Darren jogged after the line of fire that burned in the middle of the tunnel. It stopped up ahead without warning, and it wasn’t until Darren got close enough that he saw it was a drop off.
“Hold up,” he yelled as he stopped.
Audrey stopped behind him. “What?”
“Come see.”
The pair walked with caution toward the edge. The floor vanished into darkness, taking the walls and ceiling with it, leaving behind a ragged mess of cracked and crumbling concrete. The darkness went on further then the candlelight could reach, and looking down, there was nothing but a faint orange glow that was growing dimmer.
“Where’d it go?” Audrey asked.
“Down,” Darren said.
“Did we get it though? We didn’t, did we?”
“I don’t know.”
The orange glow grew brighter all of a sudden, pulsing in intensity.
The siren muted.
The glow burst into a bright ball of fire, hundreds of feet below the edge of the tunnel.
A second later the roar of the fire reached up to Darren and Audrey, followed by an unnatural shriek. Like a choir of children scraping their nails across blackboards, the screech bored into Darren’s head, making him cringe in pain as it grew louder.
“We did it!” Audrey yelled, slapping her arm across Darren’s back. “It worked!”
They did. Darren saw the fire burning away at the creature, and even though he couldn’t see anything more than the flames, he knew it was the creature burning. He could smell the stench of an overcooked barbeque emanating from the pit where it must have lived all these years in hiding.
But his gut didn’t think it was over.
It was probably right though. This seemed to be a cycle that repeated every sixty seven years, so the creature could only be injured, they might not be able to kill it completely without a nuclear bomb to drop down in the pit with it.
But his gut said it was more than that troubling him.
A wind grew behind Darren and Audrey, sucking its way into the pit in front of them.
How big was the pit? Darren wondered. There was no way to tell, even the light of the fire below showed no sign of its size.
Audrey grabbed onto Darren’s arm as the breeze picked up. The beetles began to fall into the pit from around them, blowing and tumbling over the edge in a single sheet like a water fall around them.
The orange light grew brighter yet as the beetles found their way into the flames. There was a spot of the fire that seemed to break away from the center of it, but it was too far away to tell what it was.
Audrey’s grip lightened as the density of beetles began to diminish around them and the wind calmed down to a gentle breeze. “We actually did it!” she yelled over the screech from below.
Darren shook his head. “I don’t believe it.” And he didn’t, at least in his gut.
“Oh Darren!” She kissed him on the cheek.
The orange spot of fire that had broken away from the center seemed to be growing brighter than the rest of it.
“I think we should leave,” Darren yelled
“But we did it! It’s over!”
“I still think we shou-”
The tendril shot into the tunnel. Flames covered every inch of it, turning it’s glossy shell into a mass of thick bubbling, spurting blisters and purple lesions.
“Run!” Darren yelled, trying to turn around and push Audrey away from the tendril.
But he wasn’t fast enough.
The tendril reached forward and grabbed Audrey by the thigh as she tried to run.
She screamed as the tendril pulled at her, knocking her on her face among the last of the beetles. She kicked and flailed, trying to get herself free as her candle rolled to the edge and fell it to the pit.
“Audrey!” Darren yelled. He scrambled to the floor, ignoring the pain in his legs as he grabbed for her.
She continued to scream as the tendril pulled her toward the edge.
Darren tried to grab her, but she was pulled out of reach.
Their eyes locked.
She screamed as she went over the edge.
She screamed as she vanished into the darkness.
The screams stopped a couple of seconds later.
Chapter 69
Darren Ansari stood at the edge of the pit for another hour after Audrey was pulled down into it. The glow of the fire below dimmed down until it was less than the flame of the candle he had clamped into this hand. Every last beetle was gone, having fallen into the pit as the void retracted in on itself, leaving Darren alone in the silence-the screech had ended a minute after Audrey was pulled in.
Darren just stood at the edge of the pit, toes flush with the end of the floor, looking down.
His mind hadn’t been working for the last hour, nor was he sure he wanted it to work again. He knew that as soon as his brain came back into focus, he was going to break down. He was going to grieve the loss of his love. But at least now, being unable to think, he didn’t have to grieve. He didn’t have to feel the pain.
Maybe he should just join her. A single step would be all it would take to be with his Audrey again. At least he hoped. If God could create a creature like that, then he could just as easily have created a heaven.
