And then there was the boy himself. To Frank’s rational mind, a man could not do what had been done to Sadie McCall. So, maybe Jessie Chase was onto something.
Hailey’s tractor—as much as he’d hated to inspect it—showed no signs of use, either. When Frank asked Hailey to show him the cumbersome thing, it had taken almost ten minutes to get it started.
Like a bear…
“My ass,” he said, part of him hoping it was a bear, welcomed the fact, because that would put some closure on the whole damn thing. The townsfolk could get their rifles ready and go hunting in the fields around Ellishome. Once they shot and killed the thing, everything would be fine…except for the McCall’s, who would probably never be the same again.
Frank thought about Austin McCall, the night he’d told him about his boy. He’d never actually witnessed a man heading into a tailspin before, but Austin had done just that, hadn’t he?
Maybe Frank should see how they were doing in a few days…
Still, he didn’t know what good it would do.
Bimsley closed his eyes. “To serve and protect,” he said, shaking his head. “What a crock a’shit.” Frank rubbed his temples, feeling the onslaught of a migraine coming on.
Another truth presented itself worse than bears and sleepwalking, and this one made his headache pound with ceaseless fury. If the killer was still roaming these streets, then Sadie McCall might not be the only one to wind end up dead.
There would be others.
iii
Seth’s mother had come to the same conclusions as every other parent in Ellishome. If Sadie could wander off in the middle of the night, then so could her kids.
“Don’t argue,” she’d said. “We’re not ripping this family further apart. Rent a movie or read a book.”
Seth sighed and looked at Masie, who simply shrugged. He wanted to say something like, “What about Ben?”—but resisted.
Truth be told, Seth Auburn didn’t know how to feel about Sadie McCall. He had never considered the boy a friend, despite going to his birthday party the year before. All he’d done was spend three uncomfortable hours feeling awkward and out of place as Sadie laughed with his family and friends. Still, there was a strange, surreal sort of feeling with Sadie’s death, as though it hadn’t really happened, or that the town was still trying to accept it.
Knowing he wasn’t about to sleep anytime soon, Seth threw the covers off him and got out of bed. He positioned his desk chair in front of the bedroom window. Everyone else in the house was still asleep. He rested his chin on his hand and gazed into the backyard. Under the moon’s glow, the tall grass beyond the backyard swayed back and forth with the wind. The house was dark and quiet.
Have you always been a stargazer?
The grass parted on the other side of the fence.
Seth cocked his head and smiled. Ben was looking at him from the meadow.
Seth stood up, exiting his room, and tiptoed down the hall. He went to the back door, opened it, and shut it carefully behind him. The night was warm, a breeze in the air.
Seth stepped down the porch and walked across the lawn, the grass cool between his toes.
A half-moon lit the sky, bright stars in deep indigo. Crickets chirped in the surrounding fields. In the distance, the mountains made a deeper wall of black, like a barrier against the night.
Ben looked at him, the white on his fur fluorescent in the gloom. Was it his imagination, or was the tiger smiling? Seth felt he was a character in some cartoon wonderland. After everything he’d experienced, it still felt unreal.
Want to take a ride? There’s something I have to show you.
Seth stepped through the gate. What would he do if his mom or Masie woke up now?
This is how Sadie was killed, he thought. This is how he died.
Hailey Patterson had found Sadie’s body in the meadow, and now here was Seth, coerced from home in the same fashion, and also in the middle of the night…
You still don’t trust me?
Sadie had been torn apart. Something only an animal…
Seth’s palms were sweating.
We can’t do this if you’re going to be afraid.
If Ben wanted to devour him, he would’ve done so days ago, wouldn’t he? Seth wondered what would happen if someone found out about Ben. Magic or not, they would hunt him down and kill him. An image flashed through his mind of the tiger lying dead in the meadow by rifle fire.
Ben read his thoughts:
You don’t really think I would allow that, do you?
