“Shit!” I yelped. I remembered Ben’s words. Thirty seconds is all you’ll have. I grabbed Molly’s hand and urged her toward the portal. “All right, everyone! In you go! One at a time only! Make it fast! Run!”
It seemed to take forever, but one by one they passed through the circle of light and disappeared. I heard the swooshing of our pursuers’ descent and knew I had only seconds left. I pushed Silas through. He passed me a curious, desperate glance and then stepped into the light. I went to follow him, but remembered my last instructions and stopped.
The key. Get the key.
I ran back to the tree, grabbed the cylinder, twisted, and pulled. The key came loose with a spark of red flame. The tree’s light faded. The portal started to flicker. My heart sprinted in my chest. I dove for it.
Just as my feet left the ground, greedy fingers brushed against my ankle. I prayed they wouldn’t find purchase as I soared into the vanishing threshold. Everything around me went pure white. Invisible spikes gouged my brain. The pain was more than I could bear. I shouted in agony.
So this is what it’s like to die.
65
I hit the ground and rolled. My skin burned and I couldn’t see. Finally I came to rest after my back slammed against a tree. My sore body growled at me. Everything hurt so badly. All I wanted to do was curl up in a ball and sleep for a week.
The sound of a little girl screaming reminded me that I still had more to do. I forced my weary eyes to open and surveyed my surroundings. I was in a bowl-shaped gully, much like the one we’d been in over there. Only there were trees down here – real trees, birch, maple, evergreen, not a one made of weird glowing crystals – and dirt beneath me. I forced myself into a sitting position and heard the crunch of old, dead leaves. All around me I saw those I’d sworn to keep safe – Silas, Kaiser and Will, Molly and Amanda, Laura and Tina. Amanda stood near the last remnants of the portal, now the size of a basketball and gradually fading away like a dying light bulb. She had a stick in her hand, jabbing at something on the ground. I assumed it had been Laura’s voice I heard, because she stood with her back to the other girl, hands over her mouth and her body shaking. Everyone else wore expressions of disgust on their faces.
I stood and approached Amanda. The girl gazed up at me with her wide, deep-brown eyes, and handed me the stick. There was something in front of her, something that writhed silently on the ground. I took the stick and guided her behind me while I tried to understand what lay before me.
It was a mass of flesh – at least it looked like flesh. Its shape was formless, like a garbage bag filled beyond capacity or two people wrapped in a blanket. It constantly squirmed and every so often let out a strange squeak.
I leaned closer and saw markings covering the flesh. They were tattoos, the tribal kind, stretched out and warped. Further down, I saw a strange-looking crease. I poked it with the stick.
An eye opened up. It stared at me, bloodshot and terrified. The mass thrashed about with even greater urgency, flipping it partway over. The eye stared at the heavens and its underside was exposed, revealing a shining Mercedes hood ornament, embedded in the hide. I shuddered.
“I guess that’s why we only go through one at a time,” I whispered.
“What?” asked Will.
I shook my head. “Nothing.” Turning around, I faced my fellow travelers and said, “There’s nothing to see here. We should get going, find some civilization before it gets dark.” The rest agreed. We scaled the walls of the gulley as a family, leaving the twisted mess that had been Big Guy and his buddy behind us forever.
The sun slowly progressed across the sky. I stared up at it when we reached a gap between the trees, astonished at how small it seemed. It also amazed me how the temperature reflected its smaller size. I could tell it was hot – it was July, after all – but nowhere near as sweltering as it’d been standing on that cliff, staring out into a strange and violent sea. I said a silent prayer of thanks that I’d accomplished my goal. I was so lost in this reverie that I didn’t notice at first when little Molly slipped her hand into mine. I gazed down on her, and the smile on her face was infectious. Tears ran down her cheeks. It took a moment for me to realize they trickled down mine, as well.
“We’re home,” she said.
“Yeah, Molly, we are,” I replied.
