“They’re inside. We have to get out, now.”
He shoved against the bar, pulling at Andrea, who was hanging onto his arm. The door started to swing open and she clawed at it to pull it closed, but it was too late. The wind grabbed the door, slamming it against the wall, the wind itself racing down the hallway as the papers hanging from the bulletin boards rattled in response. She slipped outside to pull the door closed and had managed to bring it halfway around when the wind snatched her from the side of the building. One moment she was there, and in the next she was gone, vanished into the swirling maelstrom that screamed with a savage voice.
Norman gazed at the space Andrea had occupied only a moment ago. Dumbfounded by her sudden disappearance. Her screams of terror came faintly from within the swirling snowstorm. Then he heard it, the slow, steady footsteps of the strangers approach.
Suddenly he was beside him, his heavy hand dropping to Norman’s shoulder, his eyes sparkling with electric anticipation under the shadowy brim of his battered cowboy hat.
“I knew you would see it my way, Norman.”
“Will I have peace?” Norman said.
“Of course,” the stranger whispered as a cold chill invaded Norman’s chest and slowly spread across his lungs and rib cage. He struggled to breathe as his flesh was frozen and he dropped to his knees before falling face first onto the snow-covered dock.
Chapter 28
Judy turned her attention back to Harriet, whose hand was still resting on her stomach. The past and the present swirled around them as they communicated on a level that transcended words and actions, their minds sharing the memories of the past and promises made by naive children wishing for a better future.
Judy saw Harriet as she waited at the opening of the mine for news of her young man, surrounded by men and women who watched with unconcealed anticipation as the rescue crew entered the mine shaft and began the long descent to where eight men were trapped by a recent cave-in. One of them was the father of the child growing in Harriet’s womb. Silently she begged and pleaded with powers beyond her comprehension, not really praying, but bargaining with everything she owned for the safe return of her beloved.
Judy silently witnessed the sorrow that had overwhelmed her when the news finally came, the lonely nights stretching out ahead of her as she quietly raged against the injustice of the world in which she lived. She had been saved only to witness the loss of her one true love. To survive, she threw herself into her work, vowing to give the children under her care the education they deserved. Spring broke, carrying with it the promise of rebirth, and the new life growing within her. A severe winter storm rolled down from the north, carrying with it howling winds and endless snow of the Walker’s domain. She recalled that day in the forest and the stranger she had met.
She realized he had known even then that she was pregnant and he wanted that child for himself. That had been his plan all along.
“We have to get out,” Teddy said as he slipped his arm around Judy’s shoulders. “The building’s not safe anymore, the roof could come down at any moment.”
“But what about them?” Judy said, indicating Harriet and the schoolhouse.
Teddy shrugged. “I don’t know what to do for them. We can’t take them with us.”
“They have to cross over,” Jasmine said from Judy’s other side. “They’re trapped here by a desire to protect one another. But it isn’t safe. If he doesn’t get them this time, he will eventually. Crossing over is the only way to protect them.”
Harriet turned and smiled in Teddy’s direction and a deep feeling of love that emanated from her shimmering figure overwhelmed him. She wanted only what was best and Jasmine’s suggestion appeared to be the only option open to them.
Norman screamed behind them and Teddy turned to see him running towards the back door with Andrea in pursuit. It was all coming to a head. The end was upon them and what they did in the next half hour would affect them for the rest of their lives.
“You have to convince her to cross over.”
“How?” Judy said.
“I don’t know.” Teddy shrugged as the sound of the back door slamming open rang through the call center like a gunshot. Time was getting short. The roof above them sagged even more, the ceiling tiles that remained rattling in their frames as the roof undulated like a wave on the ocean’s surface.
Judy turned back to Harriet and reached out for her with her hands. Harriet smiled and placed her hands in Judy’s, who was instantly transported to Harriet’s world. Everything around her had become deathly still. And even though she could hear the sound of the wind whistling down the short corridor, nothing moved around her. She glanced back over her shoulder at Teddy but couldn’t see him directly. Turning her head to one side, she caught a glimpse of him in her peripheral vision. Her twin stood next to him, his arm draped over her shoulder, or was it her physical self that remained with Teddy while her spiritual self ventured into a world only glimpsed by those gifted with the sight to see?
Jasmine was one of these and Judy realized she was watching her progress as she followed Harriet towards the schoolhouse. She also realized she could see Jasmine better than she could see Teddy. She stood as a silhouette, her features shrouded behind a shimmering veil, a dark halo encasing her body.
Black wasn’t good, was it? she wondered as she approached the front steps.
The children were waiting in the schoolhouse when she followed Harriet into the interior. Their emotions a seething mass of devotion for their teacher, curiosity about her presence, and fear of that which had gained entry to the call center. Everything was as it had been that day nearly two hundred years before. Four orderly rows of small desks were lined up in formation before a single larger desk that sat directly in front of a blackboard, upon which a variety of mathematical equations had been written with chalk.
