A Matter of Time

by Brian Harmon

  Was he seen?

  If so, he was screwed. There wasn’t much that he might’ve looked like other than a man carrying a dead body to his car. What was he supposed to say?

  It’s okay officer. He’s only a dead for a little while. He’ll be right as rain in a minute.

  Oh. Sure. In that case, carry on.

  Stupid.

  If that policeman spotted him, it wouldn’t matter if Jay woke up and told him he was fine. With no dead body to be found, they couldn’t be prosecuted, but they could certainly be detained. And they didn’t have that kind of time.

  Worst case scenario, they’d decide to investigate the bungalow, which they’d find trashed, with a dead monster’s fat ass sticking out from under the back porch. There’d be lots of questions. Lots of phone calls. Then the city would be torched and trampled by a rampaging genie.

  He knelt in the leaves beside Jay’s corpse, listening for the sound of a slamming car door.

  He heard another vehicle go by. A loud one. Diesel engine. Maybe a trucker. But he heard no evidence of anyone stopping.

  It wasn’t against the law to pull off the road, was it? Even if you parked in front of a gate marked “no trespassing”?

  It probably just piqued the officer’s curiosity. He’d probably driven past here countless times and never saw someone parked there before.

  The car wasn’t the problem.

  It was the dead body that was going to get him in trouble.

  He still didn’t hear anyone. Cautiously, he stood up and made his way back to the driveway for a look.

  No cop car. The PT Cruiser sat alone at the end of the driveway. No one circled back for a closer look.

  He breathed a sigh of relief, but it was only a small one. He still had a big problem. That police car had been a reminder that although it wasn’t the busiest road in the city, it was still an open highway. People were going to drive past. And they were going to look at a car parked suspiciously in a private driveway.

  The closer he got to the gate, the more visible he was going to be.

  If anyone saw him carrying a body he was going to catch hell. It didn’t have to be a policeman.

  And yet time was growing short.

  If he didn’t find a way into the old high school before Mistress Janet began her experiment, people were going to die.

  He ran his hands through his hair, frustrated.

  Why was this stuff never easy?

  He had to do something.

  He stared at the gate. What if he just drove the Cruiser through it? Would that work? Or would that just total the vehicle?

  The latter seemed more likely. That gate looked pretty solid. He didn’t think that would work out so well.

  From over his shoulder, Jay asked, “What’re you doing?”

  Eric cursed. It was several curses, actually, all strung together to create a new, one. Paul would’ve been proud.

  “Sorry.” He still had blood caked on his neck, soaked into his shirt and matted in his hair, but the gash in his neck from which all that blood had flowed was gone, as if it’d never happened.

  Eric clutched at his chest and bit back the urge to curse again. “What the hell took you so long?” he asked instead.

  Jay looked confused. “I don’t know. I don’t have any control over it.”

  “How long does it usually take?”

  “I don’t exactly have the luxury of timing it. It tends to happen unexpectedly. But I’m pretty sure it varies.” He looked around at the crowding forest. “What’d I miss? Did you kill that monster?”

  “I did. I found the next letter. Then I dragged your heavy ass all the way out here.”

  “You could’ve just waited for me to wake up.”

  “I tried, but you were taking too long.”

  “Sorry.” He rubbed at the back of his neck. His hand came back bloody. He frowned at it. “Thanks for not leaving me, I guess.”

  Eric shrugged. “No problem. Seemed like the polite thing to do. Although I wasn’t certain.”

  “I’m not sure there’s a precedent for that sort of thing.”

  “I don’t think there is. Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

  They walked the rest of the length of the driveway and around the gate. Spooky was still napping in the front passenger seat when they arrived. It didn’t appear that he’d moved a muscle the entire time they were gone.

  Jay considered moving the animal, but opted to simply sit in the back, instead. “I’m not sure why,” he said, “but I kind of don’t want to mess with that cat. Every time he looks at me, it’s like he’s thinking about biting me.”

