Wildwood Road

by Christopher Golden

  But, thus far, six months after that terrible night, there had been no mention of Wildwood Road. Tom had left the Danskys out of it, and Michael was grateful.

  Now they were starting over with this trip to Spain, exploring the Old City of Seville. Jillian spoke Italian and so understood much of what was said to them in Spanish, but she could not speak the language. Michael could not understand a word of what was being said to them, but remembered enough college Spanish to reply after Jillian translated. They were a perfect team.

  As they made their way down that alley—part of a maze of such passages that somehow always brought them back to one of the larger streets, or to a monument they could identify in the guidebook—they glanced in shop windows and instinctively began to slow down. To take their time. Enough sightseeing, Michael thought. Now they would just meander. They knew each other well enough that they were attuned to such rhythms.

  Jillian gave a sudden mischievous laugh and darted away from him, up the alley. There was a tall door that hung open; a sign propped in front announced a flamenco show that night at half past nine. It wasn't until Michael had nearly caught up with her that he heard the music coming from that open door, the strumming of a guitar, a musician warming up for the evening. Jilly spun around snapping her fingers as though she wore castanets.

  Michael watched her in amazement.

  She must have seen something on his face, for she faltered and a wave of melancholy swept across her features.

  “What, Jilly? What's wrong?” he asked.

  Jillian glanced around but no one was nearby. Her eyes narrowed and there was something lost and plaintive in them, something that reminded him of Scooter Barnes.

  “I'm different,” she said, averting her eyes.

  It was as though she had been reading his mind, but Michael knew that she had only been reading his face. And she felt it, deep down. It had come up before, but it still haunted her.

  “A little,” Michael told her. “Not so much that most people would notice.”

  “But you notice.”

  “I'm your husband.”

  He reached out for her and she took his hands.

  Jillian gazed at him now, gnawing on her lower lip. “Different how?”

  Michael smiled. “You're a little daffier. But that's not a bad thing, babe. It really isn't. You're . . . you seem happier.”

  Most of the time. That was the unspoken coda. And even during those times when she seemed happier than before, there was a kind of undercurrent in her voice, a gray cloud at the back of her eyes. Michael understood; he saw the same thing in his own eyes when he looked in the mirror. The two of them could still love, they could still laugh, but they had learned that the rules that had always defined the world were lies. And they were unsure how to go about learning the real ones . . . or even if they wanted to.

  In light of things, Michael was prepared to be grateful for Most of the time. In a way, the hard knowledge they had found made him appreciate everything more. Ice cream tasted sweeter, jokes were funnier, Jilly's perfume was sexier.

  But the fact that she was different, that she had changed in some small, fundamental way, troubled her, and Michael did not know how to fix that, to make that better.

  “And you still love me?”

  Michael pulled her nearer. “Still and always.”

  “Even though I'm . . . even though I've changed?”

  They had both lost bits of themselves the previous autumn, Jillian quite literally and Michael more figuratively. Preconceptions. Expectations. Assumptions. Michael had come to the conclusion that life wasn't about avoiding sorrow—that was patently impossible. Instead, it was about recognizing it, and finding joy in spite of it.

  “We all change,” he shrugged, trying to find the words. “Life changes us. I have no idea how much we'll have changed by the time we're seventy. But I want to find out with you. The thing is, I don't think who we are, way down, ever changes. That's who I fell in love with, Jilly. And if you're different now, well, I get to fall in love all over again.”

  For a long moment she stared at him, searching his face. Then she laughed, rolling her eyes heavenward. “Oh, that is so unbelievably lame!”

  Michael couldn't help laughing along with her. “It's true.”

  “It's still lame,” Jilly said, shaking her head and tugging him by the hand, pulling him deeper into the labyrinth of the Old City.

  Michael followed willingly. Evening shadows began to stretch over the cobblestones now, even as he thought again about the things they had learned, and the shadows that knowledge had cast upon their lives. Moments later they emerged into a large square where the late-day sun still shone brightly.

