The Traveler (The Great Rift Book 2)

by Christopher Motz

  He wasn't moving.

  "Eric, Jesus Christ, get up!"

  The boy looked up, dazed and exhausted.

  "You have to finish it," he said weakly. Geoff couldn't hear his words but could feel them, as if the voice was inside his head.

  He doubled his efforts, attacking the heart with every shred of energy he could muster until his knuckles ached and bruised. Eric slowly sat up and shook his head. The universe had given him the ability to travel between worlds and see things very few others could even imagine, but when it counted most, he was still a weak, teenage boy struggling to find answers in a world where there were none.

  "I can't do it alone. Goddammit, help me!"

  Eric tilted his head, listening to a voice only he could hear.

  He has to find his power.

  "He could get us killed," Eric replied. "He doesn't know how to use it."

  If he doesn't, you're dead anyway.

  "Who the fuck are you talking to? Get off your ass and help me!"

  Eric stood and immediately toppled to the ground as the room spun around him.

  Tell him to try, Eric. It's the only chance you have left.

  "And if we die down here? Then what? All of this would have been for nothing."

  If you don't try, it's all for nothing, anyway.

  "Is that him? The Guardian? Why don't you tell him to get his ass down here and help us?"

  "Because he's the only thing standing between Stacy and the Skryel. If he leaves her alone, she dies."

  "The Guardian!" the voice thundered. "I knew there was a nigger in the woodpile. Show yourself, Guardian. Let's make this a night to remember."

  "Geoff, use your power. Find it and use it. Kill this fucker."

  "I don't know how!"

  "Learn! Do you want Stacy to die? Are you just going to give up and let the Shadowking win?"

  "You said I could kill us if I don't know how to use it," Geoff cried. "Make up your fucking mind!"

  "Stop being a coward," he goaded. Eric wasn't sure if this was going to work, but the Guardian hadn't led him astray. Not in Elmview, and not since he rescued him from a dead Earth. He owed his life to the Guardian... everyone did.

  "A coward? What... why are saying this?"

  "Do you want to watch everything burn? Do you want to see your friends and family jammed on pikes like Halloween decorations? Focus!"

  Geoff screamed as tears coursed down his face. He'd never been so confused or felt so helpless in his entire life. He punched weakly at the blackened flesh, knowing it was for nothing. His tenuous balance atop the artery was slipping. He opened his hands and dragged his fingernails across the heart's moist surface, peeling away ribbons of flesh. The Skryel shrieked in pain, the sound akin to an amplified train whistle. It was exactly what Geoff needed.

  He clawed furiously, tearing away strips of flesh and rotting meat until his hand burned from exertion. The sickening-sweet aroma of burnt skin punched him in the gut like a living thing. He squinted against a bright glow, unsure of its source. His fingers had gone numb. Beneath the blood and slime coated on his skin, a pure, white light emanated from within, cooking the fluid on his arm.

  He was the source, just as Danny and millions of others had been before him. Doorways had existed since the dawn of time... since the beginning of the war between the Skryels and the Guardians.

  The light grew brighter.

  Geoff splayed his fingers and placed his hand against the pulsating muscle. The light had become too intense, burning afterimages into his retinas. He felt his hand sinking into the raw muscle as it popped and spit and crackled beneath his touch. Black smoke carried the stench of burning pork.

  Geoff opened his eyes and looked down as Eric got to his feet and pounded his fist in the air in slow motion.

  "End it," he shouted. "Send the bastard back to the void!"

  Geoff thrust his arm forward and felt the pressure give way in a river of steaming blood. He was washed from the artery, falling backward through space and hitting the ground on his back. He looked up in time to see the heart split in half and deflate like a punctured balloon. In seconds, he was floating in a literal sea of blood as torn vessels spewed their contents into the chamber. He heard Eric screaming, but couldn't maneuver in the thick fluid. It poured into his mouth and clogged his ears, dragging him beneath the surface. He flailed helplessly, caught in the swirling tide of the Skryel's cauldron.