  “I wouldn’t doubt it if he was.”

  Jay looked down at the blood on his hand again. “Can we go back to the hospital parking lot? My car’s parked there. I’m going to need another change of clothes.”

  Eric nodded. “It’s a good idea. Not very subtle to walk around the high school all bloody.”

  “Why the high school?”

  “We need to get into the old schoolhouse.”

  “The old schoolhouse?”

  “You wouldn’t have seen it. It’s hidden. Like the motel.”

  Jay scratched his head, confused. “Hidden?”

  Eric checked for traffic and then backed out of the mystery bungalow’s driveway and headed back into town. As he drove, he told Jay about the unseen, describing how they worked to the best of his limited knowledge of the subject.

  When he was done, Jay sat there for a moment, contemplating it all. “So that’s why those places keep disappearing?”

  Eric nodded.

  “How do you know these things?”

  “These kinds of things just keep happening to me,” he replied. “It kind of sucks.”

  Jay nodded. “I guess I can relate.”

  He pointed out the old Ford parked in the urgent care lot and Eric parked next to it. It was far enough from the entrance to be by itself, but close enough to remain inconspicuous.

  Jay jumped out of the Cruiser and into the Ford, where he washed himself off with bottled water and paper towels and then changed into another shirt. Surprisingly fast, he was back in the Cruiser and ready to go again.

  Eric shifted back into gear and headed for the high school.

  He looked up at the rearview and said, “So are you going to tell me what happened in Detroit?”

  Jay shrugged. “There’s not much to say. It was kind of a disaster.”

  “The first time we met, you said something about men in Detroit. Who were they?”

  He looked down again. “They were like her. The woman. Worked for the same people, I guess. But they were big guys. Huge muscles. Lots of tattoos.” He shook his head. “They were smarter than they looked. I went to the address she gave them over the phone. It was some crappy apartment building. I guess I thought I’d seen enough cop shows to know what I was doing. I tried to sneak in and spy on them. They caught me and casually put a bullet between my eyes.”

  “Ouch.”

  He shrugged. “Didn’t really feel anything, to be honest. Except stupid. I woke up in a bathtub a while later and made my way down the hall. The woman was long gone. I’d missed my chance. The men were sitting on a ratty couch, eating pizza. One of them left his gun on the counter. I picked it up, shot one of them in the head before they knew I was there. I got the other one in the gut as he was jumping up.”

  He sighed. “I felt sick. I’d never killed anyone before. But I couldn’t lose her trail. I made him tell me where to find her. It took four more bullets, but he gave me an address in Boston before I put him out of his misery.” He looked pale.

  “And you’ve been chasing her ever since,” concluded Eric.

  He nodded.

  “Is that what it was like in every city you went to? Dying and killing and just missing her?”

  “Not every city. I’ve gotten a little smarter. But too many times that’s what it’s been like. It’s so tiring.”

  “I bet it is.” He c
ouldn’t imagine living that way.

  Eric pulled into the school parking lot. This was the fourth time today. So far he couldn’t say he was enjoying his summer break.

  “So it’s right there somewhere?”

  He nodded. “Hard to imagine, isn’t it?”

  “It’s getting a little easier, I think.”

  “I hear you.”

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Eric stepped out into the fading sunlight and looked out at the prominent form of Creek Bend High School. It was strange to think that he’d looked upon this building almost every school day for so many years and never saw the truth. Even now that he knew the truth and was looking for it, he couldn’t see it.

  The old schoolhouse still stood on these grounds, literally towering over the new building, and yet it went unnoticed by the hundreds of people who came and went every day. After it burned down in 1881, the new school was built right next to it. Over the years it had been renovated and expanded, crowding it closer and closer to the old foundation. The builders, blind to its presence, had constructed the newest wing of the high school right up against it, essentially fusing the two structures, without even knowing it.