  That was the thing about shadows. Stepping out of them always made the light seem so much brighter.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN is the award-winning, Los Angeles Times bestselling author of such novels as Of Saints and Shadows, The Ferryman, Strangewood, The Gathering Dark, and the Body of Evidence series of teen thrillers. Working with actress/writer/director Amber Benson, he cocreated and cowrote Ghosts of Albion, an animated supernatural drama for BBC online.

  Golden has also written or cowritten several books and comic books related to the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, as well as the scripts for two Buffy the Vampire Slayer video games. His recent comic book work includes the creator-owned The Sisterhood and DC Comics' Doctor Fate: The Curse.

  As a pop-culture journalist, he was the editor of the Bram Stoker Award-winning book of criticism CUT!: Horror Writers on Horror Film, and coauthor of The Stephen King Universe.

  Golden was born and raised in Massachusetts, where he still lives with his family. He graduated from Tufts University. There are more than eight million copies of his books in print. Please visit him at www.christophergolden.com.

  ALSO BY CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN

  The Boys Are Back in Town

  The Ferryman

  Straight on 'Til Morning

  Strangewood

  The Shadow Saga:

  Of Saints and Shadows

  Angel Souls and Devil Hearts

  Of Masques and Martyrs

  The Gathering Dark

  PRAISE FOR CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN

  THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN

  One of Booklist's Top Ten SF/Fantasy

  “Christopher Golden collides the ordinary and the supernatural with wonderfully unsettling results. The Boys Are Back in Town is a wicked little thriller. Rod Serling would have loved it.” —Max Allan Collins, author of Road to Perdition

  “Christopher Golden is one of the most hard-working, smartest, and talented writers of his generation, and his books are so good and so involving that they really ought to sell in huge numbers. Everything he writes glows with imagination.” —Peter Straub

  “Well-crafted . . . a nostalgic, unsentimental portrait of adolescence [with a] suspenseful plot and strong atmosphere.” —Publishers Weekly

  “Christopher Golden is the master of the slow creep—the kind of story that sneaks out of the everyday, so quietly, that you don't realize anything is really amiss until the world seems to shift and the ground gets all spongy underfoot. . . . Golden has a wonderfully smooth prose style [and] the payoff is immense. And intense . . . It's an eerie, fascinating tale in which discrepancies between what actually happened and what James remembers pile up until you're sure there's no way Golden can bring the story home in a satisfying manner. But bring it home he does, with style and heart, and a cast of characters that you can't help but like, even while you find yourself suspecting each one at some point or another during the narrative.” —Charles de Lint, Fantasy and Science Fiction

  “Golden's exploration into high school and high school reunions is anything but sentimental. . . . A page-turner . . . a careening joyride into the vicious nature of high school friendships.” —Baltimore Sun

  “Harkens back to classic Stephen King . . . Golden weaves a greatly suspenseful tale involvin
g witchcraft and a destructive lust for power and revenge. . . . Once you begin reading this one, you won't want to put it down.” —Dark Realms

  “Incredibly different . . . very few novels are able to convey a sense of dread and horror while at the same time making you think about yourself and your own life . . . compassionate and terrifying.” —Creature-Corner.com

  “Breathtaking . . . couldn't put it down! . . . The style and story are so perfectly matched that you don't even think about it, it flows like a well-directed episode of Twilight Zone.” —Horror-Web.com

  “Spellbinding.” —Boston Magazine

  “Captivated me from the first page and did not let go until the last. Mr. Golden is so talented that the reader believes anything and everything is possible . . . chilling. I loved it.” —Rendezvous

  “Christopher Golden continues to stake his claim as a modern master of horror with The Boys Are Back in Town . . . a rip-roaring story reminiscent of early Stephen King.” —Romantic Times

  “Golden takes a truly creepy fantastic premise and delivers in spades; this gripping story is not to be missed.” —Booklist

  “Rod Serling territory . . . Golden takes another step toward becoming a major player in horror fiction.” —San Francisco Chronicle

  THE FERRYMAN

  “With his customary style and economy, Christopher Golden has penned a powerful and haunting tale.” —Clive Barker, author of Galilee and Weaveworld

