Silas: A Supernatural Thriller (42 page)

Finally Kaiser took a sharp right. I saw sunlight streaming in through the trees and dashed into the open air with reckless abandon. If not for Silas, who cut in front of me and rammed my thigh with his side, I would’ve gone careening over the edge of the cliff and plummet to an instant death on the jagged rocks below. I heard Kaiser chuckle as I hopped on one foot, trying to regain my balance. It was good to see that even with our lives on the line I could still make people laugh – even if it was because of my ineptitude.

I looked around in wonder as we hastened across the path that bordered the cliff. Here I was again, back where I’d first arrived. The ocean spread out wide to my right, violent and angry. Warm mist filled the air as one colossal wave after another slammed into the side of the cliff. The rocky slope was wet, causing everyone to perform a slip-slide routine as they ran. The distinct feeling came over me that the land itself saw us leaving and wanted to keep us trapped.

I don’t know how long we ran. It might’ve been minutes, or even an hour. We passed the spot where Nick Goodman revealed himself to me, the same place I met Kaiser. The rocky coastline was replaced by the sandy beach with black-rock jetties, the first sights I saw when I opened my eyes to this strange new world. Kaiser stopped running. He twirled in place, spinning around like a ballerina. So did Will and the girls. Only Silas kept going, sprinting further down the path only to change direction and come back again.

“Where do we go?” pleaded Kaiser.

I heard shouts coming from around the bend. Big Guy was close. I could even hear the rocks scatter as his feet slammed against the ground. I closed my eyes and tried to think, attempting to force it open to the secrets of this place, but I received nothing in response.

“Where?” Will shouted.

“I don’t know!” I shot back.

The girls started to cry. They clustered together and held one another as if they could block out the world. I slammed my fist against my thigh in frustration and felt something hard whack my knuckle. My eyes shot open and I jabbed my hand into my front pocket, feeling like an idiot. When my fingers found the six-inch golden bullet Ben had given me I tore it out and held it in front of my face. The symbols adorning its side – and the grooved bands – were glowing so brightly, I could see that even in the blinding sunlight. I rapidly paced around, waiting for it to tell me where to go. I even put it up to my ear, seeing if it gave off a vibration. The damn thing wouldn’t give me any signs.

“It’s around here somewhere,” I muttered. I pointed up the rise, into the forest of monster trees. “Everyone, back into the trees. If this thing is anywhere, it’ll be up there.”

The others went on ahead, disappearing into the woods. I lagged behind, even as Big Guy’s footfalls grew closer. I knelt down and called Silas over. He looked exhausted, his good eye bloodshot and droopy. But when I held out the key to him, he arched his eyebrows and raised his ears.

“You know what this is, boy?” I asked.

He licked my face and sniffed the key.

“Lead the way, Silas. I know you can.”

Without another word from me he spun around and bolted between the trees. I ran after him, just in time to miss Big Guy rounding the bend.

64

Silas swiftly gathered his posse and led us on another trek through the woods. We ascended the mountain once more, this time following a much rockier path. Big Guy and his gang, angry and shrieking to our rear, followed us in. I could hear the sounds of their large bodies snapping limbs and trampling roots.

We scaled one more boulder-covered gradient. When I raised my eyes I saw sunlight and something I didn’t expect – a stone wall that stretched from one end of the crest to the other. Silas bolted up the hill, nipping at my heels to make them move faster. In the blink of an eye Kaiser and Will had climbed over the wall, followed soon after by the girls. I heard them cry out when they disappeared, and I quickly followed suit.

Slick ground greeted me when my feet touched down on the other side. I slid to my rump and skidded across a glassy surface. I tried to hold onto something, to brace my fall, but the ground was too smooth, too slick. Silas pounced on my chest and rode me like a sled. In a panic I opened my eyes wide to see we’d ended up in a gigantic bowl of some kind. All around us was glossy silver, like crystal, curving downward until it ended at a small patch of grass. In the middle of that patch of grass was a tree.

Only it wasn’t
really
a tree, at least not one I’d ever seen before. Its bark was shiny, like silver. The branches looked crystallized, as if they were fingers ending in knifes. On the center of the trunk was that symbol, the one from my dreams – the squiggly lines intersected by a pair of dashes with a dot on either end. I saw it each time I spun around the tree, which we all were doing, as if we’d just been flushed down the world’s largest toilet bowl.

The surface of the bowl became rougher, covered with tiny bumps, as we neared the bottom. My frenzied slide became more rutted and I slowed, bouncing this way and that and bringing new meaning to the pain in my chest and head. I heard the others yelp as they experienced the same thing I did. Only Silas, seated on my lap, was immune. He simply stared ahead with his ears blown back, waiting for his moment to spring into action.

When my slide ended he leapt off my lap and I stood up on shaky knees. The girls rubbed their sore behinds, but there were strange grins on their faces, as if a carnival ride would force that expression even in the direst of times. They all looked to me, Kaiser and Will included, and Silas approached the tree, sniffing. I walked up behind him, all the while hearing Big Guy’s heavy steps above. He was close to the basin. He’d get there any moment. I had to hurry.

I took the key – which luckily I hadn’t dropped – and held it in front of the tree. The glowing symbols intensified until they were almost blinding. I walked around the trunk, looking for anything in its grooved surface that would tell me what to do. I ran my hand over it. The shell was smooth and glassy, just like the basin. Finally a spark shot out from the end of the bullet and struck the side of the tree. My arm went numb.

