Tales of Chills and Thrills: The Mystery Thriller Horror Box Set (7 Mystery Thriller Horror Novels) (57 page)

Major laughed, and Samuel heard the slapping
sound of his hands coming together.

“Perfect. The next thing you need to do
is focus on a point inside that locality. Find a rock, a tree, something
physical you can latch on to. This is your coordinate for the slip, in a manner
of speaking.”

Before Samuel did that, he spun around
inside his vision to find the best perspective possible before attempting
anything. When he faced the west, Samuel felt it before he saw it. The
unmistakable baffle choking the light and life from the sky. He saw tendrils of
slate swirling in the blue sky, turning it grey.

“Yeah, this place looks perfect. Let me
find us a decent landing pad.”

Major snipped with excitement, and Samuel
felt him temporarily exit his mind. He hoped Major would not take it upon
himself to serve Mara to the wolves.

“I’m almost ready,” Samuel said. “What’s
next?”

“Walk to it. Touch it. Hell, lick it if
you have to. Get yourself a physical connection to the object there, which will
help target the slip. We won’t land on that fucker, like Plymouth Rock, but
we’ll be damn close. Make sure it’s not too close to water. I don’t wanna get
my hair wet.”

Samuel realized he could shut Major out,
like closing a door or hanging up the phone. He reached out to Mara, still
inside the cavern.

“Hey,” he said.

“Samuel?” she asked.

“Listen, and don’t speak. When he gets
close, push him in the back.”

“But I don’t know what you mean—”

“Mara. Stop. We don’t have time. When
he gets close, push him. Do you understand?”

Samuel felt her head nod. He switched
communication from Mara back to Major.

“I will not miss the howling of those
wretched beasts. And the goddamn horde can rot in hell. Let’s do this.”

The portal from inside Samuel’s head
hovered above the ground inside the cave. The opening rose up ten feet and
expanded to a length of twelve. He felt as though he was sitting on top of a
cloud, looking out of a bay window on another world below. The ambient sunlight
spilled from the portal and illuminated the cave, chasing the wolves even
farther away from the entrance and forcing their retreat into the forest. Major
and Mara held their hands over their faces to protect their eyes from the
blazing light they hadn’t seen for so long.

Mara stepped forward and made eye contact
with Samuel. He winked and then turned to face Major.

“Sure is a beauty, eh? I knew once you
conjured the portal nothing would stop you from slipping this locality, not
even your little Goth princess over there. I’m sure you wouldn’t mind some
young pussy, but even that ain’t enough, right?”

“Just do it,” Samuel said. “I want out of
this filthy place.”

Major nodded and lifted his chin at Mara.

“Let’s go, hon. You belong to the alpha
male now. Sammy and I are going to send you a postcard, don’t you worry.”

Mara dropped her head to her chest. When
she raised it, tears streamed down her face.

“Can I just look at it for a minute
before you two go?”

“I don’t see no harm in that,” Major
said, lifting his shoulders at Samuel.

Samuel shrugged and stepped back from the
edge of the portal to allow Mara and Major space to step up to it.

“Take a look at that beautiful, virgin
land,” Major said, gazing upon the eastern end of the distant locality.

Mara inched forward. She shook her head,
more tears following. Major stepped to the side and put an arm around her. He
whispered into her ear.

“Could be dinosaurs with eight heads in
there somewhere. But you know what ain’t there? This place. This stinking
shithole ain’t.”

Major stepped forward and spread his arms
as if to embrace the vista. He tilted his head back and let the natural
sunlight ease the tight scar tissue on his face.

“Now,” Samuel yelled.

Mara had taken two steps back from the
edge and one to the side, positioning herself directly behind Major while he
was basking in the glow of the portal. With her dark, straggly hair covering
all but her piercing eyes, Mara lunged forward with both hands. Her palms
struck Major’s black overcoat like a slap to the face. She locked her elbows
and extended her arms, driving her weight through the push and forward toward
the open portal. Major gasped as the shove knocked the air from his lungs. He
stumbled forward and almost regained his balance when his left foot slid on the
loose limestone and into the portal. His left leg dropped, and his body torqued
to the side as whatever force ruling the portal sucked Major in like gravity
would from the precipice of a cliff.

Samuel saw the shock and the anger in
Major’s eyes as his body slid farther into the portal, alone. His fingers
grasped the fuzzy edge of the vortex, and he pulled his chin up to them.

“You fucking liar,” he shouted. “I swear
to God I’m coming back for you, you son of a bitch.”

Samuel closed his eyes again. When he
reopened them, Mara stood by his side, both of them staring at the cavern wall
where an open portal to another locality used to be.

Chapter 14

He will not trick me again.

The hunters from the pack circled their
tails, first clockwise, then counterclockwise. Strands of saliva fell from
their muzzles, turning the dark soil even darker. Some hunters growled, while
others kept their gazes low to avoid signaling a challenge to the alpha male.
The wolves’ yellow eyes cut through the darkness with laser precision. The
alpha male pulled back from the cave entrance when he no longer felt the
elder’s presence, fearful of what it could mean.

He is gone from here. Banished.

The pack kept moving, agitated and weary.

The end arrives soon.

The horde had gathered at a safe distance
behind the pack. More creatures emerged from the trees, off the path, and from
other hidden places within the locality. They clumped together, swaying back
and forth, blotting out the trees and the ground with their swelling numbers.
The horde became a living organism comprising thousands of unthinking beings.
The edges oscillated like a giant cell membrane. The reversion kept advancing
from the west, raking the horde to the cave like a pile of leaves.