Seth stepped closer, knelt in front of the tiger, and wrapped his arms around Ben’s furry head.
That’s more like it.
“Sorry,” Seth said. “It’s just…this is how…this looks…”
I know.
Despite it all, the worry slipped away, and he felt delight, the same delight he’d felt a few days ago. It was still a magical summer, despite what had happened to Sadie McCall.
We can play later. Hop on.
Seth stood, throwing one leg over Ben’s back, and held tightly to the tiger’s fur. For a minute, he envisioned holding a sword, a steel helmet on his head, a shield, preparing to joust. With Ben as his steed, how could he fail?
Full of delusions, aren’t you?
Seth laughed.
Hold on.
Ben turned and trotted through the meadow beyond his house, deeper into the night under the stars. The wind blew steadily against his face. Seth couldn’t believe he was on the back of a tiger, riding through the grassy meadow behind his home, and he laughed at the lunacy of it. Ben seemed to take it as a compliment and laughed with him.
Minutes later, Ben stopped at the edge of the meadow where the town began. The Patterson house was just two hundred yards behind them. Ben stood poised on a slight rise overlooking downtown Ellishome. Streetlights changed from red to green on Main Street. The backs of houses spread out below them.
Seth crawled off Ben’s back and knelt in the grass beside him. Ben lay down as well.
Stay low.
Seth did not reply. He crouched in the grass, keeping out of sight.
He feared his mother would wake up and find him gone. What would she do? Ground him for life, spank his rear, and what would he say in his defense? That Ben was in the meadow and needed his help?
He heard it before he saw it, a faint, muffled echo. The sound grew more discernible as the seconds ticked by, the slow, steady clip-clop of a horse’s hooves. The sound was somehow dull, heavy with leaden weight, yet hollow at the same time.
Something was walking through the streets of Ellishome, an eerie chill lightly tapping at his spine.
In his mind, he asked—What is it?
Sadie’s killer. The tiger paused. My enemy.
Seth’s eyes widened.
Our enemy, Ben corrected.
“I don’t understand,” Seth whispered.
Watch.
For whatever reason, because of the streetlights, Seth noticed the horse and rider cast no shadow, yet surrounding the phantom the air seemed made of shadows; black ink playing tricks with the light.
Why Ellishome? Why him? Why Ben and this creature in the same place? Where did they come from?
You’re very inquisitive, Ben said. Be patient. I’ve had to be.
What did that mean?
Seth wasn’t sure what he was looking at. Was it wearing a hat, and why was its face a smudge, a blur of grayish white? What was wrong with its face?
My phantom adversary, my ageless companion.
Ben’s words should answer all his questions, but he still didn’t understand. The tiger’s tone, in fact, seemed to hover on remorse. What were they—Ben and this creature—and why were they here?
Seth tried to perceive the face wrapped in fog. Just as quickly, he saw it in his mind’s eye, and not from the street below.
The smile was made of bones, like a stain upon his innocence. The figure was a time traveler. Seth was looking at evil, undying hat
red in one of its many guises, something with the ability to transform into various, nightmarish forms at will.
The hair on Seth’s body stood on end, and in that moment, he understood how helpless Sadie McCall had been.
“He’s the bogeyman,” Seth said.
He is whatever he wants to be.
“Where does he come from?”
Stars, I suppose. Timelessness. Like me.
Seth paused for a moment. “What’s he doing here?”
Building a kingdom of the dead. But it’s more complicated than that.
The whole thing seemed ludicrous, clownish even, but Seth couldn’t resist asking what he felt was the dumbest question in the world:
“Are you God and the devil?”
A chuckle reverberated through his brain.
No, Ben told him. But I believe he thinks he is both.
“Can’t we…you know…?”
Kill him?
“Yes.”
Not alone.
Seth regretted having more questions. He didn’t know what to think. He closed his eyes. He was dreaming, he told himself. He’d wake up any minute, back in bed. Sadie was still alive…
What are you doing?
“Dreaming, I think.”
