Rushed (7 page)

“But even if I get to the cathedral first, you can’t even tell me what I’m supposed to do.”

“No, I can’t.  Only you know that.”

“No, I don’t.  Remember?  I’m the one who doesn’t know anything about what’s going on here?  I’m the one who just walked into that house and almost got eaten by Anti-Narnia?”

“You saw it in the dream that brought you here.”

“Oh.  Well
that’s
convenient, since I
can’t remember that dream
!”

“Don’t you?”

“No!  Or…”  Eric looked back toward the barn.  “No.  I
did
remember some of it…”

“It’ll unravel itself as you go,” Grant explained.  “By the time you reach the cathedral, you’ll remember it all.  That’s how you’ll know what to do when you get there.”

Eric stared silently toward the barn, considering.  Now that he thought about it, he realized that he could recall seeing this second barn in his dream as well.  In fact, he even remembered meeting Grant…except there had been no tractor involved in their meeting…because he’d never gone inside the house…  They met in the yard, instead. 

“And if you turn back,” Grant added.  “I can’t promise you the dream will ever stop recurring.  Even long after it’s too late.” 

Eric met the old man’s eyes and saw the depth of his emotions.  He was truly sorry to have to say these things. 

“This might be your only chance to be free of it.”

Eric sighed.  Continue this insanity or never sleep through the night again.  He’d had better options given to him.  But the choice seemed pretty clear.  The whole reason he came here in the first place was to try and rid himself of his recurring dream. 

“Okay,” he said.  “Show me where to go next.”

Chapter Seven

Grant led Eric across the overgrown yard. 

Along the way, Eric noticed that there were at least a dozen various bird houses displayed around the lawn.  Some were mounted to tree trunks, others to freestanding posts, some dangling by chains from potted plant hangers.  There was also a heavy-looking, concrete bird bath standing in the yard. 

Whoever the former owners of this house might have been, they were obviously bird lovers. 

Birds seemed to be the theme of the day.  He even noticed that there was a lone hawk soaring high overhead, as if to punctuate the point. 

He followed Grant through the tall grass, past the driveway and behind a little tool shed.  There, he found another narrow dirt path, not unlike the one he’d followed through the cornfield. 

“This will take you about a quarter of a mile into the woods before it becomes completely overgrown.  At that point, there’s another road out there.  It’s not easy to see, but you can make it out if you’re looking for it.  Does it look familiar, yet?”

It did.  Peering down this path, he was sure that, like the barn, he had seen it in his dream. 

“That’ll be a clue.  I’m betting that dream of yours was showing you what you were going to do
if
you got up that first night and came straight here.  But it’s two days later now and it looks like that other guy’s trying to slow you down.  Things are different.  And where they’re different, things are going to get dangerous.”

“Like in the house.”  Eric remembered realizing at the last moment that he didn’t recall seeing the house in his dream.  The realization gave him pause and he decided to leave.  He wondered now if making this decision
before
the wardrobe flew open might have bought him an extra second or two, perhaps making all the difference in his escape. 

“That’s right.  And just like in the house, watch out for those residual ghosts.  They’ll probably be trying to lead you into trouble.” 

“Right.” 

“And you’ll have your cell phone signal back, too.”

Eric checked his phone and saw that he did, in fact have a couple of bars.  He also had nine missed calls and a text message. 

“That’ll be useful too.  You don’t want to stray too far off the path.  If you lose your way, use your phone.  When you go too far into that border world, it’ll cut out.  As long as you have a signal, you’re still home.” 

“Good to know.”

“I can’t come with you.  But you’ll meet Taylor up ahead.  He’ll take care of you.”

Eric nodded.  “Taylor.  Cool.  Listen, though.  Can I really catch up to this guy if he has almost a whole day’s lead on me?”

It was impossible to miss the deep look of concern on Grant’s face.  “I don’t know,” he confessed.  “I sure hope so.” 

“Well then…”  Unable to think of anything more to say, Eric gave Grant a wave goodbye and then started down the path. 

