I awoke to the sound of two people holding a hushed conversation.
“Dean, you’re awake!” exclaimed a female voice.
I peeled open my gummed-up eyes and tried to sit up. Pain erupted down my back before I made it an inch.
“Don’t try to move. You need to stay on your side,” Rita said.
I surveyed the dim hospital room. Rita was at my bedside, dressed in her civvies. Don sat next to her.
My throat felt like I’d recently swallowed some razor blades.
“Here, have a sip of this,” she said, and passed me a cup of water with a straw sticking out of it. I drank some and felt a little better.
“Last thing I remember was you dragging me out of that hole, Don,” I rasped. “Andreas – how is he?”
“Safe and sound. A bit dehydrated and they had to remove some debris from his airway but other than that he got lucky.”
“Does he remember what happened?”
Don shook his head. “Not a thing. The docs think he was drugged but nothing showed up on the tox screen. Nothing identifiable anyway.”
I looked at the walls for a clock but there was none. “How long have I been here?”
Don checked his watch. “Less than twenty-four hours. They had to do surgery to fix the lacerations. The tissue was apparently very necrotic. Going to have a few decent-sized scars there, son.”
I winced. “Certainly feels that way. How did you explain everything?”
Rita answered first. “I woke up before the ambulances arrived so Don and I cobbled together a halfway plausible story.”
I wondered what possible story could explain the scene we left in Milligan’s Forest.
“I told them we found the boy in the woods on a different trail to throw them off. Rita helped me fill the hole back in which took care of the thing’s body for the time being, but I think we need to find a more permanent solution.”
“Yeah, like slinging it back through that portal,” I volunteered.
“You won’t be slinging anything any time soon,” Don said.
He went on. “I carried the boy to the trailhead to wait for help. Rita had a slight concussion so I made her wait with you so she could get checked out. We told the cops the kid’s abductor had blindsided her so she never got a good look,” Don explained.
“Yeah, thanks for that by the way, Don,” Rita said. “You really cleaned my clock.”
“Sorry, but it was either that or shoot you.”
“Fair point.”
“Everyone was so busy with the boy at the trailhead that it was easy to send a couple of paramedics your way.”
“So now they’re on a manhunt for a guy that doesn’t exist, I suppose. What if they find the grave?”
Don shrugged. “Nothing we can do about it now. Hopefully by then the body will have decomposed enough that it isn’t recognizable.”
“The claws, though. They won’t decompose,” I reflected.
“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Rita said and shuddered.
“I presume you reported Stratton’s remains.”
They both nodded.
“Don led them to the body. I didn’t have to see it, thank God,” she added.
“Do you remember what happened before all of that, Rita?”
“Unfortunately. I wasn’t in control but I was aware of everything that was going on. I had just started my shift when I came across a man about two miles from the Okiwa Falls campsite. He was carrying a child, who at the time I thought was asleep but I think now was either drugged or hypnotized too. Anyway, at that point we weren’t aware that a boy was missing so I didn’t think much of it , until I saw the man’s face. Then, I started to freak out because he looked like Stratton, only—”
“Younger!”
She nodded. “He saw me staring, and next thing I know I’m walking straight up to him and his eyes are boring into me and I felt this push in my mind. It was subtle at first, like he was trying to feel me out or something, but then it turned into a shove. It kind of felt like falling for a second. Then everything settled and it was like I was still seeing out of my eyes but so was he.
It was horrible.”
“I can imagine,” said Don.
“Remember when you walked in on me having a night terror, Dean? It was sort of like that, the way I couldn’t open my mouth. I couldn’t speak unless he was telling me what to say; he had access to all my thoughts too which was the worst part.”
“I got a taste of that. When we were down in that grave, I mean hole – whatever, he spoke inside my mind. Told me he needed the kid.”
Rita shivered again. “When did you figure out there was something wrong with me?”
