Dark Woods (6 page)

When they reached the building, Cal sorted through the keys until he found the one Jefferson had used to open the door. The metal was rusted, small flakes of silver lifting along the length of the stem.

As Cal turned the key, Eden put a hand on his arm.

‘Listen,’ she said.

Cal heard a whisper like the wind in the trees.

‘It’s nothing,’ he said. ‘It’s only the wind.’

But as he stepped into the corridor the sound became more insistent and for a moment he thought he heard someone speak his name. Then the sound stopped and he turned to see Eden waiting at the doorway, still listening.

‘It came from down there,’ she said. ‘I’m sure of it.’

‘Can you hear it now?’

Eden stepped into the corridor and shook her head.

‘No,’ she said. ‘I don’t hear anything now.’

They walked down the corridor a little way until they came to the first room, the room where Jefferson had shown Cal the teddy bear.

‘OK, this is the place,’ said Cal, searching for the key.

‘What place?’

‘The place where the objects materialise.’

‘Oh yeah, right. Of course.’

Eden glanced back the way they had come as if she had already decided that this was going to be a waste of time. But as Cal pushed the door open and fumbled for the light switch, he heard the unmistakable sound of a dog growling.

As the bare thirty-watt bulb glowed dull orange he saw the dog crouching in the middle of the cage with its hackles raised.

‘Hey there, Tansy,’ he said. ‘Good dog. Everything’s going to be all right.’

But as he approached the cage, the dog’s ears flattened against its head and it launched itself at the bars, barking and snapping its jaws together.

Cal jumped backwards and Eden pulled him out into the corridor, slamming the door shut.

‘What have I done?’ he whispered.

‘I don’t know,’ said Eden, clearly shocked by what she had just seen. ‘What
have
you done?’

‘I think I got it too early,’ said Cal. ‘I clicked on it when it was mad at you or something, and now it just seems crazy.’

‘What do you mean, mad at me?’ asked Eden. ‘I’ve never seen it before in my life.’

‘I know, but you were there in Jefferson’s dream. I saw you. Maybe it’s because you had that argument or something. But you came and scared the dog and now I’m worried it’s not the dog he was hoping for.’

‘Is all this really true?’ asked Eden, running her hand through her hair. ‘With the dog and my teddy bear and everything?’

‘Take a look in there if you don’t believe me,’ said Cal. ‘There’s nothing made up about that dog, I can tell you.’

Eden leaned against the door frame and although she was in shadow, there was enough moonlight for Cal to see that she was afraid.

‘This is crazy,’ she said. ‘Insane.’

‘I know,’ said Cal. ‘I tried to tell you.’

Although the door was closed, Cal could hear the muffled barks and the clanking of the cage as the dog continued to throw itself against the bars.

‘We have to go before Jefferson wakes up,’ said Eden. ‘When he finds out what’s happened to his dog, he’ll go nuts.’

‘But how? You said you couldn’t find the keys.’

‘Maybe he’s got them in his pocket or something. How was he when you left him?’

Cal shrugged. ‘He was pretty much out of it.’ He looked at Eden doubtfully. ‘Since when have you been able to drive?’

‘Dad lets me drive his truck around the farm sometimes.’

‘Have you ever driven on the road?’

‘No, but how hard can it be? You turn the wheel when you want to go round corners and hit the brakes when you don’t. It’s no big deal.’

‘So you’re saying we just take his keys and drive out of here?’

‘Yes, Cal. That’s exactly what I’m saying.’

‘But what about Jefferson?’

‘What about him?’

‘He’ll be left miles from anywhere without any transport.’

‘Yeah, well you can worry about that if you want to. I’m more worried about what he’s gonna do when he wakes up and finds out you’ve turned his favourite dog into a psycho. Now are we going to do this, or what?’

Cal leaned his head back against the wall and sighed.

‘OK, let’s do it.’

He was about to step out through the door when he heard the whispering again. It was louder now, more insistent. And then came the words, soft but unmistakable:

Help me.

Let me out.

