The Place Beyond

by Ryan Lohner

  Jim hadn’t been aware of any facial expression, but it was nice to know that his impending painful demise hadn’t robbed him of the righteous fury he now had every right to display.

  “You’re not from this world, so why should you mean anything to anyone here?”

  Jim crossed his arms. “Apparently quite a few of your people do care about us, though. Including one who might be dead now because of us.”

  Charlie chuckled a little. “Yes, that actually ended up working quite well. Bram’s a bit of a loose cannon. He told me about how he lied to get you here, and that would be one thing, but I very much suspect he’s been doing it to me for a while now, too. And I can’t have someone like that around when my plan is so close to completion. Why do you think I kept sending him on all those dangerous missions?”

  A new thought occurred to Jim. “So you’re going to kill me now, right? That’s why you’re telling me all this.”

  Charlie barked out another laugh. “Oh, son, don’t think me so crude. Who exactly are you going to tell? These people all love me, and they’ve been given plenty of reason to not like you. Anything you say about this will just be taken as a desperate last ditch effort to turn them against me for … well, whatever reason they come up with. I’m sure it’ll be better than anything I could give them.”

  Jim was still able to look him in the eye. It seemed that there was a perk to facing imminent death, as small as it was. “Okay, you’re right. I’m not going to tell anyone. I’ll just live here quietly the next couple days. But that wasn’t all you wanted to say, was it? Someone like you wouldn’t get a private talk with me just to gloat. It’s beneath you.”

  “Yes, you’re absolutely right. I want to offer you something. You know full well by now the fate that awaits you. So I’ll help you make it quick. Say the word, and you can get a pulser blast on the full setting, at point blank range. Just a quick flash of light, no pain as far as anyone knows, and it’s all over. It’s a far better fate than you’re going to get otherwise.”

  “And completely incidentally, it makes you look better to all these people.”

  Charlie shrugged. “What you need to ask yourself is, does that really matter to you? There’s only one way this ends, and that’s not my fault at all. Do yourself a favor and pick the better option.”

  Jim let out an exhale. “All right. I’ll take it. But not right now. Give me these two days. Because my friends and I did get a chance to talk before they left, and they said they’d try to come back for me. I want to give them as much of a chance for that as I can.”

  Charlie spread his hands. “Absolutely.”

  “Oh, and one more thing.”

  “Whatever you want.”

  “Could I get my phone back?”

  * * *

  Jim spent the next two days as normally as he could. He couldn’t help but notice the looks everyone kept giving him, and how they seemed slightly uncomfortable when he was around. He figured it was kind of like dealing with someone who had a terminal illness. However little they actually deserved it, you couldn’t help feeling weird about knowing they didn’t have long.

  He didn’t ask Mike and CJ for any more lessons, but still spent time in the gym on his own. Now that he had these skills in his head, it seemed a shame to only use them the one time. He didn’t know how much good the practice was doing him, or would have done if it could continue, but it still gave him something to do besides waiting, which was the worst thing he could have done.

  Finally, the day came. Charlie offered to be the one to pull the trigger, of course, since it made him look like he was taking on a sacrifice, while he probably enjoyed every bit of it. Jim also asked for Mike, CJ, and Lilah to be there. They’d been the closest to him and his friends, besides the unavailable Bram, so it only seemed right.

  Jim faced straight ahead, standing up, and said to Matt and Jane, wherever they were, “Well, guys, I’m sure you did your best.” Then Charlie’s finger wrapped around the trigger.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Jane snuck back into her house the same way as last time, and a quick glance at the calendar in the kitchen revealed that the corridor scientists were telling the truth; she and Matt had been returned the same night that they left. So at least they wouldn’t have any long absence to explain at the same time that everyone would be wondering where Jim was. And this time, she didn’t even have to deal with her brothers. She supposed she should be thankful for small favors. But she just couldn’t feel that way right now. Once in her room, she called Matt and they confirmed that each had successfully sneaked back in, after which they hung up. She just couldn’t talk about this anymore, and she guessed Matt felt the same way.

  * * *

  Matt went through breakfast like he was in a trance. He gave responses to his parents’ questions, but he couldn’t have said afterward what they were. At least he had some time before he had to talk about Jim; doubtlessly the Serrises had woken up and discovered his disappearance by now, but Matt had barely spoken to him before their adventure, so the Orticus house didn’t get a call.

  The bus was where it started. Some members of the football team were on the same route, and they had been called. But Matt was still able to keep his head down and stay out of it. At school, there was another assembly where the disappearance was announced, and anyone with information was urged to come forward. Matt had already gone through the exact same thing with Dave, and knowing what was going on only made it worse. He turned and found Jane several rows down, who was also looking at him. And the defeated look in her eyes threatened to make him cry again, so he quickly looked away.

  It was at lunch that the dam finally broke. He could have eaten with Jane, but he still wasn’t feeling up to actually talking with her again. So he was back by himself, just where he started this whole thing. And just like before, Johnny and his two friends arrived.

  He sat next to Matt and said, “It’s finally hit me. Dave isn’t coming back. Which means you don’t have anyone with you I should worry about, doesn’t it?”

