by Lukens, Mark
They were all quiet for a moment. Stella looked at Cole who grinned sheepishly at her. “I’m afraid this is a little over my head,” he said.
“I’m sorry,” Joe said. “I’m going off on one of my little tangents about the scientific community.”
“No,” Stella said. “I understand completely. I’ve run into roadblocks along the way in my career. I’ve tried to challenge preexisting notions about archaeology, and I’ve been met with the same skepticism and sometimes outright contempt for even daring to challenge the status quo. I’ve been laughed at and even threatened. I’ve always believed there were different reasons for the disappearance of ancient peoples than scientists were proposing; the disappearances of the Olmec, the Inca, the Maya … and the Anasazi.”
“And now you believe you’ve found an answer to your theories?” Joe asked.
“Unfortunately,” Stella answered. “And this is a truth I don’t want to share with the world.”
“I’ve learned over the years that some secrets are kept from people for their own good,” Joe said. “I’ve learned that if many people knew some of these truths, then those truths would shatter their perception of what the world around them is really like.”
Joe sighed and shrugged like none of it mattered anymore. He took another sip of his strong tea. “The more I learned about physics,” Joe continued while still looking down at his cup of tea, “the more I realized that there are so many things we don’t know about, even if the scientific community pretends that it does. What is matter built of? Why do the smallest particles blink in and out of existence constantly?”
“Is that true?” Cole asked.
Joe nodded.
Cole looked at Stella for her opinion. She nodded at him, agreeing with Joe.
“Atoms make up all matter,” Joe said.
Cole nodded, indicating that he knew at least that much.
“Well, atoms are made up of even smaller particles: protons, neutrons, electrons, quarks, neutrinos, photons, etcetera. But when we study some of these smallest particles, they are here one moment, then gone, then back again. This world around us that seems so solid is made up of all of these tiny particles that are here and then not here and then here again.”
Cole looked a little queasy at the prospect of that.
“This gives the theory of different dimensions plausibility,” Stella said.
“Exactly,” Joe said, coming to life a little, getting a little more excited. He seemed to like having someone to talk about science with. Even though he claimed to loathe the politics of it, he seemed passionate about pure science and discovery. “The idea of different dimensions used to be science fiction, but now it’s almost universally seen as science fact.”
“Different dimensions?” Cole asked. “Like where that thing out there comes from?”
Joe remained silent.
“Where did this thing come from?” Stella asked Joe.
“I don’t know,” Joe finally answered. “I can admit when I don’t know something, unlike many scientists. I believe the Darkwind could be from a different dimension or even an alien. I have my theories about it.”
“What are your theories?” Stella pressed.
Joe didn’t answer right away. He leaned his head back a little and sighed, looking up at the ceiling for a moment like he was lost in thought. “After I saw the corruption of science, the weaponization of it sometimes, I yearned to come back home. I yearned for the stories of my people, of my land, the place where I felt at home. Now, some of those stories told by elders that I had scoffed at before didn’t sound so ridiculous to me after learning about the disappearing particles, the Big Bang, the expanding universe, and all of the other things I was forced to accept as scientific truth. I came back and became a yataalii, a medicine man. I learned from an uncle and studied as hard as I ever had in college. I learned that this world we live in isn’t the only world there is. There are other worlds all around us, intertwined with us … scientists call these different dimensions. Many scientists believe there are at least eleven different dimensions, and some believe in an infinite amount. Most of the time these worlds are separate from ours, and the barriers between the worlds are strong. But sometimes, under the right conditions, doorways in these barriers can be opened. And there are people, those who are born with certain powers, who can open these doorways whether they realize it or not.”
“People like David.”
“Yes,” Joe said. “Like David.”
“But David doesn’t realize this yet,” Stella said. “He doesn’t fully understand the power he has.”
“David could be causing this, too,” Cole said. “Isn’t that right?”
Stella glared at Cole—she didn’t like that line of thought from him that he seemed to be stuck on.
“In a way,” Joe answered. “Maybe he’s helping to open a doorway for the Darkwind.”
“But not controlling it,” Cole said.
“Not really. But in a way they might be controlling each other, feeding off each other’s energy, driving the other for a while.”
Joe took another sip of his tea and sighed. “I believe that in these other worlds, these other dimensions, there are monsters there—true shapeshifters, true demons, the things we see in the shadowy corners of our nightmares. I even believe that some of us catch a glimpse of these monsters in our nightmares, when the barriers between our world and their worlds are the thinnest and the weakest.”
Joe looked at Cole, then at Stella. “You ever have a nightmare that you woke up from that scared you so badly, but you didn’t know why? Your heart is pounding in your chest, your skin covered with sweat. You’re tense, ready to run. You try to remember the dream but all you get are fragments of it. Maybe you hear the voice of the monsters in your mind, a scrambled and garbled message, like a thousand words mixed together, like a thousand whispers. But for a moment in your dream, you understood those voices, you understood those ancient words, and you understood how everything in the universe worked, how it all fits together.”
