CHAPTER FIVE
I tried everything short of shoving my entire arm down her throat to get Peaches to puke up the blue gunk. I had to take short breaks to wipe my hands against my jeans as they were getting too slippery, but all that did was make my pants glow.
Seconds after she engulfed the sphere, her entire body had taken on the same neon glow, emphasizing the shadows of the looming trees. It was kind of cool, but I would personally have liked one less thing to explain to Mom if I ever made it home. I imagined Peaches would make a great hallway lamp.
One thing was for sure: Peaches had gotten faster. She would inch in closer to me to give me kisses or just to be annoying. I’d reach for her and her body would react by blasting to the other end of the forest. She’d come back, rinse, and repeat. It reminded me of the surge Darius made in my house only ten times the speed.
After the fifth time I attempted to get her to sit still and spit the substance out, I gave up to focus on finding my way back home. She didn’t look like she was trying to get rid of me.
As far as I could tell, the forest was worse than a CD on skip, repeating itself over and over. My legs had switched to autopilot from the strain of the night’s events, wobbling over the tiny rocks and piles of pine straw that covered the forest’s ground floor. With no house lights to go by, or active highways, I did not know where to turn.
I knew through traffic was a lot to ask of Ashton during the day time, much less at night when I needed it most to get home. But, just as I thought all was lost, a light bulb popped up in front of me, or should I say a dog bulb? I mustered up what was left of my strength and followed Peaches, hoping her nose would lead us to safety.
She definitely caught a scent. It led us straight to the little drops of slime from when the sphere fell from my grip. Whether or not she was leading me in the right direction was not clear. Due to all the chaos that brought me to that spot, it definitely beat the crap out of waiting for my imagination to scare me to death.
A thing about Peaches, she had an attention deficit when it came to sticking to a plan. We were who knows how far away from home, and she thought she had to be Queen of the forest, chasing off the squirrels and other poor animals wishing to get a look at the glowing spectacle. I wanted a way home. My loyal companion wanted to mark every tree, making the whole area an Avatar set piece. I would have been impressed if I were not so terrified out of my wits.
“Maybe this is what it feels like to be Dad,” I thought out loud. “Scary whispers. Bodiless hands reaching and pulling. I would have run away too.”
Thinking about him put me in one of those, “Why couldn’t he have been boring?” moods. A lot of people would kill to see the world—or is it worlds? I would love to make it easier for those people with a fair trade.
I snapped out of it when Peaches switched back to puppy statue mode. She chose a spot in front of an evergreen with a wide trunk.
Something moved on the tree causing me to jump. I said, “Who’s there?”
No one responded. If someone was trying to attack me, I was not sure why they would have said anything at all.
An object appeared on the evergreen. It was either another hallucination or Peaches’ shadow was morphing from one that belonged to a dog to a tall man with long hair and very little else. Only, instead of a shadow, it was more like solid mass similar to a black hole.
I told Peaches to move to see if the shadow would move with her. She titled her head while the shadow mimicked the movement in perfect time.
I said, “Sit,” and Peaches groaned, but did as she was told. The shadow followed, getting lower and lower until it was gone only to return once Peaches got back to her feet.
The way the shadow man appeared almost matched the exact description with the stories Dad told of the Silhouettes: men trapped in darkness.
Dad said little sparks shot out from their finger tips when they tried to pull him into Draio, preparing to cast magic at the first opportunity. Their eyes, although non-existent, would stare into his soul. That part of the story always sent creepy crawlies up my spine. Seeing one up close made the crawlies bite.
Since the dream showed no signs of slowing, I figured I might as well try to talk to it. I said, “What’s your name?”
The Silhouette pointed at his mouth and shook his head.
“You can’t talk? But, I heard a voice. That wasn’t you? Do you know who I am?”
I got a nod and then his hands began moving in circles around themselves, getting faster and faster. Peaches had gotten up on her hind legs. Her front paws matched the speed, but she broke in a wild fit. She used her nose to push a bunch of rocks on the ground, shaping them together to form letters. My eyes spun with dizziness, watching her move so fast she could have taken off for the air in flight. The Silhouette never moved away from the tree. It was almost like it was getting stronger.
Once finished, Peaches barked in excitement like a little kid proud of their science fair project and resumed sitting in place. When I read the finished product, my heart froze into a swollen lump:
ALAN
No amount of rubbing could remove the sight from my eyes. I thought for a second it could be just a dramatic coincidence, but the letters were so definite they glowed through the darkness. I kicked the rocks and twigs away.
