Chapters Chapter 1: Just a Normal Day At Work
Markus continued his jog through the city, rushing to beat a clock which had already struck. He reached his destination and stopped in front of a large glass skyscraper located a few blocks from downtown. The tower was very clean looking, and as it reflected the sun light one might be lead to believe it was made of diamonds.
The inside of the building was even more posh then the outside, and immaculately kept. A large directory hung on the nearest wall, showing the various departments and corporations which held offices in the tower. Markus rounded the corner of the lobby desk making his way to the series of elevators. As Markus stood their waiting for next car he couldn't help but look around nervously.
He was afraid that someone would notice he was late that his boss might be hiding in the shadows, waiting for him. Yet, perhaps even more then his boss, he feared that she would appear again. At any moment she could pop out of the either and...
"Sir are you ok?" A strong dominate voice bellowed from behind him.
Markus jumped at the security guard’s question, spilling some coffee on himself in the process.
"What, oh yeah. I'm fine, just a bit late." He stammered.
The elevator door opened in front of him, but before he could make it in the guard stopped him.
"Sir, I need you to come with me." He spoke.
Markus could only sigh in response as he pulled out his office ID.
The guard looked over his badge, noticing that Markus was still darting his eyes around nervously.
"Mr. Kings, is there any reason for you to be nervous?" The guard squinted at him.
"Yes, I'm very late getting to work. I'm worried that my boss is going to catch me coming in late, and... look it's just not something I want to deal with."
The guard considered what Markus had told him and looked over his ID one last time before handing it back.
"I've got my eye on you." He spoke before turning around to find someone else to occupy his time.
Markus turned around just in time to see the elevator door close in front of him.
"Damn it", he whispered to himself, and pressed the button again.
Markus snaked his way through the cube forest, trying to hide from the ever prying eyes of his boss and certain coworkers. He was barely a foot from his cube when...
"Markus you're late again!" Markus' boss yelled at him from across the aisle. His boss had been waiting for him apparently.
"Sorry sir, I was just..." Markus couldn't finish before he was interrupted.
"I don't care what you were doing, you're late. I don't want excuses. Next time I'm going to fire your ass!" He finished yelling before descending back into his dark office to hide, plot and scream. Or at least that's what he wanted people to think. In truth, he just tend to his virtual farm.
"Man, Stark is in a bad mood today. Bad timing on your part Markus." Markus felt the sharp hand of Jordan, one of his coworkers on his back.
"Yeah..." Markus responded with a shake of the head, before returning to his cube to work. For a quick moment he thought he might have saw a green flash out of the corner of his eye. He shook his head and it was gone.
"So, you got the k-Teck report done yet? Stark wanted it by the meeting this afternoon." Jordan smiled at his puts of a coworker.
Markus looked around his cube for the flagged document he needed. His cube was a complete mess, filled with stacks of papers, despite being in he 21st century, Markus' firm often operated on older technologies, like fax machines and hard copies of reports. Not that it bothered Markus, reading these reports always seemed easier when they were on paper.
He picked up the top sheet in a near by pile. "Yeah, this is it." He spoke and handed it of to Jordan. Who seemed almost surprised.
"Wow, I'm impressed you got this done."
"Yeah, Stark was a bit slow in getting the paperwork to me. But I finished it last night."
"You mind if I take this over to him now?"
Markus nodded his agreement as Jordan walked away with the report. Making sure to take the very long way around so he could read it.
Having finished that, Markus dug though a large stack of paper work labeled "Mics. Inbox". He pulled a document from near the top of the pile, and glanced at the foreign characters over it. They looked to be a series of Chines characters, in fact the whole paper was in Chines. Markus squinted as he glanced over the top line again. "What is this shit?" he whispered to himself.
"Something wrong Markus?" He nearly jumped out of his chair at the sound of a female voice. A part of his mind feared it was her again. When he looked to the side of his cube he sighed in relief. It was just Karen.
'Just Karina' he thought to himself. That was hardly correct. Markus had a crush on the secretary since the first day he meet her. She was sweet, quite generous, and if he was going to be honest, fucking gorgeous.
"Markus are you ok?" He could almost hear Lyra speak. His eyes went wide as he tried to shake the phantom voices from his head.
"I'm sorry, what?" He responded.
"I asked if you were ok? I know Stark and the others kind of throw documents at you."
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. It's just this report they gave me." He showed Karen who's eyes popped out a bit at seeing the foreign script.
"Uhhh... Markus I can't read this."
"Oh right." He grabbed the paper work from her.
"Well, basically it says that HunShu is going to be late with the environmental report and need another extension. They've had nearly a year to get it to us." Markus sighed.
"At this point that means we either we drop their contract and lose the seven figure payout at completion, or we can stake this company's reputation that their mining group is following environmental regulations. Spoiler, they aren't." He tossed the paper on the other side of the cube.
"Wow, Markus. I'm always impressed that you can read all those foreign languages. How many do you know again?"
Markus smiled and stretched his arms out in a subtle display of alpha dominance. Or at least that what most anthropologist majors would say. "Well, not to brag, but I was studying linguistics in college. Got seven languages. under. my... belt?" Behind Karen he saw the large smile of the mischievous green unicorn.
"Hi again Markus!" she yelled.
The sudden surprise of his specter caused Markus to fall out of his chair. Lyra quickly ran over to the fallen human. Sensing that this was the perfect chance for her to make up.
He could see and even feel the unicorn on his chest as she stared into his eyes. "Hey I just wanted to say I was sorry about earlier. I know I can make other ponies uncomfortable and I don't want you to feel that way. So are good now? Can we be friends?" Her smile was small, but full of hope. He could almost see her tail wag slowly.
There was something about her smile and voice and it's entrancing sweetness; Markus couldn't help himself when he said "Ok, can you please get off my chest?"
"Oh my god! Are you ok, Markus?" He saw Karen hovering over him at this point.
"You're not having a heart attack are you? Do you need me to call ambulance?" The concern on her face was touching. For a moment he thought he just might need that ambulance. Then he processed what she actually said.
"Heart attack?" He whispered.
"Yeah, you just said it felt like something was on your chest?" Karen look at him with concern as Markus tried to pull himself up.
"Oh yeah, I'm fine. Just under a bit of stress."
Lyra took that as her que to start going on about the lecture Twilight had her prepare. “Stress isn't good you know. It's something you really need to take care of. Maybe you could have a party! There's this pony in Ponyville who throws these great parties would make your stress just disappear! Oh! Or the masseuses Aloe and Lotus! They're great at getting rid of stress. Maybe you could find a massage parlor here? or...” Lyra started babbling on about Ponyville and the various relaxing places to visit.
Karina was visibly concerned about Markus, as his eyes seemed to focus on fixed point of nothingness. "Markus, why do you keep staring at your cube like that?"
"Huh, oh right... You can't see her can you?" Markus pointed to Lyra who starting to get upset that he wasn't listening to her.
"You know, I do have a name." She crossed her front legs and mumbled "Mr. Human." as an attempt at a simple insult.
Karen smiled awkwardly at Markus' antics. she wasn't quite sure if this was some obscure joke or not.
"Ummm, Markus. There's nothing there?"
"Right!" He practically yelled. "Of course there's not. Hey I've got a bit of work to do, so why don't we talk later Karen?"
Karen nodded her head and smiled before walking away from him. 'That guys is so weird' she thought on her way back to her desk.
Markus sat back in his computer chair as he kept staring at the unicorn in his cube.
"What? Why are you staring? I don't have anything in my mane do I?" Lyra began to fish through her mane looking for some non existent twig or other blemish.
"Why are you here?" Markus finally asked.
"Me?" She pointed to herself with her hoof, "I'm here because you need a friend, and my help." Lyra stuck her chest out in a motion of pride.
"Or do you mean how like in a mechanical way? Because you can thank Princess Twilight for that! She's the one who built the dimensional projector. It's a pretty big device she made in one of the empty rooms in her castle, used the same crystal as that mirror portal of her's...” Lyra continued to ramble on about the inner workings of what Markus knew was some fictional device from his subconscious.
"Uh huh." Markus nodded his head. 'I'm talking to my own hallucinations, I'm really going insane aren't I?'
"Well the projector isn't really complete. That's why I can only be with you for about four hours a day."
"Four hours." Markus continued to nod his head as his apparent hallucination continued to talk.
"Yeah, once Twilight finishes building it I could be here as long as you need me, four hours, five hours, twelve hours. An entire DAY!" Lyra's pupils contracted as she yelled. She appeared to be as crazy as Markus thought himself to be.
Markus put his face into his hands and began to sob slightly. "This isn't happening." He mumbled to himself.
"Oh, come on Markus it will be ok. Twilight will have the machine finished in no time."He could somehow feel her hoof tap on his back in a reassuring gesture.
"No! It's not all right!" Markus cried out in a half yell half whisper.
"Everything ok, Markus?" He turned to see Paul holding some file folders. Paul had this look of concern in his eye, that everyone seemed to share today.
“Yeah, I'm fine. Just going over...” He looked around for something to pick and show. “The HunShu report.” His smile grew larger as he became more embarrassed at being seen talking to himself.
“Uh huh.” Paul seemed unconvinced, but was unmotivated to pursue the matter further. Paul was Stark's second in command. A good guy over all, but no real ambition.
“Well I'm just here to tell you there’s an emergency meeting in half an hour. You need to bring you notes on K-Teck with you.” There was something in his voice that made Markus worry. Lyra felt it too.
“Hmmm... I think there's something going on here. Do you have your notes for this teck k... thing.” Lyra started to ruffle though Markus' notes.
He grabbed a small stack of papers away from the pony. “Yes, they're in here some... where.”
Markus pulled out the papers and started to look them over. The unicorn may not exist, but that didn't mean she wasn't right, Markus thought. He almost slammed his head into the desk at how absurd that statement could have sounded anywhere else. His next thought, was about how many handles of rum he needed to buy tonight.
"How about this one?" Lyra pointed to a random paper in the pile.
"No." Markus didn't even bother to look at her as he moved on to the next paper.
"This one?" She continued.
He focused on the sheet, trying to ignore her. It was imperative that he was prepared for the meeting that was about to start.
There was bing from his computer a reminder of the meeting starting in about five minutes. Markus sighed and gave up. He couldn't find anything in this mess of paper work. There was just too much, here. The whole K-Teck account seemed to be thoroughly messed up, through no fault of his own making.
Markus didn't know for sure what the meeting was going to be about, but given the state of this account it couldn't have been anything good.
He gathered up most of the K-Teck paper work and filled it in a larger beige envelope. As he got up, he noticed a few of his coworkers heading to the meeting ahead of him.
As he turned the corner out of his cube he bumped into his current boss, Mr. Stark, who seemed quite in a huff. As Stark walked by, Markus caught a quick glimpse at the top page of the portfolio he was carrying. He couldn't read or make out anything, but for some reason a chill ran down his spine as he thought about it.
The first thing Markus noticed in the meeting was that everyone was visibly tense. It's likely that they all knew that this meeting couldn't be anything good.
Stark stat himself at the head of the table and then powered up a conference screen across the room. After a few seconds the face of an older executive appeared on it. Markus wasn't sure who it was but he seemed very important, and judging by several surprised and fearful expressions around the table it wasn't a good thing that he was here.