I laughed. “Eh, when we saw you talking to yourself in the middle of the woods pacing around a hole in the ground.”
“Although, I thought you were acting strangely in the Rec. that morning,” I added.
An idea occurred to me. “You were there to warn him if someone was coming. You were supposed to stay out of sight, but we caught you the first time.”
Rita nodded. “Something spooked him; he ran off, and my mind was my own for a bit. I went to see if he’d left anything behind but the hole was empty. Then you two showed up. I was about to tell you he had Andreas but then he took control again.”
“You never went back to base, did you?” Don asked her.
“Nope. I just hid the truck and hiked back to the forest. You interrupted him every time he tried to dig. The longer he controlled me the stronger his hold became. After awhile, even the times he was gone, I couldn’t remember what I was doing out in the forest. It was like amnesia. And then he would come back.”
“What were the holes for? And why did he hang around, risk getting caught?” I asked her.
“Something about the air bothered him. Every once in awhile I’d feel like I was suffocating, and then he would disappear from my mind for a bit.
“Wait, what do you mean, the air?”
“I’m not sure but I think he was having a hard time breathing the air here. As for the holes, I think you know what they were for, Dean. You just said it yourself.”
She was right. I’d just been hoping for something less gruesome than burying children alive. “That last one nearly became my grave.”
“There’s something else,” Rita said in a low voice.
I waited for her to go on.
“He was killing them for their bone marrow.”
“Ugh, what?”
“To eat their bone marrow. Every time he dug all I could hear was one word repeated over and over again in my mind: Purify. The holes weren’t just a way to suffocate the children. He believed the soil in Devil’s Glen is special, that it purified them. They had to die in the earth over here, or else the bone marrow would poison him.”
This time it was my turn to shudder in revulsion. “How do you know all this?”
“Because he could see what you saw and thought about, but it worked both ways,” Don answered. “Am I right, Rita?”
“Pretty much. I don’t know how we understood each other but we did.”
“Maybe his world is not so different from ours. We saw the portal he came through with our own eyes,” I said, nodding at Don.
“He filled me in.”
“Don, remember the blood you found on the rock? Maybe he did go back through, for short periods of time. If he couldn’t breathe the air here for long it makes sense that he’d have to go back and forth. It explains why he didn’t just kill Andreas straight away. Every time we disturbed him he had to start over and digging is hard work, aerobically.”
“Bone marrow contains stem cells,” Rita noted. “Maybe that’s why he looked like a younger version of Stratton.”
“The portal, it must be closing soon,” I said. “Why else would he have risked getting shot to death, especially after Stratton had already hit him? It had to be his last chance to get what he came here for.”
“It already has,” Don announced. “The portal, I mean.”
I stared at him in surprise.
“I went to check it out late yesterday morning. Crime scene techs were still all over the woods so I went down the back trail. I looked everywhere but all I found was the bloody rock and my broken flashlight. That’s how I knew I was in the right spot. Even the rock crevice that held it was gone.”
“Probably for the best, although I would have liked a chance to explore it further,” I admitted. “I wonder where the other kids are?”
Don shook his head sadly. “Long gone most likely.”
Rita emitted a small anguished noise. A tear fell from the corner of her eye and landed on the yellow hospital blanket. “He brings the bodies back through the portal. That’s where he feeds. I saw him doing it with the others, like he was reliving the memories, gloating over them.”
“No trace,” Don said. “No wonder we never found anything.”
I covered Rita’s hand with my own. “Well, we stopped him for good now. That’s something at least.”
“But in his world there are remains of children that will never be returned to their families for proper burial. Who knows how many years this goes back? How many children he’s taken? I saw their faces, Dean. There were so many.”
I tried my best to console her. “It’s terrible for those children and their parents, but I imagine many of their families have long since passed. And we did save Andreas in time. That counts for something. We did our jobs.”
“You did more than your jobs, kids. Above and beyond,” Don declared.
