by Brian Harmon
“That’s not disturbing at all.”
I KNOW, RIGHT?
“What was the purpose?”
THERE ARE A FEW THEORIES, I GUESS. SOME SINISTER, SOME MORE BENIGN
“So it’s a ‘good news, bad news’ kind of thing?”
THE GUY WAS CONVINCED THAT THEY WERE CARVED IN THE LIKENESS OF SPECIFIC PEOPLE IN ORDER TO CURSE THEM, AND POSSIBLY EVEN TO CAPTURE THEIR SOULS WHEN THEY DIED
Eric looked up at the little orbs. They did sort of resemble tiny prisons…now that he was thinking about it…
BUT I ALSO HEARD OF THINGS LIKE THAT BEING MEANT TO WARD OFF EVIL
“I like that one better,” he decided. And it might explain why the hellhound disappeared. Looking around now, he realized that it wasn’t merely the branches that were decorated. At the base of many of the trees stood a little tower of stacked rocks. “How’s the energy feeling around here?”
IT’S GETTING STRONGER
“That’s bad, right?”
IT’S DEFINITELY NOT GOOD
He reached up and grasped one of the orbs. Aside from their bizarre placement, there really wasn’t anything scary about them. They were almost cute. Someone had gone to a lot of trouble to make them. And there was something rattling around inside, although he couldn’t see what it was without breaking it, which he wasn’t going to do. First of all, they were likely somebody else’s property. Secondly, if they really were responsible for warding off the hellhound, then he didn’t want to tamper with that magic for fear the beast would promptly return. And third, he could do without breaking one open and discovering that it was full of human teeth and bits of puppies and kittens.
Ignorance had its advantages, after all.
I CAN’T FEEL ANY SPECIAL ENERGY COMING OUT OF THAT AREA. EITHER THOSE THINGS AREN’T GIVING OFF ANY OR IT’S COVERED UP BY THE AMBIENT ENERGY COMING OFF THE LAKE
Eric turned and scanned the area again. Where was he, anyway? He had no idea which way was which. And after that last encounter, he wasn’t eager to go wandering blindly through the woods again.
“Did you get any feeling off that hellhound thing back there?”
I DID, BUT I CAN’T DESCRIBE IT, EXACTLY. THERE WAS SOMETHING AWFUL ABOUT IT
“Yeah. I got that. And I’m not even psychic.”
DON’T BE SNARKY
“Sorry.”
YOU’RE FORGIVEN. IT WAS A LOT LIKE WHAT I FELT FROM THAT FESTER GUY
“So they’re related?”
I CAN’T BE SURE. BUT PROBABLY
Eric seated himself on the ground in the middle of the scattered spheres and tried to clear his head. A lot had happened in a short amount of time. And none of it helped him to discover why he was here. What was he supposed to do?
He felt simultaneously as if he knew too little and too much. He didn’t know how to sort all this weirdness out.
LET’S THINK ABOUT WHAT WE ALREADY KNOW, suggested Isabelle.
“That this whole thing is just messed up?”
NO. ABOUT THE WORLD IN GENERAL. FOR EXAMPLE, WE KNOW THAT GHOSTS ARE REAL
“They are,” Eric agreed.
AND WE KNOW THAT THEY COME IN DIFFERENT FORMS
Indeed. The first ghosts Eric ever met were indistinguishable from living people. But he later met a ghost that revealed itself as a violent old hag with claws like kitchen knives. Given those two extremes, a lifelike boy, a burning man, a shadow figure, and a bloody vision of horror weren’t that difficult to believe.
WE ALSO KNOW THAT CERTAIN PEOPLE POSSESS CERTAIN ABILITIES TO CONJURE MONSTERS OF ALL SHAPES AND SIZES
That, too, was true. He’d been attacked by imps, ogres, giants, golems, projections, aura plasma and even residuals, all of which had turned out to be man-made monsters. Some were more dangerous than others, but all of them had come from someone’s twisted imagination.
The hellhound and the thing in the water were probably manifested in the same way, along with almost every other unexplainable triangle sighting.
