Stepping into the Sky: Jump When Ready, Book 3

by David Pandolfe

  Henry couldn’t help grin. “Our friends talked to a psychic.”

  Lysrus surprised Henry by laughing, although he laughed warmly, his eyes this time gleaming with amusement. “Martha was right about your group. I wouldn’t have seen that coming.”

  Henry felt a surge of pride thinking about his friends, that they could achieve something even someone on Lysrus’s level hadn’t anticipated.

  “I have a question,” Nikki said. “These entities, as you call them. You said they feed off of Rose’s fear and guilt. Her pain. But what are they? Who are they?”

  The smile faded from Lysrus’s face as he considered how to answer the question. “I suspect you know the answer. The fact is, they’re a form of energy, as are we. They’re just a much different type of energy. I think it’s more that you’d rather think they don’t exist.”

  Henry noticed that Lysrus chose the word “different” rather than “bad” or “evil” and it surprised him. He didn’t have time to think past that when Lysrus continued.

  “Those that surround Rose have had many names throughout time. In your culture, especially among those who practice religion, they’re known as demons.” Seeing Nikki’s eyes widen, he added, “Don’t let the name frighten you more than the beings themselves. At this point, you have no need to fear the word. The connotations would only make your task that much more difficult.”

  “Why are they even allowed to exist?” Nikki said. “I mean, if all they can do is torture others to survive?”

  “When a tiger feasts on a living gazelle, is it evil?”

  “It’s horrible.” Nikki thought for a moment. “But at least tigers are beautiful.”

  Again, Lysrus shrugged. “Aren’t cockroaches beautiful?”

  Nikki wrinkled her nose. “They’re gross.”

  “To you,” Lysrus said. “For lack of a better mutual term, it’s a matter of polarity. However, in this instance I’m of the same polarity as you. I also find the parasites draining Rose’s energy to be repugnant. It’s not for me to judge but it is for me to try and protect her energy. In this scenario, that is the outcome I greatly prefer.”

  Henry watched as Nikki studied Lysrus, her dark eyes shining. She offered Lysrus her half-smirk, half-smile. “If we beat them, do we win a prize?”

