Black Bells

by Dawn Napier

  I need to find Jack Benimble. He remembers everything. He remembers what I've made myself forget.

  So resolving, Megan drifted to sleep.

  Chapter Twelve

  Brian was on the phone with the police again. His hair was wild, and his black shirt was peppered with dandruff. Megan could tell that he hadn't showered in at least a day or two. She felt a tug of maternal sympathy. Poor bastard, how would he ever get along without her? She needed to wrap this up and get home.

  "She got really upset when I told her what I told you—about what she said that time. She might have just taken off because she's pissed at me. She's done it before. Years ago, before the girls came... No, she hasn't threatened to leave since we got them... I don't know! I don't know if she could have kidnapped Paige. I never would have thought she'd do something like that, but she hasn't been herself...

  "Why do you need to see me at the station?"

  Jenna sat on the couch, eating popcorn out of the bag and reading a paperback with a unicorn on the cover. Megan hadn't even known she could read such advanced novels. She'd never bought anything harder than the very simplest chapter books. There was a white sticker on the spine; it was a library book from her school.

  Jenna seemed calm and unconcerned, miles from the shocked, pale child Megan had played fantasy farm with. Maybe Jenna knew that Megan had gone after Paige. She would have faith that Megan would bring her back safely if that were the case. It was how Jenna was wired. Megan hoped that her faith was justified.

  "Jenna, honey, don't eat popcorn on the couch," Brian said. His phone was still glued to his ear like an electronic appendage.

  "Sorry, Dad." Jenna brushed her buttery fingers off on her T-shirt and put the popcorn bag on the end table. When Brian went upstairs, she picked up the bag and started eating again.

  That wasn't like Jenna. Brian had once called her Mini-Mom for the way she tried to keep Paige in line. Any kind of rebellion just wasn't Jenna. Megan looked her over carefully to make sure that she hadn't fallen into some sort of time loop. No, Jenna was still a kid, not a teenager. She looked no older than she had the day Megan had left.

  With a little concentration Megan was able to follow Brian up the stairs. He'd hung up the phone, and he kept looking behind him with a furtive, almost fearful expression. This wasn't psychic behavior on his part, Megan thought. He was checking to make sure Jenna wasn't in earshot.

  Then he dialed another number. "Hey, Bob? I'm in a bit of a tight spot. Can I come in for a consultation? Yeah, it's about Paige. And—and Megan."

  Bob Landree, Megan's old friend from high school. He'd grown up to be a criminal defense lawyer. Megan was upset that Brian had to resort to legal counsel, but she was also glad that he was trying to protect himself and his daughter. Maybe he wasn’t completely helpless without her after all.

  Megan left Brian and wandered through the house. She wondered how long she'd been gone in their world. It was early evening; she could tell that much from the light in the windows. But which evening? Was it still the day she'd left, or had the police taken a few days to decide on Brian as a suspect? There were no traditional calendars in the house to give Megan a clue.

  She wandered into the master bedroom. The bed was perfectly made, and the pillows were neatly straightened. That was weird. Brian hadn't made a bed in months, and Megan knew he hadn't done this himself. Hadn't she taken the blankets with her when she'd gone into the closet?

  Megan peeked into the closet, wondering if she would see her sleeping body lying there. Of course it wasn't. Had she been so easy to find, Brian wouldn’t be under the scrutiny of the police, not enough to feel the sudden need for a lawyer anyway.

  The paper and crayons were scattered across the carpeted floor, and Sarah lay curled up among them. Megan stared down at her daughters’ birth mother, too shocked at first to speak.

  Sarah's head jerked up, and Megan was staring into a pair of black sockets. Sarah's face was cracked and withered, her blackened teeth bared like the fangs of an ancient dog. "What happened to my daughter?" the dead woman whispered. Her voice was like the dying nighttime wind.

  "I'm trying to find her," Megan said weakly.

  "Then… what are you doing… here?" Sarah's head rolled, and Megan saw the purple burn mark around her throat.

  "I'm asleep."

