by D. B. Green
We open our cards at the same. She’s got me one with two fluffy bears holding hands on the front. It’s the exact same card I picked for her.
“We got each other the same card,” she says, turning it over in her hand. “You didn’t write anything inside, either.”
“I figured you knew how I felt.”
She smiles and places both cards next to the orchid on the table. Then she walks over to the filing cabinets and opens the top drawer of the middle one. Taking out a blue folder, she drops onto the sofa next to me. She takes a sip of coffee, then turns to face me with her beautiful, intense green eyes. “My brother was taken too.” She opens the file and hands me a sheet of paper from inside. It’s a police missing person’s report. “For years, my mom said Sean died in an accident, but my dad let slip one drunken night that he was taken.” She points at the report. “He was taken on the twenty-second of July. Nineteen ninety-five.”
“That’s the same day that—”
“—your sister was taken in Vancouver.” Penny nods as she sips her coffee. I put my cup down on the table and take out her Polaroid, placing it on my knee. Her eyes open wide. “He was taken through one of those, too,” she says.
“Was he taken from here, in Meridia Falls?”
“I think so. But the exact location has been blanked out of the police report,” she says. “I’ve been trying to find out where it happened.”
“What about your dad? What does he say?”
She shrugs her shoulders. “He left home a long time ago.”
I hold her hand. “I’m so sorry.” Then it suddenly it hits me. One of those doors. “Wait a minute - there are more doors?”
Penny stands and leads me to the notice board, stroking the side of my hand with her thumb. “Look at this.”
Three photos sit at the bottom, pinned to the cork, all showing the same strange white door. One on the edge of a highway, one inside a stone circle, and a photocopy of the Polaroid she gave me, showing the same door in a forest clearing. I lean in closer to the pictures. There’s a red triangle on each of the doors, just like the one I thought I saw Cassie dragged through.
“What the hell are they?” I say as my eyes fall on a thick beige folder on top of the filing cabinets. It has the familiar tree under a halo logo of Serenity Grove. My name is stamped across the top in red ink. My medical report. “Where did you get this?” I let go of her hand and reach for the file.
“I’ve got… contacts.”
I flick through the file. Copies of all the sessions I had. Notes about the hallucinations. Photos, horrible photos.
A sheet of paper falls out. It’s a copy of a letter I sent to Cassie dated two months ago.
Penny holds my hand. “It’s OK, Logan.” She grabs another huge file from under the newspapers on her desk. It’s from a place called the Clearwater Institute. The hospital Maz mentioned at school. Penny’s name is on the top. “The same shit happened to me, too. They set up a P.O. Box so I could write grief letters to Sean.” She taps the side of her head. “Therapy. At least that’s what they called it. But by that time, I was so angry at being deceived, I couldn’t write to anyone.”
We sit down with the files on our knees. Penny takes out a sheet of paper from inside her file. “Look,” she says, breaking the silence.
Project Sunburst
Patient Name: Penny Summers
Patient DOB: 10/03/88
Patient Ref: XX-10/03/88
Session Date: 08/21/93
Session Name: Dream Shift Experiment 019
Overseer: Dr. Hamilton
Our previous sessions dealt with moving Penny’s sleep pattern forward by 8 hours to synchronize with her sunburst partner at Serenity Grove, Vancouver. This was successfully achieved yesterday. Today, she made her first dream shift. Waking contact was made for 30 minutes. Penny states that she met a ghost and he was called Logan. See hypnosis transcript on page 2.
Penny opens my file and takes out another sheet of paper.
Project Sunburst
Patient Name: Logan Collins
Patient DOB: 10/03/88
Patient Ref: XY-10/03/88
Session Date: 08/20/93
Session Name: Dream Shift Experiment 019
Overseer: Dr. Lane
Today we had our first success. Dream shift contact was made for 30 minutes. Logan states that he met a girl in his dream and her name was Penny. See hypnosis transcript on page 2.
Penny holds up both pages. “We’ve been connected together for a lot longer than just today.”