  Lysrus’s smile returned as he kept his eyes on hers. “Of that, I have no doubt. None at all.”

  ~~~

  “Okay, where the hell are we?” Nikki whispered.

  Henry looked around, his heart beating rapidly inside his chest, hoping his eyes would adjust to the pitch black around them. He took a step, his pulse slowing a little as he realized he stood on an even surface. He sniffed the air. “I think we’re in the house.”

  Nikki took hold of his hand. “Remind me to ask Lysrus for a flashlight next time we step through that freaking door.”

  “Wait, there’s a next time?”

  Nikki laughed. “Right, scratch that. I just figured we’d plop down into a car or something again. In daylight. Remind me. How did they pull that off exactly?”

  Henry took another tentative step. A floorboard creaked underfoot. A good sign, hopefully. As long as it was a floorboard and not part of a pier. “It was almost like someone told Rose we were coming. As if she knew how to imagine us.”

  “Exactly. Maybe they have some more tricks up their sleeves.” Nikki took another step herself, her fingers laced through his. “By the way, that kind of freaked me out. You driving, I mean. You can barely handle a skateboard.”

  Henry tried not to laugh, then laughed. “Hang on. I can walk through walls and float in the air. I can talk inside peoples’ heads. But you can’t picture me driving?”

  “Yeah, that’s going too far. Maybe riding a bus. I think I could imagine that okay. Or like a subway or something. Not driving. Way too much responsibility.”

  “And yet you join me here,” Henry said. “This suggests a lack of judgment.”

  “Someone has to keep your dead ass alive.”

  Henry burst out laughing. He took another step. Suddenly, pain shot through his body and he doubled over, gasping.

  “What!?”

  Henry tried to straighten up. He took a deep breath. “I walked into something.” He reached out and ran his hand across a shape in the darkness, feeling a smooth surface. “I think it’s a bookcase.”

  “You scared the hell out of me. A bookcase?”

  “An aggressive bookcase.”

  “Are we in the house or what?” Nikki said.

  “The last time I checked, bookcases didn’t live in the wild.”

  Suddenly, lightning flashed, revealing windows. Thunder rattled the walls. Yes, they were in the house, walking the hall from the kitchen toward the front rooms.

  “Why do I get the feeling someone knows we’re back?” Nikki said. “And I don’t mean Rose.”

  The sudden violence of that thunderclap made Henry think the same thing. Lightning flickered again as he and Nikki crept forward, instinctively making their way toward the study where they’d spent that first night. Henry listened as the wind picked up outside. He knew what would follow and only a few seconds passed before the pounding started against the house. Voices hissed with the gusts again, louder this time—a rising cacophony of threats and demented laughter.

  “Nice touch,” Henry said, doing his best to set Nikki’s mind at ease. “They called out the welcoming committee.”

  He told himself he didn’t need the same reassurance, that those were nothing but empty threats. But he knew better, didn’t he? Henry well knew the capabilities of those…demons. He hated thinking the word and wished Nikki hadn’t asked Lysrus. Just a word, he told himself, a term used to describe something predatory and spineless. Henry had met bad people before—bullies, thieves and schemers—and he reminded himself of what always held true. People like that were evil and harmful, definitely, but they always proved to be weak at their core.

  “They’re putting on quite a show tonight. Kind of flattering, actually.” Nikki pressed against Henry and shivered all the same.

  “This is like the world’s longest hallway,” Henry said. “Why couldn’t we enter a poor person’s nightmare?”

  “Wait.” Nikki tugged Henry toward the wall. She reached out, feeling for something.

  “What?”

  “What’s up with the lights?”

  Henry’s face grew warm.

  “They were on before,” Nikki said.

  Henry hesitated. He didn’t want to tell her.

  “Someone must have turned them off.”

  Henry sighed, knowing what was coming. “Well, I sort of did. I mean, I imagined it.”

  Nikki stopped walking. “You turned off the lights?”

  Henry’s face burned now. “The other day when we were leaving, I imagined them going off after we were gone.”

  A moment passed in silence, then Nikki burst out laughing. “Oh, my God. That is the stupidest thing ever! Why? Were you afraid of wasting electricity?”

  Henry shrugged in the darkness. “Habit, I guess.”

  “Got news for you, River Rat. We don’t pay the power bill for—” Nikki shrieked as thunder exploded.

  Henry wanted to laugh but his heart kicked into overdrive. That last blast shook the entire house. Lightning flashed again.

  “There! I see it!” Nikki broke free and dashed before the light faded. She flicked a switch and the hall brightened. She smiled proudly. “See, they helped us that time.” Nikki raised her face to the ceiling. “Thanks, Joseph! The lights are on now, you douche!”

