by Brian Harmon
“Do you have a key?”
“He keeps one on the porch. Come on.” He opened the back door and stepped out into the yard.
Jeremy tried to sit up as the back door slammed closed again, and groaned at the pain that shot through his body.
Violet reached across the seat and helped him. “Are you okay?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I’ve never hurt like this before.”
“Where does it hurt?”
“Everywhere.”
He didn’t have to look at Violet to see that she was concerned. He didn’t blame her. He was beginning to feel considerably concerned himself.
Outside, Corey climbed the steps of the porch and knocked hard on the front door. When no one answered, he turned and walked to the far side of the porch, where a table and two chairs sat looking out over the straggly yard. He bent over the table for a moment, apparently searching for the key that his uncle kept accessible.
“Can you walk?” Violet asked.
“I think so,” replied Jeremy. He reached for the door handle, determined to get to his feet on his own, but at that moment the Liberty suddenly lurched, wrenching a terrified scream from Violet.
The vehicle rocked to the left, and Jeremy turned in time to see something dark as it flashed past the rear, driver’s side window on its way to the roof. An instant later, the back of the vehicle sank noticeably beneath the weight of the creature.
For a moment, everything was silent. Through the window, he could see Corey standing motionless on the porch, staring back at them, his eyes fixed on the Liberty’s roof.
Ignoring the pain in his neck, he slowly turned and met Violet’s wide, terrified eyes.
The vehicle shook again, a sudden, rattling jolt, as if the thing above them suddenly shook itself and rose to its feet. They could hear it above them, scraping across the roof, the fiberglass bending slightly beneath its weight. It was moving forward.
“Don’t move,” Jeremy whispered.
Violet nodded back, her lips pressed closed as if afraid she might begin screaming at any moment.
Both of them lifted their eyes to the sunroof. It was there, a dark, formless shape, peering down at them through the glass.
Violet made an awful noise, a sort of gut-wrenching squeak as terror overwhelmed her, and she began to lean toward the driver’s side window.
Jeremy opened his mouth, intending to tell her again to remain still, but at that instant, the thing leapt from the roof and landed on the ground beside the driver’s-side door. It lashed out, striking the glass through which Violet was staring hard enough to rock the vehicle on its shocks again.
Violet screamed and scrambled to the right side of her seat, snatching at Jeremy’s hand.
Jeremy took her arm and pulled her close to him as the creature again threw itself against the side window. He fumbled for the door handle, ready to lunge out the door with Violet should the thing force its way in.
He glanced over at the porch, where Corey had taken an instinctive step toward them. He wanted to help. But he would be no good to anyone as he was. He turned instead and jammed the key into the lock.
Jeremy wrapped his hand around the handle and pressed himself against the door as Violet scrambled out of her seat toward him.
The creature slammed into the window a third time and then leapt onto the hood of the Liberty, which buckled beneath the creature’s weight.
For a moment it was crouched there, its form flowing mysteriously before them, defying any attempt to study its features. It was pressed against the windshield, staring in at them. It had no face that either of them could perceive, but it was obvious that it was staring at them. It did not turn its head, but rather the portion of the creature that was touching the glass began to slide back and forth, fluid-like, as it took them in.
“What is it?” Violet asked.
“I don’t know,” Jeremy replied. But that felt like a lie. Something about the creature was very familiar to him. He was suddenly sure that he once knew this thing, but he could not fathom when or where.
Suddenly, the creature stood, its body rising into the darkness, the inky blackness heaving. It was impossible to tell if it stood on legs or not. It kept shifting, flexing, parts of it passing in and out of view. Then it lunged forward and struck the windshield hard enough to shatter the safety glass, obscuring their view of the monster behind a tangled webbing of cracks.
Again, the creature struck the windshield, and the rubbery glass bowed inward with the force.
Jeremy looked over at the farmhouse, judging the distance, calculating how long it would take to get inside the house, and he saw Corey as he emerged from within, now armed with an intimidating army rifle.
“Come on!” he yelled, and shoved open the Liberty’s door. He pulled on Violet’s arm as something black and sleek punched through the broken windshield and threw himself out of the passenger’s seat and onto the ground below.
A thunderous concussion echoed across the yard as Corey discharged the rifle. The creature recoiled instantly, and Jeremy cried out in agony as his already aching body struck the hard ground.
Violet landed on the ground next to him and quickly grabbed him by his arm, pulling at him.
Jeremy forced himself to ignore the searing pain that filled his body and rose to his feet. Violet took as much of his weight as she could and the two of them began to stagger toward the porch as Corey fired a second round at the creature, then a third, and a fourth.
“Just go!” Jeremy yelled, but Violet refused to leave him.
“Where’d it go?” Corey asked suddenly.
Both Jeremy and Violet turned to look behind them. The Liberty stood with its front, passenger door wide open and headlights shining. Its windshield was caved in and its hood was bent, but there was no sign of the thing that attacked them. It had melted into the darkness again.
“Come on,” Violet urged, and they started up the porch steps. Corey met them at the top and seized Jeremy in his huge arm, sweeping him off the porch and into the farmhouse.
