Another reverberating crash from behind him.
Another blood-curdling howl.
Eric crested a hill, descended the other side and emerged from the woods into the oldest and creepiest cemetery he had ever seen outside of a horror movie.
“Really?”
Sure. Go left and into the creepy cemetery. That’s what he got for listening to a stupid phone. Now what was he supposed to do?
Glancing over his shoulder again, he saw another tree crash to the ground and the massive, looming face of the golem floating after him.
Nowhere to go but among the headstones, he ran out into the cemetery.
“Sorry!” he breathed as he trod across graves of people long gone from this world. “Really sorry! Don’t mind me!”
Behind him, the golem was far less polite. Another tree came crashing down into the cemetery, crushing several headstones and making enough noise to…well…
After all that he’d been through today, Eric would not have been remotely surprised to see the dead bursting from the hard, rocky earth and loping after him. Or simply screeching at him to keep it down. But surprisingly enough, they kept to their coffins and left him to the golem.
Making his way across the cemetery, he glanced back again and found the monster floating after him, howling its grizzly howl and glaring down at him with its enormous, red eyes. Its long, fleshy snout was unrolling itself from its gruesome face, crooked teeth as big as elephant tusks emerged and bristled outward as it reached toward him.
It was almost on top of him. He couldn’t outrun it much longer. His legs were beginning to ache. He could feel a pain forming in his sides. And he still didn’t have any idea how to break its focus.
Then Father Billy was there, running toward him. He had several more sticks of dynamite in his hands, all of them lit, all of them with troublingly short fuses.
“Keep going!” he yelled as they drew close to each other. “No matter what, just keep going!”
The golem howled thunderously.
Father Billy ran past him, toward the monster, swearing at the top of his voice at it.
Eric did as he was told and kept running.
He heard shouting. Unearthly howls filled the air.
As he entered the forest again, a brief series of enormous booms rocked the cemetery and all fell silent but his own frenzied fleeing as he tore through the underbrush.
He dared not look back for fear that he would find the creature right behind him still, just waiting for him to turn and look in its molten eyes before snatching him off his feet and grinding him to pulp between its countless, massive teeth.
But no such fate awaited him.
He climbed to the top of the next hill and passed into a thicket of smaller trees. The gloom lifted. The chill receded.
He found himself in a clearing behind a barbwire fence.
The sun was shining brightly again.
He climbed the fence before allowing himself a look behind him. He was alone. Father Billy’s explosive, head-on attack had finally done what the single stick of dynamite in the thing’s box had failed to do.
Eric leaned against the fence and allowed himself a moment to catch his breath.
It was over.
Once more, he had survived.
But now he couldn’t help but wonder what had become of Father Billy. Had he survived the attack? Or did he sacrifice himself to break the golem’s focus? He hoped the good father was okay.
His cell phone rang.
Apparently, he was home again.
And he was still clutching the phone in his hand for some reason.
Looking at the screen, he found with no surprise at all that it was Karen.
He hesitated to answer for a moment as he wondered where those text messages had come from, the ones that advised him to RUN and go LEFT.
He pushed the question to the back of his mind and answered the phone.
“Where are you now?”
“Cow pasture.”
“Hope you’re watching where you step.”
“I am.”
“You sound out of breath.”
“You know how it is. Staying in shape.”
“Right. My husband the fitness nut.”
“Have to keep those buns nice and toned.”
“Right. Where’ve you been? I’ve been trying to call for hours.”
Eric recalled the untimely call that almost got him caught and eaten by the corn creeps. He thought about pointing out the danger she had put him in with all her calls, but decided better of it. That seemed like a good way to start a fight, especially given that he had not called her even once today to assure her that he was still alive.
Besides, if he’d been smart, he would’ve turned the stupid thing off.
Instead, he focused on what she’d just said: “Hours?”
“Yeah. It’s been like three hours. You’re making me a nervous wreck.”
“What time is it now?”
“It’s almost five.”
According to Eric’s watch, it was not yet two o’clock.
“I’m losing time.”
“What?”
“It hasn’t been that long for me. Time isn’t consistent in and out of the fissure.”
“That’s not possible, Eric.”
“Of course it is. It’s a well-known scientific theory that time can be distorted, though it’s usually on cosmic scales. Black holes, light speed...”
“Every third or fourth episode of Star Trek?”
“Well…yeah…”
“Whatever. If you say so. What’s going on in Wonderland?”
“Right, well, after I got off the phone with Paul… Wait… If it’s been three hours, did Kevin ever get there with the PT Cruiser?”
“He got here a while ago. Gave me back my key, had some cookies and then Damien came and picked him up.” Damien Glowstern was Kevin’s best friend. He was practically a member of the family.
That was one less thing he had to worry about, at least.
“I don’t know where Paul is.”
“Paul’s in the fissure,” he told her.
“He’s what?”
Eric turned away from the fence and started walking again. He didn’t care to stay in one place very long. That seemed like a good way to invite trouble.
“He called me right after we hung up last time. Told me he was poking around. He’d already found his way through the barn.”
“Oh my god… Is he in any danger?”
“Yeah. I think he is. But he might be all right if he doesn’t do anything really stupid.”
“That’s really not at all reassuring.”
“I know.”
“You haven’t heard from him since?”
“I just got my reception back when you called. I haven’t checked messages.”
“Great… Now I have to worry about both of you.”
“I told him you’d be mad.”
“Good.”
“I threatened to cut off his cheesecake privileges.”
“That would serve him right.”
“I know. Anyway, I hung up with him and then promptly ran into the corn creeps.”
“Corn creeps?”
“Ugly things. Mean. Lots of them. They chased me to this old church. I got to spend some quality time with Father Billy.”
“A priest?”
“No.”
“Oh…”
“Long story.”
“I see.”
Eric noticed that his arm was bleeding and recalled that he had gouged himself on something while running through the woods. Fortunately, it didn’t look that bad. Next to the claw marks on his arm, it hardly warranted concern. “We had a visit from the foggy man while I was there. He left a present for us. Another one of those monsters.”
“Scary.”
“Yeah. But we took care of it.”
“How’d you do that?”
“Dynamite.”