  He held his breath until his lungs screamed for oxygen. His body grew numb as his senses dimmed.

  He thought about the boy. He thought about leaving Stacy behind, hoping the Guardian would save her.

  A voice screamed in his head... the voice of the Shadowking.

  All for nothing.

  Geoff opened his mouth and took a breath.

  The darkness was infinite, stretching beyond the stars, beyond death.

  In that vacuum, a form floated listlessly - a black smear of soot against the backdrop of all creation.

  Two silver pinpricks of light emerged from the depths and watched him. Cold. Ancient. Blistering from eons of smoldering fury.

  Geoff was carried away to a place where it no longer mattered.

  The Skryel was right. It was all for nothing.

  Chapter 14

  The pain in his chest was excruciating. Just when Geoff thought his torment had come to an end, he found a new layer of fear hidden beneath the surface.

  "Stop," he groaned. "Please..."

  "Don't be a baby. Open your eyes for Christ's sake."

  Geoff vomited a fountain of blood into the dirt and forced his eyes open against the sticky slime that had begun drying on his face. Eric sat across his stomach, holding his clenched hands in front of him.

  "Were you doing CPR on me? Good God, I had a better chance under the house."

  "You're alive aren't you?"

  "Am I? It's getting hard to tell." He sat up and moaned, clutching his ribs. "Where'd you learn that?"

  "St. Elsewhere. Thought I'd give it a try."

  "Don't believe all you see on TV, kid." He spit gobs of bloody saliva from his mouth, trying to scrape the film from his teeth. "Where the hell are we?"

  "Outside, right at the base of the hill. You have to get up, we're still not safe here."

  Geoff stood, reaching out to Eric for support. The boy was covered head-to-toe in crimson slop. They stood on the bank of a newly formed river of blood that poured from beneath the mountain and cut a path through the dry earth. The house looked down on them from above.

  "It's still here," he sighed. "We're still here."

  "The Skryel is gone for now... the house is just a house."

  "I saw it. When I was drowning. When I was dying. It was watching me."

  "I know, I saw it too."

  "I can't do this, Eric. I know I'm supposed to be some kind of Doorway or whatever, but I can't go through that ever again. You're a Traveler. The Guardian is a guardian. I'm just an unemployed nobody. I wasn't meant for this."

  "If you hadn't used your power under the mountain, you'd be dead. Stacy would be dead. The Skryel would already be moving on to another genocide. You gave us a chance."

  "A chance for what? If it can't be killed, and it just keeps coming back, what's the point?"

  "A chance to regroup. A chance for the Guardian to regain his strength. A chance to find Danny and figure out a way to end this once and for all."

  "Danny doesn't even know you're still alive. How do you know he'll help you?"

  "I just know. He never turned his back on me once. Not when the other kids picked on me and called me names; not when my mom and sister tried chasing him and my friends away from my house; not when The Darkening came and threatened to destroy everything we'd ever known. The same blood might not run through our veins, but we're the same person. I've died for him once and I'll do it again."

  "You're a Traveler. You can't die if you're already dead."

  "Everything has an expiration date. You'll die, Danny will d
ie, the Skryel will die. Human lives are gone in the blink of an eye. I might exist for thousands of years... the Skryels and Guardians have been here since the dawn of time, but even they can die. Nothing is eternal. We have to work with the time we have."

  "You missed your calling. You would have been one hell of a motivational speaker."

  The silence was broken as the house collapsed into itself and sank into the hillside. Large sinkholes opened in the earth as the tunnels and caverns beneath the mountain were reclaimed by tons of dirt and debris.

  "We have to go," Eric warned. "This reality is collapsing."

  "Collapsing?"

  "Being erased."

  Geoff started walking, looking over his shoulder once as the entire hillside was sucked into the earth. The broken road beneath his feet felt solid enough, but the quickly changing landscape was enough to get him moving. Even the sky overhead seemed to be closer. This lost planet was coming apart at the seams.