We walked through the woods for the better part of two hours. Silas collapsed halfway through our journey. He’d been weaving like a drunk ever since we passed through the portal, the exhaustion and loss of blood finally catching up with him. I let go of Molly’s hand and scooped him up. I watched the direction the sun was moving and headed east, where the land sloped downward. If we were indeed in the Green Mountains, there’d be civilization somewhere down there at the bottom of the rise. Or so I hoped. I didn’t know how much longer I could go on with Silas’s heavy weight balanced on my weak and shaking arms. Hell, with the amount of trauma he’d experienced, I didn’t know how much longer he could hold out without some sort of medical attention.
“It’s okay, buddy,” I whispered with a trembling voice into his floppy ear. “You’re gonna be okay.”
He moaned in reply, his head, flopped over to the side, not moving at all.
Finally, when daylight started to wane, our exhausted troop found a paved road. Kaiser and Will looked at this in wonder, as if they’d never seen such a thing before, which I guess they never had. We followed the street signs south, heading for West Dover, and I said thank you for two more reasons, firstly that we were still near Mount Snow, where Silas and I had first discovered Nick Goodman’s van on the abandoned side street, and secondly because there were no cars on the road. Given how the boys reacted to finding themselves in a world that hadn’t been decimated by rising tides and invading creatures from alternate dimensions, I didn’t know how they’d react to seeing an actual automobile.
It didn’t take long for signs of life to emerge. First came a succession of boarded-up shanties, and then the road widened, leading us into the town proper. I heard Kaiser whistle when he saw the buildings and houses on either side of the street. This time a car did pass us – a beaten-up old Chrysler covered with rust – and sure enough they boys jumped back as if they’d seen a monster. I did my best to explain that they had nothing to worry about, but I don’t think my mind was working well enough to give them an intelligible argument. I was too weary, from my pain, fatigue, and the worry I felt over the fading, precious bundle in my arms.
We stopped at the first convenience store we came across. I placed Silas on the curb and stroked his matted, blood-drenched fur. His breathing was much shallower than before, as if he’d fallen into a deep sleep. I chewed on my lip, wiping my hands on Ben’s sweat-and-blood-drenched jumpsuit. I then proceeded to take the key and disk from my pocket. Both were dull now, like ancient trinkets found at an antique shop. Only when I pointed them at the girls, Will, and Kaiser, did it give off any type of glow, and it was faint, at that. I placed the two items on the ground, unzipped the jumper, stepped out of it, and put them in the pocket of my pants. Being back in nothing but my outfit of old jeans and a tee shirt, on permanent loan from the departed Paul Nicely, I wondered why I didn’t think to do so sooner. I lifted my shirt and checked the bandages. The wounds on my chest had bled through, creating a patchwork of red splotches.
I checked my reflection in the convenience store window to make sure I looked presentable. My cheeks were swollen and my face was a mess of cuts and bruises, but it would have to do. I then called the group over. We huddled together, girls sitting on the curb while Will and Kaiser hovered over them.
“Listen, I have to tell you guys something. I’m going to go in there and talk to the clerk. He’ll call the authorities for us. The cops will be here in no time after that, so we have to get our story straight.”
“What story is that?” asked Will in a skeptical tone.
I blew air out of my nose and continued. “No one here will ever believe it if we tell them what a
ctually happened. So we have to make it up. We have to make this as realistic as possible, so we all won’t get thrown in the loony bin. You understand?”
There were nods all around. Even from Will, who looked like he’d finally found the solution to some long-troublesome math equation.
“Okay, then, here’s what we’re going to say…”
When I finished a simplified version of the story I invented in my head, and felt confident everyone knew what to say, I gave Silas one last pat on the head and stood up. I walked to the front of the convenience store and pushed through the door. The guy behind the counter was old, his face was weathered and creased. He pinched a lit cigar between his teeth and eyed me with suspicion as I approached the counter.
“What can I do ya for?” he asked, his accent thick, when I rested my hands on the counter. “You sure been out there a long while. And what’s with them girls? You ain’t no kidnapper there, are ya?”
I shook my head and couldn’t help but laugh. “No sir,” I said between giggles. “It’s actually the opposite. I was wondering if you could call the police for me, preferably Staties.”
