CHAPTER 3
“ADONIA”
SUMMER
BROKEN LAND
By now, Theo is a regular at Broken Land and looks the part. He’s dressed all in Rick Owens black, a red FOMO camera hanging from its bandolier, and rocking a high fade mohawk with a triangular pattern shaved in one side. In practiced ease, he walks to the front of the crowd at the subway entrance with a coffee in each hand. He passes one to THE SERBIAN, now clearly enveloped in 3 overlapping Auras, and together they walk to the end of the hallway. Three months of Theo’s ingratiating behavior have filed The Serb’s gruff exterior down to these eager puppy-like greetings. Theo fishes his silver key out of his shirt. It hangs from a long cord and is imprinted with the words “Do Not Duplicate.” The leftmost version of The Serb’s Aura launches into a joke, a practices part of their nightly ritual.
THE SERBIAN
Three shapes are trying to get into a club. It’s a club for shapes I guess? hah. Anyway, the first one goes up to the bouncer. Bouncer says sorry man, you’re too square.
Theo smiles and slots the key into the elevator control panel. The door opens to reveal a glowing, black velvet curtain.
THE SERBIAN
Ah, but I have money, the square tells him. Ok. Bouncer lets him in….
Theo steps thru the curtain mid-joke and emerges into the front lounge of Broken Land. The curtain on this side of the portal flows seamlessly into the billowing cloak of SHARON’s Aura. He hands her the other coffee.
Walking thru the scattered train benches toward the raging party in the main room, Theo takes selfies with friends he sees on the way. He takes one with a second version of the triplicate Serb, who continues the joke without missing a beat.
THE SERBIAN
…the second shape goes up to the bouncer and the bouncer says, sorry dude. You’re too round. The shape says, but I know all the other shapes. We’re in the same circle. Ok, bouncer says, and let’s him in.
Theo shakes his head at the pun and cuts thru the crowded dance floor, heading up to the bar.
MAIN BAR
Theo heads for a remote corner of the bar shrouded in darkness, orders a mezcal, and waits. Soon the darkness dissipates, revealing MANNY and his latest customers, drug deal newly completed. Manny’s super strength Aura messes with lighting and electricity, so as he powers down he becomes visible once more. His hulking, spiky Aura shrinks in size, revealing the smiling, diminutive Columbian within.
MANNY
Theo! What’s up bro!? Get in here!
They hug, Manny powers back up, and they swap cash for Rust with practiced ease in the enveloping darkness.
MANNY
Here, have some on me.
He scoops out a massive pile with a silver horn pendant, offering it to Theo.
THEO
Dude, you’re gonna get me oxidized before I even make it to the booth.
He blows off half the pile then leans in for the remainder, Manny laughing incredulously. The nerve of this kid! They exchange goodbyes, and Theo makes his way shakily around to the front of the bar as the familiar Rust high kicks in.
Deadalus is already on, conducting a symphony of otherworldly sounds for a packed house. It’s unclear what is responsible for the crazy lights and sounds exactly…the DJ’s skill as a musician, the drugs, or the strange technology of Deadalus’ System? At least some of it is Deadalus’ powers, evident in the overlapping triangles of energy that spill from his hands. They flow in to the reel-to-reels, mixer and synthesizer, controlling them. The equipment is constantly flowing and changing like some fourth dimensional Rubik’s cube. Theo wants to be there in the booth to see it up close, to be in the center of the action.
He walks down the length of the subway platform to the far end of the station, where the raised DJ booth juts out into the crowd. It is flanked by two subway trains that jut out from the center and its massive mirror ball clock. They jut behind the towering speakers and terminate at the platform on each side.
DJ BOOTH
At the door set into the front of the train car, a third SERB stands guard, the real “him” standing between two overlapping Auras. His ability to create a triplicate Aura allows him to oversee security in three parts of the club simultaneously, and his war-fractured psyche allows him to mentally control them each independently. Theo isn’t sure if the hybrid silver dog tag / razor blade hanging from his neck originally belonged to him or someone close to him; the name is crossed out. Maybe even The Serb doesn’t know.
