The Sunset Apartments #3
Floor: 5
Apartment Number: 521
Complaint: Leaky faucet
Name: Dr. Marquis Burton
Hector double-checked the harness on Vartan. “When we go in there, we won’t know what we’ll find.”
“This, just seems a bit overdramatic.” His voice was muffled as the gas mask slid over his face. “You know?”
“One time, I opened that door and found nothing behind it. Damn, near fell in.”
The assistant blinked and said, “Fell in?”
The super pulled down his mask, clipped a security cord between them, and pulled the keys from his security chain. Unlocking the door for apartment 521. Stacked up next to one another on the wall next to the door, Hector inserted his key into the lock, and the two men rounded the door frame into a very plain-looking apartment. Vartan sighed, “See, a normal apartment. It even looks like a model or something.” He looked over at Hector, who was sweating and breathing heavy. “What’s the problem?”
“This apartment doesn’t look like this.”
“He could have remolded.”
“No, I was here three days ago, it shouldn’t look like this.” He grabbed his hammer from his tool belt and looked around. “Dr. Burton! Are you in your bedroom?”
“Hector, dude…”
“We need to find Dr. Burton, if we don’t then…”
In mid-sentence, the face inside Hector’s mask turned into a skull as his body crumpled to the floor. Vartan yelled as he looked at the ruined floor with the suddenly dead Hector lying on it. The entire apartment had become a mess, with the outer wall having been eaten away by some long-forgotten war, revealing an obscured horizon through a mess of overgrown trees and ruined buildings. Waterlogged furniture and destroyed electronics surrounded the assistant. He knelt to the bones wearing the super’s clothes. “Hector! Hector!” Grabbing his work shirt, he raised the bones from the ground. “Is this…real?” Dust erupted from the work clothes as Hector’s skeleton crumbled to the floor. It was then the sound of heavy breathing peaked its way through the misplaced silence of the room. Vartan blinked at the empty coverall in his hands, placed it on the floor, and walked around it. He made his way down the hall leading to one of the two master bedrooms in this unit.
Approaching the first closed door, Vartan’s thin hand turned the knob and peered inside to find a child’s room. Despite the rest of the apartment, this room felt cared for and clean. Even though the walls were cracked and had holes, the floor was clear and the bed made. He addressed the room, saying, “Hello?” Seeing that the empty room wouldn’t respond to him, Vartan closed the door, only to hear the door down the hall close.
His heart rate then skyrocketed when he heard the phone ring from the living room. The bells on the landline were tired and gunked up as he picked up the phone and heard Hector on the other end ask, “Hello? Vartan, man, you okay?”
The assistant rocked back and looked at the bones on the floor. “Hector?”
“Yeah, I hear you.”
“But you’re dead.”
“Maybe where you’re at, but from my end, you just vanished. Dr. Burton’s machine shifted and took you to another reality. Damn, I thought the belt would work.”
“I’m in another reality?”
“Yeah, what’s going on around you.”
“Everything is overgrown, the room is falling apart and I can see outside, and it’s very quiet. Disturbingly quiet.”
“Huh, ok, but don’t worry, at least it isn’t on fire like last time.”
“Like last time!” Vartan’s head pivoted around to make sure nothing was currently on fire. “How do I get back?”
“I went into Dr. Burton’s bedroom and didn’t see him. He’s probably with you.”
“I did hear some heavy breathing.”
“Yeah, that’s him. Go ahead and talk to him when you get a chance. In the meantime, I’ll fix the leak.”
“H… how are you able to talk to me?”
“Since we’re occupying the same space at the same time in two overlapping universes, I figured I would use my cell to call the landline number that you’re using to talk to me right now.”
“That sounds complicated.”
“Eh, it works. Let’s not question it. Now go talk to Burton.”
“Okay.” Vartan hung up the receiver and walked over to the last bedroom. He knocked, asking, “Dr. Burton? Are you in there?”
The door opened to reveal a set of tired eyes and a heavy beard speckled with grey hairs that ran up into the doctor’s dreadlocks. He looked at Vartan and said, “You’re not Martin.”
“Who’s that?”
“My son.” He pushed the door open more to reveal the four-electrode towers pointing off into the cardinal directions of the Earth. The towers were connected to a machine with a keyboard and monitors that appeared to be from the 1980s. “It appears you were answering my ticket for the faucet when I activated the Trip.”
“Is that the machine?”
“Yes, I built it… a very long time ago.”
Vartan broke the seal on his mask, seeing that the tenant wasn’t wearing one. “Dr. Burton…”
“Marquis, please.”
“Marquis, how do we get back?”
“It’s simple. I just punch in the correct coordinates to land where we started.”
“Sounds simple enough.”
“It is.” He smiled a little at the assistant super.
“I was here with Hector, why wasn’t he pulled in as well?”