The old man’s eyebrows rose. “Why would that be?”
“Well, my name’s Ken Lowery, and I’ve been –”
I was halted by the old man putting up his hand. His eyes widened and the cigar dropped from his mouth, bouncing on the counter. Ashes and glowing remnants of tobacco scattered.
“Hold on,” he said. “You’re Ken Lowery?”
I nodded, dumbly this time.
The old man picked up the phone. His arched fingers recklessly punched the buttons. A wide grin stretched across his grizzled face.
“My boy, you sure have caused a fuss ‘round here,” he said. “There’s been folks scourin’ the mountains for days. I can’t believe you’re still alive.”
Though I didn’t say so, I completely agreed with him.
66
Soon after the clerk (whose name was Terry, I discovered) made the call, nine squad cars arrived at the little gas station in West Dover, Vermont. Two ambulances, a fire truck, three unmarked police cars, and at least six media vans showed up, as well. The paramedics tended to my many injuries and checked on the welfare of Will, Kaiser, and the girls. They even went so far as to give Silas medical attention, bandaging his wounds and doing their best to attach an oxygen mask over his snout. The lead medic called the local vet – at home, no less – and assured me that Silas would be well taken care of. I asked about Wendy, if someone could possibly call her, that I needed to speak with her. They assured me they’d do it later.
After that I was led away from the others and interviewed by two detectives and two guys in suits I assumed to be FBI. I told the story of how I’d followed Nick Goodman all the way from Mercy Hills, how he’d ambushed Silas and me when we pulled up next to his van. According to my story, the next thing I knew I was in a shack somewhere hidden in the mountain, tied up and gagged alongside the girls. I told them how I’d been tossed into an underground shelter and left to rot for three days before Silas chewed through the ropes that bound me and I broke free. Then I charged into the shack and attacked the kidnapper from behind. He defended himself with a steel garden rake (to explain the gouges in my chest), and we all would’ve been goners if not for my brave boy, who sacrificed himself by leaping on the large man’s back, holding him off while the girls and I escaped.
The one part of the story I wasn’t so sure about were Will and Kaiser. The authorities of course knew about Amanda, Tina, Laura, and Molly, but the boys were another story. To explain this away I said they’d told me the guy had raised them since birth, probably the result of another kidnapping a long time ago, so they knew nothing of life apart from that hidden shack. Luckily neither Kaiser nor Will knew anything about this version of Earth, so that made the story somewhat plausible.
The cops seemed to buy it, though they still wouldn’t let me call Wendy. After some time I was led back to the center of the parking lot. The girls had gathered around a middle-aged woman whose auburn hair was tied back in a bun. She introduced herself as Sally, a representative of Connecticut Child Services. She told me how there had been a massive manhunt for me over the last four days, a combined effort between Connecticut and Vermont authorities. After yesterday, they’d almost given up on finding me, so for me to show up then, and with the missing girls no less, was just short of a miracle. I nodded in agreement.
The sun disappeared behind the mountains, but the streetlights and flashbulbs from the rather large crowd that had gathered made it seem like daytime. I endured even more questioning, as did the kids, until I felt like my head was going to explode. The police at least stopped the media from approaching me. The last thing I wanted was a camera in my face.
Finally I was led to one of the unmarked cars and shown to the back seat. The girls were loaded into a van with Connecticut government-issued license plates and driven away. I saw them wave at me from the rear window as they disappeared down the road. I smiled and waved back, hoping they could see the gesture from the darkened backseat. I did the same with Kaiser and Will, who were driven away in a similar van, this one with Vermont plates. The cops assured me they’d be placed in the foster care program and given a good life while officials searched for their true families. I wished them luck in that fruitless endeavor.
Before too long, the cops left and the crowd dispersed until only the unmarked coupe I sat in and a squad car were still in front of the convenience store. Silas had been taken away by the veterinarian to a clinic in a nearby town. The detective who’d interviewed me chatted with his partner, and then they both walked over to me and got into the car. The one who sat in the driver’s seat had his phone in his hand.
