Chapter 60
Mark slept fitfully, his muscles twitching involuntarily in accompaniment to the REM movements of his eyes. Soundless words formed on his lips, the same words over and over and over again.
“Mark! Please help me!”
With a final massive contraction of his muscles, Mark landed on his feet beside the bed, tears streaming down his cheeks.
“Heather.”
Mark grabbed for his sweats and running shoes, throwing them on his body as he moved through the door into the hallway. As he stepped out, he saw Jennifer’s terrified face looking at him.
She clutched at his arm. “Something terrible is happening to Heather.”
“I know. I can feel her in my head.”
“We have to help her.”
“You stay here. I’m going to go get her.”
“But how will you find her?”
“I don’t know how exactly, but I can feel her out there. It’s like she’s pulling me. I’ll find her.”
As Mark finished sliding on his second shoe and released his hold on the banister, Jennifer noticed he had crushed the wood railing beneath his fingers. Then he was down the stairs and out of the house.
Mark’s feet moved with a speed he had never imagined humanly possible, propelling him down the dark street and into the woods as if he were slung from a catapult. All conscious thought stopped as his mind focused on the directional pull tugging him. It was getting weaker now as Heather’s strength ebbed, or perhaps it was her life force that ebbed. A shudder passed through Mark’s body as he pressed himself to the limit.
He no longer followed the trail, moving directly toward the spot from which he felt her call emanate, leaping boulders and deadfalls, crashing directly through the smaller bushes, as tree branches and thorn bushes clutched and tore at him in vain attempts to impede his progress.
As he reached a steep slope and scrambled down, Heather’s call faded entirely. Mark stopped, casting his gaze around in a desperate attempt to identify landmarks in the direction he had last felt it. Suddenly, he became aware of a pale flickering light about a hundred feet down the slope and to the right of where he stood.
Mark resumed his movement, although now he went quietly forward. As he came within view of the spot, he saw the entrance to an unknown cave, the flickering light spilling out of the opening. As Mark prepared to rush across the remaining distance and into the opening, a voice rang out in the darkness.
“Freeze!”