Tethered

by Vaughn Ashby

  Smith, who had returned to his car came back gunless, the police were just pulling in so it was best to not have it. “Listen, more has happened then I have time to get into. Needless to say this shit has all happened before. He,” Smith pointed at dead Shane. “Has been you before. I don’t know how but he came back and is changing stuff. Again I don’t have time to go into it ask Pratt about me, he read about me in my book.” Smith considered the book for a second. He’d always thought of it as a true roadmap of what’s to come. Pratt had mentioned that it was wrong for them. Maybe it was getting the two Shane’s confused, it didn’t matter now, but still, he’d have to look into it later. “We need to get to the house, together. Can you get me there?”

  “Maybe, I think I know what I was suggesting to myself.”

  “What?” Smith replied confused.

  “Follow me,” Shane led Smith away from dead Shane towards the version of Smith’s car dead Shane had driven there. Smith was shocked to see it. He looked across the parking lot to see the exact same car, which was still crumpled together with the police cruiser, which the actual police were now looking at. They had already pulled police tape around the wreck, and it looked like they were working on getting something to cover dead Shane with.

  Shane peaked into the car and could make out the objects in the back of the vehicle, portal supplies. He tried the handle it was locked. He was about to go around to the other side when Smith stopped him. He pulled a key from his pocket, Shane assumed the set for his own version of the car and tried them on the locks. They turned and the door opened. Smith smiled and made room for Shane to get his stuff.

  Kristen, who’d been near dead Shane when the police had arrived was being questioned. She’d be safe here, pissed that he left her, but safe. Maybe she’d understand.

  Shane went through the steps of creating the portal only this time he did it on the pavement directly behind the car. With the sun now rising behind them the glow of the portal was lost on the rising sky. Shane quickly spray painted a note for Kristen on the cement next to the portal. Then he set the can down next to the note.

  “Ready?” Shane asked Smith.

  Smith nodded. “Have you done this before?”

  “No, but I think maybe he had,” Shane pointed to dead Shane. He grabbed a flare from the trunk and dropped it through the portal, then pocketed an extra.

  “Cool,” said and Smith jumped down through the portal.

  With all regard for gravity out the window, Shane dropped through the portal after him.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

  2012 Jessica: BI Guru and Death Star Date Specialist

  Jessica sat at the library computer, and sipped her coffee. She’d been there for hours hacking away at her own mystery. She remembered the house, and everything horrific that happened there. But everything before was a hazy mess. She knew her name was Jessica, but then she’d known that when she first woke up in the field. She wasn’t even sure how long she was actually at the house. Time was so strange there. As far as she knew she could have been there ten, twenty, thirty, or more years. It didn’t really matter, she had no idea where to start.

  She’d tried her hand at googling herself, but her computer skills were limited since she’d been living in that house for most of the internet's existence, she had no idea how best to use it. She did have an email address; her now ex-had helped set it up back when they first got together. He’d sent her travel ideas, and they’d planned trips together. Now she waited for a message from people she’d never met.

  She’d discovered that her power of persuasion reached beyond the verbal or physical. Somehow she was able to get people to do what she wanted just by written requests. She didn’t use anything special to get it done. No magic pen or words, she just had to be her writing them. So she’d looked up people who held positions that might be able to help her find out more about her past.

  Her first request went out to a man who worked for the federal government's records office, next she hit up an archive census clerk, and a local historian. So far she’d only heard back from the records office employee. He’d sent her a massive package of Jessica’s who had gone missing. The list and material was overwhelming for her to go through.

  The new email count changed from zero to one. She clicked it and saw a new email from the historian. She read it and then was about to move it to the trash. He’d been a waste of time. And actually kind of a dick in his response. Her hand moved from the mouse to the keyboard. She thought about telling him to jump off a bridge, or to fuck himself, but she knew he'd take these suggestions to heart and actually do them. Her hand moved back to the mouse and she deleted the email.

  She now had both way too much data and nothing. She sipped her coffee and stared at the computer screen. Unless the census guy came back with a magical exact match she needed help. She opened a web browser and googled paranormal help. It brought back a list of people. Her fingers tapped along the results as she read the titles. The third from the top interested her. She clicked it open.

  It was an online resume for a data architect, BI guru, and Death Star data specialist. She didn't know what any of those meant, so she read further. He had a large amount of different jobs in different companies doing what looked like the same thing to her. Basically looking through data. She copied his email address and flipped back to her email account. She attached the data she'd got from the government guy and added the details of what she was looking for. Then she ended the email with a please and sent it off to Travers.

  Almost exactly two minutes later the new email count changed to one again. She expected it to be from the census guy, but it wasn’t, it was from the Travers fellow she'd just messaged. She opened the email. It had only two lines in it.

  The first line had a single line from her results. She was amazed had he really found her in such a short amount of time? She considered that maybe he was just messing with her, and sent her just some random line, but she knew that wasn't possible.

