“So you’re new in town?” Josh’s brother’s name was Tom. He had almost the same voice that Josh did; when he talked, only Josh’s glasses prevented them from being mirror images of one another.
“Yeah,” Andrew said. “I had to move in with my grandma. I’m from Chicago.”
“No shit?” A smile darted across Josh’s face when Tom swore. Josh hadn’t said a word the whole trip; he just watched his brother.
“Sucks that you got sent out here, from Chicago. What happened?”
“My parents are getting a divorce. There’s lots of stuff going on, they thought it would be better for me to be out here.”
“Is that right?” Tom said.
Andrew tried to get a look at his face when he said that, a corner of his eye in the rear view mirror, something, but had no luck. He asked another question.
“You play any sports, Andrew?”
Andrew shook his head no. There was another moment of silence.
“How about you?” The question felt strange coming out of Andrew’s mouth.
“Basketball, baseball, and football. Graduated last year though.”
“Are you going to college?” Andrew asked.
There was a long pause. Andrew thought that he’d said the wrong thing, when Tom suddenly started laughing.
“No, I’m not going to college.” They rolled past two tall radio towers, huge steel spikes with metal boxes underneath them. “How about you, Andrew? You going to college?” He rolled down the window and spat.
Josh sat quietly and smiled through the whole exchange. He didn’t seem to care what anybody was saying. He was just happy to be here.
A fence rose up from the top of the hill as they reached their destination. On top of the fence were rows of barbed wire. They leaned forward; they were meant to keep out, not keep in. The small plot of land inside was filled with soft green grass. Three tall oak trees rose up from the middle of it, long shafts with no branches or leaves except at the very top. Like thick, curly hair, pulled until it was as straight as it was going to get. There was a mass of thorns growing where the three trees met.
Between the truck and the field was a railroad crossing. They rumbled over the tracks, pulled to the side of the road, and got out of the car. They began to circle the fence, Tom leading and Josh following on his heels, with Andrew coming up behind them at a short distance. It occurred to Andrew for the first time that it might have been a mistake to bring somebody older than they were with them on something like this, but Tom showed no signs of wanting to turn back.
“I don’t think climbing would be such a great idea,” Tom said. “Is there any other way in?”
Andrew hunched over next to one of the fence poles and looked around for a minute. He noticed that part of the chain-link had been cut with a pair of pliers. When Andrew pushed, it gave way, leaving enough space for someone to slide through along the ground.
Tom looked down the road in both directions. “All right. Looks good. Just keep an eye out.” He reached down, grabbed the fence— his hands were twice as big as Andrew’s— and lifted. Andrew and Josh slipped through, and Tom came in after them.
They approached the trees.
“We’re looking for a hole?” Tom said.
He tore the bushes aside with a sweep of his foot. The three of them stepped back. Behind them was a hole big enough to walk through.
“That’s not a hole,” Tom said. “That’s a goddamn cave.”
#
Tom went back to the truck to get a flashlight. He returned, and the three of them entered the cave. Josh was listening and Tom was talking, excited. Andrew kept looking over his shoulder.
“I don’t know what the hell it’s doing here. I don’t think it could be natural…”
There was a gentle slope leading down from the hole into the tunnel. Inside, it was round like an artery. There were roots everywhere, giant fingers popping out from underneath the mud. The floor rose and fell as the walls shifted back and forth, and soon Andrew couldn’t see the sun anymore, just the flashlight beam forging ahead.
The light went out. Andrew’s stomach jumped up his throat. He dropped to the ground. His hands were shaking; it took him a moment to pull a white pill out of his pocket and swallow it.
He looked around. Nothing happened.
Tom started laughing. He turned the flashlight back on, and waved it down at the floor.
“Boo,” Tom said. He was smiling. “Come on, let’s keep going.”
They kept going. All they could see was the floor in front of them. Tom kept talking, on and on and on; the more time passed, the harder it was for Andrew to picture his face. It was like the voice of a ghost, hovering over his shoulder.
“We used to do shit like this all the time, grab a few beers and go to the water works… that was back when…”
He stopped talking. There was something very strange about the section they had just reached. The walls, ceiling, and floor were flat, and intersected at perfect right angles. Lining the walls for as far as they could see were rounded alcoves, like shrines at a church, and within each alcove was a shape, the same shape each time, molded from the surrounding earth. They rose from the ground like a giant anthill, reached their apex, and continued to climb as a narrow round column for about three feet, where they suddenly expanded into a fat disc with rounded edges. They were too smooth, too perfect to have been made by a human being. They were like plants or crystals, something that had grown.
They looked kind of like water towers. They looked a lot like Shadow, the same shape adjusted to fit different materials.
“Holy shit…”
Tom took a few steps forward and looked around.
“I think we should get out of here,” Andrew said.
Suddenly, Andrew’s eyes were flooded with blue light. He covered his face with his hands; peeking through his fingers, he saw a vertical line floating in the air. The line bulged and expanded; there was something pushing through from the other side. Tom waved the flashlight back and forth, covering and uncovering the creature as it emerged from the portal and moved towards him. It opened, like an origami flower, a maze of triangles.
