“What made you so resistant to the trip?” Mira asked her.
“I know he’s dead now, but I didn’t like that preacher man they brought in who was running the whole ranch deal with his boys. I know he had a good reputation around these parts, but I just didn’t trust him. I’ve seen a lot of so-called miracle workers bamboozle people out of their hard-earned money, telling them what they wanted to hear—entertaining them and using Christianity as a cloak. Some of those prophet people are the worst, I’d say. They seem to hypnotize people into thinking they’re God and folks become totally dependent on them; it’s pitiful. I lost a couple of long-time friends on the count of me voicing my opinion about a so-called prophet or two whose church or conference they were frequenting. It’s stupid, I know, but they look up to these people as if they’re God Himself. They get lost in what they’re telling them and if anyone disagrees, they’re the enemy. Know what I mean?”
Barns and Mira were both nodding.
“My resistance to this next one—this particular preacher man is what saved my boy from being a victim right along with everyone else who rode on that bus that day.”
“So, Angie,” Barns crossed his legs, “...what do you think happened to all those people?”
She sighed deeply. “I think they might’ve gotten held up on the way or something like that—maybe by a group of bikers from out of town. I’m only guessing. And maybe after they held them up and robbed them, they just got rid of everyone—adults and children alike. I can’t think of anything else that might’ve happened. I considered the bus could’ve broke down and maybe they were stranded as a result, but not for three years. Definitely not! I’m sure someone had a cell phone; they could’ve made a call. So, I think the biker scenario makes more sense. I went into the precinct and told the cops that too. Don’t know if they looked into it, but...”
Mira looked at Johnny who was quietly twiddling his thumbs. “Johnny, how do you feel about losing so many of your classmates like that?” Mira asked him.
“Sad,” he said, still focusing on his thumbs.
“That’s a hard thing for a kid to have to deal with,” Mira said. “We’re you and Priscilla friends?”
He looked up momentarily. “She was all right. We played together sometimes.”
“She’s one of the only few who never called my boy any names,” Angie interjected. “That’s why I don’t mind sitting here this morning talking with y’all. Johnny told me countless times about how the other kids in his class used to tease him ‘cause of his weight, but he always spoke well of that Priscilla.” She looked up at the portrait of the child which clung to the living room wall. Priscilla had silky black, wavy hair and a pretty face. “I heard she had some problems at home here with her mom; was kind of getting a bit unruly—wanting to stay out later than she should and all, but I gather the girl had a good heart—just some challenges she needed to work through with her mom. Guess that never happened. Sad as hell that her mom now has to live with that.”
The room was quiet for a few moments, then Angie added, “Well, all I can say is I hope one day they find everyone of ‘em and if all that’s left of ‘em are bones, then those bones deserve a proper burial. Everyone should go down in decency and their grief-stricken loved ones need the closure, you know?”
“You’re so right,” Barns said. “I want to thank you wholeheartedly, Angie and Johnny,” he smiled at the boy, “for coming by and speaking with us. It’s very kind of you.”
“It’s the least we could’ve done.” Angie got up and Johnny followed her lead. “Well, we’ll be off then. I wish you and your sister all the best, Doctor Barns.”
Barns and Mira walked them out and stood on the porch as they drove off in a white Silverado.
“Guess we’d better get ready to hit the road, huh?” He looked at Mira.
“Right after I’ve had a chance to see Priscilla’s room. Will you give me a few minutes?”
“Sure.”
Mira walked off and headed for the middle door on the left of the hallway.
As she started to twist the doorknob, a strange sensation gripped her. It slid through her fingers, then traveled all the way up her arm, and across her chest to the other arm. She could feel mild electrical shock waves, throughout her body. A little dazed, but not deterred, she proceeded to open the door and walked into the room.
Priscilla’s room was fairly small, ten by eleven foot space. The walls were of a sunny yellow hue and both double windows furnished with matching yellow curtains with scores of little cartoonish smiling suns speckled throughout the thin fabric. On a table beneath the flat screen mounted television, sat various knick-knacks, such as multi-colored pens stacked in a white mug, a few books, a gold jewelry box and a couple of gold-plated bracelets. Mira picked up one of the bracelets, slid her fingers over it, then rested it down again. Along the southern and western sides of the wall, dozens of teddy bears were neatly lined off—all of various proportions from miniature to the size of a toddler. As Mira moved across the room, she could have sworn that the button eyes on those teddy bears followed her. She abruptly stopped and looked back. They all appeared normal—just like they were when she first entered the room. She turned around and moved on over to the bed. All eyes were on her again. Some of the teddies glanced at each other, then fixated their stares on her until she sat on the bed and was facing most of them. Again, they looked normal, but she sensed she was not alone in the room.
The feeling she got in Priscilla’s room was quite different from what she felt when restless spirits were present. In fact, once she sensed them, it wasn’t long before the temperature inside the room dropped—at least in some cases—and the souls came into full view. However, none of that occurred, but the feeling of being watched prevailed.