Rita brightened a little at that.
“What about the Yowler, Don?”
“What’s a yowler?” Rita asked.
I laughed. “Oh, so you didn’t have the pleasure of meeting that particular visitor. We ran into it earlier, or rather it ran into us. Sounds like a mountain lion crossed with a demon from hell and its breath is atrocious.”
She frowned. “I thought I’d imagined that.”
“Really it was Two-Face we told, I guess, since you were AWOL. I’m pretty sure it has hooves instead of paws too. One of the cops at the Rec told me they found prints out at the campsite. That must have been the update Sheri was talking about, Don. They were too big to be from a deer and there’s no horses in the park so it had them stumped. Do you think it went back through the portal?”
“Can’t say for sure but if not, someone’s going to get a nasty surprise,” Don commented. “By the way, if anyone asks: you got mauled by a bear.”
I groaned. “Oh great, now I have to make up another story. It’s getting hard to keep track.”
I was getting tired from all the talking, and the repercussions of the whole ordeal were beginning to show in my body. I felt the pain rising in my back like a wave; it throbbed and burned, threatening to wipe me out. I caved under the pressure, pushed the call button for a nurse and asked for some painkillers. She pointed to another button which was attached to a small machine at the side of my bed.
“Morphine pump, help yourself.”
I regarded the button for a moment and shot Rita and Don a meaningful look.
“Go ahead,” Rita said. “We’ll leave you to rest. Docs say you’ll be out of here by tomorrow. I’ll come pick you up.”
“Thanks for saving my life,” I said to Don.
He shrugged like it was nothing but I could tell he was pleased.
“I mean it. Now go, so I can get high in peace.”
His eyes narrowed.
“I’m kidding. Actually, Don, can you hang back a minute?” Something very worrying had dawned on me.
Rita left and he moved into the chair closest to the bed. “What’s up?”
“JJ and Lonnie. If I’ve been in here since yesterday that means I missed our rendezvous.”
“All taken care of,” Don replied with a grin.
“How?”
“I went to the diner and gave them the money. They were very civil, especially after I told them that if they ever came back I’d have them arrested for assaulting a law enforcement officer.”
“But I’m not—”
He patted my arm. “I know that but they don’t.”
“Don, I don’t know how to thank you. You really saved my bacon. Twice!”
“Don’t mention it. Although, there’s one thing you can do for me in return.”
I motioned for him to go on.
“Rita,” he began. “I’ve seen the way you look at each other.”
I ducked my head in embarrassment and was about to laugh it off, but the look on his face quieted me.
“You’ve never mentioned family so I’m guessing you’re not close.”
I nodded. “I have an older sister but she lives in Florida; we don’t get on. My dad died when I was ten and my mother is in a nursing home back in Kansas. After my dad died everything sort of fell apart.”
Don nodded like he’d expected as much. “I’m sorry. Maybe I’m preaching to the choir here but when you’re young you think you have all the time in the world to meet someone and live your lives together but take it from me—you don’t. Don’t waste a second of it, son.”
“Promise,” I said. “Now get out of here. I need to sleep for another twenty-four hours.”
When he left the room, I contemplated the button in my hand. It was the same serene blue as the sea. For a moment, I regarded it with equal parts fear and longing.
I hadn’t exactly told Don the whole truth when he asked me why I became a ranger. It was more than just the band imploding and escaping the loan sharks. Truthfully, the band broke up over more than a stolen van full of equipment. It began the way these things always begin, same old story on repeat.
I liked to party way before I started Original Sins. It didn’t get out of hand until we went on our second national tour, however. I’d been sticking to weed, some uppers like coke and speed - nothing stronger. But that second tour had turned into a nightmare; the five of us argued constantly about money, songwriting credits and anything else we could think of. The van had become a cell we were imprisoned in together for days on end sometimes. We knew we couldn’t continue the way we were going and that it would probably be our last tour.