Andrew tried to yell, but the sound was caught in his throat and he only gasped. Tom turned around. “What do you…”
The creature closed around Tom’s head and lifted his body up into the air.
Andrew turned and ran through the darkness. The place where the sunlight should have been came and went, but he didn’t notice. He reached the slope and started climbing.
When he poked his head up out of the ground, the sky was full of stars. It couldn’t be night time yet, there was no way that much time had passed, but he didn’t have time to waste thinking about it. He pulled himself onto the grass, and waited for Josh.
Andrew waited and waited. Josh didn’t come up.
He could leave. He could just leave, right now. No one would ever blame him. He thought about it for a moment.
He jumped back down the hole and pushed into the darkness. He saw a white light up ahead.
Josh was pointing the flashlight at his brother. The beam washed out Andrew’s vision of the creature; he saw Tom the way Josh did, floating in the air. The bill of his baseball cap was pressed up against his scalp; there were a hundred tiny cuts covering his face and blood gushing out of all of them. His muscles had atrophied, and his eyes had swelled up like balloons.
His body shook, and a sound came out of his mouth that was not his voice, something high pitched like a kitten or guitar feedback. The sound faded away and was replaced by something a little lower, a little more human.
Josh just stood there with his mouth open, frozen in place.
Andrew grabbed the flashlight out of Josh’s hand. The blue light ebbed and rose in the corner of his eye.
“Josh, we need to go.”
Josh didn’t move, he didn’t respond. The monster opened itself. Tom’s body made a wet noise as it hit the ground.
“Josh!”
Josh still didn’t move. Andrew turned his head. The monster was moving towards them, slowly like it was curious. It stopped.
It started moving again. Faster now.
Andrew ran. He didn’t know if Josh was following him. He ran, he climbed, he ran.
He reached the surface and scrambled out. He turned around and looked back at the hole. He realized he was still holding the flashlight.
A few long seconds later, Josh emerged.
Andrew waited for him to say something. He didn’t say anything. His breathing was quick and shallow.
“Josh, we need to get out of here.”
Josh turned around and took a few steps towards the fence. He suddenly doubled over and started throwing up. Andrew glanced nervously at the entrance to the cave, but nothing happened.
Josh stood back up. He finally looked Andrew in the face.
“Give me the flashlight.”
Andrew didn’t know what to say, he just stood there. Josh grabbed the flashlight out of his hands and went back down into the cave.
Andrew didn’t know what to think. The stars were like eyes, watching him. He looked around, expecting someone to show up, the police or his grandmother or Josh’s parents, somebody. But nobody came.
He went back down into the cave. When he’d done this before, there’d been some small part of himself that was proud of what he was doing. The hero coming to the rescue. That feeling wasn’t there now.
He made his way down. It was harder in the dark. He saw the flashlight up ahead and he hurried up to come meet it.
The flashlight was on the ground, facing a wall. Andrew looked around. This was where the entrance to the strange part of the cave had been. Now it was a dead end.
Josh was leaning against it with both hands. He was crying, breathing shallowly again, almost hyperventilating. He hit the wall with his fist and cried out in pain. He collapsed to the ground, sobbing now.
Andrew stood and watched. He didn’t feel anything. He realized then that he’d been right in the first place, he’d had the right idea before he’d even come to live with his grandmother, before any of this had happened. There was something wrong with him, there was something he should have that he didn’t. He was broken.
They stayed where they were for a long time.
#
When they finally did leave, they did it without talking. They left the cave, climbed under the fence, and walked back to the highway. They didn’t have the keys to the truck so they left it where it was. There was a house with a light in the window about a half a mile away, they could see it down the road. Josh walked towards it. Andrew followed him.
Josh turned around suddenly.
“Stay the hell away from me.”
He kept going towards the house. Andrew stayed where he was for a few seconds, then turned around and walked in the opposite direction.
He eventually arrived at a gas station. They let him use the phone. They gave him a free candy bar to eat while he waited, once they realized that something was wrong.
His grandmother finally showed up. He got into the passenger seat of her car. She demanded to know how he’d gotten here, why he wasn’t at Josh’s house like he’d said he’d be, why he’d made her worry.
He didn’t look at her, he just stared straight ahead through the windshield.
“I don’t feel like talking.”
She yelled at him, then she begged him to say something, but he didn’t answer her, didn’t even feel her presence. He was a million miles away.
For the next few days, Andrew didn’t leave the house except to go to school.
He got a letter from California that Tuesday.
Stranger,
I don’t know if you’re still alive. It doesn’t matter if you are. I won’t be in here forever.
I’ll see you soon.
-Anna
As his eyes passed over the last line of the letter, the paper began to crumble in his hands. Within a moment, it had turned to dust.