* * *
Violet helped Jeremy into a somewhat musty-smelling recliner and then hurried to the window and peered out at the Liberty again. “Did you see what that thing did to my truck?”
The living room of Doug’s house was sparsely decorated. There were several sets of deer antlers on the walls as well as a number of mounted fish and one dusty elk head. There was a boxy old television in one corner and an aging couch that did not remotely match the recliner. Two wooden end tables sat on either side of the couch, the surface scarred and stained. A lamp and an ashtray stood on each. A small card table stood in the corner nearest the front door, surrounded by four chairs. There were a number of books lying on the tabletop and several empty soda and beer cans. An old rag rug lay in front of the door, but otherwise the beat-up hardwood was bare. There were no photographs on the walls. The house looked more like a hunter’s cabin than someone’s permanent home.
“We’ll fix it,” Corey promised. He reloaded the rifle he’d used on the creature and then handed it to Violet.
“Do you know how to use that?” Jeremy asked her as he eyed the weapon in her small hands.
“I hate guns,” Violet replied as she checked the safety. “But yes. My dad taught me.”
Corey left the room and returned a moment later with another army rifle and two slightly less intimidating deer rifles. “Can you shoot?” he asked Jeremy.
Jeremy shook his head. “I don’t think so. I doubt I could hit anything in my condition.”
Corey handed one of the deer rifles to Violet, who shouldered the first gun and began examining it.
Jeremy closed his eyes for a moment, preparing to gather his strength. How long would they last, he wondered. He couldn’t help his pessimism. The more he thought about the creature out there, the more certain he was that they would not be able to kill it. Bullets weren’t going to stop it. It wasn’t an animal. It was different.
“I j
ust want to know what it is,” Violet said. What does it want?”
“It wants me, obviously,” replied Jeremy. He didn’t bother opening his eyes. “It’s the only thing that makes any sense.”
“We don’t know that,” Violet insisted.
“I think we do,” Jeremy said.
‘“No, we don’t!”
“You’re going to get yourself hurt if you keep this up. Just leave me and go home.”
“No. You’re coming with us.”
Jeremy opened his eyes and looked at Corey. “You know I’m right. None of this makes any sense, but it all has to be related somehow. You said before, I’m the common variable. Take her and get out of here. Don’t let her get hurt.”
“He’s not in charge of me!” Violet snapped.
Corey was looking back and forth between them, perhaps trying to decide what he should do.
Jeremy wanted to say more. He wanted to tell Corey to just go, to leave him here and take care of Violet. But their time was already up. “It’s here,” he said.
“What?” asked Violet. “How do you know?”
There was a creak from the front porch as something heavy depressed the wood.
“I feel it,” Jeremy replied. “Go. Get out of here.”
But they didn’t go. Instead they lifted their weapons and aimed them at the front door.
“Maybe it’s Doug,” Corey offered. It was less hopefulness than caution, Jeremy realized. Even now, he was thinking logically. If they opened fire without first seeing the creature, then they ran the risk of gunning down the very man whose weapons they were using to protect themselves should he be unfortunate enough to choose this exact moment to return home.
Another creak came from the porch boards. It was not Doug. It was the creature. It was on the porch and Jeremy could sense it. It was creeping toward the door. It knew they were here. It also knew they were armed. It wasn’t afraid of them.
“Get out,” Jeremy said again. “Just go, before it’s too late.”
But it was already too late. The window shattered as something large and black burst into the room.
Violet and Corey opened fire. The room was filled with the booming concussion of gunshots. Jeremy clamped his hands against his ears. Each shot sent bolts of pain thundering through his head. He cried out in agony.
The creature leapt across the room and crashed into the card table, overturning it and spilling the books onto the floor. An instant later, it leapt across the room again, knocking Doug’s deer antlers off the wall before crouching in the corner.
The sound of the gunshots continued to boom and Jeremy continued to clutch his ears and scream.
They weren’t hurting it. That much was painfully obvious. Violet’s riffle clicked empty and she tossed it onto the couch with a frightened curse as she unshouldered the army rifle.
The creature leapt across the room once more and crashed into the fireplace, toppling the tools and belching a cloud of ash in its wake.
“Come on!” Corey yelled. He turned and seized Jeremy in his huge arm, lifting him out of the chair and hauling him out of the room. Violet followed him through the kitchen and out the back door, back into the darkness.
Behind them, a loud crash tore through the kitchen as the mysterious creature overturned the kitchen table and sent a pile of dirty dishes crashing to the floor from the countertop.
“Where are we going?” Violet asked as she dared to chance a look back over her shoulder.
“The barn,” replied Corey. He half-carried Jeremy across the back yard and through the open gate.
Jeremy tried to make himself focus through the pain. He forced his eyes open, forced himself to look around. He saw a grassy road laid out before them. He saw a pond on the right and trees on the left. He saw the barn they were approaching. There were no windows in the barn for the creature to burst through, and the doors looked sturdy. Corey was hoping it would be sufficient to hold the creature back, but it wasn’t. The creature had been more than capable of shattering the windshield in Violet’s Liberty. Those barn doors weren’t nearly strong enough to keep it out. But it didn’t matter. Regardless of where they went it would find them. A bank vault wouldn’t be strong enough to keep it out. No barrier on this planet would likely stop that thing because…
Because why? What was it? What was it after? And how did he know these things?