I couldn’t take it anymore. I was so disappointed at what my dream had turned into, so one night when a pretty redhead at the after-party asked if I wanted an oxy I said, sure. I was at the end of my rope (or in my case mic lead) and I’d stopped caring months ago. She ground the orange pill into powder with the bottom of a glass and I handed her a card to cut up the lines.
“Maybe just start with half.”
I remember her saying that, but I wasn’t really listening to advice from anyone at that point, so I grabbed the rolled up note from her outstretched fingers and snorted both rails, the whole pill. I found out later I was lucky I didn’t OD because I had zero tolerance.
A few minutes later I fell more deeply in love with that substance than I’ve ever been with any human being. It sounds sad and pathetic to admit, but it’s the truth. It was the feeling I didn’t even know I was searching for, the feeling I’ve been trying to recreate ever since. I fell in love with the world. I finally felt safe and warm and like everything was okay and always would be. Who wouldn’t want to feel like that again? All the time?
So I did.
After the stolen van debacle, I knew that if the drugs didn’t kill me first there was a good chance the loan sharks would. That warning message on my door just sped up my decision making process. So I got semi-clean, said goodbye to the whole rotten lifestyle and shipped off to Harper’s Ferry to get the rest of the way there. I even gave up smoking. The day I passed my first drug test, I celebrated by going to see a double-feature in the nearest town and splurged on two tubs of popcorn with butter. Since that day, I’ve only had the occasional drink.
I knew I was flirting with disaster, pushing that deceptively serene blue button, because first it promises you the world and then takes it away. But if I could have one day, just one day. . .was that too much to ask?
I pressed the button. The all-enveloping, calming warmth of the opiate flooded my veins, and I closed my eyes. Oh, how I missed this.
Rita picked me up the next morning. On the way out, I bumped into the Gutierrez family. They were visiting Andreas.
“Mr. Lovell, thank you so much,” Patrice, the mother said and gave me a big hug. My back didn’t appreciate it but my heart was grateful.
“Yes, thank you,” Alonzo said, beaming. He shook my hand.
“Call me Dean, please. It’s no problem Mr and Mrs Gutierrez. I’m just glad he’s okay.”
Riana stood awkwardly off to one side. “Glad to have your little brother back?” I asked her.
“For now. I’m sure he’ll be back to driving me nuts in no time,” she said, and rolled her eyes in that time-honoured teenage fashion.
“He wants to meet you,” Patrice said.
“Oh? I guess I could drop in for a minute.” I turned to Rita. “Do you mind waiting?”
“Not at all.”
I followed the Gutierrez family up the corridor to the Pediatric ward.
Andreas was sitting up reading a book. Dark curls framed his small, serious face.
“Hello Andreas.”
“Hi,” he said. “Are you the one who found me?”
I nodded. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m doing okay, but it’s boring in here,” he replied, looking up shyly from under his thick eyelashes. “Thank you for saving me. My mom told me. I don’t remember much.”
“No trouble at all. You know, Don was the one who gave you CPR,” I said, then remembered I was talking to a six-year-old. “You know, got you breathing again.”
“He said you saved me first.”
“If you say so. Well, take it easy kid.”
Andreas gave me a small wave and returned to his book. He didn’t seem any the worse for wear from his experience. I didn’t think I could say the same about myself. My back was screaming at me and I couldn’t stop my mind from going over and over everything that happened. Even if the portal was closed now, it could still open back up at any time. I hoped Don was right about it only happening every thirteen years but in the meantime the Yowler could still be out there. When I examined it subjectively, maybe the Yowler wasn’t any more dangerous than the black bears and mountain lions that populated the area. It was going to cause some raised eyebrows if anyone spotted it though, or killed it. The cryptozoologists would have a field day.
