Real Magic (34 page)

"One last time. Repeat the words while you lay your hands upon the door. Just as I had done."

Walter mimicked Vincent's wide hand gestures and said, "
El eto ich zarus zanuc cantilo."

Listening to Walter struggle with the made-up words made Duncan want to laugh, but he contained the urge. Vincent had almost finished, and Duncan decided to take one final risk. He inched towards Lucy. Freddie saw him and frowned. Duncan shook his head and raised his hands. Then with a pleading look, he lifted one finger —
One second, please.
Freddie glanced at Walter, saw his boss mesmerized by Vincent, then nodded.

Duncan moved close to Lucy and whispered, "I'm sorry about everything. I wish I could make it right. But whatever happens, no matter what, do not go through any of the Doors in this barn. Don't doubt me on this. Please. Do not go through the Doors."

She nodded, her fear clipping the motion.

Looking right at Freddie, Duncan added, "And don't worry. This guy doesn't kill woman or children. You'll be fine."

"And now Mr. Walter," Vincent said, and Duncan hurried back to the platform, "will you kindly step up to the Door of Vanishing."

Walter strode to the Door, leering at Lucy as he did so. When he reached the Door, he put his hands on the wood as Vincent had prescribed, and he said, "
El eto ich zarus zanuc cantilo.
"

"Good, Mr. Walter. Excellent. Now, step through and this great power will be yours."

Walter straightened his back, readjusted his pants, and opened the Door. Nothing could be seen — only pitch black inside. He leaned closer, squinting, but not even a sliver of light escaped.

"Go on, sir. Nothing to be scared of," Vincent said.

Walter closed the Door and laughed. "I'm not stupid. I know what happened to the people who went through this Door before. They went through and were gone forever." He leveled his dark eyes upon Dominic's son. The boy coward back, but Walter yanked him to the Door with one mighty hand.

The boy struggled, but he was no match for Walter's bulk. Walter slapped the boy in the face and that knocked out all of the fight. Walter went on, "Tell me, boy, before your Papa bleeds out. Is Vincent here telling me the truth? Do these magic words really control this thing, or do I have to say something else? Tell me right now or I'll throw you through this Door." He pulled out his gun and pointed it at the boy's head. "Maybe this'll get you talking better. How 'bout I shoot you in the gut and then throw you through the Door? You can die something like your old man."

"Stop it," Duncan said. "He's just a boy."

Walter's eyes narrowed to a half-lidded scowl. "There are no boys anymore. Life is too hard to waste time playing ball and pulling pigtails."

"What does that mean? You'll kill any child that gets in your way?"

"It's like I told you — I'm willing to make the tough calls. You think the New York families, the Chicago families, will roll over so easy because I've got a magic door? It'll be bloody. It'll require tough calls every single day. But I can make those decisions. I'll kill every man, woman, and child that I have to in order to take over. It's ugly but nobody ever done anything great without hurting a few people. And I'm going to start right here with this kid."

"Enough!" Freddie said and turned his gun on Walter.

A flash of confusion crossed Walter's face. "What the hell are you doing?"

"We got your door and Duncan or Vincent will tell us how to use it. They can put up a fight but we'll get it out of them. There's no need to hurt this kid or the woman."

Walter raised an eyebrow. "Never knew you had a soft spot for anybody."

"Now you know. Let the boy go."

"I saved your life. I raised you as my own. You'd be scavenging trash off the streets if it wasn't for me, and you turn a gun on me?"

"I appreciate everything you've done. But killing a kid is going too far."

"The problem here," Walter said, wrenching the boy's arm high enough that the boy yelped, "is that you've forgotten who I am."

"Please, Mr. Walter. Don't do this." Freddie took two long strides forward.

"Freddie, I'm proud of you. It's hard to stand up to your father. It takes guts and conviction. Most men spend their entire lives never taking that risk, forever living in the shadow of a man they love and fear. But once you've stood up to your father, once you've crossed him, he can be proud of you knowing you'll do just fine in life, standing up for yourself. Unfortunately, I'm not your father, and I don't like being crossed."

