Endless (17 page)

They kept to the side, using the trees for cover in case someone came or went. But everything was quiet. The road leading to the center was at an incline, and Jenny had to trot to keep up with Ben’s long-legged stride. She was considering asking him to stop for a breather when she spotted a faint yellow light in the distance.

Ben saw it too. “I think that’s it. Let’s go in from the woods, just in case they have guards or something.”

She nodded. She didn’t know if her heart was beating fast because of the climb or the sense of danger that seemed to increase as they approached the summit of the hill.

Jenny followed Ben into the trees. The woods were eerie at night, the squirrels and birds rustling in the branches overhead but snatched from view by the night. She stayed close, following the gleam of his white T-shirt.

After a few hundred feet, they came to a stop behind another retaining wall. Ben dropped to the ground, and Jenny knelt next to him, both of them peering over.

To their left, the gravel road turned into a circular drive in front of what looked like the main building. The building was stone and resembled a church, the massive wood door almost medieval in style. There was even some kind of tower reaching toward the sky. Jenny recognized it from all the times she’d looked up at the mountain while driving around Stony Creek.

The dark red Volvo was parked in the circular driveway. Jenny touched Ben on the shoulder and pointed to the car.

He mouthed the words, “I know.”

Old-fashioned torches lit the grounds on every side of the building. Jenny scanned the area for guards or monks out for a nighttime stroll.

There was no one. The place looked deserted.

She half stood, crouching low just in case someone was watching from one of the Gothic windows cut into the building’s facade.

“Let’s check it out.” Staying low, she started walking. She half expected Ben to protest, but when she glanced back, he was right behind her. He must have been as curious as she was.

As they made their way deeper into the property, she saw that what she’d thought was one building was really an entire compound. Seven structures encircled the church-like one with torches lighting dozens of small pathways that ran between them all. A massive, domed edifice stood at the back of the property like some kind of out-of-place planetarium.

Jenny wondered how many people lived there and why they needed so much space.

Inching closer to the center, she saw a giant pool of water in the middle of what looked like a meticulously maintained garden. It was almost like a Zen garden she’d seen when her dad had taken her to an exhibit of Japanese architecture and landscape design, but there, everything had looked kind of flat and two-dimensional.

The garden surrounding the pond at the back of the monastery had the same attention to detail, the same clipped edges and controlled aesthetic. But the plants were different. She recognized wild roses and hydrangeas, lilacs and dogwood. They scented the air with their perfume and cast colorful, warped images into the water shimmering black in the torchlight.

Jenny let her eyes scan the property, her gaze coming back to rest on the main building. Now that she was seeing it from the back, she realized that its rear wall was made up entirely of stained glass. Six panels, each of them reaching upward, almost all the way to the sharply peaked roofline.

Movement on one of the paths got Jenny’s attention. She ducked a little lower, still peering over the retaining wall. It was Eben, walking toward the rear of the compound with two of the robed figures that Jenny had always thought of as monks.

Now, she didn’t know what to call them, but they were heading away from her and Ben, making their way deeper into the labyrinth of paths toward a cluster of small buildings.

She started to move that way. A strong hand on her arm pulled her back.

“What are you doing?” Ben hissed.

“I’m going to see what they’re doing,” she whispered.

“No way,” he said, too loudly.

“Shhhh!” Jenny looked around. “I just want to see if I can overhear anything.”

“You have no idea what’s back there.” He spoke softly. “If they have security or another way out or … anything. You can’t just go wandering around a place like this without knowing what you’re getting yourself into. Don’t be stupid.”

“I’m not stupid!”

“I know that,” he said. “So don’t start now, okay?”

He stared into her eyes. She wanted to be mad. To ridicule his worry. But he was right, and she knew it.

“Okay?” he repeated.

She sighed, nodding. “Okay. Just give me one more minute.”

Pulling her cell phone from her pocket, she lifted it up above the retaining wall.

“Now what are you doing?” Ben could hardly contain his impatience.