‘Cal,’ said Eden, her voice trembling. ‘I think there’s someone down there.’

As they crept down the corridor they passed two locked doors and Cal began to wonder if he had been wrong about Jefferson. Were there others who had believed his promises, only to find themselves locked away? The faint light from the entrance to the building was some way behind them now and as they reached the end of the corridor it was almost impossible to see.

‘Are you still there?’ whispered Eden as he slid his shoulder along the wall, feeling for a doorway.

‘I’m here,’ he said, touching her arm for reassurance.

‘There’s another door here,’ whispered Eden. He heard the rattle of metal as she tried the handle. ‘I think it’s locked.’

Cal pressed his ear against the cold steel and listened.

I know you’re out there
, whispered a voice.
I can hear you breathing
.

As Cal stepped back in alarm, Eden brushed past him and put her own ear against the door.

‘It sounds like a child,’ she said. ‘It’s saying it wants to be let out because it’s frightened of the dark.’

Cal immediately felt his fear replaced by anger; anger that Jefferson had lied to him, that he could take a child and lock them away in the name of scientific research.

‘Don’t worry,’ he called, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the keys. ‘We’re coming.’

As he tried first one key and then another, the voice became more urgent, whispering,
Hurry, hurry, you must let me out
, and as he finally found the right key and fitted it into the lock, the voice whispered,
I have been waiting so long for you, Cal
, and Cal thought how strange it was that the child should know his name.

Then the door swung open and he saw that the voice didn’t belong to a child at all, but to a tall man standing in the shadows. His white, smiling face seemed all too familiar and Cal immediately recognised the top hat, the green frock coat and the shiny black shoes from the drawings in his notebook.

‘Hello, Cal,’ whispered the man. ‘Remember me?’

Then he stepped out of the shadows and held up a pair of long silver scissors.

‘I hope you’re not going to scream,’ he said. ‘But I think you probably will.’

Cal felt the shadows swirl and then Eden shouted, pulling him backwards and slamming the door shut. He heard footsteps across the floor and Eden screamed at him to run but he had seen the size of the man and knew he could never outrun him. And so, as their footsteps echoed down the corridor, he found himself standing in the first room, fumbling with the lock. Then the cage door was open and the dog was out, snarling past him and hurling itself into the corridor. And suddenly Cal was out beneath the stars with Eden beside him and they were running through the trees and into the forest. And all he could think of was that he should have listened, should have listened to her in the first place, but now it was too late and the darkness had found him and now they were going to die.

Branches cracked underfoot.

An owl rose from the trees, hooting out a warning before flapping away into the night. Cal heard the gasp of Eden’s breath and the thump of her footsteps as they pushed deeper into the forest, desperate to get away.

‘Cal!’

For a moment Cal thought that the man had caught up with them, but as he spun round he saw that Eden had tripped over a tree root and was sprawled across a layer of pine needles, the shotgun lying on the ground next to her.

‘Cal, help me!’ she cried, and Cal was afraid, knowing that the man could not be far behind. Grabbing her beneath the arms, he pulled her roughly to her feet, dragging her against a tree before pressing himself against the bark and turning his head to see if there was any sign of the man. But all he saw was the outline of the pines, and the dark shadows beneath their branches.

‘We can’t stay here,’ he whispered, trying to keep the fear from his voice. ‘We have to keep going.’

Eden bent down and massaged her ankle.

‘How is it?’

‘It’s fine. It’s just a knock.’

Cal saw how she winced when she put her weight on it, but he wasn’t about to argue.

‘All right,’ he said. ‘Let’s go.’

Eden slid the empty shotgun beneath a fallen tree and they stumbled blindly onwards, not caring what lay ahead, only wanting to put as much distance as they could between themselves and the man with the pale, bloodless smile. Cal felt the pine needles scratching his skin and as they went deeper into the forest the trees thickened until the glow from the stars faded and there was no light at all.

‘Cal, wait!’

‘I’m over here!’ Cal answered, listening to her moving through the undergrowth. ‘I’m here,’ he said again, more quietly now, scared that someone might hear. And then, in the darkness, he sought out Eden’s hand, because he was afraid of being alone.