The giant face spoke, "Gentleman, I'm a very busy man so I'm just going to get down to it. Our firm is being sued by K-Teck. They are alleging a breach of contract on our end for failing to deliver the PR report we promised them a earlier this quarter. This report as you know dealt with an accident in their Myanmar factory complex. I don't want excuses; I want to know why we are late with this report and if our company is the one at fault. Mr. Stark, you are in charge of this branch?"
No one at the table could see the fear in Stark's face or the rapid heartbeat he currently felt as he collected himself. "Yes sir. We've been handling the K-Tech account since last March as you know. We've never been late with a report till now. Unfortunately the individual handling the account has failed to file the report yet." He turned his gaze towards Markus who had sudden realization that he was in the hot seat.
"So Markus, do you want to tell us why we are going to be late with the K-Teck account?" The manager's eyes were full of fire.
"I-I uh..." Markus stammered about. The last message he had seen about K-Teck was from Stark last night, after he dropped some paper work on his desk. Before that, the only paper work he had seen was over a month ago. In truth he was surprised to see anything on that company. He had thought the contract had been dropped.
"Sir, I'm not sure why were late with the contract. I finished going over the Q-10 and T-1 paper work you gave me last night and made my report this morning."
Stark lowered his head and smirked. It was exactly the response he was expecting and hopping for. "If you were paying attention, you'd know this isn't about their Q reports. You haven't even started on that PR spin report yet, have you?"
Now Markus was truly confused, he had no idea about any 'spin report'. "I was never given any paper work on it."
Stark continued to lay out claim after claim on Markus. Going over more and more data trying to show that he was indeed the one who dropped the ball on this.
"Not only were you given the paper work, as this memo here shows, but you've actively ignored the email that were sent out about it." Stark feigned a frown, but in truth he was smiling on the inside.
"That's a lie!" Lyra shouted, and ran over to him.
Markus tried to focus on what he was saying but having the pony in his face made it difficult.
"Well you see..."
"No, don't tell him that. Tell him the truth! Tell him what I just told you. The paperwork he has is different from the ones on your desk. He never even gave you the paperwork!"
Markus quickly turned his head and whispered to Lyra, “Will you just shut up for a minute!”
"Markus, is everything alright? This isn't too difficult for you is it?"
He thought about what Lyra had told him. Her eyes were pleading with him not to condemn himself for someone else's mistakes.
"Sir, with all due respect. I never received any forms over the past month. The forms you gave me were last month and incomplete, and had nothing to do with PR spin that you're talking about." He said it. Markus bit hit tongue at the thought of what he had just done.
Lyra fished through his folder and found his incomplete copies for him. "Here, these are them!" Markus looked down at the stack of papers and pulled out the one Lyra was pointing at. He looked it over quickly. 'How could she have known where it was in the stack? Furthermore how could she have known what was in Stark's portfolio?'
Questions he could answer later.
"Sir. This is the report you sent me a month ago." He handed the form towards Stark, as It passed Jordan's hands he took just a few seconds to glance over it. A small smirk crossed his lips as he further handed it up to Stark.
Stark's face flushed with rage, as he realized he had nowhere to vent it too. For a moment Markus feared what he had said, and what his boss might do now.
“Sir, perhaps we could all see this memo you and Markus are referring to?” Jordan spoke in an appertain effort to protect his coworker.
“You should have your own copies.” Was Stark's only response.
“I don't...” The face on the screen interrupted him.
“Mr. Stark, I'm very busy, put the memo on the document camera so we can move on.”
Stark swallowed hard and turned on a second monitor. Once he put the document in front of himself an overhead camera projected the document to both parties. Almost immediately, Markus could see what had happened.
"Now I see why I'm not in these email chains, I've never even seen this work group till now."
Now it was Stark's turn to stammer about as he fished for something to explain this. He had no idea that Markus was actually paying attention to all those papers in that mes he called a desk. He thought he could get away with his mistake of not adding Markus to the work group. A bead of sweat rolled down his face.
The executive on screen remained stone faced as he listened to Stark point fingers at other people under him. His excuses got progressively more and more inane.
"I've heard enough, I'm excusing everyone from this meeting. No doubt you all have work to do. Mr. Stark, I expect a video conference call with you once you're in the manager's office." It was curious how the executive used the word manager in place of Stark's own name.
As everyone made their way back to their respective desk, hushed tones could be heard as some of the people in meeting disgusted what had transpired. The sound of whispers quickly spread around the office floor as more and more people were brought into the fold of what happened.
Markus sat down at his desk and stared idly forward. It felt good to stand up for himself, for a change. A small subtle smile escaped his lips as he looked at his green figment. She had saved him; Somehow. If she was just a figment, an illusion, how could she have known those things? How could she have seen the memo Stark had?
For a moment, Markus wondered if she wasn't real. If perhaps everyone else was crazy for not being able to see her. He shook his head that though laid the way towards madness.
“Lyra, how did you know what Stark's memo said?”
“Well, that's what the top of it said. Everything you see I can see. Remember? I'm pretty sure I told you that?”
Markus just nodded in agreement, the though not really making any sense. In fact nothing today seemed to make much sense. “Yeah...”
Lyra perked her ears up and started looking around nervously. Markus was going to ask her what was wrong but she spoke before he could.
“Hey I have to go Markus, I have something’s I need to do in Ponyville. I'll be back in a few hours. Bye!” Lyra didn't even give Markus a chance to say good bye before she disappeared again.
Markus was still unsure about what had happened. The green unicorn in front of him had just disappeared again. 'Was she even there to begin with?'
Markus, rubbed his temples trying to massage away the headache he felt coming on. This was not what he needed. "She wasn't real, she never was. It was all you." He whispered to himself as he went back to work.
There was a stack of papers that he had to get to by the end of the day. He sighed as he picked the top one off his master inbox pile and started reading. It was in Arabic, he didn't know Arabic.
"Son of a bitch."
The dictionary on the screen was full of squiggly lines and oddly shaped characters. Markus was jotting down notes on a second page of paper as he went over the Arabian document in his hands. He had spent the better part of the hour working on it, and was just over half way done.
*Slam*
A loud noise from the other side of the floor startled Markus out of his translating. He looked over his cube wall and gazed a small army of security guards in front of Stark's office. Stark came out of the room carrying a box of personal effects. There was a deep scowl on his face as he noticed Markus across the office space.
"Huh." Markus' next door cube mate remarked his surprise.
"Didn't think they would be so fast about removing him." Markus remarked.
"Yeah, he was apparently fucking over a lot of people here. Did you hear that Jordan is getting his position?"
Markus raised an eyebrow at that. "Jordan?"
"Yep. Well, it's not a for sure thing, but it might as well be. I mean Paul shore as hell isn’t going to take the position."
The small group of guards led Stark off the office floor to parts unknown. Everyone quickly went back to work, while Markus just stared at the now vacant office for a moment more. A sense of relief but also guilt came over him before he went back to work.
It was starting to get late in the day, the paper work at Markus’ desk trickled away slowly. Yet still, there as a large pile yet to even be touched. He grabbed another sheet from the pile.
“Hi again!” Lyra poped out of his monitor to his side, the paper in his hand was thrown in the air, along with several others.
“Ah, shit.” He looked over the papers around his desk now.
“So, I can’t stay quite as long as I wanted to, and… hey are you listening to me?” She cocked her head as Markus dug around his desk for the papers.
“No.”
“Hmmm… Is there anything I can do to help?” Markus sighed. There was no way he could get rid of her.
The hours of the day ticked by, but the constant distractions of the hyperactive mint unicorn made getting anything done difficult.
“Look, this isn’t going to work!” He half yelled at Lyra as she tried to nudged a pile of papers into the trash.
The sound of knocking could be heard just outside of his cube. It was Karen, “I’m not interrupting anything am I?”
“Oh no, just finishing up my paperwork.” He pushed the pile of papers away from the trash can, just in case Lyra could somehow push them in.
“I see… do you have the HunShu report done by any chance?” She asked.
Markus fished around for a pile of papers that were affixed with a large binder clip. He handed it off to Karen. “It’s done. Everything in the papers has been surmised in the first two pages, my recommendation is at the end. I think we should drop the contract and keep the deposit.”
She shook her head in disbelief and smiled, “Wow, you’re amazing Markus.”
He smiled at the complement and went back to looking through his papers.
“So, your plans for tonight are to hang out in your cube and finish your paperwork?” Karen asked him with a subtle smile.
“Yeah. I need to get these done...” A thought crossed his mind and he felt Lyra nudging into his side.
“Talk to her.” She whispered.
He swallowed and took a quick breath, “Do you have any plans tonight?” Markus asked Karen.
She shrugged in response, “I don't know. Probably go grab drinks with Darlene from Accounting, and the new intern Yu.”
“Well, sounds like fun. You girls don't want any more company, do you?” He asked hopeful. Lyra beamed at his sudden surge in a confidence. It was unfortunately short live.
Karen laughed a bit. “Sorry Markus. Girl’s night only. Besides I already have a boyfriend.” She gave him a smug little smile.
Markus blushed, “oh I didn't mean it like that...”
“Sure you didn't.” She turned to leave him and his cube behind. “Good night Markus~” She half sung and walked off.
Markus sighed. As he looked down at his unicorn companion. “Well it looks like it's just us then... I can't believe I'm actually talking to you.” He rubbed his face.
Lyra looked away from his gaze with a sheepish expression. “Actually, I have to go now. I'm sorry Markus, but like I said, I only have about four hours a day before Twilight has to power down the machine.”
She wraped her hooves around his chest and gave him a parting hug.
“Don't worry, I'll be back tomorrow.” With that she faded and disappeared once more.
A feeling of relief washed over him. Now that he was alone he could finally think and maybe put a dent in this work load. 'Alone.' For some reason that word echoed in his mind.
Markus looked to his now empty side as he rubbed the spot where Lyra previously held him. He pushed the intruding thoughts out of his head and went back to work. A part of him feared that she might show up again, but as the night went on that fear slowly changed to sadness as he started to actually miss the hallucination. At least she would have been some company; real or not.
Chapter 2: A Normal Night at the Bar
Papers, papers everywhere. All around Marcus’ cube were stacks of papers, some were so high Markus would have to stand and stretch just to reach the top. His cube was in a precarious state but Markus had been quite busy. He just didn't have the time to clean and organize it all properly today, or anytime this past month.
To make maters worse, the work load today seem so much larger than normal. Markus grumbled as he pulled another series of documents from the master in pile. Cyrillic letters covered the document, but none of what he read made any sense. The document was clearly Russian, but the sentence structure was just, bad. Rereading the letter head Marcus could make out that it was from Jordan. 'This had to be one of his accounts,' Markus thought.
Shaking his head Markus wondered why he chose such this absurd and impossible to fulfill contract. The company name didn't even seem to make any sense. Shaking his head once more in disgusted he tossed the paper work in his "Deal with it later bin", which was conveniently next to his cube's garbage can.
He grabbed another paper and started reading. This one was in french and seemed to make sense, for the most part.
Despite the extra work load, today had actually been pretty calm. Everyone was getting over the fact that their boss had just been fired. Pretty much everyone in the office knew Jordan was going to be the next one in charge. He'd been in and out of meetings all day, along with Paul and one or two other coworkers.
Markus put the paper work down for a moment and took a deep breath. The stress of today was nothing compared to the past couple days and it felt good.
