The Place Beyond

by Ryan Lohner

  Chapter Four

  Upon leaving the trees behind, Matt and Jane were finally able to talk without being afraid someone might hear. They started by both saying the same thing at the same time: “What the hell was that?”

  Matt stared into a face that looked every bit as scared and confused as he felt. “You’re the one who’s lived here your whole life. Was that anything approaching normal? Please tell me you have some idea.”

  Jane shook her head. “I haven’t been in there in years, and even so, you’d think something like that would get some attention around here. This place is all about people coming to see weird stuff.”

  Matt was only half paying attention; he was still struggling to piece together what he’d seen. “You saw that light ball thing, right? It looked like it was just hanging in midair. My parents look into a lot of stuff, and I’ve never heard them talking about anything like this.”

  Jane raised her hands and made a pushing gesture, clearly trying to get everything straight in her mind. She repeated the motion a few times before she spoke again. “So, neither of us has any ideas here. And I don’t think we’re going to get anywhere. So, I suggest we just go home before morning comes and we get caught. Just try to forget about it. Maybe we’re in a dream right now, even.”

  Matt couldn’t go that far. The sights, sounds, and smells around him, and the feel of the night wind on his face, all told him that no matter what he’d seen, he was awake. And he certainly didn’t relish the idea of spending hours in bed, knowing he would never get to sleep. But he did have to acknowledge that they would be in big trouble if they let this thing, whatever it was, let them get caught sneaking out. “You’re the boss,” he said, turning so quickly to head back home that he didn’t catch the sarcastic expression Jane made to that.

  * * *

  Just as he’d thought, Matt got no sleep that night. Both what those people had said, and their bizarre light source, kept replaying over and over, and he kept trying to make some kind of sense out of it. They had talked like they were just regular people, so he felt safe ruling out the legends of the Jersey Devil or anything else weird like that. But that was about as far as he could go. Who were they, and what were they doing out there? He kept trying to figure something out, but after what seemed an eternity, the sun came up, and he was still no closer. Giving up on getting any shut-eye, he went downstairs and poured himself some cereal, knowing his parents wouldn’t be awake themselves for a few more hours. One of the benefits of working at home, they always said.

  One thing he could be grateful for was Jane’s idea to not do their little expedition on a school night, because even with his racing thoughts keeping him awake, the adrenaline rush had now long since worn off and he really would not have been up to facing school in his current state. So what was he going to do with his time? Calling Jane was out of the question, since on the off chance she had been able to get some sleep, he didn’t want to interrupt it, and even if she hadn’t, it might get her parents involved, which would raise questions he would much rather not be asked just yet, if ever.

  He settled for returning to his room and listing out in his head what little he knew about what he and Jane had witnessed last night. There had been at least three people there. They had been ordered to stay there by someone else. Some kind of government operation? But what in this area could be worth going to such lengths for? From what that one guy had said about his choices if he hadn’t joined them, Matt’s best guess was that these people didn’t have many scruples when it came to who they hired and were fine with using criminals. In other words, not people he wanted to mess with. But that didn’t make the questions about them burn any less.

  And then, the biggest question of all, at least as far as Matt was concerned: did these people have anything to do with Dave and his father? The more he thought about it, the more sense it made. Dave might have known something was going to happen and was making sure Matt would have something to go on. After thinking about this enough, some doubt had crept in; was he forcing the evidence to a conclusion it didn’t fit just because he wanted answers so much? He let his gaze drift to the window. Outside, the day was frosty and a low mist clung to the ground. It echoed the oddly frozen, hollow feeling in himself. Matt sighed, bringing his attention back to his list. All he really knew was that he desperately needed something to hold on to, and, little though it was, his speculations were all he had.

  A short time later, the sounds of his parents moving about the kitchen filtered through to him. He quickly went downstairs again, antennae raised, testing the atmosphere. On first impressions, it was the usual morning scene.

