Dark Woods

by Steve Voake

  ‘So now you’ve done it,’ said Cal, ‘are you going to take us back?’

  Jefferson frowned.

  ‘The thing with the teddy bear was just to prove to you that it works,’ he said. ‘The reason I brought you here is because I need you to do something else for me.’

  ‘What?’ asked Cal. ‘What can I do?’

  ‘Like I said,’ replied Jefferson. ‘I want you to find my dog. And then I want you to bring her back to me.’

  Fourteen

  ‘Watch carefully,’ said Jefferson. ‘You just press this button here, on the side of the monitor, and that gives you the picture. It’s a wireless system that uses the alpha-waves the brain creates when a person is dreaming. It converts them into a different form of electrical energy which the computer system recalibrates as pixels of colour. These become the picture you see on the screen, which is an exact copy of what the person is dreaming about.’

  Cal glanced across to the bed in the corner where Eden was still fast asleep. Then he turned back to the monitor which showed some kind of fairground scene and a woman whisking candyfloss onto a stick.

  ‘That’s what she’s dreaming about? Candyfloss?’

  ‘It would seem so, yes.’

  Jefferson moved the mouse so that the cursor was positioned over the image of the candyfloss. ‘When you find the object you’re looking for, you just click on the mouse and it gives you the option to isolate it. See? You try it.’

  Cal clicked on the YES option and an image of the candyfloss filled the screen. Despite the weirdness of the situation, Cal’s fingers tingled with excitement.

  Could he really take something from Eden’s dreams and make it exist in the real world?

  ‘All right, see now it’s giving you the option to save or delete,’ said Jefferson, as if he were teaching an ordinary, everyday computer class. ‘When you’re happy you’ve got the image you want, all you do is go for the save option and the computer will do the rest.’

  Cal looked at the swirl of pink candyfloss on screen.

  ‘I just click SAVE?’

  ‘Simple as that.’

  Cal clicked the mouse and heard the whirr and hum of the computers as they processed the information. He looked at the screen and saw that the candyfloss had disappeared.

  ‘You see, Cal?’

  Jefferson smiled and put a hand on his shoulder.

  ‘Now you know what it feels like to make a dream come true.’

  ‘Are you telling me there’s now a stick of candyfloss lying in that cage?’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘But how? How does it work?’

  ‘In some ways it is very complicated, Cal. So complicated, in fact, that even the finest scientific minds have been unable to comprehend it. But in another way, it is really very simple. Just think of it like an idea.’

  ‘An idea?’

  ‘Yes.’

  Jefferson removed the metal discs from Eden’s temples and placed them beside the bed.

  ‘Imagine that you wake up one morning and decide you want to bake a cake. You have an idea of the cake, but at this stage the cake only exists in your mind. It does not yet exist in the physical world. So you get up, and you go to the pantry, and you find all the things that you need, eggs, sugar, flour, all the ingredients that are required to bake a cake. Then put these things together in the right amounts, and you put them in the oven, and then suddenly a cake exists in the world where before there was no cake. In the morning the cake was just an idea, but in the afternoon it is a real thing that exists in the real, physical world. And so it is with dreams. All you have to do is take the energy created from the image and use it to organise the molecules in the physical world in its own likeness. The energy is the cook, and the whole world is its pantry. It contains all the ingredients it could possibly need. Do you understand?’

  ‘Sort of,’ said Cal. ‘But why has no one thought of it before?’

  Jefferson smiled. ‘Partly because it is way more complicated than baking a cake,’ he said, ‘and partly because the idea is so simple. All I’m asking from you is that you help me to bring my dog back.’

  ‘People are going to be looking for us,’ said Cal. ‘And when they find us, they’re going to come looking for you.’

  Jefferson shrugged.

  ‘That doesn’t mean they’ll find me. I’m pretty good at disappearing when I have to. I’ve been disappearing all my life.’

  The image on the monitor was flickering now, its bright colours fading to grey.

  ‘She’s waking up,’ said Jefferson, walking over to the door. ‘Maybe I’ll just leave you two alone for a while so you can, you know, explain things to her. I wouldn’t want to frighten her when she’s coming around.’

