He decided to check his mom’s room next. It would give him the best view of the back yard and surrounding grounds.
By reflex, Brady flipped the light switch as he crept down the hall into his mom’s room. Nothing happened, so he tried it a few more times before remembering that the power had gone out.
From the shadowy corner of his eye, he glanced at the old photos hanging on the picture wall by the stairs. There was one in particular that always caught his eye: a family portrait taken when he was three and a half years old. In it, his mom was wearing a red dress and was holding his baby brother tightly in her arms. She was younger, her blond hair still long, well past her shoulders. Dad had one arm around her, his other hand resting squarely on Brady’s shoulder, and stared proudly at the camera. Brady stood in between his parents wearing a baseball cap and a smile that stretched from ear to ear. His hair snuck out from the edge of the hat and curled closely around his ears.
Now that he was older, Brady was beginning to see the resemblances to his father that his mother mentioned almost daily. His father had the same red hair that he did. Dad had also been over six feet tall; that was still taller than Brady was, but he was catching up quickly.
A thousand thoughts raced through Brady’s head. What would his father think about him protecting the house this way? Would he be proud or ashamed? And if he found someone, what was his plan exactly? To scare them off with a bat? Surely he could do better than that. He wished his father were here to help him out.
Snap out of it, Brady. It was probably just a raccoon.
He pulled himself together and continued down the dark hall and into his mom’s room. The bed was still made up from the day before. Centered on the rear wall was a large window overlooking their back yard and the hillside beyond the fence. The view was always beautiful during the day and one of the reasons his mother loved the house so much.
Brady opened the window to get a better look. A blast of warm summer air struck his face as he poked his head out. The forest tree line at the end of his yard cut the sky evenly: jagged black below and the starry dark purple of night above.
He quickly scanned his yard for the source of the noise. Seeing nothing nearby, he raised his gaze into the woods. And that’s when he noticed it—a brilliant flame, icy blue, burning deep in the pines. At this distance, it was no larger than the head of a matchstick; a tiny ball of frozen lightning.
He squeezed his eyes shut tight for a few seconds. Just to be sure he wasn’t imagining it.
When he opened his eyes and looked back at the peculiar sight, it was barely there; he would surely have missed it if he hadn’t looked at just the right time.
Brady left his mom’s room and bounded down the steps to the family room. His brother was still sprawled out on the couch, sleeping soundly.
“Felix!” Brady shouted. “Felix. Wake up!”
The snoring persisted. It took about a minute of heavy shaking to wake his brother.
Felix lay in silence while the fog of sleep lifted from his head. Finally he sat up, flecks of popcorn falling from his shirt and settling deep in the crevices of the couch.
“Felix, you have to see this! Get up!”
“See what?” replied Felix, rubbing his eyes.
“There’s something going on back in the woods. I saw a light from Mom’s window. It looks like a fire—well—sort of like it—not exactly. You just need to see it.”
“You mean, like what I saw the other night? When you tried to tell me I was crazy?”
“Sure, Felix. I believe you now. Whatever. It’s there again!”
That was all it took. Felix bounced off the couch like a coiled spring coming to life. Together they raced up the stairs into their mom’s room.
At the window, Brady searched the trees for the blue light, hoping it was still there. Sure enough, it was. “Look over there,” he instructed, motioning in the direction of the flame.
Felix eagerly squeezed himself through the window so that half his body was suspended outside. He gripped the windowpane tightly with both hands to keep from barreling forward. “Where did you see it?”
“You’re not looking in the right place.” Brady forced a finger past Felix. “I’m pointing right at it. Look!”
Felix’s eyes grew wide as soon as he noticed it. “That’s exactly what I saw the other night,” he said. “I told you! We have to go check it out.” He carefully lowered himself back inside.
Brady looked worried. “But remember that weird-sounding animal we heard when we were over there? I don’t want to run into that thing again, whatever it is.”
“Go ahead and stay here, then… Big Brother,” Felix taunted with a sly smile.
“I’m not scared,” Brady said. “I just think it’s a bad idea for us to go wandering over there in the middle of the night. No, forget that—it’s a bad time to go over there any time.”
“Whatever you say. I’ll just go alone then.”
“No way, Felix. You’ll get lost or something, and then Mom will end up blaming me. I’m going too.”
Felix smiled. His baiting did the trick every time.
The boys grabbed flashlights on their way out and left through the garage.
By the time they got to the fence, they could just make out the speck of blue between the trees. Their flashlights moved up from the dewy grass and came to rest on the No Trespassing signs, which appeared far more sinister at night. Brady imagined the letters written in blood. He shivered.
“Hey, Felix, you’d better mark our spot. I want to make sure we can find our way back. It’s pretty easy to get lost back there, especially when you can’t see anything.”
“No problem.” Felix pulled out his phone and obliged with a sequence of quick taps. When he had finished, the screen turned green and flashed, signaling the all clear.
They slid their flashlights under the fence, climbed over and dropped down to the other side, then cautiously entered the woods.