“A lot of weird shit happened after Cassie was kidnapped,” I say. “I can’t remember any of it.”
Penny shakes the pages. “Look at the dates, Logan.” She thrusts the session notes forward. “Look at the dates!”
“August, ninety-three.” I snatch both pages from her. “This is before—”
“—Cassie and Sean were taken.” She finishes my sentence.
My lungs freeze like they’re full of ice water as dizziness spreads through my mind. Roaxatol. I flick open the spiral on my ring and tip the pill into my mouth.
Penny’s hand shoots across, catching the pill. “No!” she shouts. “You don’t need this shit. There’s nothing wrong with you.” She drops the pill on the floor, crushing it with her heel.
My breathing is short. It’s hard to drag air into my lungs. “I need it to calm me down. To stop the panic attack.”
Darkness closes in… then soft, sweet vanilla lips press against mine. My heart rate slows as I slide into Penny’s mind. I see through her eyes as she leaves school. Her euphoria at what happened between us changes to panic as she connects to a random stranger in the card store. I see a typed message conversation with her secret contact, a Mr. Cross. His warning of danger, to trust no one. His instructions to do nothing until he got there. He signed off with a question. Do you believe in magic?
I slowly pull my lips away, the word magic echoing in my mind.
“Wow,” Penny says. “Harmony seems like a nice friend. And, that tourtière Anne made was sure tasty.”
“You saw all that,” I say.
“I felt it all, and tasted it. Did you… feel me?”
“Oh, yes,” I say, staring into her sparkling orange eyes.
“Are my eyes—”
“—Orange,” I say, finishing her sentence. “Yes, they’re beautiful.”
“Like yours.” She smiles as the sparkling orange slowly fades from her eyes. “I knew I was right about being in Candy’s mind.” Her face suddenly drops. “What happened with that sign? Wolfville… I’ve heard that name somewhere before.” She shakes her head, glancing at the filing cabinets. “I can’t remember where.”
“So, this connection we have.” I reach across and stroke her arm. “It only works between us when we kiss.”
“Looks like it.”
“And, we sort of catch up on each other’s lives when we do.”
She nods.
“But what happens if we kiss now?”
“Let’s see.” She leans across and presses her lips to mine. After a brief flash of the previous conversation, the memories disappear, leaving just a wonderful feeling of butterflies.
“I can live with this,” I say, as we pull apart.
Penny licks her lips. “Definitely.”
“‘Do you believe in magic?’ The last message you got from Cross. Is this what’s happening to us? Magic?”
“I don’t know, that came out of left field,” Penny says, rubbing her eyes. “His messages were always kind of cryptic, until today.”
“Well, he told you he was on his way,” I say. “I guess we’ll find out soon enough.” The Polaroid photo jumps back into my mind. “Did he send you the door pictures too? Our connection at school whizzed past too fast for me to pick out details like that.”
Penny glances at the notice board. “Yeah. He’s been sending me stuff for months. We met online in a conspiracy theory chat room.” She grabs a folded newspaper page fr
om the desk. “He took an interest in this too. My ‘freaky fanzine,’ as Marilyn called it.” She holds up the front page of the Bizarre News Bulletin. The headline underneath the name catches my eye.
Apple Spirals Return!
Halifax Orchard Hit With Weird Apple Spiral Phenomenon Again
By Penny Summers
Beneath the headline there’s a photo of a red apple with a spiral carved into its skin, followed by the smaller print of her story. Penny pulls the page away before I can read it.
“You make the paper here?”
She nods, glancing at the computers on the desk.
“By yourself?”
“I have a few contributors, but yes, the bulk of it is done by yours truly.” She taps a headline at the bottom of the page about ghosts, then folds it up before I can read the rest. “Arnie, who wrote this story, works at a print shop. He gets me good deal on the printing.” She unfolds the page again and stares at the ‘apple’ headline. “Not my best work.” She taps the side of her head. “But it helped exorcize a few ghosts.”
“You hate apples, too.”