But he was too afraid to take a step. If he knew-positively knew-that he would see Audrey once his brain splattered all over the bottom of the pit, then he wouldn’t hesitate. Maybe call his mom one last time and come back and do it, but he would still do it.
But he was too afraid.
He thought about the manhole, and the darkness it held. It was nothing compared to the unnatural blackness of the void, but it was the only time in his life he had thought about welcoming death. He had never admitted it to anyone-not his parents, not Rachel, not Audrey-but he thought that it may have been a good idea to just let go and let himself die there. One less terrorist in the world.
But he couldn’t. He was too afraid of dying then too.
Time passed, and Darren stood motionless.
What could he do now? Audrey was gone, and she was the only thing he had found in life that ever made him feel complete. Half of his life was gone.
Was there anything he could do?
The other side of his head only held a one word answer. No.
He had no reply.
There was nothing he could do. He didn’t listen to the feeling that had been haunting his gut, but now it was too late. He never should have let her get so close. He never even should have let her go down into the tunnel in the first place.
But it was too late.
It was always too late.
Time left Darren behind. At one point his knees couldn’t take any more and he had to sit down at the edge, letting his feet dangle over the pit.
Another hour later and the first tear came.
An hour after that he was hunched over sobbing into his hands.
It was his fault.
She was dead, and it was his fault.
Chapter 70
Two weeks later, Darren sat in the dining area of the school union, eating a roast beef sandwich. His eyes stayed focused on the bench outside where he had seen Audrey sit and admire the trees, thinking about what could have been.
But it was too late. It was his fault, and it was too late.
The police never questioned him about the shooting in Painter Hall. The newspaper passed it off as a practical joke after the initial shock wore off. He didn’t know if Rachel really did recognize him that day, but if she did, she never told anyone.
Darren’s grades had taken a sudden drop. He gave up on homework and spent most of his time in bed. His appearance in classes was rare.
He felt like skipping history today. In fact, he hadn’t gone to that class since the day Audrey died. No big loss, an F wouldn’t make his grades any worse than they were already.
Darren ate the tasteless sandwich, staring at the empty bench.
Once a bluebird landed on it,
and he just stared at the bird instead. Another time, another student sat there while Darren was eating, so Darren went out and asked the person to move.
For now he just stared.
“Darren?” A voice said from off to his side.
Darren looked up at a blonde girl he had seen before, but it took him a moment to place the face. “You were Audrey’s roommate.”
She nodded. “Nelle Lascomb.”
“How can I help you Nelle?”
“They packed up Audrey’s stuff today.”
Darren looked back out to the bench and nodded.
“They left behind a pile of old papers,” she said. “I remembered Audrey saying something about you two needing my scanner to enhance what it said enough to read.”
Darren nodded, eyes on the bench. A shadow passed over the wood, then vanished.
“Well,” she said as she slid her backpack back off. “I was curious as to what was on them, so I fed them through the scanner.” She opened her bag and pulled out a packet of papers, holding them out to Darren. “It’s quite strange, but I thought you might still want to know what was on them.”
Darren looked at the proffered pages, noting the familiar handwriting of Robert Blackburn on them. He took them, nodding his head. “Thank you.”
Nelle zipped her backpack back up. “They’re quite strange,” she said. She slid the bag back onto her shoulders. “How are you getting by?”
Darren looked at the pages, following the flow of words. “Not so good.”
“Well, if you need someone to talk to, you know where I live.”
“Thank you.”
Nelle hesitated. “Well, it was nice seeing you again.”
“Yes,” Darren said. “Thank you.”
Nelle walked away, taking a glance back after a dozen steps.
Darren found his attention back on the bench outside. It was covered by a long shadow this time. He watched as the shadow dissolved and the sun came back, then looked back at the paper.
He began to read. Another entry of Robert Blackburn’s journal, written November the eleventh of nineteen forty four.
It’s in my dreams now. I can’t escape it. Everywhere I turn I see it, and I don’t know what it means. I can think of no possible explanation, but I can’t get away from it. The number sixty-seven has no meaning to me, and yet I see it everywhere, matching anything. Is it a message from the Lord? A message in numerical form though? It makes no sense no matter how I look at it.
Why is the number sixty seven following me?
Darren stopped reading and looked to the bench again. A shadow had fallen over the wood again, but this time it did not go away.
For more books by
D Haltinner
see his web site at
www.amazon.com/author/dhaltinner
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Table of Contents
Contents
Void
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70