Aunt Lynn was standing out in the front yard. She was desperately searching around, trying to catch some sign of James, as though he might still be in the area. “James!” she yelled, her shrill voice barely audible above the fierce thunderstorm.
“He’s got his flashlight,” Kylie said, “I think he might have planned for something else.”
“Christopher!” Lynn screamed as she rushed over to him. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean what I said. I didn’t mean to drive him off. I was just talking, I didn’t mean it!”
Christopher pushed Lynn away with all of his force and knocking her down in the mud. “You did this! What the hell is wrong with you? You’re a monster! I don’t ever want to see you again! I hope you die!”
“Christopher…,” Kylie whispered as she reached for his shoulder. “Let’s go find James.”
“Please…,” Lynn whispered, her hand outstretched to Christopher. “I’m sorry. I really didn’t mean it.”
“We’re going to go get him,” Christopher said to his aunt as he ran off, Kylie following closely behind. “You stay the hell away from us!” he added over his shoulder as he left.
Christopher grabbed Kylie’s hand as he madly dashed through the wind-swept rain to Alena’s Cave. He knew that it was where James was headed. Perhaps it was where he had planned on heading all along. It was no secret that James didn’t want to leave Pine Hallow. Christopher just hoped that James didn’t do anything stupid.
The ground was so muddy it was hard to keep a fast or steady pace. Every now and then he and Kylie would slip, almost falling to the ground. It seemed as though getting to the cave would be impossible, but soon they finally reached the entrance.
Christopher paused before stepping in. He affixed the flashlight to his head, and slowly turned back to the direction of the house. In the distance he could see some lights that looked like they belonged to a car. “Jack Olen…,” he whispered.
“I’ll stay here,” Kylie said as she gazed at the faraway lights. “In case Jack comes, I’ll bring him to help.”
“You sure?” Christopher asked, giving Kylie a quick hug.
“Yeah, I’ll stay right here at the entrance,” she said, “Just please come back to me, okay?”
“I will, I promise,” he said, preparing himself for whatever was ahead.
“Go…,” she whispered, nodding to Christopher. “Go find James.”
Christopher nodded back, turning and stepping further into the cave. The water at the entrance was all the way up to his chest, and he worried that if it got any higher that he would have to swim through. The further he progressed to the back passage, the more the water receded. Luckily, it wasn’t as bad as he thought.
Christopher waded through the knee-deep water at the back of the back passage, the sound of the nearby falls all that he could hear. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest, and he desperately tried to make his way through the water as fast as he could. It was his first time in the cave alone, and he was nearly sick with panic, and his stomach had long since knotted. He swung his head around wildly, trying to make sure he didn’t overshoot the winding tunnel. Doing so would mean getting dangerously close to the falls.
He finally saw the tunnel, and, slowly, he stepped up the small embankment, catching his breath for a short time before he continued on, nearly running. The water here was up to his ankles and made the cave floor dangerously slick. With each footfall he worried that he would lose his balance completely and crack his head open on a rock. Luckily, he made it to the cave’s main chamber exhausted and uninjured.
Christopher nervously splashed his way forward; the water in the room was almost up to his knees. He quickly made his way to the section of wall where the window should be. Taking a deep breath, he turned out his flashlight.
The light from the window slowly illuminated the water beneath his feet, causing the dirty brown water to glow a strange gray color. Christopher made his way to the window in the earth, which was already open. It looked as though water was pouring through the opening and into the room. Taking a deep breath in preparation for what lay ahead, Christopher leaned down on the ground, the cave water coming up to his face. He slipped his feet through the window and let them dangle out the other side, yet, strangely enough, he didn’t feel cold or very different at all. It was as though the window he was sitting on was just a regular, ordinary window.
Christopher pushed himself forward with hands, down and into the room. To his complete surprise there was no blackness, no strange feelings of falling. It was just a quick, short drop down to the ground. The water inside of the room was up to his ankles, and the walls no longer glowed or gave off sort of glittery brilliance. Instead this light was a dull, throbbing gray, almost as if the water was washing away any sign of the magic that had existed here once before.
“James!” Christopher shouted, finding it easy to actually talk beyond the threshold of the window this time. “James, where are you?”
A lot of different thoughts suddenly rushed through his head. What if James wasn’t down here at all, yet somewhere off in the night, still upset over Lynn’s comments? Perhaps he hadn’t even thought about going to the window at all. Still, that didn’t make much sense; James had brought his flashlight with him, after all.
Christopher made his way to the door at the back of the room, a feat made much easier by the fact that he no longer had to put any extra effort into getting there. If James was there, he had to be behind the door. He was sure of it. Christopher carefully placed his hand upon the doorknob, and turned it. Beaming golden light slowly filtered through, rising from the bottom to the top of the doorway. In half a second the light blinded Christopher, burning him slightly as it passed over his body. For a moment everything was hot and bright, and strange. Then, as before, it slowly seeped away, turning into a cool darkness.
