I Have A Theory

Chapter Nine, Jeong-Su's Second Conversation With Victor

I walk into the infirmary, because although Greene is no longer there, Victor is.

He greets me when I enter, waving with five human-looking fingers, pushing back his curly hair with his moist hands and sweat-beaded forearms. Crossing his legs so that he looks more interested.

"Park. You took a glance inside of me--how was it?"

I frown. "Honestly, I expect it was nothing out of the ordinary. I was initially appalled, but now I've seen inside Robertson and Crane... and they're just like you."

He nods slowly. Lets a few tears slip from his eyes, but quickly crushes them with the back of his hand. Victor doesn't seem like one to be vulnerable--everyone's acting out of character nowadays.

"After Greene killed himself, I was afraid none of you would come. You'd stop visiting."

"I'm sorry for your fear."

His shoulders roll through an obligatory wave of nonchalance. "No problem. I don't need to eat... maybe I just need to pretend I'm human every now and again."

I nod. "Let's pretend I'm planning on letting you out--what would your first inclination be to do?"

He comes to alert, muscles tensing as though he's been shocked. Maybe he is shocked. "You just gonna let me walk out of here?"

"You're good at this pretending game," I note. "And yes, I would like to let you out. There's an obvious idea behind this, which is that you'd been indebted in some way to me, but I think you're okay with all that."

A slow nod.

"I can be your genie in a bottle," he says. "It's the red light mainly which does it for me, gives me that visceral need to escape. I'm used to it now. In the sense that I've acclimated to a lower state of consciousness."

"What were you like before all this, Victor?"

He shakes his head hopelessly. He doesn't remember.

"Fair." My voice is strong as rebar, and it impresses me. "Do you think you could kill someone for me when you get out of this?"

He nods. No shades or gray tones of reluctance--it's all black and white. "Who do you have in mind?"

I key a twenty-three digit code into his cell, watch the door swing open.

"I don't know yet."

When the space between us is filled with nothing but air, the door having vacated its place, Victor says, "I lied." Biting and predatory, his two words glint like knives as they tumble through the air.

"You lied."

He nods once, head bobbing in a cracking-eggs motion, belittling.

"I know what I was like before all this. I was a musician."

I shake my head tentatively, and prepare to enter the fourth dimension.

He grins, and his teeth are the color of altoids, or cocaine. His smile's too wide, his lips too thin--his subsequent frown is a relief. "Why are you scared of me? I used to play the violin, and I was brilliant, Jeong. I put my work on Spotify, and it made people hallucinate when they were really tired. I also tested insanely high on my EQ scores, so I was, as you might have noticed, a very emotionally perceptive person. It's what made my psychologist, Dr. Thomas Greene, so interested in me."

"Is there any use to this information?"

He shakes his head fluidly. "Just wanted to let you know that I lied. I felt kind of guilty."