  Henry laughed again, watching her. The fact was, he also knew this display meant nothing. It was all for show and he felt sure Joseph and those with him knew the same. Their real power didn’t come from frightening them. Just the opposite. It was when he and Nikki let their guard down that they were in trouble. The storm outside was just their way of having fun. Demons partying, was how he saw it.

  “Come on. Let’s build another fi
re. That seemed to shut them up last time.” Nikki walked toward the study, muttering to herself and snickering. “River Rat turned off the lights. Love that.”

  Henry built the fire, doing his best to ignore the assault that continued outside. He didn’t want to say it out loud so he kept the thought to himself. Still, he couldn’t help wonder what would happen if Rose didn’t think of them again. He’d told Nikki about the things they’d discussed when she’d left them on the beach but she hadn’t seen the look in Rose’s eyes as the wheels had started to turn. Henry had touched a nerve. The deepest, most sensitive nerve, and he wondered if, in doing so, he might have forced Rose to block them out entirely. If that was the case, the sun was not going to rise outside those windows. Only the wind, thunder and darkness would remain. From there, who could say?

  “You okay?”

  Henry shook his head, startled. He’d been staring into the fire while he thought, absently watching flames wrap around the wood. He went to where she sat on the rug, her back resting against the sofa. The same place where she’d sat the other night. Their place together here.

  Henry lowered himself to the floor, uncertain if he should sit as close to her as he had last time. If Nikki noticed his hesitation, she didn’t show it. She slid over and closed the gap, her hip against his.

  “So, on a scale of one to ten,” Nikki said, “how scared are you at being back?”

  Henry thought for a moment. “I need some sort of calibration. What was the first night?”

  “Um, a six. That was pretty darned creepy.”

  Henry noticed she didn’t give it a higher score and he knew why. They’d both experienced the highest part of the scale. Not together, but they both knew how bad it could get.

  “I guess I’d give this a seven,” Henry said.

  Nikki lifted her eyebrows. “You don’t seem anywhere near as freaked out.”

  “I don’t mean now,” Henry said. “I mean being back here and what might or might not happen.”

  Nikki nodded. “Yeah, got it. The stakes got raised a little, didn’t they?”

  “And we sort of know her now,” Henry said. “I mean, as much as we can, all things considered.”

  Nikki watched the flames jump and crackle for a few moments. She spoke softly. “It’s weird, isn’t it? She seems like a nice person.”

  “You mean because she was rich?”

  Nikki shrugged. “Kind of. I know I shouldn’t judge people that way but I wasn’t sure what to expect.”

  “It’s okay. I wondered about it too. Money can really screw with people. But I get the feeling Rose didn’t spend much of her life thinking about it.”

  Nikki sighed. “Money didn’t really matter to her, did it?”

  “Exactly. I don’t think she cared about it. Only one thing could fix her and she’s still trying to get it back.”

  Henry wondered if the same elusive gift Rose had spent her life—and now the decades since—searching for might for him be right by his side. Had he stumbled upon that kind of treasure? Was it even possible, especially under the circumstances? His pulse quickened again but with a different kind of fear, part of him understanding why Rose kept clinging to what she’d imagined losing. The thought of having it was overwhelming enough. Losing it again was beyond Henry’s comprehension.

  “You’re full of silences tonight,” Nikki said. “By the way, there’s no one else to talk to. Just saying.”

  Henry met her eyes, behind which lay another mystery. In that moment, it occurred to him there might be no greater mystery. Or, at least none that mattered more.

  “I was just thinking,” Henry said, but it wasn’t like he could tell her what he’d been thinking about. Not yet, anyway. Maybe someday. “Just before Martha told us that Lysrus wanted to talk to us, before all of this started, there was something you wanted to talk about. Remember?”

  Nikki relaxed more against the sofa, her shoulder touching his. “I’m sure you probably know.”

  Henry settled in more too, although his heart kept beating faster than normal. “About maybe jumping in again?”

  Nikki sighed. She spoke softly. “Yeah. I mean, I’ve just been thinking about it. More lately than usual for some reason, though. What about you?”

  Even as she asked, Henry suspected that somehow Nikki guessed he’d been thinking about it more lately too. For the longest time, he’d imagined staying on in this realm until his family in the other had also crossed over. He’d pictured them all, at some point in the future, deciding it was time to begin again together. But just lately he’d started to wonder if it wasn’t always that simple. That other forces could come into play and change the direction you’d originally envisioned. What would it mean if he decided to jump in again sooner? Martha had assured them that people often shared many lives together, that they kept finding each other time after time. Henry had no doubt, regardless of how things became ordered, that they would do the same.

