Granny's Cabin II

Bob was there — a floating distortion, a glitch, a swirl of universe soot that sparked purple and made the back of your brain vibrate if you looked for too long.

“Bob?” Damian said, wincing.

“For the love of all things green, please stop calling me that,” Bob said.

“Aaarrh!” Ash grabbed her head, collapsing to her knees. Damian rushed to help.

“Ash?! What’s wrong?”

“I … I don’t know. I can’t … I can’t open my eyes, everything is too bright.”

“Let’s get you into a darker room then.” Damian sounded about as concerned as he might if he were answering the question “what’s for dinner,” but he worried any time Ash was in pain.

Damian walked her back to the living room. It was nestled back in the darker rooms of the cabin, where the windows were still shuttered from whoever last cared for this place.

“Any better?” Damian asked. Ash shook her head, unable to respond. He helped her lie down, made sure she was comfortable, and went back to Bob. Or, not-Bob.

“So, not-Bob. What should I call you?”

“I … do not know.” His voice didn’t seem to have an origin. It filled the room and was absent at the same time. “Things are … different here. I cannot … I do not know.” The voice was deeper in real life than it had been in Damian’s mind.

As if to remind them that there were other more pressing matters at hand, the room began to rumble again, this time accompanied by large cracking sounds under the floor.

Damian’s eyes widened. “Well not-Bob, we have to get out of here. Can you wal—err, move?”

Damian didn’t wait for an answer. He went to the living room to help Ash get to the car. Helping move these things, whatever they were, from one plane of existence to another was already a lot. But this? Having one here? He didn’t know what to think. Right now, he didn’t particularly care.

This world can split in two, I don’t give a shit. He hoisted Ash to her feet. She struggled to open her eyes, but couldn’t keep them open long enough to see where she was going.

“I got you.” Damian ducked under one of her arms and guided her to the car. He grabbed his keys and even managed to scoop up a water bottle on the way out the door.

The cracking noises were louder than anything he’d ever heard. “Loud” wasn’t quite right though, it was like they were in the sound.

They might have a minute. Probably less.

He lowered her swiftly through the passenger side door, and turned toward the driver’s side door, where not-Bob was waiting near the hood.

“If you’re coming with us, do it however you will, but do it now.” Damian pushed himself into the driver’s seat and slammed the door. Not-Bob drifted into the car, spinning slightly in the back seat. Damian wondered if not-Bob needed to be in the car, or if he could just kind of float along behind them. It might be less terrifying. No time now for suggestions, and he started the car.

With the cracking sound came the familiar pull downward, and he could feel the stress on the car. These tires better hold, he thought, as he peeled down the dirt road.

CRRRRAAAAA-BOOM

“What was that?” Ash curled up in the front seat with her head in her hands.

Damian looked in the rear view as he crossed into the forest.

The earth was silent, and Granny’s Cabin was gone.