She looked at the teddies again and was now sure that the vibes she felt were coming from them—perhaps one or even all. She got up from the bed and headed for the door. Now, more than ever, she was ready to make that trip up to Highway 60.
* * * *
“I have to tell you, Doc…I’m pretty sure your niece is still alive,” Mira said as they walked to the front door. The keys to the rented car were dangling in Barns’ hand.
The older doctor heaved a sigh of relief and a wide smile instantly crept across his face. “You don’t know how good that sounds, Mira!”
“We must get to the highway. Something’s there that’s been overlooked, but it couldn’t be helped.”
Barns quickly opened the door and allowed her to walk through.
His heart was leaping for joy with every step, as he considered the possibility that one day, he’ll get to see his beautiful niece again.
* * * *
Nurse Bella Carey was listening to the midday news while having lunch in the cafeteria, when she heard the unthinkable: Vanderville Lane—the brutal, random attack—a man who frequently hung out at the bench near the stoplight was arrested that very morning, hysterically joyful over having committed such a heinous act. She gasped; covered her face with both hands and was immediately overcome with emotion; also immensely grateful to Dr. Cullen who’d warned her not to continue to take that very route to work. She was sure if she hadn’t heeded the odd request, she would have been the helpless victim that day instead of poor Gertrude Evans.
9
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Mira read off the directions to Barns again. She had done so twice before since leaving the house. He was admittedly not so good when it came to following directions, and was thankful that Mira was there to guide him through.
Eventually, they saw the big, green sign labeled ‘Highway 60’ and he made a sharp right turn onto it. After Rachelle broke the news years earlier that Priscilla was missing, it never crossed his mind to travel the road where the bus was last seen. In fact, he was sure, at the time, there were no reports he or Rachelle had heard of the school bus actually taking that route. Now driving along the wide four lane highway, he found it incredible that he was
there cruising along the same passage Priscilla did—where tall rock formations on each side of the highway were how he pictured the red sea being—like two massive walls—when God allowed the Israelites to walk through on dry land.
“This area is incredible, isn’t it?” He glanced at Mira, who was deep in thought.
The highway was miles long and enabled travelers to enter new towns on the outskirts of Nirvana. After driving for exactly eighteen minutes, Mira suddenly said, “Stop the car!”
Barns glanced through the rear-view mirror to see if it was safe to pull to the right. He slowed the vehicle, then drove off the road onto the dusty ground.
“What is it?” he asked the moment he pushed the gear in park.
Mira got out of the car and walked over to the edge of the roadway. She was looking across to the southern side of the highway, toward the tall rocky formation, then realized they’d just passed the junction Detective Paige Cleare had spoken of.
Barns was now standing next to her.
“They went that way,” she said.
Barns was sure his eyes were following hers in the right direction, but was unsure of what she meant.
“That way where?” he asked.
“Through the rock.”
He looked at her as though she was stupid. “What?”
“Doc, I know this sounds crazy, but the bus never went any further than fifty feet down the road—the exact spot we were at when I told you to stop the car.”
“I’m not sure I follow.”
“The bus didn’t need to go any further for them to get to their destination,” she continued. “Over there is a passage that only people with a third eye can see. Once you see it, you can pass through it.”
Barns was flabbergasted by Mira’s assertion. It sounded like nothing short of rubbish, but he knew her long enough to trust that she wasn’t speaking out of her head.
“Can you see it?” he asked, curiously.
Staring at the rock again which resembled a small mountain, she replied, “I can.”
“How did it get there?”
She considered her next words very carefully before uttering them. “By powerful minds and wicked imposters.”
“But why? What would anyone want with a bus full of kids?”
“We’ll know when we get there,” Mira answered.
10
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Barns drove across to the other side of the highway and managed to park the car at least twenty feet away from the side of the road. He and Mira then got out and walked toward the rocky formation, which was approximately another thirty feet down. Keeping her eyes straight ahead, Mira led the way, only stopping when they were ten feet from a spot in the formation which gave off frequency signals and electrical jolts, similar to what she’d experienced when she approached Priscilla’s room.
“Can I ask you something?” Barns said. “If we’re going through this thing, why are we doing so on foot? Didn’t that large bus ride through there?”
“It did...” Mira replied, “...because the intention was for them to never return and for no trace of them to ever be found. You plan on coming back, right?” She asked, facetiously.
Barns nodded. “I’ve gotta tell you, if I start walking through this rock, I might die right in it from shock. I can’t believe any of this! Doesn’t feel real.”
Mira was looking toward the wall again. She could now see the vibrations on the inside much clearer than before. It was a portion of the formation that was approximately nine feet wide and stretched along the top of the rock where the tallest point stood at least thirty-five feet high. “Take my hand,” she told Barns. “If you’re afraid, you can close your eyes until we get to the other side. Don’t worry. I’ll lead you.”
“Okay.” He quickly agreed.
They made two steps forward and Barns stopped. “I have one more question, Mira.”
She was waiting.
“Are you sure we’re able to come back?”
