by Marc Buhmann
“I don’t know!” she screamed. “I thought I heard something and went to check on her and she was gone!”
Lilly asked, “Is it possible she got out on her own?”
“I don’t think so. She’s only three!”
“Were the doors locked?”
“Yes!”
She’s going down the up staircase. DeMarcus’ words echoed in his ear, and he suddenly knew who took her, but where?
Lilly.
Sirens in the distance.
Why would he take Claire?
To ensure you come, he told himself.
The police were at the door a minute later, and David and Lilly stepped away so they could do their job.
“The poor girl,” Lilly said. “Do you think it was Frank?”
He shook his head. “DeMarcus.”
Lilly looked at him, shocked.
“He came to me again.”
“David… you promised me you’d stay away from him.”
“It’s kind of hard when he just appears.” Her brow furrowed, so he told her what happened earlier. “We just need to find him.”
“I’ll go,” she said.
“Where? You’re not going anywhere by yourself.”
“He wants me.”
“But…”
“He’s using you, David. Don’t you see that? He can’t get to me directly so he’s using you and now Claire to get to me.”
“If true then more reason for me to go.”
“While I appreciate your chivalry we don’t have time for it. Claire’s life is very much in danger.”
“Then tell me where he went.”
He stared her down, and her lips pursed. “I have to show you. You’ll never find it alone.” He opened his mouth to argue and she gave him a look so fierce he shut it.
They slipped out the back while the police talked to Jeanine. They changed for the cool night, jumped in their car, and headed out.
“So where are we headed?” asked David.
“South on Highway 49.”
They drove in silence, the gloomy darkness trying to seep in. A comment Lilly made earlier came to him. “What did you mean when you said he can’t get to you directly”?
“I think he’s projecting himself. That’s how he can seemingly appear and vanish to you. His physical body is trapped and he’s unable to enter this plane, though whether by choice or not I don’t know.”
“But why me?”
“Because I’d reject him; he wouldn’t be able to influence me. Coming through you is the next best thing. Just keep going until I tell you,” Lilly instructed.
The urgency was suffocatingly muggy. David felt sweat on his brow. Lilly kept her focus out the window, eyes whipping around, taking in everything. Finally, she piped up. “Turn left up ahead. There’s a road and it comes up quick.”
He saw the drive and turned down it. The road wound around going deep into the woods.
David asked, “How far?”
“I don’t remember. A ways.”
“To what?”
“The cabin you saw.”
David glanced at his wife who stared out the window. He wished he knew what she was thinking and feeling, but her expression was blank.
Something caught his eye—a reflection—and David stopped the car. He looked where he thought he saw it. A rusted street sign stood in the shadows: Pine and Oak. Pine seemed to have been a street at one point, the concrete cracked and long forgotten, while Oak crossed it. Unless you knew what you were looking for Oak would be easy to miss. A pair of boulders blocked the old road. He drove on.
They rounded a hill then went up another. David hit the brakes and slid to a stop. Down in the valley a blue glow pulsed, similar to the one he’d experienced in his yard. They stepped out, and Lilly led the way down the hill, determination in her stride.
The blue light looked like TV static, and in it the shimmering image of a cabin. The buzz David had heard when DeMarcus visited was present.
“What is this?” David mumbled.
“This is the entrance. Some call it the waiting room, others the room with a view, yet they are one and the same. A pocket between. The thing is you shouldn’t be able to see it; it’s supposed to be hidden.”
“Well I see it, and if I’m being honest it’s scaring the hell out of me.”
Lilly turned to him. Was that fear in her eyes? “I should do this alone. There’s no telling what DeMarcus will do.”
David shook his head. “No. I’m not leaving your side, not for a minute. So how do we do this? Just… walk in?”
“No,” said Lilly.
She took a step towards the blue static, closed her eyes, and spread her arms. After a time David thought nothing would happen, but then a deep bass echoed as a halo exploded outward erasing the deafening buzz, and the world was suddenly silent. The light dissipated, and the cabin stood there as if it had always been. Lilly relaxed and opened her eyes. “Ready?”
“Yes,” David said, and approached the cabin.
* * *
It was a single square wooden room, one Lilly had never seen before. A worn couch was pushed against one faded and chipped lime-green wall. In the center was a wooden straight-backed chair and sitting on it was DeMarcus. A teary-eyed Claire was on his lap, and she held a ragged hand crafted doll missing a button eye. Off to the side stood another man, this one in a red cap.
DeMarcus’ stared at Lilly, love and lust in his eye. The strangest thing though, the thing that gave her chills, is that he looked the same as when she’d last seen him. She’d aged over fifteen years since her arrival, yet here he was, looking exactly as she remembered him.
“Who’s that?” Lilly asked, pointing to the strange man.
“An associate friend. I’m so happy you recovered my love,” he said smoothly.
“Why are you here?” she asked.
“For you.” That’s what she expected. “I’ve claimed the empire and have come to bring you back.”