  "Then wake up!" The dead woman flew at Megan like a ragged grey bat. Megan screamed and slammed the door just as Sarah's filthy claws touched her right cheek.

  Now you have a matching set, she thought vacantly. Her father had told her that once, when she'd fallen and skinned both knees. A matching set. A matching set.

  Megan awoke on the ledge. Her back hurt, and her right arm was asleep. She sat up and flexed her arm, driving blood and feeling back into it. Traces of blood trickled upward from her bleeding right cheek.

  It actually happened, she thought. She touched both cheeks and felt painful lines on both. She shuddered when she remembered the baggy dead thing that had been Sarah Anderson. Hopefully the ocean water would wash away whatever bacteria the dead woman had carried in her jagged nails.

  Something far above her was circling. It—no, they; there were at least two of them, maybe three—was large and sleek, and they slid through the water like birds of prey.

  Of course, Megan thought with tired resignation. They smell blood in the water. It was bound to happen. No child ever envisioned the ocean without sharks in it.

  Something cold and rubbery slipped around her waist, and she was jerked upwards. "No!" she cried as Posey carried her back up to the ocean floor and toward the circling sharks. "I thought the mermaid was going to eat me!" Probably the stupidest thing she'd ever said, but Megan was out of her mind with fear. The sharks were getting closer, and they were so big.

  The mermaid appeared beside her. Her black hair glinted gold in the light from the orange river. Her enormous eyes were bright with pleasure.

  "I have considered its fate," she crooned, "and I have decided to play a game with it. Would it care for a chance to live?"

  Megan swallowed. "What game?" Her ears popped as she rose through the water and exited the crevasse. She thought that the change in water pressure ought to kill her or make her crazy or something, but she was being dragged through the water by an invisible giant squid, at the mercy of an evil mermaid, so obviously the rules were flexible. Megan decided not to think about it. Her imagination seemed a powerful force here, so if she didn't think about it, then it probably wouldn't happen.

  "A fast, fast game," the mermaid said. My brothers are hungry." The mermaid grinned up at the circling sharks, twin silhouettes against the blue. "You will race them."

  "How am I supposed to out-swim two sharks?"

  "If it does not know, I can't be bothered to tell it." The mermaid turned its grin on her. She was actually more attractive, Megan thought, if one looked at her from a piscine rather than a humanoid perspective. It was like watching a dance, to see her moving through the water like a lionfish.

  They were back at the dark ocean floor, and the circling sharks were just above their heads. They looked like great whites to Megan; they were huge and grey, and their rows of teeth swished by Megan's head.

  "If it swims, it lives. If it stops, it dies," the mermaid hissed. "My brothers will eat it, and the nasty ripples in the world will stop."

  "Why not eat me now, then?" Megan asked. She could have kicked herself for giving her the idea, but she genuinely wanted to know. The mermaid had her captive. Why not just put an end to her, if she wanted her dead?

  "Because she wants it that way." The mermaid snapped her teeth irritably. "I must do what she wants, for she has been here long long, and her ripples can hurt. I have seen the Dungeon Deep. She dreams of the place, and the dreams spread."

  "I have to go to the Dungeon Deep. Do you know the way from here?"

  "Wrong. It has to catch the child before my brothers do. From there it might reach the Dungeon Deep, but it will no longer be my p
roblem."

  "What child?"

  "One two three go!" Quick as an adder, Posey released Megan and slipped away into the rocks. At the same moment, the sharks changed their circling pattern. One turned and came straight at Megan with jaws agape. The other angled upward. Megan followed its trajectory and there, drifting in the blue, was the body of a small child.

  "Paige!" Megan kicked out and tried to swim, but the shark was faster and already had a healthy lead. Behind her, the second shark swam past and circled around for another charge.

  There had to be a way to win this race. The mermaid had hinted at it. She was just being an asshole about it. Megan was furious. She was getting really tired of being afraid, being chased and hurt and most of all, being cold. She hated being cold, and this water was fucking cold. All she wanted was to get her daughter back, and every time she turned around there was another puzzle, another riddle, another goddam monster trying to hurt her. Far Faraway was supposed to be a fantasy world, an escape! Not this nightmare. God damn her, whoever she was!

