Whispering Pines

by Heidi Lang

  Aiden. Caden concentrated on his brother, using that as an anchor to the present reality. He had to rescue Aiden and save Rae.

  He kept that thought firmly in mind and pulled back from the energies of the house. He could still sense them, but he wasn’t entangled within them anymore. Now he was able to use them, binding them together and weaving them into a net across the doorframe at the bottom of the stairwell, his own essence the glue holding them in place.

  The pressure in the stairwell changed, the air growing colder.

  Caden opened his eyes. Everything glowed a soft, pale yellow, the stairs flickering in the light, the air hazy, like he was dreaming.

  But the Other Place still required blood.

  He pulled the knife from his back pocket and slid it open. The blade seemed longer and skinnier than he remembered, the edge gleaming unnaturally in that strange light. He pushed up his right sleeve. Then he took a deep breath and carefully sliced a thin, shallow line on the underside of his arm.

  It burned as the blood bubbled out. And just like he’d seen Aiden do all those months ago, Caden scraped the flat of the blade along the cut and then flicked the bloody knife at the doorway and the invisible net of negative energies woven there.

  Drops of blood hit the doorway, and it began pulsing a vivid red, like an angry wound.

  Caden gasped. Each pulse felt like it was pulling more blood from him, more power, the color in the doorway deepening from bright red to brown, back to its sickly yellow-green as it grew larger and larger.

  He’d done something wrong. The rift was supposed to stay contained in the stairway, but it kept expanding. The whole thing wobbled at the edge of the stairs, and then spilled out into the basement.

  Caden’s legs trembled and he collapsed to his knees, the knife clattering from his numb fingers.

  He was unraveling, spinning himself out, stretching across the doorway and beyond.

  37. RAE

  Ivan took a deliberate step forward. Rae moved to the left, but he moved faster, blocking her. She tried darting to the right, but he was already there, shoving her back against the wall. She wheezed, panic choking her. There was no escape.

  “I told you,” he said. “I’ve already won. You—”

  Crack!

  Both Rae and Ivan turned toward the stairs and the source of the noise. In the dim light filtering in from the basement window, Rae made out a dark cylinder rolling across the floor. It stopped on top of the rusty old drain.

  The room blurred, filling with a strange greenish light. Something about that glow scared Rae almost as much as the Unseeing. Maybe it was the way it pulsed, shifting from green to yellow to green. It made her think of toxic animals, diseased flesh, decay.

  And then she noticed the figure framed in the bottom of the stairs, his silhouette obscured by the light. It was like staring at someone lying on the bottom of a swimming pool, a person with spiky black hair. Caden.

  Rae’s heart lurched. She was both terrified for him and relieved she wasn’t alone here anymore.

  Caden made an abrupt slashing motion, and the pulsating light around him slowly shifted from green to a reddish brown, like old blood. The air pressure changed. Rae clapped her hands over her popping ears as a strange wind picked up, whipping her ponytail in her face.

  Ivan toppled over with a guttural cry and began sliding toward the stairs as some invisible force pulled him. His long fingers dug into the cement, leaving gouges. “No!” he screamed. “You won’t send me back!”

  Too fast for Rae to react, his hand lashed out and caught one of her ankles.

  Rae fell on her butt, the cement scraping against her back as she was dragged with Ivan toward the rift.

  “Caden!” she screamed, kicking out at Ivan with her free foot and trying to grab at anything to slow her progress. But Ivan’s fingers were strong as bone, and the opening to the Other Place was practically on them.

  Through the light Rae could see a mass of tentacles swirling, waiting hungrily for their prey.

  38. CADEN

  Caden’s vision went blurry. He blinked and realized it wasn’t him; the basement was full of a strange greenish fog. Flashes of sickly yellow light illuminated the twisted things lurking within, creatures with tentacles, beasts that walked like humans, and others that crawled like worms. They didn’t seem to notice the opening torn behind them, but Caden knew that they would soon.

