Kate, excited at receiving such a luxurious snack, leaped at the piece of meat, knocking over the lantern in the process.
“Shit!” James said as the lantern fell over, shutting off and leaving them in darkness.
“Sorry!” Christopher nervously lunged forward, fumbling around for the lantern in the dark.
“Wait…,” Kylie whispered to the two, “…there’s some light in here….”
“What?” James glanced around in the darkness.
“I think I see it…,” Christopher whispered. “At the wall. Over there.”
“You see it?” Kylie asked as she reached for Christopher’s hand in the darkness, gripping it tightly.
“Yes.…” Christopher pulled Kylie by the hand and brought her closer to him. “It’s very faint.”
“I still don’t see it,” James said. He scanned the room once more, and finally caught a glimpse of something in the far corner of the pitch-black chamber. It was a faint, dirty brown light. “What is that?”
“I don’t know.…” Kylie slowly crawled over to the light, pulling Christopher along with her. “It’s definitely there, though.”
James fumbled around with the lantern, hitting the button and illuminating the room once more in its bright light. He saw Kylie and Christopher, standing hand-in-hand up against the far wall where the light had previously been.
“Turn it off,” Kylie whispered, waving her hand in frustration at James. “It’s just a solid wall when the light is on.”
James crawled on all fours, Kate doing the same behind him, to the section of cave wall where Christopher and Kylie were, whereupon he extinguished the lantern. “It’s still there.…”
“What is this?” Kylie asked, placing her right hand flat against the slightly lit-up, dirty brown area.
“Don’t touch it!” Christopher said.
“It’s fine,” Kylie said. “It’s cold…and smooth.”
Christopher placed his left hand on the brown area, right next to Kylie’s hand. It did feel familiar, and complexly flat, almost as if it was an unnaturally smooth surface covered with a small layer of what felt like dirt or mud. There was obviously some sort of light behind it. Instinctively, Christopher brought his other hand up to join the other and pushed hard against the surface, curling the fingers of both his hands and scraping downward in the process. A brilliant beam of white light shone through the now-crumbling wall as his hands continued to slide down, removing much of the layers of dirt and mud from the surface, which was becoming as smooth as it was flat. “What is this…?”
“Oh my god…,” Kylie whispered. She slowly wiped her hand down the section her hand was on, uncovering more of the same bright white light which shone from beyond it. “It’s a window….”
“What the hell is this?” James asked, bringing his head close to the light. “This is impossible….”
Christopher brought his face as close as possible to the grimy section that he had wiped off; the light hurt his eyes and seemed to almost be pure, white light. As his eyes slowly adjusted, however, everything eventually came into focus. It wasn’t just light he was seeing, but a window, and, beyond that window, a room. “This can’t be real.…”
Kylie, who had her face pressed right against Christopher’s, saw the same strange sight. A complete white-walled room, a regular every day room that you’d find in your own house. “This is impossible.”
James, not wanting to be left out, yanked his shirt off and started furiously rubbing it against the dirty surface. The more and more crud he cleaned off the window, the more and more astounded he became at the view beyond. His jaw slackened and fell open as he fell back against the ground. “What is this doing here?”
Christopher slowly sat back on his haunches, gently pulling Kylie back to sit in awe with him. The view, now completely clear, was definitely that of some kind of room, and at the bottom of a cave, no less, built right into the stone and earth of the cave wall. Through the distortion of the glass he could vaguely make out what looked like a bed, covered in white sheets with light blue pillows on top, and some kind of dresser—definitely a dresser or chest of drawers. There was some kind of stuffed animal on the bed as well, although it was too distorted to make out completely.
“I don’t believe what I’m seeing…,” Christopher whispered, unable to look at anything other than the room before him.
“I don’t believe what you’re seeing either…,” James said, sitting and looking forward in complete shock.
“I think I’m dreaming, or I’ve hit my head,” Kylie said, her hand still rather roughly gripping Christopher’s. “Because what I am seeing could not possibly ever exist.”
“I can’t be seeing this,” Christopher said. “Right?”
“We’re all seeing this…,” James said, attempting to retrieve some sense of composure. “We’re all not dreaming either.”
What followed was a series of more moments spent in shock and awe, and many more moments of questioning and discoursing what they were seeing. This included Kate, who, with her head cocked to one side and her ears perked straight up, stared quizzically at the sight. It seemed as though the canine was just as confused as the humans. They finally came to the agreement that this was real, and you can only imagine the feeling of pure, unfiltered strangeness that they were all filled with. A feeling like that of being the first person to shake hands with an alien as you climbed aboard its ship, or having tea with a ghost; a feeling of final acceptance of the sheer impossibility of that which you beheld, that you were living in an impossible moment.