  With that, all the old feelings came flooding back, years of being bullied and being unable to do anything about it. And Matt also realized something important that had slipped his mind in the wake of everything else going on since he had received his combat training: that wasn’t the case anymore. He turned to Johnny with a much more confident look than he typically had used in his whole life up to now. “I am in an exceptionally bad mood right now. So if you’re smart, and I hope you’re not, you’ll take Snook and Snuff and go bother someone else. Otherwise, well, I’ll have to make you feel just as shitty as I’m feeling right now.”

  Johnny had no visible reaction for a few seconds, and Matt took special pleasure in watching the reaction slowly work its way through his brain. Once it got there, he stood back up and pointed his finger in Matt’s face.

  “Now, you’re going to …” but he got no farther, because Matt grabbed the finger and gave in to all the heretofore impotent rage he had felt about jerks like this his whole life. First he twisted the finger to the side until he felt it snap. Still holding on, he stood up himself and grabbed his lunch tray with his other hand. One crony and then the other took a hit to the face with it, after which Matt let go of the finger, barely hearing Johnny’s screams, grabbed one of the guys and threw him into the other. They fell to the floor together and were smart enough not to get back up. That left Johnny, who now backed away with a delightful terrified look in his eyes.

  “What’s the matter?” Matt said in a dull monotone. He felt no need to show the anger in his words, fully confident his fists could state the case quite eloquently. “This never happened before? No, I don’t suppose it would. Because you really are just a coward, aren’t you? Put someone who won’t fight back in front of you and you’re the biggest guy in the room, but guess what? That’s not what’s happening today. I don’t know about you, but I’m very interested to see what happens next.”

  By now the entire room was w
atching and Johnny took one last desperate attempt to regain his dignity as he lunged at Matt. It was a sloppy move, and Matt easily sidestepped. On the way, he grabbed Johnny’s arm and wrenched it behind his back, then pushed until the boy was face down on the ground, squealing as the pressure was kept up. Keeping hold with one hand, he used the other to give a few punches to Johnny’s kidneys, rewarded with fresh gasps and cries each time.

  Matt then decided to take a different tack and said loud enough for everyone to hear, “I could crush you like an ant right now. But what would be the fun in that? I’d much rather watch you every day, and see that same look in your eye you have right now when you see me. You’ve spent long enough on the other side.” He let the arm go, but Johnny didn’t get up.

  “Ah, what the hell.” And with that Matt stomped down on the back of one knee. But as Johnny screamed, he looked up to see that someone had got a teacher, who was now looking at him quite angrily. Matt simply stared back, without remorse.

  * * *

  Jane was stunned when she heard the news. She’d always disliked Johnny; he’d never talked to her personally, but she’d heard plenty of stories from girls he’d made his crude advances to. But the idea of Matt using his newfound fighting skills to torment a regular person like that was just not something she could approve of, no matter who it was. She was, of course, hurting plenty from what had happened to Jim, and had burst into tears whenever people tried to talk to her about it. But Matt seemed to be taking it an entirely different way and she was worried about what might happen to him if it continued.

  She had a free period after lunch, so she went to see him as he was escorted from the principal’s office by his parents. “What happened?” she asked.

  Steve Orticus frowned down at his son. “Go ahead. Tell her.”

  Matt couldn’t meet her eyes. “Two weeks’ suspension.”

  Amy added, “And expulsion if it happens again. What were you thinking? You’ve never done anything like this before.”

  Jane ached for Matt’s position, having a perfectly good explanation for not being himself, but being completely unable to talk about it because no one would believe it.

  Matt shrugged. “Spend any time with that jerk and I think you’ll agree he got off easy. I could have given him the decapus squeeze.”

  Jane slapped her hand to her mouth. She remembered Lilah describing that move as a particularly painful one and the idea that Matt now had that ability was frightening. She was suddenly quite glad she had opted out of doing that to herself. And more than that, the fact that he was willing to drop that kind of information made her wonder what else he might start talking about. He might find himself in an institution if he wasn’t careful. She didn’t say anything more as Matt and his parents walked out. What else was there to say?

  * * *

  Matt sat on his bed, struggling to concentrate on the reading he was expected to have done by the next day. He’d been sent to his room as soon as they got home, and his parents informed him that they had received copies of his lesson plans and expected him to abide by them for the next two weeks. He didn’t know if they were aware that from this room, he could hear them downstairs, but he’d then had to listen to the whole discussion they’d had about him. And as much as he’d tried to cut himself off from all feeling about what had happened, that was what had broken him out of his destructive mood. They’d gone around and around in circles, trying to figure out the cause of his behavior, and now he felt terrible that he was causing them this kind of grief. They’d been amazing to him his whole life, always helping him through the troubles he’d had, so that despite being adopted he’d never thought of them as anything but his mom and dad.

  Then the doorbell rang, and Matt was snapped out of his reminiscing. He couldn’t think of anyone that would be visiting. Then his mother’s voice came ringing up the stairs.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Serris. Hello. I’m so sorry, if there’s anything we can do, please tell us.”

