The Camera Man Page 20

  She pulls Irene back and then crushes her head one more time against the wall, this time causing blood to splatter across the wallpaper. Letting go of the head, she allows Irene to crumble dead to the floor with blood flowing freely from the wound on her forehead. A dark, bloody stain has been left on the wall.

  “That's one down,” Doris mutters, turning toward Eleanor's frozen figure, “now I just need -”

  “- to get rid of one more!” Eleanor screams, lunging forward and grabbing Doris's head before slamming her repeatedly against the wall. She keeps going and going, until she's pounded Doris's head to a pulp. The top of the dead woman's spine is poking out through the bloodied mess, and finally Doris falls to the floor.

  Slowly, Eleanor turns and looks around, before reaching up to touch her face. Her old, spindly fingers brush against her white eyes.

  “Wait,” she gasps, “I killed the wrong one. I was supposed to keep the one that could see and hear. This one is blind!”

  “We're getting out of here!” Julio says firmly, pulling me toward the elevator. “Now!”

  “Wait,” I stammer, “we have to help the -”

  “Now!” he shouts.

  Hearing a scream over my shoulder, I turn to see that Eleanor is slamming her head against the wall.

  “I need another one!” she gurgles, as blood flows from her mouth. “I need a better one!”

  As Julio hits the button for the elevator again, I stare in horror at Eleanor. She's bashing her head against the wall over and over, each time crumpling her face a little more and causing more blood to flow from her shattered cheek. Finally she drops to her knees, still groaning about needing a different or better body, and she's managed to smash away half her face.

  “Get in!” Julio yells as the elevator's door slides open.

  “I need a new one!” Eleanor shouts in the corridor. “I need -”

  Suddenly there's a horrific crunching sound, and I hear her body slump to the floor.

  “Nobody's going to believe this,” I whisper, taking a step back. “Samuel was right. Everything he said was true, but the police are never going to accept that!”

  “They will,” Julio says firmly, still jabbing the buttons on the control panel. “Somehow. I don't know what's going on here, but your friend lost her mind. And your neighbors just killed themselves in front of you!”

  “Chrissie wouldn't do any of those things,” I reply as I hear Eleanor's dying rasps. “It wasn't Chrissie,” I add as I turn to see that Julio is hitting the button for the lobby. “Something else was in her body. Something else had taken control of her.”

  “That's insane,” he points out, as the door slides shut.

  “I know, but it's what happened.” I look down at the camera. “I think I have proof, too.”

  The chamber starts going down, and I step back against the mirrored wall.

  “I think maybe Patrick Duggan was telling the truth,” I continue, as I feel a sense of realization creeping up through my chest. “He said something was watching me. He said something was interested in me, some kind of new... He used the word god, but he can't have meant that, not really. But he said something was watching, and Chrissie talked about the same thing. How could that be? They never met, they had no reason to believe the same things, so it's not possible unless -”

  Suddenly the elevator chamber lurches to a halt.

  Looking over at Julio, I realize he just pressed the emergency stop button.

  And then, a moment later, I see that as he stands with his back turned to me, he seems to be taking very slow, very awkward breaths.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  “What's wrong?” I ask, trying not to panic. “Julio, is it the elevator? Is there a problem?”

  I wait, but all I hear is his rasping, snatched breaths.

  “Julio?”

  “This works better,” he gasps, sounding a little pained as he slowly turns to me. “This one works properly. I think the damage to the other ones... I thought I needed to crack its head open, so I could get inside, but I was wrong. I broke its breathing, or maybe I've just learned better. I could breathe in the old women, but their bodies were useless to me. Either way...”

  He pauses, before suddenly stepping back and taking a huge, loud breath that seems to startle him.

  “I can do it!” he adds with a smile. “I can feel air coming in and going out! I can do it!”

  “What are you talking about?” I ask, even though I'm terrified deep down that he's starting to sound a little like Chrissie. “Why aren't we moving? We have to get outside and call the police!”

  “This body is better,” he continues, reaching up and touching the sides of his face, almost as if he's consumed by awe. “This body, I can control. Maybe I had to ruin the first body, just so I could learn better.”

  “I want to get out of here,” I tell him, hoping against hope that this is some kind of joke. “Julio, start the elevator again. Now!”

  He stares at the floor for a moment, before turning to me.

  “These eyes are different to the eyes I had a moment ago. The colors are a little brighter, and the depth of the world seems so much fuller. I never realized how different human eyes saw the world in such different ways.”

  “I want to get out of here!”

  I reach toward the elevator control panel, but Julio immediately steps in my way and I instinctively move back until I bump against the mirrored wall.

  “I was born in the void created by all the cameras,” he says after a moment. “I looked out at the world through them all, and at first I was content just to watch. Eventually, however, I knew I had to come and see the world with my own eyes. I looked at billions and billions of people, all at once, and finally I realized I would just have to pick one randomly and follow that person.”

  Staring at him, I realize that he seems to genuinely believe all of this.

  The worst part is, I'm starting to believe it too.

  Samuel was telling the truth. Before he died, every word he said to me was true.

  “Why me?” I ask finally.