  Megan's puny little feet were no match for the powerful fins of the shark. The shark ahead of her was pulling away faster, drawing closer to Paige's floating body, and Megan suspected that the second shark was just playing with her. Every couple of strokes, it would draw closer and snap its jaws, missing Megan's bare feet by inches. The swishing water sent a shiver of terror up her back.

  If she could become the dragon again, those sharks would be sorry. But the trolls had killed it. Or had they?

  The more afraid she got, the more angry she got, and the anger was building a warm fire in her belly. She concentrated on that feeling and tried to remember how it had felt to wear the dragon's scales, to fly with its wings, and to breathe fire with its muzzle. She felt her skin growing numb, and there was an itching tickle down her spine and in her shoulder blades. Her face lengthened, and her teeth ached. She coughed—and inhaled a fresh lungful of ocean water.

  It hurt, oh God it hurt, and her eyes burned from the salt. The dragon was drowning. A fire-breathing creature of the sky had no business swimming in the sea.

  But she was still bigger and faster than the sharks, and she tightened her wings against her body and zipped straight for her daughter, her tail whipping her forward. Her aching lungs hurt so badly; she wanted to thrash and claw her throat in panic. But she had to get to Paige. There would be no panicking or drowning while her daughter was still in danger.

  She slammed past the shark and sent it spinning sideways into the depths of the Forgotten Sea. Paige was right in front of her now. She caught the child in her claws and swam like a snake for the surface. When her scaly head finally broke the surface, she coughed mightily and vomited an impossible amount of water. Her first breath of air was as sweet as anything she'd ever imagined.

  She held her child's head above the surface and swam for shore. There was no land in sight, but Megan didn't let that bother her. Land would appear when it was needed. That was how things worked in Far Faraway.

  Paige was unconscious, but she seemed to be breathing. Megan's head was oddly shaped, and she couldn't look down to get a good look at her, but the little girl's body was warm, and Megan felt slight motion in her body that indicated respiration. Megan swam with her tail and back legs and tried to keep Paige out of the water as much as possible. She'd beaten the sharks, but she had a feeling that the mermaid might be a sore loser. She had to get her daughter out of here.

  A thin black line appeared on the horizon. The sky above was blue, so this was not the Island of Dogs. And there was no mountain, so it was not Mountain Steep. This must be the mainland of Far Faraway. The Land of Sweets was just past the tree line.

  And the Dungeon Deep was somewhere far below. Megan shivered, and Paige stirred in her arms.

  When they reached the shore, Megan felt herself shrink and change. Suddenly the water was shockingly cold, and gooseflesh broke out over Megan's naked body. She stumbled onto the sand and put Paige down as carefully as she could—which wasn't very. The little girl's head thumped against the sand.

  Megan caught Paige's head and brushed her wet hair out of her face. It wasn't Paige.

  Chapter Thirteen

  She stared for a moment. This was so unexpected that for a minute she wasn't sure how to react. This child had long hair like Paige's, but that was where the similarity ended. Her face was fair and spattered with freckles. Her body was stocky and just a bit chubby. There was a coppery tint in her hair, and somehow Megan knew that when she opened her eyes, they would be hazel green.

  This child was also much older. Paige was five. This little girl had to be at least seven. She wore a pair of high-hipped blue jeans and a pink T-shirt on which a purple unicorn pranced.

  Megan knew this little girl. She wasn't Megan's daughter, but she was someone very close. Megan knew that T-shirt, and she knew that it was the child's favorite article of clothing. She wore it every day that it was clean, and by the time she outgrew it, the shirt would be a tattered rag more grey than pink. Her family would have a funeral for it when the time came.

  The girl opened her eyes. They were bleary and confused, and yes, they were pale green with just a touch of hazel. The child focused on Megan's face and stared intensely. Megan felt herself flush, aware of her nakedness.

