Alger’s Dimension Part 9
“Alger’s Dimension” is a horror novelette, first published by “Disturbed Digest” in their December 2017 issue. If you’re just entering this story, you can start from the beginning by going here, or if you want to see all available parts to date, you can find them here. A new part of this story will be released every day, with the 13th and final episode coming out on Halloween.
Declan couldn’t understand what would make Dr. Kazmarack want to cross over into another dimension and stay there with no intention of returning.
Following his decryption of the text on the box, Declan’s search spilled into Kaz’s journals on the bookshelf near the desk. Declan began forming an understanding when he came across some older journals written in English that predated Declan’s departure from the university. Dr. Kazmarack confessed in those pages his early symptoms of dementia. The entries were riddled with concern about losing his ability to use his mind and continue his research. Dr. Kazmarack feared losing all the knowledge he had worked a lifetime to obtain. He feared it more than death.
This revelation allowed Declan to make a connection with something he had read that evening in one of the professor’s earlier journals. Dr. Kazmarack had come across a long-held belief that these other dimensions were the key to immortality, but also to relief from illnesses in this dimension.
Declan flipped through the pages of the journal he had snatched from the dining room table, and scanned his notes on the translation of the journal’s text until he came to the passage he was looking for: “And all ailments known and unknown to mankind, which burden the human body will be of no concern once Alger’s Dimension is opened.”
The quote came from one of the books Dr. Kazmarack had read, though Declan couldn’t know which one. It was the first reference Declan had seen that named the dimension. It gave him a certain amount of clarity. Until now, he thought the professor was hypothesizing about an infinite number of dimensions, but Dr. Kazmarack’s studies concerned one specific dimension.
Declan closed the lid to the box and examined a symbol he had not paid particular attention to before. He now understood that the symbol stood for a name: Alger. Dr. Kazmarack deduced that the dagger could cut through the barrier between this dimension and Alger’s Dimension. Despite all of Dr. Kazmarack’s careful notes, Declan still didn’t have a clear understanding of what Alger’s Dimension contained. From all of Dr. Kazmarack’s obsessive notes on the matter, a single-minded interest influenced his research–that crossing over would cure him of his dementia and the steps involved in crossing the barrier.
From somewhere in the house, a clock chimed one o’clock. Declan glanced at his own watch, surprised by the late hour.
He rubbed his strained eyes again. He needed some rest. After the long drive and the hours he had spent translating the text on the box, he needed sleep to provide some clarity. A little rest and the morning light would clear his mind so he could figure out if he was onto something, or chasing after the professor’s delusions.
He glanced at the piles throughout the room. He recalled passing the guest room on his way to Dr. Kazmarack’s office.
Declan returned the magnifying glass to its hidden compartment, before placing the dagger inside the box. Closing the lid, he secured its small latch before wrapping the box into the tool roll, as if covering the markings on the box would somehow hide the secrets he’d spent hours uncovering.
Inside the guest room, he set his flashlight and the box on a small nightstand next to the bed. He kicked off his shoes, pulled off his socks, tossed aside the covers, and fell into the bed. He stretched out his sore back.
His thoughts circled around Dr. Kazmarack. Declan couldn’t remember anything out of the ordinary about the professor’s behavior before Declan had left the university. Except that last conversation, but that didn’t indicate the professor suffered from early onset dementia.
He pictured Dr. Kazmarack in his office the day he disappeared. He must have been working late, a normal habit of the man. He pictured the professor hunched over his notebook with his desk lamp on. He rarely turned on the overhead lights, even after the sun set, since he was usually too engrossed in his work to cross the room to turn them on.
He imagined Dr. Kazmarack pulling out the dagger from a desk drawer, examining it one last time before rising. He envisioned the man walking to the center of the room, suspending the dagger above his head before bringing it down with a vicious swing. From the previously empty area in front of Dr. Kazmarack appeared a gaping wound in the fabric between there and Alger’s Dimension.
When Declan fell asleep, these images twisted into a nightmare. Blood poured from a tear in mid-air. Rivers of blood gushed from the rift and carried Dr. Kazmarack away as he tried to fight his way toward the opening, toward his salvation. Dr. Kazmarack tried yelling, but currents of blood overtook him, washing him away into a black abyss.
Then, Declan saw something that chilled him to his core. The cut in the barrier opened further, and through it came a creature unlike anything Declan had ever encountered. Its molten red skin hardened and turned black when it crossed the threshold, steam rolling off its body. Declan had difficulty making sense of the creature. Black hide, taut over hulking muscles showed every movement. Across the widest section of its body were bony plates that protruded like fur as they bristled.
The beast swung its head toward Declan, who had previously only been an observer in the dream. The face was eyeless, instead row after row of long, thin slits running vertically, widened when air rushed into them and thinned before closing shut. Declan sensed that the thing could smell him.
An audible, electric crackle raced through the darkened room, which no longer carried a river of blood away. All that remained was a pool of the dark, viscous fluid in the center of the room. The overbearing scent of ozone filled Declan’s nostrils and he wondered, his eyes glued to the creature, if the smell were coming from it.
The monstrosity took in one last, deep sniff of the air, crossing over the rest of the way from its own dimension. It froze for a moment, and a rumbling rattled everything in the room. A deep guttural sound emanated from the center of the creature, growing in intensity. The bony plates began to vibrate, making a clicking noise.
Everything within Declan screamed for him to run, but he was rooted to the floor unable to blink his eyes, and unable to breathe. From somewhere far away, the all-but-forgotten Dr. Kazmarack yelled, “Run!”
You can find all sections of “Alger’s Dimension” here.