Walter wheeled his arm around to shoot, but Freddie reacted faster. He shot Walter in the arm and pulled the trigger two more times. Both shots missed — one went wild but one pierced the Door.

A high-pitched whine like wind whipping around a house filled the barn. All eyes turned toward the Door. The wood around the bullet hole cracked. Like a dark lightning bolt, it made its jagged way up the middle of the Door. Another crack formed below the bullet hole, stretching down toward the platform.

To be heard over the storming wind, Duncan cupped his mouth. "Get away from the Door!"

The boy had enough time to look at Duncan with startled, innocent eyes. Then the Door shattered inward, the pieces falling off into the dark nothingness beyond. It was as if a door on a passenger jet had blown open. The high-pitched whine became a thundering storm, howling and roaring around them. The air from the barn rushed into the Door, sucking in everything it could take hold of — including the boy and Nelson Walter.

Duncan whirled back and tackled Lucy to the ground, pulling her behind a stack of Doors. From his vantage, he saw that Vincent had also secured a safe hold, wrapping his arms and legs around the hayloft ladder. The boy and Walter both clung to the edges of the Door frame, their legs dangling straight back as the winds blasted by them.

"We've got to help him," Lucy said.

Duncan had no doubt she meant the boy. He nodded, thought for a moment, and undid his belt. Even as he looped it around the latch of the middle Door in the stack near them, even as he wrapped it around Lucy's hand, he thought he had devised one of the stupidest plans ever. But nothing else came to mind, and he could never live with himself if he let that boy fall through the Door to be trapped in another time and place. He would spend the rest of his life seeing that boy's face, hearing that howl, knowing he had done nothing.

"Ready?" he shouted.

She nodded, and though the wind swirled her hair around her face, Duncan could see the terror poking her beneath the surface.

He took her other hand and edged toward the Door. Once free from the protection of the stack, the rush of air yanked them straight for the open Door. The belt snapped taut, Lucy's arms extended their fullest, and Duncan stretched toward the boy.

"Come on," he yelled. "Get my hand."

The boy tried to pull himself through the Door but to no avail. Walter attempted to pull himself out too, but his massive size kept him from any real progress. The boy tried swinging his legs to hook them on the frame, but again nothing. Even if he had succeeded, he wouldn't have been able to reach Duncan's hand.

"Stretch!" Duncan said and he felt Lucy find another inch but it still wasn't enough.

Walter lost the grip on one hand. He screamed, and his body flapped like a flag in a heavy storm. Uttering a war cry, he reached over and latched onto the boy.

"No!" Freddie yelled and rushed across the barn. He linked onto Duncan's hand and reached out for the boy. "Take my hand, kid. You can do it."

With Freddie added to the chain, they were close enough to the door frame. But the boy struggled worse with Walter holding onto him.

"Let go of me," the boy cried.

"Tell me how to use the Door, and I'll help you live," Walter shouted.

The boy kicked back at Walter but the big man could take the weak strikes without trouble.

Duncan's heart dropped as he saw the frame cracking. To Freddie, he yelled, "We've got to get him now. Look."

And Duncan watched the most beautiful, most horrifying thing he had ever seen. He saw Freddie eye the cracking frame, then gaze back at Lucy, her face taut as she strained to hold on. He looked to Duncan, then the boy, then back to Duncan, and a cold decision relaxed the man's face.

"I'm not a killer," he said, sounding exactly like Dominic. "I'm sorry."

Before Duncan could do anything, Freddie let go of his hand and hurled himself upon Nelson Walter. Walter's screams blended with the wind as both men tumbled into the darkness.

"Vincent!" Lucy called out. "Help us!"