“There’s someone on the line for you,” he said.
“My wife?” I asked.
He nodded.
I reached over the seat and took the phone from his hand. Placing the receiver to my ear I breathed a nervous sigh.
“Kenny?” Wendy’s voice asked.
I couldn’t hold back the tears any longer. They came fast and free, reducing me to a blubbering mess.
Not that I was complaining any.
67
It turned out I didn’t have to wait long to see my wife. Wendy had been staying at a hotel in Brattleboro during the manhunt. It was at this hotel that the detectives dropped me off.
She waited for me outside the front door, cell phone in hand. Her dark hair glistened in the light beneath the awning. She looked pale and fatigued, but her eyes were alert. As I stepped out of the car her body shook. She leaned from one foot to the other and her lips trembled.
“Your face,” she whispered, staring at me.
I took her hands in mine and stood before her without saying a word. We stared into each other’s eyes for quite some time. Gradually her shaking stopped. I brushed a stray hair from her cheek and she leaned into my hand. It reminded me so much of the way Silas reacted when I did the same thing to him, back when he was a boy. A moment of sorrow cramped my stomach, not to mention regret. That moment, back in the strange other world, was my experience and mine alone. There was no way Wendy could ever know. It wasn’t so much that she wouldn’t believe me – which she probably wouldn’t – but that she couldn’t understand what it meant for me to not have that feeling anymore.
She squinted and one side of her lips creased. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
I pulled her into me and wrapped my arms around her. “I just missed you,” I said.
“You did?” I could hear sobs entering her tone.
“More than you’ll ever know,” I replied.
Without another word we walked into the hotel and took the elevator up to the third floor. We entered her room and turned on the lights, still without a sound between us, and I took off my shirt. Wendy winced when she saw the bandages wrapped around my chest.
“It’s not so bad,” I said with a smile. “The cuts in my neck hurt more.”
Sh
e approached me. I tilted my head so she could see the deep, crusted-over wounds Nick had given me with his wolf’s teeth. She traced the gash with the tip of her finger. Her lips puckered and she leaned in, kissing first the tiny remnant of a wound on my cheek, then the newer, much larger collection of slashes on my chest. It stung, but my breathing picked up and I pulled her into me. My lips found hers and we kissed, long, deep, and passionately. It’d been so long since I’d felt so close, so connected, to her. I savored the taste of her lips, the poke of her tongue, the smell of her skin. The lingering ache of my body melted away.
The kiss went on and on. I don’t remember her ever relishing in the touch of my mouth so much. A strange sensation came over me. It was like I’d gone away and come back as a different person, a person she couldn’t get enough of, and that’s when I realized it was true. I was changed, I was different. I couldn’t help but think that I, and our relationship, would be better off for it.
Thank you, Paul, as strange as it’s been, I thought, and guided her to the bed.
We made love, moving with each other, in tune with our bodies and passions. Wendy was gentle with me, delicate in her touch. I focused my attention not on my own pleasure, but the bliss I could bring her to. It was a tender sort of lovemaking, the type of which I’m not sure we’d ever felt before. As her breathing quickened along with my own, we rolled over and she shimmied her hips while at the same time placing soft kisses on my cheeks. I tasted saltiness the next time our lips met, and I realized she was crying. In the past this would’ve scared me, but this time I simply draped my arms around her back, pulled her chest to mine, ignored the pain, and allowed her the moment. There was nothing else I wanted, nothing else I needed. Everything I desired was right there in front of me, and I knew it.
Afterwards we lay in bed for a while, draped all over each other. She inspected the gashes in my chest and did the same to them as she did with the ones on my neck, kissing them over and over until it felt my whole body had been covered by the sweetness of her pursed lips. I reciprocated by gently rubbing her shoulders, working close to the spine just as she liked. It was a necessary release, this savoring of each other’s forms. It had been years since we’d been so intrinsically caring, be it in lovemaking or everyday life.
Silas: A Supernatural Thriller Page 28
