Hunters: A Trilogy (68 page)

‘Learning as they go, is that what you mean?’ Mike said, nodding in understanding. ‘Yeah, that would fit, wouldn’t it?’ he murmured.

Jane said that it was exactly what she had meant. ‘It’s almost as though the moment when I was shot became a catalyst or something. I mean, look at that thing they gave us, the medal or whatever it is, why did they do that? When George mentioned me seeing my Dad, well…you should have seen his face! That looked as though it totally freaked them out, and he also said that everything has changed for them, although I’m not really sure what he meant by that…’ She looked at Ken who was standing and staring at her.

He said, ‘Yes, that’s almost exactly what I was thinking this morning. This whole situation is beyond weird, it’s like they’ve paused the whole parallel, the one we’re in, and now they are waiting to see what happens next with Red.’ He took a seat, saying: ‘That medal thing is something else, though – I know it says ‘For Sacrifice’ on it, but whose sacrifice, does it mean the ones people have already made, or…?’ He left the final words unsaid.

Mike changed the subject. ‘And what’s with old Maggie and this girl, Tori, didn’t you say her name was?’ he asked. ‘Why did you get that feeling about her? And what the hell is with Maggie, making you feel like she’s George’s sister? This is getting deep, really deep!’ He closed his eyes and ran his hands over his face, stopping at the temples to rub them softly. ‘Whew!’ Mike blew out a long, exasperated breath and then sat down next to Ken in the old rocking chair. He leaned back and closed his eyes again. His actions brought silence with them and they sat and contemplated things for a while. The only sound was a gentle creaking from Mike’s seat.

In typical fashion, it was Ken who dragged them away from the abyss. ‘Right, this is getting us nowhere,’ he said, with a grin. ‘I vote that we have some food and a couple of cold ones…or three…and not necessarily in that order, either!’ He stood and made his way to the fridge, asking: ‘Beers all round, yeah, people?’ His motivation helped them and they all agreed.

In no time at all they were back out on the porch, swigging cold beer and laughing at Red as he danced around the courtyard with his new boots on. ‘Yeehaaaw – I’m a real farmer now,’ he howled. ‘Look at my fancy new boots, they is gonna last me fer years and years!’ He was so pleased, almost overcome, with the gift, that when Jane had presented the boots to him the young man had fallen to his knees in front of her.

Seeing him kneeling there with tears running down his face had almost made Jane cry herself. ‘Oh, Red, honey, it’s only a pair of boots, sweetheart, don’t cry. A man like you needs a good pair of boots on his feet,’ she had said, gently.

Red had leaned forward and hugged Jane as she sat on the chair. Even when he was kneeling, the young giant was still taller than her sitting height. Strangely, and unbeknownst to the others, as he placed the boots over his bare feet, Red felt the man inside of him break free from the child he had been for nearly sixteen years. He cast off the shackles of all that he was, and their weight dragged the Demon of his future with them.

As the chains slunk into his past, rattled their revolting way downwards, Red became the man he was supposed to be. Right in front of his friends, Red became a man, and they never even saw it. Not yet they didn’t. He stood and smiled down at their happy, caring faces and ran onto the courtyard to begin his antics.

However, in amongst his joy and new found manhood, Red never realised a certain fact, a well-known fact, one that states: ‘Demons know of more ways than one in which to skin a cat!’ It wouldn’t have been possible for him to know, he’d only just become a man and he never saw it coming.

George did, though. He had been a man for a while, a long, long while, and he knew a lot of facts. He saw this particular one coming quite clearly, he saw it driving through the night, heard the grinding gears and straining engine. George saw and heard it all, but there wasn’t a blasted thing he would be able to do about it. Events were in full flow and the wheel was turning. They had laid their bets and now the croupier called the shots. No going back, ever, not for anyone. Not in this parallel.

In truth, George had only recently begun to wonder if perhaps there really was a God after all. The experience with Jane and her father had made them all think, and think hard. They were unsure as to the exact cause of the strange event, because Jane’s reaction to the dream, and her almost impossible return from the Darkness, had baffled them. Yes, George was currently plumb out of ideas. As he sat in the dark of his worried loneliness, the old man talked to whomever, or whatever, ‘God’ may have been. He prayed long and he prayed hard. In the soft blue glow of his workstation, George prayed out loud.