Markus worked peacefully in his cube shift papers, taking notes. Yet the silent peace would not last for long.
Without warning, a thunderous roar of cheers could be heard from across the floor. Markus dropped the paper work and stuck his head above his cube. The sound appeared to have originated from the crowd standing by manager's office. Jordan was standing by the office door and was shaking everyone's hand who was nearby.
"Looks like Jordan got that promotion." Kris, Markus' neighboring cube mate spoke.
"Yeah," was the only response Markus could give. A cold chill ran up his spine as Jordan nodded in his direction. For some reason he felt his heart start to race. He knew Jordan well enough to know he was going to be a slave driver. That was just what Markus needed right now, more work.
The sense of impending stress caused a sudden surge in his blood pressure. Realizing this, a thought crossed his mind as he nervously looked around. 'She wasn't here', breathing a sigh of relief at the thought. It always seemed like she would show up at the worse times. Times when he was under the most stress.
He sat back down to work on the massive stacks of paper work still in front of him. As he looked at the large piles he could almost hear them laughing at him. The sound of hundreds of foreign characters screaming whispers in his mind. Markus tried to push the troublesome thoughts and voices out of his mind as he went back to work.
But, he couldn't ignore the shadows of the papers, as they seemed to sway and dance in delight at Markus' efforts.
The hours ticked away, and before he knew it 4 o'clock had already come and gone.
*Knock, Knock*
Not expecting anyone, Markus felt his heart jump again as he jumped at the sudden intrusion. He turned to see who it was. Feeling a slight easement in his mind once he saw it was just Paul. For a moment he was worried that it might have been her again.
But why was Paul here? What did he want?
“Hey Markus, we were all going to Edgar's for happy hour to celebrate Jordan's promotion. Do you want to come?” Paul was kind enough to ask, it seemed like a rare occurrence that Markus was ever invited anywhere.
Markus' response was quick and predictable; with a nervous shake in his voice he said, “Yeah! I'd love to go.”
With a nod Paul walked away, while Markus smiled and went back to work. He had a bit more pep as he finished off the last of the important paper work, the rest could wait. But, that pep quickly drained from him, as the thoughts of his coworkers laughing at him ran through his head.
'What if you mess up at the bar?', he could hear that painful whisper in his mind. 'Maybe this is a trick and they just want you there to laugh and feel sorry for...' Markus tried to shake out the intruding thoughts. They were poisonous and he knew it. All this work, the recent company lay-offs, and the events yesterday were really getting to him. 'That's all this was, just stress,' he tried to reassure himself.
Trying to shift his focus, Markus looked at the clock on his computer. It wasn't too far from quitting time. So far as work itself was concerned today had gone great. The work day had gone unusually quick, no one was yelling, and things seemed to be get done on time for a change. The thought crossed his mind, 'Maybe having Jordan in charge was going to be a nice change from Stark?'
Markus made the decision to leave a bit early today. What could be the harm?' It was close to quitting time anyways, and most of the office had already left early. The fact was Markus knew he needed to get out of this place before he went nuts. The screaming whispers threatened to come back if he stayed, and then there was the real fear, that she would return.
He filed the last of the day's paper work and started shutting down his computer. One last thought about today crossed his mind, perhaps the best thing of all about today was that his hallucination hadn't shown up once. Yet, for some reason he couldn't place, his hands wouldn't stop shaking at the thought. He could feel a deep sense of foreboding creeping up his spine. It was like an odd electric tingle that made his mind go fuzzy.
Suddenly, without any other warning Lyra spoke, "Hi! Markus."
*Bang*
Markus' head impacted the shelf above his desk, papers spilled everywhere. Some were knocked on the floor, some shifted on the desk, one in particular disappeared in the round receptacle at the edge of his desk known as the garbage bin.
"Owww..." Markus rubbed his now sore head.
"Opps, sorry about that." She said with her signature smile and laugh.
'The green one has returned' Markus thought to himself. The sense of dread washing over him.
"Why are you here?" He groaned and continued rubbing his head.
Lyra shrugged and gave Markus' the biggest smile she could manage, "I told you I was going to come back today. I would have been back earlier, but Twilight's machine took longer to recharge then I thought. Apparently it was because I kept appearing and disappearing yesterday."
She looked around at the empty cubes, "So! What are we doing today in the human world?"
*Bang*
Markus' head impacted his desk.
*Bang*
And again.
*Bang*
"Markus?" Lyra tilted her head not quite understanding what Markus was doing. "Oh! Is this another way humans greet each other? I always thought you guys just shook hands! Neat!"
*Bang*
Lyra smacked her head against his desk, "...owww."
Markus tried as hard as he could, but he couldn't stop smiling as his green hallucination started rubbing her head. He didn't want to smile, he didn't want to laugh but he couldn't help it. He felt his lungs convulse as he started laughing uncontrollably, "This is it, isn't? I've finally and truly lost my mind." he said aloud.
Lyra was still with him when he exited the building and made his way out to the pub. It didn't matter what he tried to do, she wouldn't leave him alone. Part of him wanted to run back home and try to hide from the intruding specter, but she insisted that wasn't a good idea. He needed to get out more, she said.
Why was he listening to her? It was like she was in his head, controlling him. A damn ceaseless whisper that wouldn’t stop; a sudden thought crossed over him followed by an icy chill. For a moment he remembered his grandfather, such terrible memories of that old man yelling at his own specters. He had to be locked away, for his own protection, as well as his family's. It was a painful memory.
Another thought, this time of a young girl as she yelled at the wall and clawed at her arms. He shook his head and whispered “No.”
"Hey, are you ok?" She spoke.
Markus tried to ignore her, to pretend she didn’t exist. He didn't want to make a scene with his coworkers around him.
"Just go away." He whispered to her.
He thought he could hear the whispers of his coworkers "Weirdo", "Nut job", "Why did Paul invite him?"
Markus blinked and rubbed his eyes. The whispers stopped. "God, I'm so over worked," he spoke absently.
"Hey!" She popped up right in front of his face, like she was hovering there.
"Talk to me Markus," she pleaded. He stumbled with his words trying to figure out what, if anything to say to her.
The feeling of a sharp and pointy hand patted Markus on his back snapping him out of his trance. "You ok buddy?" It was Jordan.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a bit nervous, you know?"
"Nervous? What do you have to be nervous about? Your job is fine Markus, I saw to it already." Jordan gave one of the largest most plastic smiles he could.
Markus just shrugged his shoulders, and Jordan patted his back once more before walking ahead.
"I don't like him," Lyra spoke with a slight sneer.
“Yeah…” was all Markus could respond with as his thoughts drifted. His unicorn companion continued to babble on about things. Mostly about ponies she had bad feelings about in the past, and how her feelings often turned out to be correct; something about a pinkie sense? He had a hard time following it all.
The small group came upon the public house; Edgar's was a small hole in the wall pub, just south of down town. It was a pretty average, as far as bars go, but it did have good happy hour specials that went well past 6PM.
“Hey man, you ok?” Kris came up behind and grabbed Markus' shoulder in a sign of comfort. He wasn't a good friend. Actually he wasn't even a friend just an acquaintance, but Kris knew Markus just enough to know he looked despondent about something.
“Huh? Oh yeah, I'm fine.” Markus responded, but in truth he wasn't. He turned his head to his side at the unicorn that was still following him. Rambling on about random almost incoherent things.
Lyra stopped talking and trotted ahead slightly, disappearing through the closed solid oak door, in blatant defiance to the laws of physics and common sense.
Markus gave one last shake of his head. "Really I'm fine." He spoke, not quite believing those words anymore.
"Hey, there are people in here!" Markus could hear the pony squeal in excitement behind the door. Without further warning, and as if this were some cartoonist rendition of a Dickens’ novel, Lyra's head appeared on the front of the door.
“This place is great, there’s a pool table and everything!”
Markus rolled his eyes and mumbled, “I know.”
The bar was barely half full when the group arrived. They quickly descended on the large empty section and brought the small bar to near capacity. Markus made a point to sit a ways away from everyone else, wanting to share in the company but not really be in the center of everything.
He ordered a mug of some amber ale. It was smooth, hoppy and had a slight aftertaste of orangies. In truth Markus had no idea what he had ordered, just that it was the cheapest on the happy hour special list.
Lyra continued to babble on, this time about some Ponyville bar run by some punch pony, or berry, BerryPunch maybe? He couldn’t really follow along with her ceaseless ramblings. Yet despite her incessant talking, Markus couldn’t help but enjoy the noise and companionship she brought him.
Usually he’d be alone, even in a crowd like this. Lyra somehow seemed to lessen that feeling. She made him feel important, and somehow less stressed. He wouldn't admit it to her, and feared to admit it to himself, but It felt good to have her next to him; Even if she wasn't real.
“Hey!” Lyra yelled at him.
“Are you paying attention to me?” She pouted.
Markus could only smile and shake his head ‘no’.
She sighed and crossed her front legs. It would actually have been adorable, if Markus could only wrap his head around how a pony could do that in the first place.
Markus’ eyes glanced around the bar and he spotted a lone blond sitting on the opposite side. She drank what appeared to be a pink cocktail, and was absently looked around the bar herself.
For a moment their eyes meet, and a slight smile crossed her lips as she looked away from him. Markus smiled and looked down at his own nearly empty beer as a few random thoughts flashed through his mind.
He was quite rudely interrupted by the prodding of a unicorn horn in his side.
"You should talk to her!" Lyra pushed Markus, trying to get him to pay attention to her, and to take her advice.
He shook his head ‘no.’ "I don't even know her." he whispered.
"But you would like to," Lyra spoke with a bit of optimism.
"I said no," He repeated a bit more loudly.
"So no refills?" During his apparent conversation with himself the bartender had walked up to Markus' empty glass.
He thought about it for a moment, another drink didn't seem like a good idea. "Oh um, n-" but Jordan interrupted Markus.
"Of course he'll have another one! It's on me!" Jordan dropped his card on the bar as the bar tended nodded and walked off to get a new cold mug for Markus' beer. Truthfully he didn't want to drink anymore, or hang out in the bar for that matter.
“Hey man! You should come over and join us, rather than sitting over here by yourself.” Jordan tried to push him towards the crowed but Markus couldn’t quite do it. It just didn’t feel right for some reason.
He looked down into his empty mug, "I don't know. I was never really a fan of large crowds."
"Then why did you come?" Jordan spoke with almost a laugh.
Markus felt his heart stop, this was exactly what he feared. He had to leave, this wasn't where he should be. Everyone hated him. Markus started to get up "Oh. I'm sorry I didn't-"
Jordan put his hand on his shoulder, preventing him from running off, "No, Markus, I didn't mean you should leave, but if you aren't comfortable why did you come?"
Markus sat back down and shrugged. The poisonous thoughts in his mind making him sick. "I guess, I'm just never invited anywhere I thought it would be interesting to check out?"
Jordan gave Markus' shoulder a quick squeeze before letting go. "Well, if you change your mind you should head over with the rest of the group."
The bartender dropped off the new mug and Jordan's card. He game Markus a quick pat on the back before walking away.
Lyra sneered slightly as he walked away, "I don't like him, but he's right."
TMarkus looked at the dark golden mixture in the icy mug. "About what?" He whispered to Lyra.
