CHAPTER ELEVEN
I stood on the edge of precipitous cliff. In front of me lay a dark and undulating land lit by the icy power of a full moon. There were no clouds in the night sky but there was a strong wind that came from invisible origins and ruffled my hair till it was blowing behind me like a flag. I was in bare feet, just inches from falling into the shadowy canyons below. My arms were outspread like a young condor about to take its first flight.
“The truth is in the fire,” a voice whispered from behind me.
I dropped my arms to the side and slowly turned around. I was facing a fire that smoldered and crackled high in the star-lit sky. Around it sat two people in high-backed chairs. On one side was a man dressed in denim overalls, on the other was a woman in a black dress. They had deer heads poking out of their collars, watching me with those blank, liquid eyes.
“Look in the fire,” one of them said, though their deer mouths didn’t move.
I looked at the fire. It swirled and flowed like a red river of flame. In the base of the fire, where the logs burned and cracked, the ashy black kindling moved. A snake made of charcoal crawled out of the flames leaving a trail of black soot in the ground behind it. It made its way to me and was about to strike.
I gasped and stepped backward. There was nothing left beneath my feet.
I fell and I fell through the air like a stone sinking in a bottomless pond. The angry mouth of the canyon below was open and waiting to engulf me with its sharp rocks and horrible depths. I was gone for.
“Perry?” I heard someone say.
I opened my eyes. I was standing outside, in between the Lancaster’s house and the barn. Dawn was breaking somewhere in the east, bringing hazy light to the horizon and warming up the ending night.
I looked down at my feet. They were barefoot. In front of me was the remains of a fire, only blackened logs remaining. My hands were bloody.
“Perry!” I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see Dex peering anxiously at me, dressed in just his pajama pants. I showed him my hands, frightened out of my gourd.
He swallowed hard and looked me over.
“It’s OK, you must have ripped open your cuts,” he said softly. I looked down at my stomach. Blood had seeped through my tee shirt.
Dex leaned over and cupped my face in his hands. I had a hard time focusing on him, or on anything, really.
“What happened? Why are you out here?” he asked.
I didn’t know. I didn’t remember coming outside. I remembered my dream but…that was just a dream. Wasn’t it?
I told him about it. He took in a deep breath, trying to process it.
“And there’s a fire,” I said slowly. “I don’t know what that means.”
“What happened?” we heard Bird yell out from behind us. He came barging out of the house with his shotgun in hand and ran up to us.
“What happened?” Dex sneered. “What happened to you? You were supposed to be watching her.”
Bird shook his head looking worse for wear. I felt sorry for the old man.
“I must have fallen asleep for a second, I never heard her leave,” he said helplessly.
“I’m sorry,” I said meekly. “I guess I was sleepwalking or something.”
“Let’s hope that’s all this was,” he said. He peered behind me at the fire remains. “Somehow I doubt it. Come on, it’s freezing out here.”
He took one of my arms while Dex took the other and they led me back in the house like I was some kind of invalid.
Inside it was warm and the floor felt delightful against my cold feet. They led me into the kitchen. Bird brought the first aid kit out of the top drawer. It was certainly getting a lot of use lately.
It was dark in the kitchen except for a small lamp in the corner but the day outside was coming on brighter by the minute. It didn’t seem Will or Sarah were up yet, which was a huge relief. I waited patiently while Bird lifted up my shirt and put on a new bandage on my wounds. It looked disgusting but he said it wasn’t infected.
“Do you remember now how you got this?” Bird asked.
I told him the truth, what I had kept from Dex last night.
Dex was shocked. “Are you serious? Claws?”
“That’s what it felt like. It wasn’t knives, he didn’t have any. It felt like I was being raked by a giant bird. I think I know what that feels like now. It’s what it looked like.”
Dex folded his arms and mulled that over. I noticed he was still shirtless. And with madness comes the light. I had to disagree.
“I’m not surprised,” Bird said, his voice heavy. “I think I’ll give Rudy a call. The sooner we can get a start on things today, the better. I’ll be right back.”
He pulled my shirt down over the wound and left the house. I looked at Dex and managed a small smile. “Sure. That’s what they all say.”
Dex walked over to the doorway and peeked out at the rest of the house. Satisfied, he came back in the kitchen, grabbed my hand and sat me down at the tiny kitchen table. He took both my hands in his and looked at me intently.
“Listen,” he said softly. “I think you should leave.”
I opened my mouth to say something, though I wasn’t sure what yet, but he continued.
“Just listen to me. Maximus is right. It’s still early, I doubt he’s left yet. You can get a ride back with him to Albuquerque. The longer you stay here, the worse things are going to get. And I can’t forgive myself for what happened to you last night.”
“Dex,” I started.
“I’m responsible for you,” he said. “And clearly I’m not very good at taking care of anyone, let alone myself. I don’t know what I’d do if anything else happened to you. So you need leave, today. Now.”
I looked into his eyes. I had never seen them so worried, so sincere. I squeezed his hands lightly. His concern melted me inside but I couldn’t leave him. I wouldn’t leave him here with these people. These things.
“I’m not going unless you go too,” I whispered, paranoid that people could be listening.
“Don’t do that,” he shook his head. “You know I have to stay here.”
“No, you don’t!” I said. “We’ll just do something else. There are a lot of other things. Or just make something with the footage we have. We have those rocks and stuff on film, that’s something. Nobody said we had to be freaking Paranormal State.”