‘Please, God!’

Perhaps George managed to get a direct line to him – God – or maybe luck simply dropped into his lap. The heavenly switch-board, so usually jammed with incoming calls, lighting up with George’s personal number.

‘
Brrr-Brrr… Brrr-Brrr…’

Click.

‘
Hello there, George. This is God speaking. How may I help you?’

Perhaps that’s exactly what did happen. Then again, perhaps there’s never been any such thing as God, at least not in the way that Man perceives there to be, and all George happened to be doing was consoling himself with his own inner strength, just fighting the Demon with some positive thoughts – perhaps that’s all it was.

***

Either way, it was later that night, after having had a quiet meal with her grandmother, when a certain young lady began dreaming again. She had gone to bed early for a change, falling asleep almost instantly. Tori hadn’t dreamed for quite a while. It was the usual dream and she felt comfortable with it, all was as normal, just the same little dream where she walked through the familiar long grasses as they grew upon the luscious plains of her dream-world’s horizon. However, this time she saw that there was a lake, and also an apple tree. Beneath the tree there were two men, both were tall, she couldn’t quite see who was the taller as one of the men was lying down and seemed to be very still, Tori was still able to determine that he was tall. She knew he was…she knew him.

The girl had been in this place many times before and she had never seen anyone else here, the men’s presence was a surprise to her. This had always been her secret place, a place where she wandered alone through the long grasses, merely walking and looking with no other sound or sensations. She’d never been sure as to why exactly she was here, or even what she was looking for. Tori knew every inch of this place and had never seen that tree before, or the lake, and she’d certainly never seen the men.

She had always been alone in this place, coldly alone.

But, tonight was different, tonight she saw the men as clear as day, and most strangely of all, she felt them. A strange sensation filled her mind; it was as though they were pulling her. She felt drawn to them. As she turned to face them, the girl heard the sound of the man, the one who was standing, he was crying out in anguish. It was a sound of terrible mourning, or perhaps pain, and came from deep within him. As Tori heard his cry erupting into the violet sky that swirled above them, the girl knew that she had to go to him, she must go.

She looked up and then started to run towards him. As she did so, the tree began to shed its fruit; dozens of red apples began to fall like hailstones. They rained down, hitting the ground and then bursting into splashes of light. Like Roman candles, the little fountains of sorrowful green light erupted. The standing man turned towards her and she saw him more clearly, he was carrying a shovel.

Tori stopped as she saw him dig it into the ground and then stand upright, leaving it impaled beneath the tree, the handle of the tool looked like a makeshift burial cross, casting its shadow onto the second man as he lay silently beneath. She shivered at the sight.

Then she felt the standing man pull on her mind, without being able to stop herself, Tori began to move towards him once more. She knew him, she felt sure that she did. He was the one who they had all waited for, the unknown one, the one who all the different worlds had been fighting to change. He was the one whom she had dreamed of, imagined, and yet never seen. Tori’s great grandfather had told her that this was to be her time, the time to make a change, the time for sacrifice, the time for giving. She knew all of those things and the undecipherable knowledge filled her soul with fear.

Yet she still ran towards the man, ran like the wind, long silken legs racing across the grassy field, white tennis shoes barely touching the earth beneath her – she couldn’t stop herself. Tori ran towards him, jet-black hair soaring out behind her head like a shimmering wedding veil.

As she approached him, she called out: ‘Who are you, is that you? Are you the one, hello?’ Tori felt the fear grow within her chest, it made her hands heavy, she looked down, half-expecting to see them turning to stone. There was nothing except the blackness of her dream. She heard chuckling, an awful sound of rusty metal, twisting and tearing, echoed through her mind.

Then she had the almost physical sensation of having run into a wall – thick, impassable, and made of glass. Tori looked through the invisible barrier and watched. She saw the man fall to his knees underneath the apple tree, kneeling in the grass he remained there, kneeling and waiting for her – kneeling and screaming. Tori knew that she would be able to go no further, not yet, not in this dream. Not tonight. Later would be the time for her to go, and go she would, gladly.