Here, in the earliest hours of morning, the trees rose above them like dark spires. Shortly after entering the forest, they heard a rustling from above and felt the breeze of something passing overhead. When they looked up, they saw the shadow of a bird drifting gracefully across the face of the moon.
After a few minutes of walking, they could see the light more clearly. With it guiding them on, they continued on until they came upon a glade where the trees gave way to tall, gently swaying grass. In the middle of the clearing was the flame.
The boys stepped out from the forest’s edge.
A bluish-white torch burned straight from the ground and reached into the sky. It was at least as wide as it was tall. Ribbons of blue energy undulated around the periphery of the flame like an electric aura. The boys could feel air moving out of the light, creating a strong breeze.
Brady stood motionless, mouth agape. Felix was more curious than anything, and took a few steps around the flame to get a better look.
When viewed from certain angles, the light seemed flat, like a projection of fire onto film. Felix expected to feel heat radiating from the torch, but there was none, just an unexpected coolness that chilled the night air.
“What do you think it is?” Brady asked.
“I have no idea. But I’m going closer to get a better look.”
This time Brady was two steps ahead of him. He locked his hand around his brother’s arm.
“We’re close enough, Felix.”
Surprised by the firmness in his brother’s grip, Felix acquiesced. But neither he nor Brady was able to take their eyes off the light in front of them.
It was mesmerizing.
Finally Felix broke the silence. “I need to get a picture of this.” Brady had let go of his arm by now, so he walked closer to the light and pulled out his phone.
“Felix, get back here!” his brother hissed.
But Felix ignored him; he was too busy trying to wake up his phone. After several failed attempts, he sighed in frustration and turned around to face Brady, his back aglow
from the fire’s radiance.
“My phone’s not working. That light must be messing with the electronics.”
As Felix attempted to stuff his phone back into his pocket, a shard of metal pierced the surface of the light. It hovered cautiously in mid-air—as if testing something on the other side.
“Felix!” Brady warned in a loud whisper. He stepped forward, grabbed Felix, and dragged him back under the cover of the trees. Together, they watched from the shadows.
A few seconds later, the rest of the shard continued through, revealing itself as a nose. The nose was attached to an angular head, which turned from side-to-side as it emerged from the flame.
The creature—for creature it clearly was—had tall pointed ears and a dark metallic snout. It reminded Brady of a Doberman, only much taller, more angular, and made of metal. Its jaw receded on the sides to reveal two rows of pointed teeth, honed razor sharp, ready to tear. Its eyes were narrow trapezoids that tapered toward its mouth; they glowed a bright orange, the color of fire.
From a distance, the boys watched in amazement as more of the creature followed. It emerged bit by bit, as if stepping through an unseen doorway. First a toe, then a paw; finally a leg. Its neck and large body came next.
The creature’s torso was covered with burnished bronze plates; in the gaps between them, the boys could see an assemblage of wires, pistons, gears, and servos. Brilliant rays of blue and white light from the fiery portal danced on the surface of the “dog” as it stepped confidently away from the door. A skeletal tail of metallic fragments wagged behind it. Strapped to its back was a tall stack of crates, but the creature appeared to carry the burden with ease, even though the pile was at least five feet high—almost taller than the animal itself.
After clearing the flame, the canine turned around and waited.
A minute later, a girl stepped from the light, looking around cautiously. She was a few inches shy of Brady’s height, and only slightly taller than the dog.
The girl turned back to face the blue light; she was silhouetted by flame. Her straight, long hair blew to the side. She raised one arm in front of her and did something with a device on her wrist.
As she finished, the light began to change. The edges ripped apart and folded in on themselves like crumpling paper. The light grew smaller until there was only a bright speck of it left burning, and then even that was extinguished, flaring into a bright starburst before disappearing altogether.
The vanishing of the light was accompanied by another boom, just like the one that had woken Brady earlier—only this one shook the boys with its ferocity. Their eardrums rang.
Brady and Felix were left in darkness. Their pupils dilated to let in the moonlight.
The mysterious stranger walked up to the robotic dog and patted its side. “Good job, boy,” the girl said, her voice gentle and assured. The dog’s head twisted up slowly and rubbed its snout against the girl’s hand. Brady and Felix could almost see the pistons extending and contracting, making the articulation possible. The creature’s face seemed to soften as it looked at her.
The girl rubbed the dog’s head and then moved to examine the packs on the creature’s back. She appeared to be counting them.
Snap.
Brady looked down in horror at the broken stick beneath Felix’s foot. Felix’s face was red from embarrassment.
“Sorry, I—”
Brady dropped to the ground and pulled his brother down with him. When they dared look up, the creature had turned its head in their direction. In the inky black darkness, its glowing eyes were all they could see.
Felix put a hand over his own mouth, afraid of what might slip out. The brothers lay on the ground together, as still as could be, praying the cover of shadows would keep them hidden.
The girl spoke again. “What are you looking at? Let’s go home.”
Finally, the creature turned its head back and the eyes darted away. Brady and Felix watched the two walk off together and vanish into the trees, their shadowy forms swallowed by the darkness.