FINALLY, WE KNOW THAT THERE ARE OTHER WORLDS OUT THERE, TOO, SOME OF THEM DARK BEYOND OUR IMAGINATIONS
The fissure. He kept coming back to that. There were a lot of monsters lurking there, from harmless things like the coyote-deer and the mutant livestock to terrifying monstrosities like the corn creeps, the droopy-eared, killer cat and Furious George. These things had been creatures of nature. Or, at least…whatever twisted version of nature existed on the other side of the fissure.
“Do you think there could be a fissure here?”
I DON’T THINK SO. I’M PRETTY SURE I’D KNOW IF YOU WERE IN A FISSURE. THIS IS SOMETHING ELSE
“What kind of something?”
I’M STILL NOT SURE
Eric scratched at the back of his neck and gazed up at the orbs hovering overhead.
SORRY
“Don’t be. Just…keep doing your thing.”
YOU KNOW I WILL
He pocketed the phone again and then sat for a moment, looking up at the ornaments and thinking. In the end, it wouldn’t matter if the monsters were conjured by some twisted individual or if they’d crawled out of another world. Potentially, they’d be just as dangerous either way.
But his money was on Fettarsetter. Isabelle felt an odd energy surrounding him. And she felt something similar from the hellhound. That was pretty solid evidence, he thought.
That, and the guy’s name just sounded fake.
When he lowered his gaze again, he was distracted by movement in the trees in front of him.
The boy he’d glimpsed from the water’s edge was running through the forest, passing from left to right about thirty yards away. Again, Eric was struck by the oddness of the boy, barely dressed as if the weather were stifling instead of cool, skinny, dirty, his blond hair blowing wild about his face.
But even ignoring all that, there was something wrong about the child. It was like looking at a photo that had been cropped and reassembled in a way that made it obvious that it was wrong, but difficult to see why.
He just didn’t belong there.
Eric stood up and pulled his phone out again, meaning to snap a picture of the running boy, but by the time he’d found his way to the camera, it was too late. He was out of sight again.
He decided to keep the phone in his hand. Just in case another opportunity presented itself.
The boy didn’t seem to be running from anything that Eric could see, so maybe he was running toward something of interest. He decided to begin walking in that direction (since he had no better idea of where to go next).
Isabelle had felt what she described as a “wall” of spiritual energy. If he wandered too far from the lake, it stood to reason that he’d eventually exit the area and she’d be able to tell him that he was going the wrong way.
Besides…he couldn’t very well just sit there under those strange orbs all day just hoping all this weirdness would go away. If Holly’s spell was true, hell was going to rise from the lake. If the vision given to him by the bloody woman was true, it would happen at night, during a cold downpour. And if Fettarsetter was telling the truth, it was going to rain this very night. He had only a matter of hours left to put all this together and stop it from happening.
He began walking, his eyes wide open for any sign of danger, praying he didn’t meet up with the hellhound again (or worse, a pack of them).
The cell phone chimed at him, alerting him to a new text message.
I JUST HAD A PRETTY AWFUL THOUGHT
“Just one?”
I KNOW, RIGHT? BUT SERIOUSLY, IF THIS BOY REALLY IS A GHOST, THEN WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM? HOW DID HE DIE?
Eric shivered at the thought. “I’m not sure I ever want to know.”
I GUESS YOU’RE RIGHT
But his imagination was on a roll now. He thought of the shadow man. The bloodied woman. The burning man. If they were all ghosts, then what happened to them? How did they end up here in these woods? How did they become the things they were now?
I DON’T KNOW
MUCH ABOUT GHOSTS. I KNOW THEY’RE REAL, OF COURSE, BUT I DON’T UNDERSTAND WHAT MAKES THEM WHAT THEY ARE
“I know what you mean,” he replied. “Is it the way they die? Their emotional state at the time of their deaths?”
SOMETHING ABOUT WHAT THEY LEFT BEHIND?
“Exactly. We’ll probably never know.”
“Never know what?”