"That you should go sit with the rest of them. They aren't going to hurt you Markus."
He just shrugged at her response and took a sip from his beer. Across the bar he say that blond girl get up and start to walk away or so it seemed anyway. Markus wasn't expecting the blond girl to come and sit next to him. Even more surprising was when she started talking to him. Her name was Amber, Markus repeated her name in his head. It was quite pretty.
Amber was clearly enjoying the conversation with the rather shy man, but something just seemed a bit off about him. She felt a bit uncomfortable, but still felt curious about him. She wanted him to talk back, the mystery of this shy man was burning her subconscious and she had to know more.
Lyra was beaming with pride. Occasionally she would drop a bit of advice, but for the most part Markus was handling things well. It seemed like things were going well here, maybe, just maybe Markus would make a friend, or even better a special somepony.
Markus could sense that things were going well. He knew from watching other people how events like this usually unfolded, so he decided to push. "So... would you like to come back to my place. Maybe have a. Cup. of. coffee." perhaps a bit to hard. Markus could see her push back slightly at the thought. Her body language was a very strong and clear no.
Lyra slammed her face into her hoof. Things had been going so well she whispered to herself.
"Oh, no, no, no. I couldn't I actually have to be at work in the morning." Amber could see him deflate, like a child's balloon, which was so cruelly popped.
"I mean you're a nice guy Markus, but I'm just way to busy with work to do that right now."
Amber got up from her seat, clearly getting ready to leave Markus behind. "Maybe some other night we could get drinks again?" She said with a smile before walking away.
Markus didn't know how to take that whole situation. He knew he screwed up, but this was how it always worked on TV and in books. A cute girl would come up, they would talk for a while and then leave together. 'Maybe I just misunderstood?' he thought.
Lyra was quick to insert her own analysis, "I think you pushed a little too hard there Markus."
Markus lowered his head and took a huge gulp of his beer. 'My hallucination is right', he thought.
"I mean she's clearly still interested in you. You just need to go slower." She rubbed Markus' side with her hoof. Markus couldn't help but feel awkward as she kept rubbing. It felt good to be comforted, but he didn't want to feel good. He didn't want it to feel like anything at the moment.
"Lyra, can you please stop" he spoke in a whisper.
She pulled away from him. In her mind she could sense his pain and discomfort. The little specter thought about what to do, how to fix this.
Mrakus' own mind ran through the same thoughts she was having. It was like more whispers screaming at him. Thoughts that were not his own running through his head. He could see her thoughts in his mind, and it terrified him.
Lyra could feel his growing paranoia and stress, she reached out to him, "Markus, please your scar-"
It was too much, "Will you fucking stop!" Markus yelled at the seemingly empty seat next to him. Some bar patrons stopped their conversations to stare at the delusional man, who might have had too much to drink.
Holding his head down, he tried not to make eye contact with anyone. In the back of his mind all he could hear were those damn whispers screaming at him. 'This was a mistake, I shouldn't have come out' he thought. He looked up across the bar, his eyes focusing on something that made his heart sink.
He wasn't even aware that Kris had come up next to him and sat down. Markus simply wasn't paying attention to him, all he could see was Jordan talking to Amber. He felt anger, rage and dispair running though his mind.
"You ok dude?" Kris asked. Markus shook his head, unaware that Kris had asked him three times already.
"Oh yeah, I'm fine. Just a lot on my mind Kris." He rubbed his eyes and looked around the bar again. No one was paying attention to him anymore. The more he thought about it, the more he wondered if they had even paid attention on the first place. It was so hard to tell anymore.
Markus was vaguely aware of the change in song on the jukebox.
Lyra's eyes opened up as she started to hear the lyrics to the next song, "Oh I love this song! This is the first song I heard in your world!" She began to sing the song in karaoke style "I'm a bitch, I'm a lover, I'm a sinner I'm a saint!"
It took every ounce of effort, every last bit of sanity Markus had left not to just laugh at the absurdity of everything around him. He had almost forgotten about Kris next to him, until he felt Kris' hand on his back.
“Look, Markus. I don’t know what’s going on in your life, but I think you need to get professional help.” Kris pulled a card out of his wallet and gave it to him. “This is the shrink I went to after my mum died. She really good.”
Holding the card in his hand Maruks looked at it for a moment before turning his gaze to the singing unicorn next to him. For a moment he was going to toss the card, but something in him told him not to as he shoved it into his wallet instead.
Kris gave a forced smile as he got up and walked out of the bar. Markus looked around, most people from work had already left. All that were still here were a few people from accounting that Markus didn't know, and Jordan who was getting up to leave with Amber.
Markus watched Jordan as he walked out of the bar with Amber. His arm draped over her back.
"Would you like another one?" The bar tender asked him.
"Sure." Markus wasn't even really paying attention anymore.
The bartender came back in short order and took the last of Markus' money.
The song quickly ended, and Lyra was breathing hard. A big smiled across her face. "That song was awesome! We don't usually have obscene lyric in the music where I'm from." She was still smiling at Markus, hoping to get him to smile back.
Grabbing at Markus' arm Lyra started to babble on about singing with her, "Hey, you should sing the next song with me! Come-on it will be fun!"
'What the fuck is wrong with me?' He thought as he took a long pull from his beer. The number from the card burning itself in his mind as his unicorn specter started singing again.
Author's Note
Sorry this took so long to get out. Truthfully I haven't really been in a writing mood these past few months.
This chapter has been poorly edited by me. If you'd like to edit it or point out mistakes, please feel free to do so :)
Question for my readers: How many people think Lyra is real, and how many think she's a figment of Markus' mind?
Chapter 3 - Just an Abnormal Day
"AHHHHHH!" Markus screamed as he sprung up in his bed!
He could feel the sticky cling of his sweat soaked sheets against him as he shook. He looked at his alarm clock right as it ticked up to 8AM.
*Beep, Beep, Beep*
Markus jumped at the sound before hitting the black and brown alarm clock with his fist. He curled his legs up to his chest and took a second to think; to try to remove the fragments of the nightmare that still clung to him. Taking a deep breath he started counting "One", then another breath "Two", and another...
Continuing his breathing exercise he was able to clam down a bit. Markus could fell his shaking subsiding slowly. He counted as high as thirty before the tremors paused and his thoughts returned to some semblance of sanity.
The nightmares were getting worse, and he knew it. The fact was Markus hadn't had a solid nights sleep in months. The lack of sleep just seemed to add to his stress and made the nightmares worse, which made sleeping even hard still. It all seemed like a vicious cycle with no end in sight.
Worst of all, he could never fully remember what the dreams were. Sometimes it felt like monsters, other times, it just felt like darkness. Sometimes, he would feel like a tiny speck of light swirling in a dense mist, alone. The only common thing he remembered from them was the cold. The deep isolating cold that filled his veins even after he woke up. The hot showers he would sometimes take after waking up couldn't fully warm him from the icy grip and chill of his dark dreams.
Laying back down on the bed, he tried to relax further. He could feel the slight tingle as a single tear running down his face. Mornings like this made him wish that there could be someone there with him. Just someone whit whom he could talk to and hold, but there wasn't and in his heart he feared that there never would be.
For a second he could remember more of the dream, in the deep swirling mist, a slight flash of green light as another speck joined his loneliness. It was all so confusing so-
"You ok?" The voice appeared out of nowhere, and Markus nearly flew out of bed at the unexpected sound.
"What the hell!? Don't do that!" He yelled at the golden eyed specter in front of him.
Lyra splayed her ears against her head and looked down. "I'm sorry Markus, but I felt that you were in pain again. I got here as soon as I could. Are you ok?" She cocked her head slightly and looked up at him with watering eyes.
For some reason he couldn't explain, her gaze almost hurt. It was a numb tingling sensation, like the feeling of blood flow returning to a limb that had long ago fallen asleep.
"Yeah." Was Markus' only response as he rubbed his eyes; Stopping once he finally processed what she had said.
"What do you mean you 'felt my pain?'" he queried her with a deep look of skepticism on his face. 'She just in your mind you idiot. That's all it means.' He tried to tell himself.
Lyra continued to gaze at him, sorrowfully. "I told you when we first meet. We're connected Markus. I can feel what you feel. Twilight's machine lets me see what you see, and experience the world around you."
"Yeah, connected alright... you're just in my head." He tried to shake off her annoying comments.
Lyra tried to argue her point, but Markus would have none of it. Glancing to the alarm clock once more, he noticed it was already 8:15PM. He still had to shower and get dressed, and soon if he wanted to make his appointment today.
Brice, Markus' brother, had plans to meet with him for an early lunch today. Supposedly his brother was going to bring his daughter with him, Markus' niece, Samantha. It had been almost half a year since the last time he saw her. Brice had been keeping both her and himself away from other people while she went through therapy and treatment. Markus wasn't too sure of the details, his bother kept most of them hidden from him. Either he was too embraced or too afraid to mention them.
It was always hard to tell what Brice was thinking. He always kept his thoughts well hidden from his brother, and the rest of the family. A defense mechanism from when they were young.
Markus sat down on a kitchen chair. On the kitchen counter as small stuffed animal stared at him while he put his shoes on. It was a small stuffed unicorn he had bought for his niece almost four months ago. A now long since belated birthday present.
"Awww, who's this little guy? He looks sooo cute!" Lyra squealed as she tried to rub the stuffed animal against her face.
Adorable or not, if that stuffed animal had been a child or foal, Lyra would have smothered the poor thing with how tightly she tried to hold it.
"So, where are we going today?" The bubbly unicorn bounced next to Markus as he struggled to tie his shoes.
"I know you don't have to go to work, you said so yesterday." She stuck her tongue out in anticipation of his lie.
"I'm going to meet with my brother today, and look..." He stared into her golden smiling eyes. His willpower absorbed in their golden reflection and he could no longer tell her to just leave him alone. The way she stared made him feel so much less alone.
"What is it?" She asked.
Markus struggled to find something to say, "Just... don't make things difficult for me. Please."
The smile on Lyra's face waned slightly, and she nodded her response, yes.
Nearly running out of his condo Markus was in a rush to catch the next bus. Normally it would arrive at 8:50ish and if he hurried he might just make it.
He caught his bus, and found his usual seat near the back of it, away from everyone else. Lyra had taken her seat next to him, sitting in a posture that actually looked quite painful for a pony.
Markus studied her for a moment, trying to understand the sitting posture. Lyra looked at him, and cocked her head slightly. "Lyra?" Markus queried her.
"Yes, Markus?" She fluttered her eyes at him. He couldn't help but smile a bit at her silliness.
With a slight head shake he asked her, "How can you sit like that?"
But, before she could answer, the bus stopped suddenly. A man in tattered rags walked through the front door of the bus. This man was filthy and it was clear he was mumbling to himself. The drive protested his arrival but the man deposited the required two dollars in the fair box before walking towards the back of the bus.
He sat down a few seats from Markus and Lyra. Mumbling and pointing at random things around him. As the ride progressed, Markus slowly became aware of a rather strong and foul smell about the raggedy man.
Lyra put her hoof up to her muzzle, "Oh dear Celestia, what is that? Is it coming from him?" She looked at the man.
'Even if true, that really isn't nice,' Markus thought, trying to hold his breath all the while. The man was clearly delusional, Lyra shouldn't just point it out like that, it was rude. He doubted that the man wanted to be... that way. Markus turned to speak to her, "Lyra, don't..." stopping mid-sentence as he realized just what he was doing.
