The Gatekeeper Trilogy

by Scott Ferrell

  “I can’t leave you.”

  “You left for three years,” I hissed.

  He opened his mouth to say something but didn’t. He looked confused.

  “You’re going to get Mom and Stacy out of here and I’m going to do what I can to try to stop whatever is coming.”

  I stared at the side of his face. He finally closed his mouth, but the perplexed look didn’t go away. It looked like he wanted to argue with me but couldn’t figure out exactly how to do that.

  Accusing him of leaving was stupid. Thinking him responsible for the accident came out of nowhere. Of course, it wasn’t his fault. In fact, the more I knew, the more I figured Daresh had something to do with their accident. He wanted to get to Mom and he finally did right after the SUV tumbled down the side of the mountain.

  Still, Dad knew what Mom was. He knew being the Gatekeeper put all of us in danger, yet he did nothing to protect us. He should have convinced her to close the gate and move as far away from Gate City, Colorado as possible, but he didn’t. They stayed here, never traveling far from the damn gateway for very long like they had some kind of obligation to it. They didn’t. I didn’t. I’d destroy the thing if I knew how.

  “Would you stay in our lane?” I snapped.

  “I just…” His voice drifted off as he corrected the car.

  I stared out the window. Sure, there would be no more aftershocks, the residences of Gate City had already wondered back inside to go back to bed. I wanted to scream out the window—tell my dad to honk the horn all the way to Aoife’s house. If I couldn’t do something about the gate, they would all be in a world of trouble far worse than their homes falling down around them.

  I didn’t do anything, though. I sat in the passenger seat, brooding like a toddler who had just earned a timeout five minutes after getting out of his previous one.

  Again, I wondered about my feelings concerning Dad’s return from the land of the dead. I should have been nothing but overjoyed. I should have celebrated. I should have entertained the idea his return might help Mom snap out of her condition.

  I glanced at him from the corner of my eye. The passing streetlights illuminated his face for seconds at a time. It felt surreal, like we were the ones standing still while the lights zoomed by outside. Everything felt off like a semi-lucid dream.

  A few minutes later, he pulled the Mustang up to Aoife’s house. The tires hit the curb before he pulled away from it too late. I gathered what strength I could and opened the car door. I grimaced at the various pains flaring over my body.

  “You sure about this?” Dad asked as I climbed out.

  “Just get Mom out of here,” I said through the open door. “You can do that, right? Aunt Stacy will try to stay when she hears I’m back. Don’t let her.” I slammed the door before he could answer.

  I ignored the involuntary limp as I walked up the Connelly’s sidewalk to their front door. My calf felt like a shark had taken a little nibble out of it. I ignored the roar of the Mustang pulling away as I climbed the porch steps. I didn’t make it to the front door, though. Aoife burst out like she had been waiting for me.

  “What happened? Did you feel the earthquake? You look like crap. What happened?” The questions all rushed out in one breath.

  Without breaking my stumbling stride, I grabbed her arm and pulled her back inside. We stood in the entry with a single, feeble nightlight as the only source of light. “We need to talk. Is your family here? Have you seen them?”

  “Just my older brother. The rest of them are out of town looking for me. They thought I ran away with you, can you believe that?” She scoffed at the idea. “My brother stayed home just in case I showed up. He’s upstairs calling Mom and Dad. What happened to you? Your arm is bleeding.”

  I looked at a thin, drying line of blood on my left elbow. I lifted my shirt sleeve to reveal a light gash on my shoulder. I hadn’t even noticed that pain. “Never mind that. We have big problems.”

  21

  ATTACK ON THE CONNELLYS

  No.” Aoife folded her arms and lifted her chin in defiance. “I’m out. This is your problem, Hero.”

  She put on a good front. Everything about her stance screamed furiousness. From the hard set in her jaw to the stiffness of her back, she was ready to fight me tooth and nail. There was no way she was going to be dragged back into my problems. Her eyes gave her away, though. She kept my gaze, but there was worry in them. For me? I don’t know. Maybe.

