The Coil

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Sue and I met when we were at university. She’s now a renowned professor who’s been published in many esteemed journals. I dropped out and am a renowned screw up who has debts with many esteemed credit card companies.

Sue’s been letting me stay in her spare room for the last couple of months and now she’s set me up with a job at the university. Serving food to hungry students in the cafeteria isn’t exactly ‘career goals’, but if it means a steady paycheck I’ll take it. And it really was kind of Sue to go out of her way to arrange it for me.

“I start early tomorrow, but you can grab a ride with me if you want. You could spend an hour or so in the library before your first shift. It’ll be just like the old days. You know, for someone who was always at the library, you sure did make a pretty poor student,” Sue says.

“What can I say, some of us just aren’t cut out for the academic lifestyle. The library was quiet and warm and a great place for a nap between lectures,” I say.

“Between lectures? From what I remember, you napped during lectures.”

“It may have been both. I had a lot of sleep to catch up on,” I say.

“Maybe if you’d spent evenings studying rather than drinking you’d have a degree to your name and be able to get a job as something other than a lunch lady.” Only Sue can get away with ribbing me like that.

“I’ll have you know that lunch lady is an honoured and respected profession, thank you very much. Or at least you should treat us with honour and respect if you don’t want your lunch spat in.”

Sue feigns a look of shock. “You wouldn’t dare!” she says.

“Oh, I would dare! Better warn your students not to mess with me. Also tell them I accept bribes if they want me to set aside some chocolate pudding before it sells out.”

“I won’t be party to that kind of corruption at my university!”

“‘That kind’ of corruption? Other kinds are still on the table?”

“Enough, it’s bedtime, we both have to work tomorrow,”

“Sure you don’t want to pop down to the pub for a quick one first? I can guarantee it will make it easier to sleep through your lectures tomorrow.”

“I’m the one giving the lectures now, I can’t sleep through them.”

“Oh, your students won’t mind at all, trust me,” I say.

“Goodnight, Lizzy!”

“Goodnight, Sue.”

-

It’s strange to be back at the university library. The building hasn’t changed at all, but I feel almost wrong walking through the doors when I’m not a student anymore. No one pays me any attention, though, and I head towards a corner where I know there are some desks that are intended for study, but are perfect for napping.

It appears some things have changed since my time here, though. The desks are no longer there, instead it’s a meeting room and there is a group of students having a discussion in there.

I’m still feeling as though someone is going to tap me on the shoulder at any moment and tell me I’m not supposed to be in here so I do my best to look as though I have a purpose. I pull a book off the shelf and leaf through it before putting it back. Then, I’m struck with an idea. I should make use of the library’s archive of arcane tomes while I’m here and see if I can figure out a way to get Big Jimmy’s spirit out of Ernie’s dog body without leaving Ernie an empty husk or sending Jimmy back to the spirit world.

All the magic books are kept on the third floor so I make my way up there, keeping a lookout for staff or students who might question me on why I’m there. No one stops me though, so I wander between the stacks, looking for something that might be of help.

I quickly realise that without having previously searched the catalogue for where to find such a book I may as well be looking for a needle in a haystack.

A title catches my eye though.

Portals, Gateways and Entrances to Other Realms

I flick through the pages looking at pictures of rune covered doorways, mirrors and other reflective surfaces, windows that peer out onto an endless cosmos, fairy rings, swirling colours that make me feel like I’m falling into the picture before me.

I sit down where I am and lean up against the shelves and slowly turn each page.

I’m woken up by the sound of the book falling out of my lap and snapping shut.

“Shit,” I say. “I must have fallen asleep.”

I check the time and see that there’s only 10 minutes until I’m supposed to report to the cafeteria for my first shift.

“Nice one, Liz. Nearly blew it before it even started.” I shove the book back onto the shelf, definitely not the same spot I took it from, and offer a silent apology to librarians everywhere.