  Blood opens and blood closes. But how much more did Caden have left to give?

  Caden put a hand against the wall, fighting a wave of dizziness. He was losing too much blood too fast, the portal pulling it right out of him. He closed his eyes and tried to rebuild the mental image of a bubble of white light surrounding him. Then he clenched his hand hard around his protective talisman, using that pain to ground himself.

  He felt a jolt inside, almost like he was on an elevator that stopped too suddenly, and the sense that he was bleeding out faded as the portal stabilized.

  Caden slowly opened his eyes.

  One of the creatures in the Other Place looked up, its tongue extending out, tasting the air like a snake. It made a strange clicking sound, and the thing next to it straightened, staring out at the opening. It shifted closer, curious. Another came, and another, until the rift was surrounded by ravenous faces.

  A tentacle slid out into Caden’s world, seeking the blood on his arm.

  He knew what would happen next. He’d seen it. The creatures would pull him into their world and the portal would close behind him. He wasn’t as strong as Aiden, and wouldn’t be able to fight off the things in the Other Place. They would slowly devour him.

  “Aiden,” he gasped as another tentacle caressed the side of his face. He tried feeling for Aiden’s presence, but there was still nothing. His brother wasn’t waiting on the other side of the rift. He wasn’t anywhere. All Caden could sense was the mindless hunger of the creatures in front of him.

  “—den! Caden!”

  Caden squinted, searching past the tentacles and the mist.

  He saw the thing that had been Ivan sliding toward him, its limbs contorting as it struggled against the pull of the Other Place. And held in its grip…

  “Rae!” Caden cried.

  She met his gaze through the barrier, the pulsing light reflecting in her terrified eyes as she slid closer and closer to the rift. And there was nothing Caden could do to stop it.

  39. RAE

  Rae tried to pull her leg free, but Ivan’s grasp was too tight, and digging her other foot and her hands into the cement barely did anything to slow them down. It was like trying to stop on a steep water slide.

  They were almost at the rift. A tentacle crept out, hovering above their heads, almost like it could sense them.

  Time seemed to slow down for Rae. Caden had told her that the portal needed a sacrifice to close, so Rae knew what she had to do. She only hoped she had the strength to pull it off, because she would only get one shot.

  Ivan twisted to look at her, the empty hollows of his face seeming to stare right through her. And then he grinned, like he knew what she was planning and was daring her to try.

  Maybe this was all just another game to him.

  A blur of speed, and the tentacle whipped toward them. Rae choked back a scream, but the tentacle slid over her and wrapped instead around Ivan’s leg, yanking him halfway into the rift. He shrieked as another tentacle joined the first, both of them making horrible slurping noises like they were eating Ivan alive.

  Rae knew this was a preview of what would happen to her if she failed.

  Ivan slashed at the tentacles with his long, sharp fingers, and gnashed them with his teeth. They let go, and he started dragging himself out, away from the rift.

  Rae raised her free leg up. “This is for Brandi!” And she kicked him, driving her sneaker into his eyeless face and yanking her ankle right out of her shoe and his grasp.

  Ivan staggered, then fell back into the Other Place, where he was engulfed in the waiting
horde of monsters. His scream only lasted a second before the horrifying grunting, suckling sounds of creatures eating filled the glowing green air.

  40. CADEN

  Caden felt the energies of the rift unraveling. He tried to hold it together longer, searching for his brother.

  “Aiden!” He felt for him, but there was no sense of human emotion anywhere inside the portal. His brother wasn’t there. Caden’s mental control began slipping from his grasp like sand through a clenched fist. The only way to stop the slide would be to give the rift everything. Already he could feel its eagerness to devour him as well, to take his power and consume it.

  “Blood opens and closes. A sacrifice given and taken,” Caden said, his voice weak, and barely audible above the sounds of the monsters feasting.

  The rift had gotten his blood, and it had gotten Ivan. You don’t get anymore, he thought, letting go.