Her parents had never signaled her or given her any indication it was possible to return, so as far as she knew it wasn’t possible. “Impossible. If there was a way I’d know.”
“Do you really think your parents would have sent you here without a way to retrieve you?”
Her foster parents may have known, but if they had that information they took it to the grave with them. She figured she was here until it was her time to pass on.
“How?” Lilly fought the tremor in her voice, hoped only she could hear it. She didn’t want DeMarcus to know he scared her. Fear was his strength, and he was a master of it.
“They gave you something, something to help you return. They must have.”
“If they did then I don’t know what it is.”
His jaw pulsed as he clenched his teeth. “We’ll find it together then.”
“Why come for me? That little girl you once knew is no more. It’s been years—”
“Months, actually. It may have been years for you, but in Turmoore only three months have passed. Your kingdom fell, princess. Quite quickly I might add.”
“Princess?” she heard David mutter.
She ignored him. “What of my parents?”
“Dead.” He said it without compassion or remorse. “To hear their tortured screams…” He closed his eyes and tilted his head up. “Music. It was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Impossible. My parents, the government, was stronger than you. There’s no way you could have defeated them.”
“Come with me and find out.”
Yet she knew what he said was true; she could sense it in his eyes. “You tortured them?” she asked.
He looked back to her. “I did.”
“You were their friend. An adviser. Why would you do that?”
“You can’t have a revolution without making an example of those that were in power. If they had lived they would have instilled hope, and that would have slowed progress. I did what needed to be done to bring order t
o the new regime as quickly as possible.”
She fought back the tears; there’d be time to grieve later. “I don’t believe you would have risked becoming trapped here. You fought too hard to take control, so why are you really here? I can’t imagine it was for me. With all that power you could marry whomever you liked.”
His trademark smile faltered, and he stroked Claire’s hair. She shied away.
“Such a beautiful child. The innocence… The hope.” He chuckled. “You need to return with me to save our future.”
She said nothing, unsure of where this was leading.
“Either your parents knew and gambled with our way of life to save you, or they were too stupid to care,” he said. “Because if you don’t return with me life as we know it will cease to exist. You see, our plane is eroding.”
“Eroding?” she said with a quiver.
“Rather quickly I might add.”
“You lie.”
The man in the red cap moved from his position, circling behind them. She kept an ever watchful eye on him.
“Never. It’s rotting away. The working hypothesis is that the planes were never meant to be crossed.”
“But Turmoorians have been crossing for decades—”
“Their minds, yes, but not their physical bodies.”
Could he be telling the truth? She couldn’t believe her parents would have risked Turmoore to save her. But it would explain why DeMarcus came himself to find her; he didn’t trust anyone else to do it right. Could she trust him to be telling the truth? If he was she couldn’t let her people die.
“How do I know you’re telling the truth?” she asked.
“You don’t, but I assure you it’s true.”
“How long?”
“At the current pace they’re predicting everything will cease to exist in three years.”
Lilly looked at her husband. As the months had turned into years she’d accepted the fact she probably wouldn’t be returning to Turmoore. And as her love for David grew she expected to live the rest of her life with him. But if her people needed her, if they were in fact dying, didn’t she owe it to them to return? If her mother was gone then she was to be queen.
Her mind set she turned to DeMarcus. “You’ll let her go? David too?”
“I have no use for them. I give you my word.”
“No, Lilly!” David grabbed her shoulders and turned her. “You can’t do this! He’s lying! Has to be!”
“I can’t take that chance. If what he says is true then I need to return and save my world.”
“You can’t leave me!” He began to cry.
“I’m sorry, David. It would be selfish of me to stay.” She looked at DeMarcus. “Do we have a deal?”
DeMarcus stood and approached Lilly, handed her Claire. “Give her to your husband then come with me.”
She turned to David, heaviness in her heart. “I’m sorry,” she said, and handed Claire over. Lilly leaned up and kissed him tenderly on the lips, lingered a moment, pulled back, and stared into his pleading eyes. “But I have to do this.”
“But how? He himself admitted he doesn’t know how to return.”
He had a point. How did DeMarcus plan for them to return to Turmoore? She turned to him slowly, realization dawning. “You know how to return.”
DeMarcus nodded.
“Then why all the preamble?”
“I needed your word.”
“Then… how?”
DeMarcus stepped to her, nearly chest-to-chest. He tenderly cupped her cheek, ran his finger along her jaw and chin, down her neck, clutched the pendant, and tore it from the necklace.
“Open your hand,” he instructed. She did and he placed the pendant in her palm. “Now close it. Picture a key.”
“Any key?”
“Yes. It will appear as it should.”
She closed her fingers, felt the metal beneath. Lilly grasped at the first image of a key and held onto it. She felt the pendant in her hand transform. When she opened it the pendant had been replaced by a key. He took it from her, a twinkle in his eye.
She felt a hand grasp hers—David’s hand—and she turned back to him. “Will I see you again?” he asked. “When I move up to Turmoore… will we be together?”