Luminosity shone from a small square that appeared on its hide, eye-level with me. I was momentarily blinded by the golden light, but when my sight came back I noticed there were now numbers etched into the tree. The markings above the numbers read,
Q-9
. They’d appeared out of nowhere.

Art
Lonnigan’s
song repeated in my head.
The numbers of my soul rattle through the cages of time
, he sang.
9, 6, 8, 2, 4, in my head without a rhyme.
I touched the corresponding numbers, which lit up as I did so. The numbers disappeared with another flash of light, replaced by a single small hole.

I looked at the key. It appeared to be just the right size, so I slid it in. Nothing happened. Big Guy’s ranting was even closer. I tapped my foot impatiently and noticed there were numbers around the hole, and on the bottom of the bullet-key was a single groove pointing up. It looked like a futuristic padlock, and remembering the chorus from
Blood Red Morning
, I twisted the dial to first five, then seven, then two, and finally one.

The tree lit up. Electricity ejected from its crystal branches and circled around the bowl. I looked around at the others and watched everyone’s hair stand up straight. The tree became so bright I couldn’t look at it. Its golden radiance was beautiful in my periphery, however, like the light on the edge of heaven.

With a giant sigh, the waves of electricity focused on a single spot, right in front of us. A shimmering blue circle appeared, starting small as a quarter and then expanding until it stood seven feet high. On the other side I could see a smatter of trees lit by a yellow sun. Leaves covered the ground. Home was over there, just beyond the threshold. For the first time in what felt like forever, an earnest smile stretched across my face.

“Wendy,” I whispered, “we’re coming home.”

An ear-splitting howl erupted all around us. I peered around the iridescent gateway and spotted Big Guy and his brothers standing atop the wall. They leapt off it and started their descent into the bowl.

“Shit!” I yelped. I remembered Ben’s words.
Thirty seconds is all you’ll have.
I grabbed Molly’s hand and urged her toward the portal. “All right, everyone! In you go! One at a time only! Make it fast! Run!”

It seemed to take forever, but one by one they passed through the circle of light and disappeared. I heard the swooshing of our pursuers’ descent and knew I had only seconds left. I pushed Silas through. He passed me a curious, desperate glance and then stepped into the light. I went to follow him, but remembered my last instructions and stopped.

The key. Get the key.

I ran back to the tree, grabbed the cylinder, twisted, and pulled. The key came loose with a spark of red flame. The tree’s light faded. The portal started to flicker. My heart sprinted in my chest. I dove for it.

Just as my feet left the ground, greedy fingers brushed against my ankle. I prayed they wouldn’t find purchase as I soared into the vanishing threshold. Everything around me went pure white. Invisible spikes gouged my brain. The pain was more than I could bear. I shouted in agony.

So this is what it’s like to die.

65

I hit the ground and rolled. My skin burned and I couldn’t see. Finally I came to rest after my back slammed against a tree. My sore body growled at me. Everything hurt so badly. All I wanted to do was curl up in a ball and sleep for a week.

The sound of a little girl screaming reminded me that I still had more to do. I forced my weary eyes to open and surveyed my surroundings. I was in a bowl-shaped gully, much like the one we’d been in
over there.
Only there were trees down here – real trees, birch, maple, evergreen, not a one made of weird glowing crystals – and dirt beneath me. I forced myself into a sitting position and heard the crunch of old, dead leaves. All around me I saw those I’d sworn to keep safe – Silas, Kaiser and Will, Molly and Amanda, Laura and Tina. Amanda stood near the last remnants of the portal, now the size of a basketball and gradually fading away like a dying light bulb. She had a stick in her hand, jabbing at something on the ground. I assumed it had been Laura’s voice I heard, because she stood with her back to the other girl, hands over her mouth and her body shaking. Everyone else wore expressions of disgust on their faces.

I stood and approached Amanda. The girl gazed up at me with her wide, deep-brown eyes, and handed me the stick. There was something in front of her, something that writhed silently on the ground. I took the stick and guided her behind me while I tried to understand what lay before me.

It was a mass of flesh – at least it
looked
like flesh. Its shape was formless, like a garbage bag filled beyond capacity or two people wrapped in a blanket. It constantly squirmed and every so often let out a strange squeak.

I leaned closer and saw markings covering the flesh. They were tattoos, the tribal kind, stretched out and warped. Further down, I saw a strange-looking crease. I poked it with the stick.

An eye opened up. It stared at me, bloodshot and terrified. The mass thrashed about with even greater urgency, flipping it partway over. The eye stared at the heavens and its underside was exposed, revealing a shining Mercedes hood ornament, embedded in the hide. I shuddered.

“I guess that’s why we only go through one at a time,” I whispered.

“What?” asked Will.

I shook my head. “Nothing.” Turning around, I faced my fellow travelers and said, “There’s nothing to see here. We should get going, find some civilization before it gets dark.” The rest agreed. We scaled the walls of the gulley as a family, leaving the twisted mess that had been Big Guy and his buddy behind us forever.

The sun slowly progressed across the sky. I stared up at it when we reached a gap between the trees, astonished at how small it seemed. It also amazed me how the temperature reflected its smaller size. I could tell it was hot – it
was
July, after all – but nowhere near as sweltering as it’d been standing on that cliff, staring out into a strange and violent sea. I said a silent prayer of thanks that I’d accomplished my goal. I was so lost in this reverie that I didn’t notice at first when little Molly slipped her hand into mine. I gazed down on her, and the smile on her face was infectious. Tears ran down her cheeks. It took a moment for me to realize they trickled down mine, as well.