With each step, the signal on his cell phone grew stronger.  According to Grant, this meant he was still on earth. 

And to think he came here with the intention of proving he
wasn’t
crazy. 

He checked the text message.  It was from Karen, of course, and simply read:  CALL ME. 

He didn’t like using the cell phone.  He didn’t even want to carry the stupid thing.  He just wanted to throw it away.  He rarely called her and almost always let her call him.  He didn’t want to call her now, either.  And if the nine missed calls were any indication, he wouldn’t have to.

And he was right.  He had walked less than twenty paces when it began to vibrate in his hand. 

“Eric!”

“Hi.”

“I’ve been trying to call you!”

“Yeah.  I just got your text.  Didn’t have a signal for a while there.  But I’m okay.”

“What’s going on?”

“It’s…um…”  He glanced back the way he’d come.  He expected Grant to be gone, but he was still standing there, staring after him.  He waved.  Eric waved back.  “It’s complicated.” 

“What do you mean?”

“Well…  It’s a little crazy, so…  I really need you to open your mind for this, okay?”

Karen was quiet for a moment.  He knew he had her attention now.  Finally, she said, “Okay.”

Eric told her everything that happened after he disconnected their last call and approached the barn, beginning with finding the eagle mounted over the doors.  He told her about the impossible interior of the barn and the freaky chickens.  He described the pitiful monstrosities he’d seen in the stalls.  And he told her about the farmhouse and the monster that came out of the wardrobe.  Finally, he told her about his conversation with Grant. 

He couldn’t say how he expected her to react to these absurd things he was telling her, but she only listened patiently.  And when he was done, she only said, “So you’ve really got to find this cathedral, then.”

“Yeah.  I do.  So you believe me, then?  You don’t think I’ve gone nuts?”

“You’re no liar, Eric.”

“I didn’t ask if you thought I was lying.  I asked if you thought I’d gone crazy.”

She didn’t answer. 

“Of course you think I’ve gone crazy,” Eric answered for her.  “I’d think
you’d
gone crazy if you didn’t.”

“Well, that sounds sensible enough, I guess.”

“Let me hang up and I’ll send you the pictures I took.”

“You have pictures?”

“I had to prove I wasn’t nuts, didn’t I?”

“Let me see them.”

Eric disconnected the call and sent the pictures to her, exactly the way he’d sent her the picture of the barn last time.  He didn’t have any pictures of the wardrobe monster, but he wasn’t remotely sorry he didn’t stop to ask it to say cheese.  However, he was beginning to wish he’d snapped pictures all the way through the barn so he could show her how much bigger it was on the inside than the outside, and a picture of the farmhouse both with and without the addition of Grant’s tractor would have been helpful in validating his story also.  But he was simply going to have to make do with what he had. 

After only a moment, Karen called him back.  “Remind me not to have you bring home milk and eggs.”

“Freaky, right?”

“That is
definitely
some ugly livestock.”

“So I’m not crazy?”

“Apparently not.  These things are disgusting.  What
are
they?  They look
dead
.  This is…”

“Crazy?”

“Well…yeah.”

“I know it is.” 

“Do you really think you’ve gone fifty miles?”

“I don’t know.  I only have Grant’s word on that.  But the first barn was gone when I came out the other end and so was the cornfield.  I can’t say it’s actually fifty miles, but I definitely went farther than I should have.”

“That’s so weird.”

“Believe me, I know.”

“But why you?  I mean, if all this stuff is real, then why
you
of all people?”

“I can’t even begin to tell you that.”

The trees began to crowd the path around him.  The road was less defined here, just as Grant had described.  Soon he’d have to start looking for the other path, the one that was difficult to see. 

“This is all really crazy.”

“I know.  But I think Grant was right.  I feel like if I don’t do this now, I may never stop getting up in the middle of the night and rushing out the door.  And that’s a pretty lousy way to live a life.”

“I guess it would be.”

He reached the end of the visible road and stopped.  “Hey, I’m going to get off of here again so I can find this path.  I’ll talk to you in a little bit.”

