Silas: A Supernatural Thriller (22 page)

The other two discoveries were my joys, Will and Kaiser. They were the children of a band of
Tau
-Kin. I found them when they were infants, with Nick by my side, swathed in filthy rags and laying in a wicker basket among the smoldering ruins of one of the old Vestige towns. They were the last survivors of their clan and I broke protocol. Instead of ending their lives the way we had been instructed to I took them in and raised them as my own sons. They are now proud boys, human boys, with nary a hint of wildness to be found. I love them more than any will ever know.

More than ten years into my time in the Outskirts, after the creature of night, the Dreadnaught, devastated our village and forced my small family underground, I was called upon by the Directorate once again. They had an assignment for me, a
Mission
that came from the mouth of the Director, himself. I was given a
Cragton
Disk, an independent device used to manipulate the portals between worlds, and instructed to shift into the era known as Q-9 – your world, Ken, labeled as one of the individual rungs on a string of bound ladders. I was told to find a certain young girl of special importance. According to the Director’s subordinates, this girl was a Gorgon, a beast created by years of genetic tinkering whose only goal was to enter our world and end our utopia. I was told the Disk would find her. However, the problem with the Disk is that it reads basic bodily essences, and in a world not of its own making, where the composition of the atmosphere is even a fraction different, they are famously unreliable. It meant the disk would point me in a certain direction, and that is all. Upon finding one such individual that the disk revealed to me, I was to dispatch them without question. In other words, I was to punish who knows how many innocents because of an accident of biology.

I was abhorred. In that instant I was back in Cathedral with the Oracles, sensing the innate unfairness of our society and railing against it. The Oracles came back to me in my dreams and guided me to do something I had only done once in all my adult life, when I took in Will and Kaiser.

I disobeyed a direct order.

I could not take the life of an innocent, be it justifiable or not. I could not look upon the face of a child and watch their essence fade, knowing my hand was the cause. Yet I couldn’t ignore the directive, either. I had heard accounts of the fate that beheld those who failed the Hierarchy, and none of them were pleasant. And besides, even if I were to shirk my duty and escape punishment, if I fled into the Outskirts and hid for the rest of my days, another loyal submissive would be found to carry the orders out. So I had no choice but to comply. Sort of.

I followed the Disk’s lead and ripped those it identified from their homes on Q-9, but I did not kill them. Instead I brought them back home, hopeful that I could buy some time and find out just what this
Mission
was meant to accomplish. Alas, these facts were not meant to be known by me. I know this now, for the Oracles came to me again in my sleep this very night and informed me that Nick, my beloved
gi-faht
, who does not understand my disobedience, is going to betray me. They said he will take my
Mission
as his own, and I can guarantee you he will not be as merciful.

There is one thing that gives me peace, however, and that is you. I have known you all my life. I have talked to you through the walls that separate our worlds since childhood. I have never known if you were listening, but I have to believe that, even if you did not understand, there was something strange, something special, about the times our minds met over the expanse of nothingness. I now know the error of this place, of my ways, and it is up to you to fix my mistakes. My entire life, my entire belief system, has been a lie. The Oracles have told me as much. They said the Director formed the Hierarchy and helped bring an end to the
Old Ways
, that because of him the rest of a once-great land has become decimated. But there is one who can help, and it is you who will find him. You must travel deep into the Outskirts, find the lair of the Dreadnaught, and bring an end to the beast. The One is there, imprisoned, and it is up to you to free him. If that were not to happen, there is no telling how many more worlds will fall under the Director’s unifying gaze.

After freeing this being, you must find the only working gateway to Q-9, to your homeland, and destroy it, along with the
Cragton
Disk. I have come to understand that your world is of great importance to those of the Hierarchy. All avenues into and out of this realm must be razed, lest the Director and his henchman will never stop, never rest, until whatever ultimate goal they have in mind is complete.

Finally, I need to you free Kaiser and Will from their bonds. That bond is their dedication and loyalty to me. They cannot be free to live their lives until their commitment to my cause is quashed. I leave this up to you, Ken. You are like me in so many ways, this I know, but I have faith that you will make the right choices, that you are strong enough to finish what I never had the inner strength to start. You will be successful, please believe that. I am counting on you. Will and Kaiser are counting on you. The girls under their care are counting on you. Failure on any of these counts is not an option.

So the speed of the Almighty to you, Ken Lowery. Hopefully I will see you in another life.

Paul

And then, printed just below his name, in slanted penmanship, were the words,
Nine, six, eight, two, four, In my head without a rhyme
.

Shuddering, I placed the letter on the nightstand beside the bed. Things made sense now – at least, as much sense as my mind would allow. The voices in my head, Nick Goodman, the girls, their names – Tina Andrews chief among them. I’d heard them on the radio, in between playing of that horrid Lonnigan song, since the day Silas came into my life. I’d ignored them at the time, not wanting to think of such things. But now…now I had no choice. There could be no ignoring any longer for Ken Lowery, not ever again.

My heart raced as panic set in. I got under the covers and pulled Silas close. I felt desperate and scared. All I wanted to do was get home and restart my life with Wendy, not go on some dangerous, otherworldly quest. I glanced at the letter.

“Just like you were feeling, huh Paul?” I said aloud before laying my head on the pillow, my tired eyes gazing at the dimness while my decidedly
not
tired brain whirred.
What a great mess you got yourself into, Kenny
, it said.
What a great mess, indeed.