  "Megan, why are you so big? Where are your clothes?"

  "Debbie," Megan breathed. "Why are you so little?"

  "Because I'm eight, stupid. How old are you? You look fifty."

  Megan bristled. "I'm forty-one!" Then she had to laugh at herself for arguing with a child, one who probably wasn't even real.

  "Where are we?" Debbie looked around.

  "We're near the Land of Sweets," Megan said, pointing at the trees. "It's just that way. We're on the beach."

  "How did I get out of the Dungeon?"

  "Why were you in the Dungeon?"

  "I don't know. She put me there."

  "Who is she?"

  "I can't say her name. It makes her cranky, and then stuff turns to blood."

  "Ew." That was one mystery partially solved. This mysterious "she" was the one responsible for the horror at the Land of Sweets. Megan was glad that it wasn’t Debbie or one of her childhood friends who had been responsible for that horror.

  "Debbie," she said carefully, "do you remember the Bad thing?"

  "What bad thing?" Debbie climbed to her feet and brushed the wet sand off her shirt and pants.

  That was what she'd thought. This was young Debbie, the innocent child who still thought that bad things didn't happen to good children, and when they did, that the people responsible would always be punished. Megan felt homesick for that time of her life.

  "I have to go to the Dungeon Deep," Megan said. "Can you show me the way?"

  "I don't know where anything is. You were the one drawing the maps. I could never figure anything out."

  "That's because I always changed the maps to tease you. I wish I hadn't of done that. Now I don't know where anything is either."

  "Jack would know. Jack knows everything. He even knows when you change the maps."

  Megan didn't know how to respond to that. She did not want to tell this child that she might have gotten Jack killed.

  The sun dipped toward the horizon over the sea. The sky changed from blue to pink, and the ocean grew a tail of orange across its surface.

  Now Megan was truly cold, and she rubbed her prickling arms. "We need to find you clothes," Debbie observed. "Grown-ups shouldn't be naked."

  "I agree. Do you know where we can find some?"

  "The Land of Sweets has stores and stuff."

  "I'd rather not wear anything made out of candy."

  "Don't you remember? You can buy regular clothes there. Just in bright colors, and lots of glitter."

  Megan shrugged. "Let's go, then." And she'd be very careful not to break anything this time.

  There was a path between the trees leading away from the beach, and Debbie led the way. The path was mad
e of white pebbles that hurt Megan's feet, but she did not complain. She thought she knew what she had to do now, and her new found certainty filled her with confidence. She would not complain about the path even if every step felt like knives in her feet.

  She followed Debbie down the white, pebbly path as the trees grew close around them. Days and nights were all messed up here; Megan could have sworn that her first day in Far Faraway had lasted a week, but today had only lasted a few minutes. Perhaps there were no rules at all here, and everything that happened was just random chaos. But Megan didn’t believe it. She thought that there were rules, perhaps laws as unchanging and certain as the law of gravity back in the real world. She just hadn't figured them out yet.

  The white path through the dark trees made her think of the camping trip she'd taken with her family when she was ten. It was the first vacation they'd taken after the bad thing had happened, and the first time in memory that they hadn't gone to Florida. Debbie had been quiet, but had seemed to enjoy herself. Megan had hated every minute of it.

  Her face flushed as she remembered the horrible way she'd acted, especially in light of what had happened to Debbie. She'd whined incessantly about the weeds and the bugs, and she'd asked why they weren't going to see Aunt Candace at least six times on that first day.

  Finally, Mom had taken her out into the woods and slapped her silly. Over and over again, her mother had slapped her about the face and head, and the pain had been nothing compared to her fear of that cold, methodical expression on Mom's face. That had quieted her whining, but she still remembered the sick, smoldering fury that had lingered over all four of them for the duration of the trip. Dad had tried his best to make it a great trip; he'd taken them to the beach, to restaurants, and even to a nearby amusement park that he probably couldn't afford. Megan had muttered under her breath that it was a dump compared to Disney, and that had earned her another vicious slap from her mother.