  “What do you imagine?” Henry asked. “I mean, is there something that’s been making you want to go back again?”

  “Not fair.” Nikki nudged him with her elbow. “I asked you first.”

  “You asked me if I thought about it.”

  “Whatever, River Rat. You know what I mean.”

  Henry smiled and watched the fire for a few moments. “Not exactly.”

  Nikki pretended to sigh. “A technicality. It’s not like I have all night. Just go with it.”

  “You kind of suck.”

  Nikki kept her eyes on the fire but smiled too. “Yeah, I get that. I’m waiting.”

  “Okay, sure.” Henry thought for a moment. “It’s funny because when I first got here—well, not here. I mean, in the time right after I died, I used to think I hadn’t really experienced very much in life. That I’d only known what it was like to be a kid. And in my past life, that was definitely true. But sometimes I feel like I’ve experienced way more. I mean, a lot more.”

  “You can feel it,” Nikki said.

  “Yeah, sometimes I can. It’s like I can almost remember it.”

  “Like when you wake up from a dream.”

  Henry nodded. “Yeah, and for a few seconds it’s totally clear. You remember every detail. Then you take a shower, or you go downstairs, or you check your phone. When you try to remember the dream again it’s just gone. Completely. You know you experienced it but now it’s somehow vanished and you can’t make it come back.”

  Nikki rested her head against his shoulder. Henry’s heart wasn’t beating fast anymore. Somehow, the two of them sitting next to each other that way felt totally natural again. Like it had the other night when they’d managed to tune out the hostile world beyond these walls, creating an insulated world of their own. Outside, the wind still gusted but the other noises had all but stopped. As if those out there knew their efforts were useless. For now, they’d been defeated and pulled back.

  “I never thought it would be that way,” Nikki said. “Not that I pictured anything quite like how it’s been either. Not even close.”

  “Like you thought you’d have at least those answers,” Henry said.

  Nikki sighed, this time for real. “Yeah, I did. I thought I’d know a lot more than I do. But I think it’s okay. For some reason, I think right now it may still be better just wondering about it.”

  Henry thought he knew what she meant. He wasn’t sure but he wondered that if you could see all of it—if you could look all the way back to the beginning—that might be the time when you went on to something else entirely. Like reaching the end of a game and unlocking all the secrets. Time for a new game, or at least a new level you hadn’t even known was there to begin with. He supposed that might be the point Lysrus and those like him had reached. At least, that was how he pictured it. Henry knew he was a very long time from reaching a similar point. The same for Naomi, Simon and Jamie. And Nikki, of course. In the scheme of things, despite these much greater things they’d come to know, they were still young. Just kids, basically
.

  “When you think about the next life, what do you imagine?” Henry said. “Why do you think you might be ready to go back again?”

  Nikki lifted her head from his shoulder and hunched forward to gaze into the fire. She spoke softly. “It’s more just a feeling. That there’s something waiting, something that has to happen.”

  Henry turned to her and looked into her eyes. “What is it?” he said. But he leaned toward her, already knowing the answer.

  “Us,” Nikki whispered.

  She closed her eyes as their lips met. Henry closed his eyes too, so he’d remember the softness of her lips and the warmth of her breath mingling with his own. They drew even closer together, holding tightly to this future being created, this dream that would remain with them when they woke up again.

  12

  Almost Like It Couldn’t Happen

  Where was she? What was this dark place? Who were those people she heard?

  Part of Rose knew this was her house while another sensed that somehow it wasn’t anymore. How could it be that there were others here now, sleeping in rooms that didn’t belong to them? What were these people doing in her house? Why was it so dark? Always so dark. When had she last seen sunlight?

  Rose took another step in the hall, a floorboard creaking beneath her feet. She wanted to scream, “Why are you here? Get out of my house!” But her breath caught in her throat as she remembered once again. She clenched her eyes and told herself it was all a dream. A nightmare. She wanted it to be just that. So badly, she wanted that. Please, let it just be that. But her pulse started to escalate, her heart hammering inside her chest. She dropped to her knees and covered her face with her hands as the tears came. She bent over, starting to moan. She held her head and felt the scream coming, this cry she couldn’t hold back. Joseph, Linda, the car. What had she done? No, she couldn’t have done that! But she had, she knew. That very act that had sent her to hell. She placed her palms against the floor and arched her back. She closed her eyes. She raised her face to the ceiling and wailed, howling her misery into the darkness surrounding her.