Children of Eternity Omnibus

by P. T. Dilloway

“I’ll be fine in a little bit. I just need a few minutes for my stomach to settle.”

  They start up the mountain around noon. Jackie hasn’t ever climbed a mountain before, but Andre assures her this one isn’t too difficult. “It’s like a bunny hill,” he says. She doesn’t bother mentioning she doesn’t ski either.

  To her the mountain looks like a solid sheet of red stone. She can’t imagine getting halfway up, let alone to the top. She wants to back away and scurry back to the camp; she wants to snuggle with Andre all day beneath the sleeping bags. She can’t back out now after insisting she could go.

  She follows along behind him, using the same handholds and footholds. One hand and foot at a time she makes her way up the mountain, telling herself not to look down. “How are you doing?” he asks.

  “I’m petrified,” she says and means it.

  “You’re a quick learner, though. You’ve already gotten the hang of it.”

  “I have a good teacher,” she says.

  Her fingernails dig into the rock as she attempts to push herself up to the next handhold. Her right hand grabs a chunk of rock that breaks away. Her left hand manages to catch part of a rock to keep her from falling. She tries to get traction with her feet to steady herself. The fingers on her left hand lose their grip on the rock. She claws at the air, trying to grab onto anything. Before she plunges to her death, something stops her fall and guides her back onto the rock.

  She looks to her left and sees that while Andre is grinning at her, his eyes are filled with terror. “I got you, kiddo,” he says with phony bravado. “You have to be careful on these rocks.”

  He stays next to her, making sure she doesn’t fall. The sun is setting by the time she reaches the top, her body an aching mass. He puts an arm around her shoulders as they stand atop the mountain, facing the sun. “We did it,” she says.

  “We made it. I’m sorry I forced you—”

  “You didn’t. I wanted to.”

  “I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you.” When he kisses her, she feels the wetness on his cheeks. She pours every ounce of passion into the kiss, trying to reassure him. Trying to remind him how much she loves him.

  They watch the sun retreat beneath the horizon, leaving behind pink and purple twilight hues. “How do we get down?” she finally asks. There’s no way for her tired limbs to climb back down the mountain.

  He opens his backpack and takes out a pair of elastic ropes. “I have a parachute in here too if you want to try that,” he says. His voice is hollow.

  “I think I’ve had enough excitement for today.”

  She lets him attach the ropes to the side of the mountain and then tie one around her waist. He shows her how to repel down the mountain face by pushing away with his legs and then arcing down to do it again. Her attempts at this leave her with bruised arms and sore legs. At the bottom he unties her rope and carries her from the mountain, all the way back to camp.

  She’s almost asleep by the time they reach the tent. He sets her down inside and tucks her in like a child, brushing hair from her face to kiss her on the forehead. “I’ll be back in a minute,” he says. “Don’t go anywhere.”

  “I won’t,” she says, her voice heavy with sleep.

  She wakes up to find a heavy weight on top of her. Andre lays there, his eyes glossy and skin pale. Blood drips from his slit throat into her eyes. She screams and rolls him off, his skin ice-cold. “Andre? Oh my God,” she says. Blood stains his shirt as well from a gash over his heart. “Oh my God.”

  She’s yanked out of the tent by the hair and thrown onto the ground next to the cool embers of the fire. A woman with dark skin and wild hair squats over Jackie. “You thought you could escape me, didn’t you?” she says and then punches Jackie before she can say anything. “You thought I’d never find you and your little man.”

  “Veronica?”

  “I’m surprised you still remember.” She punches Jackie again, this time in the right eye. “Did you think you could get away with it? Did you?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jackie says. “We have to get Andre to a hospital. Please—”

  “He’s not going anywhere. And neither are you.” Veronica holds up a bloodstained knife. As the knife dangles over her, Jackie thrashes beneath Veronica, but she can’t get free. “We were supposed to be together forever.” She dangles a half-heart necklace in Jackie’s face. “Best Friends Forever, remember? That doesn’t mean anything to someone like you.”