“Taking some pictures.” She tried to get at least one of each panel as she talked, adding a few of the grounds for good measure.

“Well, hurry up so we can get out of here. This place gives me the creeps.”

She was about to blow off his caution when something moved toward the front of the compound. Lowering the phone, she peered into the darkness, wondering if she had imagined it.

But no. They were three men, two in robes and one in a suit, coming toward her and Ben. Looking right at them. The suit looked particularly intent with piercing gray eyes beneath a crop of closely cut silver hair.

“Great,” Ben muttered, already standing. He grabbed her hand. “Let’s get out of here.”

He pulled her forward and she stumbled as she stuffed the phone back in her pocket. They crashed through the old leaves that blanketed the forest floor, staying near enough to the retaining wall that they wouldn’t lose their way. Every second Jenny braced herself for the moment when the men would come bursting through the trees to apprehend them.

They were nearly out of the wooded area surrounding the property when Ben gave her arm a ferocious tug. She almost fell as they tumbled onto the gravel drive.

“Hurry,” Ben said, slightly out of breath.

They jogged down the driveway leading to the main road. When Jenny felt like they’d put enough distance between them and the men, she dared a look back, wanting to see how close they were to being caught.

The men were there, right at the top of the drive. But they weren’t running. They were just standing, arms folded, watching Jenny and Ben make their escape as if it was no big deal.

Like they knew exactly who Jenny and Ben were. And exactly where to find them.

*

Other than a few inventive variations on curse words, Ben didn’t say much as they careened too fast down the mountain. He kept checking the rearview mirror, expecting to find the men in pursuit.

“They’re not going to follow us,” Jenny finally said.

“Really?” Ben glared at her before turning his attention back to the road. “Do you know that the same way you knew they weren’t going to see us? That we weren’t going to get caught? I think I’d just as soon play it safe. The last thing we need is for them to follow us home.”

“Did you notice how they just stood there? Like they could come for us any time they want? Like they already know who we are?”

He shook his head. “How would they know that?”

“I don’t know.”

He didn’t say anything, and Jenny spent the rest of the ride home replaying everything that had happened, trying to figure out what kind of sect needed such a private compound. Was it a cult? And had her mother been a part of it somehow?

She was relieved when Ben pulled into her driveway. She was losing it. She needed to get ahold of herself.

“I’m sorry.” Ben’s voice broke through her thoughts.

“For what?”

“For … flipping out on you back there.” He pulled the truck to a stop behind her dad’s SUV. “The music box was one thing, but all this other stuff? The monks and the ring and the symbol? It just feels … off to me.”

She turned her body sideways to face him. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you! It
is
off.”

“Maybe I didn’t phrase that right.” The light from the porch glimmered off the small stud on his brow. “It feels more than off. It feels dangerous.”

It felt dangerous to her, too. If she were being honest with herself, it had felt that way since the beginning. But now Ben was saying it out loud. Giving credence to something she’d been able to label as paranoia in the privacy of her own mind.

She took a deep breath. “Okay, but even if it is dangerous, it has something to do with my mom and the music box, which is also connected to you.”

“We don’t know that.”

“I do. And I can’t just turn my back on that, Ben.”

“It’s not enough, Jenny.”

“Not enough for what?”

He shook his head, turning to look out into the darkness beyond the window.

“Not enough for what?” she pressed.

“Not enough to justify us fooling around with something we don’t understand!” His voice was an almost shout.

Anger built inside her, rising and rising until all the confusion and frustration she’d never been able to express just boiled over.

“Look, you can hide all you want, but I need to find out what this has to do with my mom. What this has to do with
me
and the weird dreams I’ve had my whole life. Dreams like the one we had in your attic except I don’t need a music box to have them and I’m usually stuck in them alone.” Tears, as much frustration as sadness, stung her eyes as she pulled the lever on the car door. “I can’t even touch someone.”

“Wait a minute.” He grabbed her hand, his grip scratchy against the fabric of her gloves, and pulled her back into the car. “What are you talking about?”