This is more than dreaming, Ben said. There’s more at stake. You are at stake. Everything you love, everything here. Does that it make it clear?
“Why did you come to me?” he asked.
Ben paused for a moment. Because you have enough, the tiger told him.
“Enough of what?”
Enough of what it’s going to take.
If this got anymore enigmatic, Seth thought, he was going to scream! He didn’t have enough of anything as far as he was concerned. He was just a stupid kid from a broken home with poor grades. What possible enough could he have?
“Can we go home now?” Seth asked. “Mom might wake up and decide to punish me herself.”
The figure moved at a slow pace along the streets and disappeared down a dark road.
Ageless companion, he thought.
Come on, tiger.
Seth thought of Jeanie and his sister.
“That’s a funny thing for you to say.” Seth stood up and climbed onto Ben’s back. Under the moon and the stars, they turned, heading back the way they’d come.
iv
“How did you get here?”
It’s a long story, Ben said.
“Well, can’t you tell me at least a little of it?”
It’s a thousand years old. It would take half that to tell.
Seth sighed, frustrated.
Think about traveling for billions of years, landing in a billion different places.
Seth felt sad for reasons he couldn’t explain. “So, this time isn’t any different,” he said. “You’ll be leaving this place, too?”
Not necessarily, Ben said. This time it’s different.
The breeze turned cold. Seth wondered if it had to do with Ben’s ‘phantom adversary.’
They were at the edge of his backyard now. Seth didn’t realize how tired he was suddenly. He slipped off the tiger’s back and looked toward the dark, silent house. “Ben?”
The tiger turned toward him.
“Where do you go?” Seth asked. “Where do you stay?”
The tiger looked westward, toward the mountains—invisible in the dark—an unfinished patch in the indigo sky. Ben’s silence, apparently, was answer enough.
“Ben?” Seth said. He didn’t think he’d receive an answer, but he had to ask:
“What are you? I mean, what are you exactly?”
The tiger said nothing. Ben understood the nature of Seth’s inquiry. And why not? Didn’t the boy deserve to know?
Some other time, perhaps.
Seth felt like stomping his foot. “Please!” he begged.
But Ben was silent. The tiger looked toward the mountains, then at Seth. You deserve answers. And, Seth, I’m proud of you for being patient. I know how this must seem. Talking tigers are not normal here. Not even in Siberia. In fiction, I think, you call it. There is a writer by the name of Lewis who created a talking lion. But I promise you, Seth. I am none of these things. I was here long before those things were created, before anyone knew about them. You’ll understand. For now, you have enough to think about. In time, you’ll have the answers to many of your questions. I will tell you that I am bound to this nightmare for reasons even I do not know. For centuries, we have warred.
Ben nodded a single time, letting Seth know it was the best he could do. You’d better go to bed.
Seth looked to his house. He didn’t want to leave Ben now. He realized how ridiculous this was, how trite. Anyone else would laugh. Tony the Tiger. Calvin and Hobbes. Not very original, but there it was. He imagined classmates making fun of him, and Seth found himself defensive when it came to the tiger. To him, Ben wasn’t just an animal. Was this his true form at all, or was it simply the form Ben used to gain his trust? It didn’t deny the fact, either way: it was very real. Ben was here. He was everything Seth had imagined, every whim he’d dreamed of since he could remember. Doubts didn’t matter. Ben’s presence instilled awe. It was even daunting. He was surprised to find, as he thought about it, that he actually loved him.
I’m your friend, Ben told him, as if reading his mind. That’s all you have to know for now. I want to help you, Seth. And I want you to help me in return. I want you to agree. I want you to want to help me. Because you do have a choice. You don’t have to do this. You can go back to pretending, and dreaming, playing with your Cat Fighter Attack Plane. You have a choice.
Seth nodded.
Go to bed before your mother finds you gone.
The tiger looked at him for a second or two longer, then turned, walking slowly through the high grass, leaving Seth by himself in the meadow with the wind and the dark.