  I didn’t blame her for wanting absolutely nothing to do with the whole mess. We just barely escaped with our lives and there I was, showing up on her doorstep with death on a leash behind me. Look what followed me home. Can I keep it?

  I should have let her run. I should have let her get her brother and get out of town to wherever her family was looking for her. She didn’t deserve to be dragged back into my messed-up world. I shouldn’t do that to her. I needed her like I needed water. I knew she was what kept me alive through the past week or so. If she wasn’t saving my ass, it was the thought of keeping her safe that drove me on when I really just wanted to lie down and let whatever happened happen. I needed her no matter how selfish it was. But, I couldn’t do that.

  “Okay,” I said. I dropped my eyes and took a deep breath of resignation. “I guess I can tell the police or something. I’ll figure it out. You and Dylan should leave town, though.”

  “No!” She covered the space between us in a blink of an eye. She planted both hands on my chest and shoved hard. I stumbled back but kept my feet. “Don’t try to manipulate me.”

  “What? I’m not—” I broke off as realization hit me. “Oh, your empathy.”

  She stepped right in front of me so I was forced to look down at her while she stared up at me. “Does it look like I’m using my empathy?”

  She wasn’t. Even in the dim light from the nightlight, I could tell her eyes were their normal hazel color. They didn’t glow golden like when she used her ability.

  “It doesn’t take any special powers to tell what you’re trying to do.” She huffed in disgust. “You boys are all the same. When you don’t get your way, you try to manipulate people into getting what you want. I’m not the idiot who will fall for that. Don’t even try.”

  “I wasn’t—” I started, but let it fall away before I could fully form my objection. Was I manipulating her? I didn’t think I was.

  She must have seen something in my face. Her body, wound tighter than a spring under stress, visibly changed. Her shoulders slumped a little. The hard set of her jaw and eyes relaxed. Relaxed might not be the right word. She was anything but relaxed, but there was something different in the way she looked at me. Regret?

  “I can’t do anything for you,” she said, her voice small and tired. “I’m fifteen, Gaige. You’re fifteen. What are we going to do?”

  “We did a lot on Alisundi for a couple of fifteen-year-olds,” I reminded her, though it all went down just an hour or so ago.

  “We fell into that,” she said with a shake of her head. “No, we were dragged into that by that walking stick.”

  Just the mention of Seanna set my heart to thumping a little harder and twisted my gut into a knot.

  “We did what we could to survive,” she continued. “We barely did that. I don’t care to try my luck again.”

  We fell into a silence broken only by my heavy breathing. I hadn’t even realized how hard I was breathing or just how angry I had become in the past few seconds. What was I angry at? I wasn’t sure. I was just angry.

  Aoife placed a hand on my heaving chest. It was a soft touch. If I couldn’t see the touch, I might have doubted it was there at all. “You don’t deserve to go through that again. I know you feel like you have something to prove to the world, but you don’t. You really don’t. You don’t owe the world anything and it owes you nothing. What you deserve is to live. We need to get your family and get out of town. We’ll call the police on the way.”

  “It’ll be too late.” I shook my head.
“If they believe me to begin with.”

  “You’re right. They probably won’t, but that’s what we can do. People will get hurt before they realize it wasn’t a prank call, but at least those people won’t be us or our family. Maybe that’s selfish, but it’s what we can do. Staying here just puts our families in danger.”

  She was right, of course, but I couldn’t help but think there was something I could do to stop whatever was coming. Maybe I could sneak back to the park and get close enough to the gate to close it. I had closed it when I came through, though. Would they be able to just open it again?

  “Aoife?” a voice said from the top of the stairs just to the left of the entrance.

  Aoife dropped her hand from my chest and stepped back as her brother came down the stairs. “We need to get out of town, Dylan.”

  “What is he doing here?” He stopped when he stood next to Aoife— maybe a step protectively in front of her.

  “Dylan—” she started.

  “I think you need to go,” he told me.