“Not you too,” Alena’s voice came, chasing away the darkness.
Christopher looked all around him as the world slowly materialized. He was at the Bait ’n‘ Tackle shop. It was early evening and the crickets were loud and all around him. Fireflies danced off in the distance and a swift breeze danced all about him. “Where is James?”
“He’s here,” Alena said. She walked gracefully toward the old bench where Christopher had first met Kylie. “He’s inside, hiding.”
“James!” Christopher shouted as he banged loudly upon the store’s front door.
“You really shouldn’t be here,” Alena said, “Neither of you. The room is slowly flooding with water. Soon, you won’t even be able to get back. Then you’ll become memories, just like me.”
“James!” Christopher shouted again, taking heed of what Alena was saying and adding urgency to his voice. “James, we have to get out of here!”
James slowly opened the door, his head hanging lowly in shame as he let Christopher into the building. “I’m sorry, Christopher. I just didn’t want to deal with it anymore.”
“I heard about what Lynn said,” Christopher told his brother, giving him a quick embrace. “I know why you ran off.”
“I just had to get out of there,” James said, shaking his head. “I didn’t have anywhere else to go, so I came down here. In a way, I had wanted to come down here before I left; Lynn merely set it off inside of me. I had to come.”
“I understand,” Christopher whispered as he grabbed onto James’ hand. “We have to get back. This place is obviously flooding.”
“All right,” James said. “I just wanted to say goodbye to Alena.”
“Okay,” Christopher said, leading James out of the store. “All right, do it, and then we have to go; we have to get out of here before it’s too late.”
“I’m sorry, Alena…,” James said, turning to the bench and finding that she was no longer there.
“Lights in the cave,” Alena’s voice came, heavy and grim in the wind. “Bad things are in the cave.”
“What bad things?” Christopher asked, the world quickly dimming around him. C
hristopher reached for James’s hand in the dark, but instead fumbled around with nothing but empty air. He flung himself around wildly, trying to find something to grab on to—anything. He was alone in the dark silence.
“It’s happening again, the memory is repeating…,” Alena whispered inside his head.
“What is happening?” Christopher asked, very frustrated. Suddenly his thoughts turned to Kylie—he had left her out there on her own at the cave entrance. How stupid he was! What the hell was he thinking?
Slowly an image came into focus as part of his surroundings. He could see Kylie in the rain-drenched night, dimly silhouetted by a small beam of light that pursued her. She was running as fast as she could. He could hear her labored, rapid breathing, a small whimper, and then a loud cry for help, which he heard twice: once, right before him, and then again, faintly, from somewhere above. Kylie was in the cave now, and terrified of something, all right, but what?
“Kylie!” Christopher cried out, surprising himself. Either way, she did not respond. Was this a memory that he was seeing, like Alena’s? If so, then Kylie was running down the back passage, and that could only mean…she was headed toward the falls!
His surroundings suddenly fell dark again. His eyes struggled to catch anything they could see, his heart drumming violently in his chest. He had to do something, yet what could he do? He caught a dim light from somewhere ahead in the dark, and it got bigger and brighter until he finally saw the source.
“James!” Christopher exclaimed. “Kylie…she’s in trouble.”
“Go, Chris!” James screamed as he pushed Christopher backward with all his might.
Christopher felt himself toppling back. He reached out for James, but he fell with such force that his brother was out of sight in seconds. Christopher landed roughly upon the flooded cave floor, water splashing up all around him. He quickly got to his feet, ripping the flashlight from his head and flipping it on. He used the beam to scan the entire chamber and, finding it empty, eventually settled the beam on the falls high above him.
Off in the distance he couldn’t see anything—just the empty entrance to the drop-off above him. Maybe what he saw hadn’t happened yet, maybe it was the future. That meant that he still had some time. He was about to run up the winding tunnel when someone shouted above him.
“Christopher!” Kylie screamed, gripping the cave wall near the rushing falls. “It’s my father!”
“Kylie!” Christopher yelled back, as he started to run on ahead. “I’m coming!”
Christopher paused once more, now seeing a light shining down from the falls. He strained his eyes to see, and in shock he quickly fell back to his knees. He was too late. Her father had a hold of her and was dangling her over the falls. He would never be able to run up there and save her, it would take far too long. He really was too late.
“Christopher!” Kylie screamed again, this time in a deep state of fear. “Please!”
Christopher watched in horror as Kylie’s father held her over the falls. Then, for a moment, he could see a twirling disc of light. Kylie’s father had thrown down a flashlight, and it plummeted down the vast expanse of the waterfalls, skimming through the falling water and hitting the cave floor hard a few yards from Christopher and exploding into pieces.
He quickly brought his own flashlight’s beam up, shaking in fear and unable to do anything at all about it. He watched as the Kylie’s father, his body obscured in shadows, plunged something metal and gleaming into Kylie’s side. “No!” Christopher screamed, realizing what he was seeing.