  Surprisingly, even though he had already eaten a bowl of cereal, he was still hungry. He helped himself to a bowl of oatmeal and stuck it in the microwave to heat, keeping a close eye on his parents as they ate their own breakfast. If they suspected anything, this would be the time it would come out; neither were much for delaying confrontations. Matt suspected it went with their reporters’ instincts, a ‘go for the kill’ attitude. His mother suddenly paused, spoon half-way to her mouth, looking at him and his heart skipped a beat, but she only said, “How are things going at school?”

  Matt tried not to let his relief show as he said, “No one knows anything. So not very well, I guess.”

  His father said, “You know, you’ve got some baggy eyes there. Did you sleep okay?”

  So now the question became, was that a genuine question, or was his father trying to catch him in a lie? Matt’s sense of what was possible had recently been pretty well upended, but he still didn’t think his dad would do that with him, so he rolled the dice. “Not really,” he said, watching his father carefully. “I guess it’s just getting to me, you know?” There was no hint of suspicion in his father’s eyes and relief once more flooded through Matt like warm honey.

  “Maybe there are some pills you could take, just for a couple of days, get you into a routine again,” his dad suggested. “Too much lack of sleep can be pretty bad for you. Not that I’m recommending the use of pills for any length of time either.”

  Matt nodded vaguely, feigning consideration and satisfied that his parents had no idea of what he’d been up to, he retreated back upstairs to get dressed. After checking the time on his cell phone, he figured he’d given Jane enough potential sleeping time. If she wasn’t able to get up at a reasonable hour, it wasn’t his fault. Such went the mindset of someone unable to talk to anyone else about a certain subject.

  * * *

  Jane’s experience had not quite been the same. As soon as she got inside, she heard a gasp. She froze and peered around. Nothing was in sight, but then she heard a giggle from the living room. Still trying to be as quiet as possible, and quite thankful she was still wearing her brother’s clothes, she headed over and found Jeremy and Alex hiding on the other side of the couch. For a few seconds, they all just looked at each other in silence. Jane sighed, shaking her head remorsefully. “So how much?”

  Nothing more was necessary. Even if she hadn’t played this particular game quite often before, her brothers had certainly had enough practice among themselves. Jeremy adopted an exaggerated thinking pose. “Well, let’s see. We’re both awake in the middle of the night. Except, we were inside, and you weren’t. So you’re going to get the worst of it, wouldn’t you say?”

  Jane hated when he got like this. Sneaking occasional looks at the soap operas her mother watched had given him quite a manipulative thinking streak and when he wanted, Jeremy could wield it with a skill far beyond his years. Nothing for it now but to plow through the negotiation as painlessly as possible. “Homework for a month, how about?”

  Now Alex jumped in. “For both of us, you mean?” While he lacked Jeremy’s negotiating prowess, he rarely missed a chance to jump on something like this.

  Luckily, they left it at that and Jane was able to get to bed without waking her parents up. Her little adventure had taken such a bizarre turn that she almost found her thoughts sliding arou
nd it, refusing to believe it had actually happened. The one thing she was able to grab on to was that it must somehow have something to do with Dave’s disappearance. She had no idea how she knew it, but she was now sure he really had meant to draw their attention to whatever was going on in the woods, and that, whatever it was, it held the key to figuring out what had happened to him. Jane felt the pressure of unshed tears against her eyelids. Getting past her brothers had injected such a note of normalcy into the night that she felt as if she didn’t want to have anything to do with it all ever again. Whatever it was going on out there, she told herself, resisting the urge to cry, it had nothing to do with her. The truth was, what she had seen had frightened her and she wished she could just erase it from her mind. She wished she had never agreed to go snooping. Part of her wanted desperately to go to sleep and wake up in the morning back to who she used to be: who she should be.

  Sleep was a long time coming, and when it did come, it was shallow and fitful. After what seemed only a few hours, she awoke to find her phone vibrating furiously. For a second she closed her tired, gritty eyes, putting off the moment when she would have to pick up and answer. She knew who would be calling. Sighing, she climbed out of bed and grabbed hold of the thing, just in time for it to stop vibrating. There were several missed calls listed from Matt. She had to force herself to call back. He picked up on the first ring.

  “Where’ve you been?”

  Jane shut her eyes; this was not what she needed just after waking up. “Right here. I haven’t even had breakfast yet. So what’s up?”

