“There’s too many men I’d rather shoot, so don’t make me waste a bullet on you.”
With her memory of the standoff now refreshed, Anika nodded and stopped in place, holding up her hands submissively. “I just want to know how to get to The Ferns. Is it close to the main campus?”
Bibi looked sideways at Anika, and a glow of suspicion clouded her eyes. “What do you want with Petr and Gretel?”
“I’m...I know them from the Back Country.”
“Really? You’re from the Back Country?” Bibi’s eyes lit up with wonder. “Were you there when it happened? When the witch kidnapped and killed all those people?”
Anika shivered at the questions. “I...didn’t hear about any of it until after. Just like everyone else.”
Bibi studied Anika’s face as if trying to judge the sincerity of the answer. “So why are you here again?”
“I was caring for Petr’s grandmother. She’s become ill and he needs to come home. I came to pick him up and, well, my car broke down. It got me most of the way though. It started puttering less than a mile to the exit for the Urbanlands, and then conked for good as I was getting off. Tow came, but the garage won’t be able to get to it for a couple of days.”
Anika feared she was over-explaining, but she had formed a version of this story over the course of her voyage, and so far, to her ears, it was sounding reasonable.
“Anyway, it’s urgent he be at home with her. She’s been calling for him. He should be expecting me; Anika was to have called him to let him know that I was on the way to get him.”
“Anika? Really? You know Anika Morgan?” There was reverence in Bibi’s voice that warmed Anika.
“Of course. That’s Gretel’s mother. I know her rather well.”
“So you’re walking to the college?” one of the other ladies asked. “From the Interstate? Honey, that is too far of a walk for a woman at this time of night.”
Anika smiled, “I know that now. But I didn’t see any cabs.”
And you won’t after midnight,” Bibi said. “But it’s a slow night. Like most. And I’ve got classes this afternoon, so I’m heading back to my apartment to sleep. If you like, I can take you by The Ferns.”
Anika agreed to the offer with a nod, and within minutes she was out of the lights of the streetlamps and riding in the passenger seat of a small sedan. The car was clean and appeared to be new. Anika didn’t know Bibi’s whole story of how she ended up trading sex for money, but she was beginning to believe that it really was going to be only temporary. She would pray for it.
In less than ten minutes, the car crossed over the street that led into the boys’ campus housing, and Bibi stopped the car about twenty yards down the road. On the horizon, Anika could see the orange burst of the sun flooding the clouds like lava. Morning had finally come and she had reached her destination.
“There’s a guard gate that all cars have to pass through, but I don’t have a placard. Otherwise I’d take you in.”
Anika had already spotted several options along the perimeter where she, as a pedestrian, could enter quite easily. She’d need to get going though, before the sun rose fully. “I’ll work it out. Thanks for the ride, Bibi.”
“No problem.”
Anika stepped out and began to close the door.
“When you find them,” Bibi said, just as Anika was shutting the door. “Petr and Gretel. Please let them know that, even though I don’t know them, I...I don’t know... I think they’re pretty special. At least they seem that way. I think most of the students here think they’re strange, but that’s just because they’re scared of them.”
Anika smiled softly. “I’ll let them know.” And then she added, “And Bibi, I do think you should consider quitting your night job.”
Bibi scoffed. “I consider it every day. It’s the quitting part that’s hard. But I’ll consider it harder. Good luck...hey, you never told me your name.”
“Tanja. My name is Tanja.”
Chapter 15
PETR ARRIVED BACK AT his apartment just after ten in the morning, having wrapped up his presentation only minutes before.
He had left the house early that morning, just before sunrise, and had headed to the library to do some final work. The library stayed open twenty-four hours, and since he hadn’t been able to sleep for more than twenty minutes at a time during the night, he had risen to leave at the earliest reasonable hour. There was no sense spending his time pouting about Gretel when he could be using it to complete his project. He wasn’t scheduled to meet his partners at the library until eight to go over the final production, but there was still plenty he could do on his own to prepare.