She knew she must be perfectly honest with him. “Once the passageway remains open, I’m sure I’ll be able to find it and we’ll get back. I have a thirteen-year-old daughter, a mother and a fiancé to come back to—all of whom I love very much. Come Hell or high water, I’m coming back and so are you.”
He liked the sound of those words.
“Close your eyes. I’ve got you,” Mira said.
He closed his eyes and they both walked directly into the jagged wall and were immediately sucked in by an invisible force.
11
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“Where are we?” Barns’ shaky voice cut through the darkness like a knife. He could still feel Mira’s firm grip of his hand although he couldn’t see her.
“We’re here,” she said. “We just need to go a little further in and we’ll be able to see.”
“How do you know?”
“In my mind, I can see there’s something out there beyond the darkness.”
She continued to lead the way, though very cautiously. “From now on, we must speak quietly, okay?” she said. “We don’t know who’s out there.”
He nodded, forgetting, in his fright, that she couldn’t see him.
It felt like they’d been walking for hours before Barns saw a flicker of light straight ahead. Then the closer they got, the light became brighter and brighter until they found themselves outside in a large open field, a vast portion of which was filled with vegetation and surrounded by dense woods and mountainous terrain. In the field were a dozen white trailers scattered about, but no one was in sight.
“What is this place?” Barns asked.
Suddenly, they heard children singing in the distance in what sounded like a different language.
“Do you hear that?” Barns whispered loudly.
“I sure do,” Mira replied. “Let’s go!”
“Go where?”
“We have to get out of sight, Doc. It’s too dangerous.”
“Dangerous?”
“Just follow me.”
She was no longer holding his hand. The tall, large man had to keep up with her on his own. The fact that they’d walked through that wall next to Highway 60 and were now in a strange place seemed surreal. He glanced down at his hands to make sure he was really there and actually still alive.
The singing got louder which meant they were closer and soon Mira spotted something which appeared to be partially covered by overgrown weed, about a hundred yards behind one of the trailers.
“It’s a school bus,” she said, crouching down near some thickets.
“I see it,” Barns acknowledged. “My God! They’ve really come here—through that wall!” Mira’s intuition never ceased to amaze him. “It must be the children we hear, but what language are they speaking?”
“Certainly not one derived from this earth,” Mira answered.
Further back toward the east, their eyes hit something else. It looked like a little chapel. Mira was sure that’s where the singing was coming from. And approximately fifty yards away from that, stood an old shed with a pond nearby.
Mira continued on in the direction of the chapel and Barns kept close behind, staying as close to the thickets as possible so as not to be seen. After scanning the area, Mira gestured that the coast was clear and they stealthily made their way over to the chapel and crouched down just below one of the front windows.
Mira looked at Barns and placed a finger over her lips. Gripping the window sill, she eased up just enough to see inside. Moments later, her eyes widened and her jaw dropped by what she saw. She quickly crouched down again. Barns noticed the startled expression on her face as she pointed upwards, and he cautiously eased himself up to take a look. He quietly gasped and stared.
The chapel was filled with children—all teenagers—and on the podium were three adults who Barns immediately recognized. He was scanning the room to see if Priscilla was among them, but didn’t see her.
Mira tugged on his pants and he lowered his head again
.
“You won’t believe who’s in there!” he whispered. “It’s the Principal, Vice-principal and that Religion teacher, Sister Ruth. I remember them from photos I’d seen plastered everywhere when the news first broke of them and the kids going missing. My God, what’s going on here?”
“Do you see your niece?” Mira was more concerned about that bit of information.
“No,” he replied, with clear disappointment.
They both quietly took another look.
Rosetta Gotlieb, Alan Wales and Sister Ruth King were all on the podium, dressed in plain white robes leading the singing. The children were standing, facing them and seemed to be in an unnatural state of euphoria. Their hands were lifted high and nothing apart from the music appeared to matter to them.
A minute later, the song ended and everyone took a seat except for Rosetta, who’d emerged at the front of the podium.
“Boys and girls, we’ve gathered here as we do every day in honor of the one true and living God. I, his servant, have selflessly led you, his flock on this blessed compound for the past three years. Today, is a marvelous day—one that is very special to the one who has assigned great and wondrous gifts to each and every one of us. Today is the day we get to make our yearly sacrifice—a holy sacrifice to demonstrate our utmost gratitude.”
Mira noticed that the children were all glancing at each other and smiling.
“Last year’s sacrifice...” Rosetta went on, “...is still displayed, as you know, in the holy shed where this year’s sacrifice will also be kept for a period of one year. The old, as is custom, will be discarded, and the new will take center stage as a daily reminder of our commitment to the cause of unblemished holiness.”
Alan and Sister Ruth appeared very contented. Mira observed something about them, however, that she knew was invisible to the naked eye—there were actual scales on each of their eyes, but none were on Rosetta’s. A boy happened to glance behind at another child when she noticed the same scales. She was certain they all had them—and a hunch as to why.
The Cornelius Saga Series (All 15 Books): The Ultimate Adventure-packed Supernatural Thriller Collection Page 70