“Mackenzie! It’s waiting for you! Don’t you understand?” Grant broke into a slow run to catch up with her.
“I can’t stay here! Not after last night!” For a second she was lost in a flashback, the grave sucking her down, Tanner gripping her leg, then she was gasping for breath and staring at Grant’s concerned face. He held her steady, his hands warm against her upper arms. “Let me go, Grant.”
His grip did not relent. “Mackenzie, listen to me. It will attack when we get there. It knows you now.”
“I want to go home. You said you hung out in a dead spot trying to go home. I have the right to try the same thing!”
“It was hell when I did it! I died multiple times. It ate at me, Mackenzie! I don’t want that to happen to you!”
“I want this to be a dream! I want to wake up! And if it’s not, then I have to find a way out!”
The sound of her cell phone playing Britney Spears startled both of them.
“Oh, my God!” Mackenzie yanked free of his grip and pried open her purse, madly rummaging for her phone. It always ended up buried at the bottom even though she tried to make it a habit to place it in the sleeve sewn into the lining.
“Don’t answer it,” Grant urged her.
“Are you nuts?” Mackenzie gave him an incredulous look. Her fingers found the familiar shape and tugged it out. The phone continued to sing in her hand. “It’s my mom!” She slid her finger across the screen, answering it.
“Mackenzie…” Grant shook his head in despair, running his fingers through his hair.
“Mom!” Mackenzie cried out. “Mom, I’m here!”
The voice on the other end was distorted, almost completely devoured in a storm of static. Estelle’s desperate, frantic voice barely sliced through the noise.
“Mom, I can’t make out what you’re saying!”
“… where … you … hear … me … state trooper … car … are … you…”
“Mom, I’m near the café! I’m on my way there! Are the state troopers there?” Mackenzie rushed along the road, her purse banging against her back.
“… worried…”
“I can barely hear her, but I think she’s saying that state troopers found my car!” Mackenzie exclaimed, rushing ahead of Grant. “I think they’re at the café! The door has to be open if she can call me, right? I actually have bars! The door has to be open!”
“It’s a trick, Mackenzie!”
“… in café … your car … are … you…”
Mackenzie growled with frustration. She switched on the speaker and held out the phone as she ran, trying to find more bars. The one she had was a sliver. Estelle’s frantic voice burst out of the interference every few seconds, but was basically incomprehensible.
“It’s a trap, Mackenzie! It’s not real!” Grant grabbed her arm, pulling her about. “Listen to me.”
“No! My mom is getting through to me! That means the door is open!” Mackenzie cried out. “Don’t you see that?”
“It’s a trap! To feed off you! To frighten you! To lure you back and hurt you!” Grant’s face was red with anger.
Her mother’s voice was lost in the popping on the line. Drawing away from Grant, Mackenzie broke into a run toward the café. It was barely visible just beyond the last line of trees.
A flicker of movement on the side of the road caught her attention. A figure waded through the tall grasses dressed in a filmy black gown that clung like vapor to the tall grasses catching its hem. It held something in its emaciated arms, its head inclined to gaze upon it so that its long dark hair formed a curtain over its face. Mackenzie felt her heart speed up at the sight of the ghostly apparition.
“It’s starting!” Grant called out.
Mackenzie pressed the phone to her ear, the static a roar. “Mom! Don’t let them shut the door! I’m coming!”
Another figure exactly like the first stepped onto the road several yards ahead. Barefoot, it prowled deliberately toward her, its veil of dark hair obscuring its face and whatever it held in the crook of its skinny, pale arms. The road shuddered and cracked. Losing her balance, Mackenzie teetered on her heels. The creature moved purposefully toward her, its long dark robe drifting over the road like a black mist.
“What is it?” Mackenzie stared at the being with growing horror. “What is that thing?”