“Okay.  Be careful.” 

“I will.” 

Eric pocketed the phone and turned slowly around, searching the forest.  At first, he saw nothing but trees and brush.  There was no sign of another path.  But then he spotted it.  It was to the right, almost completely overgrown, virtually invisible.  From where he stood, however, he could see the way the trees lined up on either side of it, like a seam in a quilt. 

He pushed through the brush and made his way along this secret path. 

This was all familiar.  He remembered this place from his dream.  According to Grant, this meant he was on the right path.  In the dream, it was two days ago.  That explained the discrepancies in the barn, why the chickens weren’t in the same places.  They were wherever they would have been two days ago.  On the other hand, the other creatures hadn’t moved, justifying his hunch that the bloated things were incapable of moving around even within their own stalls. 

He could hardly believe he was accepting this nonsense. 

He pushed on, shoving through the dense foliage, thinking about his dream.  He’d been drawn all the way to Annette’s field by his peculiar urge to get in the car and drive (and then later get out of the car and walk) until he arrived at the gate in her back yard.  But the dream didn’t begin until he stood at the edge of the cornfield, looking up at the barn.  He wondered how it was that he knew the way to the barn when it didn’t seem to be a part of the dream.  Was it simply a part of the dream that remained forgotten?  Or had there been other forces at work in guiding him here? 

He would probably never know for sure. 

When the brush had thinned enough that he no longer needed both hands to push through it, Eric withdrew his phone again and fumbled through the address book Karen programmed into it for him until he found his brother’s number. 

“What’s up?” answered Paul. 

“Hey.  I need a huge favor.”

“How huge?”

“Pretty damn inconvenient.”

“What do you need?”

“I need you to go pick up my PT Cruiser for me.”

“Okay.  Where is it?”

Eric gave him directions on how to find it as he followed the faint trail up the side of a hill.

“What the hell’s your car doing way out there?”

“It’s a real long story.”

“If you say so.  Where are
you
?”

“About fifty miles northwest of where I parked.  I think.”

“What are you driving?”

“Didn’t say I was driving.”

“Wait…what?”

“I’m out in the woods right now.  Don’t worry about it.  I just need you to pick up the Cruiser.  I think I’m going to have to find another ride when I’m done here.”

“What the hell are you doing in the woods?”

“Like I said, it’s a really long story.  Will you do it?”

“Sure.  Yeah.  I can do it.”

“Thanks.  I owe you.”

“Yes you do.  Does Karen know where you are?”

“Yes, Karen knows where I am.”

“You’re seriously acting weird today.”

“You don’t know the half of it.”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

The phone crackled as he approached the top of the hill and he took it away from his ear long enough to look at the display and see that he was again losing the signal.  When he put it back to his ear, Paul was saying something.  His voice stuttered through the static. 

“What was that?”

“I said it’ll be a couple of hours before I can drive out there.”

“That’s okay.”  He hadn’t expected him to leave immediately.  Paul owned his own construction business.  He had the freedom to leave work to run errands, which was why Eric called him instead of having Karen take care of it, but he didn’t expect him to drop everything and go.  “There’s no huge rush.  Listen, my phone’s cutting out so…I’m…”  He trailed off as he crested the top of the hill and looked down off the other side.  “Whoa.”

“What?”

Before him lay a landscape vastly different from the cornfields and forests he’d seen so far.  The path continued down the other side of the hill, widening as it went.  The trees thinned.  Rocks jutted up from the ground.  About two hundred yards in front of him, the earth was split by a wide gorge. 

“Eric?  What’s going on?  Are you still there?”

“Yeah.  But I’ve got to let you go.  I’m losing my signal.”

“Okay.  Call me later, though, okay?  Let me know what’s going on.”

“Yeah.  Sure.” 

Eric disconnected the call and stood staring at the gorge that blocked his path.  The road led right up to the ledge, where a dangerous-looking rope bridge waited to carry him to the other side.