They have to cross over. Jasmine’s words whispered in her mind. But how? she wondered as she gazed upon the small room. She had never had to do this before so there was no experience for her to fall back upon. Nor was there a set of instructions to guide her. She had only her instincts to follow as she approached the center of the room where the children were gathered around Harriet.
As if in answer to her unvoiced questions, a small vortex formed in the center of the blackboard. Beginning as a small gray dot, it quickly expanded, devouring the equations around it like a voracious black hole that would swallow the planets that circled it. It grew, and as it did, a faint white light shimmered from within.
Images appeared in the center of the vortex, glimpses of the past that had transpired within this place, and she understood as she watched it grow that this was one of those special places in the world. A place where the past and the present existed within the same space with the fabric between them at its thinnest. There was another reality beneath the one she currently occupied. The children could not see it, nor could Harriet. Judy watched the scene unfold at the center of that growing vortex, and she understood she was witnessing something that occurred long before man had developed a means to effectively communicate.
She saw a fire, the flames nearly horizontal, bent under the force of a wind that shrieked with the voice of a banshee. In front of the fire, a man was hunched down between the upraised knees of a woman lying upon several animal skins. There were grunts and groans, cries of agony, moans of pain, not pleasure, for this was not what it at first seemed. The woman was struggling to give birth, the man doing everything in his power to assist. But it was no use, there were no emergency rooms in this reality, no doctors, and but one rule.
Only the strong survived.
The woman screamed her last as she gave a final push. The man cradled the newborn against his chest as it cried in a weakening voice. He sobbed as the newborn gasped for air, expiring before it had existed an hour. The man staggered away from the blazing fire, into the wilderness and a fierce winter storm. Vanishing into the snowfall as the snow slowly covered the body of the woma
n who lay unmoving next to her dead son. The sense of loss that washed over her from the scene that had played out filled her with remorse.
Other images appeared, flickering to life like the first frames of a movie as an aged projector struggled to come up to speed. She saw a wooden totem rising twelve feet into the air, the top image representing an impassive face with eagle’s wings growing from either side of its head where ears would normally be. The sky above was an unblemished blue. Those gathered around it wore animal skins as they worshipped the deities the images represented. Time passed, the wood of the totem aged, becoming a silvery gray color as the grain of the wood widened into splits. The image changed and she saw the totem one last time, scarred and worn, lying at the bottom of a pile of firewood sitting outside a small one-room schoolhouse, the same schoolhouse she now stood in.
As her awareness of her surroundings grew, she realized a child had placed his hand into her own. She looked down into the clear blue gaze of a young boy not more than six who watched her with rapt devotion.
“They can’t stay here,” Judy said and Harriet crossed the floor towards her. As she did Judy saw the fire, the smoldering rage that illuminated her eyes from within. Flames danced along Harriet’s arms as she reached out towards Judy, who shrank from her grasp.
“They are my responsibility,” Harriet said.
“He has come for them.” And with that statement Judy heard the commotion that was happening in the call center. The rumble in the roof as more of it collapsed under the growing weight of the snow. The cries of those who still remained. She heard yells and screams as Norman emerged from the hallway, only it wasn’t Norman anymore. She felt his presence in the chills that raced across her flesh as he approached her from behind.
“They have to go. He’s inside now, and he’s coming for them.”
“Where?”
“You have to let them cross over, to continue their journey. You can’t protect them anymore.”
“But I must,” Harriet said as she placed her hand on Judy’s shoulder and what felt like the flames of hell raced across her flesh, pushing back the bone-numbing cold that had enveloped her with Norman’s approach.
“It’s too late,” Judy said, as the vortex grew brighter until it had been transformed into an intense white light that threatened to blind her if she gazed into it for too long. The glimpse of the past had become a passageway to the future, offering safety to the spirits of the children and their teacher gathered around her. Harriet took her hand away from Judy’s shoulder and Judy nearly fell over with relief as the pain of the fire that burned within her was extinguished.
“You have to go,” Judy said.
“It’s okay, Miss Butler,” the oldest boy said as he approached the light. He stepped through, followed by the twins, who passed into the light while holding each other’s hand.
“It’s okay,” Judy whispered as the children quickly filed through that seam in reality. Harriet was the last to pass through and she stopped to caress Judy’s cheek with one cool finger. Her anger had fled when she realized Judy was only trying to help. She stepped over to the opening and with a final look back stepped through. There was a flash of light that briefly blinded her and Judy reached out with one hand to steady herself.
As her eyesight returned, she saw she was back in the call center. The image of the schoolhouse slowly collapsed upon itself, drawing into a single point of light that winked out of existence with an audible pop.
Chapter 29
The four of them jumped as the sound of the back door slamming open echoed through the building like a gunshot.
“Where’s Norman?” Cody said. All eyes going to the chair he had been sitting in. A cold wind screamed down the short hallway, pages torn from the bulletin board fluttered into the main room as a faint light filled the hallway. Something stepped into the light, casting a long shadow into the main room, staggering forward as the wind swirled around their feet.