  The second line was an invitation for a date. She laughed, who did he think he was? But, he had helped her. She checked his online resume again and read his location. It was remarkably close to where Moe and Nicole had started their little adventure to the house. She replied back to him with a simple maybe and returned to look at the record he'd just found for her.

  It didn't give her much information at first glance. How much info can a single line tell about you? Turns out actually a lot. She put her full name Jessica Beth Snow and her birthdate into the search bar then hit enter.

  The majority of the search results were census records; she'd come back to those later. The one that stood out for her was a news article, she opened the link. It was a scanned news article from the Canada Post newspaper from 1949. There standing next to the headline was a picture of her, she was holding a baby.

  She remembered nothing of having any kids. It's not really something that can sneak up on you, or something you'd forget, just ask any pregnant woman ever.

  The headline read “Search for miss woman and son called off”. Shit, she had a son?

  She read on,

  “Local woman Jessica Snow and son Tim are still missing. Local authorities have expressed they have exhausted all options and now turn to the community for help. Snow and son her were last seen walking home on Friday evening. It's unknown if foul play is involved. Snow, recently widowed, was one of the towns two teachers. Her husband having served during the war against Hitler’s Armies did not return home.”

  Jessica pushed back from the keyboard, it was a lot to take in. Two minutes ago she knew nothing about herself, now she wished she knew nothing again.

  She thought about her son, and that poor little girl Nicole who was now trapped in her place at the house. She pulled a scratch pad from her backpack and clicked her pen. Time to come up with some way to get her home.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

  2014-B Past Shane: So You’ve Seen These Before

  The air rushed out
of Shane’s lungs as he came down on the ground hard. Jumping down into the portal really wasn’t the best idea looking back now. He coughed, and tried to get the air back in him. He could see Smith doing the same thing. Unlike dead Shane, he’d never been through one of these before. He laid there staring up at the sky and watched the dirt around him slowly drift up. The sky looked different, a mix of haze from the large amount of particles in the air, and the fact that there was a different sun lighting the sky helped too.

  Shane rolled over, and got on his hands and knees. He tried to take in a deep breath, the atmosphere was thinner then he was used to. He could feel himself getting light headed. Passing out here for a while seemed like a bad idea, even if it was a comfortable inviting one. He staggered to his feet, and looked around.

  There were dozens of portals just like the one they’d come through, only they were all several feet above the ground. In fact, they were all well out of his jumping range. He’d have to be Michael Jordan to dunk on these nets.

  Smith walked from portal to portal examining them. “Do you know what these are? Also, where we are?”

  Shane shook his head, “No idea where we are… as for what those things are.” He tried for a deep breath again, still no good. “Some kids were trying to make something for drama class, but ended up accidentally creating a transportation rip in space. I believe they were just trying to make sets for their school play. I guess they got too creative with their design and an actual portal opened up.”

  “So you’ve seen these before, is that how you knew how to make it?”

  “Yeah, I’ve actually closed more then I’ve opened. The one we went through,” he pointed back to the glowing circle they’d fallen from. “Was actually the first I’ve opened.” Shane turned back to look at it, the sun was still rising there, it’s colors flooded through the opening. It was still open; Kristen hadn’t found her note yet.

  “So now what? How does this get us to the House?” Smith asked.

  Shane spun in a circle taking in just how many portals there were. There were a lot more of them then he’d hoped there to be. Most were painted over, a large amount probably by himself. But a few of them actually seemed to have some sort of wood door covering them. This concerned him. People were keeping them open for some reason. But that didn’t matter right now. He had to find the one to get him to Jason. “I’m guessing, the dead version of me we watched die back there had some sort of plan. I’m also assuming dying wasn’t involved in that plan. The phone call told me the house was there on the feed. I'm guessing dead me knew that the house was going to appear there, only it wasn’t there when he was there. So he set up the feed to watch it.”

  “Ok, so why use a portal and not, you know a car. We drove fine last time.”

  “Last time?”

  “Yeah, I may have known that guy back there, and traveled to the house once already with you… him.”

  Shane looked at him confused, “So what happened?”

  “I died.”

  “Shit that sucks, a lot of that going around today,” Shane smiled, and pointed at one of the portals, “There, that’s got to be it.”

  Smith looked in the direction Shane was pointing, and saw a portal with some sort of fabric draped over it. It was a tarp with a giant penis spray painted on it.

  They made their way to the portal, and stood under it. Shane jumped to try, and reach the edge of the portal, no luck it was too high.

  Smith laughed, so did Shane. “Fuck that’s high.”

  “Come on I'll boost you up. Then you can pull me up.”

  “So I'd have to lay there half in and half out, have you ever seen a horror movie involving an elevator?"

  “Come on, that penis tarp has been covering that thing for hours I'm sure. Now climb Penis Boy.” Smith interlocked his fingers, then motioned for Shane to put his foot there. Shane did, and Smith boosted him up towards the portal and penis tarp. Shane grabbed the edge, and pulled as hard as he could.