  The energies holding the rift open unwound faster and faster. The pressure in the stairwell shifted, building like a terrible storm about to crash down on them all. Caden’s ears popped, and he braced himself for the worst, and then abruptly, it was gone.

  Caden opened his eyes. The stairwell was dark and quiet, the portal gone, the storm passed. “It worked,” he murmured. “I really didn’t think it would.” He sank back onto the step behind him. He was so tired. The burning in his arm had become a dull ache, and when he put a hand to the wound, he realized it wasn’t bleeding anymore.

  “… den. Caden.”

  He blinked. Rae was crouched in front of him, holding the flashlight he’d dropped.

  “Are you okay?”

  “I don’t know,” he mumbled.

  “Can you stand?”

  He tried, but his legs were like sticks of burning incense, crumbling to ash beneath him. Dimly he was aware of Rae dragging his good arm over her shoulders and sliding her arm around his waist. “Step left foot,” she ordered.

  It seemed easier to listen, so he did.

  “Right foot.”

  Another step. And another. What seemed like a year later, they reached the top of the stairs. No light filtered in through the cracked boards over the windows, and when the front door banged open, all Caden could see was the inky black of night. He closed his eyes and felt as if he were floating through it, bouncing off stars.

  The energy of the cabin had changed. He could still feel an echo of the terrible things that had happened here, but it was like the park after a hard rain, everything fresh and clean, the darkness burned away.

  From somewhere far away he could hear Patrick’s voice and the voices of other adults. Something about surrounding the house. Rae was speaking too, but Caden couldn’t focus on any of that. And then Vivienne’s voice cut through the others, close to his head. “I got Patrick and led him and his team here as fast as I could. How did you get away from Ivan?”

  “Mint Attack,” Rae told her. “Emptied the whole canister in his eyeless face.”

  “Mint Attack, huh?” she said. “I told you it could be useful.” That was the last thing Caden heard before everything faded away, and he was left to drift silently in peace.

  * * *

  He jolted awake, flailing.

  “Shh, Caden,” his mom whispered, putting a hand to his forehead and gently pressing him back down. “You’re okay.”

  “Mom?”

  “I’m here.”

  He blinked, his eyes adjusting. He was in his room, in his own bed, the shades drawn, a lamp glowing softly in the corner. His mom knelt next to him, smoothing back his hair. “I’m sorry I didn’t meet you at Doctor Anderson’s house,” he whispered.

  “That’s okay. I heard what happened.”

  “You did?”

  “Patrick brought you home.”

  Caden frowned. Patrick obviously hadn’t been the Unseeing, but there was still something off about that guy. He didn’t like the idea of him being in his house.

  His mom must have recognized his look. “I stopped him at the front door,” she said. “I don’t trust him, either. He seemed a little too interested in hearing your side of tonight’s events. Specifically, how you were able to open and close the rift to the Other Place.” She dropped her hand, her eyes narrowing.

  Caden looked away, staring up at his ceiling. “Aiden started to help me open it,” he said. “And then… and then he was gone.” He made himself look at his mother. “I don’t know what happened to him. I’m sorry.”

  A tear leaked silently down her cheek. “It’s not your fault,” she whispered.

  “We can try again.”

  She shook her head. “He’s not there anymore. I’ve been able to sense him off and on these past few days, but then this evening that connection snapped.” She sniffed and wiped at her face. “I’m afraid he’s really gone now. Truly and completely.” She sniffed again, but the tears kept coming, and she gave up and just cried.

  Caden sat up awkwardly, the wound on his arm pulling with the movement. He put his arms around his mom and held her as she cried.

  Goodbye, Aiden, he thought. I’m sorry. I tried. Part of him wanted to cry too. But mostly all he felt was relief that it was finally over.

  41. RAE

  Rae cautiously peeked into the kitchen the next morning.

  “It’s just me,” Ava said. “Mom’s upstairs sleeping. You don’t need to lurk.”

  Rae crept inside.

  “What did I say about lurking?” Ava asked, annoyed.