32

Eventually sleep took me that night, but to say it was peaceful would be a lie. Dreams, both vivid and incomprehensible, assaulted my subconscious. If there was a saving grace, none of these dreams involved vertigo or swinging balls on chains. Thank goodness for small favors.

Silas and I met Paul in these dreams, or at least my mind’s version of this man I would never set eyes upon. He was older than me, with deep lines of fatigue that formed canyons around his eyes and mouth. His voice was deep and raspy, as if he’d spent his entire life smoking four packs of cigarettes a day. My rendering of him carried himself with an almost cocky form of confidence, as if he knew exactly what he was doing and no one could tell him otherwise. But most of all, the prevailing attitude he gave off was one of kindness, as if he cared genuinely for everything around him, from the trees to the grass to the insects fluttering about our heads.

Paul, Silas, and I walked through environments that shifted and melded with each step we took. One moment we were in sprawling wetlands, next in a city that seemed to stretch forever in either direction, then strolling down the street in Mercy Hills, and even staggering about in a vast desert. Paul dominated conversation, speaking in tongues as we traveled. He pointed at Silas, looking nostalgic.

And that’s where it ended.

When I woke up, I couldn’t get over the ambiguity of what my head was telling me.
I’ll figure it out later
, I thought.
I’m not much of a mystic, anyway.
I glanced at the lamp, still shining its faint light.
Damn, the electric bill’s gonna be outrageous
, were the words that passed through my head. Good. That’s the kind of thought pattern I could live with.

I lay there for a while and stared at the ceiling with my arms crossed over my chest until Silas uncurled and slammed his body into mine, performing his usual
it’s me and I know you’re awake
routine. I wrapped my arms around his bulky neck and pulled him on top of me. We wrestled for a bit – and by “wrestle” I mean Silas writhed, his head flipping this way and that, while I held on for dear life. This went on as it always did, ending when the hard top of his cranium slammed into my nose. My eyes went blurry and tears ran down my cheeks.

“Okay boy, that’s enough,” I said. Once those words were uttered, he stopped mid-spasm. He flipped over, paws resting on my chest, and panted. I stroked his muzzle. “You’re a good boy.” He licked my chin. “I love you, too,” I cooed.

We got out of bed and Silas immediately made his way to the door. There was a bowl of water sitting there and he thrust his face in, lapping up the contents as if he hadn’t drank in days. “Huh,” I muttered. I didn’t remember the bowl being there when we arrived. Kaiser must’ve brought it in while we were sleeping.

After Silas drank his fill I brushed the dog hair off my Paul Nicely sweat suit, trying to smooth out the wrinkles at the same time. When I was adequately preened, I opened the door.

Young faces greeted us, all smiling. Kaiser sat with the girls on the rug in front of the couch. There were books spread out on the ground. The scene reminded me of my college cram sessions.

“Hi, Mr. Ken,” said Molly, the youngest. The rest raised their hands and waved.

“What’s up, guys?” I asked.

Kaiser snapped his fingers and gained the girls’ attention. He pointed at his book. “Finish reading the rest of this section, the part on active verbs,” he instructed. “I’ll be quizzing you on it later.” Then he stood up, his crossed legs unfolding and straightening in a single motion, and nodded at me.

“It’s lesson time,” he announced. “Paul told us it’s our responsibility to take those under our care and instruct them in the ways of the world, to ready them for life outside this place. Se we teach them the same way he taught us. Well, actually, it’s usually Will who does the teaching, but he didn’t want to…um…be here when you got up, so we switched chores for the day. Sorry.”

I shrugged. “No problem, kid.”

“I just don’t want you to be offended,” he went on.

“Don’t worry,” I replied. “I’m not.”

Kaiser blew a straggling hair from in front of his eyes, stared at the wall, and stood silent for a moment. He tittered in a very childlike gesture when I poked his arm, trying to get his attention. “Sorry,” he said. “I get lost in my own world sometimes.”

“So does everyone,” I said with a laugh.

Silas hopped up and down, flying from one edge of the massive iron door on the other side of the room, barking. The sound reminded me of our early days together, when he’d cry from his crate in the kitchen at night, begging for his humans to come to the rescue. I remembered the disdain I felt at the time and wished I could make believe it never happened.

“What’s wrong with your
gi-faht
?
” asked Kaiser.

“Probably has to take a piss,” I replied. My lower bowels grumbled. “And I do, too. Is it safe to go outside?”

“Yes. It’s not quite high-point yet. We still have a while before nightfall.”

“Good. It’ll be nice to sit in the sun for a bit. Maybe it’ll get rid of this headache, too. I feel like I got a hangover.”

“What’s a hangover?” asked Kaiser.

“Never mind.”

After preparing Silas and me a breakfast of fruit and fried vegetables that looked like broccoli twisted into a fiddle shape, Kaiser told the girls they could take a break from their studies. The four little ones grinned and giggled while they ran around the large yet confined space. Tina and Laura suggested they play hide-and-seek, Molly whooped and clapped her hands in delight, and Amanda rolled her eyes, appearing to grudgingly go along with the plan, though I could tell from the way her top lip quivered that the disinterest was a ruse. I watched them run around, searching for hiding places in a room that had virtually none, and once more I was struck by how similar they all looked. Their long black hair flew behind them in thick waves and their angelic cheeks grew rosy over broad smiles. Molly, in particular, could’ve been Jacqueline’s twin in another life. It was weird.