  Several minutes later, the house where he'd left Stacy slowly came into view. Just a regular ranch-style home that could be found in any American town. Here it was, the only noticeable landmark; the last remnant of an entire race that had been cruelly extinguished for nothing more than their continued existence. The front door opened and a strange man stepped onto the porch, smiling as they approached.

  "Nice to see you," he said, waving them over.

  Geoff paused and looked at Eric, who wore his own shit-eating grin.

  "The Guardian?" Geoff asked.

  "You can call me Ben," the man replied. "All my friends do."

  Geoff realized he could see the house through him as if he was nothing more than an apparition. His form was blurred around the edges and glowed with a dim, white light. Geoff wanted to be near him. His very presence offered some unspoken comfort.

  "I'd love to sit here and shoot the shit," Ben said, "but we're just about out of time. We have to get you home."

  Geoff nodded. "Is Stacy... okay?"

  "She's alive," he replied.

  Geoff swallowed hard and walked into the house where Stacy was still asleep on the chair. Her color had improved, but she hadn't moved an inch since they'd left her. Behind his back, Ben and Eric shared a knowing glance.

  "Baby? Hey, wake up. It's time to go."

  Stacy's eyes fluttered open, and for a second, Geoff was worried she wouldn't recognize him. When she smiled and reached for his hand, Geoff exhaled a sigh of relief and wrapped his arms around her, squeezing until she giggled in his ear.

  "What's gotten into you?"

  "Nothing, I'm just happy to see you."

  "Happy to see me? I didn't go anywhere."

  "No, I guess you didn't," he laughed. "We have to go home now. Can you stand?"

  Stacy allowed Geoff to help her out of the chair. "What's on your clothes? Is that blood?"

  "Don't worry about that, it's nothing."

  "And them?" she pointed.

  Eric and Ben were standing in the doorway. "You don't remember Eric?"

  "No, I don't think so. Is he one of the neighborhood kids?"

  "Yep, that's it. Just one of the neighborhood kids."

  Eric offered a thin smile and waved, but Stacy had already lost focus.

  "Where are we?"

  He wrapped an arm around her waist and slowly walked to Eric's side.

  It was the man who spoke first.

  "You understand, don't you?"

  Geoff nodded. "Let's get it over with."

  "If you have something to say, now would be the time."

  He thought it over but came up with nothing. Instead, he kissed Stacy on the cheek and pulled her closer.

  "Will she remember anything?"

  Ben shook his head sadly.

  "Will I see you again?" he asked Eric.

  "Sooner than you think," he replied. "Both of us."

  "I can't say I'm looking forward to it."

  "I would expect nothing less," Ben said.

  Geoff flinched as he felt Eric grab his hand and squeeze.

  "Close your eyes," he said, dropping Geoff's hand. "I can't go with you this time."

  "What if it comes for me? What if it finds me?"

  "When you get back, we'll likely already be there."

  "What? I don't understand. Why don't you just come with me then?"

  "Time is different for us, Geoff. When you get back, it will only be a short time later. For us, it could be decades, centuries. There's no time to talk about it now. What's important is that you won't be alone. We can't change anything that has happened, but we can go back."

  "But if you can travel to the past..."

  "No," Ben interrupted. "That story has already played out. We're only watchers in that timeline, do you understand?"

  "Not a fucking word."

  "Are you ready?" Eric asked.

  Geoff inhaled deeply and held his breath for a moment before letting it out in a rush. "Ready as I'm going to be."

  "Close your eyes."

  Geoff pulled Stacy closer and buried his head in her neck. She snored lightly, growing heavier in his arms.

  He felt the familiar movement as the floor slipped away from beneath his feet. The air crackled and smelled of ozone.

  The brilliant flash of light faded, and the world grew quiet...

  ...but was it his world?

  Geoff slowly opened his eyes.