“The Trip won’t always take everything in the reality we start in, so it was random that just you were taken.”
He nodded. “Got it, other realities, of course.”
“You seem to be taking this pretty well.”
“I’ve watched enough Star Trek and after what I’ve seen today so far, yeah, I’m adjusting.” The two men shared a small laugh. “I’m Vartan.”
“Vartan, we should be back at 0094C once the pinhole mechanism finishes charging. So, about fifteen minutes.” He turned to his guest and motioned toward the harness and mask, saying, “I am sorry about taking you with me. It appears Hector came prepared at least.”
“I thought the mask was a bit much.”
“No, that’s prudent, to say the least. I once entered my apartment when it was on fire.”
“Hector told me about that one, yes.”
“You’re a funny fellow.”
“I’m finding the humor in all of this; otherwise, I might just scream.”
The smile faded. “Martin would have laughed at that joke.”
Vartan stiffened up a bit and ventured a guess. “I noticed his room. Looks like he likes the retro stuff.”
“When he hung those posters, it wasn’t retro.” He glanced at the timer on the green and black colored screen. “I miss him.”
“I’m sorry.”
“He isn’t dead.”
A confused look emerged on the assistant’s face. “Oh, he isn’t? Then why are you talking about him as if he was?”
After a long sigh, Marquis answered, “Martin came into my room one day and did what kids do: Press buttons. The problem was, he sent himself into a reality I cannot find.” He motioned at the machine. “This isn’t the original design, he played with the mobile one by accident. I built this asap from spare parts to find him.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You apologize too much. Don’t be. I should have never left The Trip in a place a child could find it. Too tempting. I was hoping it was him closing that door earlier.” His eyes gleaned past Vartan and down the hallway to the other bedroom door. ‘I’ve logged thousands of realities and so far, nothing.”
“I…That’s rough.”
Marquis looked back at Vartan and nodded. “It is.” He glanced at the Pinhole charger. “We have a few more minutes. My turn to ask a question, I don’t talk to many people, so pardon the directness, but why are you here?”
Vartan looked around the room with an awkward smile before saying, “What?”
“Why did you take the job with Hector?”
“Because I needed a job.”
“Yes, but you could be working anywhere.” He pivoted toward his guest. “Why here?”
“It’s walking distance from my house…”
“You own a house in LA?”
He shifted his stance a bit as he said, “I live with my grandmother.”
The doctor took a step forward, his large frame becoming more noticeable. “So, you’re telling me you’re not a government agent sent here to copy this information?”
“What?”
Dr. Burton quickly grabbed the lapels of Vartan’s coveralls and lifted him from the ground. His eyes held a preview of the violence standing behind them, but his voice was calm and threatening like the sea on a summer’s day. “You are not lying to me, right? Because if you are, I will leave you here in this ruin and never return for you.”
Panic made Vartan look around the room and notice the red light on the console was blinking. He stifled past the fear and said, “Hey… hey, it’s the truth, and you have a red light.”
Dr. Burton looked at the light, let down Vartan in one smooth motion, and began to type in the coordinates needed to make the pinhole work. In the blink of an eye, the two men were back in the ultra-clean apartment. Burton turned to the gangly young man behind him and said, “Hector hired you, so I will have to trust that he chose well, but mark my words. If this machine is found anywhere else in the world, I will walk to your house and end you.”
He nodded. “Sure.”
“You can leave now.”
“Yep.” He grabbed the doorknob and made it back to the living room, where he found Hector finishing up the work under the sink. “Let’s get out of here.”
Hector broke the seal on his mask and nodded. Once the two men were in the hallway outside the unit, he asked with a small smile, “How is Dr. Burton?”
“Insane.”
“Good, that’s normal for him.”
The assistant stopped for a moment when he realized something. “Is that why you had the hammer out when we walked in?”
“Yeah or in case something came back with Dr. Burton from another dimension. Either way, after being through as many countless realities as he has, it isn’t surprising to hear that he is a bit on edge.”
“Hector, he threatened to leave me in an alternate reality because he thought I was a government spy.”
“It’s like I said before, remember, these people are not our friends.”
“It just sucks what happened to his kid.”
Hector blinked for a moment before answering, “What kid?”
“His son.”
“He doesn’t have a son.”
“But… but he said...”
“He also suspected that you were a spy for the government.” The Super clipped the mobile toolbox closed and began walking down the corridor with his assistant. “Now, let’s get to the next unit.”
Vartan looked at his watch. “Don’t we have lunch at some point?”
Arriving at the elevator, Hector pressed the elevator button. “Yeah, after the next job.”
“Why did you hire me?”
“I picked you because you wanted to learn this trade.” The doors opened and the two men stepped into the carriage. “Also, you were my only applicant.”
“So it was desperation then?”
Hector thought it over, and a slow nod was his answer.
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