“Yes,” she lied. She hated it, but what other choice did she have? If she didn’t then he might try to stop her, and she knew DeMarcus would not let that happen. If David went up against DeMarcus he’d surely lose. While she had some power, DeMarcus was far more advanced than she. “I promise you we’ll be together again.”
David backed away hugging Claire tightly. He cooed to her, comforted her.
He would have made a great father, she thought. Perhaps he’ll have another opportunity.
“I love you,” he said.
“I love you too.” She turned away and walked to a nondescript wooden door. As they approached she asked, “What about the gormock?”
“I’ll deal with them if they become a problem.”
She didn’t know how he planned that. The gormock were terrible creatures that hid within the belere. They existed to stop any being from traveling between the realms, part of the reason they sent minds back. The gormock couldn’t stop something that had no physical form.
DeMarcus inserted it into the lock, grinning as he turned it.
* * *
No! David screamed. He couldn’t lose her, couldn’t just let her go. He took a step. The associate’s hands grabbed his biceps and held him in place, squeezing. Claire dropped to the ground and ran to a corner, cowering in terror, whimpering.
“Let him go,” Lilly demanded.
“This is an insurance. Once we leave this place he’ll be returned home.” DeMarcus regarded David like a disgusting thing. “I don’t know what she sees in you, a sniveling thing such as yourself.”
“You got what you wanted. Let’s be done with it.”
“Indeed.” He regarded David one last time. “I know you care for her as I do, so I give you my word she will be safe.” His attention then shifted to the man in the red cap. “Once he’s returned you’re free to follow us.” DeMarcus turned and opened the door. An industrial wind sang. He guided her to the threshold.
A sniveling coward…
The words stung. He’d fought for Lilly from the beginning, then through the miscarriages and the accident… no way would he allow this man take his wife away. Not without a fight.
He jabbed his head back catching the man in the mouth and heard him grunt. It was enough for the man to loosen his grip. David whirled and slammed his palm into the man’s nose. He felt it crumple and blood squirted.
DeMarcus’ associate wound back and punched, smacking David in the temple. He dropped to the ground, his vision blurred. The man approached, a river of crimson running down his face.
“I’m going to kill you for that,” he said, reaching for David.
David kicked out and got the man in the knee. His leg buckled and he fell back, howling. David stood, regarded the man for only a second before kicking him across the face. DeMarcus’ associate was out.
He lunged at DeMarcus, his full weight propelling them through the door.
The first thing he noticed was the deafening sound, a combination of screeching metal and wind. The second was the pungent odor of decay.
He looked back at the door twenty feet away. Even with his full weight they couldn’t have gone that far. He needed to get out and shut the door, lock the bastard in. Whatever this place was—the belere—and whatever lived here, DeMarcus could face alone.
David ran towards the door. Fifteen feet. Ten. He pumped his arms and legs, his lungs burning, the smell infecting his senses.
DeMarcus smashed into him and together they collapsed on the ground.
A screech louder than the others. He flipped over and kicked DeMarcus in the face, his nose compressing. DeMarcus fell back and screamed in pain. David rushed for the door.
And then he was through and back in the room. He turn
ed, ready to slam the door, when half a dozen black tendrils lashed out and grabbed him.
“No!” It was Lilly but she sounded distant. His feet slid across the floor as he was dragged back towards nothing and everything, pain and love, fear and joy. He grabbed onto the door frame, fighting.
And then he was engulfed in a light so pure and white it burned his eyes. The screech came again but higher pitched—the sound of pain. The black tendrils loosened their grip.
David caught a glimpse of a gormock. His mind couldn’t comprehend what he saw and broke.
As his consciousness faded he heard the echo of a door slamming shut.
* * *
When David came to he wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but he guessed not long. Lilly was comforting Claire in the corner embracing her in a motherly hug, and DeMarcus’ associate was still unconscious.
“Oh thank God,” he heard Lilly say. He met her eyes, a soft smile on her lips. “Are you alright?”
“I think so, yes.”
“Are you able to walk?”
He pushed himself up. His legs felt like jelly, but with considerable concentration he felt he could stand. “Yes.”
Lilly said something to Claire—he couldn’t make out the words—and the girl gave a small nod. She looked to David, said, “It’s okay. It’s over.”
Lilly carried Claire and lead the way out. When they got to the car Lilly sat in the back with the girl and David took his place behind the wheel. As they drove away he made cursory glances out the rearview mirror, the cabin cast in the red glow of the taillights.
“What if someone finds this place?” he asked.
Lilly shrugged. “It’s just a cabin, David.” She held up the key. “Without this, it’s only a cabin.”
His face grew warm. “Just a cabin? Lilly… but someone could find—”
“It’s just a cabin,” she said again, this time sternly.
“But what about… Turmoore?”
She sat quietly a moment. “If he was telling the truth, and I think he was, I’ve been here fifteen years yet he claimed only three months had gone by in Turmoore. If I live out my life here and die an old lady in fifty years less than a year will have passed in my world. That still gives me two years to fix whatever is wrong.”