The whispers returned, “THE SILHOUETTES HAVE BEEN REPRESSED FOR TOO LONG.”
A patch of weeds stretched out and wrapped around my feet, locking them in to place. I’d never been so shaken in my lifetime, so alone. I wasn’t the only scaredy cat. Peaches broke out of her trance and hid behind the closest tree, whimpering her little heart out.
Then, the whimpering stopped like her voice had been sucked into the night.
The whispers morphed into one single haunting voice that originated from the tree—the Silhouette’s. He said, “There is no need to be afraid, Alan.”
He had begun moving independently of Peaches. Gaining strength, he said, “I come from a land afar and a land up high. My abilities are only eclipsed by my excellent turn of phrase and if you open your mind, they could be your abilities too.” He sounded like a traveling salesmen.
The weeds pulled a little tighter, pricking thorns into my calves. I said, “Who are you? What do you want?”
“I am the creature this world owes its debts and the puppet master for all of your wildest dreams. You are either with me or against me, but if you wish to find your father I would prefer you choose the former.”
The voice rotated behind me. The Silhouette remained stationary on the tree. Peaches hobbled over from my left side to nibble my legs free from their captivity. A vine sprouted up and hit her on the nose, sending her right back into a panic.
The Silhouette said, “Your father is about to make a mistake big enough for twenty lifetimes and I am risking my permadeath to stop him.”
My own head voices were screaming bloody murder for me to give in to the pain, break free and run. They begged me to ignore the delusion of the man on the tree spouting off lies about my father. The harder I tried, the harder it was to get my feet to move. My heart rate was slowing. I felt like I was dying.
The Silhouette’s voice raised a few octaves until it matched the British voice I had heard earlier, “You can not run from this, Alan. One of these days this Earth is going to end, and if we are not careful it will be by Reese Quinn’s hand.”
I tried to shut my eyes, but they had been forced open against my will, “You are not here. You are not talking.”
He said, “Well, that is mighty rude of you.”
I said, “If any of this is true, what could a thirteen-y
ear-old possibly do about it? I’m just a kid.”
The ground rumbled as the Silhouette stretched five times its size up the tree, “You think I risked my very existence by coming here just to show up without a plan? No, no, I think you have absolutely no idea what is at stake.”
His arms slammed down by his side, generating a tidal wave of leaves at my body, which knocked me free from my prickly shackles. With the window of opportunity opening fifty miles wide, I ran after Peaches who was hiding unsuccessfully behind a nearby bush and scooped her up. The weight of my nervous dog nearly made me fall over, but I bent my knees to stay upright. Running, I took the trail of the neon slime, hoping it would lead me home.
The Silhouette yelled after me, “Go on, Alan Quinn. Go ahead and run. You are only prolonging the inevitable end of your world.”
Tired of the voice, I cried out until my voice was so loud I could barely hear anything the Silhouette was saying. Countless numbers of trees passed in my wake. I wasn’t going to allow him to catch up.
Taking the eventual silence as a good sign, I felt sure that the Silhouette was far behind me. I retired from the Peaches taxi service and let her guide me the rest of the way home.
Peaches’ tongue fell to the side of her mouth. I said, “We are almost there, Peaches. Don’t give up. Lead us home.”
To my horror, Peaches fell over on the ground. Her eyes closed. I got on my knees and nudged her with my fingers. We’d only known each other for a little while but that was all it took for me to get attached.
“Wake up,” I said. “Please?”
With all of the terror inflicted on me, the last thing I wished for was something to happen to Peaches. She was the innocent victim in all of that. It wasn’t her fault I chose her as my escape to get away from my house.
Shaking, I leaned down and held on to her so tight that I thought I would never let her go. The glow had dissappeared and with that—her life.
Her eyes shot open and it looked like she was smiling. I could add that to her list of new talents. I was so happy to see her awake I could have kissed her. She beat me to it by wetting my face with some more of her tonguey kisses.
I said, “Lead us home, girl.” I wiped the bit of tears leaking from my eyes and we were back on course.
The next sight was the sparkly shine of the Ashton lake. Finally, a familiar location.
As we made it to my front lawn I noticed that beyond the natural ugliness of the house it sat mostly undisturbed. There were no freaky whispers or Silhouettes, nothing but home sweet home.
Peaches moaned, inferring we should head inside, but I was not so sure yet. Along with all of the current events, I was no longer certain what I might find when I opened the door. My feelings were not warmed when I saw someone wandering around the living room slowly like a zombie when I looked through the curtains.
Peaches, impatient, darted out of my grip and went up to scratch the mess out of the door. Stopping her was hopeless. I dodged the screen door as it fell off the porch, barely dodging a hinge to the face.