  “Sorry,” Rae mumbled. She got out a bowl, spoon, and cereal. At the last minute, she remembered to grab the milk, too. She carried them all over to the table and sat across from her sister, then waited.

  “You don’t need to stare at me either.” Ava sighed. She put down her book and her coffee cup. “I’ve decided I’m not going to say anything to Mom about last night.”

  “R-really?” When Patrick had brought Rae home last night, her mom had been at work. But Ava had been there, and while Patrick didn’t really know all the details, he’d told her sister enough. Rae had carefully avoided her ever since.

  “Yes.” Ava ran a finger along the rim of her mug. “In exchange for a promise from you.”

  “What kind of promise?” Rae asked suspiciously.

  Ava looked up, meeting her gaze. “You need to keep me in the loop. No more getting yourself in trouble, running off to investigate things, sneaking into houses, and literally following a monster into an abandoned cabin in the middle of the woods.” She shook her head. “I can’t even believe I have to tell you that last bit. Haven’t you seen any horror movie ever?”

  “I was trying to save Alyssa,” Rae said.

  “And that’s all well and good, but not if you get yourself killed doing it. Besides, wasn’t Alyssa totally fine?”

  Rae looked away, her cheeks burning. That had been one of the worst parts; Vivienne had filled her in on the ride back that Alyssa had been home the whole time.

  “Look, you just need to tell me what you’re up to, okay? That’s it. Tell me what you are doing so I can help you. If you promise to do that, then I won’t tell Mom you snuck out last night and tried to get yourself killed.”

  “You just don’t want Mom to know what a terrible jailer you were,” Rae said.

  A small smile slipped through Ava’s very serious expression. “Fine. That’s part of it.” But then her smile fell. “I was really worried, Rae.”

  “I didn’t think you cared.”

  Ava’s eyebrows drew together. “Of course I care, Rae. I love you and I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

  Rae wanted to make some flippant remark, but she couldn’t. She and Ava never said the L-word to each other, even before their father disappeared. To their parents, sure. But not to each other. Hearing it now healed something deep inside Rae, some jagged broken edge she hadn’t known was there. “I love you too, Ava,” she sniffed. Then she pulled herself together. “And we have a deal—if you agree to let me know what you find too.” She held out her hand.

/>   Ava hesitated. “I don’t want you involved.”

  “He’s my dad too, Ava. I’m never going to stop looking for him. Don’t you think that if you’re looking too, we’ll have more luck working together?”

  Ava sighed. “Fine. Deal.”

  They shook on it.

  “I’ll make you a second deal,” Ava said after she released Rae’s hand. “You put in a good word for me the next time you see that Patrick guy, and I’ll give you a ride to school today.”

  “What? Why?” Rae suddenly realized. “You like him!”

  “Well, he is pretty handsome. Great hair.” Ava shrugged.

  “But… he’s old.”

  “Not that old. I’m guessing mid-to-late twenties, maybe?”

  Rae knew her sister had had boyfriends in the past, and she was almost eighteen, but the idea of her being interested in Patrick of Green On! was just… weird. “I might never see him again,” she said.

  “Oh, I don’t know about that.” Ava grinned, a sneaky little smile like she knew something.

  “What?” Rae asked.

  “Do we have a second deal, or no?”

  “Can we stop for bagels on the way? I’m tired of cereal.”

  “Okay.”

  “Then sure,” Rae said, grinning back. And for the first time since her dad had vanished, she felt like she had her real sister back.

  * * *

  Rae slipped into homeroom early, taking her now-normal seat in the back. It felt surreal to be sitting here, when last night she thought she might never see this school again. A few minutes later, and Vivienne stepped inside.

  “Got a ride to school?” Vivienne asked, taking her seat next to Rae.

  Rae nodded.

  “Me too.” Vivienne was quiet for a minute. A couple other kids came in and took their seats. In the front, Russell and Gary started up a loud, obnoxious conversation, and Vivienne leaned in closer. “Hey,” she whispered. “Are we good?”