Authors: Matt Stephens
By the time he looked back to the streetlight, she was gone. He paused in the middle of the empty street.
A moment later she reappeared, stepping into the light. She had been less than two feet away, and he hadn't seen her. "Miss me?"
"How do you do that?" Vincent asked.
"There are three rules. Call it our philosophy, if you will." She held up three fingers, her long coat waving a bit around her ankles. "Be invisible. Be daring. Be beautiful." She stepped back again, and was swallowed in the darkness. Invisible again, Vincent grinned and followed her. The streetlight was bright against his eyes, and once past the light, he could see the shadows clearly.
"It's a trick of the light." She explained. "You can't see through bright lights to darkness. It's like when you're trying to see outside your windows at night from a well lit room. Easier to see in than out."
"And just like that, you're invisible." Vincent nodded, getting to know the rules of this new viewpoint.
"
We're
invisible." She corrected primly. "You're right here with me."
She was standing very close to him again. He suddenly noticed and swallowed, reminding himself that this was goodbye.
She turned to walk, and he followed, both of them trotting down the street. They didn't speak for a while, but the silence was comfortable between them as they walked. "Where are we going?" He asked finally.
"Field test." She said easily. "First exam on being invisible."
She had led him to the Museum of Natural History.
Yasi ignored the steps completely and took him around the side of the building. The maintenance doors were marked staff only, and had keypads and card readers…
"We don't have a ticket." Vincent teased.
She just grinned back. "We don't even need a key."
The door opened before her like a magic trick. She'd done something to it, but Vincent couldn't for the life of him guess what. She was as human as he was; he knew that; there was nothing supernatural about anything he'd seen. But she could disappear in the simplest shadow, locks and doors were nothing to her, she could dance on a spire and run on a wire…
For some reason Connie came to mind just then, and Vincent found himself feeling guilty. Like he was hiding from the real world; running around Neverland so he wouldn't have to grow up…
She clearly knew her way, glancing up at the cameras every now and then, leading him along the narrow corridors to evade them with an almost bored expression on her face.
Once they got out into the exhibits, she loosened up considerably. He walked with her through the floors. Coming and going between levels was easy with Yasi to open the security grates for them. Vincent had seen them before, but the exhibits all changed in the dark. The Ocean creatures were more mysterious, the tribal huts looked more threatened, the carnivore statues and models looked more menacing. All of it seemed more natural, the dim light glinting off glass eyes, making them seem more alive, though still…
"You've obviously done this before. You come here often?" He asked her.
"There's a subway station down a few levels." Yasi said. "A few guards, several cameras, lots of unusual shapes and shadows. We bring the kids up here sometimes, once they hit six years old; sort of like field trips, let them get used to being invisible…"
Vincent smirked, despite himself. "My first day of school?"
"And your last." Yasi commented without joy, opening yet another security door without hesitation.
The night tour took them all over the building, across five levels and dozens of rooms. Yasi told him that there were guards, but she knew their schedules.
Vincent had been there before of course, but not for years. The exhibits had changed dramatically since then, as interests and technology changed. More screens, more exhibits about the history of cars and planes and spaceflight… It was damn spooky with all the lights off, and the few lights from outside making some rooms glow, and the rooms within pitch black. Shadows extended from the skeletons of dinosaurs and made monsters on the walls.
He felt like he was going to get in trouble. If somebody caught him, he most certainly was. The fact that he was trespassing had never entered his mind until this exact moment. He looked back for Yasi…
She was gone.
Vincent froze. The huge echoing room, full of shadows and imaginary monsters was suddenly suffocating. The dead eyes of African predators glared down at him from behind their enormous teeth… He hadn't felt this out of place since walking through the Underside's darkness…
And then he saw movement. He spun to face it… And saw Yasi sitting on the elephant exhibit, resting on her elbows, lying prone across the elephant's head. She waved down at him like she was riding the huge animal through India.
"Is that safe?" Vincent asked.
"Likely not." Yasi agreed, and slid down to land neatly on the floor without blinking. "You want to see things like we do, you have to learn it. It's not something we're born with. You remember what I told you about the Rhythm? Pick a place in this room, and ask yourself how to get there. That's what we do. Anywhere in this city, above, below, outside a building, inside a building. It's all the Rhythm, its all pathways to follow."
Voices. Distant voices, echoing off the silent walls.
Vincent froze and looked over his shoulder. Yasi just grinned, in her element. She caught his arm and pulled him into the shadow of one of the exhibits. Not behind it, not under it, just next to it, away from the moonlight.
"You said you knew their schedule." He hissed.
"I do." She shot back quietly. "But what's the point of being invisible if nobody's looking?"
They stayed still, in the shadow of an African hut, with a hundred odd stuffed birds in the next room, and a gift shop on the other side, and two guards coming through. The guards didn't notice them, and were in fact more interested in talking to each other.
"She's starting to think you were just humoring us all that time. It took me an hour to convince her she wasn't a horrible cook, and then you canceled on us again..."
"She
is
a good cook!"
The guards were having a private conversation as they walked through the museum they were guarding, shining their torches over the exhibits.
Vincent and Yasi weren't hiding behind anything, they weren't under a table, they were just standing there... With only a protective layer of shadow covering them. Yasi's hand was over his lips, the other over his watch...
A reflective surface.
Vincent realized.
Light could reflect off my watch, and draw his attention to this exact shadow.