  “I had to pick someone,” he replies. “Whoever I'd picked, they'd be standing in front of me now, asking the same question. I chose at random, and here we are.”

  “And you've been watching me my whole life?”

  Even as those words leave my lips, I know that they sound utterly ridiculous. At the same time, I think I'm finally ready to accept that truth about what has been happening.

  Patrick Duggan, the camera man, was right all along.

  “I used Duggan to focus on you,” Julio says. Or rather, the thing in Julio's body says. “There were times when you wandered out of range of all the cameras, so I needed someone who could follow you and fill in the gaps. At first it was enough to see you from afar, but I suppose I became greedy. I wanted to get closer and closer, to see you whatever you were doing. Duggan tried to fight back sometimes, to persuade me that enough was enough. I grew tired of him, and of having to bend him to my will.”

  “Who are you?” I ask, even as my voice starts trembling with fear. “What are you?”

  “I don't have a name,” he replies. “I thought maybe you could choose one for me. As for what I am... I think there are others like me, but I also think they are much older. They grew conscious in other voids created by humanity, many years ago. You call them gods, I think. From my limited interaction with them, I believe they don't mind that name at all. They see me as a child, as something very new and ill-formed. I shall have to grow some more before they accept me.” Slowly, he reaches a hand toward me. “You can help with that. You can teach me.”

  I shake my head.

  “I need someone to help me,” he continues. “I'm all alone. I think that might be another reason I came to you. I need guidance.”

  “You need to start the elevator again,” I reply, with fresh tears in my eyes. “You need to let me go.”

  “I'm so sorry if I damaged your soul,” he says. “I know the c
ameras do that, don't they? They draw out a little of the soul. That's why I knew it was wrong of me to be watching you, but I couldn't help myself. I had this insatiable appetite that couldn't be stopped.”

  “Cameras don't do anything to souls,” I tell him. “They're just machines.”

  “No, they damage the soul!” he says firmly. “I'm sure of it! I felt myself drawing parts of your soul out every time I looked at you! I could almost taste what I was taking from you!”

  “No, you're wrong,” I reply. “Whatever and whoever you are, you're wrong about what you've been doing! You haven't taken even the smallest part of my soul!”

  “Maybe you didn't feel it leaving your body.”

  “You didn't take anything from me!” I shout. “You've barely even figured out how to breathe, and now you think you know how people work?”

  “Teach me,” he replies plaintively, almost starting to sound pathetic now. “I need to know.”

  “You have to start by getting out of that body,” I tell him. “You've already killed my -”

  Stopping suddenly, I realize what I was about to say.

  “You've already killed my friend,” I whisper, as a slow sense of fury starts filling my thoughts. “You killed Chrissie. You used her, and then you killed her.”

  “These bodies are so fragile.”

  “You killed my best friend in the whole world,” I continue, “and you've killed other people too. You killed Kelly at the hotel, and even Patrick Duggan didn't deserve to die. You were using him, the way you've been using everyone else!”

  “I need a body,” he replies, holding his hands up slowly so that I can see he's trembling. “You'll teach me, won't you? You'll help me learn how to exist in this world. I have powers and strengths that will make everybody bow down before me. The others stay in the shadows, but I don't want to be like them! I've been watching the billions of people for long enough! Now it's time for them to see me, and to know that I exist, and to...”

  He pauses, as if he's searching for the right word.

  “Worship me,” he whispers finally. “It's not enough for me to know them. They must know me, and they must worship me.”

  Realizing that he's completely crazy, I start trying to figure out the best way to knock him out. I need to get the elevator started again, and then I need to keep him away from the panel until we reach the ground floor. Once the door opens, I'll be able to call for help, and I'm sure somebody will hear me eventually.

  “It's not enough to see you,” he says suddenly, taking another step toward me. “I prepared myself for the sensation of bones, but I never realized how heavy and rich this meat would be. I need more. I need your meat. I thought I wanted to look at you, but now I realize I want to be you instead. I'm sorry, but you're going to have to give me your body.”

  “You've got to be -”

  Suddenly he lunges at me, screaming as he grabs me by the arms and slams me against the wall. Dropping the camera, I try to slip away, but he twists me around and presses me into the corner before biting down hard on my neck. I feel his teeth cutting through my skin, and a moment later I hear a gurgled, satisfied groan coming from his lips.

  “I don't know what I want,” he slobbers, “but I want your body!”

  “No!”

  I elbow him hard in the ribs, causing him to fall back a little. Lunging for the elevator's control panel, I almost manage to hit the button for the ground floor, only for Julio – or the thing that's in Julio's body – to haul me back and wrap his arms around me, squeezing me tight as he bites my neck again.

  I scream as I feel blood trickling down my neck.

  “I want it all!” he groans. “The meat, the bones, the flesh, the skin, the blood, the soul, everything. I never realized how hungry I'd feel once I entered a human body. I don't know how the others manage to hold themselves back, but I need to take you all! Every inch! Every drop! I've tasted your soul, and now I want the rest!”

  He bites deeper and harder, and I scream as I try in vain to push him away. He's holding me so firmly, pressing my face against the elevator's door, and for a moment I feel my whole body starting to loosen, as if I'm about to give up.