All of a sudden Markus felt very sick to his stomach as he looked between the man and Lyra.
"Are you ok?" Lyra asked him, placing her hoof on his arm.
Markus' arm hair raised up slightly at her ethereal touch. 'No.' The thought, that word repeating though his head louder and louder, 'No. NO. NO!'
*Ding*
He pulled yellow cord next to him, signaling the driver to stop. As soon as the bus stopped, Markus jumped out of his seat. In a near sprint Markus left the bus, leaving Lyra and the man behind.
Markus just needed to think and to breath. He needed-
"Yo, are you ok?" Lyra asked more forcefully this time.
He couldn't help but jump again. Rubbing his hands over his face, he took a breath.
"Was it the smell from that man? I mean I know it was pretty bad." Lyra continued talking, trying to defuse a situation that seemed to boil over for no reason. "Like, hasn't he even heard of soap?" She laughed slightly.
Biting his lip, Markus tired to hold his tongue but just couldn't. "Lyra. That man... That man has some serious mental issues. He's probably not even aware of where he is. Much less that he smells." He spoke with a calm and smooth tone. Forcing all his bubbling emotions down. Seeing that man hit way to close to home for him.
"I ran because..." He shook his head at the absurdity of this conversation. "It's not important."
"Oh." Was all Lyra could respond with. She thought about what could be wrong with that man. "I-I don't understand."
Taking another breath Markus looked around. Making sure no one was around before responding, "What don't you understand?"
"Well if he needs help why don't people help him?" She asked with a shrug.
Markus thought about her question. It seemed so simple, so easy. He wanted to dismiss it as naive but he couldn't. "It's complicated. That man needs some mental health care. Even then he probably needs to be watched to make sure he... doesn't hurt himself or anyone else. The resources don't really exist in this city. It's all very..." He looked for the right word, "Complicated." he repeated.
"Oh," Lyra looked confused. Like she didn't really understand. "So is that why you ran off the bus? Because it's complicated?"
"Yeah." He shook his head. He didn't really want to explain this to himself.
Taking another look around Markus tried to get his barrings. He took that bus to work every day, so he was aware of most stops along this road. By the looks of it, he was only a few blocks from the center of downtown, and the place where he was supposed to meet his brother. He could still make it in time if he walked fast.
After a few minutes of silence and fast paced walking Lyra finally spoke up, "So... where are we going exactly?"
"Some Italian place I've never been too..." As he spoke, he realized he didn't know exactly where he was going. This would be the first time he has ever been to this restaurant. Stopping, he pulled out his phone and started searching for a map.
He typed the restaurant’s name into the map app, "Garden Green's - Italian Restaurant." According to his phone it was right around-
"Hey Markus!" a loud voice called out to him.
Markus put his phone down and looked around. Waving to him from across the street was a balding and mildly over weight middle age man. By the middle aged man's side was a little blond hair girl, not much older than 10. She had a vacant expression on her face, and she didn't quite look like she was all there.
A smile spreed over Markus face and he waved back, "Brice, Sam!" Noticing the lack of traffic Markus ran across the road to meet them, ignoring Lyra's protest all the while.
"MARKUS!", Brice yelled.
*Screech*
Instinctively Markus stopped in the street as the car skid to a halt, barely a hair's width from him. The driver of the car punch his horn as Markus stood their wide eyed. Hearing the horn blast Markus shook of the shock and quickly moved the rest of the way to the side walk.
"Damn, I didn't see that car." Markus declared more to himself than anyone else.
"Dude, how could you not see it. You need to be more careful." Brice's attention became split as his daughter started to struggle by his side. The loud noise apparently scaring her back into reality. "Sam. Sam, calm down."
Markus leaned down next to his niece, "Hey Sam. You remember me right?" He gave the most disarming smile he could.
The young girl stopped struggling for a second as she studied him. She slowly calmed down, and nodded to him. Samantha looked up at her father, "I-I'm sorry daddy I thought I heard something."
Brice forced a smile, "It's ok honey. We were going to get lunch, remember? Your uncle Mark was going to come with us."
Markus reached into the small bag he was carrying and pulled out the small stuffed unicorn. "I remember you liked horses, so I bought this for you. It's actually a unicorn, nor really a horse. But still he's kind of cute isn't he?" He handed the small animal to the young girl who hesitated.
"Samantha, why don't you take the present your uncles offering?" Her father spoke to his daughter with a genital forcefulness.
Samantha nodded again before taking the small doll from Markus, giving a very tiny almost forced smile as she did do.
Markus felt Lyra leaning on his shoulder watching the girl intently, "She seems so shy." Lyra whispered. For the briefest of moments a twinkle could be seen in the young girls eye, as if she could almost see the minty unicorn by Markus' side.
Markus flicked Lyra's horn.
"Oww. What did you do that for?" The unicorn cried. He responded by just shaking his head at her.
"Is everything ok?" Brice asked.
"Oh, yeah, just thought I saw a mosquito. Their buzzing in a people's face can be so annoying you know?" He glared at his green specter who had a slight scowl on her face. She responded by scrunching her muzzle and sticking her tongue out at him.
"Anyway, where exactly is this place?"
Brice pointed to the street ahead, and the small group started walking. It was a short walk, the small restaurant was literally around the next corner.
The restaurant had some vines growing at the base of the building, but was otherwise unremarkable. A single sign hung up on outside the building, "Leonard's Garden Green's, Italian Restaurant."
The inside of the restaurant was far more posh than the outside. There were numerous tables each with a lite candle in the center, a small bar was against the back wall made with some kind of dark, and likely expensive wood work. All around restaurant’s interior people wore fancy suits. It wasn't quite what Markus had expected.
"Good afternoon sirs and madam." The matradee greeted them.
Brice smiled at him, "Hi, we're the Chomsky party of 3."
The matradee looked at his log book and grabbed three menus. "Yes, you wanted an outside table?"
The small family followed the matradee out to the back patio area and sat down at a small table, which also had a small candle in the center of it.
Handing his menu to Markus, Brice gave a slight chuckle "I thought you might like it here Mark. The menus aren't even in English. So I have no idea what's they actually have."
As Markus opened the menu he smiled and let out a small laugh himself considering all the options. 'Hmm, I could tell Brice to order the snails in cream sauce,' he chuckled to himself at the thought.
While he considered all the different orders to make Brice's dinning experience interesting, Brice began to talk to his daughter about his brother. "You know your uncle Mark was able to read French and Italian before he was even in High School, Sam?"
Samantha gave a half hardhearted shrug before turning to focus on an empty table next to them.
Frowning at his daughter behavior, he to look at his brother, "Well, I think it's interesting." Markus examined his brother for a moment, noticing the subtle lines and few gray hairs coming through on his head. Speaking of his hair, it was obvious his brother's hairline was pushing even further back, before long he wouldn't have any hair at all on the top of his head. Markus couldn't help but think that his brother looked so much older than he did just a year ago. All the stress of dealing with his daughter's illness must have really gotten to him.
"So, what I am I ordering You're not going to make me order something weird again are you? The time you ordered something in a different language I had a goat's head on my plate with a side of some sh- I mean crappy cheese." Brice tried to joke around with Markus, laughing a bit as he spoke.
Markus smirked at his brother, in the back of his mind he couldn't help but think how different he had become over the past year. A year ago he could have taken a joke like that, but now, all the stress of Brice's life was taking its toll on him, physically. As much as Markus may have wanted to mess with his brother, it was probably not the best time. "How does shrimp and spinach Alfredo sound?"
Brince nodded, and smiled. Turning his head, Markus smiled to his niece, "And I think Sam wants some spaghetti and meatballs?" She just nodded her response before going back to the nothing going on at the other table.
"Samantha. You should answer your uncle." Brice tried to gently scold his daughter, but she ignored him. "Samantha..."
Reaching his hand out Markus gave Brice's hand a tap. "It's ok. Let's just have lunch." Brice frowned a bit before turning his attention to his daughter once more
"Hey what about me don't I get to eat?" Lyra protested from the side.
Markus leaned over and whispered "You don't need to eat."
Miss hearing what he said, Brice asked "What was that about feet?"
"Hmm?" Markus' gears started to turn, 'what to say, what to say?' he thought in a panic. "Oh, just saying how much they hurt. Had to walk a ways, got off a few stops to early."
"Oh, why did you do a silly thing like that?"
Markus glared at Lyra, remembering why he so quickly ran off the bus.
"What? Why are you looking at me like that?" She protested.
Refocusing his attention on his brother, Markus cleared his throat as he thought about the bus ride. "Well you see, there was this homeless man. Guy smelled like he hadn't bathed in months. I feel my stomach lurch up, and well, I had to get out of there."
From there, the conversation drifted between topics, moving from the homeless problem, to city politics. All the while Sam ignored the two men, and Lyra tried, unsuccessfully to interject her opinion every chance she got. The unicorn seemed to be slightly agitated at Markus ignoring her.
When the food arrive, Lyra attempted to “sample” each of their plates. Markus tried to whisper to her that such behavior was inappropriate, but it was losing battle, and ultimately an irrelevant one. Every bite Lyra took was still there, it was all just in his head. Or at least that what Markus said to himself.
"Mark, I need to go use the restroom. Watch her while I'm gone." Brice got up and walked away from the table. Leaving Markus, Sam, and Markus' specter alone.
The silence between the three was almost palpable. Shifting his eyes around, Markus tried to spot something, anything that might snap his niece out of her trance at least for a few moments.
"So, how's school been, Sam?" Was the first question he asked, and it was meet by silence.
"Got any hobbies?" Again there was nothing.
*Fomf*
A burst of light and heat flashed from a neighboring table. A small white dessert that had been covered in warmed brandy explode in a large blue flame. Both Lyra and Markus turned their heads to see the source of the flame. However, Samantha just continued her empty staring at the adjoining empty table instead. On the surface it seemed as if she didn't even recognize the fire next to them. Yet, out of the corner of the young one's eyes, she did see or at least she thought she did. She just choose to ignore it all.
"Ooo... I want to try that." Lyra's eyes were nearly glazed over as she stared at a small flaming desert a few tables over.
Lyra got out of her chair and wandered over to it. She began to study the flaming dessert, recalling that it had been called "Baked Alaska". She waited until the flames burnt itself out before taking a large bite of the dessert.
Her eyes went wide as she exclaimed with a mouth still full of food. "Oh wow, this is amazing!" Or at least that's how it sounded, Markus couldn't be sure since her words were garbled by the large amounts of food in mouth.
Shaking his head, Markus had all he could do not to scold the unicorn. He just had to keep reminding himself that she wasn't actually real, that she didn't just take a bite of someone else's food. It was all in his head, and so long as he kept it there no one would ever be the wiser.
The couple at the dessert's table were certainly unaware as they began to eat the same portions Lyra appeared to have bitten off.
What Markus didn't know, was that he wasn't just being watched but also studied by the little girl sitting next to him. For a moment, she had a sudden surge of clarity as she saw her uncle doing the same things she used to.
Her eyes twitched before she turned to face her Uncle. "Uncle Mark..." Samantha spoke in a soft voice, nearly a whisper.
