Seasons of Heaven

by Nico Augusto

  They passed huge trees just strewn about on the ground. In many places, they had to climb over the trunk because the tree was too large to go around. Ani seemed to be interested in one of them and Yann had to get right next to him to see what it was he was looking at. This tree trunk was hollow, and it looked like it had been hollowed from the inside out. There was an opening that looked like an entrance and without discussing it with Yann; Ani wormed his way into it. Yann decided to bypass it and as he went around it he could see that the trees around them looked as if they had been ripped from the ground. Their roots like tentacle sea creatures reached desperately this way and that starving for the soil they’d been planted in since long before Yann had taken his first breath. There was an entire patch not far behind them that was completely void of trees.

  “I don’t know what snatched those trees, Ani, but whatever it was, it was huge…”

  Suddenly stillness dropped over them and Yann realized that the wind had completely stopped. The leaves on the trees no longer moved and the atmosphere around them suddenly felt colder, bleaker…

  “Ani,” Yann said in a whisper, “Do you feel like we’re being watched?” It was a strange sensation, like a dark presence had suddenly descended over them. It was the first time since they’d begun this journey that Yann felt a true sense of fear and something even akin to loathing.

  Ani sniffed the air and looked around. Then he stood completely still and appeared to be in a trance like state with his ears extended up. Yann knew he smelled the air for the scent of someone following them and listening for even the faintest of sounds. Yann stepped close to Ani. The dog let Yann know through their telepathy that he did indeed think they were being watched. He too could feel the presence of an entity with malicious intentions. They looked around together then with a mounting sense of alarm. Their eyes both fell on what had been watching them at once. It was an enormous dark creature standing frozen between the trees and the forest. The sight of him served to fuel the fear and anxiety that already dwelled in their hearts. It was as black as night and it stood motionless, staring at them with a pair of glowing red eyes. Yann felt terror grip him. It was like a heavy weight had suddenly been placed on his chest and he yelled at Ani to run.

  They both began to run, through the brush that reached out and scratched Yann’s arms and face and tangled itself up in his clothing. They vaulted over the massive trunks of the trees that had been ripped out of the ground and left to rot. They ducked underneath low-hanging branches and dodged the grasp of a sudden barrage of long, black arms that seemed to be reaching out for them in every direction. Yann could hear Ani’s ragged breathing…or was that his own? The blood was pounding in his ears, so he wasn’t sure. His heart knocked insistently against the wall of his chest as if begging to be let out.

  They ran even when they were suddenly and almost completely covered in a thick black swirl of smoke that had begun to envelope them from above. It seemed to be trying to swallow and digest them but they were moving too fast. It followed along, seemingly waiting for an opportunity. Yann was afraid that one may have presented itself as they approached a precipice. Still running he looked at Ani who confirmed what they needed to do….Jump.

  The first clue that they had missed their mark came as both Yann and Ani’s small bodies were flung against the side wall of the cliff. The second clue came as they felt themselves falling, once again striking the wall, limp as ragdolls before finally coming to a blunt force stop against the floor of a cave.

  Stunned and still charged with adrenaline, the two friends looked at each other to make sure there were no serious injuries. Neither of them seemed more than terrified and exhausted. Ani got to his small feet first and watched as Yann pushed back up to his own. The two of them surveyed their new environment to discover they were inside of a cave. Ivy grew up along the sides of both walls and across the top, vying for space amongst the dried up plants. The limestone walls of the cave were wet as water seeped through the roof and ran down through the ivy that clung to the stone quenching its dark green leaves. The sound of the running water echoed off both the walls and the huge columns that also surrounded them.

  “Look Ani, there’s a torch.” Hanging from the wall was a burning torch. Yann was so happy to have a bit of light that he didn’t even stop to consider who may have lit it.

  Happy to be out of the dark, Yann held up the torch and they took a better look around. He could hear the whoosh, whoosh of the wings of bats as they circled overhead, seeking out the light. As Yann twirled slowly around, he and Ani could see that the colors of the stonewalls changed subtly and mysteriously every few seconds. One moment they would be a warm azure color and the next they would fade to brown. On their second time circling around, the stonewalls changed to a fiery orange like the color of a summer sunset.

  The light of the torch formed strong contrasts across the walls; some of the stalagmites were very close and exposed pleasant esthetic details. It seemed peaceful and Yann and Ani had the feeling they were safe…for the moment at least. That was just before a piercing shriek reverberated throughout the cave and the entire enclosure began to shake. Small rocks were falling but what worried Yann even more was the amount of dirt falling in on top of them. Yann was old enough to know that neither human nor dog could survive being buried alive.

  “Run Ani, run!” The huge creature must be lumbering around above them, trying to find its way inside the cave. Its enormous bulk was causing the cave to fall in upon itself.

  They raced ahead for their lives for the second time that evening eventually coming to the front of an uphill slope. A bright light like the one Yann had awakened to that morning was shining from it. They looked up towards the light and saw the exit. The light at the end of the tunnel…. Yann and Ani looked at each other and began strategizing their ascent to the top.