  “No!” I shout finally, finding one last surge of strength from somewhere and shoving Julio back. He hits the opposite wall and I slam against his chest, causing the entire chamber to shake, and then I turn and slam my fist against the side of his face.

  He pulls away, and I stumble back until I trip and fall sobbing onto the floor. Reaching up, I touch the side of the neck and then I look at my hand, and I'm horrified by the sheer amount of blood that's pouring down. I try to stand, only for my legs to give way, sending me crashing back down. Finally, pulling myself back until I'm leaning against the door, I look up at Julio and see that he's towering over me.

  There's blood all over his mouth, running down and splattering against his shirt.

  My blood.

  “It tastes so good,” he purrs. “Even better than your soul.”

  “You haven't taken my soul,” I stammer breathlessly. “You haven't taken any of it.”

  “Of course I have,” he replies, wiping his chin as he steps closer. “Piece by piece, over the years. And now I get to consume the rest of you.”

  I turn and look over at the control panel, but I don't think I've got a hope of reaching. A moment later, just as I'm about to turn back to Julio, I spot something resting on the floor.

  The camera.

  “I'd tell you this won't hurt,” Julio says, reaching down and taking hold of my arm, “but to be honest, I don't have a clue.”

  Pulling away, I reach for the camera and pull it closer. My hands are trembling and the pain in my neck is getting worse with each passing second, but I know I only have one chance.

  “You have been my awakening,” the thing inside Julio says. “I will never forget you, and I will never -”

  Suddenly he falls silent as I hold the camera up and aim the lens at him. Looking at him through the viewfinder, I immediately see the fear in his eyes.

  “What are you doing?” he asks.

  “What does it look like?” I ask, my voice trembling as I struggle to stay conscious. “I'm doing to you, the exact same thing that you've been doing to me. I'm taking your soul with a camera.”

  I know that's not true, of course, but it's clear that the creature inside Julio is less certain. He stares at me for a moment, before taking a cautious step backward.

  “More and more of it,” I continue, hoping to really drive the fear home. “I can feel it,” I add, which is a lie. “You were right after all, cameras do take souls, and I'm taking yours right now.”

  “No,” he replies, sounding increasingly uncertain, “that's impossible.”

  “But I'm doing it right now,” I continue, barely strong enough to keep the camera in front of my face, “and it feels so good.”

  Wincing, I pull myself back a little, until I'm leaning against the wall. I keep the camera raised, watching Julio through the viewfinder, and I swear now I can see a hint of genuine fear in his eyes. Even if I don't believe everything I've heard tonight, I know I have to go with it for now. There'll be time for figuring out the truth later. At this exact moment, I just have to find a way to survive.

  “I can feel your soul coming to me,” I tell him. “You must be able to feel it too.”

  “You're lying,” he replies. “I can't feel anything!”

  “I can definitely feel it,” I continue, trying to make myself sound greedy and hungry. “I want it all. It's flowing through the camera and into me. I finally understand what you meant earlier, when you said you could feel yourself consuming my soul, it's the most wonderful -”

  “Stop!” he shouts, taking a step toward me before I raise the camera even higher, which causes him to step back. “I'm ordering you to stop that!”

  “I can't help myself,” I reply.

  More and more blood is dribbling down the side of my neck, and I can feel myself getting tired
, but I know I have to keep going.

  “I'm going to take all of you,” I continue. “Every last drop.”

  “No!” he hisses. “That's the wrong way round! I'm the one who's supposed to consume you!”

  He sounds like a child now, throwing an angry tantrum because he isn't getting what he wants.

  “I want to drain you,” I tell him, as I start slowly getting up from the floor. As I do so, I accidentally touch a button on the side of the camera, causing the flash to come up. Figuring that I might as well try to speed things along, I fumble for one of the other buttons. “In fact,” I continue, “I know a way to suck your soul right out of that body.”

  “No, you don't!” he spits back at me, cowering in the corner of the elevator. “You're lying!”

  “Am I?”

  With that, I press one of the buttons, and the camera briefly flashes as I take a photo.

  “Stop!” Julio screams, dropping to his knees and putting his hands over his face. “I want this body! I want to stay in this one!”

  “I can't help myself,” I whisper, before taking another picture, then another. Each time, the camera's flash briefly lights the entire chamber, reflecting against the mirrored wall and filling the entire space with startling brightness.

  “I'm ordering you to stop!” Julio gasps. “I'm telling you right now, you have to give me the camera!”

  “Just stay in that body for a moment longer,” I reply, “and I'll be able to take all of you.”

  “No!”

  He stumbles to his feet, but I can tell from the look in his eyes that he's still scared.

  “You won't take my soul,” he stammers, “you're not even -”

  I hit the button again. The camera is beeping now, warning of a low battery, but I force myself to take another photo, then another, and finally I step closer to Julio as he backs into the farthest corner and starts whimpering.

  “Just a few more,” I tell him, “and I'll have all of you.”

  “I won't let you take me,” he sobs, cowering behind his own hands. “I'd rather leave this body, but I'll find a way back. I won't let you do this to me!”