  I didn’t have any siblings of my own, but I understood the whole big brother thing. If Aoife’s family blamed me for her disappearance—and maybe I was to blame—he had every right to be protective of her when she finally came home. Still, the anger that had slipped away under Aoife’s touch and words crawled back up my spine. It moved my foot. I took a step toward him. He was four years older than us, but I was just as tall as him. My step brought us eye to eye.

  Aoife’s hand was on my chest again, this time to push me back. I could have stood my ground against her shove, but I let her move me a couple steps back. She turned to face Dylan.

  “This isn’t the time for that. You two can beat each other to a pulp or whatever you want later. We need to get out of here. Now .”

  Dylan finally pulled his eyes from mine to look at his sister. “What are you talking about? We need to stay here. Mom, Dad, and the rest are coming back.”

  “No.” She stepped to him and dug the phone out of his pocket, handing it to him. “Call them and tell them to not come here. We’ll go wherever they’re at.”

  “They’re at Uncle Shane’s. We thought since you were so fond of him as a kid, you’d eventually show up there with him .” He glanced at me with a look full of disgust.

  “They’re in California? Great. Tell them to stay there.” She grabbed his hand and pushed the phone toward his face when he didn’t move. “Call them. We’ll go to them.”

  “I don’t—”

  Aoife’s head whipped around to stare at the door behind me with eyes that burned gold. She muttered a curse. “Too late. You led them here?” she said at me.

  “I…No, I… Nobody followed us,” I stammered. “I think.”

  She sprang into action. She kicked the little nightlight plugged in at shin level. It shattered into several plastic pieces and plunged the hall into dark. “Out the back.”

  “What that hell, Aoife?” Dylan said.

  “No time to explain,” she said as she grabbed his arm and pulled him through the house.

  I hoped she thought I followed because she didn’t turn to make sure. She ushered Dylan through the living room with me hot on their heels. I was sure we had gotten away from the park cleanly, but I never even thought to check. I was too busy brooding. I cursed myself for being stupid. No matter my intentions for coming here, I had put Aoife in trouble again .

  I cursed again as the living room window exploded, showering us with tiny star-like shards of glittering glass as we passed. We kept running without hesitation. I had to give Dylan props. He moved when he needed to even though he no doubt had no clue what was happening. It was like he felt our sudden rush of fear like he had empathy powers of his own. He allowed Aoife to drag him without resistance.

  We rushed through the kitchen to the sliding glass door that led out into the backyard. Aoife slid the door open so hard I was surprised it didn’t shatter like the living room window. We only made it out of the house a couple steps before a dark shape materialized in front of us. We skidded to a halt.

  “Back in,” Aoife said.

  I put myself between the siblings and the creatures as we rushed back into the house. I took the time to stop and slide the door closed behind us like the thin sheet of glass would offer some kind of protection.

  “They’re everywhere,” Aoife yelled in the dark. “Upstairs.”

  “Who was that?” Dylan asked.

  “Upstairs,” was her only reply.

  Dylan took the stairs two at a time and stopped at the top. “What’s going on?” he asked when we caught up to him.

  “Not now.” Aoife grabbed his arm and dragged him down the hall towards the front of the house.

  We burst through the door at the end of the hall. Aoife waited until I was in the room before shutting it behind us. Our ragged breathing filled the dark room.

  “You need to tell me,” Dylan demanded, “why we’re in Mom and Dad’s room and who are those people out there.”

  “Shh,” she hissed back.

  Something crashed downstairs.

  “They’re inside,” he said. “I’m going to get my bat. No way I’m going to let them come in here like that.”

  I stepped in his way, blocking the door.

  Aoife grabbed his arm. “Will you please just once listen to me? You don’t mess with these things.”

  “Things?” he asked.

  “We don’t have time for this. What are we going to do? We’re trapped here,” I said.

  “The window.” Aoife turned and I saw the dark outline of her arm point to the other end of the room. “It leads onto the roof above the porch.”