THE SERB
…so the third shape, a triangle, goes to the door and the bouncer just lets her in, no questions asked. The other two shapes are like, what the hell? Why did he let you in so easy? The triangle just looks at them and says..
THEO (interrupting)
Cuz I’m acute!
The Serb cracks up at his own punchline.
THE SERB
When are you gonna let me get some ink on you, Theo?
THEO
Soon, buddy. Still looking for an idea.
Still chuckling, The Serb steps aside and lets him into the promised land. Here was the inner circle of the club, the ultimate VIP area. Two subway cars formed the back of the DJ booth, the back two sides of the triangular stage. The subway cars open doors allowed the various hangers-on, groupies and staff a view of Deadalus at work as well as the club beyond. Unlike GR€€D, the crowd is a rainbow of skin tones and sexualities, a concentration of casual coolness that calls to Theo on a primal level. They sit along the benches inside the car or spin about the subway poles, stripper-like, casually snorting Rust off keys and silver finger nails like others sip cocktails.
He’s suddenly confronted by MINUS, the long silver spoon hanging from his necklace bent into a loop in the middle, swaying across the front his shirt.
MINUS
What are you doing back here?
He reaches out with his Aura, glowing black metallic chains that slither out from his fist and wrap out around Theo’s throat. The “King of the Broken” leads by fear and intimidation, enforced by his ability to mind control anyone on Rust. He interrogates Theo, forcing him to answer against his will.
MINUS
Why are you back here? You come out of nowhere, track us down, and now you think you belong in the booth? Are you a Narc? Did Cyrus send you?
The answers are wrenched from Theo in curt, painful responses. His denials eventually satisfying Minus, or at least boring him, so he decides to embarrasses Theo. His chains reach out to Theo’s ankles and wrists, puppeteering his movements like a marionette.
MINUS (OS)
Look at me, I want to be a real boy!
Minus’ immediate posse, including those two look-alike booth groupies, laugh derisively.
DEADALUS enters the train car.
DEADALUS
Minus, don’t be such an asshole. Our new friend has been vouched for by Russ. He’s just as Broken as the rest of us.
Minus protests, but Deadalus grabs the center pole, sending his Aura down into the floor. It turns into a conveyer belt, carrying the bullies away.
DEADALUS
Shoo!
He turns to Theo.
DEADALUS
Sorry about that. He’s a bit “enthusiastic” in his defense of this place. There are many who would see our downfall: the establishment, the competition, the squares…Just because he literally makes the keys to this place, doesn’t mean he gets ultimate say in who gets in.
Deadalus lifts one of the three keys hanging from his necklace, interlocking triangles that extend into three tubes of differing lengths. Like a puzzle ring made out of tiny slurpee straws, Theo thinks.
DEADALUS
I built this place. With my mind. With my powers. He’s the jeweler. But I am the architect.
He does a bump, then serves one to Theo.
DEADALUS
Now get out of here, I’m about to go back on. Celebrate!
Theo exits the other side of the booth, and looks up to see RUSS in his usual perch up in the catwalks. His friend motions for him to come up, the bright metallic wings of his Aura waving along with with him.
DANCE FLOOR
THEO pushes thru the middle of the dance floor, lost, that last bump kicking his ass. He suddenly trips, feet tangled in thick black yarn. He tries to get out but just makes it worse.
A VOICE (OS)
Hey! My yarn!
He looks around for the source of the voice, becoming further entangled. He’s poked with a knitting needle, and looks up.
ARIA, looking annoyed but bemused, slides the needle back into its home in her wrist cuff. She’s sitting on the podium in the center of the dance floor, knitting and smoking a joint. He stares up at her, her Aura glows brightly, with multiple arms and eyes of energy swaying and pulsing hypnotically. One pair of arms untangles him, another continues to knit and the rest move to the beat in slow patterns over her head. Theo stammers apologetically.
THEO
Oh hey. I’m lost. I’m trying to find the stairs to go up to there.
They both look up, seeing Russ in the catwalks.
ARIA
I can help. It makes sense once you realize how the place is laid out.