The alpha male trotted to a rocky outcrop
several yards from the cave entrance. He wound his way up the shards of stone
until he stood fifteen feet taller than the rest of the pack. The wolf looked
out over the field, where the horde replaced the wheat, still teetering back
and forth as if pushed by an invisible hand.

So many.

The hunters paced underneath the outcrop
while waiting for the alpha male to come back.

We must pursue. We must descend into
the womb.

The hunters wailed, gnashing their teeth
and snapping at each other’s tails, all the while knowing none among them could
challenge for leadership.

***

“What did you do to him?” Mara asked.

Samuel stood still, staring at the
dark-grey wall.

“I gave him what he wanted.”

She shook her head. “How did you do it?”

“I’m not sure,” Samuel said.

“Can you do it again?”

“I’m not sure,” he said again.

Mara turned and took a few steps toward
the front of the cave. She approached until the yellow eyes of the wolves
danced in the darkness beyond.

“Between the wolves and the horde, we’re
not getting out of here.”

Samuel nodded. In a recess, he noticed an
array of angles foreign to rock. Samuel stood and walked toward them. As the
inner glow of the cave cast light on it, Samuel discovered a small pile of
broken tree branches and twigs. He gathered them in his arms and walked back
toward Mara. He dropped the bundle and began to arrange them into a leaning
pile.

“They’re very damp. But it’s worth a
try.”

Mara smiled when she realized what he was
doing.

She helped arrange the wood as Samuel dug
in his pockets for the lighter. He could not remember if it had always been
there or not. Samuel felt that sludgy feeling returning to his head, slowing
his thoughts and forcing him to think hard about simple tasks. He recognized
the feeling as the same when the noose first dropped him into this place, and
he wondered if this was how the end would come. If the reversion would rewind
everything, even the thoughts and experiences in his head.

“Go ahead and try,” Mara said.

Her words shook Samuel and he wondered
how long he had been hovering over the firewood with his thumb on the lighter.

“I don’t even know if the lighter works.”

Mara shrugged her shoulders and sat
cross-legged on the ground. Samuel lowered his hand and flicked the lighter.
Sparks caught and ignited the fluid in the reservoir. The flame appeared with a
green tint, warm instead of hot. He touched the flame to the smallest pieces.
The wood cracked and sizzled but failed to catch.

“It was a nice thought,” Mara said, her
face betraying her words.

“Not sure how long it would have lasted,
anyway. It’s not like there’s a stack of firewood in here.”

She nodded in consolation.

“It was there, too,” Samuel said.

Mara waited, sensing Samuel was speaking
to himself as much as he was to her.

“I saw the cloud in the portal, which is
why I knew I was slipping him into that one. If it had been paradise, like a
picture of the steel-blue waters of the Caribbean you see on office calendars,
I’m not sure what I would have done.”

“You saved me.”

Samuel huffed, discomfort wracking his
face.

“I really don’t know if I can summon a
locality or if it’s all chance. I don’t even know if I can open a locality
other than that one. Major could be waiting for us when the next portal opens.”

“Then we won’t be any worse off than we
are now, right?”

A howl followed by a series of growls
made them both turn to face the entrance.

“I have a feeling they’re coming after us
at some point. When the reversion gets right up close, these wolves are going
to get over their fear of this cave.”

“I agree,” Samuel said. “And if the horde
joins in, we’ll have our hands full.”

Samuel watched Mara tuck a lock of black
hair behind her ear, and he thought how sophisticated she would look in middle age.
He imagined a shimmer of gray by her ear and a slender hand pushing her
hair away from blue eyes that resonated with laughter and experience and life.

“Do you think Kole is dead?”

“Yes,” Samuel said. “Whatever that means
here.”

“He was broken,” Mara said. “On the
inside.”

“Aren’t we all?” Samuel said.

“His pain was so deep he couldn’t live
without it.”

Another howl, this one more intense and
louder, echoing through the cave like a gunshot. Mara watched Samuel’s
face contort as though she could see the memories floating back to the surface
of his mind.

“I was sick. Middle of winter, aches, the
flu, the whole thing. We had been married for quite a while at this point, kind
of shed the little kisses and light touches of the first few years.”

Mara flinched, and Samuel could see her
holding the pain inside the best she could.

“I was in bed and having a hard time
falling asleep. We had a big mattress that left a lot of space between us. She
reaches over and starts gently rubbing my back with one hand. This was not
foreplay. There wasn’t any of that happening that night. She did it because she
wanted to, and those couple of minutes of contact felt like a million dollars.
It’s that feeling I miss. I ache inside for the intimacy that comes
through years of friendship, disagreements, shared experience. It’s more than
sex and more than physical contact. It’s a spiritual connection between two
people, unspoken, real and powerful.”

Samuel looked at Mara as she wiped tears
away with the cuffs of her sleeves. “That’s what’s dead here. That’s what this
place is missing. And if it is, maybe the cloud needs to eat it. The
reversion needs to do its job and sweep this place from existence.”

“It’s love. I wonder why you can’t say
that word? Everything you described is love. Do you think it still exists
elsewhere?” Mara asked.

“Why? Why do you think it has to? Maybe
love died like the summer breeze and the sound of gulls soaring over open
water. Maybe love is lying in its grave with sunlight and goodness and
righteousness,” Samuel said.

“It has to exist somewhere else,” Mara
said. “If I didn’t believe it did, I’d walk out there right now and offer
myself to the wolves.”

“But does it exist for us, Mara?”

“We’re here for a reason,” she said.

He thought about that for a
moment. “I don’t know why I’m here,” he said.

“You do, Samuel. We all do. Some of us
haven’t remembered it yet.”