Grant grabbed Mackenzie’s arm and yanked her away from the being. Together they stumbled across the violently shaking road, the earth growling beneath them. The cracks deepened and took on the form of perfectly shaped rectangles. The land seized beneath their feet, the road tearing apart along the broken lines. The ground crumbled away, forming deep graves all around Grant and Mackenzie, leaving them precariously standing on a narrow beam of earth between two deep holes. The road was a ruin, the graves pockmarking the surface in every direction. She dared not look into the depths of the one before her.
The ground quieted, leaving the world silent. Even the static from the phone was gone.
“Grant?” Mackenzie breathed, her fingers clutching his wrist. Fear ate at her senses, darkening her vision around the edges. “What’s happening?”
“Just keep away from them,” Grant whispered.
Mackenzie’s eyes darted between the two figures before her. They had stilled during the earthquake and stood hunched over the graves. Slowly, the shrouded creatures turned toward her, their dark lank hair hanging limply over their features. Out of the woods more figures draped in shadows appeared, clutching small objects in their arms, their faces hidden by the shrouds of their hair. The emaciated figures with their hidden faces reminded her too much of herself the day Joshua had been buried. She had stood with her head tilted downward, her hair covering her face so she wouldn’t see the tiny casket being lowered into the dark grave. The figures clad in their gowns of wispy darkness were eerily silent. They skittered along the narrow edges of the graves, moving purposefully toward Mackenzie and Grant.
Grant leaped easily over the open grave to the shoulder. “Jump, Mackenzie!”
“Mom, please answer me! Mom! I’m going to the café! Tell them I’m going to the café!” Mackenzie shrieked into the phone clutched in her trembling fingers. She had to get out of this terrible place with its fearsome creatures. “Mom!”
There was no answer.
The silent black-garbed creatures continued to spill out of the woods, their gowns trailing behind them like dark smoke. Shifting her weight, she peeked at the grave next to her. It seemed to have no bottom, just an endless fall into darkness.
“Mackenzie!”
Grant’s voice snagged her attention, just as one of the creatures reached him. It gripped his arm with one long, white hand and lifted its head. Mackenzie caught a glimpse of a mouth fixed in a soundless scream, the lips drawn back from pearly white teeth. The creature’s hair fell away from the object in its arm. It was a rag doll with its lips painted black and its eyes sewn shut. Grant shoved the creature away and it stumbled toward a grave. Again it lifted its head, the black hair falling back to reveal a featureless face except for the horrific mouth caught in a silent scream.
A feathery touch to her arm made Mackenzie start. Twisting about, Mackenzie struggled to keep her balance. One of the creatures stood behind her, holding out a doll. Up close she could see the being was actually female. Its body was withered and nearly sexless except for small breasts that were barely visible beneath the constantly shifting dress made of shadows. Its bony hands were tipped with ragged, muddy fingernails that bit into the dirty fabric doll it held out to Mackenzie. The lips behind the curtain of hair drew back in a silent scream.
Mackenzie slapped the doll away, horrified at its visage. The black lips drawn on to the burlap were smeared and something moved beneath the thick thread that crisscrossed over the eyes.
“Hurry!” Grant called out. “Jump!”
Repulsion and fear bubbled inside of her. Mackenzie carefully took a step back, trying to keep squarely in the center of the narrow strip
between the graves. The depth of the graves made her dizzy and wobbly on her feet. The creature before her continued to shove the doll toward Mackenzie, its head craned toward her to reveal its eyeless countenance.
Another approached from the opposite side, winding its way along the narrow ledges between the graves. It, too, held out its rag doll toward her, tipping its head so its screaming mouth was revealed. Mackenzie’s heel caught on the edge of one of the graves and she gasped as she lost her footing and fell toward the grave. Twisting in midair, she managed to land on her stomach on the bit of ground dividing two of the graves, her legs dangling over the darkness below. The silent mourners scampered along the edges of the graves toward her, moving faster now that she was in peril.
Hyperventilating, Mackenzie dug the knife into the ground and used it to steady herself while trying to kick one leg out to gain leverage. The screaming mourners crowded around her, holding out their rag dolls, their mouths twisting in spasms, though no sound issued from their throats.