Stella felt her skin crawl at the thought of it.
“But then the rational mind takes over,” Joe said and smiled a humorless grin. He took a sip of his tea.
The wind howled outside the trailer, a strong gust rocking it just a bit.
That’s not the wind, Stella’s mind whispered. It’s that thing out there screaming at us in frustration, calling us, threatening us.
“The rational mind protects you,” Joe said. “It’s designed to protect you, to shut down the memories of your glimpse into their world. There are weak spots between our world and so many other worlds … their world. The Hopi used to call these dimensional portals sky holes. And beyond those portals was a dark world they called ‘the ocean of pitch.’ I call them weak spots, and I think these ancient things can get through sometimes when those doors are opened.”
“And someone like David can open the door,” Cole said.
“David has already opened the door.”
“Can he close it again?” Stella asked.
“I hope so,” Joe muttered. “Only he knows how to close it, even though he may not realize it yet.”
The wind shrieked outside again, a blast of it rocking the trailer. They were all quiet, all of them looking into the living room at the front door.
David was still asleep, but the dog had raised his head up, a whimper caught in his throat.
“Tell me what has happened to you so far,” Joe said to Stella.
CHAPTER 55
Joe Blackhorn’s trailer
Stella made another cup of coffee and sat back down at the table.
She began telling Joe everything that had happened. She told him about Jake Phillips calling her down to the dig site with the great discovery he’d made. She told him that after a few days David wandered into camp near the mouth of the cave. Stella had been the one who had found him, and she’d seen the bloodstains on his hands and face.
She told Joe that Jim Wh
itefeather seemed to be scared of David, but he agreed to go and get the police. He left. But then his dead body was outside, slumped up against a tree … his eyes gone. Then he disappeared, and then he came back—only he wasn’t himself anymore. He asked for things … and all of it was leading up to sacrificing David.
She told Joe about how she escaped from that place after Jake sliced his own throat. She told Joe about her reckless journey north up into the snowy mountains of Colorado. She told him about what happened in the gas station, and then being carjacked by Cole and his crew.
Joe looked at Cole in a new light now, but Stella continued on. Joe had just preached about how much he valued the truth in science, and she wasn’t going to lie to him now about Cole. She told him how Cole had only been there with the bank robbers to try to save his brother from Frank, to get him paid back so he could get Trevor out of Frank’s crew.
She told him about what had happened at the cabin, how Frank was taken in the middle of the night. And then the others were taken one by one. She told him about their escape on the snowmobile and what had happened at the hotel. She told him about their journey back down here to the Navajo Reservation to find him, to find someone who could help David, someone who could teach David to fight back against this thing.
Joe had remained silent during Stella’s recounting of what had happened. He finally nodded. “The bodies at the dig site have been discovered,” he said. “And David’s parents.”
Stella felt like crying. She’d heard the same thing from Alice. She had dared to believe that maybe a few of the archaeologists at the dig site had made it, but deep down she knew it wasn’t true.
“They were all slaughtered,” Joe said. “Details aren’t being released, but people talk. The police and FBI are baffled by what has happened.”
Stella nodded.
“So what do you think that thing is?” Cole asked. “I know you said it comes from another dimension, but what is it?”
“I don’t know,” Joe said. “There’s a story in our culture of the Star People who came down from the skies and born the first man and first woman. It’s not too different from the Adam and Eve story in the Bible. In fact, there are more similarities between religions around the world than people care to admit, similarities in their origin stories, similar tales of great floods, of prophets coming to preach to them, so many similarities even though so much land, sometimes even continents and oceans, divided all of these cultures for a millennia.”
“So you think this thing might be an alien from outer space?” Cole asked, trying to get Joe back on track.
Joe shrugged. “Alien, yes. From outer space? I don’t know. Maybe it’s an alien from its own world, its own dimension. Maybe it lives on an alternate Earth where its kind is as normal as our animal and plant life are to us. But their world is so fundamentally and physically different from our world that it would drive us insane if we stared at it too long.”
“So it’s an alien in the truest sense of the word,” Stella said. “A lifeform that’s strange to us, completely foreign.”
“Yes.”
“You said that this has happened many times before,” Stella said. “You mean like with the Anasazi? Like how they disappeared?”
“Yes. But even more recent than that. I believe the Darkwind slips through every so many years … every one hundred and twenty years to be exact.”
“So it sleeps for a while and then it wakes up,” Cole said.
“I don’t think it’s quite that simple.”
“Then what?”
“I think it has something to do with people like David.”
“Why do you think the time span is a hundred and twenty years?” Stella asked. “That seems like a pretty specific number.”
Cole didn’t give Joe a chance to answer. “When we were driving here, you said that looking at David was like looking at a ghost.”
