Authors: Tony Richards
I should have gone and checked on Cassie, once that I had headed back to the Vernon residence and got my car. But I’d barely gotten any sleep, last night. And hadn’t eaten a bite since yesterday afternoon.
I stopped for a waffle on the way home, at the diner that I’ve regularly used since hers closed down. The staff all knew me, and were friendly enough. They noticed how drawn I looked and inquired after my health. I just said something vague in reply. And the food they served was usually good. But my breakfast, this morning, tasted like a wad of cardboard and went down about as well. My senses were pretty numb, I had to admit. Enjoying anything was difficult.
A couple of regulars went by the table, and I nodded ‘hi’ to them,
A TV was murmuring over in the corner, and the patrons and the waitresses all started watching it. RLKB’s Marlon Fisk was, once again, facing the camera.
“And the question on everybody’s lips, this morning? Who, or what, is ‘Saruak’?”
Good question, Marlon
, I thought.
Except you don’t really want to know the answer – and I wish I didn’t either.
Exhaustion was washing over me in dull, cool waves when I got back home. I went around shutting all the drapes, which made the place seem even more bereft of life than ever.
It hasn’t changed an awful lot, since my family vanished. I’d tidied all the kids’ stuff away, storing it carefully in boxes. But I hadn’t moved a thing of Alicia’s – there’s still a bottle of nail varnish sitting on the corner of the washbasin, still waiting to be used.
The living room was in its usual state. Several copies of the local newspaper – the
Landing Ledger
– were piled up at one end of the couch. There was a mug of coffee that I should have rinsed out days ago. Not a pigsty, in other words. Just normal, casual messiness, the entropy that gradually surrounds us when we’re more concerned with other things.
All I wanted to do was rest. But something kept on tugging at my thoughts, the way it often does.
I went across slowly to a cabinet by the far wall. Hunkered down and opened it.
That awful moment when my family disappeared came back to me. Jason Goad’s loft room darkening, then returning to its normal state, entirely empty.
Except for one thing.
That little pendant that he’d worn around his neck. It had been lying there, gleaming in the soft light from the windowpane. And when I’d picked it up, it had felt a little warmer to my grasp than it ought to be. There seemed to be a tiny black flaw inside, when you tipped it at certain angles.
What was it, and what part had it played in everything that had happened? There were no immediate answers. But I’d kept hold of it, all the same. I gazed at it and, not for the first time, wondered where he’d got the thing.
I’d never touched it since the first day that I’d brought it here. The idea scared me a little, since I wasn’t sure what it was capable of. But perhaps it would be the key, one day, to getting my loved ones back. Or maybe that was simply wishful thinking, clutching at the narrowest of straws.
It glinted, despite the fact that there was no illumination touching it. And it seemed to be made up of three separate parts.
The chain was just an ordinary silver one, like a couple of dozen that Alicia had owned. The gemstone at the bottom was a tiny one, no larger than a pea. It was mostly clear – the flaw apart – but had a bluish tinge to it, the faintest sheen, like the surface of a pond. And it was round, a faceted globe.
Which made its setting even odder, since it was four times the size of the jewel. It was made of silver too, but looked much older than the chain. It was in the shape of a claw, with five digits, bright talons, clutched firmly around the gemstone, as though they were trying to squeeze it till it broke. Etched into the top were little symbols. They were simple, crude ones, but not childish. No, they looked extremely precise. I’d never seen their like before, and had no idea what they signified.
I eased my fingertips toward the thing, but not the entire way. What exactly was I playing at? I needed rest. I forced myself to close the cabinet again.
Then I went across and threw myself out full length on the couch. The springs creaked heavily. My eyes slid shut without any further prompting. Darkness filled my head for an immeasurable while.
Someone … called my name.
I recognized the voice immediately. It had been a long time since I’d heard it, except in my dreams.
My eyelids snapped back open. They seemed to be the only part of my whole body that was capable of movement, right now.
Pale and almost spectral in the dim, filtered light, Alicia – my wife – was standing there.
Shock rose through me. I untensed a little and managed to sit up. And gawked at her. All she did was smile back gently. The living room hadn’t changed a bit, except that she was standing in it, calmly, one hand on her hip.
She looked real. I could even smell her perfume. It was the one she always wore.
Of course, my first thought was,
This has to be a dream
. But there’s a trick for that. I knew it. A doctor that I had helped out once explained it to me.
I reached across quickly, switched the lamp by the couch on. The bulb immediately brightened. And that doesn’t happen, when you’re dreaming. Cause and effect don’t work the in same way, and you can’t turn on any lights.
My hand dropped numbly from the switch. I could barely take in what had happened. If I wasn’t dreaming … was this
real
?
Alicia didn’t move at all. She just gazed at me from the edge of the yellow pool of illumination, waiting to see what I’d do next.
She was wearing what she’d had on that last day, before I’d gone to work. Faded blue jeans and a white blouse tied above the midriff. Bare feet. And her blond curls were tied back, except for one lock that had escaped and flopped across her brow. Her blue eyes sparkled at me and her smile was very wide and white. She had never had to use cosmetics much – her high cheekbones had a natural flush to them, her lips were pink as rose petals.
“Aren’t you pleased to see me, Ross?” she asked, after another while.
Her voice was
exactly
as I remembered it. And hearing it made me ache. I wanted to get up and hold her in my arms.