CHAPTER 6
#
The church where they held Tom's funeral was a warehouse surrounded by a huge parking lot, lit up by giant baseball field lights setting it apart from the miles of dark fields surrounding it in every direction. A crowd had gathered around the front entrance; everyone was wearing black, everyone was taller than Andrew was. He ignored them, ignored everything except his grandmother’s back as they approached the building.
Something moved in the crowd behind them when they stepped inside; Andrew looked over his shoulder and saw the people giving way to Josh’s father. The rest of his family was in the same formation Andrew had seen them in last time. He didn’t see Josh; maybe he was behind the others.
Someone touched Andrew’s shoulder.
“Andrew, it’s time to go inside.”
There was no room in his grandmother’s voice for discussion. Andrew was still tempted to argue, but decided not to. They entered the church and sat down.
The auditorium had white walls, blue carpeting, a dark ceiling covered with rafters, speakers and lights. The stage was empty except for a single podium. A man walked onto the stage and began to talk.
“…in times like this…”
The creature on Andrew’s shoulder started squirming. He touched it, tried to calm it down, but he had no luck. Something was frightening it.
He reached into his pocket, pulled out a white pill, and slipped it between his lips, quickly, so that his grandmother wouldn’t notice. He looked back up, and saw something he hadn’t seen before, a leg, hanging in the shadow of the podium. The leg stepped backwards, floating in the air for a minute before disappearing, and a chubby man in a suit appeared in the dark space to the rear of the stage. He was almost entirely bald, with only a thin crown of white hair circling the back of his skull. A nimbus of blue light hung around him, reaching into the air like headlights cutting through smoke.
He glanced in Andrew’s direction and took a step forward, disappearing again.
#
“I asked her why people even have funerals, if they don’t make anybody feel better. She said it wasn’t for us, it was for the family, but we left before I could even talk to Josh.”
Shadow didn’t say anything. Shadow didn’t usually say much unless you asked her a question, or unless she was asking you a question herself. She had added a second arm to herself a couple of days ago, another length of tubing with two fingers at the end, and was using it to do Andrew’s math homework while she played chess. Figuring out how to hold a pencil without breaking it in half had taken her a long time, but the work itself had come easily.
Andrew advanced a pawn, waited, and was about to move again when he realized that Shadow hadn’t taken her turn. He looked up at her. Her fingers were buzzing.
“I’m very sorry that Tom is dead because of us,” Shadow said.
At first he didn’t even hear the words. He opened his mouth but couldn’t think of anything to say.
“He shouldn’t be dead,” Shadow said. “I feel bad, like you do.”
Andrew tried to put his thoughts in order. “Shadow, it isn’t your fault.”
“But you said that the things you saw in the tunnel were just like me.”
“That doesn’t mean that what happened was your fault. You didn’t do anything.”
“Oh.” The humming disappeared, then returned, louder than before. “Is it just your fault, then?”
“No… no.”
“Then why do you feel bad?”
“Because… What I said wasn’t right. It was my fault, kind of…”
“Why did you say that it wasn’t your fault if it really was?”
“I wasn’t… I didn’t know what would happen. It wasn’t like I knew when I took them there.”
“So you don’t feel bad.”
“I feel bad, Shadow!”
He turned away from the chessboard.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mea
n to yell. I should go.”
Shadow was silent for a minute.
“Okay, Andrew.”
“Shadow, I’m sorry…”
He blinked, and when he opened his eyes he saw the sun. He was leaning against a tree a few feet away from the gazebo.
He checked his watch. The two of them had completed more than a dozen games of chess, but only five minutes had passed.
He stood up and almost fell over. He stuck his hand out and leaned against the tree. He was shaking. It was the worst headache he’d ever had.
#
That night, lying in bed, Andrew’s head still hurt, and he couldn’t sleep. He was afraid to even try. Every time he closed his eyes he saw Tom, hanging in the air with blood running down his face.
The door to his room clicked shut.
Andrew reached for the switch next to his bed and turned on the light. His room was empty. He reached under his mattress for the bottle. There were fewer than a dozen pills left; he shook one of them out onto his palm and swallowed it.
He turned the light off again. The man from the funeral was standing at the foot of his bed.
“You should leave right now,” Andrew said. “I’ll… it…”
“Your octopus?” the blue man asked. The way he talked reminded Andrew of the priest who’d spoken at the funeral, and of a snake, and of a man his father had bought a car from more than a year ago. He leaned over and brought his hand near the floor, as though he were going to pick something up. The light from his skin illuminated the carpet, revealing a thin white line stretching from one side of Andrew’s doorway to the other.
“Salt,” the man said. “Your familiar can’t cross it. You look surprised.”
He stood back up.
“I guess you didn’t read the manual. No harm done yet I guess, but it might be a good idea to keep that thing hidden a little better from now on. Kind of a red flag for people who know what to look for.”
He pulled a chair out from Andrew’s desk, and sat down. He leaned over and folded his hands in his lap.
“If you’re swallowing one of those every time you hear a noise you might be running short. Here.” He pulled a plastic bag out from his jacket pocket and threw it at the bed. Andrew caught it. It was filled with white pills.
White Rabbit Society Part One Page 5