Grant shoved the ones between him and Mackenzie out of the way, fighting to her side. Instead of falling, the mourners floated over the graves, clutching their heinous dolls to their breasts.
Mackenzie hooked one leg over the edge and pulled her body upward. A silent mourner leaned toward her, holding out its doll, tilting its head back and forth. Climbing to her knees, Mackenzie shrank away from the doll. It reeked of mold, dirt, and death. Beneath the rough fabric, something writhed.
Horrified, she dragged the knife out of the ground and thrust it toward the creatures. “Leave me alone!”
Grant hooked his hands under her arms and dragged her fully upright. Wrapping one arm around her waist, Grant shoved the mourners aside, the creatures drifting a few feet away before venturing close again. Mackenzie threatened the ones who drew too close with the knife clutched in her hand.
Arriving at the shoulder, they raced along through the wild grass bordering it. The graves filled the road in every direction and the silently screaming women trailed after Mackenzie and Grant. They were everywhere, their emaciated bodies hunched over their hideous dolls, their mouths gaping in despair.
Mackenzie ran in a full sprint behind Grant, her lungs burning, her heart thudding. Fear gave her energy and strength to keep moving when her side cramped and her knees ached. They didn’t stop running until they arrived at the long dirt drive to the house they had taken refuge in the night before.
Breathless, she grabbed Grant’s arm to pull him into the safety of the dead spot. “Please, I need to rest.”
“We can’t.” Grant’s eyes darted toward the house.
Mackenzie followed his gaze and cried out in frustration. Graves and silent mourners surrounded the house. There were so many the hems of their gowns melded into a dark mist that rolled along the ground. Reluctantly, Mackenzie pushed on, her hand holding her side. Tears dripped from her eyelashes and over her cheeks. She sobbed with anger and frustration, but terror kept her limbs moving. She didn’t want to know what lay beneath the cloth faces of the dolls, or see the anguished faces of the creatures that so poignantly reflected her own grief when she had laid her baby to rest.
Grant stretched his hand toward her and Mackenzie took it gratefully. Together, they ran from the dead spots and into the world of dreams and nightmares.
CHAPTER 9
The water tasted like a divine elixir. Mackenzie gulped it down and then poured the rest over her hot face. The water pump she had restored was in a dead spot near an old general store that was boarded up and left to rot. Grant had determined the building was abandoned too long to yield anything useful if restored, so they had skirted around it to the old pump located behind it. Mackenzie was grateful that Grant had remembered using it during his previous travels through the area. She felt like she was dying of thirst after running nearly two miles to escape the fearsome mourning creatures and their disturbing rag dolls.
Squatting behind the bushes and trees encircling the building, Mackenzie used her hand to scoop up the water and savored a long drink. They took turns working the pump so they could both get their fill.
Mackenzie rubbed her wet, cool hands over her neck and face while studying their surroundings through the foliage that hid them. All that remained of the town was a gas station, restaurant, garage, and city hall. OPEN signs were tucked into windows and the lawn around the civic building was freshly cut. The structures of the living stood devoid of any activity.
“So we can’t touch the other world at all?” Mackenzie tilted her head to gaze at Grant.
He shook his head, beads of water dotting his dark hair. “No. We can’t interact with objects, or people. It’s useless to even try. We’re ghosts to that world.”
“But we can see it?” That had surprised her. For some unknown reason, she had assumed that they would not be able to see the towns and cities of the living world. That apparently wasn’t the case at all.
“It’s like a snapshot of the other world. A photograph. We can see it, but not interact with it. We can’t see people, animals, or the moving vehicles of the other world either.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“Who says this world has to make sense? It just is.” He shrugged dismissively. “You learn to adapt.”