Turning to face her he could only blink a few times, he wasn't sure Sam had actually spoken. His niece hadn't spoken to him once so far. "Uh, yes Sam?"
"Do you see things too?" She asked in a whisper.
Markus looked to Lyra who was now trying to devour the once flaming dessert at the next table. "I..." He thought about what exactly to say. "I don't know what I see Sam."
Samantha looked at her feet, she whispered. "Sometimes it's hard for me to know what's real or not. I know I'm not normal. I know it hurts daddy."
Samantha felt a hand on her shoulder. Her mind screamed and yelled at her to do something, that her personal space was being violated. "Sam, you father loves you very much. He doesn't hate you, he doesn't blame you. He just wants to see you get better."
She looked at the hand on her shoulder. For a second she thought about biting it, but she couldn't. Instead, she pulls his hand off her shoulder and got up. Markus began to worry that his niece was going to run away or maybe have some kind of fit, but instead she did something else entirely. Walking over to him, she placed her arms around his body and squeezed, she was hugging him.
"You don't have to worry about them uncle. They aren't really there, they can't hurt you." Samantha spoke to him as if from experience.
Quickly letting go of her hug, Samantha walked back to her seat and sat down. With her head held low, she began to ignore him and the world around her once more.
"Wow, that was impressive." Lyra spoke. For a moment, Markus wondered how her face could be so clean after she had gone to town on that dessert. He almost laughed as he realized the absurdity of that idea. She hadn't really been eating that dessert merely-
Lyra's next words snapped him out of his trance. "You really seem to have a way with foals." She scooted back into the empty seat next to him. "I mean that. I didn't think that little girl would open up to anyone like that. You'd make a great dad."
That last statement rubbed him the wrong way, "What's that suppose to mean?"
"Uh, who are you talking to?" Brice seemed confused by his brother's statement to no one.
Looking around Markus tried to think up something, some idea or thing to say. "Um, oh I was just thinking aloud about... work. And this one report."
Brice sat back down at the table, "Oh? You don't usually talk about work."
"Oh yeah, it's pretty boring usually that's why." He had a brief flash in his mind of a jumbled Russian document he looked at yesterday, "I just thought about this one report that was on my desk yesterday and how none of it made sense."
For some reason, Brice didn't quite seemed convinced, but he didn't push the issue.
"So, are you two ready to leave?" He asked.
Markus nodded, while Samantha sat in silence. Lyra tried to protest that their table never got dessert, and she wanted to try some flaming custard called Creme Brulee. Her cries fell on Markus' deaf ears.
Leaving the restaurant, Markus wondered what the plan was, "So, where to next?"
Brice hadn't really considered what was next, he had been hoping to play the rest of the day by ear. Choosing where to go based upon Samantha’s current mood. Currently she seemed pretty passive, but that could easily change in a crowd.
Samantha would solve the problem for them, "Daddy, can we go to the park? I want to make a sand castle..."
Nodding Markus agreed with his niece's choice. "Yeah, that sounds like a plan. Be nice to just chill in the park and talk some more."
The park wasn't too far away, just a block. It was fairly empty for such a nice day. Of course Samantha went straight towards the sand box when she arrived, ignoring everything else in the world. Taking her new Unicorn toy, she sat it down next to her and started digging in grainy yellow substance.
Finding a bench close by the two brothers sat down as well and started talk about things, sports, recent hobbies. Occasionally talking about the various people passing through. A particularly attractive woman walked by the two men. Brice gave a gentle ribbing to Markus after seeing him notice her.
"You really should start dating. You know you'll never find the one if you don't actually go out there and look." Brice stared at his brother, looking for some kind of response.
Lyra used this opportunity to chime in with her own simple opinion, "He's right, you really should at least try dating."
Markus just shrugged at the both of them. "It's not that I don't want to, it's all just so damn complicated. I'd really rather focus on my work."
"Family is important dude. I couldn't imagine my life without Sam and Helen in it."
Raising and eyebrow, Markus looked at his brother with a sense of incredulity.
"I mean it. Sure there are... issues, but things could be worse." Brice tried to fight back some tears. It's clear there was more to what he felt then what he said.
"Brice, are you ok? You seem different, and kind of out of it today."
Taking a deep shaky breath Brice organized his thoughts, "It's just that I keep thinking about Granddad, and Sam. I love both of them so very much, but..." He looked down at the ground, trying to hold back the water in his eyes. For a moment, the rather early middle aged man look like he could have been a century old. "I know what Granddad had was passed on to Sam, and I think... what if I'm next? I can take care of my little girl, but... who would take care of me? It wouldn't be right to drop it all on Helen."
As he turned to look at Markus, a single tear ran down his cheek. It was quickly swept away by his hand. "I know it's horrible to think about this... My daughter is the one who I should be considering, but in the back of my mind I'm terrified that I'll be like them, and seeing you today. I'm worried about you too bro." His eyes pierced through him, as if looking for a response of some kind.
Markus shook his head and turned from his brother. "What do you want me to say?" he whispered.
Lyra stuck her chest out and smiled at him, "Just tell him the truth. The truth is always the best policy or at least that's what the one farm pony told me on my way to Twilight's castle today. Actually, she says that every day..." The Unicorn began to ramble on about things of little importance.
Markus knew it was time to tell someone, "I think... I've been seeing things."
"What do you mean things? Like hallucinations?"
"Yeah." He paused. Lyra was like a hallucination, only there was something more. She seemed to know things. Things she shouldn't know if she was just in his head. Lyra had warned him about things that he didn't notice, like that car earlier, or his boss's report a few days ago. "Like hallucinations, only..."
"Only what? Dude your kind of scaring me here." Brice's heart started to race. His daughter started out with problems like this, his grandfather had problems like this too. He didn't know if he could take the strain of knowing his brother was going nuts too. Perhaps even more worrying, is what that would mean for him. With three close family members losing their marbles, it seemed a certainty that his fears would be realized and he too was destined to lose his mind.
Thoughts began to run through Brice's mind, and a single word kept flashing deep inside his mind, 'Run away.'
Markus shook his head yes, then shrugged. "Kind of. She's not quite a hallucination. Like she can see things and sort of interact with the world." He smiled as he thought about how she helped him. "Hell, she saved my job."
A slight blush came across his face as he thought about her more. At the bar when she started singing, at work when she helped him, this morning when her stare calmed him more then any breathing exercise. Her whole existence here seemed to be focused on him. Lyra's personality was fun, and she made him feel important. She was here in this world solely because of him and just for him. A tight fluttering feeling started to creep up in his stomach as he thought about her more and more. "I mean I know she's not a human but she's. Great."
Brice's eyes were wide as his brother describe his apparent delusion. "Look, dude. If you're seriously seeing things like... that... Maybe you should go see a shrink or something?"
A slight tremor crossed over Brice's hands, "You know what happened to grandad in the end? It's all genetic. Hell sometimes I wonder if Sam will get worse. If she'll end up like him..." he looked to his daughter who was absently talking with her imaginary friend and building a sand castle.
"I know all kids have imaginary friend, but it just worries me sometimes. To see how much she engaged with her imagination over real people. How she's afraid of everyone. Even me. Then there are times where..." Brice had to stop for a second. He felt Markus' hand on his shoulder. "She doesn't seem to know where she is sometimes."
Markus watched his niece talking to the non-existent person next to her. He could see his personality in his young relative, and it scared him deeply.
"If you think you're seeing things then maybe you should go see a shrink, or a doctor or... just someone."
The two men sat in silence.
Lyra tapped Markus on the back. She was talking and trying to cheer Markus up, but he just ignored her. In truth he didn't want to deal with her right now. As if sensing his displeasure with her Lyra said something else to him, something along the lines of, "I'll be back in a little while." There was a green flash out of the corner of his eye, and she was gone.
More silence. Markus wanted to get out of there, to just fine a place to be alone with his thoughts.
As Markus got up to leave, he was stopped by his brother's trembling hand. "Please, promise me bro."
"You should promise him." Markus thought he heard Lyra whisper, but he couldn't tell or see from where. She wasn't even there anymore, how could she whisper? He thought.
"I promise." He whispered back, before walking away. He couldn't stand to be in this park anymore. To many thoughts, too much pain.
Once he left the park, he stood on the sidewalk by a busy street. He didn't have too far to walk, just a block or two to the east.
"So where are we going next, Mark!" His green horror popped up in front of his face. He looked into her deep golden eyes. They were actually quite pretty. Having such a set of eyes focused on him and only him felt good. It made him feel like he would be able to have a family, just like his brother. If only he could have a real person's eyes to gaze into.
'A family like my brother has,' that thought ran through his mind a few times, before he shook it out.
Walking towards the bus stop Markus had pulled out his wallet to grab his bus pass. As looked in his wallet, he noticed the card Kris gave him last night. Almost without realizing it, he had pulled out his phone and put the number into it.
"Hey, who are you calling?" Lyra asked. Markus did his best to ignore her. "Markus?"
“Hello, Dr. Shelly office. How can I help you?” The phone squeaked.
Markus couldn't speak he knew he should, he knew he needed too but he just couldn't.
Lyra scrunched up her face in frustration. "Oh, come-on, don't play this silent game again. Talk to me! I know you can hear me."
'I know I can hear you. That's the problem.' he thought to himself.
“Hello?” The voice on the phone spoke again.
Markus whispered, “Yes... I'd like to make an appointment.”
Chapter 4: That Boy Needs Therapy
Markus found himself inside a small office, sitting on an oversized and quite comfortable red leather couch. Of course the couch should be comfortable, he thought. Since he was after all paying a hundred dollars just to sit on it.
The leather couch was quite soft, inviting the sitter to just lounge across it. Were it in Markus' condo he could have easily have done so, and just nod off for a few moments. As it was, he was not in his condo, but the thought of a nap was still in the front of his mind. Maybe if he did close his eyes, he could have some respite from his most recent mistake.
Across the small room was the Psychiatrist, Dr. Shelly. Who sat upright in her own oversized red leather chair. She was a middle aged professional, with just the start of salt seasoning her pepper colored hair. The small brown note book and wall of books behind her might make one think of her as a librarian, if not for the plaque on the office door saying otherwise.
“So how long have you been seeing this specter, Lyra you called it?” She spoke to him in a distant detached tone. She made the attempt to be and sound both sympathetic and interested, but beneath it Markus knew he heard boredom.
A quick glance at the clock on her desk showed that the two had been talking for close to forty minutes now, and Markus figured that gave them about fifteen more minutes or so to talk. Fifteen more minutes in which he could consider where exactly his life went wrong.
When exactly did he first meet Lyra?
Markus thought back to the first time he saw her, it was right at the end of last month, after a second round of massive layoffs. His work load had nearly tripled after that. The stress of the extra work and fear of his job's future had finally gotten to him and he just had it out with his old boss Stark. Thinking back to it, it was probably the reason his old boss didn't like him or at least the main reason
Gathering his memories, he formed a response, "About four weeks now. It was right after a bunch of layoffs at work. I was under a ton of stress and, well, she just appeared one day... while I was in the restroom." He added with a slightly embraced tone.
Despite the embarrassment, he couldn't help but chuckle, as he remembered the yell he made and how half the office came to investigate. The first time he saw her ethereal body come together out of the thin air, it was like something out of some sci-fi or horror movie. As the green speckled lights had twinkling into coherence he forgot all thoughts of his boss, his work load, and his job from his mind. All he could focus on at the time, was that green, golden eyed, one horned demon, who insisted on smiling at him.