James returned to his backpack and put his flashlight back; there was no longer any need of light, as the light from the window illuminated the entire cave in soft whiteness. He frantically tore through his belongings, tossing things aside into a mounting pile if they weren’t what he was looking for.
“What are you doing?” Christopher asked. He was still too shocked to properly react to anything, and was slowly realizing that his hand, which Kylie was gripping so tightly, was becoming sore.
“Getting my screwdriver out,” James said.
“What for?” Kylie asked.
“For opening the window; I’m going to pry it open,” James said as he had one of those “Aha!” moments, and held his screwdriver out in his hand for everyone to see.
“You can’t be seriously thinking about opening that up…,” Christopher said, dread creeping into his voice.
“We can’t turn back now!” James ran over to the window, quickly getting to work on scraping out the debris from within the window frame itself.
“He’s right…,” Kylie said. She let go of Christopher’s hand, pausing to nod at him reassuringly.
“Okay…,” Christopher whispered. Although he really didn’t feel okay, just having Kylie looking at him like that did make it feel like it could really be all right. “Okay.”
James worked hard and swiftly, running the tip his screwdriver over every part of the window that wasn’t glass, as Kylie used James’ shirt to brush away the dirt and debris from the work area. It was but a few moments, and then, finally, their work was finished, revealing the square wooden frame of the window before them.
“Okay…,” James whispered, nodding in agreement with himself.
“Okay…,” Kylie agreed.
Christopher took a deep breath, holding it for a moment before letting it back out into the world. His head felt heavy and hot, as his heart was full of both caution and wonder. “Okay.…”
James jammed the screwdriver into the bottom portion of the window, using the windowsill as a fulcrum and pulling down on the butt of the screwdriver. As he did the window creaked open a bit, and then it immediately launched upward with a resounding thud, causing the glass in the frame to waver. Cold air poured out of the open room and a faint roaring sound filled their ears. The air was so cold it was painful on the eyes and took many blinks to get used to; the sound was like the roar of an approaching windstorm or snowstorm. However, ju
st as quickly as the fierce current had begun to blow, it died down. The rushing cold air slowed down to a short breeze, and soon the sound was barely audible.
“Okay…,” James said once more, and then continued, “…I didn’t do that. I’m not that strong.”
“What do we do now?” Kylie asked. Her gaze was fixed on the room before her.
“I don’t want to go in…,” Christopher said, even though no one had even proposed the possibility yet.
“You don’t have to,” James said. He returned to his backpack, searching through the pile that he had made next to it when was trying to locate the screwdriver, and pulled out the long length of rope that Bones had gotten for them. He made his way back to the window, rope in hand; ignoring the wide-eyed look that Christopher gave him as he tied the rope around his waist.
“You aren’t going to…”
“I can’t not go…,” James said, cutting Christopher off as he threw the other end of the rope to him. “You and Kylie…you guys don’t let go of that rope, okay?”
Christopher and Kylie looked at each other in sheer amazement. James was actually going to through with this?
“Just don’t let go of that rope. I’m going to go in…,” James said, sensing that the two of them were too shocked to answer. “Okay?”
“Okay…,” Christopher said, more out of reflex than anything else.
Kylie nodded.
Christopher gripped the rope tightly, having already securely wrapped Kate’s leash around his wrist. Kylie gripped a section of the rope right behind Christopher’s. James nodded at the two and closed his eyes for a moment, as though he was doing some kind of silent prayer for protection or something like that. After he opened his eyes, he offered everyone one more nod of his head, and then he cautiously placed his right foot through the open window.
“It’s cold!” James exclaimed as his foot passed through the opening. Where he and the window met the very air seemed to ripple, almost as if he was stepping into water. He slowly allowed more and more of his body to pass through, inching his way further and further inside. “It’s okay.…”
“Turn back if it gets bad,” Christopher said, still shocked that James was really doing this.
James edged more and more into the window, until only his head was left. He took a deep, long breath, as though readying himself for the plunge. He hesitated once, twice, and then released his breath. “I can do this…,” he repeated to himself, taking one more huge breath before letting go of the window and dropping into the room.
Christopher and Kylie watched in terror as James’ head and hands disappeared from the opening and a strange sound like paper being torn came from the opening as the last bit of James passed through. For a moment James was completely out of view as he dropped down to the ground below the window.
“Is he okay?” Kylie asked.
“There he is,” Christopher said as James appeared before them, although he no longer looked quite right. It was as though he was moving underwater or in really, really slow motion. Each movement that James made seemed either deliberate or ponderous. It reminded Christopher of all those old black-and-white movies where the action either seemed too fast or too slow to match up to how things should realistically move.
