by Barry Napier
“Freaky deaky.”
“Some other world?” She didn’t roll her eyes when she said it, but it was implied in her tone.
Cooper shrugged. “I really don’t know. I wish I did. Seriously…I only remember a sky that looked like it was twilight all the time. Everything was plain and flat. Featureless. There’s some other details that I can sort of feel at the back of my mind but they won’t come.”
“You understand that if you’re trying to tell me that you got teleported to some other world, I’m likely not going to believe you.”
“Yes, I know. Always so skeptical.”
“Do you know how long you were in this place?” Steph asked.
“I looked back through my notes. From what I can tell, I left for Tilton, Kansas on February twenty-first. I know I took equipment with me. I even know which equipment. But I have no idea where it is now. I would assume the FBI has it. Or at least some shadow part of the FBI.”
“Maybe that branch you worked for,” Stephanie suggested. “The one you would never tell me the name of.”
“Probably,” Cooper said, ignoring her jab. “Anyway, so let’s assume I went missing on February twenty-second. When I was no longer in that other place, I found myself back in Tilton, Kansas. Seventy-two days had passed.”
A look crossed Stephanie’s face that was either utter disbelief or disappointment. Cooper couldn’t tell which. He could almost hear the gears working in her head, trying to decide if they wanted to be in awe of this fact or if they wanted to sound the bullshit alarm.
“You mean to tell me,” she said, “that you went missing for seventy-two days and you remember nothing about it?”
“That’s right.”
“You met no people that stick out in your mind?”
Cooper shook his head. “I don’t think there were people there. I think it was just…empty. That’s all I remember.”
“How did you eat?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t remember buildings? Landmarks? Anything?”
Cooper thought for a moment. He felt something trying to creep forward in his memories but he only caught a hazy glimpse. “I think there were mountains in the distance. Always in the distance. Like you could walk forever and never reach them. But that’s it.”
“Cooper…I don’t even—,”
The waitress came by the table with their food. Cooper decided right away that she was a good waitress. She could tell that there was a heavy conversation going on at the table and didn’t bother interfering with pleasantries. She gave a simple comment of “Let me know if you need anything else,” and then left.
Cooper bit into his burger right away, waiting for Stephanie to pick things back up. She toyed with her flounder, poking it with her fork. She looked defeated. Part of Cooper winced a bit when he realized that she also looked like she didn’t want to be there.
“So,” she said after a few silent moments. “Tell me about the Blackstocks.”
And just like that, she had let him off the hook. Either she didn’t believe him and thought he was lying to her or she believed every word of it and was terrified. Honestly, based on her history of not believing in much of anything he had ever researched, Cooper thought that she likely didn’t believe him. But that was fine with him—for now.
So he told her about his afternoon with the Blackstocks, filling her in on Henry’s drowning five years ago. He also told her about the odd occurrences in their house and how Jenny and Sam had taken him out to the beach, to the very spot where Henry had died.
“That’s harsh,” Steph said. “Of course, I don’t believe there are ghosts in their house, but it’s still a sad story.”
“Still don’t believe in ghosts, huh?”
“I’m not sure. I’d like to say I’m on the fence, but I sort of lean to the no pasture.”
“How did we ever date?”
“Healthy debates, booze, and sex,” she said, only half joking.
“Oh yeah,” Cooper said.
“So what are your next steps with this family?”
“I’m not entirely sure. I want to check out a few things before I bother them again. I told you about Kevin Owens, right?”
“Yes. He drowned a few months ago, right?”
“Yeah. Two months. And he drowned about twenty feet away from the same spot Henry Blackstock drowned.”
“Creepy.”
“Isn’t it?”
“Well, what other things do you need to check out?”
Cooper grinned and took another bite of his burger. He knew it might be a long shot, but he figured there was no harm in at least trying.
“I’m glad you asked,” he said. “It’s going to be boring and lonely. I could use some company. And if you don’t believe in ghosts and don’t spook easily, you shouldn’t have any problems tagging along.”
“What?” she asked.
Cooper told her what he had planned, liking the idea even more when he pictured Stephanie being there with him.
“And you want me to come?” she asked after he told her.
“Absolutely.”
She thought about it for a minute while she finished off her glass of wine. She looked to Cooper and then to the empty wine glass, considering.
“Fine,” she said. “I’ll go. But I’m going to need a few more glasses of wine.”
8
As far as Cooper was concerned, the night was positively filled with small victories. Perhaps the most significant one came when they left the restaurant. Stephanie, never one to forfeit control of a situation and mostly distrustful of everyone—boyfriends, best friends, and parents included—handed Cooper her car keys as they walked into the parking lot. She’d had two more glasses of wine but was far from drunk, so she couldn’t use that as an excuse.
Actually, she used no excuses. The simple fact of the matter was that Cooper knew where they were headed and she did not. He tried to tell himself that the small gesture meant nothing; it was just one person letting another person drive their car. But he also knew that it likely meant something else coming from Stephanie…he juts wasn’t quite sure what it was. It might have even been subconscious on her part.