  Cal watched Eden moving beneath the sheets and wondered how Jefferson could possibly believe that all this was somehow going to turn out all right. But he thought that, right now, convincing Eden to play along with Jefferson’s crazy scheme was probably the best chance of survival they had.

  ‘Tell me something,’ said Jefferson suddenly. ‘Who is the tall tailor?’

  Cal turned to see Jefferson leaning against the door frame with a strange look in his eyes, as though he was the keeper of some terrible secret.

  ‘I— I don’t know,’ said Cal, but the words sent a chill through his blood, as though they had stirred something long forgotten. ‘Why do you ask?’

  Jefferson looked away.

  ‘No reason,’ he said. ‘No reason at all.’

  Then he stepped backwards and pulled the door shut, leaving Cal and Eden alone in the room.

  Fifteen

  Eden began to breathe more deeply, then gasped several times like a diver coming up for air.

  ‘It’s all right,’ said Cal, standing by the bed and holding her hand. ‘Everything’s going to be OK.’

  Eden’s eyelids flickered and then she sat up and pulled her hand away.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ said Cal. ‘I didn’t mean—’

  Eden put her hands to her face and pressed them against her eyes. Then she let them fall into her lap and stared at Cal, as if seeing him for the very first time.

  ‘Where am I?’ she asked. ‘What’s going on?’

  ‘We were brought here,’ said Cal. ‘By the guy with the van. We were in the woods, remember?’

  Eden sat on the edge of the bed, her feet dangling above the floor. She stared at her scuffed trainers as if trying to work out why she had worn them to bed.

  ‘Right – there was a guy,’ she said. ‘A guy looking for his dog. He was going to drive us back.’ She screwed her eyes shut and Cal remembered how much his own head had hurt when he’d woken up.

  ‘But he drove us here instead,’ he said. ‘This is where he lives. Right slap-bang in the middle of nowhere.’

  Eden opened her eyes again and tried to stand, but her legs were too weak and she sat down again.

  ‘That guy brought us here?’

  ‘Uh-huh.’

  ‘How … ? Oh God, the lemonade. He spiked the lemonade, didn’t he?’

  Cal nodded.

  ‘Cal, we have to get out of here.’ Eden looked at the window blinds and the lights flickering on the wall of computers. She saw the metal discs on the table beside the bed and pressed a hand to her temple. ‘Cal, what is going on? Is he still here?’

  ‘He’s in the living room. He wanted me to try and explain things to you.’

  ‘What?’ Eden stared at him incredulously. ‘He was in here with you while I was asleep?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘And he wants you to explain things? What are you, his new best friend?’

  ‘No. I just—’

  ‘Cal, this guy spiked our drinks and kidnapped us. For all you know he could be out there sharpening his axe, getting ready to chop us into a thousand pieces.’

  ‘He’s not like that, Eden.’

  ‘What? Cal, are you out of your mind? We have to get out of here.’

  ‘Yeah, well it i
sn’t as easy as all that. Like I said, we’re in the middle of nowhere.’

  Eden sat up gingerly, peered through the blinds and swore.

  ‘See?’ said Cal.

  ‘We didn’t fly here by helicopter, Cal,’ said Eden, lowering her voice. ‘He brought us here. In a van. So if there’s a way in, there has to be a way out. It stands to reason.’

  ‘But we’re miles from anywhere.’

  ‘Says who?’

  ‘Says Jefferson.’

  ‘Who’s Jefferson?’

  ‘The guy.’

  ‘Oh yeah, right. That would be the same guy who drugged us and threw us in the back of a van. No way he’d lie to us.’

  ‘Look, I just think if we help him to get what he wants, he’ll take us back and then this whole thing will be over with.’

  ‘You do, huh?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘OK. And what makes you think you know what he wants?’

  ‘Because he told me, while you were asleep.’

  ‘I don’t believe it,’ said Eden, holding her head and pacing up and down. ‘You’re as crazy as he is.’

  ‘Just calm down and listen for a minute,’ said Cal. ‘I know this must seem a bit weird to you. But just hear me out.’