Chapter 4: Chaos at Dawn
THE BOYS LAY STILL on the forest ground, fearful of what would happen if they moved too soon. They expected to see the machine’s ghostly eyes materialize from somewhere in the forest, for the dog to turn its unruly gaze back upon them. As their imaginations ran wild, they listened intently for the sound of footsteps, for something out of place, for anything that would signal the return of the strange girl and her canine companion.
Time ticked slowly by.
The moon was just beginning its descent behind the trees. In the remaining hours of night, they heard only the sounds of the forest around them. They saw nothing unordinary. The mysterious pair was gone, leaving the brothers alone once again.
Felix picked himself up and walked over to the spot where he had seen the flame. He flipped on his flashlight and scanned it back and forth across the ground. After a second, he found what he was looking for: a gray line of ash that scarred the forest floor. It was several feet long, less than an inch wide, and marked the spot where the door had stood earlier.
He crouched down and felt around the dirt. It was freezing to the touch, and Felix recoiled from the sensation. The cold ran so deep the tips of his fingers burned.
He called over to his brother in a loud whisper. “Come check this out! Look—the place where that fire was—it’s ice cold!”
Brady continued to lie on the ground, ignoring his brother. His unblinking eyes studied the trees where the strangers had vanished.
Felix picked up a stick from the ground and threw it at his brother. It bounced off his leg with a thwack. Brady jumped three feet off the ground with a yelp, and Felix held in his laugh.
Annoyed, Brady turned around to face his brother.
“Why’d you do that?”
“You’d have fallen asleep down there. I didn’t want you spending the night under that plant.”
“Whatever. I was keeping an eye out for them.”
“I’m pretty sure they’re gone.”
“Well, how do you know they won’t come back?”
“I don’t,” Felix said. “Actually, I was thinking we could try to follow them. They can’t have gotten too far yet.”
“Are you crazy? We’re lucky they didn’t see us,” Brady whispered. “And your fidgeting certainly didn’t help things a few minutes ago. That dog, or wolf, or whatever it is, I think it may have seen us when it looked back here. Anyway, I bet it could rip us to pieces. Did you see its teeth? They were the size of knives. Probably sharper, too. I think we should get out of here.”
Felix remained unconvinced. “I don’t think it’s dangerous. If it wanted to hurt us, it could have done so the other day. You know, the last time we were over here? Remember that strange howl we heard?”
Of course he did, Brady thought. He would never be able to get that awful sound out of his head.
“You know…” Felix said, “when we were looking for my quad, I’ll bet that dog knocked it right out of the sky with one of those massive paws. There was definitely something that moved across the camera before we saw it crash. We just didn’t know what it was.” A light bulb went off in Felix’s head. “Plus, I think it’s a machine. Some kind of robot. I’ve seen videos online of real robots, but never anything like that. Never so lifelike—so alive!”
Brady shuddered at the thought. He had never seen anything that large and vicious-looking, and the eerie howl from the other day made the creature seem even more malevolent, if that were even possible. And the fact that the monster dog didn’t spook Felix was really starting to annoy him.
“Exactly,” he said. “Alive and evil!”
“I’m just saying I don’t think it would hurt us,” Felix said. “I guess I don’t know for sure though. Where do you think they came from?”
“You’re asking me? You’re the one who’s into that kind of weird stuff,” Brady said, brushing the dirt off his shirt. He looked back in the direction of his house.
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“It’s got to be at least five in the morning,” he said. “We need to get home. Mom will be back in an hour or so, and she’ll freak out if we’re not there. She may already be back from work, and if she is, she’s probably already called the police. I’ll bet they’re out here looking for us already. We won’t be allowed out of the house for the rest of the summer!”
“Brady, try and calm down. We haven’t been gone for that long.” Felix paused for a second and then smiled to himself. “You know, that fire and that robot dog… that was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Yeah, well, me too, but let’s get out of here before they decide to come back,” Brady said.
Brady turned away the clearing and started walking home; Felix reluctantly followed. Brady felt a sudden surge of adrenaline as he looked around the forest, unsure if the beast was lurking somewhere in the shadows before him.
“Do you think they live back there in the Willoughbys’ cabin?” Felix asked.
“Probably. I don’t think there are any other houses back here.”
“Well, wherever they came from, I’m thinking they were getting something they needed. Something that was on the other side of the door. Like supplies. Did you see all those crates on the robot’s back?”
Brady was suddenly distracted by something buzzing around his ear. “What was that?”
He spun around, but whatever had made the noise was gone.
“What was what?” Felix asked.
“Mmm, never mind,” Brady said, shaking his head. But just when he had convinced himself he had imagined it, the buzzing was back again, coming from somewhere around his right ear. And this time he could feel it too: a faint wind blowing against his face. He spun around quickly, but like before, there was nothing. He found himself eye-to-eye with Felix, who stared back at him, confused.
“You heard that, right?” Brady asked as he took a few steps back.
“No…”
“I promise you I heard something. At least—I think I did.”
“Sure you did, Brady,” Felix teased.
A blur of fluttering metal lurched in front of the boys and stopped just short of Brady’s face. A tiny hummingbird hovered effortlessly in the air.
The Quantum Door Page 3