She motions to Russ with exaggerated writing motions, using all four free arms. He drops down his IR pen, and she leans over and begins drawing a stylized map of the entire club on Theo’s arm in bright infrared lines. He continues to her, cute and sexy with her pierced tongue sticking out a bit in concentration. She draws a large circle with a dot in the middle, in the crook of his arm.
ARIA
This is the dance floor, and you can usually find me here, in the middle. The skylight is directly over us, and Deadalus’ tower above that.
She draws the location of the bar on one side, the stage on the other, and the front and back edges of the station at either end, forming a square.
ARIA
Here’s the entrance, by your shoulder, and the booth on your forearm.
She draws three overlapping triangles inside the circle.
ARIA
These are the catwalks. And these three points on the circle are the speaker stacks. There are ladders up to the catwalks at all three points, attached to the speakers. That’s how you get upstairs.
She adds some flourishes, an intricate pattern of geometric lines that now covers Theo’s arm.
ARIA
Voila! Now just look at this whenever you’ve lost the thread.
THEO (mumbling)
Thanks Aria.
Flummoxed, he stumbles away towards the rear speaker. She kicks him lightly in the butt, then tosses him the marker.
ARIA
And give this back to Russ!
LIGHT BOOTH
Theo finds the ladder by the rear speaker stacks, climbing up into the high, narrow catwalks that cut across the soaring space under the station’s domed ceiling. There he finds RUSS, dangling his feet over the edge. Theo joins him, and they shoot the shit and watch the party unfold below them. Russ occasionally zones out as his Aura peels away from from his body, a thin glowing ghost form carried around the club on outstretched wings like a spectral bird. His consciousness goes with it, Theo now knows, taking him strange places and showing him things. It lets him see the light, Russ likes to point out. And sometimes the darkness. Theo likes this guy’s weird brand of sardonic wisdom, and the two have become fast friends in last few months. He’s young, but seen a lot…working his way thru the rave and EDM scene, with a wrist-full of festival bracelets to prove it, before discovering this place. He started as Deadalus’ runner before being promoted to light guy, triggering light cues from the small controller he’s wired to the booth remotely.
THEO
Why don’t you work from the booth?
RUSS
I like it up here better…you can see everything, but still be away from the craziness. I’m just kinda over it, you know? After a while, all the parties start to feel the same. Dance, Dance, Repetition. Guess it could be worse, I could be stuck in one of those cubes like the have at WERK!. Life’s A Bitch, amiright?
They do bumps off of Russ’ sword necklace, its blade similar to one of Deadalus’ keys, before it’s returned to its one-hitter scabbard. Minus is a dick, but he makes some useful jewelry. Theo takes photos from the great vantage point. Russ pulls out a stack of his newest flyers, with a Fall-themed Haiku, and tosses them down onto the crowd .The leaflets flutter down onto a group of hot girls dancing below them: The Erins, Minus’ booth groupies. And they seem to have picked up a third member, ERYN, the strawberry blonde barista from WERK!. The Erins brush the leaflets out of their hair, yelling at the boys above them. This cracks Russ up to no end. The two girls flip them off, with Eryn miming an apology behind their backs.
At Theo’s urging, Russ explains where they all got their powers, how they first “went Chrome.”
RUSS
See, Rust is one thing, but the other drug, Rust’s hardcore big brother, is Mercury. They both come from the same place, but it really isn’t around anymore. If Rust is the fun party drug, Mercury is that introspective Shaman shit. It’s actually found in small amounts in the human brain. It gives anyone who took it full-on visions, and if you were lucky, powers.
He explains that the plant it comes from is all gone, only its glowing roots are still visible in the cracks of the tunnels. The Rust they do now is synthetic, the Mercury is all gone, and no one else is going Chrome. Theo looks sad. So does Russ, as he gazes wistfully out into the distance.
One of Russ’ flyers, lodged in a spotlight just below them, begins to smoke from the heat. Theo stares, watching as the words burn away, the lines of prose becoming lines of sheet music before disappearing altogether.
Theo shakes it off and goes to stand up.
THEO
Need anything from the bar?
