Excerpt: Rorschach

When he skidded to a stop just outside the doors that led to the yard where everyone got picked up, his heart jumped into his throat to see Victor standing by the bench he always sat on. Victor seemed to be standing oddly—like he was the Leaning Tower of Piza, which was a factoid he should have remembered earlier today in class—but it was Victor, so who cared about his posture? Ryan flew toward him.

“Hi, Ryan,” Victor said as he neared, and the voice halted Ryan in midstep. This was not Victor’s voice. The voice was raspy, a very poor copy of Victor’s, as if Victor had taken up smoking when he was an infant. When he looked up at Victor’s face, too, there was something wrong with his eyes, though Ryan couldn’t quite pinpoint it. “I’m here to pick you up.”

“Are you sick?” Ryan asked, taking a step back. “Your voice…” Another step back.

“I’m here to pick you up,” Not-Victor repeated, taking a step forward to close the gap. One of his strides was worth two of Ryan’s. “Let’s go, Ryan. I’m here to pick you up. Let’s go, Ryan.”

“Go away,” Ryan whispered, eyes wide. “Something’s—you’re not right—” He edged away again. “Go away!”

“Hi, Ryan,” Not-Victor said again, and this time he smiled big, his mouth becoming like a fracture in his face. His teeth took a moment to appear, and when they did they seemed like they didn’t quite align. Like the lower set had been shifted over left by one tooth-width, even though his jaw looked completely normal from the outside. “Let’s go. I’m here to pick you up.”

“Leave me alone!” Ryan whisper-screamed, and his body turned before his face did to run away. When he faced forward, he slammed into a skinny body, which was Victor. No, it was Not-Victor, when he looked up. He fought not to scream. There were too many people looking—why weren’t they helping him, it was so clear Not-Victor was a monster!

He took off again, and he yelped when he ran into a body again. He pushed away with both hands, and coordinated hands took him by the shoulder.

“Whoa, whoa,” a smooth voice said from above, “what’re you doing? Is this some new game I don’t know about?”

Ryan looked up into Victor’s face, real Victor with real teeth and a real voice, and he threw his arms around Victor’s waist gratefully. He buried his face in Victor’s coat, and Victor rubbed the top of his head. “Man, what happened to you? You look like you saw a ghost, kid.”

Ryan didn’t say anything, and Victor just let him stay like that for a while, petting Ryan’s head and back soothingly while he waited for Ryan to calm down. Truthfully, Ryan calmed down long before he was ready to let go, but he desperately wanted the human contact after being cornered by that—thing. Not-Victor.