  ***

  The first thing Geoff saw was a rusted sign advertising unleaded gasoline for ninety-three cents a gallon.

  Oh no, he thought. They sent me too far.

  It took a minute to sink in. Elmview had been mostly abandoned in the late 1980's.

  He was home after all.

  "We're almost there, babe," Geoff said. "We're almost home."

  He shifted her weight in his arms and raised her head tenderly with his fingers. A trickle of blood leaked from her nostrils and over her lips. She didn't even notice.

  She didn't notice anything.

  Her eyes were wide open, but she saw nothing. Her body was here, but whatever had remained of her sanity was lost in that undiscovered emptiness between worlds. She stared vacantly into a summer sky, breathing evenly. Geoff wiped the blood from her upper lip and smeared it on his shirt. He was painted with the dried muck from beneath the mountain... a little more wouldn't hurt.

  "We're almost home," he repeated. "Almost there, baby."

  If she heard him, she made no effort to reply.

  He bent and grabbed Stacy in his arms, carrying her down the empty street as a squirrel zoomed by with a mouthful of berries. The houses and businesses along the street were covered in grime and shuttered against the elements, dilapidated and in desperate need of repair or demolition. Geoff favored the latter.

  Wipe this cursed place off the map for good.

  The sun was low in the eastern sky; it was warm and muggy and cloudless. A slight breeze whispered through the tall trees lining the barren street. If Geoff hadn't now known what had happened here, it wouldn't seem so eerie or out of place. Elmview had been visited by pure evil, and if not for Eric and his friends, if not for an ancient guardian disguised as an old man, this world could very well look like the other nightmare visions he'd seen while traveling.

  As long as this place was here, and as long as the Skryel had unfinished business with the human race, nowhere was safe.

  Geoff wondered how far it was to the house and what he'd find when he got there. Would he find his friends' bodies? Would the house still be inhabited by the monster, or had it been sent back to rot in the abyss?

  He decided it was best left unknown. If anyone asked, he'd tell them his car had been stolen. He didn't want anything to remind him of what had happened.

  Stacy was the only reminder he needed.

  Another casualty of the Skryel's vengeance.

  "I'm so sorry," he whispered.

  He watched the cracked asphalt stretch out in front of him - the entire length of Broad Street - and imagined what it would say if
it could speak to him. Maybe he already knew.

  Sweat broke out on his forehead and stung his eyes, blurring his vision just enough to make him fear what could be hiding in the overgrown bushes and empty buildings surrounding them.

  Where will we go? he thought. How am I supposed to live a normal life after all that's happened?

  After what seemed like hours, Geoff reached the outskirts of Elmview and the large mountain of dirt that blocked the entrance. It wasn't enough. This place needed to be flattened, the debris buried, and the earth salted so that nothing would ever grow here again. It was a stain, a scar, a disease that needed to be eradicated.

  Geoff uttered a short squeal as a man burst through the trees, holding a pistol aimed at the dirt. He stopped, shifted Stacy's weight in his arms, and stared at him as he approached cautiously.

  "I'm going to need you to come with me," the officer demanded. He looked Geoff up and down, grimacing at the dried blood that covered every inch of his body. "I think you have some explaining to do."

  Geoff was too tired to fight. Too tired to ask questions or concoct a story that would make any sense.

  What more was there to say? The officer's presence could only mean that they'd found his friends, his car, all the evidence they needed to connect the dots. Covered in gore and carrying the motionless body of his girlfriend, Geoff nodded and walked forward without a fight. The officer stayed behind them, weapon at the ready, as they followed the path around the dirt mound toward the waiting police cruiser.

  "You have the right to remain silent," the officer said nervously.

  It was the last thing Geoff remembered clearly. His eyes closed the second the car door slammed behind him.

  In his scattered dreams, he saw the house illuminated in the red glow of a dying world.

  He saw a forsaken church where broken people worshiped the King of Shadows.