“I think he’s trying to talk to us,” Kylie whispered, watching James intently. “It looks so strange in there.…”
Christopher watched as James continued to move strangely. Every now and then he even looked as though he was part of some weird movie that was missing frames. One moment James would be trying to wave and the next he would be attempting to mouth some words only to be cut off again by some sporadic flashes of brightly-colored light. “You don’t think he’s in trouble do you? Should we pull him out?”
“I don’t know,” Kylie said, sounding very concerned.
The next flash they caught of James was him giving them a thumbs-up. He must have realized that Christopher and Kylie could not hear him. Christopher nodded at his brother, relieved; however, the action inside was so inconsistent that he did not know if James actually noticed him or not. Christopher continued to watch, unable to do anything else or even think clearly about anything else. It seemed as though every other moment James simply floated around the room, sometimes there would be more than one of him. At one time Christopher counted at least six James’ in the room. Christopher couldn’t quite make out exactly what James was trying to do. Sometimes James would look back to them, other times he would be interested in something in the room, or he would simply not be there at all, replaced instead by strange twinkling lights and small glimpses of his body.
“Why is it like that?” Kylie whispered over to Christopher, unable to keep her eyes away from what was going on inside.
“I have no idea,” Christopher whispered. “It’s insane.”
When James finally appeared before them in a coherent fashion, he was in the center of the room and looking directly beneath him. Christopher could hardly make out what his brother was regarding so intently through the strange, shifting light. It was a book.
“I think he’s found something,” Kylie whispered, tightening her grip on the rope.
They watched in silence as James slowly and, mostly in a logical sequence this time, kneeled to the ground to pick up the book. Christopher held his breath as he watched James’ hand inch closer and closer, each frame of movement bringing him nearer the object of interest at his feet. As James’ hands slowly closed around the book, something terrifying happened.
The light coming from the room went out completely, blanketing the room in utter blackness.
Christopher panicked, gripping the rope as tightly as he possibly could. “Pull him out!”
“What happened?” Kylie exclaimed, heaving back on her end of the rope with all of her strength.
A huge crash came from the dark aperture, loud and deafening like thunder, or a gun going off next to your head. Following this was a deafening whine of something that sounded like rusty metal scraping along metal. The window shook violently and slammed down on the rope.
“No!” Christopher screamed as he and Kylie fell backward.
Christopher scrambled to his feet and ran over to the window, forcing the window open and off of the rope. He then picked the rope back up and clenched his hands around it as tightly as he possibly could. Kylie quickly followed his lead. They gave one giant tug on the rope, putting all their weight behind them as they did, and, without warning, James shot out of the window as if propelled from a cannon, barely missing Christopher and Kylie and crashing to the ground next to them in a sobbing heap, embracing the book he had found.
“James!” Christopher said.
“Are you okay?” Kylie cried as both she and Christopher rushed over to his side.
“Mom and dad…,” James said, between tears and sobbing. “I saw mom and dad….”
“What?” Christopher asked as he stumbled back in shock. This was impossible. His parents were dead. There was no seeing them again, not anymore. It just wasn’t possible.
It took James a few more moments to get himself gathered up and back in shape. He slowly rose to his feet, his arms still wrapped around his shirtless body and clutching the book. He did not speak further, and would not do so until he properly calmed himself down. When he was ready, he finally spoke to a shocked Christopher and Kylie, who were both hanging on his every word.
“It was back when we were all on vacation…,” James said uneasily. “You remember that time we went down to Yellowstone?”
“Yeah…,” Christopher said.
“It wasn’t anything important, or any important moment or anything. It was just a happy moment. I was sitting there with you. I think you were sleeping. I was sitting there in the back seat of the car and mom and dad were just talking to me.”
“Did you ask them what was going on?” Kylie asked, confused at the situation.
“No, I just…,” James said, struggling with what had happened. “I just sat there an
d listened to them talk. I didn’t feel like I do now. I felt like I did at the time, just happy and content. I just kind of sat there and listened to them talk for what seemed like hours. They didn’t even talk about anything important. They were just talking.…”
“Are you okay?” Christopher asked, still in a state of disbelief. He had been watching James through the window; when had this happened?
“Yeah…,” James said, scratching the back of his head, but it didn’t really itch. “I can’t explain it, but I feel better now. I don’t know what happened. I was just reaching down for this book….”
Christopher watched in horror as James eased his grip on the book, revealing the cover. Christopher recognized the book instantly. It was a copy of Watership Down. The book was worn in the corner and had a small tear at the top, just like the copy he had owned. If this wasn’t his book, then it certainly was in the same condition. “Is that…?”
Window in the Earth Trilogy Page 10