“Yes. I did. If I go back with just that, Jimmy’s going to laugh me out of the office and this whole thing will be done. We will be done. We only get one chance.”
“It’s not worth risking your life over,” I implored.
“It’s not worth risking your life over. Mine means nothing.”
I was surprised at how serious he was about that. How could he say such a thing?
He must have noticed my frustration because he added, “And nothing is going to happen to me. It’s obviously you that they want, that’s what Bird and Rudy said and I really believe them now.”
I leaned back in my chair and squared my gaze. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“I’m not worth it,” he challenged back.
“Yes. You are,” I said. “And if this is what it takes to make something of my life, then so be it. I’d rather die here then leave without trying.”
“You don’t mean that,” he said roughly.
“Well, no, I’d rather not die but staying here is worth the risk.” I was even unsure about that.
“Why do you care so much about this? You’ve got plenty going on for you back at home.” He narrowed his eyes and tried to read me.
Was this the time to tell him I was not only jobless and living a lie, but there was a possibility that I was in love with him as well? Nah.
“I just do,” was my winning answer.
So we were kind of between a rock and a hard place as we sat at that kitchen table in the wee hours of the morning, when the house was still quiet and the nightmares of last night were swept away like flimsy cobwebs. We were both too stubborn to give up and neither one of us wanted to see the other one hurt.
“What if I can’t protect you?” he said softly, looking down at my bandaged hands. Rare waves of his vulnerability and honesty were flying all over the place and hitting me straight in the chest. I had the biggest urge to tilt his chin up and kiss him gently on the lips. Just to let him know it was OK, just to see what it would feel like, just to tell him how I felt. It seemed the most fitting thing to do.
Instead, I said, “You did protect me last night. I don’t know what would have happened if you weren’t there. And in most other circumstances, I’m pretty good at protecting myself.”
He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, a little lost boy look in his eyes. A lock of his black hair fell across his forehead. I wanted to sweep it away but was afraid that if I touched his face in any way I wouldn’t be able to help myself and it would lead to other bad things.
Sensing something in me, he looked up and our eyes met. Sparks were flying through a current between us. This could lead to bad things too, I thought. A man and a woman just can’t stare at each other like this. Something has to give.
“OK,” Bird said as he suddenly appeared in kitchen. We both jumped a little and gave him a sheepish look, as if he had caught us doing something we shouldn’t be.
“Am I interrupting something?” he asked, stopping in front of us.
Dex was first to let go of my hands and shook his head. “Not at all. What’s the plan?”
Now, being that we were pretending to be married, it wouldn’t have seemed out of place if Dex had continued to hold on to me but I guess that little thought of Jenn was still present in his head somewhere.
“As soon as you get dressed, I’ll take you to Rudy’s. It’s best if you don’t eat anything either.”
“What do we say to Will and Sarah?” I whispered.
Bird leaned in closer. “Say nothing. Let me take care of that. Meet me by my truck in 15 minutes.”
It ended up being about 20 minutes later when we met him by his truck. I was still super woozy and a bit sick, so getting dressed took some extra effort. It felt like it was the worst hangover I ever had and I didn’t want Dex helping me anymore. I could put on my own pants, thank you very much. It just took a few attempts.
“What took you so long?” Bird said as we walked over to him. He looked me over and pointed at my jeans. “You can’t wear that to a sweat ceremony.”
“Well, I don’t know,” I said feebly but he just shook his head. Bird had really changed in the last 24 hours. I guess we all had.
“It doesn’t matter, get in,” he said as he climbed in the driver’s seat of his red Ford truck. I exchanged a look with Dex and got in, feeling Bird’s urgency.
He backed up the truck and started to pull out of the lot. I looked back at the house and gasped. Sarah was standing at our bedroom’s window, looking out at us. At least, that’s what it looked like.
I looked at Dex beside me to see if he had noticed but his eyes were focused sharply on the road, his tongue flicking a toothpick anxiously. I kept it to myself. What was the difference anyway?
We drove for about a half hour, past the town and into the craggy gullies that jutted in and out by the surrounding mountain ranges. Down a simple dirt road, framed by cacti and boulders, lay a modest adobe rancher. We parked the truck next to a newish SUV and stepped out.
The air here was fresher and hit my lungs sharply. I hadn’t noticed a grade while on the road but perhaps we were at a higher elevation. It was still very early and the air hadn’t warmed up yet.
A lazy woof came out from around the corner of the house and a happy looking mutt came trotting towards us, tail wagging. Seeing a dog made me feel warm and fuzzy inside and I happily petted his rough fur and endured a few rounds of sloppy doggy kisses.
Dex watched me with mild amusement as Bird started for the back of the house.
“That’s just Boy Boy,” Bird said, waving at the dog. “Come, Rudy is back here.”
We walked around the corner, with Boy Boy at our heels, and saw a large tent nestled among some skinny trees. A neat fire was roaring beside it and Rudy was feeding it juniper branches and stones. I guess in my head I had pictured Rudy wearing ceremonial robes and a huge feathered headdress but those were just stereotypes floating around in my mind. Rudy looked the same as he did last night except that he was a little less blasé.
He greeted us sternly and shook his head at my pants. “Those won’t do. Your top is fine but you’re going to have to go pantless in there.”