As a group they moved towards the doorway. Teddy was the first to reach the opening and he leaned around the corner to see what was coming. Norman staggered down the hallway, the door standing wide open behind him, accompanied by a halo of dancing snowflakes that drifted to the floor, where they melted instantly.
Teddy rushed to his co-worker, slipping his hand under his arm to help him.
“I’m sorry,” Norman said in a pained voice.
“It’s all right, man. Where’s Andrea?”
Norman straightened up at this and glanced back over his shoulder at the open door. He saw Jimmy standing in the snow at the edge of the dock, watching him silently.
“I’m sorry,” was Norman’s only response.
Cody reached Norman’s other side and slipped Norman’s arm over his shoulder. As a group they moved towards the main floor. The only way out was through the front, into the parking lot. Teddy recalled the towering funnel of snow that had gathered in front of him when he arrived, and he hesitated. He had convinced himself that what he’d seen earlier had just been an illusion brought on by the strangeness of the storm. But now, after having witnessed what had happened with Kevin and the schoolhouse, he was afraid to expose them to such a force.
“We have to get out of here, the roof is about to collapse,” Teddy said.
“Where are the others?”
“We’re all that’s left.”
“What about the schoolhouse? The kids? The teacher?”
“They’re gone, man. Judy convinced them to cross over.”
Norman shook his head. “They can’t be gone, she promised.”
“What?”
“She promised her first-born child.”
“What are you talking about?” Teddy said.
“What’s he babbling about?” Cody said.
As they reached the doorway into the main room, Judy and Jasmine stepped into view.
“Give it to me,” Norman roared, tearing away from Cody and Teddy to lunge towards Judy. Jasmine stepped in to stop him and he violently shoved her aside, driving her to the ground as he threw himself at Judy.
“You owe me, bitch,” Norman shouted as he raced towards her with his arms outstretched.
Judy tried to back away but wasn’t quick enough. Norman slammed into her, his weight forcing her back against the wall. Pinning her in place with his forearm across her throat. She struggled to breathe as she slapped at his face and arms.
Teddy tried to pull him away and Norman pushed him back across the hall where he slammed into the wall with enough force to buckle the drywall. Stars exploded behind Teddy’s eyelids as a distant ringing sounded in his ears, accompanied by the rumble of the roof above their heads, ready to surrender to the weight of the snow atop it.
Norman turned back to Judy, who squirmed under his forearm, which had never left her throat as he dealt with Teddy.
“You promised me,” he said as he placed his hand against her belly. A spot of intense cold erupted at the point of contact and Judy struggled to breathe as that chill spread out like the ripples on the surface of a pond. Looking down, she watched in horror as Norman’s hand slowly vanished into the fabric of her shirt. She gagged as that chill flowed across her chest.
Teddy shook his head and pushed himself away from the wall, crossing to Norman, intending to put an end to this bullshit once and for all. Cody slammed into Norman from Teddy’s left, driving him away from Judy, who doubled over as she gasped for breath.
Cody drove Norman into the main room just as another section of the roof collapsed. They vanished beneath the raining debris of twisted steel and wet snow.
“We gotta get out of here,” Teddy shouted to be heard above the shrieking sound of the wind.
“What about Cody?” Judy said as she searched at the pile of snow before her.
Teddy stopped and gazed at the new pile of snow as he shook his head. As much as it pained him to say so, he knew there was nothing they could do for them.
“We can’t help him now,” Teddy said as he crossed
to Jasmine and helped her to her feet. Together they joined Judy at the entrance for the hallway. The three of them skirted the new pile of snow and twisted steel as they made their way across the main floor towards the front of the building. As they neared the hallway leading to the front door, they heard movement within the pile of debris.
“He’s still alive,” Judy said as she turned back to the pile. A steel girder moved within the pile, snow slid to the floor from the top of the pile, and as they watched a head emerged. It wasn’t Cody. Nor was it Norman. It had Norman’s features, but they were chiseled in cold blue ice just like the creature Kevin had become. Judy backed away as the head widened to a pair of shoulders. More snow fell upon the struggling figure and Teddy pulled her into the hallway.
Chapter 30
At the front door Teddy suddenly stopped, causing Judy and Jasmine to run into him from behind as the memory of the spiraling funnel that had confronted him when he came in surfaced in his mind. Beyond the glass door the snow swirled in erratic patterns as it fell from the slate-gray sky above. In the lot, the few vehicles that had managed to make it in that day were buried beneath featureless mounds of snow.
Would they have time to shovel out his truck?
“What’s wrong?” Judy said.
He didn’t want to go out there.
From the depths of the building behind them came the sound of more of the roof collapsing. Followed by a change in air pressure that gently pushed them against the door.
“We have to get out, now,” Jasmine said as she stepped around them and pushed against the door.
“Don’t,” Teddy said, reaching out to stop her.
“What’s wrong?” Judy said. He felt her hand on the small of his back, pushing against him with growing impatience. Reminding him of the responsibility he now shouldered.
“I can’t go out there,” Teddy said.
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