Eric jumped, startled, and turned. Jordan had again appeared behind him. She was looking back at him, waiting for an answer to her question, and holding one of those curious orbs in her small hands. “Where did you come from?” he asked.
“I was following the boy,” she replied. “I wanted to see where he was going. But I lost him. Then I found you. And you were talking to yourself again.”
Eric glanced down at the phone. “Yeah. I guess I was…” He looked up at her again. “Wait… You saw that boy?”
“I see him a lot. He never stays around long. He’s always running away.” She frowned. “He’s afraid of something.”
“What’s he afraid of?”
“Don’t know. He won’t tell me. He won’t even talk to me.”
Eric glanced around at the forest. “Maybe he’s right to be afraid. There’s something in these woods. It attacked me a little while ago. It’s not safe.”
Jordan cocked her head. “Something in these woods?” She seemed genuinely surprised. “Like what?”
He looked back at her, considering his words. He didn’t want to call the thing a hellhound. That seemed…well…frightening. For a child. “A dog, I think. Big one.”
“I like dogs,” she declared.
“You wouldn’t like this one. He’s…um…grouchy.”
She stared back at him for a moment. “Was he blind?”
This caught him off guard. Had she actually seen the beast? “Yes. He was.”
She lowered her gaze to the forest floor and stared thoughtfully for a moment. “I don’t think he’s ever hurt anyone before.”
“You know that thing?”
“I’ve seen him wandering the woods. He never comes very close. He seems skittish.”
“Does he?” He wanted to laugh. “He didn’t seem very skittish a minute ago.”
“Maybe you scared him.”
“Right. Because I must’ve been a real vision of terror to that thing.”
Jordan returned her attention to the orb in her hands. “Maybe you stink like something bad,” she suggested, giving the thing a little shake and rattling its contents. “Have you been around anything bad?”
Eric’s thoughts immediately returned to Fettarsetter. But that didn’t make sense. Isabelle said those two had the same weird energy. He’d been pretty sure Fester Sweater had summoned the thing.
But then again, he’d encountered a lot of things since he arrived here.
His eyes fell on the orb. “What is that thing?” he asked.
She shrugged. “Dunno. They’ve been popping up around the woods lately.” She rolled it in her hands as she spoke, never taking her eyes off it. “But I like it,” she added. “It’s…nice.”
“What’s inside?” he asked.
Again, she shrugged. She seemed distracted. “Something good,” she replied.
Eric watched her for a moment. There was something eerie about watching her play with that thing. He had to resist the urge to tell her to throw it down. “Do you know the way back to the lake from here?” he asked instead.
“Mm hmm.” She nodded slightly to her left, about eleven o’clock. “That way.”
“Thanks.” He turned and started walking in that direction.
Jordan followed.
For a while, they were both silent. Then, abruptly, Jordan seemed to forget about the little orb and asked, “Do you have a job?”
“I do have a job,” Eric replied.
“What do you do?”
“I’m a teacher.”
“Like a kindergarten teacher?”
“No, I teach high school. I’m an English teacher.”
“That sounds boring.”
Eric bit back a retort and simply said, “To some people, I guess. Personally, I love the subject.”
“What do you love about it?”
“The literature,” he replied. “Especially Shakespeare.”
“Oh. That’s cool.”
Eric smiled. “I think so.”
“Why aren’t you at school today?”
“Because I needed to come here.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know,” he confessed. “I’m still figuring it all out.” Then a thought occurred to him and he asked, “And why weren’t you in school today?” Although it was a little past three now and there was no reason to wonder why she might be here, their earlier meeting should’ve been impossible unless she’d skipped school for some reason.
“I didn’t go to school today,” said Jordan. “I had an appointment.”
“Oh,” was his only response. That made sense. Everyone had the occasional doctor or dentist appointment. Besides, it didn’t matter to him, he supposed. It wasn’t his concern. They’d already established that he wasn’t her father.
“Where do you live?” she asked, changing the subject.
“Creek Bend.”
Jordan considered this for a moment. “I don’t think I’ve ever been there.”
“You probably haven’t. It’s pretty far away. In Wisconsin. There’s nothing there worth visiting, unless you have family there.”
