Take Me To Your Reader: An Otherworld Anthology (2 page)

My heart squeezes now at the memory of being taken from Mattie again.
"Violet," Stan says my name like he's talking to a naughty child, "you didn't just take a few pills. You took the whole bottle. We've been over this! I've humored you as much as I can. Now I'm tired of your bullshit! I'm not going to let you do this to yourself—to me. I'm getting you help. I'm coming to get you. Where. Are. You?"

His threat is very real. My parents agreed to leave him in charge of me when they went back to Florida. He can make it so that I have to go back to the hospital. I wet my lips before I say,
"Listen, Stan, I know you're going through a lot—"

"
You don't know what I'm going through! Matt, my partner, the one who ran most of the operations of our company, was shot and killed a couple of months ago. I've been forced to oversee everything—make every decision—and I'm shit at it, Vi! Matt was Source Products. He was this company. Now I have a silent partner, you, who's losing her damn mind and who believes my best friend has outlived his body and is waiting in some watery grave for her to find him. SO, NO, VI! YOU DON'T HAVE A CLUE WHAT I'M GOING THROUGH!"

I cringe, and then say quietly,
"I found something last night when I was going through some of the papers the lawyers sent over. Matt owned property in Michigan—in the Upper Peninsula, Stan. Did you know that?"

"
No," he says irritably. "So what? He was in the thirty under thirty wealthiest men in America. He had a lot of private holdings."

"
This one is different. It's a lake. He owns an entire lake."

"
Owned, Vi, owned. Matt is dead. You own it now. And again, so what?"

"
As far as I can tell, it's the first thing he ever bought."

"
That makes sense. It's a bad investment."

"
There's a house. I have the key."

"
Where?"

"
It's near a little town called..." I pause.

"
Vi?" he asks. "Where was that? You cut out!"

"
I'm losing the signal," I lie. "I'll call you when I get there. Promise."

"
Violet!" Stan's angry voice shouts, but I hang up. I wince and silence my phone.

I look at Mattie
's urn next to me and say, "Stan's gonna be bitter, but we can't have him sending the police to take me into custody so he and Dr. Gobel can decide if I'm sane."

Intending to merge back onto the road, I scan the rearview mirror, catching a glimpse of my reflection. It shocks me a little because I hardly recognize myself. I look crazy. My long brown hair is piled on top of my head in a messy bun. The dark circles under my eyes make them seem even bluer, haunted. My skin is so pale it nearly glows; I haven
't been out in the sun in weeks. It's nearly the summer solstice and my flesh indicates that it's the middle of winter, which wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't lost more weight than I care to admit. My white, v-neck t-shirt hangs on me and my cut-off boyfriend shorts are baggier than normal...and it probably doesn't help that I'm still wearing my slippers. I look like a strung-out teenager, not the once-confident, responsible, twenty-four-year old I used to be. I shiver.

I take off my slippers and toss them in the back seat. I reach back and find my sandals on the top of my duffle bag and slip them on. Using the brush from my purse, I take down the bun and pull my hair into a sleek ponytail instead. I locate lipstick and apply it.
"You're not crazy," I tell my reflection. "You're going to find him. And anyway, crazy people don't wear lipstick...at least not on their lips." I scrounge around in my purse again for my dark sunglasses. I put them on to hide the circles under my eyes, and then I pull Mattie's truck back onto the road.

After a few more hours of driving, I pick up the map from the seat next to me and try to read it. I
'd traded M2 for some serious backasswards roads awhile ago and have been fairly lost ever since. I pull the truck over to the shoulder while I study the map again, and then search around through the window, finding nothing but extremely tall pine trees. Mattie's company, Source Products, designed the custom GPS in this car, but I've never figured out how to use it. Since Mattie was the rocket scientist, I left him in charge of programming it whenever we left the city.

I growl in frustration.
"There are no road signs! Why are there no signs? How do Yoopers find anything? Do they navigate by sense of smell?" I hold up my phone, hoping to get a half a bar so I can use my GPS app. It may as well be a brick because there's no reliable service here in this part of the Upper Peninsula. It's probably my bad karma for cutting Stan off earlier.

"
We're soooo furrreaking lost!" I say conversationally to Mattie's urn. "I have no idea where your house is, do you? I can't even find the lake on this map! It's like it doesn't exist! Dammit!" I rest my forehead against the steering wheel. "You should be driving, not me. Do you want to help me out here?" My throat gets tight and I hold back tears.

All at once, silver lights brighten the car
's console and the windscreen of the car becomes nearly opaque. Mattie's face appears on the windshield as his voice pipes through the speakers in surround sound. "Engaging autopilot. Destination?"

My heartbeat flutters in shock at the sound of his sexy voice.
"Oh my God, Mattie?" It should've come out as a shout, but it comes out in a whisper.

"
I am unfamiliar with 'Omygodmaddey.' Please input coordinates for 'Omygodmaddey.'"

Understanding slowly dawns on me and I whisper,
"You're not Mattie! You sound just like Mattie!" My stomach tightens painfully.