  “Veronica, please—”

  “I only wanted us to be happy, but you couldn’t settle for just me. You had to have him.” Veronica gestures back to the tent. “So I gave him to you. I laid him right into your lap.”

  “You?”

  “Why else do you think Stacey broke up with him? Why else do you think he knew you liked him? I did it all and how did you repay me? You and Prince Charming there plot to fly off into the sunset without me. ‘Thanks for everything, Veronica, but we won’t be needing you anymore.’” She unleashes a savage round of blows to Jackie’s face. Blood fills Jackie’s mouth. Her eyes are swelling shut so that she can see only the knife in Veronica’s hands.

  “Please, don’t do this,” Jackie says between sobs. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. I didn’t.”

  “You’re pathetic. A pathetic, weakling like your precious fiancée and your loony aunt.”

  Jackie’s entire body turns cold. “You started the fire? You killed Aunt Beth? Why?”

  “To make you feel the same pain as me. To make you suffer like I did.” A smile crosses Veronica’s face. “You only prolonged it by running away. Now it’s time to end it.”

  “No, don’t—” Jackie’s plea is cut off by a scream as Veronica plunges the knife into Jackie’s abdomen. She lifts the knife, the blade slick with blood and poises it over Jackie’s heart. Jackie looks back to the tent, where Andre lies. Soon we’ll be together she thinks.

  White light blinds her and for a minute she thinks she must be dead. Then she sees a man in a cowboy hat kneeling over her. “Can you hear me?” he says. She nods. “We’ll get you out of here. Everything will be all right.”

  She tries to ask about Andre, but she can’t. Her world dims from white to black.

  “That’s what happened,” Jackie says.

  Sergeant Reddy puts a hand on Jackie’s shoulder. “We’ll find her, Jackie. I promise we’ll find her.”

  For the next two days, Jackie lies in bed without saying a word. She nods to the doctors telling her how well she’s progressing and how lucky she is the knife didn’t damage any major organs. She grunts at Sergeant Reddy’s reassurances that any day now they’ll find Veronica Pryde.

  Alone, she stares at the wall and thinks of Andre, their baby, and the life they’ll never have. The curse has struck again, this time in the guise of her former best friend. Her parents are dead. Her aunt is dead. Her fiancée is dead. Her unborn child is dead. Everyone she loves, gone. She has nothing left. She is nothing.

  Her future is as blank as the wall. Judy had sent a telegram, promising to come down and visit her until Jackie could go home. Home? She has no home. She has nothing. She is nothing. A pathetic weakling as Veronica had said. She had slept while Andre died. She had lain there, sobbing and begging while Veronica killed the child within her. Everyone she loved died while she did nothing.

  Never again, she tells herself. She unhooks the tubes from her arms and swings her legs off the bed. She bites down on her lip to hold back a scream as she stands up. Pain burns in her stomach as she creeps out of the room and down the hall to the stairs. No one sees her as she crosses the hospital grounds and disappears into the night.

  She raids a church donation box for clothes and keeps walking until she reaches a truck stop in the morning. She waves at a truck pulling out of the parking lot until it stops. The climb up into the cab is as tiring as climbing the mountain with Andre. Sweat runs into her bruised eyes and her head feels as though it were filled w
ith helium.

  “Are you all right?” the trucker asks. She nods. “Where you heading?” She shrugs. The driver pulls onto the highway and keeps glancing over at her as she leans against the seat, one hand on her bandaged abdomen, now a barren wasteland. “My name’s Bill,” he says.

  “Samantha,” she says. “Samantha Young.”

  “That’s a pretty name.” She nods and then passes out.

  A little boy stood in the doorway, hair falling into his eyes and snot running down his nostrils. “Mom?” he said again.

  Samantha crept towards him, taking him by the shoulders. She looked into his eyes and said, “Mom’s gone to Heaven.” Little Joey collapsed sobbing into Samantha’s arms. She took him into the living room, setting him down on a chair. “I want you to be a good boy and stay right here. Can you do that?”