Penny scrunches up her face and she sits down next to me on the sofa. “With a passion.” She spins around, holding out her hand. “Can I have the Polaroid?” I pass her the photo. “Cross sent it last week,” she says, glancing at the filing cabinets. “Along with a copy of your medical file. He told me you were coming back to Meridia Falls.” She tilts her head and closes her eyes. I didn’t realize I was stroking her face while she talked.
“Sorry.”
“Don’t stop.” She drags my hand back to her cheek. “Cross knew there was a connection between us, but he never explained what it was or why it existed.” She stares at the Polaroid. “This door was photographed in Hellgate Forest. Cross sent me the GPS coordinates. It’s not far from here. It’s the reason I wanted to meet you.” She presses my hand tighter to her cheek. “Well, the second reason.” She turns and smiles. A mischievous glint shines in her beautiful green eyes. “Fancy taking a birthday drive?”
19:12 GMT-4
HELLGATE FOREST | MERIDIA FALLS
“Pull in here,” Penny says, staring at the satnav screen on her knee. “We’ll have to go on foot from now on.” She opens out a large map, and pushes her finger across it, tracing out a route.
The headlights don’t make a dent in the mist and darkness. I’ve been crawling along this track so slowly I’ve almost come to a stop already. I squint, trying to see through the dark tree shadows. “Hellgate is one hell of a name for a forest.”
Penny’s eyebrows twitch. “Yeah, you’re not wrong.” She folds up the map into a small square. “The waterfalls I mentioned in class this morning are in this forest.” She peers out of the window and turns on her flashlight. “Although they are different now. When the town flooded, the Black River tripled in size. The waterfalls changed from gentle swimming pools to huge, raging torrents.” She shines her flashlight out of the window. “Stayed that way ever since.”
“You’re a proper little history buff.” I tap the side of my head. “Although, I should know that already.”
She smiles. “What can I say? I like to research.”
“The waterfalls aren’t near here, are they?” I reach down to my boots. “These are not waterproof.”
“Nope.” She grins, shaking the folded map. “Hellgate Forest is a big place.”
Cross’s warning flashes in my mind again; danger. “We should have gone for a birthday meal, not hiking in the forest at night.”
“These doors have plagued our lives, making us question our own sanity.” Penny strokes the side of my face, then slips on her purple gloves. She leans in close. “We need to find out why.”
I can’t stop the tingling pull towards her lips. Her tongue gently flicks around mine as we press together. My stomach fills with the throbbing butterfly sensation again. Such a wondrous feeling. I don’t fear the connection. This time, I embrace it and give myself over to her mind without hesitation. A surge of euphoria rushes through my veins. I’m consumed by a wave of joy as I experience our journey here, from her point of view. The vision ends, but the kiss doesn’t. My heart throbs in time with the butterflies in my stomach. This is the most complete I’ve ever felt. I’m in love.
Penny pulls away and smiles, flicking the hair away from her sparkling eyes. “I’m in love, too.” She straightens my hat and then pulls me next to her. We watch our orange eyes fade in the rear-view mirror, like we’re watching fireworks around a campfire.
“I don’t know why this is happening,” I say. “But I don’t want it to stop.”
“Me neither.” The satnav beeps on her knee. “But we need to find out what these white doors are.” She opens the truck door and freezing cold air rushes inside “Are you ready?” Her cold breath swirls in the wind.
I grab my flashlight and follow her to the front of the truck. The frozen grass crunches under my boots.
Penny fits a lens on her camera, then she checks our position on the satnav. “We’re not far from the location on the Polaroid.” She wraps her purple scarf around her shoulders and tugs her matching hat down to cover her ears.
“Who took the Polaroid?” I say. “Was it Cross?”
Penny shrugs her shoulders as she moves her finger over the map. “He didn’t say.”
“But, can you… we… trust him?”
She nods. “I think we can.” She pats her chest. “I feel it in here, like the way I know I can trust you.”
