Chapter 1

The shit hits the fan.

Apon finding the rotting, human, corpse Clair was needless to say shocked.

She had been walking home along the concrete path that snaked alongside the creek bed, eating the first bite of the Dim sum she'd been saving

her allowance for three weeks to get, and hoping for rain.

Mid-bite she caught whiff of what smelled like the bastard son of a public restroom and slaughter house, the food in her mouth soured and took on the

nauseating tang the wind carried. She grumbled through the spoiled ambrosia and hid her nose in her sleeve of her canvas coat,

and looking up cursed the fates for her misfortune, she pondered what kind and just god would let this kind of thing happen.

She passed under a wide overpass and was swallowed by darkness, the sooner she found a trash can to abandon the unwanted mouthful the better.

She was concluding that the sewers had backed up when her combat boot slipped on an uneven, damp surface, and she felt her ankle twist under her weight.

' Ouch! son of a bitch! ' she thought as she bent to rub her ankle, she set aside the styrofoam take out box and ran her hands over her pulled tendon wincing.

' either the sewers or the bloated rotting remains of an alley ca-'

her fingers dipped into a cold, viscous unknown substance, stopping her mid-thought. She flinched and snatched back her hand,

' oh! that's just lovely, perfect! ' she sniffed her hand ' good bye Dim sum' .

Clair felt the contents of her stomache forcing their way out of her and ran for the other side of the tunnel, heading towards the light.

she let every thing go into the creek side and felt tears of discomfort running down her chin.

she spat out the final bit of suicidal food and breathed deep, she looked at her fingertips and saw a reddish brown liquid

' something else, something moving...small, white....a maggot ' she felt her self getting ready to let loose again, but there was little left to lose.

she despritly smeared her hand onto the dead grass lining the edge of the walk and prayed it would come off.

' the Dim sum...leave it, don't go back in there it's...dammit the change!...what ever it was I tripped on-' she saw a track of the maggot ridden bile leading up to her feet.

' god no....' she lifted her shoe hesitantly and watched chunks fall off of it and riggle away "Shit!!!!" she screemed aloud,

scrapping her boots on the pavment and grass. panting a distance away from her filthy trail she tried to get a grip

'"it's ok... just-just...a-a dead a-animal you uh...s-stepped on..or-or..... in. yeah...lovely" she saw a book of matches lying in the weeds she'd stomped on, and found her self picking them up ' one match. guess I can go get my bag if I just watch where I step ... and maybe see what I stepped in,...great'

she stepped up to the tunnle opening and carefully lit the match, the flame flickered but stayed. Looking around carefully stepped deeper and deeper inside.

she gasped and covered her nose again. slowly, tracing her foot prints she saw the puddle of maggots getting thicker, and thicker, leading up to a large puddle and in the middle a lumpy shape was lying, she couldn't tell what it was. she carefully circled the form ' a foot...a leg ....a hand, an arm, a face, a person.'

she checked again, a slimy glistening pair of teeth smiled up at her out of a slimy, shrunken, but definitley human face.

she starred at the collapsing, cataract-filled eyes of a human.

despite herself clair found she was laughing " hello! " she managed between histarical peels " just came to get my uh..." she interupted her self with a loud pipe of a half laugh-half shriek chuckle and went to pick up the bag.

the match went out, she felt her chuckels turn into shuddering tears. 'oh god! OH GOD!!! damn it!' she knelt to the floor.

" hello " echoed a calm raspy but warm voice.

Clair froze ' I've snapped....yep, I've lost it'

" are you ok?" the voice sounded concerned.

' oh...it's a person..it's help thank god!' she cleared her throat "no! I'm not alright! I stepped on a dead guy!"

" I'm ok"

"well good for you! wupty-fuckin-doo!" she cried " I'm going crazy and covered in maggots, but hey your fine!"

" well it's not like you appologiesed!"

" For what! the dead guy's head ache?"

" something like that, yea! "

" look, I just wanna go home! " she managed rising " just want to get out of here"

the voice sighed " you and me both kid, I'm sorry I yelled, but could you just... just help me out "

"what do you need?"

" I need help getting out of here, would you give me a hand?"

"o-okay... how can I help?"

" atta-girl, now I want you to find a box "

" uh... takeout box?"

"that'll do fine. now I want you to open the lid and hold it out, I'm going to put something inside."

she reached for the bag and eventualy fumbled out the styrofoam cube " uh...there's still pork noo-"

"what?"

"pork noodle, the box is still full of-"

" what's pork noodle?"

" uh...Dim sum...you know, chinese food"

" uh, yea I'd move it " the voice coughed.

she placed the moist rice products into the plastic bag and shoved it in her pocket, she held out the box and waited.

for a while nothing happened, then she felt weight enter the box, she closed it "now what?"

"run, run home"

Clair didn't need to be told twice.

Half way home panting for breath she sat on a public bench, she could almost see the edge of the ridge running along the the creek path trench in the distance, but the folliege grew thicker down the path and blocked her view.

she looked down at the box and argued over opening it, but her her fingers were on strike, refusing to respound.                                                                                             She set aside the box ' what just happened? should I call the police? did I just panic, exagerate the wholething?'                                                                                            she tried to recall the voice, but couldn't be sure if she'd heard it or thought it.

'that must be it, just a dead animal, you freaked out, nothing more.' her eyes shot back to the box, she reached for it

"Don't "

the voice was clear and unemotional.

At first she mistook it for her contience, but she felt the words came out of the blue, to far from her nagging curiosity.

" Who are you?" she wispered

" remember? we met in the tunnle, you helped me get out "

she looked arround franticly then focused in on the box again " you aren't in the box...are you?"

" yes and no, I'm in your head "

"oh, then I have gone crazy. "

" maybe, but it's nothing to do with me " the voice seemed, cadenced, like when a cheesey T.V. anouncer talks so you know they're wearing a wide grin.

" are you staying? "

"hard to know, I guess that depends on how all this works out "

" you still haven't fully answered me, who are you? "

" my name is trivial but if you insist, call me ..." the voice pausd, clair couldn't tell if it was thinking, or trying to add effect.

" todd"

" todd?" no wonder he paused, ' what kind of a name is todd for my scizophrantic  symptoms?'.