  Yann held Ani up first, helping him climb onto a small flat area that jutted out from the rock. Then Yann grabbed ahold of one of the ruts in the stone that was as high as he could reach and pulled himself up. He was a few inches above Ani. He reached up again and grabbed another rut in the stone. As he struggled to force his arms to pull him up, he felt his friend, pushing his bottom from behind. That extra push allowed him to clear the few inches he needed to in order to place his feet in another safe position. He reached down then and with a guiding hand on Ani’s back he helped the dog struggle up further until they were almost eye to eye. Yann took his turn next and with strength and will that neither of them knew they possessed they continued on until they were within reach of the top. Coming from thin air and startling them both a large white hand reached out to help.

  Yann stared at the hand and then looked at Ani wondering what they should do. He couldn’t see up beyond the hand, the light was too bright. Perhaps it was a trick? Did the dark creature possess some kind of magic that made him capable of transforming himself? Yann had been through so much this day that he no longer knew what to believe. What was real and what wasn’t?

  “Take my hand Yann; I’m here to help you.” It was a woman’s voice, warm and engaging. It was a choice between trusting her and being buried underneath a mountain of dirt, he decided she had to be the safer choice. Yann scooped Ani up into one of his arms and took hold of the hand. They were pulled up to the top and out into the light. A ghostly white figure in the distinct shape of a woman stood before them.

  “I hope you are ok!” she said, “I'm sure you have a lot of questions, you probably wonder why you are here, you wonder about that black thing you saw, and about the statue. I know that you have lost your parents. If you want to see them again, you will have to help me free that black thing. It has been pacing up and down here for a while now… It is prisoner of this place.”

  Confused, Yann looked again at his companion and then back at the apparition in front of him, “But how do you want us to do that?” he asked her. “It’s so huge...”

  “Rest assured Yann,” she told him, “You are here for a reaso
n, but I cannot explain everything to you now. That thing holds a set of two keys that you must recover in order to activate the two towers. Once the towers are activated, a passage way will open for you.”

  Yann didn’t say anything else but he looked skeptical. The white figure sensed his angst and she said,

  “You can do this, Yann. I’m sure of that. Oh! There’s one more thing…take this, it’s a pendant that once belonged to that thing, a long time ago.” She held the pendant out and not knowing what else to do, Yann took it. As soon as he did, the ghostly white figure began to dissipate.

  “Hey...wait, don’t go!” Yann yelled after her... He turned back and looked at his friend. Ani was giving him a look that was almost accusing. “Ani, don’t look at me like that, I had nothing to do with this,” Yann told him. Then as Ani communicated with him via their telepathy Yann said, “What? You want to smell it? Here you go...” He put the pendant down where Ani could smell it. Ani took a good whiff; they would have to follow the mysterious, hideous, awful creature using this piece of jewelry.

  The companions gave each other another searching look. They knew as much about the white figure as they did the dark one…practically nothing. The difference was, the white figure was offering them salvation and a reunion with Yann’s parents. They would follow her advice and pray that it led them out of the darkness and back home where they belonged.

  CHAPTER SIX

  “FALLING”

  JFK AIRPORT, NEW YORK

  James tolerated the chaos of the airport and endured the annoyances that going through security these days entailed…barely. He was at last rewarded for it all by the sound of the voice calling overhead that his flight was boarding. He picked up his carry-on bag and grudgingly got into another line as each passenger walked across the ramp that led into the open door of the plane and found their seats. James made his way to his own seat with his boarding pass in hand and stowed his carry on in the space above. He sat down, finally able to relax…if only he could turn off his thoughts….

  Looking down at the boarding pass he was holding, a strange sensation began to creep throughout his body. For years now, since the day that his son had disappeared James had seriously considered suicide, more than once. Not a day went by when he didn’t picture sweet Thomas’ face. The only thing that kept him going was the thought…the chance…the hope they would find him and he would be reunited with his son.

  James often thought that kidnapping was possibly worse than the death of a child. At least when a child dies…as horrible that was…the parent’s had some sort of closure. They didn’t sit and wait, and watch and pray constantly that the child was going to come home. His mind couldn’t stop thinking about it. How was he supposed to? He didn’t know who or what had his boy. He didn’t know if he were alive or dead. He didn’t know what Thomas may have to endure without his father there to help him…to protect him. There was nothing on this earth more unnatural than the loss of a child. The human spirit was strong, but no one should be expected to endure that kind of heart wrenching loss and come out the other side unscathed. It wasn’t humanly possible. Once you had fallen into that bottomless abyss of pain and suffering…there was no way out.

  The question that James couldn’t escape and the one that he couldn’t stop asking…was how? How does a child just disappear? The police had no clues….no evidence ever uncovered or recorded that might give them any idea as to where Thomas went and who or what may have taken him. How does that happen? Someone had to have seen him; someone had to know where he was…

  “Can I get you something to drink, sir?” James was pulled from his thoughts by the sound of the flight attendant’s voice.