There’s a sudden rustling in the leaves behind us. I spin around, shining my flashlight into the trees. Penny grabs my arm, pulling herself tight against me. “It’s probably a rabbit or something,” I say.
She turns and shines her flashlight to the right of the truck. “We need to go through here. There’s a small trail on the other side of those pine trees.” She gasps. “The crooked trees.”
I follow her flashlight beam as she shines it along the row of trees. They all lean to the right as though they’ve been half-pulled from the ground.
“I read about these. They grew like that after the flood,” Penny says, rubbing her hand over the bark. “I didn’t realize we were this close to them.”
I shine my flashlight up the tree in front of me. “I hid behind one like this when Cassie was taken.”
Penny half-smiles. “I know.”
I force my way between the sharp branches and bend them back to form a clear path through.
“Thank you.” Penny smiles as she eases between the trees. I let go of the branches and follow her through. She checks our position again and shines her flashlight to the right. “Look, the trail follows these crooked trees.”
We head down the uneven path, following the satnav and the map, pushing through the low swirling mist “Feels like—”
“—Halloween’s come early.” Penny stops still. “Have you noticed how we—”
“—keep finishing each other’s sentences?” I say.
She shines her flashlight into the trees again. “I like it.”
The leaves rustle as a dark shadow shoots to the left. “That’s no rabbit,” Penny whispers. She grabs my hand and we run down the trail. The rustling follows us through the crooked trees.
“That birthday meal date is sounding like a good idea right about now,” Penny says.
I shine my flashlight back up the trail as we run. The rustling stops, but I crash into the back of Penny, almost knocking her over. I turn around to apologize, but she’s standing perfectly still.
Her arms dangle by her sides. She’s staring ahead into a clearing between the trees. Staring at the perfect shape of a white door. Cassie.
The memory of that day floods into my mind like a tidal wave. I’m back behind the leaning tree, waiting for Cassie and dad. Waiting so I can dive out and make them jump. I can smell the damp bark and hear Cassie’s screams. Then I see the white door between the trees, shining like a bright beacon. The man appears like a looming shadow, dragging Cassie towards it.
She sees me hiding and reaches out with her hand. I’m too scared. The door opens and the shadowy man drags Cassie through. The little red triangle twinkles like a Christmas tree decoration as the door slams shut. Her last scream echoes in my mind.
“Logan,” Cassie shakes my shoulders. “Snap out of it.”
“Sorry.”
She pulls me down behind a thick bush and shines her flashlight at the clearing. The door looks so out of place between the crooked trees, glowing in the light.
Penny aims her camera and takes several pictures of the door. “We need a closer look at it,” she whispers.
“Oh, my god.” A voice from behind cuts through the icy silence.
We spin around. It’s Maz. She’s standing there with one hand over her mouth and the other pointing at the door.
“Shit.” I grab the sleeve of her blue coat and pull her down behind the bush. “What are you doing here?”
She looks from me to Penny. “I was worried about you?”
A tall guy steps out of the trees wearing a padded blue jacket and black jeans. He runs his fingers through his short brown hair. “More like she was nosey as hell,” he says.
“You followed us!” Penny says, anger laced in her voice.
Maz holds her hands up. “I asked Steve to drive me. I was worried,” she says, tilting her head. “And kind of curious.” She looks at the door, her eyes wide open. “Look Steve, I told you. It’s a freakin’ white door in the middle of the forest.”
“Babe, there’s nothing there,” he says.
Maz stands and points at the clearing. “Hello. White door. Forest.”
Steve shakes his head. “There’s nothing there.”
Maz grabs his hand. His eyes open wide, like he’s been stung by a wasp and he stumbles back, landing on the hard, icy ground. “I saw it when you touched me. A white door.” He scrambles back through the frozen grass.
Penny rushes over to him. “Can you see it now?”
He shakes his head. Penny glances at Maz, then she takes off her glove and reaches forward. Steve backs away as she rests her finger on the back of his hand.
“I can see it again,” he says.
Penny glances at Maz, then at me. “Skin to skin,” she says.