RUSS
Nah, I’m ok. I just want to stay up here for a while.
He appears lost in thought till Theo’s camera flash snaps him out of it.
THEO
Cheer up, man, it’s a party! I’ll be right back.
THE DARK ROOM
The next morning Theo is awakened by a loud banging on his door. MANNY, distraught, says Aria found some of Russ’ things, even his fucking shoes, hanging from the rafters after closing. He shows Theo the suicide note, a new haiku scrawled on the back of the Fall flyer: “You need to go home. When the party is all over. Life is a Bitch. He must have been really upset or really high, thinks Theo, the syllable count isn’t even right.
MANNY
We all knew was depressed. Deadalus think he jumped off the Williamsville bridge.
But Theo pushes back. It can’t be, Theo was just hanging out with him. Russ was over the partying maybe, but not the world. Theo would have known, right? Theo looks at his camera hanging behind the door.
THEO
I could have stopped him. I was so busy taking pics I didn’t see what the pictures were.
Manny hugs him, and leaves.
Theo sits on the bed, in the dark, and cries. He takes out a razor blade. Stares at it. Then starts chopping lines of Rust on the coffee table.
FADE OUT
THE TOWER
A few weeks later, and the Broken are throwing a memorial in Deadalus’ Tower. The rounded wood walls of the abandoned water tower are decorated with old copies of Russ’ haikus and his friends messages to him , all folded by ERYN into origami feathers. Like he taught her. They formed a giant pair wings on the walls, with Theo’s favorite photo of him, taken the night he died, at the center. Theo has reversed the film to shoot in red scale, a beautiful red glow over Russ’ wistful expression. It’s been blown up to match his personality, bigger than life. The packed room sways to the slow beats played by DEADALUS, the crowd climbing the walls and even sitting on the speakers, shelves and bar. There are even more people on the roof deck below, smoking and telling stories.
THEO is holding up the wall behind the decks, unshaven and baggy-eyed. He’s staring at the Polaroid of the two friends, taken Theo’s first night at Broken Land. The speaker monitors, Deadalus’ trademark, send their rhythmic pulses onto them both.
ARIA dances by herself on the top of the round ottoman in the middle of the room, wearing Russ’ disco ball hoodie over bare skin, unzipped to the navel. Man, if only Russ could see it, thinks Theo. She dances slowly, arms raised in a trance, dancing for no one but herself and her memories of her friend. She grabs the wooden chandelier above her head, tucking her knees and twirling in a slow circle. Theo swivels one of the triangular lights outward, sending the tight beam bouncing off her mirrored top. She’s the disco ball, lighting up the room in memory of their friend. The crowd goes wild in cathartic celebration, but Theo has never felt more alone. He locks eyes with Aria. She understands.
Theo lifts his camera and looks at her thru the viewfinder, snapping multiple exposures as she turns. A beam from the light bounces right in his eye, and suddenly
The spotlight is the sun
His camera is a cardboard box
Her Aura is an eclipse.
He’s looking into the hole in the box, trying to see the shadow of the sun. He wants to just look. But he can’t. Focus, he imagines the older boy saying with love. He built the pinhole camera for the boy, but he’s not there anymore. And he’s never coming back.
THEO shakes the memory away, feeling the unnaturalness of it. He looks at the strange triangular speakers more closely, wondering.
Deadalus ends his set, plugging his headphones into the microphone jack. Using the ad hoc mic, he makes a short emotional speech about all the great people they’ve lost in the past, then passes the decks to SHARON.
DEADALUS gives Theo a big hug, lets him know that Russ was like a son to him. And since Theo was Russ’ favorite, that makes Theo part of the circle.
DEADALUS
You are a great photographer. You know your lighting, you know your shadows. I want you more involved, actually have you doing our photos officially. We’re having our biggest party ever in the Fall, and it should be documented.
He puts his arm around Theo, taking him under his wing in front of the feather wall. Theo thanks him and heads toward the stairs for a smoke.
MINUS (OS)
The little birdie got too close to the hot lights, huh?