  ‘“A bit weird”?’ Eden stood by the shutters with her hands on her hips. ‘Where in England are you from – Never-Never Land? Are you going to tell me if I sit here doing nothing, my fairy godmother’s gonna sweep in and take me home in a coach made out of pumpkins?’

  ‘No,’ said Cal. ‘But I am going to tell you about a teddy bear you used to have.’

  ‘What?’ Eden shook her head. ‘Now I know you’re losing it.’

  ‘It was brown, wasn’t it? Brown with one eye missing.’

  Eden looked at him and swallowed.

  ‘How could you possibly know that?’

  ‘Because you dreamed about it. Because I watched your dream.’

  Eden looked at the computers and the monitor and the metal discs beside the bed.

  ‘Give me a break.’

  ‘I’m not making this up, I swear. I saw into your dreams, Eden. And it gets weirder. Jefferson says he’s found a way of turning dreams into reality.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘He can take things from your mind and make them real.’

  ‘Cal, I don’t want to hear about it,’ said Eden. ‘That freak drugged me, dragged me out here and stuck things on my head. He should be locked up.’

  ‘But if we help him …’

  ‘What? No way, Cal. I ain’t helping that creep. I’m gonna find him and tell him exactly what I think of him, that’s what I’m gonna do. And when I’ve done that he’s gonna drive us back home and I’m gonna make sure he spends the rest of his life eating prison food in some maximum security jail. And maybe while he’s sitting there he’ll think, “Oh wait a minute, maybe it wasn’t such a great idea to go round kidnapping people after all.”’

  ‘I can see you’re upset,’ said Cal.

  Eden stared at him.

  ‘What is wrong with you, Cal?’

  ‘I just think if we help him, it’s our best way of getting out of here.’

  ‘Yeah, well, that’s where you and me differ,’ said Eden, walking towards the door. ‘You stay if you want. Me? I’m out of here.’

  She pulled open the door and then hesitated. As she stepped back into the room again, Cal saw why.

  Jefferson was standing in the doorway, his face white with fury.

  And in his hand, he held a shotgun.

  Sixteen

  ‘You think it’s nice to talk about people behind their backs? Do you? Huh?’ Jefferson jerked the barrel of the shotgun forward as he spoke. ‘Is that what you think?’

  Eden raised her hands in front of her chest, as if the act of doing so might somehow stop a cartridge full of buckshot.

  ‘I don’t know what you mean,’ she said, and Cal saw that her hands were trembling. ‘I only just woke up. I’m still trying to figure out what’s going on.’

  ‘Oh yeah?’ Jefferson kept the shotgun level as his gaze shifted from Eden to Cal and back again. ‘Well, it seems like I heard you calling me a freak.’

  Cal saw the flash of anger in Jefferson’s eyes, saw the way his index finger curled around the trigger and decided it was time to get involved.

  ‘She’s frightened, that’s all,’ he said. ‘She doesn’t know you the way I do.’

  Cal glanced at Eden and saw fear in her eyes. But he also saw the way Jefferson stared at him, like a man waking from a troublesome dream.

  ‘You know me?’ he asked, and his voice wavered. ‘You know me?’

  ‘I’m starting to,’ said Cal. ‘Just a little.’

  Jefferson lowered the shotgun as if all the fight had gone out of him.

  ‘Come out here,’ he said to Eden. ‘I want to prove to you that I’m not a freak.’

  ‘How about you put the gun down first?’ said Eden. ‘You’re making me nervous.’

  ‘Yeah well you make me nervous,’ said Jefferson, recovering some of his anger. ‘All that talk about putting me in jail.’

  ‘She didn’t mean anything by it,’ said Cal. ‘She was just upset. Weren’t you, Eden?’

  He stared at her, willing her to play the game.

  ‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘That’s what it was. Now will you put the gun down?’

  ‘All right,’ said Jefferson, slowly backing out of the room. ‘But don’t mess with me, OK? I don’t want you trying any funny stuff.’

  Cal wondered what kind of funny stuff he had in mind, but as they followed him into the living area he seemed to relax a little.