  “Aoife, you really need to tell me what is going on,” Dylan said.

  “Keep your voice down,” Aoife said between clinched teeth.

  We stood listening to the air around us. If it weren’t for the occasional squeak of a floorboard, it would have been impossible to tell the house had been invaded at all.

  “How many are there?” I asked.

  “I can’t tell,” Aoife replied, her golden eyes searched like she could see through the walls and floor. “They’re not guarded like Seanna, but muted. It’s kind of like trying to catch what people are saying on a television with the volume turned way down. That’s why I didn’t realize they were here until they were practically crawling up your backside.”

  I glanced at Dylan. I couldn’t see his face in the dark, but there was something in the way he shifted that suggested confusion. His head moved back and forth from me to his sister. His hand lifted and fell like he was about to say something but couldn’t figure out what exactly to say. So, he didn’t know about her empathic ability.

  “We need to get out of here,” Aoife said after a moment’s pause.

  Dylan and I followed her across their parent’s room. It was the one room in the house I’d never been in—never really had the reason to before tonight. Going into a dark room with nothing but a little bit of light filtering in from streetlights outside and whatever the moon and stars provided was like entering a room with black blankets draped over everything. I caught the dark shapes of things like the bed and a massive dresser against the wall but couldn’t make out any details. They were like monsters lying in wait to pounce on us as we passed through on the way to the window.

  No monsters attacked us, though. I was thankful for that. At the rate my luck had been going, it wouldn’t have surprised me one bit to find myself on the floor while some creature picked out the tastier bits of my insides.

  Aoife pushed a sliver of curtain aside and peeked out to the yard below. “Clear,” she whispered and unlatched the locks. She slid the window up inch by inch until it was wide open, letting the cool night air into the room.

  She lifted a leg to swing it out, but Dylan and I stepped forward to stop her. He even grabbed her arm. She looked between the two of us, rolled her eyes, and stepped back into the room.

  I didn’t give her brother a chance to take the lead
. I stuck my head out the window and looked around. The street was quiet. Nothing stirred. Even the night air held its breath. Below the window ledge was a shingled overhang about ten by eleven. I leaned back in, grabbed the window seal, and stuck a leg through. I set my foot down tentatively, testing the structure would hold. It felt more or less solid, so I pulled myself completely out and moved aside, keeping against the side of the house.

  Aoife came out next with Dylan close behind. After a moment of looking at each other, I took the lead again. I inched down the slight slope to the edge and looked over. The drop to the ground was about fifteen feet, but there was a rail around the porch only about six feet from the lip of the overhang. I knelt down, turned and slid my feet off the edge. I wiggled myself down inch by inch, ignoring the bites and streaks of pain the flared over my body. I waved my foot blindly, trying to find the railing. It took a moment, but when it hit something solid, I found footing on the rail and put all my weight on it. Still holding to the lip of the overhang, I glanced at the porch, half expecting for one of those creatures to be standing there watching me bumble my way through our great escape. The porch was empty, thankfully.

  The distance from rail to ground was much shorter, so I stepped back off the rail and landed on the grass.

  “They’re upstairs.” I heard Aoife’s slightly panicked whisper. “Hurry.”

  She appeared at the lip of the overhang, looking down at me.

  “Jump,” I hissed up at her.

  “What? Are you stup—”

  “There’s no time. I’ll catch you.” I held up both hands to show her.

  “I’m not jumping.”

  Dylan appeared beside her, casting fearful glances back toward the window. “They’re in the room.”

  Aoife’s head swung around and back. “If I hurt myself, I hurt you.”

  I barely had time to register the fact that she was jumping before she stepped off the edge and her dark form came at me at an alarming rate. I’m glad she didn’t think I meant I’d catch catch her. There’s no way I could have caught her whole weight. Instead, she came at me feet first, expecting me to help break her fall. I braced one foot back just as she hit me. I caught my hands under her arm pits, allowing momentum to bend my arms as she came into me. The impact made us stumble, but we both stayed upright. Somehow.