I grab my bag and dash around the corner to the stairwell and stop short.

I’m forced to drop to my knees and cling hard onto the stair rail. I feel like I’m going to throw up, the vertigo is so strong. I guess that’s to be expected where you’re face to face with an Escher-style nightmare landscape.

I can’t tell if I’m on the ground, upside-down or hanging off the wall. I’m worried that if I let go of the bannister I’ll fall. I close my eyes against the confusion in front of me and turn around to go back the way I’d come.

But there’s nothing there. Where there was a hallway that led to the books, there was just a blank, empty wall. Nothing.

“Fuck.”

I’ll have to find another way out.

I turn around again and try to orient myself but only succeed in going cross-eyed as I try to follow the path of a staircase that seems to be going both around a corner as well as coming out of the ceiling, which is also a doorway to a different staircase. Or possibly the same staircase.

I close my eyes tight and take a deep breath. I allow myself another “Fuck”, then gather myself together.

I open my eyes, but look only at the floor in front of me. I take a step down. Ok, that seems alright so far. Another step. That one’s ok, too. Another. Still good.

I start to build up a little momentum. One step at time, still hanging onto the handrail, just don’t look up. Surely a little look behind to check how far I’ve come can’t hurt though, right?

Wrong.

There are no longer any stairs behind me. The floor(?) just falls away. I can’t help but look and I stick my head out over the edge to see what’s there.

For a moment I’m falling. Then I’m standing there, holding the rail and there’s a new set of stairs in front of me. They also continue behind me. I’m not entirely sure which direction is up and which is down. I don’t think things like ‘up’ and ‘down’ exist here.

It needs to be said a third time. “Fuck”.

“First time in the Coil?” a voice asks from behind(?) me.

I turn around and try to locate the speaker but looking out at the landscape of crooked and twisted stairways and doors makes my stomach flip-flop.

“Over here,” the voice says again.

“‘Over here’ is not a useful direction when you don’t have a common point of reference,” I shoot back.

A movement off to my left(?) catches my eye. Standing on what appears to be an upside down staircase is a small figure, waving madly at me. I tentatively wave back.

“I can see you’re new here. You just stay where you are, I’ll come to you.” They turn into a doorway and disappear. I see them reappear on a completely different staircase in a completely different direction. They stop briefly to check where I am, then follow the stairs out of sight. They round the corner at least three levels above where they were a second ago, then immediately disappear through a doorway that opens onto nothing.

“Ah, here we are,” they say, coming down(?) the stairs towards me.

They’re short, old and unnecessarily cheerful. They’re genderless is the way old people can be, with no hints from their shapeless clothes. Their hair is white and wispy, sticking out at crazy angles, as though in imitation of the weird geometry all around us.

“A little lost, are you?” they ask with a chuckle. Before I can answer they continue. “I can spot a first-timer a mile off. Always trying to go in a straight line. That’s the worst way to travel here! The harder you try to go straight, the further away you’ll get from where you want to go.

“The name’s Chidders, nice to meet you.”

“I’m Lizzy,” I say

“Busy Lizzy,” they say.

“More like dizzy Lizzy, right now,” I reply and they laugh with more mirth than the joke warrants.

“Dizzy Lizzy, I like that,” they chuckle. “Follow me, Dizzy Lizzy, let me show you the Coil. “

“I’m really sorry,” I say, “but I’m kind of in a rush. I’m running late for the first day of my new job.”

“Oh dear,” says Chidders. Their brow becomes even more wrinkled as they furrow it in concern. “Can’t be helped, I’m afraid. Come on, follow me,” they say in a sing-song voice and head off up(?) the stairs.

“Wait!” I say. “Where are you going?” I have no choice but to follow.

“What are you looking for here in the Coil?” Chidders asks me over their shoulder.

“I’m not looking for anything, I just woke up and found myself here,” I reply, trying my hardest to focus on Chidders’s back so that I don’t have to look at the stairs and doors and angles all around me. I never see them move, but each time I look back at them they’re in a different position.