Theo turns to see a smirking MINUS. Theo snaps, lunging at him. They scuffle, knocking Russ’ picture off the wall, until Minus controls him again. He makes Theo flap his arms like his little dearly departed friend. Theo’s eyes glisten in frustrated rage. He’s rescued by Aria, pulled away toward the kitchen.
ARIA
Russ was depressed. He wanted out. But he wasn’t suicidal.
THEO
I need to find out what happened to him. But I can’t do anything against Minus without him just mind controlling me again. I’ve got to get off the Rust so I can…
ARIA
It won’t help. You are In the Red now, there’s no going back. Your only option is to go forward, Into the Black. Minus can’t control any of the monoChrome.
THEO
Russ said that was impossible. The Mercury was all gone.
ARIA
We were looking for more, in Mexico. I’d reach out mentally to guide his Aura as it travelled
the world. We always talked about getting out of the city, going there to be back to nature, just as soon as….
She breaks down, realizing it was a trip that Russ would never make. Tears stream down her face as it hardens with resolve, understanding.
ARIA
Come up stairs, I have something to show you.
THE LOFT
They climb a rickety, cobweb-covered ladder above the kitchenette, up thru a trap door and into a loft space in the top of the tower. There’s an old canopy bed, milk crates packed with yarn and books, and soft red lighting coming from under the bed. Aria slowly circles the room, lighting candles as she goes.
ARIA
Things was different then, before the Breaking. There were actually places you could afford to go out in Manahatta. Then Deadalus comes back from some mid life crisis vision quest in the Yucatan, raving about this mystical plant called Vermillion, and how it gave him visions, and superpowers. He was the first monoChrome. He quits his big architect job and built the first version of his System. Said he saw it in his vision. Just teaches himself to DJ, rips everything out of his stuffy office in the Meatpacking district and started throwing parties in it. That’s when I met him, along with the rest of the original crew. He called us the 7 Syns. Sharon was there then, talked him into coming out to Breukelen. So he makes a better version of his system, bigger, and starts throwing parties with Sharon all over Breukelen.
She continues lighting candles as she talks, as if visiting the stations of the cross, punctuating each party with a candle.
ARIA
The energy from the System somehow called to the plant deep underground, feeding it, and we would find it growing in the tunnels under the city. It was an amazing time, each party getting bigger and better. There was Rust, the plants spores or pollen or whatever, and its sap, Mercury. The Rust opened us up to the music and lights, then, at dawn, we’d take the tiniest bit of it’s sap, The Mercury, and actually SEE the music. HEAR the lights. And sometimes, if the situation was just right, we’d cross over Into the Black. It was tied to a mystical experience that triggered the natural Mercury in our brain. For some, for some it was ecstatic dancing, some an emotional rebirth, some had a near death experience, and for some of us, ahem, it was sexual.
She arches an eyebrow and leaves the rest to Theo’s imagination, and sits on the bed. She pats the spot next to her, inviting him to sit.
ARIA
By this point even Breukelen was getting all gentrified and finding places to throw parties were hard. Deadalus found this huge warehouse for one last hurrah, around here I think, and threw a party that lasted three days. Well, it was supposed to. That’s when the Quake hit. We walked out of there into the bright morning sunlight, watching the world just collapse around us. It was awful. But Breukelen recovered, got back to its roots. Got back to art. And eventually we learned to dance again. Deadalus found the abandoned subway station, used his powers to create the club from some kind of blueprints in his head, and Broken Land was born. That first night, I just danced in the middle of the room and cried. Like tonight.
THEO
I’m sorry. It must have been hard to be here then. I can only imagine.
ARIA
It gets worse. The earthquake killed the Vermillion. No more Mercury. No more Rust. The Rust you guys do is synthetic, stronger than what we used to do. Who knows how it’s made nowadays. And the only way to get that crazy Mercury high is in the DJ booth, feeding off the energy of the Highs in the System.
THEO
Wait, you mean those times I would have those weird blackouts was cuz of the System?
ARIA
It was the Mercury in your own head, giving you a taste of what it was like. Then tonight, when you pushed the Highs out into the room for a second and I got a vision of you and me, up here, doing..
She leans in to kiss him.