  Matt cringed. Whatever Jim’s parents were doing here, he didn’t think he could stand to face them. He was quite grateful now that he was stuck where he was. But then a voice that he assumed came from Jim’s father said, “Actually, there might be. Some of Jim’s friends told us that they’d seen him talking to your son a couple times lately. Do you know anything about that?”

  Matt’s father said, “No, he never said anything to us about it. But he has been acting rather odd for a few days.”

  Next came a woman’s voice that had to be Jim’s mother. “Yes, we heard about that. We’ve gone through it a few times ourselves.” After that came a couple of loud sobs.

  Matt’s mother said, “Please, come in and sit down. Let me get you something.” He could hear the desperation in her voice; she had no idea what to do and was falling back on anything familiar.

  Jim’s mother pulled herself together. “Oh, no, please. You have problems of your own. We won’t impose.”

  “Oh no, we can handle this just fine. Matt’s going to shape up no matter how many decapus squeezes he does.”

  There was a pause, and then Jim’s father said, “What was that?”

  Matt’s father chuckled. “Just something he said as we were taking him home. That the other boy was lucky he didn’t do it to him. Probably just something he got from TV.”

  Jim’s mother seemed to have completely snapped out of her fit from the serious, urgent tone of what she said next. “Could we speak to him a bit, please? We’d just like to try everything we can.”

  “Oh, of course. Come right this way.”

  Matt cringed again; there was no way he would be able to figure out any right thing to say to them.

  They were soon standing in Matt’s door, and his mother introduced them. Mr. Serris had a pencil mustache and was starting to go bald, while his wife sported shocking ginger curls. Amazing what the mind can focus on when you really don’t want to think about what you need to be thinking about, he supposed.

  Then Mr. Serris said to his mother, “Could we speak in private, please?”

  She nodded and closed the door.

  The two of them suddenly fixed Matt with an uncomfortable direct look. Then Jim’s father said to him, “This may not make much sense to you, but right now we’re willing to look into anything to figure out what happened. So here goes – what do you know about Krell?”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Among the thoughts that flooded into Matt’s head at the moment, the one that emerged to the front of his mind was that he still couldn’t be sure exactly what they meant. And if he was wrong, it would look pretty odd if he just started talking about everything that had happened. So he replied, “I don’t get what you mean.”

  The two walked further into the room, until they were looking straight at him from the foot of the bed.

  Mr. Serris said, “The decapus squeeze. Your mother said you’d mentioned the term. Which strikes me as rather odd, since no one in this world knows it. But in Krell it’s known as a particularly painful hold, and part of every government employee’s training. Even the two of us learned it, despite only being scientists.”

  Matt sat up very straight. “Wait. You mean, you’re actually from there?”

  Mrs. Serris said, “So it’s true. You do know about it.”

  “Yes, yes, okay. I know. I’ve been there. That’s where Jim is right now.” It just came rushing out of him as he was still being blown away by everything happening now.

  He found it hard to pin down their reactions to this news. A mix of relief and fear flashed across their faces; no longer having to wonder what had happened to their son warring with wondering what could be happening to him at that moment. Mr. Serris leaned forward, putting his hands on the edge of the bed. The look in his eyes was a bit frightening.

  “Tell us everything. As much as you can. But you can start with, is he all right as far as you know?”

  And so the whole story came out. Somehow Matt was able to hold it together long enough to t
ell the whole thing, though simply being able to talk to someone else about it was a big help. And as soon as he reached the part where he and Jane got back to their own world, something he hadn’t considered in the wake of the revelation hit him. “Wait a minute! We’ve both been so worried that Jim would die in a couple days, from being in the wrong universe. But if you’re both from there, that means it doesn’t matter, right?”

  Mrs. Serris nodded, tears in her eyes. “No, it doesn’t. Which means there’s a real chance.”

  Mr. Serris continued, “But first, I think it’s only fair that you get our side of the story, too. And you should probably get this Jane involved, too. She has just as much of a right to know the real story.”

  * * *

  Mr. and Mrs. Serris had explained to Matt’s parents that he had told them there was something he needed to show them that might be a clue. Under the circumstances, Mr. and Mrs. Orticus immediately accepted that they wanted to get going right away, without any more explanation than that. Once outside the house, Matt called Jane.

  “Yeah, I know, I know,” he replied to her natural shock at learning the truth about Jim’s parents. “Believe me, I’m still not over it myself. But I’m sure you’re just as curious about this as me, so just meet with us, will you?”

  They went to the spot where the kids had all first entered the woods, as all agreed it would be secluded enough.

  Jane folded her arms as she approached. “This had better be very, very good,” she said to Matt. “Because the way you’ve been acting has me worried.”

  Mr. Serris said, “What he told you is the truth, I assure you. Jim is in no danger from being in the wrong universe. And you should both understand why.” He gestured for them all to sit down on some rocks. “Our names are Tom and Mary Serris. But they aren’t the names we were born with. We set those aside when we came to this place, and haven’t spoken them since. All they are is a reminder of a world we were glad to escape from.”