Night Things: A Novel of Supernatural Terror (23 page)

By the end of the story Garrett had become so enthralled by what Gordon was saying that he was barely even blinking. Lauren, however, was only disturbed.

After a long paused she said: “But things like that don’t happen today.”

“Sure they do,” Gordon replied, now so swept up with his subject that he no longer seemed to notice her anxiety. “Take, for example, West Virginia’s Mothman. In the late 1960s two couples were out driving late one night when they saw a strange-looking creature standing by the road and watching them. The thing was nearly seven feet tall, was winged, and had two huge red eyes that looked like automobile reflectors. At first they thought it might be some weirdo in some sort of Halloween getup or something, but then the thing lifted into the air and started flying after them. Even when they pushed the accelerator all the way to the floor, it kept up with them effortlessly, flying just a few feet behind the car and grinning at them like a demon through their rear window all the way into town.

“From that day on, sightings of the thing started to pour in, and when the police were called in to investigate it even chased the patrol cars. Over the next several years literally hundreds of reputable witnesses saw the Mothman. And then, in the early 1970s, the reports just trickled to a stop.”

“But this just can’t be,” Lauren argued. “If these things were really happening, we would know about them. Scientists would be investigating them.”

He shook his head. “But that’s just it. Science doesn’t investigate these things. What you’ve got to understand is that science doesn’t like things that don’t fit neatly into its theories, things that defy its accepted logic. It just sweeps this kind of stuff under the rug. But it’s not for lack of evidence that something very strange is going on on this planet. I mean, when you start to delve into the subject you find that the history books are filled with accounts of human encounters with Incomprehensibles. According to Arab texts, in the latter part of the eighth century a veritable army of gigantic and unearthly doglike creatures, with bristles along their backs and huge batlike ears, appeared out of nowhere and ravaged villages throughout the Middle East for several decades. Then there’s the well-known Beast of Gevaudan, a huge, wolflike creature with cloven feet that stalked the French countryside for several years during the eighteenth century. Despite the Beast of Gevaudan’s short reign it still brutally murdered three dozen people and seriously wounded over a hundred others before a company of cavalry dispatched by King Louis XV hunted it down and killed it. But believe me, these are only a few examples. There are many more. I could go on for hours.”

“But where do these things come from?” Lauren asked. “That’s one of the most interesting aspects of the phenomenon,” Gordon replied. “You see, when you go back through the history books and really start to delve into the old accounts you quickly discover that there are certain areas around the world where these things have popped up again and again. Haunted places. In fact, if you find a place where someone has had a really extraordinary encounter with an Incomprehensible, you can be pretty sure that if you dig back twenty or thirty years you’ll find that someone else had a similar encounter in roughly the same geographic area. It may have been a different kind of Incomprehensible, a doglike creature instead of a manlike creature, but it will be something inexplicable and out of the ordinary. Researchers who study this sort of thing call these places ‘window’ areas, and although no one knows exactly what they are, many believe that they’re some kind of coordinate point, a weak spot or doorway between different dimensions. In fact, although you may not be aware of it, the Adirondack Mountains themselves are quite a well-known window area and have quite a rich history of UFO sightings, lake monsters, encounters with Bigfoot, and a host of other assorted oddities. That’s why I wasn’t so surprised when this man with glowing eyes popped up. Even the Indians knew that this part of upper New York was a haunted place.” He waved his hand at the lake. “In fact, even the name of this lake, Lake Ketcimanitowa, means ‘place of great supernatural power’ in Algonquin.”

“I knew about this being a place where you see a lot of strange things!” Garrett exclaimed excitedly. “I’ve got a book upstairs that talks about that.”

By now Lauren was so riveted she had no choice but to go on. “So what you’re saying is that these things are somehow popping in from other dimensions?”

“It seems that at least some of them are.”

“What are the rest of them doing?”