He pulled out of the restaurant lot and headed back down the main strip, turning off six miles away as they entered the outskirts of Kill Devil Hills. He drove slowly down one of the more secluded beachfront neighborhoods and pointed to the house he had been inside less than six hours ago.
“That’s the Blackstocks house,” he said.
Stephanie looked out through the passenger window and made a hmmph sound.
“What?”
“Nothing. It’s nice. Are they rich?”
“I don’t think so. They do okay. That kind of family.”
Stephanie shrugged, like the topic didn’t interest her anymore. “So where is this place?”
“Right up the road..”
The spot he had in mind actually crept into view far sooner than he had expected. He hit the brakes and pulled off of the road. There was no sort of access road or pavement to drive down or park on, so he settled for pulling out of the road and onto a small stretch of grit and sand along the side. With the car a good ten feet off of the road, he parked it and killed the engine.
“I don’t suppose you have a flashlight, do you?” Cooper asked.
“In the trunk. Why?”
“This is the place. A flashlight might come in handy. You never know.”
“This is the place?” she asked suspiciously.
“Well, no. The place I was telling you about it just over this rocky little hill,” he said, pointing directly to their right.
Cooper popped the trunk and got out of the car. When he opened the trunk and pulled the flashlight out of a small emergency kit tucked away in the corner, he could smell the ocean, salty and slightly fishy.
He checked the flashlight, saw that it supplied ample yellow-tinged light, and looked ahead to the rocky ground. He thought he’d save the batteries
for later. After all, it might do Stephanie some good to have a little adventure in the dark.
“Ready?” he asked
“Sure. Lead the way.”
He walked towards the rockier ground ahead, enjoying the knowledge that Stephanie was walking less than an arm’s length away. The ground rose slightly, blocking off the view of the beach ahead of them. Yet as they neared the crest of the hill, Cooper heard the breaking waves ahead of them. The sound was different at night. It was more muted, more drone-like. The air had the slightest nip to it, one of those that felt like a stubborn spring chill was clinging to it, refusing to accept that summer was on its heels.
They came to the top of the rocky terrain and stood motionless for a moment, looking out to the beach. It was secluded and dark, yet they could see everything. Their eyes had adjusted to the dark long before the beach had come into view and the moon was a generous three quarters full.
“It’s pretty,” Steph said.
“Yeah, it sort of is,” Cooper replied.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think I was being set up for some sort of cheesy romantic gesture.”
Cooper chuckled. “You and I both wish I could think that far ahead.”
She rolled her eyes and started carefully down the hill. It was nearly a straight vertical drop of ten feet or so, the small rockface jagged and rough. Down near the sand, though, it smoothed out to a clean angle until the beach covered it. Steph did an excellent job of watching her footing and was down on the sand in less than five seconds.
Cooper remained at the top of the rocky hill. He stared out to his left and saw the two large black rocks that stuck up out of the water. Under the dark cover of night, the rocks looked like looming giants, something alive but remaining stationary to fool some unsuspecting prey.
“Is it the crabs?” Stephanie asked from below.
“What?” Cooper asked.
“Crabs. They tend to scamper around on the beach at night from what I understand. You’re hesitating up there. I figured you were scared of the crabs.”
“No. I think I’ll be okay.”
Cooper tossed the flashlight down to her and made his way carefully down the shallow rock wall. Of course, the moment his feet touched the ground, he couldn’t help but think of crabs, scuttling across his feet with their little pinchers opening and closing.
“This way,” Cooper said, walking towards the rocks.
“Are those the rocks you think the kid was pointing to?” Stephanie asked.
“I don’t know if he was pointing to them specifically. But he was definitely pointing in this direction. And since those are the only definitive landmarks out here, it seems like the best spot.”
“Why at night, though?”
“In just about every paranormal case I’ve ever been on, there’s always more activity at night. Seems clichéd, I know. But that’s just the way it is.”
Cooper came to a stop several feet away from the stones. Being so close to them, he was able to truly appreciate their size. The one closest to the beach stuck out of the water, reaching at least fifteen feet into the air. It was jagged at the top but seemed to have softer edges on the way down until the sea covered it up. The second rock sat directly behind this one and now that he was this close to them, Cooper thought that the two shapes might be part of the same rock formation.
He sat down on the beach, mentally kicking himself for not bringing a towel. Of course, when he’d left his motel, he hadn’t thought that he’d be brining Stephanie with him. But she sat down on the sand next to him without complaint. She removed her shoes and instantly stuck her toes into the sand, making tiny holes.
They sat that way for several minutes, not speaking and staring out into the night-covered sea. Cooper didn’t know why, but the sea at night spooked him a bit. During the day, there were always glittering caps and peaks to the water no matter how far out you looked. But at night, there were entire sections of the sea further out that looked to be pitch black, like the night sky was being devoured. It was easy to picture sea monsters and other unspeakable terrors lurking down there in the black depths.