  He walked around the building, past the cafeteria and gymnasium, with Jay by his side. This was the side facing the old schoolhouse. It shouldn’t even be possible to walk this way. The buildings physically touched each other. They’d have to walk around the entire unseen structure, and yet from their perspective, they never strayed more than a few yards from the wall of the new building.

  But such was the bizarre magic of the unseen.

  He couldn’t hope to understand it.

  “So you can see the motel, but not this place?” asked Jay.

  Eric nodded. “It’s complicated.”

  “So how do we get inside?”

  “I’m not sure yet.” He only knew of two people with the means of entering the unseen schoolhouse. He had no idea where Aiden Chadwick might be, or if he was even still alive. In spite of some of the strange luck he’d had, it was extremely doubtful that he’d conveniently turn up now. That left Steampunk and his curious glasses. But he didn’t exactly have the man’s cell phone number.

  Still, if the old high school was where Mistress Janet planned to conduct her experiment, then just maybe he was around here somewhere. With any luck, she’d want him to stay close in case she needed him for something, since she couldn’t leave and come back without his help.

  Most of the windows were dark. Only a few lights remained on at the far side of the building as the custodians finished up for the night. Eric was relieved to find that the doors on this side were still unlocked.

  He led Jay inside and down the hallway to the gymnasium.

  “In here,” he said as he stepped out onto the open floor.

  “What’s in here?” asked Jay.

  “Earlier today, I was here with a friend. We were attacked by a wendigo.”

  “Those things from the rec center?”

  “Exactly.”

  “What was it doing here?”

  “That’s what I’ve been wondering.” He looked out at the far wall. “I thought at first that someone must’ve set it loose on purpose, but I’m not so sure now. So far, they’ve only appeared in the places where they’ve been conducting experiments. If she really is using the unseen schoolhouse, then maybe the wendigo came from there. That would mean there’s a door in here somewhere.”

  Jay nodded. “Okay… But it’s still hidden. How do we find it?”

  That was the problem. They couldn’t see it. Neither could they feel it. They couldn’t even smell or feel the musty air wafting out of it. The unseen was completely undetectable to every sense.

  Eric’s cell phone rang. It was Diane.

  “There’s got to be some way inside,” he reasoned. “Just…walk around. Look for anything…unusual.”

  Jay shrugged and walked toward the far end of the floor. “Sure. Why not? That doesn’t sound at all like a complete waste of time.”

  He was right, of course. But Eric didn’t have any other ideas. He accepted the call and began circling the gymnasium, starting at the opposite end as Jay.

  “Are you almost done yet?” asked Diane.

  “God, I hope so,” he replied. “What’s up? How is everybody?”

  “I feel like an intern at an insane asylum.”

  “So it’s going well?”

  “I think Karen’s doing better. She’s been asking about you. I think that’s a good sign.”

  “That does sound good,” he agreed.

  “But she’s mostly just staring at The Real Housewives on television and telling me she wants to go to Mexico. They’re not even in Mexico. They’re in Italy.”

  Eric made a mental note to look into exotic vacations the next time he was looking to get her the perfect gift. Maybe that would help get him out of the doghouse when she found out about Mistress Janet.

  “Your brother’s passed out on my couch, so he’s done pissing and moaning about being sick, but now we get to listen to him snore. I mean, my god, how does Monica deal with that every night?”

  Eric wasn’t sure how Monica dealt with a lot of things, honestly. “Did he feel any better after Isabelle gave him my message?”

  “A little. He seemed really relieved. What happened, anyway? He wouldn’t talk about it.”

  “Long story. Short of it is he was worried he might’ve…uh…killed somebody.”

  “Say what?”

  “He didn’t. It was a misunderstanding. Like I said, long story.”

  “Just…wow.”

  In the background, he heard Holly say, “Is that Eric? Let me talk to him.”

  “Hold on,” said Diane. “Hey! Stop!”

  “It’s important!” said Holly.

  “Fine! Oh my god!”

  Then Holly was on the line. “Eric?”

  “Yes?”

  “You’re not dead yet, are you?”