  There was a pause, though she thought she heard a low moan. Then, “You’re really going to do this? That whole thing about pretending it was a dream was serious? Look, I’m on no sleep at all, so I can tell you pretty confidently – it happened.”

  Jane sat down hard, keeping her voice low. “Okay, so it did. Are you telling me you’re going to do anything about it? Because I’m not planning to. Whatever we saw, it’s over our heads. Maybe you can’t forget it, but I’m definitely going to try.”

  “What if we told someone?”

  “Like our parents? The police? You think they’d believe something like this? And what do you think the first thing they’ll ask is? They’ll want to know what we were doing there. I’m embarrassed even thinking back on it, and I so do not want to try to explain it to anyone else. We’ll be in trouble, our reputations will be trashed, and they probably still won’t believe us. They’ll think we saw a bear or something and mutated it into this other thing. People around here tend to do that, you know.”

  Matt still didn’t stop. “Yeah, it was big, whatever it was. But that’s exactly why I can’t just do nothing about it. And just remember, this may involve Dave, too.”

  Jane cringed, as that really hit her where it hurt. But she couldn’t back down now. “We can’t do anything. Just accept it.” She heard him say something else, but by then she had pulled the phone away to end the call. Let Matt do whatever he wanted, but she just could not face any more of this right now.

  * * *

  Matt stared at his phone. The whole of the night it had felt like Jane was taking charge of the whole thing, but now that it involved real, concrete danger she wanted to quit. He supposed he could understand it in a way, as he was certainly afraid himself. But after Dave had done so much to get him out of his shell, possibly enabling him to have a better, richer life in the future, he just couldn’t bear the thought of leaving things here.

  Still, he was left without much to really do about the situation. Having someone along had made him feel a bit less crazy, like he wasn’t the only one who thought this was a good idea. He didn’t want to try to talk to Jane again just yet; she was not in any mood to listen, and every attempt he made meant they risked someone overhearing them arguing and finding out what they had done. Maybe it was a small chance, but he was certainly not about to take the risk. So for the moment, he had to resign himself to the fact that there was nothing he could do. He would just have to wait out the weekend, and hope by the time he and Jane met in school again, she would have cooled down and would be more open to discussion.

  * * *

  Jim normally hated Mondays – they signified a whole week of having to be on time for classes and having to deal with a load of jerks. This Monday, though, was fast becoming worth having got out of bed for. He’d been on the lookout for ‘the odd couple’ as he’d started to think of them, and he hadn’t been disappointed. He had spotted them as soon they arrived, within minutes of each other. Matt had immediately approached Jane, but she turned away from him and picked up her pace. Jim grinned, thoroughly intrigued by the pair. Apparently, whatever Matt had tried on Friday night hadn’t turned out too well; which of course was good news for yours truly. But he didn’t want to openly enter the game just yet. There was probably something else going on here, and that meant he would just end up sticking his foot thoroughly into his mouth if he started chatting the girl up without finding out what it was.

  He spent the rest of the day using whatever free time he had trying to catch them together, so he could listen in. But this proved a much harder task than he’d expected. Every time they seemed to be about to meet up, Jane would walk away. At least it was always her, so he could be reasonably sure that whatever had happened was completely on Matt, but as it kept on happening, he had to admit something to himself: this was no longer just about the girl. He was now extremely curious about what exactly could provoke such an ongoing reaction. The answer, when he had it, would probably not quite be worth it, but until he found out, he knew it would itch away at him. At the very least, this was shaping up to be perhaps the most interesting rendition of the game he’d yet been through, and even if he ended up losing, it would be a worthwhile experience. Not that losing was Plan A.

  Finally, outside the locker room, near the end of the day, Jim’s determination paid off. Jane was just closing her locker when Matt approached her. Oddly, he had his hands up, as if he was expecting to get yelled at. Jim quickly pretended to be looking for something in his bookbag. He was positioned close enough to hear them, but just far away enough that he didn’t think it would look suspicious if they spotted him.

  “Look, you can’t just keep avoiding me forever,” Matt said.

