[Original Novel] The Eternal Mysteries of Vril, Part 7
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Previous parts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
She trailed off as she changed the slide to a page of her notes about which websites we should look at to learn more about the pseudoscience of race, of comparative craniology and the origin of “Caucasian” as a category of people. All around me, other students began to gather their things. The dude who grilled his breakfast earlier was already long gone, somehow packing it all up and slipping away without my notice.
“Before you all go” the professor urged, “there’s going to be a disability focused solidarity march this evening. Everybody is encouraged to include someone they know who is either differently abled or whose perspective could perhaps benefit from meeting such people.
There will be punch and gluten-free cookies afterward, as well as a safe space for asking honest questions you might have about the lived experiences of the differently abled. I can’t tell you to donate, but I can tell you all the donations go to a charitable foundation which has been set up to...ahem...assist the physically and mentally handicapped with...intimate bedroom activities.”
Some stragglers blushed, or laughed with one hand over their mouth. “It’s something I’m sure all you take for granted, but which is a huge quality of life improvement for a quadrupelegic, or someone with significant mental impairment. Depending what I work out with the dean, I might be able to swing extra credit for any of you that stick it out to the end with me tonight.”
On my way through campus to the dorms, I passed the beginnings of the disability march. At least I think that’s what it was. A muscular, neon green haired transwoman in a leotard with abruptly projecting E-cup implants was being led around on a leash by a legless Asian midget in a wheelchair while bystanders clapped...some of them tearful.
I smiled. Typical fare for Stonehouse U, part of why I chose it. The more I learned about the basis for Neil’s weird racist cult, the more it reinforced my own convictions. The age of exclusion, of flash over substance, of anything-for-beauty, is at an end. A funeral with no mourners, instead that grave is now danced upon by the children of a softer, kinder age. The age of inclusion.
I spotted Neil sitting on one of the benches around the Feuerbach monument, looking dejected. Thinking about me? Or perhaps one of the conspicuously nordic looking freshmen he often chats up here gave him a richly deserved earful.
I’m fresh out of anger and jealousy though. After seeing firsthand where he got his crazy ideas from, and cottoning to the probable emotional reason for his...rich fantasy life...I only wanted to apologize. For ducking out of his life almost as soon as I’d entered it, and taking a huge shit all over beliefs I now suspected were the only thing keeping him going.
He noticed me as I approached. I waved weakly. He smiled, but said nothing. “I met your friend today”. He looked briefly confused until I clarified that I meant professor Travigan. “Oh, him. He and I are only associated in an official capacity. The...organization...he represents technically owns the Feuerbach monument.”
I blinked. “You said during the tour that it was donated to the university.” He affirmed it, but with a caveat. “The monument and the land it’s on are nevertheless on the books as property of The Institute.” I asked which institute. He smirked in passing, then prattled on about legalese as if I never asked.
“Neil, I need to talk to you about something important.” He trailed off...then looked at me with those adorable baby blues, wide open and waiting. “I don’t know how to say this, but...I also can’t say nothing anymore. I really care about you! I don’t know how it happened exactly. You swept me up in your fantasy I guess, by the time I got reoriented it was too late. I got my heart all fucking entangled.
That’s why I don’t just leave you alone, or write it off as a fling. I think I see something of myself in you. I’ve been through some shit we didn’t have occasion to talk about. Probably would’ve if we’d kept dating. But I dealt with it the same way you have, I retreated into my own head.”
He motioned to interrupt, but I steamrolled him. “No, it’s alright. I know it’s all a game you play. I was angry when I thought it was just a way to sleep with naive freshman girls. But after speaking to Travigan, I can see what’s really going on here. You had me fooled for a little while! That’s what you wanted, right? For someone to believe it. To live in that fantasy world with you, for however long you could maintain the charade.”
Stunned until now, he shifted back in his seat, arms folded and gently smiled as I laid it all out. “Even so, you’re being selfish by making other people part of how you cope, without telling them that’s what it is. It’s emotionally irresponsible to suck them into your life like that, to encourage them to care, when all they are to you is a source of independent affirmation.
That’s not fair, Neil. It wasn’t fair to me. I’ve been hurt too, just like you. I’m as real as you are, and I’d like to think I was more to you than a prop. Somebody to get satisfaction from fooling. But even if I wasn’t, I’m in too deep now. I can’t let you keep doing this to yourself, and more importantly, to the poor girls you’ve been deceiving.”
He just sat there, arms crossed. Smiling sweetly, with bedroom eyes. Part of me wanted to slap him. He only became upset when I got up to leave. “No, wait! It’s all true. You’ve got me figured out, and I promise I’ll stop. Just...sit with me a while longer, will you? Until the sun goes down.”
I tried to turn him down. Sincerely, I did. He just looked so pathetic sitting there by himself. We wound up making idle chit chat about the disability march until the stars came out. That’s when about a dozen guys in black robes showed up.
“Oh. Neil, do you know these guys? I didn’t know you were...this is some frat thing, right? Initiation, hazing or whatever? Listen, he and I were done here anyway, you can-” to my dismay, Neil shushed me. Something I’d never seen him do until right then. He stood, performed some weird salute and then firmly shook the hand of one of the robed figures.
“Is that her?” Neil nodded. I stared at the two of them, aghast that they’d apparently spoken about me before. “L...listen you guys, I don’t…” The robed figures formed a circle, their positions corresponding to the twelve stone pillars of the monument. I looked around for anyone I could potentially scream to, if it came to that. Nobody to be seen in any direction.
The robed figure nearest me then inserted a ring, made out of the same pale yellow alloy as Neil’s pin, into a socket on the stone pillar he stood before. The eleven others all did the same, inserting their rings into sockets on their own pillars in unison.
As I gaped, unbelieving, the ground in the center of the monument descended. Piece by piece, forming a spiral staircase down into the Earth. All over the monument, a familiar jagged, Y-shaped rune now glowed with a steady golden light.
The robed men then descended the staircase in single file, with Neil taking up the rear. He didn’t have to say anything. He just looked back at me once with those god damned sky blue eyes of his, then headed down the stairs with the others.
I could’ve run. I still can’t say why I didn’t. How many movies have I seen where a girl that looks just like me is heading into some dilapidated mansion while I laugh at her self-destructive stupidity? Even with that self-awareness, I couldn’t stop myself.
The rumbling is what forced my hand. I felt whatever underground mechanism was responsible for lowering the stairs, presumably preparing to raise them back into position so they were flush with the surface again. If I had more than that split second, I really might’ve run, I might’ve gotten on with my life and eventually forgotten about Neil.
Instead, while calling out after him, I dashed down the steps just as the lowest one began to grind its way upwards. I found myself in a cool, dark spiral tunnel down into the Earth. The faint illumination I made out up ahead soon resolved as a wall mounted vial of dense golden fluid.
It emitted the strangest, most soothing glow. I stopped briefly just to marvel at it, holding my hands close. It emitted no heat, like a conventional flame or electrical light. I felt no warmth on my skin, but rather a deep warmth from inside my own body which closeness to it seemed to provoke.
I felt increasingly alert. Less tired from trekking all over campus. I could sense every pore, every little hair on my body the longer I held that glowing vial in my hands...feeling something like the moth which helplessly circles an exposed bulb, having mistaken it for the Moon.
I found more of them at regular intervals as I descended. Then a whole chamber illuminated by their steady, rejuvenating golden light. There were countless black robes hung on posts here, adjacent to shower stalls. Neil approached me with a robe in his hands.
Stay Tuned for Part 8!