Corey stopped in front of the door and lowered Jeremy to the ground, where Violet stooped over him as she looked back the way they came. There was no sign of the creature.
Yet.
Corey opened the barn door and then lifted Jeremy to his feet with one large hand, practically dragging him inside as Violet switched on the lights, bathing the mostly empty barn in a pale, fluorescent glow.
As Corey pulled the door closed and secured it, Violet helped Jeremy across the dirt floor to the back of the barn, where an old Ford tractor was parked.
“Are you okay?” she asked as she gently lowered him to the floor.
“No,” Jeremy admitted. “I’m not.”
“You’re going to be okay,” she promised him. “Just hang on.”
But he wasn’t going to be okay. He understood that now. He was never going to be okay. The fall hurt him much worse than he originally thought.
“I won’t let it hurt you.”
Jeremy shook his head. “It won’t stop.”
“How do you know?”
“Because it’s…” What? What was it? He felt as if he could almost remember it. If only the pain would let up for a moment, perhaps then he could grasp whatever it was that he was missing.
“How’s he doing?” Corey asked as he turned away from the barn door.
“Not good,” Violet replied.
Corey pulled out his cell phone and examined it. “Little bit of signal,” he reported. “Should I call for help?”
A loud bang reverberated from the roof of the barn and a soft rain of dust fell from the rafters overhead.
“I don’t know if there’s time,” Violet fretted. “But he definitely needs an ambulance.”
“No,” Jeremy insisted. “No ambulance.”
“You need help!”
“No. I don’t.”
They could each hear the creature as it scurried across the roof. It scuttled up to the very peak and then down the other side, shaking loose more dust from the rafters as it went.
Jeremy pressed his hands against his face, forcing himself to concentrate. It was always there, he realized. Always.
“You said yourself you’re not okay,” Violet argued.
“Please shut up!” Jeremy snapped.
Corey stood staring up into the shadows above them, his rifle at the ready. But the rifle wouldn’t stop what was on the roof any more than the barn door would keep it from coming inside with them.
In fact, it was already inside. It had been inside all along. It had always been with them. It had always been with him.
It did not burst into the barn. It did not ooze through a crack. It was simply there. It swept out of thin air and struck Corey, knocking him across the empty room and onto his back.
Violet cried out for him and stood, swinging her rifle toward the creature. Each shot echoed through the barn and sent bolts of agony sweeping through Jeremy’s body.
But the thing didn’t flee from her bullets. It advanced on her, sliding across the floor, closing in on her.
Jeremy saw her step back. He saw the fear in her eyes. She was desperately afraid, and yet she refused to run. She refused to get out of its way and leave him there. She was going to die simply because she refused to let it have him.
It lunged at her, slicing through the air.
Jeremy cried out and leapt to his feet. He was behind her, yet in an instant he was in front of her, sliding past her like a shadow. “No!” he cried, and his voice boomed unnaturally in the darkness.
Instantly, the thing was gone, melted again into the shadows.
He understood now. He reme
mbered. He remembered everything.
He fell to his knees and Violet dropped her rifle and knelt beside him. “What happened?” she asked.
“I put it away,” Jeremy replied.
“What?”
“I put it away. I retracted it.”
Violet shook her head. “I don’t understand. “What you mean, ‘retracted?’”
Jeremy clutched his head and collapsed forward.
“Jeremy!” She wrapped her arms around him, holding him. “I’ve got you. Come on. We’ll get an ambulance.”
“No. It’s too late. It was always too late.”
“Just be quiet. I’ll take care of you.”
“No.”
But she wasn’t listening to him. “Corey? Are you okay?”
“Yep,” Corey replied. He was already sitting up. He’d only had the wind knocked out of him.
“Listen to me!” Jeremy demanded, and his voice filled the room again, booming unnaturally in the silence.
Violet turned her frightened eyes down to him.
“Nothing can save me. I’m dying. I’ve been dying since you first found me.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I know. Just listen. Please.”
Violet nodded. Her eyes were filling with tears. He was surprised to discover that it hurt to see her cry. He’d never felt emotions like these before.
“I’m not Jeremy Gleer. I never was. I wasn’t thrown out that window by the anomaly in that building. I was birthed into this world by it. I’m from someplace else, someplace very, very far away.”
Violet shook her head. “What do you mean? Like another planet?”
Jeremy smiled. “No. Nothing like that. But another world, just the same.”
“Another dimension?” asked Corey as he crossed the empty barn toward him.
Jeremy nodded. “Something like that, yes. There are many worlds besides this one. Some of them more significant than you can possibly imagine. The place I’m from is the foundation for all worlds, even this one. It’s a very dark place. A very hopeless place.”
He remembered it all so clearly now. There was nothing but darkness for so very long…utter, soul-swallowing darkness…and that foul, black sea. There was no life there. Even he was never really alive. He was simply one of the many desperately hopeless things that swam those infinite, toxic waters at the farthest edge of reality.
