Postulate and Shadows: Halloween Collaboration - October 26th, 2014 Meet Up

In the Shadow of Wattpad - @MaajaWentz

In the Shadow of Wattpad by MaajaWentz

Everything seemed normal on the train into Toronto. It wasn't until I arrived and tried to find my way out of Union Station that I knew something was wrong. Union had been transformed into a warren of temporary turns and twists, confusing me, and when I finally escaped through the wrong door, tall barriers blocked my path. The façade was wrapped in hoarding and there were crowds of black uniforms everywhere, officer crows anticipating carrion. Desperate panhandlers and people running in all directions, towed suitcases like refugees, looking to stay ahead of the zombie plague. I broke into a run and didn't slow until Wellesley.

Here a clever little park beside the Flat Iron building beckoned. It was time to start the meetup but I couldn't resist, drawn to the tiny terrace and its leafy hedges. Something glinted in the corner of my eye, hidden beneath the foliage. There it was again! A blue glow danced like a firefly. Too big for an insect, I realized, as I got closer. The sun wouldn't set for half an hour but the illumination was unmistakeable. I crept up and drew aside the branches, but just before I should be able to see it, the light went out. Chill wind stirred up my hair and the lure of this place went out like a candle. In the dusk I looked for a clue as to what had attracted me so strongly. All that remained were a ring of toadstools and some marks, like tiny footprints in the mud.

Too much reading was getting to me! I shook my head to dispel these fancies and crossed the street. At the door to the Wattpad offices a tall dark stranger was waiting. Well, actually not so dark, not so tall, but definitely strange. He looked down his pale nose and, wordlessly beckoned me to join him in the freight elevator.

"Where are we going? Shouldn't we take the stairs?" I had been to HQ before and knew that was the way to the rooftop patio.

"There's something I want to show you," he said, striding off without waiting to see if I would follow. I felt my limbs compelled, if negotiating with my doubts and fears was not required for locomotion. My heart thumped in my chest. Something about this was very wrong, and not just because I caught a flash of extra-long canines when he smiled at me. Every shred of common sense told me to run up the stairs, but helpless to resist, I got into the creaky wooden box of the elevator.

I don't much remember what happened next, a vague round of introductions and a dreamlike walking tour of the office. Consciousness really only completely returned when it came time for us to pose in the kitchen, beneath a tree sculpture with a bookcase trunk. The others were laughing and chatting as if nothing had happened. Then there was a flash and, well, nothing.

Nobody seems to hear me or see me anymore, no matter how I scream. I try to grab on to somebody but my hand passes right through. The only clue they have that I'm still here is when Takatsu says he notices an extra shadow in the photo, right where I was standing.