Vincent hurried over and took Freddie's former position. With longer arms, Vincent could barely touch the boy's fingers. Now free from Walter, the boy tried again to pull himself out. One, two, three, four attempts but he still could not beat the thrust of the wind soaring into the Door.

"I need something to reach him with," Vincent said.

Duncan thought of Vincent's belt, his jacket, anything to give the boy something to hold on to. But all of those things required them to pull back in order to free up their hands to get the object. The crack on the top of the door frame would make it through any moment. They lacked the time.

"The Door," Duncan said. "Lucy, pull hard. Get that Door loose. All of us. Pull!"

As if they were in a tug-o-war with the stack of Doors, they pulled hard on each other's arms, leading back to Duncan's belt. The Door in the middle of the stack did not budge.

"Again. Pull!"

Two more times they yanked on the Door. Duncan glanced back at the cracking frame. They were too late. The crack had made it through. Any moment, the whole thing would fall apart, sending the boy into the darkness. Who knew what else might happen? The Door might continue eating up their world. All of them might die.

Duncan's right arm went slack. He shot his attention to Lucy who was smiling. "It's loose," she cheered. "Get the boy! Get the boy!"

They all stretched out again. Vincent grabbed the boy's wrist. "Got him! Pull us back. Hurry."

Duncan dug his feet into the dirt floor and used every muscle to bring that boy back to the barn. He pulled until his arms burned with the struggle. The top of the frame splintered, and bright lights flashed from the cracks along the rest of the frame. With one final surge of strength, Duncan growled and yanked and he felt Lucy pulling and Vincent digging in and as if a great warrior had finally given up, the Door let the boy free. Lucy, Vincent, Duncan, and the boy toppled over each other as the frame ripped into pieces, the wood crackling like bones breaking, the pieces falling in on themselves.

And then it was gone.

The wind, the noise, the Door — nothing remained but an empty platform.

Vincent sat up first, his body shaking as he stared at the space where the Door had been. He looked back at Duncan, his lips pale white. Duncan scooted to his feet, worried that Vincent might vomit on him. But Vincent didn't move. He watched that space as if waiting for the Door to return.

Duncan put his hands out to Lucy and was rewarded with a smile as she allowed him to help her up. "You okay?" he asked.

Her smile widened. "I guess you weren't kidding. This was quite a secret." She surveyed all the doors leaning and hanging and stacked. "If I had known, I would never have —"

"I don't know if I would've believed me either."

"Any more secrets?"

"Don't worry. I'll tell you everything."

"You better. I'm not one to give second chances, but considering all this." Lucy glanced around the barn, a shiver taking over.

Duncan put a finger under her chin and gently prodded her head back up. He gazed into her eyes and hoped she could see the depth of his passion for her. Arching back her head a bit more, she opened her mouth — hesitant yet willing. Duncan leaned down, but as his lips neared hers, he heard the muffled tears of a boy.

Across the barn toward the entrance, Dominic's boy huddled over the body of his father, weeping as the pool of blood muddied the dirt floor.

 

It's all over.

The thought repeated in Duncan's head with a dampened cadence. Nelson Walter no longer could touch any of them. They had learned all about the Door of Vanishing and the Amazing Verido — and there would be no going back to 2013.

While Lucy rushed to the boy's side, wrapping her arms around him in a motherly way he appeared to appreciate, Duncan could only wonder what would become of Duncan. Selfish thoughts, he fully admitted, but how else could he react? He would never see his old life again, never see the world he understood, never have a chance to fix things with his family, never indulge in an afternoon learning card tricks from Pappy. Only the quaint but antique world of the 1930s remained.

He watched Lucy mothering the boy. Sweet, beautiful, lovely, smart and funny Lucy — could they ever be together again? Or had too much passed to make that work? Had the secrets he kept to protect her caused too much damage to repair? He never put real effort into the life surrounding him because he knew deep in his heart he would be leaving. He would find the Door and return to where he belonged. Except that he would never be leaving now.