05-02-2018, 06:14 PM
In the ensuing months, Harmony and Dexter made many trips underground. Each time they went further, deeper. Dexter began to doubt there were only 33 blocks to the Underground. Either they were walking in circles or the network of rooms stretched beneath most of downtown Seattle. Dexter believed the latter, since he had the uncanny feeling they had never walked through the same room twice.
Each time, they went until Harmony’s flashlight ran out and then talked and laughed in the darkness. At one point, Harmony discovered a basement in one of the buildings that led to an even deeper level. Dexter was only slightly worried by the existence of an under-underground. It seemed to confirm a suspicion he was not conscious of having.
“Did Seattle burn down twice?” he asked.
Harmony laughed. “No.”
Dexter wondered aloud if that made sense, but Harmony countered with, “Does it have to?” and Dexter guessed it didn’t.
Many other things made no sense to Dexter beneath the city, but he grew accustomed to the feeling of being unsettled. Down there, it was as if he walked through an alternate reality, one that tentatively clung to the world he knew above.
As they explored the underground, Dexter felt both closer to and more removed from Harmony. The further they went, the less Dexter resembled the person he thought he knew.
They did crazy things down there, in the dark.
They had sex down there, in the dark and the dust, amidst the mildew and the termites, the psychopaths and the opium dealers, and the act seemed to be the only thing that interrupted the constant echo in the back of his mind. I love you.
One time, after the light went out, Dexter hit Harmony on a whim. This was followed by silence, and he was about to apologize when Harmony hit him back. Then he was hitting her and she was hitting him, and they were falling, and the flashlight clattered to the floor as they rolled in the darkness, the beam arcing wildly across the ceiling and the floor, and her face and his face, and Harmony was laughing and there was a dangerous desire to inflict pain rising in Dexter, but thankfully nothing happened and the fight dissolved into Harmony and him lying, panting, on the ground.
Harmony laughed. “Now we’re getting somewhere, she said.
Each time, they went until Harmony’s flashlight ran out and then talked and laughed in the darkness. At one point, Harmony discovered a basement in one of the buildings that led to an even deeper level. Dexter was only slightly worried by the existence of an under-underground. It seemed to confirm a suspicion he was not conscious of having.
“Did Seattle burn down twice?” he asked.
Harmony laughed. “No.”
Dexter wondered aloud if that made sense, but Harmony countered with, “Does it have to?” and Dexter guessed it didn’t.
Many other things made no sense to Dexter beneath the city, but he grew accustomed to the feeling of being unsettled. Down there, it was as if he walked through an alternate reality, one that tentatively clung to the world he knew above.
As they explored the underground, Dexter felt both closer to and more removed from Harmony. The further they went, the less Dexter resembled the person he thought he knew.
They did crazy things down there, in the dark.
They had sex down there, in the dark and the dust, amidst the mildew and the termites, the psychopaths and the opium dealers, and the act seemed to be the only thing that interrupted the constant echo in the back of his mind. I love you.
One time, after the light went out, Dexter hit Harmony on a whim. This was followed by silence, and he was about to apologize when Harmony hit him back. Then he was hitting her and she was hitting him, and they were falling, and the flashlight clattered to the floor as they rolled in the darkness, the beam arcing wildly across the ceiling and the floor, and her face and his face, and Harmony was laughing and there was a dangerous desire to inflict pain rising in Dexter, but thankfully nothing happened and the fight dissolved into Harmony and him lying, panting, on the ground.
Harmony laughed. “Now we’re getting somewhere, she said.