"
I am Source One Alpha," the deep voice coming from the speakers states. "I'm endowed with the voice frequencies of my creator, Matteyo Dillinger."

"
Mattie designed you?"

"
That is correct."

"
What are you, a computer?" I ask incredulously.

"
Negative. I am Source One Alpha."

"
What's Source One Alpha? "

"
In technical terms or laymen's?" he asks.

"
Definitely laymen's."

"
I am A.I."

"
A.I.?"

The voice sighs heavily, like it
's human and not a machine. "He said you were not technologically savvy. He wasn't lying. "

"
Who said that? Mattie said that? You talked to him?"

"
Yes. We spoke often. He is my creator. A.I. is an acronym for artificial intelligence."

"
So, you're a smart computer?"

The image of Matt on the windshield frowns. The driver
's side door opens on its own. "Call me a computer again and you can walk. Matteyo refers to me as So-wah. On the surface I'm cybernetics, but let's just say I am."

"
You are? You mean you exist?"

"
I do."

My heartbeat triples and I consider unbuckling my seatbelt and running from the vehicle, but I can
't make myself leave, not with Mattie's face staring back at me. I'll endure anything just to hear Source One Alpha talk to me again.

"
Umm, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to insult you." I panic a little when the driver-side door closes by itself.

"
Take a sip of your water. Your heart rate is well beyond an acceptable level," SOA says.

I do as it suggests, anxious not to offend it again.
"So, why don't I know about you? I must've driven in this car a hundred times and you never once spoke to me."

"
I was classified."

"
Mattie, uh, Matteyo didn't want me to know about you?"

"
Correct."

"
Why?"

"
He wasn't sure if he could trust you."

"
Trust me? Trust me with what?"

"
It's classified."

"
Declassify it."

"
No."

I exhale in confusion.
"Then, why are you talking to me now?"

"
Matteyo gave me instructions. If you're ever in dire need of my assistance, I'm to help you."

"
Right. Of course," I say with a mixture of shock and frustration.

"
How can I assist you?"

My hand trembles as I rub my forehead, trying to ease my growing headache. I pause and ask,
"I'm lost. Can you take me to Matteyo?"

"
His remains are in the vehicle with you."

I suddenly feel chilled.
"How did you know that?"

"
I scanned the contents of the car."

"
How did you do that?" I whisper.

"
In technical terms or laymen's?"

"
Laymen's! Always laymen's!"

"
I scanned the contents of the vehicle on a molecular level. It's a mathematical certainty that the urn on the passenger seat contains the remains of Matteyo Dillinger."

"
Okay." I rub my hands over my arms trying to dispel the goose bumps. "Have you ever been in this area with Matteyo before?"

"
Yes."

"
Do you remember where you were?" I ask anxiously.

"
I don't forget anything."

I roll my eyes.
"Okay. Where were you the last time you were in this area?"

"
Matteyo's residence."

"
Is it on a lake?"

"
The residence is approximately fifty-two yards from a body of water."

My mouth becomes dry. I take another sip of water before I ask,
"Can you take me there—on like, autopilot or whatever?"

"
Yes."

Elation washes over me and I wait for the car to move. When it continues to idle, I roll my eyes again.
"Will you please take me there now?"

"
We will not make it to the destination without stopping for fuel for this substandard vehicle."

An ironic smile twists my lips.
"How is this substandard? It's an Escalade."

"
It operates on fossil fuel. It's a P.O.S.," SOA replies with attitude in his tone.

Despite everything, I smile.
"We should get gas then," I agree. "Do you want me to drive?"

"
No," SOA states as the windshield brightens to full-transparency.

"
You say that like there's something wrong with my driving."

"
You speed, you fail to maintain a proper distance from the vehicle in front of you, you demonstrate improper lane changes, you talk on the phone while you drive, and you drift."

I frown.
"I don't drift."

"
You drift. I will drive."

As the truck pulls back onto the road on its own, I clutch the steering wheel in fear. The wheel begins to retract from me.
"Do not touch the steering wheel while I'm driving." SOA orders.

I flinch and drop my hands from it. I bite my thumbnail anxiously for a few minutes until it becomes clear that the truck isn
't going to plunge off the road. When I begin to relax a little, my phone rings. I pick it up, see that I have one bar of connectivity, and glance at the display. It reads: "Private." I move my thumb to answer it.

"
Do not answer that call," SOA orders. The windshield darkens again so that I can see his face on it.

My eyes widen.
"Why not?"

"
The caller is attempting to trace the call and locate your position. You need to destroy your SIM card."

"
My what—who's trying to locate my position? How do you know that?"

"
They are triangulating your position now. Destroying your SIM card is your only option to avoid detection. You will find it in the back of your phone. "

I scramble to open the back of my phone when my window opens.
"Throw your phone out the window. At this velocity, the impact will destroy it."

I don
't know if it's because it's Mattie's voice telling me to do it or his image on the windshield, but I immediately toss my phone out the window. As I look out the back, I see the phone bounce on the pavement and break into piece. The truck brakes and stops in the middle of the road. Then, SOA reverses the Escalade and backs over my phone for good measure.