“The fact that most of these things are sighted in window areas doesn’t necessarily mean they originated in the window area. Maybe they’ve been wandering around for years, centuries even, and are just drawn to window areas. I mean, maybe the reason they are sighted most frequently in these window areas is that that’s where they congregate.”

“But why would they congregate in window areas?” He shrugged as he balanced the pencil between his finger and the table. “Who knows? Maybe they derive some power out of being in window areas. Or maybe even they themselves don’t know. Maybe they’re just drawn to window areas in the same way that night-flying insects are drawn to certain colors of light.”

“But why are they here?” she asked. “
What
are they?”

“Well, as you can imagine, there are a lot of different theories that attempt to explain that. Some people believe they’re from other planets. Others think that they’re some kind of nightmarish projection of the collective human unconscious. But I don’t really believe either of those explanations.”

“What do you believe?”

The uneasy Gary Cooper part of his personality came out again. “Well, you’ve got to understand, this isn’t exactly a theory I would stake my life on. It’s just something I muse about from time to time. But I think there might be something to it.”

“I understand!” she snapped impatiently.

He settled back in his chair as if pleased that someone was at last providing him a forum in which to air his beliefs. “Well, virtually all of the world’s most ancient religious texts speak of a time when both man and supernatural being walked the earth together. According to these ancient traditions, this free intermingling of mortal and supernatural beings ended when a great war broke out between the forces of light and darkness. The powers of light won and the supernatural and mortal realms were separated, but on occasion things supernatural and evil return to walk the earth once more, and in some strange way the war between light and darkness still goes on, unseen but ever raging.”

“What ancient texts?” Lauren asked.

“Probably the most explicit description of the war between the powers of light and darkness comes from an ancient pre-Christian work known as
The Book of the Secrets of Enoch.
”

“Oh, my God.” Lauren froze with shock.

“Is something wrong?”

“We found a room in the house that we think was Sarah Balfram’s bedroom, and in it was a copy of
The Book of the Secrets of Enoch

“Well, there’s nothing really that strange about that. The book is well known to anyone who has a serious interest in Christianity. In fact, parts of the Bible are actually more like term papers compiled from bits and pieces of other books, and
Enoch
is one of books from which the Bible was taken. Entire passages from the Old Testament book of Genesis are lifted straight from it.”

“But Sarah Balfram didn’t have a copy of the Bible in her room, or even a copy of the Old Testament. The only book she had a copy of was
The Book of the Secrets of Enoch,
and she apparently revered it so much she even had it mounted on a little altar.”

“Well, that is strange,” Gordon murmured. “I’ve never really heard of anyone worshiping
The Book of the Secrets of Enoch
as his sole scripture.” He lapsed into concentration, and after a few moments he suddenly started to get excited. “You know, I just thought of something. The reason that Enoch, the pre-Christian prophet who wrote the book, was able to describe what had happened during the great war between light and darkness was, he said, that two angels appeared to him one day and took him on a trip through heaven. He said that during this trip through heaven he was given a series of visions that told him all about the war between good and evil, the fall of the angels, and everything else that he wrote about. Those were the ‘secrets’ he mentions in the title of the book.

“Well, I believe the story about Sarah Balfram goes that when she was a little girl she had a series of visions. I’ve never really been able to find out what her visions were about, but maybe the reason she was so drawn to
The Book of the Secrets of Enoch
is that she thought her experiences and Enoch’s were somehow similar.”

The idea galvanized Lauren. “You think maybe she believed there was still some kind of war between good and evil going on?”

“Maybe. I don’t know.”

“Do you think her beliefs had something to do with why she built her house the way she did?”

“I don’t know.”

“Is there anything in the book that sheds any light on why she had such kooky architectural ideas?”

He shrugged and sighed. “No, there’s not really anything that talks about houses or designs for buildings or anything like that.” He paused. “But you know, there is something in the book that stuck out when I read it. I mean, I can’t imagine how it could be tied in with any of this, but I’ve always thought that it meant something, or at least meant more than a simple reading of the book makes one realize.”