“Finding an entrance to the Coil isn’t a skill many people have.”

“I honestly don’t know how I ended up here,” I say. “I was reading a book about portals and gateways, I fell asleep and when I woke up I was here.”

“Hmmm. This way,” Chidders says and steps off what looks like a ledge into nothing. I stand there, not knowing what to do next when they pop their head over the ledge from the other direction to ask “Well, are you coming or not? Just step over.” I approach the ledge and tentatively extend my leg out as if I was about to take a step. There’s that brief falling sensation again but then my foot hits the ground. I look behind me and there’s another staircase. This place is unsettling.

“Chidders, I really need to get back to where I came from. I can’t lose this job.”

“There’s no rushing in the Coil, I’m afraid. We’ll get there when we get there.” Chidders just continue on their way, whistling happily to themselves, leaving me to trudge along behind. Stewing in the fact that I’ve definitely been fired from my job before I even got to start it.

After I don’t know how long Chidders eventually pipes up with “Ah, here we are,” indicating a spot that looks no different from anywhere else in this crazy place.

“Where is here?” I ask, not really expecting a reply.

“This is your way back,” says Chidders.

“Really?” I ask, hopeful, but also doubting that this random piece of stairway is anything different to the rest we’ve traversed.

Chidders nods solemnly. “But before I open the door for you, I need you to make me a promise.”

“Whatever you need, just get me back home,” I, probably stupidly, say.

“You need to come back,” they say.

“Come back here?” I ask.

Chidders nods. “Not everyone can open the Coil without even knowing it. You need to learn how to do it properly. Otherwise you’ll find yourself walking through doorways to other planes without realising it. And not everyone you’ll bump into will be as helpful as old Chidders!”

I’ll make whatever promise this tiny, old, wrinkly weirdo wants but once I’m out I have no intentions of following through. Unless the promise is that I go get drunk and forget I ever came to this place.

“You must come back, Dizzy Lizzy,” Chidders says, as though they’d been reading my thoughts. “Plane hopping is dangerous at the best of times, if it happens unintentionally, it’s positively lethal.”

“Sure thing, Chidders. I’ll go sort my shit then I’ll be back as soon as I can, alright.”

“You make light of this, but you must take heed.” Chidders’s face changes, all the cheer and light disappearing. Their eyes bore into me and they grip my arm. “You will come back.”

Just as quickly, they let my arm go and the light returns to their face. “Here we are,” they say and open a door in the wall next to us. That door wasn’t there before, I’m sure. Neither was the wall, but I stopped trying to keep track a while back.

I step through into the library. I turn around to thank Childers but there’s nothing there except rows of bookshelves.

I’m three hours late.

“Fuck.”

-

I’m dreading telling Sue that I was fired on my first day. She was the one who set this job up for me so I’m making her look bad by not showing up. She’s going to be so pissed at me.

I spot her coming towards me and as she approaches she asks “So, how’d it go?”

“Weeeeeeeeeell….”

She knows immediately and her shoulders drop in disappointment.

“What did you do this time?”

“It’s kind of a long story,” I say.

“I'm sure,” Sue says, shaking her head at me. “You really screwed up this time, you know that, right?”

I wish she’d just get angry at me, the disappointment in her voice is worse. It makes me feel like the scum of the earth. To be fair though, I pretty much am.

“I know, I’m sorry.”

“I can’t stick my neck out like that for you again, Liz.”

“Yeah, I know.

I can’t even look at her.

“Two weeks,” she says.

“Two weeks what?” I ask.

“Two weeks to find yourself a job and start paying back the rent you owe me. Else you’re looking for a new place to live.

I nod to show I understand, but inside I’m mentally dragging myself out into the gutter to lay in the boot. I’ve somehow managed to burn through the goodwill of the only friend I have. Nice one Dizzy Lizzy.