Stella’s eyes widened with the memory. “That’s right. You said even his name is the same. What did you mean by that?”
Joe nodded. “I need to show you something that you may not believe.”
CHAPTER 56
Joe Blackhorn’s trailer
Joe Blackhorn said he wanted to show them something they wouldn’t believe, but Stella was sure that after the things she’d seen, after what she’d been through, she might believe just about anything now.
Joe got up from the table and stood there. “I had to search through the spare bedroom for it.” He smiled at them. “The spare bedroom is my storage room now, so I’m sorry that all I can offer you is the living room to sleep.”
“That’s fine with us,” Cole said.
Stella and Cole’s eyes met; she could read his thoughts—if we can sleep at all.
“It would probably be a good idea if we all slept in the same room anyway,” Cole suggested as he looked back at Joe.
Joe nodded like that was a good idea, one he’d already thought of. “I knew you were coming,” Joe said. “And I wanted to find this folder to show you. It has some information in it that I’ve collected over the years.” He shook his head in frustration and smiled at them again. “It would be easier to show you.” He held up a finger, indicating that he’d be right back.
Stella turned around in her kitchen chair and watched Joe as he walked into the living room. Her eyes shifted to David for a moment, making sure he was still asleep. The dog lifted his head a little as Joe walked through the living room, but he made no move from the couch to follow his master.
Joe picked up the remote control to the TV and turned the volume all the way down, but he left the TV on. Then he went down the hallway to the back of the trailer.
Stella looked back at Cole. He sipped his coffee. He looked exhausted; the days of shock and lack of sleep were adding up to much more than either one of them could take. The idea of all of those spiders, snakes, scorpions, rats, and insects that had surrounded their truck ran through her mind again. She could imagine all of those creepy-crawly creatures making the journey down the bumpy trail to this little valley, then standing on the ridge like an army, waiting to invade the trailer. A shiver ran through her.
Her mind felt like it was going to snap. She didn’t feel like herself anymore, and she hadn’t felt real for a while now. Talking a little bit about science tonight had occupied her mind for a short time, taking her away from this nightmare, but not for long. Part of her just wanted all of this to be over with and part of her even welcomed the dark, comforting embrace of death, of the nothingness to wrap around her and take her away.
But she knew that the Ancient Enemy would never let death envelope her. The Ancient Enemy would keep her alive … it would let her suffer as it used her body as a puppet.
She glanced at Cole again. He’d been such a surprise to her. He’d saved them at the hotel in Colorado even though she and David had run out on him. She couldn’t help feeling attracted to him in some odd way, a way she’d never been attracted to a man before. In the short time they had known each other, they’d been through more trials and tribulations, more loss and fear, than most couples go through in a lifetime. She knew he felt something for her, too.
Why had Cole stayed with them and helped them? Maybe he was trying to prove his goodness to her, maybe this was his way of atoning for his past sins, maybe it was all about revenge for his brother’s death. Maybe revenge fueled a man like Cole more than fear or even love could.
Stella knew she loved Cole in a way … a deep love of two people who had walked through hell together. It was hard to explain. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever really loved a man before, but she knew she loved Cole in a strange way. She’d had her flings in high school and in college, but she’d never let herself get too close to anyone because her career had been her driving motivation in her life. She figured once she got out into the field, once she made some great discoveries and published papers and wrote some books, then she would have time for a husband, for a family … time for love.
But the yea
rs had slipped by quickly with no real relationships … and no real discoveries out in the field, either. She’d had an off and on again relationship with Jake Phillips, mostly off. And when he’d called her about his great discovery in the cave, she couldn’t help wondering if it was just a ploy to get her out there and together with him. Maybe she’d been too jealous of Jake to get close to him. He had made some discoveries, written some books, published some papers, secured some grants … all the things that she had wanted to do.
But it hadn’t been a ploy to get her down there with him. Jake had really discovered something amazing—an entire city built deep inside a cave. But the most incredible thing was the collection of tablets with the ancient writing carved into them.
Her life had changed when she went down to that dig site. From the discovery of Anasazi writing, to David showing up, to the Ancient Enemy pursuing them … everything had changed. She didn’t think about publishing papers or writing books anymore. Now all she thought about was protecting David and surviving.
Jake had changed, too. He had changed into an animal that last night at the dig site, ready to agree with the others, ready to sacrifice David to that thing out there. And then that night when she had run away with David, she watched Jake rush towards her with the hunting knife. He said he only wanted to give it what it wanted, but she knew he wouldn’t hesitate to kill her, too.
And then Jake’s eyes had cleared at the last moment, like he’d woken up from a dream. He stood out there in that scrub brush next to the trailer, out there in that cold night, in that cold wind with the coppery smell of blood on it. She liked to believe that in that last moment Jake had realized the animal he had become, and now she understood the nobility of his actions as he’d ended his life, and maybe how he was disgusted with his own cowardice. Then she watched him cut his own throat.