Mackenzie scrutinized her surroundings thoughtfully. The more she studied the town, the more she realized it was nothing like the real world. Murky shadows moved along the sides of the buildings, probing every window and doorway. For a few mere seconds they would take on the shape of a person, or a ghastly creature, or even inanimate objects before dissolving into murky shapes again.
“Are those wraiths?” she asked in a hushed voice.
“Yes, they are. They manifest the creations of people’s dreams and nightmares.” Grant finished with the pump and stared out at the town. “They’re constantly in flux until they find a mind that is projecting their fears.”
“Someone who is sleeping.”
Grant nodded. “Or drunk, high, or just plain crazy. Or until they find one of us. The unfortunates that stumbled into a dead spot.”
“How many are there of us? The trapped ones?”
“I honestly don’t know. I’ve traveled for months without finding another person. That was why I was so shocked to find you. But then again, you had just entered.”
Mackenzie tilted her head to gaze up at the massive buildings rising up over a farmhouse near the town. They resembled partially constructed skyscrapers from New York or Chicago. They leaned dangerously over the house. “What’s going on there?”
“That’s the manifestation of the fears of whoever lives there,” Grant answered, then pumped more water for her.
Mackenzie cupped her hands under the stream of water and sipped it from her palm while regarding the strange construct. “So they’re afraid of big cities?”
“Or maybe what a big city represents to them.” Grant continued to work the pump, using a kerchief to wipe off his face.
“So all of that is caused by someone in a dead spot?”
“Yes. My guess is it’s a shadow.”
“Someone who has gone crazy in here?”
“Exactly.”
“So we shouldn’t go up and just knock and say hello, huh?”
“Shadows are dangerous. They’re not completely drained of their life force like a wraith, but they’re insane. Maybe it’s their insanity that keeps them from becoming a wraith, but it also makes them a threat to people like us.”
Lightly running her tongue over her lips, Mackenzie focused on the general store next to her. “How long before this dead spot comes for us?”
“It’s watching and waiting right now. Trying to pluck from our minds how best to attack, or waiting for us to manipulate it into the dream of the past.” Grant had removed his jacket and he wiped at a dirty spot on his shirt with his moistened kerchief.
Mackenzie couldn’t help but smirk at his fruitless endeavor to stay tidy. Now that the adrenaline rush was over and
the silent mourners were far away, she wanted to take a long nap. The ghastly creatures with their rag dolls had been a mockery of her pain. The anger that had filled her in the aftermath had produced a pounding headache and she felt a little light-headed.
The world was changing around them while she observed. A fire that didn’t burn raged along a tree line. Strange predatory birds flitted from the electric lines to buildings. Something that resembled a dinosaur prowled around a small house, pecking at the windows.
“I hate this place,” Mackenzie grumbled.
“This isn’t even the worst of it,” Grant responded with a wry smile upon his face.
“That’s not a comforting thought.”
“We should move on.” Grant collected his jacket from where he had hung it on a branch. His shirt was neater than Mackenzie’s muddy jeans and top. She had the terrible feeling she was not done running today, so she hadn’t bothered cleaning up. “We’ll head out of town on the back roads and avoid the main road completely. The area is stirred up even though it’s a small town.”
“Why is that?” Mackenzie picked up her knife and purse. She noted that the knife was back to pristine condition now that she was in a dead spot again.
“People who are not mentally well draw in the wraiths.” Grant glanced toward the towering half-formed skyscrapers. “I think that’s our culprit right there. The shadow.”
Standing, Mackenzie studied the tall buildings that reached bizarre heights, almost breaking through the clouds above. Unsettled by their odd appearance, she took a few steps back so that she was better hidden from the main street. There were dark shapes circling the skyscrapers, flying high above the ground. There was a dull throbbing in the air that was steadily growing. Mackenzie looked toward the street again. The wraiths were moving toward the skyscrapers, rising up to join the others swirling around the buildings.
“It’s building up to an event,” Grant decided. “We need to go before we get caught in it.”
“Is that why the air feels so weird?”
“Exactly.”
Dead Spots Page 12