And the presentation had gone well, at least according to what his partners had told him. Petr couldn’t remember most it; it had seemed like his portion was being presented in some type of auto-pilot. He was there, of course, speaking and pointing to graphs and numbers on charts that he had created, but it was like it was someone else standing at the dais.
He didn’t care though. Not anymore. Not about the project or school or his commitments. It all seemed pointless now. He had honored all of those things, letting his integrity guide him, and what was left in him was a feeling of emptiness and dread. Gretel had been right about him: he was different from her. He was different in the way he went about his day, how he cared about being a good person, honoring his duties and oaths and considering what others thought of him. But he saw now that these differences didn’t equate to goodness, they equated to weakness.
Gretel was gone. She was somewhere over the ocean now, her eyes and focus on a new life in the Old World, one that would begin fresh and without him.
And here Petr was still, proud and responsible, stranded in the world Gretel left behind. He didn’t have the right to be surprised. She had given him warning, insisted that she needed to go alone, and then had waited for him to dive back into his honor of weakness so that she could leave without saying goodbye.
But the truth, Petr knew, was there was nothing he could have said back in the orchard a few days ago, or on the phone yesterday, that would have made Gretel stay. She was too special for Petr. He knew it and Gretel did too. He wasn’t strong enough to be with her.
He opened the door to the house and walked inside. Thankfully, it was empty, and Petr reflexively put on a pot of coffee, not really wanting it but knowing he would be asleep in minutes without it. And he wasn’t ready to sleep yet. He wasn’t ready for the dreams that would come.
He sat on the living room couch with a weary plop and said, “What are you going to do, Petr?” and then repeated the words, this time nearly screaming in frustration. “What are you going to do?”
The ting of his words hung in the silence of the empty room, and just as the echo dissipated, a voice came from behind him, barely audible and at a distance. “I have an idea,” it said.
Petr shot up from the couch and spun towards the voice, which seemed to be coming from the rear of the house. He walked towards the back door which was slightly ajar, and then opened it wide, putting his nose to the screen. He didn’t see anyone.
“Hello,” he called, clearing his throat, trying to sound in command, starting to doubt what he’d heard.
There was no reply at first, and then a rustle came from the row of hedges that ran behind the woodpile. Petr opened the screen door and stepped gingerly to the back porch. He squinted toward the hedges, and could see the outline of a dark figure.
“Who’s there? Who is that?”
“Gretel’s gone. Is that right?”
“Anika?”
The figure pushed through the hedges, stepping to the barrier of the woodpile, positioning herself behind the tallest part of the stack of logs. Petr registered that her positioning was not accidental.
“Oh...my god,” Petr whispered, stepping backwards and slamming his back into the screen door.
Petr felt dizzy, his knees weak, and he put his hand against the porch railing to keep from falling
.
Anika frowned but said nothing, and now, seeming to sense that Petr was no threat, walked in front of the pile and stood exposed. Her hair was stringy and matted, and her dark, bloody clothes were so tattered that the skin of her torso was exposed. Petr thought she looked like a rape victim.
“It was you on the phone the other night.” Petr steadied his legs, but his voice was still barely detectable.
“It was,” Anika said, speaking for the first time.
“Why...why didn’t you tell me then? And how is it that you aren’t..?” The questions flooded Petr now, and his mouth couldn’t keep up. “And that was you I saw on the porch. The day after...How—?”
“That’s a lot of questions to answer at once, Petr. I’ll talk to you. I’ll tell you everything, including why I’m here. But first, I need to know that you’re alone.”
Petr nodded.
“And am I right about Gretel. Has she left?”
“For the Old World. How did you know?”
“I didn’t know. But I felt she was leaving. I sensed it the other day when you two were talking in the house.”
“You were watching us?”
