the same red car for the last two days, with
heavy tint on the windows. Well, why don't you call the cops,
Jake shook his head. They'd find out. I just got locked up and
think I'm being paranoid. You're the only one who knows I'm not crazy.
I nodded, Okay, Well, did they follow you here? I think
so. I tried to lose them, but I don't know if I did.
Moving past him, I went to the sliding doors leading out to the
balcony, opening them, I stepped out and looked down into the orange lit
parking lot below. My heart sank as I saw a red car parked next
to my own, its windows too dark to see inside. Damn, Oh,
damn the damn. I looked over at him, even as his face
grew tight with fear. Oh God, HiT's her, She's here. He
was right. I'd been focused on the car at first, but directly underneath
us was a short, older woman with black and gray hair that well.
I'd never seen her clearly, but I'd seen enough to know this looked like
her. What was she doing all the way over? She found me?
I I need to go. I don't know what she can do, what
she's capable of. It's not safe too, his legs kicking and his chest
shuddering. I leaned over to help, but quickly realized I didn't know what
to do. My first thought was the corn nine one one, but then
I realized how stupid I was being. This was all her fault, wasn't
it. It was an a coincidence that she came all this way and then
he started having a seizure or whatever. This was anger burning in my chest.
I stood up, ready to shout down at her, for her to
stop it, to get lost, and to leave him alone, But the
words died in my throat as I saw her down there, staring up at
me, tears streaming down her cheeks. She looked tight with tension as she
murmured out just a full of words, No, please, don't, I'm
sorry. Then I saw the flash of a box cutter as she raised it
to her throat and slashed it wet and wide. Even as she was falling
over, I saw Jake sitting up and turning to look at me. His
face split into a smile. Thanks for having me over. I think I'm
okay now. I reached out to help him mop but when he met my
eyes, I recoiled. I'm sure I am. We need to call the
police. She she's dead, he nodded as he rose to his feet.
Yeah, sure, we can call the authorities. They should be made aware.
Another glanced my way. Are you okay too? I nodded and moved
quickly off the balcony to get my phone, Grabbing it up, I stepped
out of the apartment to make the call and waited in the breezeway until they
arrived. Jake came out when the ambulance and police pulled up, and after
we both told them several times that a strange woman we didn't know had hurt
herself outside, they eventually left again with her body. I guess I should
be getting home too, he smiled at me. Thanks again for your help.
He sounded like I helped him with his car or something. See you
again soon. I forced myself to meet her eyes for a moment. No,
no, I don't think you will. I think it's better for both
of us if you don't. A smile widened then no, perhaps not.
Still my thanks, have a good night. I shut the door then and
bolted it, and even after I watched Jake's car drive away, I couldn't
go to sleep. I didn't go outside again until today. But then I
didn't have a choice. I was the only one there, a shabby funeral
for an unknown foreigner that had inexplicably flown half way around the world to die
in front of a couple of strangers. Even the government paid chaplain that did
the eulogy could only speak in vague platitudes about the mysterious life and things unseen.
He came over after to offer his condolences, and after an awkward pause,
he asked me how I knew the departed, tears in my eyes,
I lugged up and told him he was my best friend.