‘Do you think we lost him?’ Eden whispered, so close that he could feel her heart beating.

‘I don’t know,’ said Cal. ‘I think we should keep going for a while.’

‘Who was he?’ breathed Eden.

‘I don’t know,’ said Cal. ‘Although I recognise him from somewhere. I think I’ve dreamed about him. And I kind of . . . drew pictures of him.’

‘You did
what
?’

‘I know. I’m still trying to get my head round it. But I think Jefferson may have taken him from my dreams. He’s dangerous, Eden, That’s why we have to keep moving.’

‘OK,’ said Eden. ‘But I think we should go back and check on the dog.’

‘What?’

‘It wasn’t angry at me at all. It went for the guy when he came out of his cell. It saved us, Cal. I just want to know it’s all right. It was yelping like mad when we left.’

Cal shook his head, amazed that she could be thinking of the dog at a time like this.

‘There is no
way
we’re going back there now, Eden. The dog will be fine. That guy is crazy, OK? He wants to kill us. We have to get out of here.’

As they went deeper into the forest, the darkness thickened around them. Whenever a dry branch cracked underfoot they stopped, frozen with fear, listening for signs that someone was following them. Cal slowed down until he could feel Eden’s breath on the back of his neck, then advanced step by careful step, his hands held out to protect himself from whatever might be lurking in the blackness.

After a while he found that his senses were so heightened by fear and the lack of vision that – between the scratch of branches and the rough bark of the trees – he became aware of something else; of blood pulsing beneath his skin and the warm night air moving above it. And because he could no longer see where he ended and the world began, he started to feel that somehow the world itself was aware of him. As if even the air knew that there was only this thin layer of skin separating him from the rest of the world and everything in it.

‘Cal!
Cal!
’

Eden’s urgent whispers broke into his thoughts.

‘What is it?’

‘I hear something.’

Cal stopped and listened.

At first all he heard was the wind in the trees. But then he heard the rush and whisper of something else and realised that it was the sound of water.

‘Come on,’ he said.

As they got closer, the trees thinned out and the darkness lightened until they saw the shapes of branches and roots and the glitter of stars overhead.

‘Look,’ said Eden, ‘over there.’

She pointed through the trees and Cal saw a mountain stream, flowing over rocks and stones towards the valley.

Although Cal was still afraid, there was something about the sight of running water that lifted his spirits.

‘It’s beautiful,’ said Eden, and for a few moments they stood beside it in silence.

Then Eden turned to Cal and nudged him.

‘You know what we should do?’

‘No. What?’

‘We should build a shelter.’

‘What for?’

‘Because that’s what you do when you get stuck in the woods. It keeps you warm and dry.’

‘I’m already warm and dry. And anyway, we should keep going. The guy, remember?’

‘Cal, there’s no way he’ll find us now. We had a head start on him and we’ve been all over since then. Even
we
don’t know where we are.’

‘I know, but—’

‘I just think we’re better off trying to find a way out of here in the morning when it’s light. And a shelter’s better than sleeping out in the open.’

Cal stared at her.

‘You really want to build this shelter, don’t you?’

‘I really do.’

‘Were you in the Girl Guides or something?’

‘Girl Scouts. Troop leader.’

In spite of himself, Cal smiled.

‘You don’t say.’

He looked around.

‘So what do we have to do, exactly?’

Eden smiled back.

‘Watch and learn,’ she said.

Cal was amazed at how skilful Eden was, considering that the only tools she had were her hands. First she searched around until she found a fallen branch, stripping off the side growth until she had a piece of wood the thickness of her forearm. Pushing one end through the layer of pine needles into the soil below, she wedged the other end against a tree trunk to form a triangle. Then, with Cal’s help, she broke off some of the lower branches from the surrounding trees and leaned them, fan-like, against the central branch. Finally she laid more branches horizontally across before weaving them all together.

‘There,’ she said when they had finished. ‘What do you think?’