Anika nodded. “I was in the basement. I had just...returned. And I didn’t know where to go or what to do. I still don’t. Not exactly.”
“I feel like I’m dreaming.”
Anika ignored him. “Terrible things have happened, Petr. I’ve done awful things over the past week. Very awful. Things I will hang for. And should. But I think there’s a way for me to—not make it right, I can never change what I’ve done—but at least make other corrections to the world.”
“Corrections? What have you done, Anika? What are you talking about?”
Anika took a step forward. “I smell coffee.”
Petr was confused.
“Your roommate left here an hour ago, maybe less. Will he be coming home soon?”
“I don’t know. I think he has classes all day today. How do you know when he left? You were here when he was?”
“I was here at dawn. I was surprised to find that you weren’t. Late night?”
Petr mildly resented the implication. “I left very early, and I’ve had a busy morning.” Petr was feeling like the obvious questions were getting away from him. “How are you here, Anika?” he asked quietly, mystically, like he was hoping to uncover an ancient secret. “And how did you find me?”
“The second question is easy. You and Gretel are well-known, Petr. More well-known than you probably know or are willing to accept. And I already knew you were at the university; from there it just required a little persistence and luck. Not all of it good.”
“So how about the first question then. Let’s talk about that one. How are you here?”
Anika nodded. “Okay, Petr, but let’s get that coffee first.”
“IT WAS THE POTION OBVIOUSLY, but I think it may have been more than that.”
Anika took a sip from her cup and stared out the sitting room window of Petr’s house. The street out front was empty, and the overcast gloom of the morning made the scene look sad and sterile.
“And I think whatever remedy they gave me in the village, when I was back in the Old Country, also played a part in reviving me. Or resuscitating me. But I can’t really know. I just knew I was dead. I was underwater, bloody and blind. I was dead.” She stopped and took another sip, raising her eyebrows. “And then I wasn’t.”
Petr couldn’t help staring. “Your head and eye...my god.”
“Hansel is a hero. I was going to kill them, Petr. Both of them.”
“You can remember how you were that day? Before? How can that be? That must be amazing.”
“I wish I didn’t. I wish I could scrub my memory until the day my car went off the Interways and I stumbled into the woods in the Northlands. But I can’t. I remember it all.”
“I’m sorry.”
“But there’s more I have to tell you, Petr. A lot more.” Anika paused and stared contemplatively into her cup. “I’m in trouble, Petr. As I said, I’ve hurt people.” Anika paused and looked away. “The potion didn’t just bring me back from death, it ruined me inside. Those first two days of my resurrection, I...I had to feed. I had no choice. It was a draw unlike anything I’ve felt. Like the potion, but stronger. If that’s possible.”
Petr leaned back automatically, his hands folding onto his lap as his eyes began to scan the room for anything he could use as a weapon.
Anika nodded. “I know, Petr. I understand. You should protect yourself from me. You saw me before, at home, when I was in the throes of the potion. I was awful, especially towards the end, and you probably can’t imagine me being worse than that. My mind was completely fogged and sick then. But my mind is healthy now. It’s just that...”
“That you’re a cannibal?”
Anika didn’t flinch. “I suppose that’s right. But not exactly. And it’s getting better. The cravings. They’re waning. Or I’m learning to control them. I don’t know for sure. But I was told they would diminish over time and they seem to be doing that.”
“Told? Who told you that?”
“That’s part of the very long story. But I can’t start it now. And I can’t stay. They’re coming.”
“The System?” Petr guessed.
Anika nodded. “I’ve left a bit of a trail.”
“They called here. They know about your phone call. They told me not to leave.”
“I’m going to need you to break that order, Petr.”
“What?”
“I’m leaving the New World. And not just because of The System.”
“For Gretel?”
Anika shook her head. “No. I’m going to the Eastern Lands.”
“The Eastern Lands? Why?”
“There’s so much to tell, Petr. Too much. And I’ll tell you it all if you need that. But only if you’ll come with me.”