  ‘OK, maybe I got a bit upset there,’ he said, putting the gun on the table amongst the piles of papers. ‘But you have to understand that I’m not out to hurt you. Look. While you were sleeping I even made you something to eat.’ He went across to the breakfast bar as if nothing had happened and came back with a plate of sandwiches. Cal noticed the bread was thick and roughly cut and wondered if Jefferson had baked it himself. He imagined him standing alone in the kitchen, waiting for the dough to rise and listening to the wind in the trees.

  ‘What’s in them?’ asked Eden.

  ‘Nothing to worry about, if that’s what you mean,’ said Jefferson.

  ‘I wasn’t meaning that,’ said Eden.

  ‘They’re cheese and tomato,’ said Jefferson. ‘Cheese and tomato with a touch of mayo thrown in.’

  It was late afternoon and as the sun threw long shadows across the pine floorboards Cal realised how hungry he was. He thought about how he never let Sarah make breakfast for him and now here he was sitting in a log cabin taking sandwiches from a crazy man. But then Jefferson wasn’t promising to look after him; he wasn’t promising anything except maybe a chance to go back where he started from, and Cal was used to that.

  ‘Not bad,’ said Eden innocently, taking a bite from a sandwich. ‘Where d’you get the cheese?’

  ‘From a convenience store,’ said Jefferson and Cal could tell from his face that he knew what was behind Eden’s question. ‘But I’d say two hours’ drive ain’t exactly convenient.’

  ‘I guess not,’ said Eden. She took a shifty look at the gun and Cal began to understand what Jefferson had meant about not trying any funny stuff. He tried to catch her eye, but she was too busy looking at Jefferson.

  ‘You said you had something to show me,’ she said as Cal reached for a sandwich and perched on the arm of the sofa. ‘Something to prove you’re not a freak, remember?’

  Cal could see she was still angry, that she was deliberately pushing Jefferson, trying to goad him into an anger that would match her own. But Jefferson didn’t seem to notice. Instead he simply said, ‘That’s right,’ and disappeared into the bedroom. When he returned, Cal saw that he was holding something behind his back.

  ‘Shut your eyes,’ he said, grinning like it was some kind of birthday surprise. ‘Shut your eyes and hold out your hands.’

  Ed
en glanced at Cal and he nodded, so she did as Jefferson had asked. When her eyes were closed, Jefferson produced the teddy bear from behind his back and placed it in her hands with a flourish.

  ‘There,’ he said proudly. ‘What do you think of that?’

  Eden opened her eyes and stared at the teddy bear.

  ‘What’s this?’ she asked.

  ‘I should have thought that was obvious,’ said Jefferson. ‘It’s a teddy bear. Or rather, I should say, it’s your teddy bear.’

  Eden turned it over in her hands and Cal watched as her fingers stroked the worn patch of fur, touching the frayed threads where the glass eye used to be.

  ‘Where did you get this?’ she whispered.

  Jefferson smiled.

  ‘From inside your head,’ he said.

  Seventeen

  ‘Do you think I’m stupid?’ There was a hard edge to Eden’s voice now, like water turning to ice. ‘This whole thing you told Cal about turning dreams into reality. You might have talked him into believing it, but if you think you’re going to get me to go along with it then you’re even crazier than you look. And that’s saying something.’

  Jefferson clenched his jaw so tight that Cal could see the tendons in his neck.

  ‘So how do you explain this?’ he asked, snatching the teddy bear from her hand and shaking it angrily. ‘How do you explain it? Hmm?’ He was shouting now but it felt like only the beginning, the first gasping breaths of a toddler before the tantrum.

  ‘How do I explain it?’ replied Eden. ‘Well, let’s see. Maybe the kind of guy who’s willing to hang around a campground and drug people is also the kind of guy who is going to wait around outside a person’s house and steal their stuff.’ She glared at Jefferson. ‘That’s it, isn’t it? You broke into my house and took it, just so you could live out your weird fantasy about making dreams come true. Well, I’ve got news for you, buddy. I don’t believe a word of it. Like I said before, you’re crazy. A crazy freak.’

  ‘What did you say?’

  ‘You heard me.’

  Jefferson dropped the teddy bear and clenched his fists.

  ‘You think I’m crazy?’ he said. ‘Well maybe I’ll just show you some of the other things I found in that twisted brain of yours. Then we’ll see who the crazy one really is.’