I remained where I was, though. Because I was certain there was something wrong. How could she have simply popped back into existence?
The muscles in my jaw ached as I tried to form the words.
“Who are you?”
Alicia looked disappointed, and then raised a narrow eyebrow.
“That’s a stupid question, darling. How could you ask that?”
But her voice was far too calm, I realized. Wouldn’t she be getting all emotional as well?
“How did you get here?” I replied.
“I’ve been around the entire time. I didn’t die, if that’s what you think. That goes for the children too. We were simply trapped in some weird kind of limbo.”
I was trying to stay rational, but that was pretty hard. The children? Where were they, if she was here? And part of me was fiercely drawn toward her. I just couldn’t help it. I missed her company so very much, her beauty and gentleness, the soft touch of her skin.
But I still held myself back.
Where are the children? Focus, focus!
It was hard to even talk. The words were sticking in my throat.
“How come you’re here now, after all this time?”
“I’ve come to warn you.”
If I wasn’t dreaming, then I had to have gone insane, I decided. Only I answered her anyway.
“Warn me of what?”
Her gaze was sparkling, but a little coldly, and her mouth went firm for a brief second.
“Don’t try to fight Saruak anymore, Ross. You can’t win. Keep on at it, and you’ll simply die.”
I stared at her incredulously. How did she know anything about it? Had she come back just to tell me this?
But she looked utterly convinced. She seemed quite determined to get her message across.
“If you give in and persuade the others, he’ll go easy on you.”
And I wasn’t buying that at all. Not from what I knew of him.
“He’ll let you live. And let me stay. And bring the kids back too.”
My confusion was sliding away the more of this nonsense she spoke. I’d started to work out what was going on, by this time. And could see that I was being had.
I kept a poker face, studying her closely all over again.
“And how do you know this?”
“He told me.”
“You’re on speaking terms?”
She smiled again. “He’s not so awful, when you really get to know him. He’s simply … misunderstood.”
And she
had
to be joking. But the truth was unfolding in my head. Whoever was telling me all this, it just wasn’t Alicia.
The cruelty of it. To use
her
against me. I peered a little closer at her heart-shaped face.
I stood up carefully. She made no move to back away. If anything, her expression grew happier.
“Yes, that’s it, Ross. Hold me, like you used to.”
I took a slow step. She looked even more genuine, right close up.
“Touch me.” Her voice had become so soft that it was practically hypnotic. “I‘ve been waiting for that, such an awfully long time.”
When I swallowed, it hurt. Everything did, talking, moving, breathing. God, just looking at her hurt. Part of me still wanted this to be real, not a trick.
I lifted my right hand toward her face. She grinned.
“Go on, darling.”
I had noticed something while I’d still been on the couch. The lock of blond hair that had flopped across her brow … it was hiding most of her left eye. Taking great care not to touch her skin, I shifted it to one side with my fingertips.
Her left pupil was far larger than the right.
Her smile became a twisted one. And when she opened her mouth again, Saruak’s voice came out from between sharply pointed teeth.
“My, you
are
perceptive! Well spotted, Mr. Devries.”
I stepped back, out of reach of him.
“What the hell do you want now?” I blurted.
The shadows were thickening around him again. And I could feel the malevolence of his presence, the massive force and energy of it. I reminded myself uncomfortably that we were alone here. Fear was working its way through my pores, but I managed to hold my ground.
“Just trying a little … how to put it? … gentle persuasion. I thought that I might even get you on my side.”
Which astonished me. How could he imagine he could ever do that?
“Why don’t you just finish me off,” I asked him, “if you’re so damned powerful?”
There was the thrill of the victor in his gaze. I could smell his breath. It was like the dust in the churches, leafy, moldy.
“And what fun would that be?” he came back.
Then he pulled a casual face.
“Well, see you later!”
And he was gone, in the blinking of an eye.
It had all happened so fast, it struck me. Thinking she was back, then being confronted with the harsh reality. My emotions had been yanked back and forth like a child’s swing in a playground. And now, they were backing up on me.
My head began spinning. I couldn’t think straight any longer.
So I did what seemed to be the next best thing. I went into the kitchen and threw up.
Washing my face and drying it with a cloth, I came fully back to wakefulness. I still felt tired. I wasn’t even sure how much sleep I’d managed to get.
My hands were shaking gently and my skin felt tight, vibrating too. Even though it had been an illusion, what I’d seen still pained me very badly.
I couldn’t get it out of my mind. That first moment when my eyes had opened. I had imagined that and ached for it for two whole years. The savagery behind the deception … it simply took my breath away.
But what else did I expect from a creature like him? Anger began setting in again.
I didn’t let it take me over. Something else had just occurred to me. Why did Saruak keep on coming at
me
in particular? Time after time, he had singled me out. It wasn’t like I was an important figure in the town. Hobart or Mayor Aldernay would have been far better choices. But he seemed to be obsessed with me. He’d been around at every turn.
My thoughts swam some more, and then returned to the present. And I started wondering how Cassie was doing.
I could hear some chickens clucking as I parked outside her place. One of her neighbors had a coop out back. A kid was yelling in one of the nearby houses. And a radio could be heard from an open bedroom window.
A small mongrel ran up and started barking at me, but when I just ignored it, it got bored and sat down in the dirt, watching me rather mournfully.