  He nodded. With weak knees, Samantha staggered back into the kitchen. She bound Veronica’s hands and feet with duct tape and then knelt over her former best friend, the one who had murdered Andre, Aunt Beth, and Samantha’s unborn child. She picked up the butcher knife, letting it hover over Veronica’s chest. I should kill her now, she thought. Why turn her over to the police? They’ll put her in jail or a mental asylum. She deserves to die.

  But then I’m a killer, she thought. I’m no better than her. I’m worse than her. She dropped the knife to the floor.

  She found Joey still in the living room where she’d left him. “Come on,” she said. “We have to go.” She picked him up and carried him away into the night, away from the horrible scene inside.

  At the bottom of the hill, she knocked on the door of the Pryde’s neighbors. An old woman came to the door in a flowered nightgown and curlers. “Do you have any idea what time it is? Wait, who are you? What are you doing with Joey?”

  “FBI, ma’am. There’s been an accident. Can Joey stay with you tonight?”

  “Yes, of course. What’s happened?” Samantha didn’t answer her. She left Joey in the old woman’s arms and then took off running to her car. Police cars passed her on the highway, none bothering to stop her. She drove faster and faster, but she couldn’t get the sight of Joey’s face out of her mind. I failed him, she thought. Just like Andre and her own child.

  Chapter 27: Last Chance

  At first light, Rodney shook Prudence awake. “It’s time,” he said. He slipped out of her arms no matter how hard she tried to keep him there on the bed.

  “Don’t go,” she pleaded.

  “Prudence, we’ve discussed this already. I have to go.”

  “I know,” she said. “I wish you didn’t.”

  He pulled her close into a kiss. “There’s nothing to worry about,” he said. “Everything will be fine.”

  As he dressed, she filled a rucksack with extra clothes, food, and other supplies for the journey. She tried to imagine Rodney was going away on a hunting or fishing trip with some of the other men of Wessenshire. He would return in a few days with a deer or armload of fish for her to clean. This wasn’t any different at all. Except instead of harmless deer and fish he would be dealing with savages as brutal as any predator.

  She began to cry again at this thought. Rodney finished lacing up his boots and then took hold of her. “Prudence, you mustn’t cry now. This isn’t a sad occasion. This is a happy time. It’s the beginning of a new life for everyone.”

  He tilted up her chin to wipe away her tears. “I can’t help it,” she said. “I don’t want you to go.”

  “I don’t want to leave you either, but there’s no other way. I wish there were.” His face broke into a smile that made him look even sadder. “Let’s not part this way. Let me see that beautiful smile of yours one more time before I leave.”

  She forced herself to smile; she didn’t want to disappoint him in their final moments together. They looked into each other’s eyes a moment before she kissed him. She tried to fill the kiss with every ounce of passion and love possible so that he knew how much she loved him. Maybe then he would stay.

  He didn’t. He backed away, his fingertips running through her hair and then caressing her cheek. Her lips were left kissing the air. When she opened her eyes, he was gone.

  She followed him outside, to the center of the encampment, where the other five men waited. They each carried a rucksack like Rodney crowded with supplies and whatever treasures the settlers could spare to trade with the savages. Prudence had donated a broach of her mother’s. She didn’t know what use a savage woman would have for jewelry, but she would give anything that might appease them to bring Rodney back alive.

  “Where’s Reverend Crane?” Mr. Applegate asked. “He should be here to bless you on your way.”

  “He must be pouting in his tent,” Rebecca said. She took Rodney’s hand. “Good luck to you, Mr. Gooddell and you other fellows. Watch yourselves out there.”

  Other settlers related similar sentiments to the party, shaking their hands and clapping them on the backs. “We’ll have a pint of ale cooling for each of you,” Mr. Applegate said.

  “We won’t disappoint you,” Rodney said.

  Prudence waited until everyone else cleared away to approach Rodney one final time. He kissed the top of her head, keeping her at arm’s length. “I love you,” she said.

  “And I, you,” he said. “We’ll be back soon.”

  “I know.” She stepped back to allow him and the others to set off into the forest. She followed after him a few steps, watching him recede into the trees. When he paused a moment, she hoped he would run back into her arms, but he only waved and then disappeared.