  It had been years since his last attempted pull up. Probably around high school. He wished Kristen was here in his spot. He was certain she’d able to do about a hundred pull-ups, and then still pull herself into the portal. Shane pulled hard again, and stayed there hanging from the opening. He looked over at the portal they'd come through, it was still open. Maybe they should just go back and drive. “I don't think I can…” Shane looked down at Smith, he was gone. Had he gone back threw when he wasn't looking? Did he jump through another portal?

  Shane hung from the portal, his arms getting more, and more tired. The chances of him being able to pull himself up were dropping every second.

  The slowly drifting dirt around him made a dusty sound as it moved passed, otherwise the planet was quiet. Until now. He could hear footsteps. Maybe Smith was running back from somewhere. Shane looked around, and saw nothing. The footsteps increased in speed and sound. There were more than two feet, he could tell by the pattern. He knew exactly what was coming for him.

  The giant hell spider was bearing down on him fast, he had nowhere to go. But that's not what he was worried about. He looked back at his entry portal and could see Kristen poking her head through.

  “Spray paint the portal now!” He yelled the best he could while still not being able to really catch his breath, and having completed his third attempt to pull himself up. He could see Kristen looking around the portal on her side. Then she saw his loving note that asked her to spray paint this shut. He watched her pull the lid off the spray paint can and shake it.

  “Hurry!”

  She started to spray, but the can was getting low on spray and she had to re-shake the can after every couple seconds. Finally, the giant spider came into her view, and she screamed, nearly dropping the can through the remaining portal.

  She shook it again and watched as the spider closed in on her. Now only meters away, she gave the can one last shake, and sprayed the last of it on the portal.

  A little less then a foot opening remained. The spider rammed hard against the opening completely ignoring Shane. It reached one of its arms through. Shane could hear screams from the other end. Then he made out the sound of Kristen’s yell. Not afraid, but yelling none the less. Then there was silence followed by gunshots. The spider reeled back from the portal, the arm it had poked through the opening was now missing. Shane looked around but couldn’t tell if the arm ended up on this side of the portal, or the other, but he did notice that Kristen had managed to fill the remaining hole in the portal. He smiled, at least she was safe again, but he wasn’t.

  The spider having recovered from the amputation now looked up at him, pissed off. The thing was massive, and for lack of a better term, it was gross. The spider shifted its weight onto it’s back legs, and pushed up. It easily towered up to his legs. Shane pulled his knees up to avoid his acting as bait. The thing’s giant furry arms reached up to him. They ran along his pants, then his shirt. Shane wished he could just jump down, squish this spider, and move on.

  The spider’s legs moved up along his back and one rested for a second on his shoulder. He tried his best to let his shoulder go limp without letting go of the portal. It didn't work but the spider's leg did let go. It moved up past his neck, the hair from the spider’s leg tangled with his own.

  Shane struggled to hold back his gag reflex. He looked down to see the spider was almost completely stretched out. If it had tip toes, it was on them.

  Shane threw up, the contents of his stomach getting on himself and the spider. Two of the spider’s legs hooked the edge of the portal next to his own hands, and started pulling the giant creature up.

  If having the legs brush again him wasn't enough now, the entire length of the spider brushed against him. First the legs again, then the spiders head with all its eyes looking at him, then the gross hairy body. The spider's mostly round shaped body pushed Shane to the side as it pulled itself up. Shane threw up again. Then finally it's remaining legs passed by him. Shane looked up just in time to see the spid
er disappear through the portal opening. He instantly became thankful that spiders didn’t have genitals.

  Shane hung there alone, the dust still drifting past him. His arms screamed in pain. He could fall, try to find another open portal, and hope it wasn't this high off the ground too. The one he'd come through was no longer an option. He could figure out a way to get up into the one he was hanging from, and save Jason. But that was the direction the spider just went.

  While the choice seemed easy, the execution seemed impossible. Without a lot of options or strength left Shane hung there. Just like a kid on a swing, he pushed out with his legs then tucked them in. He repeated this over and over. Finally, he started swinging. He had to be careful, if he got going too fast he'd lose his grip for sure.

  He pumped again, and again. With a final leg pump, he let go with one hand turned, and got a leg through the open portal. He yelled in happiness. The penis tarp moved in the wind from the other side. The giant spider had managed to pull most of it down.

  Then something grabbed Shane's leg, and pulled him through the portal. He struggled to grip the edges, but he was too weak to do any good.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE

  1931 Anna: One For Her And One For Himself

  More and more of the people from around the town and county came by looking for the people who were trapped on this property. Unfortunately, everyone who came joined in the fun. Fun being not really fun, more like terror; a nightmare really.

  It didn’t take long for the people to turn on Gord and Anna. Anna was killed in a hostile takeover of the house. People who in their rage, forgot her condition, and threw her from the bed. She succumbed to her injuries quickly. Gord, was heartbroken. They allowed Gord to bring her down to the basement, where he dug a grave for her. He hoped that maybe she would finally be at peace. He ended up digging two holes. One for her, and one for himself. His plan was to bury her, then bury himself. The two could rest down here together.