It wasn’t to be too many days that passed before the two women visited the farm. With a squeal of worn brake-pads, Maggie’s red Mazda eased to a halt on the dry forecourt and she gave a short toot on the horn. Jane heard the sound and made her way outside from where she had been finishing one of the paintings. She and Red had been doing a scene of the mountains and it was coming along rather well. He was the ideal student as his natural talent and untarnished view of the world allowed his imagination to run free. If the truth be told, it was he who taught Jane more than she managed to get across to him. His was an amazing gift and together they fed each other a constant stream of ideas. There was already a fairly sizeable crop of finished paintings and sketches stacked neatly by the window.

Stepping onto the porch, Jane held her hand up to guard against the warm glare of the mid-morning sun, which flooded across the house. After she had ratcheted the handbrake on, Maggie climbed from the Mazda, waited for Tori, and then made her way over to the house with the young woman in tow.

Jane beckoned them up the stairs, pulling two chairs into the shade of the canopy. ‘Hi girls!’ she said. ‘Oh lovely, I have some female company at last. I was beginning to wonder if you two were going to let me down!’ She laughed and asked if they would like a cool drink. Shortly afterwards, she re-joined them on the porch and placed a large jug of fresh lemonade and three glasses onto the table. ‘There we go, ladies – Red and I made it this morning. He has quite a talent for things like that!’ she said, pouring them all a cool drink. They sat for a while, savouring the concoction and enjoying the warm sunshine.

Maggie was the first to break their pleasant silence. ‘So, what do you know, Jane?’ she asked. ‘How are things here on the farm?’ She leaned forward and placed her empty glass back on the table, before looking around at the tidy courtyard and the dazzling white walls of the house. She commented: ‘My-my, you guys have sure made some changes around here, just look at those flowers, Tori, my dear!’ Tori nodded and smiled.

Jane looked at her and was breath taken by her beauty once more. Breaking away from Tori’s gaze, she answered Maggie. ‘Yes we have, and it’s been so much fun – come on, let me show you around, you’ll love it!’ Jane stood and waited for the other two to join her on the grand tour. The old house never let her down.

Maggie, who hadn’t been out to the place for ‘at least ten years,’ was hardly able to believe her eyes. ‘You have done such a wonderful job, Jane,’ she praised. ‘Yes, my goodness, a wonderful job indeed! It’s just what that poor boy needed, exactly what he needed!’ She looked at Jane and smiled warmly.

Tori loved the place. ‘It feels like…like home,’ she said to them. ‘I can smell the country, the earth and the lake, too…it does have a lake, doesn’t it, Jane?’ She looked down as if expecting to see the expanse of water in question, magically appearing between her feet. Looking up sheepishly, she laughed, saying: ‘Why, I do believe that I may be losing my mind, it must be this fine country air that seems to have gone straight to my head!’ She shook that head and Jane saw the sun glisten off the ebony locks as they jumbled on the girl’s shoulders.

They continued with the guided tour and spent a long time looking at the artwork that Jane and Red had completed. Maggie asked if she could buy a few of the pieces. Jane smiled and told her to take her pick. ‘If ever I’m down on my luck, Maggie,’ she said, ‘then you can repay me in kind.’

Maggie laughed and spent a few moments choosing her favourites with Tori. After making a cup of coffee in the kitchen, the three women retired back to the porch once more. As they sat in the warm flower-scented breeze, they heard the sound of men’s voices drifting up from the fields below. Red’s braying laugh reached out to the house.

‘Here comes trouble, I expect they’ll need a drink,’ Jane said, and stood up. ‘The boys have been out since dawn, ‘fixing fences and things’, well, that’s their story, but it’s more likely that they’ve just been fishing and messing about!’ She left the two women for a while before returning with a recharged jug of cool lemonade and some additional glasses. She was just in time to see the back gate opening as the men arrived.

Her guests watched, too – Tori never taking her eyes off Red.

He was the last one through the gate, after closing it he turned back towards the house and looked up at the veranda. It was then Jane felt it, absolutely one hundred per cent she felt it. The immediate link that flashed between Tori and Red was so tangible that it may as well have been a bolt of brilliant white lightning. Red stood stock still for a moment and looked at Tori over the heads of Ken and Mike.