Dr. Shelly was scratching down notes like crazy, glancing over Markus could only imagine the things she was writing about him.
"So it was in the restroom? What were you doing in there before she showed up?"
With a roll of his eyes, he tried to not be overly sarcastic with his response. "I was doing what most men do in the bathroom... I was taking a piss in one of the urinals."
She put her notebook down, and tried to give him a somewhat forced smile. Despite her attempt to be as disarming as possible, it just seemed too forced, "I'm sorry, I meant were you doing anything out of the ordinary besides just using the facilities. Any recreational drugs? Masturbating?"
The question was absurd, Markus had always stayed clear of drugs, even the so called lighter things like pot. Markus knew that drugs were a gateway, not to other drugs, but to insanity. He had heard stories of people with psychiatric problems being on things like LSD. It was not something he ever wanted to visit.
"No, I've never done any drugs. Well, except for maybe the occasional drink but even that is rare. And I don't... relive myself in the work place."
Picking up her brown skinned notebook, she began writing again, "What did she do when you first saw her?"
As he thought about her first words Markus thought he noticed a flash of green out of the corner of his eye. Turning his head he faced the only window in the office, but there wasn't anything outside. At least, nothing beyond the parking lot.
For a moment he was worried that her face would suddenly appear in the window, or pass through the brickwork. So he kept staring, hoping not to be surprised by her, not now at least. After realizing that she wasn't going to appear, and with a few verbal cues from Dr. Shelly, he came back to really.
With a shake of his head he absently muttered, "Hmmm, what?"
"I asked what did she do when you first saw her. Do you remember the day?"
That was a hard question to answer without sounding nuts. How do you explain to someone the first words spoken by an invisible pony?
"Well, as soon as she saw me her eyes open wide and she started grinning. Then she went off on a tangent, babbling too fast for me to even understand. Something about humans, mythology and a machine that some princess built..." Of course that wasn't all she said to him, but Markus didn't think she needed to hear the rest, to hear about their 'special connection' as she put it.
"Is that all she said? Nothing to indicate your were special or in danger?"
'How could she know, how could she see through him so easily?' he thought. The question caught him off guard and for a brief few moments a series of absurd ideas ran through his mind. Thoughts of people and things spying on him. Shaking his head once more, he tried to remove these random toxic thoughts and come up with something coherent and sane to say.
Misinterpreting his head shake as a no, Dr. Shelly wrote down some more note on her pad. "So she didn't say anything like that at all?"
Of course Markus wasn't going to argue with the easy way out he had just been given. "Umm... no. She said some other things but nothing like that."
The psychiatrist jotted down some more notes, “And you have a history of schizophrenia in your family, yes?”
The corner of his eye twitched ever so lightly, "Yes... my grandfather and niece."
"Do you hold any animosity towards them?"
A tingle ran down his spine as he pushed some thoughts from his mind. Instead of them, he thought about his niece, how could he have animosity towards her? She never asked to be that way, she never tried to hurt anyone. "No, my niece is a sweet little girl. She can't help the condition she has. I could never hate her..."
"And what of your Grandfather."
Again, Markus could feel the twinge down his back. A reminder of the pain he felt when his grandfather started hitting him.
"My Grandfather... was sick. I don't hate him." Markus spoke through clenched teeth. No matter what he said, his mind and body argued otherwise.
"I'm sensing some hostility towards him. I know you don't out right hate him, but maybe you hold some animosity towards him?"
Markus thought about the old man some more. There were very few good memories his Grandfather and him shared. In the end, there was no love loss when he was finally taken out of his life. But he didn't actually blame for anything. Well, anything more than passing on bad genes.
Shaking his head, he responded with a simple, "No, I don't."
Dr. Shelly flipped some notes in her book. "He was committed when you were 11 and died when you were 13? Did you attend his funereal?"
"No. My grandm-"
*Beep*
Off in the distance a small electronic buzzer went off, interrupting Markus' train of thought.
"Well, it seems our time is up Mr. Chomsky." She spoke while folding up the papers and putting them back in the sealed note book, which she placed on top of her desk. Taking her glasses off she also put them on top of the book.
"I'd like to meet with you again, preferably by the end of the week. Would Friday afternoon work for you?"
The request was not what he was expecting. "Why so soon? I figured this be a weekly or bi-weekly thing..."
"Well, if that's what you prefer I'm sure we can easily arrange weekly or bi-weekly meetings. But given your family's medical history and the fact that you seem to be suffer hallucinations, I strongly encourage you to come back sooner." Her voice was stern.
Taking a moment to revisit some of her notes, she had a few points underlined that especially worried her. "I'd also like you to have some medical test done. Some blood work and a Cat scan. Possibly an MRI as well."
A series of dollar signs appeared in his head, "Any particular reason?" He asked nervously.
"Well, you've described a general change in your state of consciousness over a short period of time. That could be a sign of a brain injury, damage or other physical problem. I'd like you to get a Cat scan and maybe an MRI to help rule that out." Seeing his apprehension, she continued. "I would strongly recommend you agree to these procedures. If there is something wrong, then we more options available to us, with better out comes the earlier we find it."
Closing his eyes he thought about how much it would cost. Did he really have the money for this? "I'm just a bit worried about the cost." His response was meek, he didn't want people to think he wasn't financially solvent, but the insurance he had through work wasn't the greatest, and covered almost nothing involving mental health. Even these visits were mostly out of pocket.
"Well, you do have insurance, I'm sure we can work with you to find a provider who will accept it. There's one particular specialist I like to work with. He takes most major insurance, I'm not sure about yours in particular but we can ask first before we actually schedule anything, ok?"
Reluctantly, Markus nodded his head, "Ok..."
As he began to walk out of the building, Dr. Shelly's secretary stopped him. "Oh, Mr. Chomsky, Dr. Shelly wanted me to schedule again for later in the week. Does Friday afternoon work?"
He took a second to think about it. Friday afternoon would require him to leave work early or take time away from his lunch. Neither were ideal choices, assuming he could even make the time. Plus the thought of coming back so soon still bothered him. He wasn't sure how much he could actually afford this month.
He wanted to say no, but felt to afraid to do so. She could start arguing whit him, causing him to cave in. He didn't want that. "Can I just call and schedule an appointment later?"
"Of course. We're here for another hour today, and 9 to 5 tomorrow. Have a good evening Mr. Chomsky."
Turning around, Markus didn't nod or even acknowledge the secretary's response. He was too embarrassed, such that he couldn't actually say no to her. There was just too much on his mind at the moment, most of which was about his mind or rather his mental health. Every day, he felt closer and closer to losing himself too this madness to-
"Markus!" Lyra called out from up a nearby tree.
'-her,' he finished his mental thought.
The thought had crossed his mind, that the parking lot of a psychiatrist office wasn't the best place for a conversation with his hallucination. Yet as he looked around Markus saw no one in or around the lot. There was just one burring question had to ask, what could be the harm?
"Why are you in that tree, Lyra?"
Jumping down from the tree, Lyra gave him a warm smile. "Climbing trees is fun, its good exercise, and you can see so much more when your up one!" She pointed her hoof off to the side of the building that he just walked out of. "Like that park over there! It's kind of hard to see if you're on the ground, but up in the tree it just becomes so much bigger!."
With a lazy turn of his head, Markus looked the large open field of the park. It was flat, a small hill was near the back of it, and some people appeared to be wandering back and forth near the outskirts.
'Hardly remarkable', he thought.
"Lyra, I can see the park quite clearly from here on the ground."
With a huff she rolled her eyes, "Well yeah, sure you can see a flat piece of land from down here, but you can't REALLY see the park. Here I'll show you!" She trotted back over to the trunk of the tree and started climbing it once more.
"Come on! This will be fun!" She called down from halfway up the trunk.
He watched the supple little green unicorn grab branch after branch with her hoof. Wrapping around each one. Her back hooves slipping once, but she was quick enough to rebalanced herself and continue on. He was amazed at how she was able to climb it so well, the way her body bent and moved seemed unnatural for an equine, and oddly acrobatic.
"Lyra..." he spoke to her, tying to hide his growing interest in climbing the tree.
"Oh, come on, this is fun! You don't have enough fun in your life." She sat on a branch that was a few meters up and faced towards the park.
Giving one last sigh, Markus gave in and walked to the tree trunk. He hadn't tried to climb a tree in years, and hadn't even been to a gym in about the same. Needless to say, he was more than a little out of shape for it. Wrapping his hands around the nearest branch, he started to pull himself up the wooden tower. He felt his foot, and hand holds almost give way a few times, and he was sure he'd have a splinter or two when he was done. Yet, each time, he managed to right himself and kept going upwards, until...
"Hi Markus." Lyra smiled at him with her golden eyes. "Look." She pointed her hoof to the large field.
His eyes open a bit wider as he saw the field in its entirety. It really did seem so much large from up the tree. There was so much more going on, and so much more to see. Over the tiny hill there was a previously hidden path that walked along a tiny stream. The woods on the edge had some breaks in the trees where a smaller path would wander off and disappear. Then there was group of people, who from the ground looked like they were just walking back and forth. But, from up in the tree, it was clear they were actually practicing some complex two dimensional choreography, a dance routine perhaps.
The dance routine they were practicing was actually quite intricate. All the nuances of their movement had been lost on the ground, but from here he felt like he could see everything. Markus got lost in their movements. Sitting on the branch he watched them unveil an impressive show of human coordination that put his tree climbing to shame.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a smirk started to appear on Lyra's face.
"I told you so." She said smugly
As he sat on the branch, he thought of something to say, "You've never appeared in any trees before?"
She giggled, "Nope, and I still haven't."
"But I saw you, when I left the office? You were up here Lyra."
"Oh yeah, I was up the tree, but I didn't appear here. I saw you from outside that office window. I thought about coming in to say hi, but it looked like you were having a serious talk with that woman. So I wandered around for a few minutes and found this perfectly good climbing tree." A small gust of wind blew some of her mane around her face. She continued to gaze at him with that subtle smile on her face; Markus couldn't help but smile back.
"Tell me this tree wasn't a good idea?" She asked.
Sitting there he took a deep breath, his smile ever widening. Being here and sitting in this tree was one of the most peaceful and calming activities he had done in recent memory. The air smelled so much more pure up here, and there was just a subtle little hint of mint. Or was that just in his head? It didn't matter, this tree was amazing.
A subtle tingle crossed his hand, snapping him from his trance. Looking down he saw Lyra's hoof touching the top of his hand.
"Hey, you ok?" Her smile still present, but behind it a slight air of concern.
Turning his hand over he embraced her hoof. "Yeah Lyra, I'm fine. Thank you."
He could feel his neck moving his head ever closer to her's, as if by some outside force. He wanted to-
"Mr. Chomsky?"
Markus felt his heart pause as an older woman yelled to him from the ground. "Dr. Shelly? Well isn't this a surprise, um..." He thought about what to say, looking to Lyra for some advice or indication but she just shrugged.
"Did you know you can see the park from up here?" He wanted to kick himself for how stupid that comment must have seemed.
"That's nice. Who are you talking too?"
Thinking.
He tried to think, to find something to say. He needed to get down from the tree. "Uh, just one second, I'll be right down."
