Read Online Among You by Jack Wallen - Free Book Online Page A

you’re saying. Dumb it down for me just a bit.”
    My brain scrambled for the Cliff’s Notes version of my theory.
    “ I need you to walk into the next room as if you were a little girl – no bias, no preconceived ideas of what is real and what is fiction. Rewire your mind and heart to believe anything could be possible. Anything at all.”
    Sally opened her mouth in what would most likely be a protest. I stopped her before she could utter a word.
    “ Please, Sally, trust me on this. Just open your eyes and look through them as a child would.”
    She nodded.
    “ You believe in me, right?”
    “ Completely,” whispered Sally.
    The door at the other end of the room suddenly opened. From beyond the doorway, a throaty whisper begged us:
    Follow.
    We complied. Slowly, carefully, everyone made their way across the room. The noose still hung from nothing. Whenever anyone passed underneath the rope, they would duck or jump to avoid being touched by evil…pure and simple .
    The next room was smaller than the Greeting room – and perfectly square. The group packed into the center of the new room and, as soon as the last person walked in, the door creaked shut and the light flashed into darkness. Completely bereft of illumination, the room became impossible to comprehend. Without the ability to judge distance and space, it seemed like the walls were forever away. I could run for days and never lay a finger to a solid surface.
    And then, the Gaultier House pulled off a stunt I would never forget.
    A light flashed. Trapped within that blink of time I could see the surrounding walls lined with the same masked creatures as before: Grayish-green flesh, yellow eyes, horns, boils, Victorian-era clothing. The light flashed again and the walls were bare. Another flash found the bodies returned – only this time the monsters were replaced by the most beautiful people I have ever laid eyes upon. We were surrounded by visions of perfection – faces and bodies to shame Hollywood and forever silence Victoria’s Secret.
    Again, darkness returned. When the light finally flashed to a near blinding intensity, the angelic beauties had been, yet again, replaced by the hideous faces.
    The light strobed. The flickering brilliance revealed the surrounding faces switching from hideous to human…hideous to human…hideous to human.
    I recalled a trick – a way to cancel out the effect of strobe lighting. It came in handy as a child, when the blinking of such lights inevitably brought bile to my throat. I blinked my eyes in perfect rhythm with the light and caught a glimpse behind the curtain. As the light went black, the surrounding people donned masks. With every other flash of light, they’d be revealed with their masks on. The effect was brilliant – once you understood what was happening. Without that understanding, your brain tricked you into thinking a hideous transformation had occurred. From human to hideous and back again.
    A brilliant commentary on the state of society in the country. We are victims of our own perception and nothing more.
    Sally grabbed my hand and gave it a hard squeeze. “Oh my God, Scott. Is this incredible or what?”
    My blinking fell out of sync with the strobing effect and the lights went completely dark. The screams finally echoed to silence. From within that blanket of quiet, a raspy breathing rose very near to me. A sour smell, almost almond-y in fragrance, drifted up to get caught in my breath.
    Without word or warning, the lights flashed back on (this time to stay), to reveal each of the bodies had stepped away from the wall and were standing nose to nose with an audience member. As luck would have it, the hanging redhead stood before me, a glowing white smile gracing her lovely lips. Oddly enough, she wasn’t wearing her mask, so that sickly green flesh was replaced by a flawless, milky-white complexion, with the slightest bit of color on the cheeks. Her eyes were the green of rolling Irish hills.
    My