That brought his attention back to the two large black rocks. He stared at them, watching how the water sloshed and violently crashed around their bases. Sea water churned between them, spitting up foam in sheets as the tide was interrupted and pulled between them.
“This silence isn’t like us,” Stephanie said.
The comment surprised Cooper—not just because it broke his concentration from the rocks, but also because it was a very un-Stephanie thing to say.
“I agree,” Cooper said. “But I honestly don’t know what to say. I feel like I need to apologize, but I’m not quite sure what I’d be apologizing for.”
“Maybe for disappearing on me?”
“I really couldn’t help that. I didn’t want to disappear.”
“Well, what about the two months between the last time you and I saw each other and the day you left for Kansas? What about that little period of time?”
She wasn’t angry, but the questions seemed barbed nonetheless. Stephanie had always had a very acute way of being able to ask painful and tricky questions in a harmless way. It had been infuriating when they had been dating and Cooper found it no less irritating now.
“I let work control me,” he admitted. “I wanted to finish the new book ahead of schedule and take a month or so off to do nothing. If it helps, I wanted to take you with me to do that nothing.”
After a moment of silence, she said, “It helps a little.”
“And then when I decided I was going to try this whole…thing with the Blackstocks, I knew you were the only person I could call. I felt like a jerk, calling you out of the blue like that. I really did.”
“Are you sure this is what you want to do?”
“I don’t know.”
“I still don’t understand what it is that you’re trying to accomplish,” she said. “All jokes aside, but the way you explained it to me when you called, it sounds like you’re setting out to be a ghostbuster or something.”
“No, nothing like that. It’s difficult to explain. When I came back from wherever I was, I started to get these really strange feelings deep down in my gut. I’d get them when I went online or read an article about the paranormal. These were the same sorts of things I was researching before my disappearance, but this time I had a different feeling about it. And when I read the story about the Blackstocks, I felt like something had kicked me in the stomach.”
“So you think you’re being…what? Summoned by something?”
Cooper stared out to the sea, watching a wave destroy itself and then inch up the shore. It stopped a few yards away from their feet and was pulled back out. He peered out to the darker folds and thought of
(dark water)
all of the monsters that could be lurking down there. He tried to come up with a suitable answer for Stephanie but couldn’t find one that felt right.
“No, I don’t think I’m being summoned,” he said finally. “I don’t know how to explain it. All I know is that when I got those two flashes in the Blackstock’s house today—the visions or whatever the hell they were—it was confirmation. I’m supposed to be here. I’m supposed to be doing this.”
“And you’ve never had visions before?”
“No. Well…there was that time I did peyote with that tribe in Arizona. But I don’t think that counts.”
“Yeah, not so much.”
Cooper felt another silence descending on them and did not want to give it time to ruin the flow of conversation. So he opened his mouth and let the first thing on his mind come out.
“I missed you,” he said. “I really think before all of this happened, we could have had a pretty good shot.”
Stephanie tilted her head, considering. “Yeah, maybe.”
“Maybe we still have a shot?” he asked.
His heart seemed to deflate as soon as the question was in the air. He looked down, sli
ghtly embarrassed and very afraid. He watched her toes, still digging into the sand.
She smiled, but didn’t look at him. “I think you need to get all of this sorted out first. I think you need to—,”
She stopped here, as if looking for the right words. Once the quiet had reached an awkward lingering silence,, Cooper looked away from her dirt-covered toes and to her face. She was looking towards the two large rocks, her eyes narrowed and inquisitive.
“What?” Cooper asked.
But then he looked in that direction and saw. She didn’t need to answer him.
There was a human figure standing on top of the rock furthest out.
The shape was only slightly darker than the rock itself but stood out against the moonlit night fairly well. It was motionless, but was unmistakably a human figure. When Cooper had glanced out to the rocks less than a minute ago, it had not been there.
“You see it?” Stephanie asked in a whisper.
“Yeah.”
“What the hell? Is it a man?”
“I don’t know.”
Cooper slowly stood up, his eyes locked on the figure. He shut his eyes tightly for a moment and then opened them again. He wanted to make sure it wasn’t simply the varying shades of black playing a trick on their eyes; the night, the rocks, and the figure itself created a dark yet distinguishable tapestry.
But the figure was still there. And now it was moving.
It seemed to slowly be moving to the edge of the rock, crawling down into the water. It moved with an eerie fluidity that Cooper had seen before. It was the movement of something that didn’t have the physical restraints of flesh and bone.
“Cooper, that man wasn’t there two or three minutes ago,” Stephanie said. “And no one has come down the beach.”
“Yeah, I know.”
Cooper reached down and took the flashlight. He then took two steps forward but was stopped by Stephanie tugging on his pants.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“Going to check it out.”
“Are you crazy?”
“Slightly. But what’s it matter? It’s just a person, right?”
“Did you see the way it moved?”