  Eric rubbed wearily at his forehead with his free hand. “No. Not yet.”

  “Tha’s good! Listen… Are you listening?”

  “I’m listening.”

  “Okay, listen: Try to stay that way, okay?”

  “That was…um…that was the plan.”

  “Good!”

  “Is there anything else you…uh…needed to tell me?”

  “Nope.”

  “Why don’t you put Diane back on the line?”

  “Okay. Oh! And don’t worry!” In that loud whisper again, she said, “I didn’t tell anybody about that lady you kissed.”

  “What?” said Diane.

  “Shh! It’s a secret!”

  “Give me that!” Then Diane was on the line again. “What did she say?”

  Eric squeezed his eyes shut. He was going to end up with an ulcer. There was just no way around it. “I didn’t kiss anybody. There was this crazy chick we ran into. Another long story.”

  “You’d better not be getting up to no good on these adventures of yours.”

  “Nothing happened. You know me better than that. Besides, Isabelle saw the whole thing. She’ll vouch for me.”

  She fell silent. He had a point.

  “Just…don’t let her say anything to Karen. The last thing I need is for her to be pissed off at me before I even get home.”

  “Fine.”

  “How’s Kevin doing?”

  “He says he’s getting better. He can tell us apart now. But it’s annoying how he keeps asking us what’s going on. Like he thinks he’s going to miss something.”

  “Well it can’t be easy being blind for the first time.”

  “I guess not.”

  “Hang in there a little while longer,” he said. “Hopefully I’ll be home in the next couple of hours.”

  “I hope so. You be careful.”

  “I will.”

  He disconnected the call and then lowered the phone and looked at the screen. “You will vouch for me, right?”

  OF COURSE. THAT WOM
AN WOULD’VE KILLED YOU IF YOU HADN’T HANDLED HER THE WAY YOU DID. I’M SURE OF IT

  He nodded. Good. Hopefully Karen didn’t see it differently…

  He looked around at the empty gymnasium again. So far, there was no sign of the steampunk monk and still no way into the old schoolhouse. He looked down at his screen.

  I’M STUMPED, replied Isabelle.

  Me too, he thought. I can’t even reliably find the regular unseen places like Rossetter. How the hell am I supposed to find this place?

  YOU’RE NOT. THAT’S THE WHOLE POINT OF MAKING AN UNSEEN PLACE EVEN MORE UNSEEN

  True. But not very helpful.

  YOU NEED STEAMPUNK MONK

  IT’S THE ONLY WAY

  He nodded. Hopefully he turned up soon, then.

  Eric and Jay continued wandering around the slowly darkening gymnasium, pointlessly searching for something that was, by its very definition, impossible to find.

  Why was it never easy?

  As Jay moved toward the practice field entrance, where he and Holly dragged the dead wendigo out of the building that afternoon, Eric peered into the locker room. All was quiet. No one was around. Even the custodians were on the far side of the school.

  They’d be locking the doors soon. They were running out of time.

  On the far side of the gymnasium, Jay sneezed.

  “Bless you,” said Eric.

  Jay sneezed again. And then a third time.

  Eric blessed him again.

  Nothing but silence answered him.

  When he turned and walked back through the door, the gymnasium was empty.

  “Jay?”

  Eric stood there, listening to the silence. Something wasn’t right.

  He glanced down at his phone.

  CAREFUL, warned Isabelle. I SENSE SOMETHING, BUT I CAN’T TELL WHAT IT IS

  Agent?

  PROBABLY. DIFFICULT TO TELL SO CLOSE TO AN UNSEEN

  Isabelle’s senses were keen, but fairly short range. Unless something was giving off a tremendous amount of energy, she couldn’t tell much about it from very far away.

  That would be too easy, apparently.

  He walked out to the middle of the gymnasium floor and stood there, waiting.

  Somewhere in here, there was a doorway leading into the old schoolhouse. He was sure of it now. The wendigo came through it earlier and Jay seemed to have just disappeared into it.