  “Kept me reading long into the evening on more than one night. Golden delivers . . . good, old-fashioned storytelling . . . and he doesn't back away from the consequences of the darkness he has set upon his characters. I liked his deft touch with his characters, his crisp prose, and how he lets the story unfold. And I especially liked the relationship Golden built between his characters. . . . We should all be so lucky as to have such friends.” —Charles de Lint, author of The Onion Girl and Forests of the Heart

  “The Ferryman is a compulsive read, one I finished in a single sleep-deprived night. The characters are easy to care about, the story unpredictable and involving. Rarest of all, Golden conveys the terrible sadness of the supernatural in a way few authors have managed.” —Poppy Z. Brite, author of Lost Souls and Drawing Blood

  “An intelligent, compelling ghost story in the classic horror tradition . . . Harrowing . . . Superior characterization, an exquisitely detailed setting and superbly orchestrated suspense.” —Publishers Weekly

  “A gripping tale from a genre master.” —Booklist

  “Once in a very long while, a horror novel will come along that is so believable and frightening that it will live on in the reader's mind forevermore. The Stand and The Exorcist were such books and so too is The Ferryman. Christopher Golden is a talented writer who makes the audience give credence to events in his novel as if they occurred in the real world.” —Harriet Klausner

  “A horrifying, disturbing assault . . . Tight, focused and almost claustrophobically intimate, it's a must read for those yearning for a really terrifying experience.” —Fangoria magazine

  “Readers (will) wonder if Christopher Golden is actually a pseudonym for a collaboration between Dean Koontz and Peter Straub.” —BookBrowser

  “The Ferryman [is] shot through with a sadness that sometimes gently aches and other times deeply wounds. Golden's subtle and clever way with a plot really shines. Spencer makes a stellar second-tier bad guy, the kind of jerk you don't just love to hate; you want to beat him to death with a coal shovel. A year later, I can recall quite clearly the feelings that Straight On 'Til Morning stirred up while reading it. It's not every book I can say that about, but I fully expect to be able to say the same thing about The Ferryman come the spring of 2003.” —Brian Hodge, in Hellnotes

  STRANGEWOOD

  “In Strangewood, Christopher Golden gradually brings into being a world of haunted and perilous fantasy which, while moving into greater and greater solidity, never loses touch with its painful, sweet, embattled human context. This is a notable achievement. Christopher Golden has written a beautiful and wildly inventive hymn to the most salvific human capacity: imagination.” —Peter Straub, author of Ghost Story and The Hellfire Club

  “If Clive Barker had gone Through the Looking Glass, he might have come up with something as imaginative and compelling as Strangewood. Christopher Golden's writing is vivid, making his quirky fantasy world as real as the ‘real world' in his story. It's been a long time since I've read such an original novel in the fantasy genre.” —Kevin J. Anderson, author of Dune: House Harkonnen

  “A terrific novel. There's a hint of The Talisman here, as well as Stephen Donaldson's Thomas Covenant novels, but ultimately it is the strength of Golden's characters that carries this novel and gives it its power. I never do this, but at one point I actually found myself looking ahead in the book to learn whether a particular character made it out of a scrape alive. I cannot give higher praise than that—breaking my own reading habits because I was so involved with the story—and I salute Golden for being able to make me do such a thing. Strangewood is an excellent book, an impressive achievement by a fine writer whose message could not be more timely.” —Bentley Little, author of The Walking and The House

  “I read Strangewood in one sitting. Strangewood the novel is a daring and thoroughly engrossing blend of wonder and adventure, terror and tenderness. Strangewood the place is what Oz might have been if L. Frank Baum had grown up on a steady diet of Stephen King.” —F. Paul Wilson, author of The Select and The Keep

  “A beautiful new formulation of genre material. A novel which roots the extremes of imagination in the displacements of the human heart. Lovely stuff.” —Graham Joyce, author of The Tooth Fairy and Dark Sister

  “A fascinating read. It has a lot to say about the nature of creation. Strangewood was the most inventive paperback original of 1999. It deserves great success.” —Cemetery Dance magazine