Each branch caused a flash of horror to run through his mind as he tried to find something to say, but couldn't. Finally, Markus let got of the last branch and he now stood in front of the psychiatrist. Her gaze had him deeply worried.
"Ummm..." His mind went blank, all his thoughts focusing on this moment and how much he wanted to escape it. He couldn't think of a response.
"Were you talking to your 'figment', Lera?"
From up in the tree Markus could make out his invisible companion's irritation. With her muzzle slightly scrunched she yelled down to him, "Tell her my name's Lyra, not Lera... Markus?"
With a sigh Markus replied, "Yes. I was."
"I see. So is she still here?"
There was a loud bit of noise as the pony seemed to start the climb down the tree. Rustling leaves and branches that only Markus seemed to hear.
"Yes." He responded to her question.
"And is she talking to you?"
Markus could only nod his head.
"What is she saying, exactly?"
Behind him, a small oomph could be heard, as Lyra dropped the rest of the way.
All he could think of was the truth, "She... wanted you to know... that her name was Lyra, not Lera." His eyes fell to the ground after the response.
The psychiatrist continued to stare at him for a moment. "I really think you should schedule that appoint. How about Friday afternoon at 4PM?"
Locked in a trance of fear and shame, he could only nod his response 'yes'.
Dr. Shelly smiled at him before walking away from him. Standing by his side Lyra continued to try and talk to him. She wanted him to know that it was alright, that she was next to him.
A tremble came over his hands as he started to shake. He could feel the anger starting to boil up in him.
"Hey, big guy. It's ok, really you'll be fine. I mean what's the worse that can happen?" She asked naively.
"The worse that can happen?" He yelled.
Looking down at the green specter, her face appeared full of almost innocent curiosity, as if she really just didn't know. The anger he felt slowly seeped out of him, she just didn't know. "Lyra... the worse that could happen, is I could be locked up."
Lyra's face scrunched up, she didn't quite understand him, "What do you mean locked up?"
For a moment, Markus stood in the parking lot, thinking about what to say to her. How to explain, and if he even should. Finally, he shook his head and made his way to the bus stop. "Forget about it..." He whispered.
The journey back to his condo was spent in silence. Markus didn't want to speak, and he imagined that Lyra didn't either. Not that either would know what to say even if they did. He wondered why she just didn't leave for the time being, but he knew she wasn't the one to abandon anyone. Shaking his head at the thought, he reminded himself that she wasn't real.
Finally, making it back to his flat, the first thing he did was crash on his cheap sofa. Somewhere near his left thigh was a rather hard lump under the fabric of the chair. It had been there since he bought the chair off some discount furniture store's web page. Shifting around a few times, he quickly began to miss the chair from the doctor's office.
Closing his eyes he tried to tune out the world around him. All he wanted, all he needed was a moment's peace to calm and focus his mind.
There was a vague sensation of something flopping down on the adjacent side of the couch, and the sounds of ruffling fur. Markus wasn't even able to sigh before she opened her mouth.
"Markus I'm sorry I screwed up today. I just wanted to be your friend!" She pleaded with him, but he kept his eyes shut.
'Maybe if I keep quite she will go away, and leave me in peace?' he thought to himself.
"Come on big guy, tell me that climbing that tree wasn't fun!" Her voice sounded happy, but there was a deep somber note behind it.
The thought of climbing that tree, crept into his mind. The more he tried to force it out the stronger it became. That feel of bark beneath his hands, of his mussels being stretched, it was all so pleasant. A smile slowly forced it's way across his lips, as he remembered sitting on that branch. The wind blowing and catching Lyra's mane it was-
'No.' He said to himself, as he opened his eyes. Insanity might be coming for him, but he was not going into its arms willingly. "Lyra... stop." He squeaked out.
"But it was fun! I know you thought so!" Reaching her hoof out she touched his arm. The wispy electric sensation caressed his skin. Looking down, he saw her hoof.
'She's not really here.' His mind reiterated to itself.
For some reason that he didn't fully understand, his eyes began to water, like he wanted to cry.
"And who cares what some dumb doctor thinks, you're safe with me!" Her words stung him and cut him. It was as if he were walking through a green and golden briar patch. More than anything he wanted her to be real right now, for anyone to be real, and be here. Between the stress and his loneliness he couldn't take much more. As much as Lyra might help at times, she was just a constant reminder that he was in fact alone.
Across from him, he saw Lyra's face scrunch up as she failed to get to him. "Come on Markus, who needs her? There are other doctors out there, maybe ones who understand." She began to rub her front leg with her hoof.
"Besides, who needs them when you have me?" She tried to smile, tired to make everything seem like it was alright.
But, that was it, the last straw for today. His hallucination was telling him to ignore his doctor. In effect, to forgo any medial treatment. He would not go down that route, he would not be like his grandfather.
With a shout he begged her, "Lyra! Please stop!"
She balked and held her head down. Every time she tried to help him, she just seemed to screw it all up. "I-I'm sorry... I just wanted you to know that I'm here for you."
His anger faded into a mixture of frustration and guilt. He didn't mean to upset her. "Look, I had a very distressing day and you're not making it better right now."
Markus rubbed his eyes. He didn't want to see his invisible unicorn cry. Real or not, It just didn't seem right. Perhaps he was just grouchy that he hadn't gotten enough sleep. Yeah, that was it, he thought. Forcing his body up, he began to walk out of the living room.
"Markus, please. Wait..." She was practically begging him.
Hesitating, he wondered what exactly she would say. Was she going to go off on another inane tangent, take about her mythical village of ponyville, or proceed to take a hammer to his life once more.
"What is it?" He asked.
The unicorn paused as if thinking about what to say, "If... If it ever gets that bad. To where they'll put you in one of these institutions. If that ever comes close to happening... I'll leave you alone."
Now, that did cause Markus to pause. How was he suppose to take this? Her existence had already caused him no end of grief. Was she even serious?
"I don't know why we are linked Markus, but if our link ends up hurting you. I'll have Twilight destroy her machine. I'll probably never get rid of the nightmares, but I'd rather have them, than know I hurt you." Her voice was shaky, like she didn't quite know what to say.
Shaking his head, he began wandering slowly towards his bedroom. He glanced back at her. "Look I'm kind of tired, I just want to go to bed."
"Oh... ok then." She pouted.
"Before you go though, I have a surprise for you tomorrow!" Her voice picked up a bit of pep. Hiding her underlying fear and sadness.
At this point Markus wasn't paying attention. He dropped his pants and shoes off at the entrance to his bedroom then threw off his shirt before collapsing on the bed in his underwear.
"Markus?" He was vaguely aware that she was still trying to talk to him.
There was a slight tingle on his cheek. He slightly opened one of his eyes to see Lyra close to his face. "Good night Markus." With that, there was a green light, and she disappeared.
Running his finger tips along his cheek, he could still sense the ethereal feel of her lips. 'She kissed me?' he thought of her right before drifting off into a troubled sleep, full of thick mist and little tiny lights.
Back in his living room, his cellphone lite up, illuminating the cheap table. The ruble pack inside began to move, causing the phone to danced across the surface, as a string of messages started to come in. The name "Jordan" and "Paul" flashed on the screen, but Markus didn't hear them, he was already to deep into his dark mist filled sleep.
The specter would simply not go away, and leave him in peace. "Hey! You should try these crepes, they're fantastic!" The mint green unicorn practically inhaled the pastries inside the display case.
Half her body was transposed inside the case, while the other stood outside of it. In truth the whole scene might be mistaken for one of a horror movie, if not for the very out of place pastille colored equine.
"Mmmm... boy these sure are good!" She exclaimed with a wide smile, or at least he thought that's what she said. It was very hard to tell given her mouth was full of food. He wondered how that was even possible given that she wasn't even real. He had his answer once she disappeared behind the coffee bar as the crepes seemingly reappeared, or perhaps they were simply never taken at all? That seemed the more like case, the man thought.
He shook his head and trembled slightly. 'I'm losing my mind...' he thought to himself, unaware of the cashier calling to him.
"SIR!" She screamed, finally grabbing his attention.
"Oh sorry about that." He stammered and looked at the coffee list thinking about what he wanted to drink.
The unicorn popped up in front of his face causing him to reel back slightly. His wide eye expression at the sight of something others could not see was quite disturbing. More then a few of the coffee house's patrons stared at him with mild concern, and there were hushed whispers about drug use, and LSD. Followed by some soft laughs.
The unicorn pushed further into his space, the smile on her lips growing. "OH! You should order something sweet! With caramel, or a moka-" The unicorn started sprouting seemingly random drink ideas to the man.
He ignored them all and ordered quite flatly, "I'll have a Venti Latte." It was the flattest voice he could manage, as he tried to hide his apperint insanity from his fellow patrons.
"Awww... but that's no fun." the unicorn pouted.
The cashier picked up a cup and started writing on the side, "What's the name for the order?" she asked in a huff.
"Markus." He paid the cashier with a slightly crumpled twenty he pulled from his pocket. Normally, Markus would be more neat with his cash and store it in his wallet. Earlier when he was taking money from the ATM, Lyra terrified him by popping out of the front of the unit. He was forced to just shoved the money in his pocket as he ran away from the terrifying unicorn who had succeed in scaring him half to death.
Markus moved off to the second waiting line and waited for his drink. He occupied the time by watching his ghost move around the baristas, and explorer the equipment behind the preparation line.
"Hey! What does this thing do?" Lyra poked at the bagel slicer behind the counter. Markus wanted to yell at her to stop playing with it, that someone could get hurt. Then he remembered that she wasn't even real.
The coffee house patrons were all quite aware that Markus was having some issues at the moment and kept their distance. One of the woman in line pulled her child back from approaching the man and whispered something in her kid's ear.
The baristas did their best to make his order as quickly as they could, to try and get him out of the place.
Finally having grabbed his coffee he made a quick break for the door, hoping to run from the spectacle he had caused. The server watched him run out and shook his. He was one of the stranger customers he had served all week. Turning he whispered "Weirdo" to his colleague, who nodded his agreement.
As Markus practically ran out of the coffee shop he couldn't help but think that he didn't need this, not now, not today. 'It's the stress.' Markus thought to himself, the stress was making him hallucinate a talking mint unicorn who was currently trotting besides him asking a bunch of inane questions about the street signs.
"It's the stress." He repeated out loud to himself.
"What about stress?" The unicorn looked up at him with some concern in her eyes.
He ignored her and went back to mumbling about stress. She quickly walked in front of him, blocking his path. Markus stopped in front of her. He didn't really consider her non-corporal nature, and the ease at which he could have just passed though her.
"Hey. Are you alright, Markus?" Her voice was almost pleading this time.
"NO! I'm seeing an imaginary talking unicorn! I'm not all right!" Markus yelled to his figment. He quickly became aware that he was still in public and that people were now staring at him. More then a few walked away from the cearly deranged man, and the rest kept their distance.
Lyra felt bad, she didn't mean to make her human friend's life difficult. She lowered her head and whispered "But I'm not imaginary." Before disappearing in a puff of green smoke.
Markus blinked his eyes and looked around for her. He was quickly relived that she appeared to be gone. For now at least. He glanced at his watched and felt his heart skip a beat. His legs started moving before his brain could fully process it all. He was going to be late. Very late.