  “I’ve said all I’m going to,” Jane said angrily. “If you want to do something about it, go ahead, but leave me out of it.”

  “What if I need help? I don’t even think I could find the place again.”

  “Well, I guess you have your answer then. Look, I cared about Dave, too. And I want to know what happened to him. But we can’t do anything. We’re a couple of kids! Usually I want to act grown up, but this is a time where I’m fine admitting I’m not. And I don’t know about you, but it seemed to me those guys were serious bad news. What if we go back, and they’re still there? What are you going to do? Maybe they’ll just kill us the second we get there.”

  That was where Jim simply stopped thinking. What he’d overheard was so far away from what he thought he would be listening in on that he just couldn’t process it. He was distantly aware of a sound from down by his feet, but it didn’t penetrate far into his awareness. What did was Jane’s voice, raised to a piercing pitch as she shouted, “What? What do you want?”

  Snapped out of his funk, Jim looked down to see that he’d dropped his bookbag and the sound had obviously drawn their attention. Well, there was no going back now, so he might as well just cut his losses and hope he would get another chance. “I–I’m sorry. I’ll go.”

  As he turned, Matt said, “Wait.”

  He swung back toward them, taking in the look of outrage on Jane’s face but, despite that, something, curiosity maybe, kept him there.

  “How much did you hear?”

  Jim sighed inwardly: no real point in lying about it. “The whole thing. I’ve … well … I was kind of spying on you.” He cringed. Where had that come from? He’d been so thrown for a loop that it seemed anything that pop
ped into his head was just falling right out of his mouth. What the hell were these people doing to him?

  Jane, oddly enough, seemed less angry now. “That’s … refreshingly honest,” she said. “I did notice you hanging around us a couple times before.”

  Matt turned to stare at her. “What do you mean? How come you didn’t say anything?”

  Now that look was back on her face. “What does it matter? We’ve got bigger things to worry about, right?”

  “Apparently, you don’t,” Matt scoffed. “Well, congratulations, you’ve convinced me you shouldn’t be part of this, so you’re off the hook. You just carry on pretending it was all a dream.” Jane didn’t say a word. She glanced back and forth between the two of them, opened her mouth, shut it again and shook her head. Then she walked away.

  Matt watched her go. He turned back to Jim. “So,” he said, jamming his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “I guess you’re wondering what that was about …”

  * * *

  Jim had thought he couldn’t be more confused about what had been going on with Matt and Jane, but after hearing the whole story, or at least as much of it as Matt was prepared to tell, he realized he’d been wrong. Now Matt was staring at him with a look that said, “Well?”

  Jim had no idea what the kid expected of him. He didn’t even know if he believed what he’d heard, or if it was just more of the crazy stuff that his home town seemed to automatically spawn. He stalled for time. “So, why are you telling me this?”

  Matt shrugged. “With what you’d heard already, it seemed like the best thing to do. So you’d understand why we want this kept quiet for now. And also …” he paused and took a deep breath, “because I was thinking of asking you to come with me when I go out there again.”

  Matt’s answer took Jim completely by surprise, but not as much as his own response to it. Because suddenly, he was hit with the overwhelming feeling that he should do this. He had no idea where it came from; he had only just heard about the whole thing, and Dave Polsik didn’t mean as much to him as he clearly did to Matt. He’d only latched onto these two because he was interested in the girl. But somehow, even as he opened his mouth to say no, he heard himself say, “You got it.” For a moment he seriously doubted his own sanity. If anything he should be wanting to stay away from that area of the Barrens; during some of his running workouts he’d passed the place Matt was talking about and felt a bizarre … something in his head. It wasn’t quite a buzzing, not a squealing, or anything else he could quite put into words, but it had really weirded him out. And yet, as soon as that thought came, it seemed to dissipate, and he once more felt like he should do it. Something very strange was happening inside his own head, and he didn’t like it. Whatever was going on, it seemed there was no escape. Something was compelling him. He considered telling Matt about it, but what could he say that wouldn’t sound even stranger than the story the kid had just laid on him? No, he would just have to go along with it all and hope that at some point it would start to make sense.