“I feel like I know it from somewhere, though.”
“Maybe you know someone who lives there.”
But she only frowned at her orb. “I don’t think so. But I’m sure I’ve heard of it. I just can’t remember…”
“I’m sure it’s not important.”
She was quiet for a moment as she considered it. Then, abruptly, she shrugged it off and asked, “Do you have kids?”
Eric glanced back at her. “No. I don’t.”
“Why not? Don’t you want kids?”
Once more, this question game had turned awkward. “I don’t know,” he replied, resisting the urge to tell her it was none of her business.
She cocked her head to the side again. “Are you not ready for the responsibility?”
Eric frowned at her. “You ask a lot of questions.”
“I have to,” she returned. “It’s the only way I’m going to get to know you. You aren’t very good at conversation.”
Before they could discuss the matter any further, Eric’s phone rang. Glancing at the screen, he saw that it was his brother, Paul. He opened the line and lifted it to his ear. “I thought you had a wedding to go to.”
“Wedding’s tomorrow,” replied Paul. “Rehearsal today.”
“I see.”
“Who’s that?” asked Jordan.
He covered the phone with his hand and whispered, “My brother.”
“I’m bored!” moaned Paul.
Eric chuckled. “It can’t be that bad.”
“Yes, it can. Trust me. This is the longest ceremony I’ve ever seen! It’s only the rehearsal and I’ve been sitting here for two hours already!”
That was why he was calling now. He’d been waiting for three o’clock to come and go because he assumed Eric would be in school and wouldn’t answer before then. He probably expected to catch him on his way home. “Sucks to be you.”
“It really does,” agreed Paul. “It took forever to even start the stupid rehearsal. Now that they’ve finally started, they just keep stopping and changing things. They’ve started over like four times. It’s stupid. I don’t even know why we have to be here. There’s a perfectly good bar back at the hotel, but of course the wife won’t let me leave.”
“That black-hearted witch.”
“I know! Woman’s trying to make me crazy. I know she is. She’s got some kind of insurance out on me or something.”
“You should definitely watch your back,” agreed Eric.
You wouldn’t know it by looking at
Paul, but his wife, Monica, was once a model. She was gorgeous. And although he could frequently be heard ranting about her like this, anyone who knew him knew he didn’t mean a word of it. She was actually one of the nicest women Eric knew. She didn’t often force him to do things he didn’t want to do. Typically, she found it not worth the trouble. But certain occasions that warranted his presence—like a family wedding, for example—were non-negotiable. She’d put her foot down. And Paul, always the mature, older brother that he was, could always be counted on to act like a big baby about the whole thing.
“Is your brother a teacher, too?” asked Jordan.
Eric shook his head.
“So what are you doing?” asked Paul.
Eric glanced around at the haunted forest all around him. “Just…out for a walk…”
“What does he do then?” asked Jordan.
Covering the phone again, he whispered, “He’s a carpenter.”
“Since when do you go for walks?” asked Paul.
“I go for walks,” Eric returned, offended.
“You do not. You sit around reading all the time.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“Nothing. Just, I’ve never known you to go for a walk. Except when you’re doing that creepy-ass Scooby Doo shit.”
Eric wasn’t sure what to say to that, so he remained quiet.
Paul caught on after a few seconds. “Holy shit! Are you doing it now? Today?”
“I had another dream,” he confessed.
“You are doing it now! Where are you?”
“Out in the woods. Somewhere in the U. P. Place called Hedge Lake.”
“Why didn’t you call me?”
“You have a wedding to go to.”
“The hell with that! I should be there helping you!”
In the background, he heard his nephew’s voice: “What’s going on?”
“Eric’s doing it again,” Paul told him.
“What? Now?” Paul’s son, Kevin, was one of the few people who knew about Eric’s weird travels. Even Monica wasn’t in on the secret, though Eric wasn’t sure how they’d kept it from her all this time.
“Right now!”
“Should we go help him?”
“I don’t need your help,” Eric insisted.
“Does he have any kids?” asked Jordan.