“What’s that?”

“According to Enoch, in addition to the powers of light and darkness there is a third force at work on this planet, a class of entities he calls ‘Watcher Angels.’ As he explains, when the great war between light and darkness broke out, some of the forces of good actually went over to the side of evil. These are the dark angelic forces the Bible now refers to as fallen angels. But some of these fallen angels, it seems, did not really surrender themselves completely to evil, and after the war was over they were caught, trapped, left behind on the earth and frozen in a strange limbo somewhere in between the powers of light and darkness. These are the third class of entities Enoch refers to as the Watchers.”

Garrett had been hypnotized by everything Gordon was telling them, but the mention of the Watchers caused him to sit forward with a jolt. Although he did not know quite how, he knew with abrupt and intransigent certainty that the being in the house, the thing whose identity he had puzzled over for so long, was a Watcher.

“But are the Watcher Angels good or bad?” he asked.

Gordon looked perplexed at Garrett’s question. “That’s just it. Enoch doesn’t say. That’s why I’ve always found them so intriguing. Enoch goes to such great lengths to describe where the Watcher Angels came from and what they’re called, but he never explains whether they’re good or evil.”

Lauren looked up at the walls of Lake House. “Well, it doesn’t really tell us anything about the house, does it?”

“I guess not. For some reason I just thought I should mention it.” He glanced again at Garrett, and for a moment something in his gaze made Garrett think that Gordon suspected something. But then whatever mote of awareness was in his eyes vanished.

“Well,” he said, draining the last swallow of his lemonade, “I’ve already taken up more of your time than I should have.”

“Oh, it’s okay,” Lauren said perfunctorily, but too preoccupied with everything Gordon had said to be fully alert to the significance of his leaving.

For Garrett, however, Gordon’s announcement had quite a different effect. Despite the enthusiasm with which he had greeted Gordon’s macabre litany of anecdotes, he was more frightened than ever at the idea of remaining in the house for another night. From the way his mother had responded to his suggestion of asking Gordon to drive back and pick them up, he knew he would be making a mistake if he brought the matter up again in front of Gordon. But he was desperate to get her to consider the option again.

To his delight, his opportunity came when Gordon suddenly jumped up and descended the steps. When he did so, Garrett quickly leaned over in his mother’s direction.

“Are you going to ask him if he’ll go get his car and come pick us up?” he whispered.

But to his dismay his mother still screwed up her face. “Garrett, I can’t ask him to drive us all the way to New York.”

“Then ask him if he’ll drive us wherever he’s going. Then we can get a ride to New York from there.”

But still Lauren resisted the idea.

“Mommmm,” he pleaded in a hush.

“Garrett, please! Take this inside,” she said tersely and loud enough that Gordon turned around to see what was going on.

Garrett reluctantly took the tray with the lemonade and glasses back into the house, and Lauren went to the top of the steps. “It was very nice meeting you, Mr. Gordon,” she said politely.

Her reluctance to ask Gordon for assistance was not because the idea didn’t appeal to her. Nor was it due even to any lingering mistrust of Gordon, for during the course of their conversation she had become quite impressed with his overall character, had even perceived in the flashes of personality that he had allowed to shine through his shy and reserved exterior that he was probably a pretty nice guy.

“It certainly was,” Gordon said, searching her eyes briefly as if he sensed her uncertainty. “Thanks for the lemonade.”

“You’re welcome,” Lauren returned, but even as she uttered the words she found herself walking down the steps. “I’ll walk you to your bike,” she said, formulating the explanation as much for herself as for him.

When they reached the bushes where Gordon’s bicycle was parked, he slipped his arms into the straps of his backpack and hoisted it up onto his back.

But as he readied to depart and she noticed how long the shadows were becoming, she wondered if she was making a mistake. As she did so, a storm of doubt and uncertainty rose up in her, and once again she considered broaching the subject of a ride with him.

But still something stopped her, some unconquerable hesitancy, and she found herself trapped in silence.