“NO!” Christopher screamed again, tears in his eyes. It was not happening, it couldn’t be happening. He watched, unable to take his eyes away from the horrifying events. He knew they were real, and they felt real, yet he couldn’t bring his mind to reason that these things were really happening.
Kylie’s father dangled her over the ledge once more; blood could be seen dripping down her left side as she hung motionless in his hand. Then, without much ado, he released her.
Christopher was immediately at his feet. He knew that he couldn’t catch her; she was falling from too high a distance. Still, he had to try. He had to do something or else she would die for sure. He couldn’t stand it. Even if he was badly injured in the process, he had to at least try and get beneath her. Otherwise, there really wouldn’t be any reason to go on.
Kylie plummeted down at him, growing large rapidly, the fragmented moments seeming completely frozen in time. Just as Christopher braced himself for Kylie’s impact, he heard a loud booming sound behind him, and he watched as the entire room filled with a brilliant blue light. A huge puff of blue smoke appeared at the window in an instant, transforming into a huge, smoky blue bird. The bird zoomed off into the air above Christopher, catching Kylie in its large talons and leaving behind huge streaks of glowing blue smoke diffusing across the falls. The bird soared around the cave, slowly circling and then landing at the rocky ground near Christopher. As the bird released Kylie, he rushed to her. She was still breathing—thank God she was still alive! It looked as though she was bleeding pretty badly from her side, though; Christopher knew he had to do something, and quick.
Scooping Kylie up in his arms, Christopher watched as the bird dove into the window in the earth, exploding in a huge, expanding cloud of dazzling blue lights and smoke trails. Just as the bird disappeared, a great wave burst from the window and crashed against a faraway wall. It was James. He hovered behind the window, taking a huge breath and expelling another wave of water from the room with a mighty gust from his lungs.
“James!” Christopher exclaimed, as he struggled to carry Kylie. “I need some help. She’s hurt really badly!”
“Go!” James screamed. He flew out of the room behind the window, landing next to Christopher and pushing him away, toward the passage that wound up to the top of the falls. “The room is almost flooded now, the cave will go next!”
“Let’s go!” Christopher yelled as he turned away for a moment, heading back up. “I need help!” he said as he fell to his knees, almost dropping Kylie in the process.
“I can’t,” James whispered as he made his way back to the window.
“James!” Christopher entreated as he watched his brother leave.
Standing before the window in the earth, James shook his head and let out a little smile. “I’m sorry…Christopher,” he said, and small wisps of blue smoke emerged and swirled about his lips as he spoke each word. One of the trails of smoke formed into a bird feather that rocked to and fro in a protracted fall, disappearing in a small puff as it came to rest on the watery rocks.
“No…,” Christopher whispered as he watched, in a confused state of terror. “Please, James….”
“Promise me you’ll keep in touch,” James said, each word being followed by more and more blue smoke. “Even if it doesn’t make sense right now, just promise me.”
“I promise…,” Christopher whispered as more tears came streaming down his cheeks. It was at that very moment he realized that James had chosen to stay behind for good. James had helped him and saved Kylie, yet in the process this choice had cost him.
“Alena needs me,” James whispered as he turned to the window, his back to Christopher. “I love her, you know?”
Before Christopher could say another word, James quickly faded into the window, his exit followed by another huge explosion of brilliant blue smoke and bird feathers.
“James…,” Christopher whispered once more. He looked down at Kylie, knowing the condition she was in. He had no time. James had done his part; the rest was up to him.
With Kylie in his arms, Christopher struggled his way up the winding passage, helped along somehow by a cool breeze from behind, and even at points where he thought his exhaustion and weakness had won, the breeze was almost magically refreshing, and gave him just that much more strength to continue on. He wondered fondly if his brother had something to do with it. Then, ahead in the darkness, he thought he saw something move ahead
of them. Kylie’s father, Christopher thought to himself, and felt horror creeping back into his heart. What was he going to do if it was him? Christopher lifted his flashlight up with a shaking hand, and there, with eyes gleaming like a madman and a bloodstained knife in his right hand, was Kylie’s father. His face was pale and had dark, wet, matted hair hanging about his sunken, bloodshot eyes and shaggy beard. There were no introductions; he and Christopher just saw one another, and then reacted. Christopher tried to shield himself and Kylie with his arms as Mr. Leiter lunged at him with the blade, missing his head by mere inches and slicing deeply into his left shoulder and down his arm. Christopher screamed and, with all his might, threw himself and Kylie against Mr. Leiter, causing him to slip on the flooding cave floor and land on his back. Christopher was panting and bleeding as he gently laid Kylie in a dark corner behind him and whirled to face his attacker.
Mr. Leiter grunted like some kind of wounded animal as he flailed about on the ground and scrambled wildly to his feet. His breathing was inhuman, resembling a serpent’s. He wetted his thin lips with his tongue and fixed his dark eyes on Kylie then shouted in a haunted, strained tone, “Alena, you stupid bitch… All you had to do was listen, you’ve ruined my life!”
Window in the Earth Trilogy Page 26