I re-joined Rita and we proceeded to her truck. She had taken a couple days sick leave so she was wearing her civvies again. Her wavy blonde hair was loose and it fell halfway down her back. I had never seen her with her hair down. She wore a white fitted t-shirt and blue jeans that cropped at her slim ankles. There was a fine gold chain with seahorse charms around her neck, and it glinted in the sunshine. It felt like the first day of summer.
“Are you doing anything Saturday night?” I asked her.
She glanced at me sideways and I laughed. “What? I just thought we could do something together.”
“Like a date?”
“If you want.”
She hit my arm.
“Careful,” I said. “I just had surgery, remember?”
“Get in the truck, Dean. Before I really hit you.”
I did as the lady asked and climbed up into the cab, with some difficulty.
“We need to pick up your medication on the way back,” she reminded me.
I said, “Okay.” Then I thought for a minute. Hard.
“Actually . . . you know what? I don’t need it.”
“But your pain—”
“I can handle it. I’ll take aspirin if I need to.”
“Why are you being so stubborn?” she asked, glaring at me.
“I’m not being stubborn, trust me. I have my reasons.”
She looked at me curiously. “One of these days you’re going to tell me all about yourself, Mystery Man.”
“But not today.”
“Fine, but you have to take the antibiotics Dean, if you don’t want to get an infection.”
“Deal. Now let’s get out of here. I haven’t had a decent meal in days. Topher makes a mean chilli on Thursdays. I can imagine it now. . .” I pictured a bowl of spicy, meaty chilli topped with mountains of cheese and sour cream. My stomach rumbled.
“By the way, they’re holding a small press conference tomorrow and you have to be there.”
I groaned. “I hate those things. Can’t someone else do it?”
“You’re a certified hero now, Dean,” she teased.
“Certified something. Will you come with me?”
“Of course. I have to be there anyway and so does Don. He’s about as excited as you’d expect,” she said, chuckling.
“Oh man, I can’t wait to see his face.”
Rita started up the engine and pulled out on to the busy street. It was warm enough that most folks had their windows down. Music drifted towards me on the breeze and my heart gave a sad little ping.
Maybe I’d never feel the rush of a gig again but that plucked string was probably going to follow me around for a long time. I felt like my life had split into two halves: my life when I was playing music and my life after. A person with two sides, two faces. But maybe there was a way to integrate them. I wanted to stop splitting myself in half. Not define myself by being a musician, or a ranger – just be me.
“Why did Two-Face look like Stratton, Rita? Do you know?”
“Parallel universe twin, that’s my best guess. I don’t think he was even aware of Stratton’s existence—before he killed him anyway.”
“If that’s what our parallel universe twins are like I think I’ll stick to this world,” I replied. “Let’s hope they don’t find that body or we’re going be asked a lot of difficult questions.”
“I have a feeling it won’t be around for long,” Rita said. “It doesn’t belong here.”
“You’re right about that, sweetheart.”
“Don’t make me regret agreeing to this date, Dean,” she warned.
“Hey, I’m just an old-fashioned guy, Rita.”
“Go be old-fashioned with someone else. I won’t be called sweetheart by anybody. Do you realize how hard it is to gain respect as a female ranger?”
“Obviously not, sweetheart.”
“Dean!”
“Okay, okay. I’ll quit it but step on it would you? I could eat the back door buttered.”
“Now you’re telling me how to drive?” she said, but she was smiling. “Also, back door buttered? Where’d you hear that one?”
“My grandparents are Irish.”
“Look at you, giving me information about yourself!”
The woman was going to be the death of me, I could feel it. It was only my third week on the job but already I had made some friends, saved a kid’s life, and met a girl that might even be the girl, if there was such a thing.
Who cared about the minor detail of a rogue portal popping up in my workplace? Just another hazard of the job.
Please sir, ma’am. Keep to the paths, don’t carry food outside of the campsites and if you come across a strange beast with red hair, hooves and a yellow tongue that smells like rotting flesh? Just shine a bright light into its face and you’ll be fine.