Chapter 14
Danny looked over his shoulder as he walked through the woods. Gloria followed about twenty feet behind him. “What do you want?” he yelled, lengthening his stride.
Something tugged behind his ribs. He grabbed his side and stopped. The pain blossomed and then receded, letting him test another couple steps. He tried a deep inhale. Wincing, he took shallow, quick breaths.
He was dirty as hell. Badly injured. Needed a shower big time. And worst of all, his dead cousin Gloria wouldn’t stop following him. He watched her slip silently through a copse of trees and stare at him. She made as much noise as a ghost. She might even be a ghost. But he just wanted her to be gone. This whole night was a disaster. If he could only get back to his terrible life, he’d be the happiest man alive. He turned his gaze away from Gloria and scanned the forest ahead. On his right, a thick curtain of leafy vines cascaded from the higher reaches of the trees, creating a sheer curtain of greenery. It looked like someone could get lost in there. Maybe he could lose Gloria in there, walk out of these woods and go home. What a wonderful word. Home.
His footsteps crunched as he pushed his way into the dark embrace of the vines. They regathered behind him, brushing his back as he pushed forward. The overgrowth thickened. He pushed vines out of the way with each step. The farther he pushed through, the more the vines smothered him. It felt like they were moving against his back, winding around him. He pulled his right arm free from a vine that somehow wrapped his forearm. A spider tickled his cheek and raced down his neck. He slapped it away and tore his way forward. Dim light caught his attention to his right, then it was gone, covered by a curtain of growing, twisting vegetation. Snatches of moonlight broke through the overgrown tangle. He redoubled his efforts and pushed through a final knotted curtain.
An endless field of tall grass stretched out in front of him. The horizon glowed with the silvery light of a coming dawn.
He looked over the field, feeling off balance. He didn’t know how much time had passed between being in the store and traveling through the forest. An hour at most, but not enough to be morning. A sense of awe overcame him as he walked toward a dawn that shouldn’t have existed.
Drops of dew hung on the tips of the tall grass, reflecting pinpricks of light as the grass waved, showing the ebb and flow of the wind. The field hushed like a living thing as it swayed with the wind. He walked into it, inhaling the smell of earth. It was all so beautiful and so real, but—
He shook his head.
Now wasn’t the time to forget what he’d seen with Clay—what he’d experienced.
Clay had disappeared. He’d faded away into his bloody-faced twin that had been lying on the ground. And then there was that other body that looked exactly like him.
Seeing things like that could only mean one thing.
“I’m crazy,” he mumbled.
He rubbed his face. Being crazy actually sounded better than believing he’d seen himself lying unconscious and shot.
“Danny, you have to trust me,” Gloria said, standing at his side. “You’re hurt bad. I wouldn’t be here if you weren’t.”
She’d closed the twenty feet between them to a couple feet without making a sound. Wind blew her long brown hair around her face. A hot screw twisted in Danny’s side. He bit his bottom lip, holding down the pain as he stared at Gloria. Her eyes looked even bigger than usual. And sadder. He turned away and walked deeper into the field. She stayed with him step-for-step, the grass whispering all around them.
Danny walked slow, pressing one hand against his side. If he went any slower, he’d be moving backward, but he couldn’t help it. When he’d touched the bullet hole in his twin’s side, the pain in his side came alive. On top of the pain, images had flashed through his mind. The scene of him and Clay shooting each other kept replaying in his head. It was a nightmare. Or a bad trip. But it couldn’t be real. He stopped and turned to Gloria.
“Look, I know you’re not real. Someone either slipped PCP into my coffee and I’m tripping my brains out, or I’m having a nightmare. But you’re not real.” He took a step back. “So, why don’t you just go away?”
Gloria reached for his hand. Danny turned away. She moved in front of him, blocking his path. “You need to listen to me, Danny.”
Off in the distance behind her, he saw another forest at the far edge of the field. Storm clouds hung above it. He looked closer. Something moved in those clouds.
Gloria tried to grab his hand. He stepped out of her reach. A smell of burning creosote filled the air. He stared at the sky above the distant forest. Long, sinewy things writhed through the clouds. And there was something else. A low, continuous rumble, almost imperceptible. It sounded as if something huge was inside that dark forest at the edge of the field, letting out a growl that vibrated through his bones.
Gloria stared at the darkness, then back at Danny. “It’s okay to be afraid,” she said.
Danny watched the shapes twist through the clouds.
“Everyone is afraid,” she said.
The low growl vibrated through him.
“Danny, can you hear me?”
Gloria reached for him. He stepped away from her again. She took a deep breath. The sadness in her face was gone. “I know how you feel,” she said. “I understand. When I saw the forest, I was scared. I thought about my mom and Uncle Bill. I wanted to be with them. I thought about how good they were to me. But I had to go. And unless you start fighting—right now—you’ll have no chance of saving your family. You have to listen to me. I’ve never lied to you, have I?”
Danny coughed from the smell of burning creosote. “What do you mean, ‘save my family?’”
Gloria cocked her head to the side. “It won’t be easy, Danny.”
“You need to tell me what’s going on,” he said.
Wind swirled from behind Gloria, whipping her hair over her face. She swept it over her shoulder. “Linda is at the hospital,” she said, and then pointed toward the dark forest. “But Joseph is on the other side now.”
Danny looked at the darkness hanging over the forest. Deep in the recesses of the swirling blacks and grays he saw muted flashes of light. Hundreds, if not thousands, of lights winked in the dark clouds. Then a white-hot light tore through the clouds in a beam, blinding Danny.
He heard something in the darkness.
Joseph, crying.
His vision returned. Joseph was somehow connected to that light that came out of the darkness.
“There’s not much time,” Gloria said. “You have to hurry.”
Danny spread his fingers over the ache in his ribs. “I don’t understand.”
Gloria placed her hand on his. She pressed down on the pain and whispered, “No one wants to die, but everyone does. Take your hand from your side and look.”
Danny lifted his hand from his side. Blood covered his palm and dripped down his fingers. His coat was soaked with blood.
“Clay shot me,” he said.
“Yes, he did.”
“Am I dead?”
Gloria looked at the distant forest. “You’re in the place between, where people either fight their way back or cross over. If you want to get back, you’ll have to fight. You can’t give up, Danny.”
He pressed his bloody hand back against his side. Gloria covered his hand with hers.
“What am I? A spirit?” he asked.
She squeezed his hand.
“Why did I go to the store after I was shot?” he asked “Many souls go back and relive the time before their death,” she said. “They think they can change what happened. But you can’t.”
“So, I’m dying, but I’m not dead yet?”
“Yes. And Joseph is too. But you have a chance to bring him out of the darkness before he crosses over.”
Danny stared at the shapes swimming in the dark, far-off sky above the distant forest. “What if I can’t find him? Or what if I find him but can’t find my way out?”
Gloria released his hand.
“Then you’ll both die.”
She stepped back. The breeze lifted her hair off her shoulders. She raised her hands toward the sky. Her eyes locked on Danny. She smiled, her hair whipping as the wind kicked up. She turned her head toward the forest.
“Joseph is there.”
She turned her head toward the sunlight filtering over a horizon on the opposite side of the field.
“Your life is there.”
Lowering her hands, she walked toward him.
An electric-charged scent filled the air. She grabbed Danny’s shoulders and stared at him. The deep, dark brown of her eyes bled to gold, lit from within as she pulled him close and whispered.
“Choose.”