  “Your husband is a brave man,” Rebecca said. She patted Prudence on the shoulder.

  “Yes he is,” Prudence said.

  “I’m sure everything will work out fine,” Rebecca said.

  Prudence spun around, her face turning red with anger. “How would you know? He’s walking to his death!”

  “Nothing will happen—”

  “You don’t know anything.” When Rebecca tried to put a hand on her again, Prudence shoved her away. “It should be your husband out there! If he weren’t too feeble he’d do it himself instead of sending Rodney.”

  “That’s quite enough, Mrs. Gooddell,” Rebecca said. “Let’s get you back to bed and I’ll make you some tea.”

  “I don’t want your help!” Prudence stormed away in the direction Rodney had gone. If she hurried, she might catch up to him. There had to be something she could say to make him stay. Or at least he might let her come along.

  She blundered through the forest, branches tearing at her clothes. Once she thought she spotted a group of men ahead and called out to them, but they didn’t answer and soon disappeared. She plunged on after them deeper into the forest.

  After what must have been an hour, she sank down on a log with exhaustion. She looked around her, certain she’d seen this piece of forest twice before. It’s no use, she thought. I’m going in circles. She buried her face in her hands, but didn’t have the strength even to cry.

  A rustling in the brush startled her and raised her hopes at the same time. Rodney had come back for her again! He would take her into his arms and they would run away from this dreadful place forever.

  Rodney didn’t appear through the brushes. She gasped at the sight of a young boy with red hair and a torn shirt hanging to his knees. “Prudence! I’m so glad to see you,” he said.

  “Who are you? How do you know my name?” she said.

  “It’s me, Wendell. The stowaway.”

  She looked the little boy over, raising an eyebrow in confusion. “You? Mrs. Bloom said you almost killed her. But you couldn’t have. You’re too small.”

  “This may be difficult to accept, but until this morning I was twenty years old,” he said. “Reverend Crane poured water from the Fountain of Youth on me and this is what happened.”

  “Young man, this is no time for such nonsense. We have to get you back to your parents.” She stood up and then took Wendell by the arm. “Did you happen
to see anyone else in the forest? A group of older men perhaps?”

  “No, but Prudence there is still a chance to save your husband. If we hurry and find them—”

  “What do you know about my husband?”

  “Reverend Crane is going to kill him. He and Mr. Pryde are going to turn the fountain water against your husband and the others. If we reach them first, we might warn them.”

  “Why would Reverend Crane want to harm Rodney?”

  “I don’t know. What I do know is he’s going to kill your husband and then do to everyone else what he did to me.”

  “You’re lying. I don’t have time to listen to such foolishness. When we get back, your parents can punish you.”

  She dragged him away a few feet until he squirmed free of her grasp. “I’m telling the truth,” he said. “I can prove it.”

  “How?”

  “Before you woke up in this place you had a dream of the future. Three hundred fifty years into the future. There was a town built here called Eternity where you and I lived with a group of other children and Reverend Crane. There was a girl named Samantha who was your best friend. And you and I—”

  She slapped the boy across the face, sending him tumbling to the ground. “How do you know about my dream?”

  “Because it isn’t a dream. It happened. I can’t explain how or why, but somehow we came back in time to this moment.”

  “No. You’re lying. It’s not true. It’s not true!” She sank to her knees, her entire body shivering with fever.

  “It is true, Prudence.”

  “No, it can’t be. It can’t be!” She looked up at him with tear-filled eyes. “If it is true then that means he dies.”

  “He doesn’t have to,” Wendell said. “We can stop Reverend Crane. We can make things right this time.” He offered his hand to her. “There’s still a chance.”

  She took his hand and followed him deeper into the forest.

  Chapter 28: Guiding Star

  The smell of fish and wet canvas overpowers Joey to the point that his head spins. He breathes through his mouth, holding his nose with one hand in an attempt to keep the odor at bay. He doesn’t know how much longer he can hold out and the boat hasn’t even left port yet.