She looked at him. It was too late to go back now.

“You know why I wear gloves all the time? It’s because I see things when I touch people. I don’t know why I see what I see or what it means, but it’s been happening my whole life, and for a long time, I’ve just lived with it, if you can call it that. I avoid touching people and try not to think too hard about it. But now I’m starting to feel like there’s a reason I see stuff, and the fact that it happened with the music box and the monks are trying to get it … I don’t know, Ben.” She thought of the guy named Nikolai. Of his place in her dreams, and now, her real life. “Something’s happening. I need to know what it is.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked softly.

“It’s not exactly casual conversation. ‘Hey, how are you? Guess what? I see weird things even when I’m wide awake.’”

“So tell me now,” he said.

She looked at him a long time before she nodded.

She told him everything. The visions she’d had since she was a child. How they were always full of sadness or loss. How she had to hide it even from her dad because she didn’t want to worry him. She left out nothing but the recent appearance of Nikolai. She couldn’t explain his presence to herself yet, let alone to anyone else.

Ben was silent for a long minute after she finished talking.

“Do you think you could be psychic or something?” he finally asked. “I believe in that stuff. I mean, I’ve heard of people who can see the future, find people who are lost … that kind of thing.”

“But I don’t even recognize the people or places I’m seeing, and most of the time, it looks like I’m somewhere in the past.”

His eyes found hers through the darkness. “Like in the dream we had with the music box?”

She nodded.

“Well, I can see why you’d think it’s all tied together,” he admitted.

“Exactly,” she said. “That dream—the one we shared?—it was so much like the visions I’ve had my whole life. And for the first time, I feel like I’m close to something that might help me understand it all.”

“Okay, Jenny.” He hesitated. “I just … ”

“What?”

“I guess I’m worried about you.” He laughed a little, like he couldn’t believe it.

“That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.” She smiled a little. “And I appreciate it, but I’ve been taking care of this stuff by myself for a long time now. I’ll be fine.”

He nodded, but he didn’t seem convinced.

“Anyway,” she continued, “I’m going to see if are any clues in the pictures from the retreat center. Maybe if I blow them up, something will be there that we didn’t notice before. I have to work tomorrow but I’ll try to check in with you before my shift.”

“Sounds good,” he said. “And speaking of work, my mom got the job at Books. Thanks for that.”

She smiled. “You’re welcome. I’m glad it worked out.” She scooted to the door on the passenger side, turning back to him at the last minute. “And Ben?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you, too.”

*

Her dad was in his office working on the Daulton budget when she came in. She said a quick hello and headed to her room.

She changed into sweats and a loose T-shirt. Her eyes were drawn to the painting of the train track, or more specifically, the shadowy figure still standing at the edge of it. She flashed back to her conversation with Nikolai at the Farnsworth house. His assertion that they knew each other, the veiled reference to a past she had only dreamed, should have seemed crazy.

But even now in the familiar surroundings of her real-life room, it didn’t.

Nikolai was a part of everything that was happening, too. She didn’t know how he fit in with the other stuff, but she needed to figure it out. To put some kind of order to all the disparate pieces colliding in her mind.

Getting an idea, she grabbed a notebook and pen, propping herself against her headboard. She started with the things she knew, following them to their natural conclusions until she hit a roadblock.

MOM’S RING > RETREAT SYMBOL > MOM PART OF MONASTERY?

GUY IN DREAMS > GUY IN PAINTINGS > NIKOLAI?

MUSIC BOX > DREAM WITH BEN > VISIONS FROM CHILDHOOD?

BEN?

Ben’s name stared back at her, the question mark sitting there like a big blinking sign. Ben had to play a part in the mystery, too. Otherwise, why had he been in the dream they’d had in his attic?

She stared at the list, willing it all to coalesce into something she could get her head around, but the words just stared back at her until she closed the notebook with a frustrated snap. Tossing it on the floor, she turned out her light. She was grateful for the darkness. She willed her mind to go dark too.