ARIA
..this…
She reaches under the bed.
And THIS:
Aria pulls out the source of the strange glow, She walks him over to the bed, reaches underneath, and pulls out the source of the glow. A red fungi, succulent-like, its three stalks forming a geometric pattern that glowed with an eerie internal light.
ARIA
This is it, this is Vermillion. The source.
THEO
I don’t understand what you’re telling me. I thought Vermillion was all gone?
ARIA
It was, until I found this tiny bit up here in the Tower. Attracted to the energy of the System, a rogue spore took hold, and I nurtured it. No one else knows about this. It’s the last of it as far as I can tell, and without Russ I don’t know if we’ll ever find more. I want you to have it.
ARIA
But this, this is Vermillion. The real deal. The source of real Rust, and the source of Mercury.
They sit on the bed, the Vermillion in between them.
ARIA
You ready for this? It’s about to get weird.
THEO
Yeah, you bet.
She uses both hands to carefully separate the three fractal stalks of the fungi, with a lovers grace, scooping her finger into the heart of the plant. She withdraws a viscous, shiny metallic sap, glowing in a similar manner to their personal Auras. She drips it onto Theo’s tongue, sucks the remainder off her finger, and leans over toward him. They kiss, the Mercury mingling between their lips. The music from downstairs seems to get louder, then the whole world falls away. He’s pulled out of his body entirely, standing off to the side of the room watching Aria make out with him. They vibrate, silver Auras shaking free and forming copies of them both. One, two, three more Arias. And even one more Theo. Without a word, the three Aria duplicates begin to kiss each other, and after a pause, pull in the extra Theo. The scene devolves into quick cuts, as seen under a strobe light. She climbs on top of him, as the duplicates hold down his arms and legs. The real Aria takes a ball of thick red yarn and ties his hands to the bed posts in intricate knots. The duplicates all reach across the bed in a confusing weave of mouths and limbs, with him at the center. Duplicate Theo, the Theo where his consciousness was, watches it all from the corner.
Straining against his bonds, he arcs up to kiss her, but she leans back, looking deep into his eyes.
ARIA
These knots, being bound like this, it’s always comforted me. No matter how many thoughts I could feel in the room, no matter how chaotic peoples emotions, if I was tied up tight, I was safe. Each knot a reminder, grounding me to what was real.
Suddenly Aria turns to him, the spirit him in the corner while looping the yarn around his neck and pulls it tight, tighter, strangling him.
ARIA
But Minus’ chains are not the same. They are around the neck of all the Broken. He pulls the strings of all his little puppets. The only way out is through. Into the Black. No more Red. Just monoChrome!
He flails, gasping for breath. His confidence is replaced by panic. The music gets louder, the borders of his vision go fuzzy. This is not going how he thought. Was this her plan all along, just to kill him?
ARIA
Mystical, Sexual AND Near Death. For you, it needs to be all three. You can be the strongest of all of us.
She looks at his Aura across the room, tightening the noose with all four arms.
ARIA
But you need to trust me. And focus! Be all in this moment.
She smiles, lets go of his neck, and Theo catches his breath as everything reaches a massive crescendo. Suddenly he’s back in his body, looking up at her. Their Auras have fused into a bright, silvery black glow, almost blinding.
ARIA
Welcome to the Mercury 7. You’re gonna do great.
The last thing Theo sees before he passes out is the candle light flickering like fireflies at the edge of his vision.
ELSEWHERE
The glowing insects are different in his dream. They buzz about a Mayan temple and the waterfall that flows into a sunken cavern. A crowd of worshippers all face the temple chants. They illuminate the inside of the cavern, showing the beauty of an underground world with cave walls covered in the glowing fractal stalks of Vermillion. High above, as the chanting crescendos, the feathered maiden leaps from the top of the temple, silhouetted in the dark sun above her, plummeting into the darkness of the cavern.
THE TOWER LOFT
Theo wakes up in bed, Aria curled up tight in the sheets against the curve of the wall. She’s left him one last gift, to be found at the end of the yarn on his wrist. He was Chrome now, and he had big shoes to fill.