“What? When?”
“Now. Today if possible, but by tomorrow for sure.”
“Tomorrow!”
“We probably don’t have even that long. I’ve come across a lot of people along the way here. I tried to keep low but things happened.”
“I can’t go to the Eastern Lands. I have school. I...” Petr couldn’t think of another reason.
“What if I was going to the Old World?”
Petr frowned. He knew that if the Old World had been Anika’s destination he would have been far more interested in the offer. “But you’re not going to the Old World.”
Anika swallowed and shook her head. “No, I’m not. But where I’m going has everything to do with Gretel. And Hansel. And saving their lives.”
“How do you know any of this? Where did all of this information come from?”
“That voice that told me about the Eastern Lands, it told me exactly who I was looking for. Her name is Tanja. She’s Marlene’s mother.”
“What? Marlene’s Mother?” Petr could hardly fathom such a being existed. Could ever have existed. “In the Eastern Lands? Why?”
“I don’t know, Petr. She’s probably lived on every continent in the world by this point. But she’s there. I believe the voice is right. And she’s a danger.”
“The voice?” Petr’s tone was doubtful, suspicious.
Anika nodded.
“Listen Anika, I believe that you heard what you heard, but—”
“I’m not psychotic, Petr. My mind is as clear as it’s ever been. I can’t explain how I know the voice is real, but it is. And I’m going to the Eastern Lands to kill Marlene’s mother.” She paused. “And I need you to come with me.”
Petr let the gravity of Anika’s words settle and then asked, “Why?”
“That was also part of the voice’s instruction.”
“The voice mentioned my name? Go find Petr Stenson?”
“No, not by name. But it is you. It has to be. I figured that part out on my own. You’re the only one I trust who isn’t Gretel or Hansel.”
Petr paused contemplativel
y. “Gretel’s gone, so I guess I understand that conclusion. But why not Hansel?”
Anika shrugged as if the answer was obvious. “How could it be Hansel? He killed me, Petr. At least he tried to and believes he did.”
“Won’t he be glad that he didn’t?”
“I don’t know, Petr, but I’ve already spoiled Hansel’s life as much as I’m prepared to. How could I show up at the Klahr’s house—alive and not quite well—explaining that I want him to come with me to the Eastern Lands? I wouldn’t trust myself to do that under any circumstances. And Mrs. Klahr would greet me at the door with a shotgun. As she should.”
“But you’ll ask me?”
“I need you, Petr. I’ll need help to get where I’m going. I barely made it here, to the Urbanlands, and that was only coming from the Back Country.”
Petr agreed that Anika’s reasons for not asking Hansel to accompany her to the Eastern Lands were sound. If they were ever to have a relationship again, it would take years of slowly building up trust, and that would likely just get them to a normal level. A great adventure across the Great Ocean—only days after her death—was probably a bridge too far.
But there was more to it.
Petr guessed Anika wouldn’t have asked Gretel to go with her either, even if she hadn’t left for the Old World. The risk was too high, and Petr now believed Anika had no intention of coming back alive. The only way she would have the spirit to confront and kill the mother of Marlene was if she had nothing to lose. Anika loved Petr, he knew that, but she was still willing to put his life at risk to save those of her children.
And Petr was willing to risk his life too, though he wasn’t ready to commit to Anika’s proposal just yet. Despite her own confidence, Petr wasn’t completely convinced of the soundness of her mind.
But the idea that Petr’s doubt might contribute to Gretel’s death was starting to sway him. If Anika was telling the truth, and there was someone named Tanja in the world somewhere who had her teeth bared and her sights on Gretel, Petr could never avoid that battle.
A car slowed and then stopped in front of the house, directly in view of Anika and Petr. Anika stood and scuttled back toward the door at the rear of the house, pausing at the threshold between the living room and the mudroom.
Anika Rising (Gretel Book Four): A Horror Novel Page 15