He felt alone when Ben finally disappeared, vulnerable, as if the phantom he’d witnessed knew his every move, was waiting for him even now.
You’re safe, Ben said from a distance. I’m here to make sure nothing harms you. Just because you can’t see me, doesn’t mean I’m not watching you.
What would Masie say, him finally finding a friend?
I didn’t say you had to be crazy, too, he heard her saying.
You have enough…
He would have to be content with that, not knowing what Ben meant.
Seth stood outside for a while longer, the wind playing with his hair. For a brief second, he wanted to hunt down the monster and kill him himself. Maybe he could destroy this thing!
Unfortunately, he was courageous only while pretending. In reality, he was terrified. He didn’t feel like the same insignificant boy he’d been just days ago. A bigger, more important design was unfolding now.
This is lunacy, he thought.
But he knew better…
The wind pushed at his back.
Anxious for bed, Seth bolted to the fence, through the yard, and up the porch. He slipped inside the house, locking the door behind him, and tiptoed down the hallway to his room. Seth closed the door. He went to the window and looked across the yard, into the meadow.
The image of the black figure was still fresh in his mind.
Seth reached out and pulled the drapes across the window. He slipped into bed, pulling the covers up to his chin, thinking of Ben’s last words:
You’re safe. I’m here to make sure nothing harms you.
But what about Sadie McCall?
v
In the distance, a circular stone keep sat at the base of the mountains.
Jeanie had flowers in her hair. She wore a peach-colored dress, her hair done in curls. She sat with her legs under her, plucking at the grass, a blanket spread out beneath them. A picnic basket was off to the side with a fresh loaf of baked bread beside a block of cheese and strawberries. Rose petals blanketed the meadow. Reaching over, Jeanie plucked a small white flower from the ground and put it above her ear.
; When Seth looked at the flower, it changed color: white, pink, apricot, then blue.
“You should tie a bunch together,” he said. “So you can wear them like a crown.”
Jeanie smiled. Seth thought how sappy the phrase was, but Jeanie didn’t seem to mind.
“How do I look?” she asked.
“Like the sun,” he said.
“You’re a sweet talker, tiger.”
He felt like he was older, no longer a child.
The meadow stretched out on all sides. It was a warm, cloudless day, a gentle breeze coming from the west. Even the mountains weren’t as intimidating today. Sadie was still alive. Ben’s enemy had been destroyed. Jeanie loved him, and that was all that mattered.
“Jeanie,” Seth said. He wore a dark red tunic and moccasins. When he looked at his hands, he saw they were bigger, stronger, calloused. “You make flowers more beautiful than they are. Flowers were made for you, Jeanie.”
He’d slug himself later for talking such mush, but again, Jeanie only smiled.
His perception ran deeper, a more profound insight stretching wide in his mind. Every blade of grass was more defined, crystal clear, every rock, and speck of dirt. To his left, the land sloped away to copses of trees, a shallow stream. The mountains were purple, animated like a cartoon. Everything hummed with soft, silvery white energy.
Seth licked his lips, tasting root beer, the color of Jeanie’s eyes. The sun made her hair a corona of gold.
The keep was more of a palace, he saw. Why did it look so familiar?
Knights in silver armor mounted on horses kept watch just twenty yards away. One was trotting toward them now. The king had news. It was time to go. A celebration in his honor was about to begin. Seth stood to confront the knight.
The air blew with a harsh, arctic breeze suddenly. A shadow spread over both he and Jeanie. Ben’s phantom adversary was standing over them, astride its horse. Behind it, the knights lay in broken casement on the ground. The horses were gone.
Black fog clogged his throat.
Jeanie was oblivious, smiling, still playing with the flowers.
To Seth’s horror—when he looked at Jeanie—the flowers turned to spiders. They ran over her shoulders and onto her arms. Jeanie didn’t seem to notice.
Snapdragon Book I: My Enemy Page 9