  “Strangewood is a treat, and it shouts Christopher Golden's talent with a megaphone to its lips. With a sure voice and a steady hand, Golden weaves a story both deceptively simple and vibrantly realized, and he does it with pure artistry. I believe in his characters, his world and his talent.” —Greg Rucka, author of Keeper and Shooting at Midnight

  STRAIGHT ON 'TIL MORNING

  “Golden's dramatic and funny coming-of-age story evolv[es] into a horrific and ultimately sorrowful thriller. A bizarre combination of The Wonder Years and The Lost Boys, this fantastic tale entertains.” —Publishers Weekly

  “Christopher Golden . . . is an imaginative and prodigious talent who never lets genre boundaries hold him back.” —Douglas Clegg, author of Naomi and Mischief

  “The print equivalent of From Dusk 'Til Dawn. High praise, indeed. A bizarre trip across the dark fantastic that really, really works. The Stand By Me-cum-The Outsiders feel of the first half of the novel is real, and honest, and a great read in and of itself; add the twisted fantasy element, and this book becomes perfectly unique. A grown-up, odd, compelling journey through adolescence, and heartache, and of course, Neverland. A fascinating and completely engrossing book.” —The 11th Hour web magazine

  “I defy anyone to read a few of these scenes and not be swept up. Golden's imagination was working overtime when he crafted a way to blend this coming-of-age story with not just a bona fide childhood classic, but Gaelic mythology as well, as the novel progresses from the mundane to the weird to full-blown high fantasy. Golden keeps those pages flying by, without forgetting to bring it full circle and give your heart a tweak or two in the very end.” —Brian Hodge, author of Wild Horses

  “A clever and touching dark fantasy novel [that is] magic to read. As dark, and as mature, as any good fairy tale is at heart. Golden's storytelling is restrained as he finesses us down the plot's road, and though there is a moral to the story, it's a moral that aches with the revelations of coming of age, and of leaving an age behind.” —Gothic.net

  THE SHADOW SAGA

  “A politico-religio
us thriller reminiscent of the novels of David Morrell. A delightful read and a noteworthy debut by a writer who cares passionately about the stuff of horror. Harrowing, humorous, overflowing with characters and plot contortions, abundantly entertaining . . . a portent of great things to come from Christopher Golden.”—Douglas E. Winter, Cemetery Dance magazine

  “A breathtaking story that succeeds in marrying gore and romance, sex and sentiment. A brilliant epic.” —Dark News, Paris

  “One of the best horror novels of the year. Filled with tension, breathtaking action, dire plots and a convincing depiction of worlds existing unseen within our own. One of the most promising debuts in some time.” —Science Fiction Chronicle

  “You can damn near chase me a mile these days with a vampire novel. Then, along comes Christopher Golden. His work is fast and furious, funny and original, and I can't wait until his next book.” —Joe R. Lansdale, author of The Bottoms and The Two-Bear Mambo

  “The most refreshing books in the vampire genre since Anne Rice wrote Interview with the Vampire, [Golden's novels] are completely in a class by themselves.” —Pathway to Darkness

  “Christopher Golden has painted an intriguing canvas, full of action, sweep and dark mythology; a novel that unfolds like a vampiric Kabuki theatre. Golden is smart and savvy; a writer with a bright future.” —Rex Miller, author of Slob and Chaingang

  “Passionate . . . Excellent . . . Golden has written one of the best . . . a deep probe into the inner-workings of the church and a surprise explanation for vampires. [A] brilliant vampire novel in a blizzard of bloody tooth bites this year.” —LitNews Online

  “A promising debut. In his world of vampires and dark magic, Golden presents us with a complex canvas to rival Brian Lumley.” —Craig Shaw Gardner, author of Dragon Burning

  “Golden combines quiet, dark, subtle mood with Super-Giant monster action. Sort of M. R. James meets Godzilla!” —Mike Mignola, creator of Hellboy

  “The characters in Golden's books are always interesting and carefully drawn. You might care a little too much about some of them. Of Masques and Martyrs is a furiously paced, energetic thriller with enough original ideas for three or four of anyone else's books.” —The Plot Thickens, from Mysterious Galaxy