‘Not bad,’ said Cal. ‘What do you do for an encore?’

‘I go inside and lie down,’ said Eden. ‘Coming?’

Cal followed her inside, breathing the sweet smell of pine sap as he covered the entrance with branches and lay down beside her.

‘This doesn’t feel real,’ she whispered. ‘I feel as if I’m going to wake up any minute and my mom will be standing there, asking me what I want for breakfast.’

‘Do you wish you were back there?’ asked Cal. ‘Back at the camp, I mean.’

‘Of course. Don’t you?’

‘Kind of. To tell you the truth, none of my life seems real anyway.’

‘What do you mean?’

Cal thought for a moment, trying to find the right words.

‘Sometimes my life just feels like something I don’t have any say in. People telling me,
Do this
,
Do that
. It’s like I’m watching myself in a film, where all the lines are already written. But out here, I’m away from all that. There’s no one organising my life or telling me what to do. I just . . . am.’

Eden propped herself up on her elbow and turned to face him.

‘Cal? You remember when we were walking up the trail before?’

‘Yeah. What about it?’

‘You told me they weren’t your real parents. And then you just kind of clammed up.’

‘That’s because it’s not very interesting.’

‘
I’m
interested.’

‘OK. I’m what they call a child looked after. What they used to call a foster kid. Which basically means I get to stay with a new family for a while until they decide they’ve had enough of me. Then I get sent back to the residential centre until they find someone else.’

‘Huh.’

Cal could almost hear the click of Eden’s brain cells as she tried to make sense of it. ‘So why can’t you just stay with one family?’

‘Because I don’t want to. What’s the point? I know it’s not going to last.’

‘How?’

‘Because I’ve been there before. Foster parents are there to look after you until you get a family that wants to adopt you, that’s all. And I was going to be adopted by this family one time, and I was all set to go with my suitcase packed and everything, and then the social worker comes in and sits me down and says, basically, it’s not going to happen.’

‘Why not?’

‘I don’t know. They split up or something. And after that, I thought, you know, what’s the point? You get all ready, thinking someone’s going to come along and make your life better. And it’s not true. No one’s going to do that. Ever.’

‘Someone might,’ said Eden.

‘No,’ said Cal, ‘they won’t. Which is why I don’t bother getting to know them any more. And it’s why I like being out here, away from all that stuff. It’s too complicated.’

‘What about me?’ said Eden.

Cal was puzzled.

‘What about you?’

‘You’re getting to know me, aren’t you?’

‘That’s different.’

‘How is it different?’

‘Because you don’t expect anything of me, that’s why. You know that when all this is over, we’re going to go our separate ways.’

‘Like life, you mean.’

‘What?’

‘When it’s over, we go our separate ways.’

Cal frowned.

‘Are you making fun of me?’

‘No. I’m saying that just because something’s going to end doesn’t mean it shouldn’t begin.’

Cal shook his head.

‘You’ve lost me,’ he said.

‘I think maybe you’ve lost yourself,’ said Eden. ‘Maybe that’s why you like it out here where no one can see you.’

‘You can see me.’

‘I’m starting to. But there’s a ways to go yet.’

Eden laid her head on her hands and closed her eyes.

‘I hope you get some sleep.’

‘Maybe we’ll find our way out of the woods tomorrow,’ said Cal.

‘Maybe we will.’

When she was asleep, Cal lay on his back and stared at the ridge of branches above him. If he moved his head slightly, he could see the sky through a tiny gap. And in the middle of that vast darkness was a single star, its light scattered through time and space until the last shining remnants fell through the forest into the lens of his eye.

He remembered watching a TV programme which said that the light from a star takes so long to reach the earth that by the time you see it, the star might no longer exist.

He looked at Eden lying next to him with her eyes closed and thought how quiet it was when she was asleep.

Just because something’s going to end, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t begin.

He didn’t know what made her come up with stuff like that.

But what he did know, lying there in the darkness and looking up at a solitary star, was that his heart ached and there wasn’t a thing in the world he could do about it.