The person in the living room slouched their way toward the door, dragging one foot behind the other. It was Mom but she wasn’t exactly close to the way I had left her. Her hair was matted against the sides of her face. Mascara had drizzled down her eyes from crying, but the goofy expression she wore made me feel like they were tears from laughing.
Thunk! She walked into the door and fell on her butt. Panicking, I burst through the door.
I said, “Mom? Are you ok?” as I helped her up.
She jerked her hand from mine, “Raisins.”
“What?”
She placed her hand over her mouth, “Oh, I didn’t mean to offend. Raisins used to be grapes. Are you a grape? It is really hard to tell with you people these days.”
She laughed like she had performed the funniest joke she’d heard in years. I didn’t get it. My first instinct was to look around for more empty wine bottles but there were none to be found. Something else had done that to her.
The mesmerizing world wonder that was my glowing dog ceased her cackling. The effects of the orb had returned. She said, “I bet doggy is full of glowing raisins,” and leapt on to Peaches back. She said, “Ride, doggy, ride.”
I pulled Mom away from Peaches and helped her to the couch. She fought out of my grip again and ran to pick up random picture frames, which she promptly threw around the room. Upon each smash into the wall, she let out a big “Woo Hoo.” Mom didn’t even seem to care I’d been gone for so long.
She said, “There’s something funny about that stone over there. One second, it is red like a clown’s nose and the next, it is telling knock knock jokes. What have I told you about knock knock jokes?”
“I don’t even—”
“Knock Knock.”
“Mom, not now.”
I looked over at the stone Darius had left behind before he—well I did not want to think about what happened to him. Nothing stood out about the stone except that it was now sitting on the center of the table when I had distinctly remembered Mom knocking it to the ground earlier.
“What’s funny about it?” I said as I took a seat on the ground.
Mom wrapped her arms around Peaches and pulled her in close, saying, “I was humming a bar from Fiddler on a Roof and the next minute the rock is glowing bright red like my own little piece of the sun. Did I say that already? I am so sleepy.”
She hopped back to her feet and wobbled to the dining room table. She lifted the stone and pulled it in close, protecting it like it was a new born child, “Alan, I found him.”
“Found who?”
“Your father.” She did a pirouette and invited me to join in. “He’s returned to us as a stone to apologize. For now on, we move him and not the other way around.”
My head aching, I said, “What are you talking about?”
She said, “See this?” and threw the stone with all of her might into the wall. As it landed, she walked over to pick it back up and placed it on the table. “Moved.”
She said, “Isn’t it obvious? Your father has been planning this all along. It’s all for you and me.”
“I’m not sure I understand. What makes you think it was Dad?”
“It had no emotion like most rocks.”
I walked over to pick it up and provide an examination but Peaches rushed in behind me, knocking the large table and stone onto the floor. I thought I heard a man’s voice speak. The voice said, “Excuse me, pardon me.”
As happy as a child, Mom rushed behind me, picked up the table and knocked it over again. I was too distracted by her cheering that I didn’t notice the dog making a hacking noise over the mess.
Peaches bounced past me on her way to her food bowl in the kitchen. I noticed she was no longer glowing bright blue. I had to admit I was a little disappointed. I thought, “Do you know how much money we could save on lightbulbs?”
In seconds, Mom blacked out and hit the floor. I turned around to help her up, but there was a huge neon pile of doggy puke covering the stone a few inches from her head. The stone itself sparkled bright red and swirled in with the blue mess to form this intergalactic frisbee that I could only describe as a reject from a Trix cereal commercial.
A pile of light, it floated like a flying saucer until it popped into the solid darkness of the Silhouette, which appeared like a two dimensional cardboard cutout of a man.
I said, “This cannot be happening right now.”
He said, “I think we got off on the wrong foot. My name is Andrew Lathon and I believe you are in gr
ave danger.”
My first instinct was to yell until my lungs would fall out. Yet somehow, I didn’t think it would make Andrew Lathon disappear.
His body began to take form, shifting from a blob with a hole for a mouth into a man standing at about six feet tall. When he moved, the silhouette of a long coat moved with him. No matter how animated the Silhouette became, it looked more like there was a puzzle piece missing than it looked like another man with me in the room.
I said, “I demand that you leave this house at once. If you so much as look like you are going to harm my mother—”
He replied, “No, it might be key for you to work on your listening skills. As I said in the forest, I too would love to help you search for your father. Now, let us begin.”
The Silhouette (Alan Quinn and the Second Lifes) Page 5