One torch beam went less than a foot to their left over the exhibit. One of the guards… was staring right at them. Vincent felt his heart stop. The guard was looking right at his face. How was he not seeing them? He was close enough for Vincent to read the name ‘Vossler' on his name-tag.
Vincent couldn't believe it was really happening. It was insane. He and Yasi were two feet from the nearest of the two guards, two feet from his flashlight, his radio, his nightstick, his gun...
"Don't get me wrong, I love coming over." One was saying. "You and Kathryn are family, but…"
"But what?"
"Look, it's not a huge deal…"
Vossler paused, still looking in the direction of Yasi and Vincent. "Oh my god!"
Vincent felt his heart stop.
Vossler spun to his friend, struck suddenly by a revelation. "Oh my god, it's her breath isn't it?"
Yasi was biting her lip to keep from smiling. Vincent was trying not to breathe so loud. It took him a full four seconds to realize they were still having the conversation they were having when they walked in.
"I know exactly what you mean! it's this new cabbage diet she ready about." Vossler said forgivingly. "I wake up to it every morning; the pot plant in our room is dying!"
"Oh thank god, I thought I was about to get my teeth bashed in. You talk to her about it?"
"And tell her what? Her new diet makes her breath stink so bad it brings tears to my eyes; and makes our friends avoid us?"
Their embarrassing little conference continued till they were out of the exhibit and off into the next room. Yasi signaled the all clear and the two of them came out of hiding.
"Wh... Why didn't they... How could they not notice us?" Vincent demanded.
Yasi grinned winningly at him. "Same reason you couldn't see me at the streetlight. The dark hides us. You cannot see into dark places when you're standing in the light." She smiled brilliantly, suddenly exquisitely beautiful again. "Is that a great metaphor or what?"
~oo00oo~
The Tour of the Museum ended with the rooftop, and they got a great view of Central Park by night.
Vincent was still breathing hard, feeling his heart race. "I don't know why that was so nerve-wracking."
Yasi chuckled. She wasn't mocking him, she was just amused. "Well, that's part one."
"What's part two?"
"I told you. Three rules. Be Invisible. Be
Daring
..."
"Be daring how?"
"Like me with the Elephant. Pick a place and go there."
Vincent shivered, and not because of the cold.
~oo00oo~
"Sorry to be so slow." Vincent croaked.
"You're doing fine." Yasi called back. "Plenty of people would have chickened out by now. Or fallen."
"True." Vincent called back, trying not to think about that. "On the other hand, my underwear is riding up into places I'd rather not think about."
"Can't help you with that." Yasi said blandly. "I never wear any."
Vincent missed the next handhold and dropped. Yasi's hand flashed out, quick as a whip-crack, and steadied him. "See you at the top."
And with that, she clambered up the side of the wall, finding grips in the brickwork that Vincent couldn't even see. Vincent was holding onto the ladder with a death grip, trying not to think about how high he was.
She had taken him to the train lines, to where the elevated lines were. She had scaled up the side of the nearest building; an apartment block that was quiet for the night. Vincent craned his had back and saw that the building had two rooftops, one section of the building going higher than the rest. The taller section had a ladder near the top that lead up to the higher roof, above the train line. The second rooftop, much lower, was where she waited for him.
It was a struggle, the grips seeming to be much narrower than they looked. Vincent was struggling to meet the challenge. He tried to keep himself in good shape, could do more push-ups than most office workers, but the building had him exhausted by the second story. Every time his foot slipped, or his fingers gave out, she was right there to catch him, and Vincent was grateful. But at the same time, he couldn't comprehend why he wanted to do this. Why wasn't he at home asleep like a sane person be?
He grabbed the largest ledge yet. It was a windowsill, not unlike his bedroom window. Yasi could sit comfortably on one of these, waiting for him to wake up. Vincent gripped the ledge and prayed the people inside didn't hear him puffing outside their room. If someone opened this window he was a dead man.
Another few feet, and Vincent was stunned to realize he had reached the rooftop. As exhausted as he was, he wanted to cheer at the top of his lungs. He'd done it! He'd climbed up the side of a building! He felt like jelly, he was sweating through his clothes, and he still couldn't look down, but he'd done it.
Vincent clambered over the ledge, gulping air. She was waiting for him at the edge, eyes closed, cross legged, serene expression. She was on the edge of emptiness, meditating soundly.
Vincent put his head between his knees and focused on breathing.
"Do you remember the day we met?" She asked him finally.
"Vividly." He whispered. "You changed my whole world view that day."
Yasi nodded, not at all surprised. "The day we met, I led you through the darkness. You trusted me, and you had a lot less reason to." She held out a hand to him, and he took it. "I told you that I wouldn't let you stumble or be lost. Did you believe me then?"
"Yes."
"I won't let you fall off the building, won't let you drop." She intoned. "Do you believe me now?"
Vincent bit his lip, still breathing hard. "Yes."
Yasi grinned. "This next part is tricky. You go up the maintenance ladder, but after that, you have to climb
outside
the safety cage to get to the roof. You'll have to push off, and grab onto the ledge. There will be no way to reach. You'll have to jump it."
Vincent swallowed, and went to the ladder. Up above, the next rooftop up was above the railway, and had a phone exchange, or an electrical transformer... The ladder was caged, which meant workmen went up and down it often. It also meant that the ladder was locked off, so that nobody could climb it without permission.