  “Yes, I’ll have bourbon on the rocks,” James told her. Another drink couldn’t hurt. Who knows? It might be the one that will finally dull the ache in his heart….Soothe the pain in his soul. At the very least it would help ease him into a dreamless sleep.

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” the woman’s voice came across the intercom, “The Captain has turned off the Seat Belt sign, and you may now use the lavatories. However we always recommend keeping your seat belt fastened while you’re seated. You may now turn on your electronic devices. We wish you all an enjoyable flight…

  James tried to relax but the darkness of the night outside the window and the sounds of the airplane engines whirring only served to feed his mounting anxiety. After a few minutes he signaled the nearest Flight attendant and said,

  “Excuse me, I ordered a drink and it hasn’t come yet…”

  “It’s on its way, sir,” she told him.

  “I don’t really like to fly,” he told her, “So…if you could be nice enough to hurry it up…if you can? Thank you.”

  After another few minutes, James received his drink. The flight attendant had brought him a bottle of bourbon and a glass full of ice.

  “Thank you,” James told her. Still in a foul mood he said, “It was nice of you to hurry,” in a sarcastic tone.

  A sudden flash of white consumed the plane and when James could focus his eyes again he was standing in the center of the aisle. Confused, he looked around at the other passengers but they were no longer human….they were mannequins, anthropomorphic mannequins, life like…but not alive.

  There was another blinding flash of white light and one of the female mannequins yelled out,

  “Run James!”

  “Your son is dead, and he is ours!” The adult male mannequin who sat next to her said. Then the little boy mannequin who sat with them, said in a creepy little boy voice,

  “Look for him at 10h23, maybe you’ll find him…Or maybe you will only find his corpse.”

  It was all horrible and overwhelming, too much for James to bear. He grabbed his aching head in his hands and let out a gut-wrenching scream. James began wandering about the plane; stumbling…drunk, frightened, anguished…. The statues watched him, their eyes moving as he did. It was like truly being caught in a nightmare. James felt like time was standing still, as if he were a puppet himself. He screamed again, just to break the awful silence and this time as he did some of the mannequins began to rise to their feet. It was as if he’d awakened them. James looked at them in horror, wondering what they were up to. He found out soon enough as they began to run after him. They chased him through the humongous plane. They ran along the first floor of the two-story plane, where a game of hide and seek ensued. It was the most horrifying game that James had ever played and although he wanted no part of it he had no choice. He found a small place to hide and as he waited for them to find him and do…whatever…he could feel his heart pounding so furiously that he thought it might rip a hole in his chest. The sweat dripped slowly down the sides of his face and he tried with all of his might to control the rough and ragged sounds of his breathing so as not to give away his hiding place.

  When James had at last calmed himself enough to see straight, he spotted the fire extinguisher in the seat in front of him. He lifted it out of its holder quietly and then in one grand motion he stood up and pulled the handle. A thick cloud of white began to spurt out, coloring the air so that he could suddenly see petrifying black shadows twirling all around him. They had their mouths held open as if in silent screams and some of them reached out and swiped the air around James as if trying to capture him. Still holding the extinguisher, he began to run again….Trying desperately to find a way out. He reached the door of the cockpit and pulled hard on the latch that held it closed. As it swung open James knew he had to be caught up in a horrendous nightmare. In the pilot seat sat his dear departed wife, Sarah and their boy Thomas sat next to her as her co-pilot.

  Normally James would have been thrilled to see them both, but although the things in the cockpit were dead ringers for his family their robotic movements and frozen on smiles were anything but warm and inviting. James had no idea what they were, but he knew what they weren’t and that was his beautiful wife and son. He was about to close the door and the thing that was Sarah sang out,


  “Bye, honey!” as if James was only leaving for work. It was Sarah’s voice, only it wasn’t. It was a dark, sinister version of it that sent a chill running rampant down James’s spine.

  “See you soon, Dad!” Thomas said, in a voice completely void of emotion.

  James was deadly frightened now. He slammed the door, unable to look at the visions of his wife and son. He knew they weren’t real, they couldn’t be. It was the dark things…the things of his nightmares, trying to trick him. It wasn’t what they looked like; it was what they felt like. They felt wrong…evil, something neither Sarah nor Thomas could ever be.

  His head was pounding like a drum and he felt as if he would explode from the build-up of anxiety in his chest. He began screaming again if for no other reason than that he was hoping to release some of what was tearing him up inside. As he stood there screaming, he realized that the dark entities had found him once more. He didn’t see them this time…he felt them. Like the other monsters, the ones from his childhood and in the hospital, he could feel their dark ministrations.

  He ran up the stairs looking desperately once again for an exit. He didn’t think about how high they were in the air, or that he couldn’t possibly survive if he jumped. He just wanted…no, he needed out.

  There was suddenly a deafening sound as an explosion ripped through the plane. James was thrown against a wall as the plane surged to the right and from where he lay in the floor, he could see the glare of bright orange and yellow flames out of one of the windows. Smoke rolled out of the plane and filled the sky with an enormous black cloud. The engine was on fire, it must have been what exploded. He didn’t know what to be more frightened of the shadowy creatures or the now surely doomed flight.