Memory's Door (A Well Spring Novel) (33 page)

“An honor, yes.”

She took his hand and the three stepped out through Reece’s back door. As they walked the familiar path through Reece’s backyard to the circle of stones surrounding the pit, Dana realized his request for her to lead him was more about her than him. Over the past eleven months, Reece had certainly taught himself the way to the fire pit without needing help. He didn’t need her hand to guide him. But she needed the assurance of his touch. Strength seemed to flow through his giant hand into hers, and although imaginations of the battle they were about to enter into spilled across her mind, a peace settled there as well and it seemed to carry her without effort across the hundred yards to the spot from which they would try to rescue the professor.

After Brandon started a small fire, Reece sat forward and clasped his hands. “Another adventure together.” He paused and his head turned down. “This is my doing, my fault, my selfishness, and
consequently my battle to wage. I’ve confessed this to Jesus; now I’m confessing it to you. And because of that, you two do not have to come.”

Neither Brandon nor she spoke.

“I take it the answer you both would give if I demanded it from you is you want to come.”

“Ahh, I’m not sure I would describe it as
want
to—” Brandon raised his eyebrows.

“I want to come,” Dana said. “So does Brandon.” She looked at him and winked.

“So be it.” Reece lifted his head as he took her hand and Brandon’s. “There’s a Warrior from among us who is missing. It’s time we go find him and bring him home. Strength, truth, hope, and love. Go before us, Lord, and take up guard behind us. Be below us and above. To our left and our right, fill us with life and wisdom and your vast, unending strength.”

Reece gave her hand a light squeeze and then she was free-falling, her stomach seizing up as if she’d just leaped from a plane at twelve thousand feet, air rushing past her, the sound of a thousand waterfalls pressing in on her. Then a shaking in her body as if being pummeled by twenty-foot waves and being slammed into the sand only to be picked up by another swell and slammed back to the ground.

She had to hang on. It would be over in seconds. But it wasn’t. The feeling intensified till her body felt like it couldn’t last another five seconds without breaking apart. Where had Reece taken them? Maybe no one had ever gone through this gate because it was impossible to get through.

She tried to pull in a breath, but there was no air to breathe and she started to panic. But before the sensation could overwhelm her, the wind and the roar around her stopped and she stood on solid ground. Dana bent over, gasped for air, her legs numb and shaking. She let go of Brandon’s and Reece’s hands and tried to slow her breathing.

“I can’t say I enjoyed that a whole lot,” Brandon sputtered out.

“Are you all right, Dana?” Reece said.

“It felt like my body was about to explode, but yes, I’m okay. Why was, why did we . . . ?”

“There is little light in this realm. It is owned by the evil one and we are far from welcome here.”

She stood up straight and blinked against a harsh sun low in a turquoise sky. Ten small thatched huts surrounded them. The ground at their feet was muddy and wet as if it had rained just before they arrived.

A thick smoke that smelled like burned fish seeped from crude chimneys on top of each hut but didn’t rise. It slithered along the top, then fell slowly to the ground where it formed a circle around the outside of the huts and grew darker as more smoke spilled down the sides of the huts onto the ground.

Dana studied the opening of each hut. Most were four to five feet high, a few were taller, one was barely two feet tall. All were dark inside and the feeling she got from all of them made bile rise in her throat.

The sound of a small chime seemed to come from above them, and as the sound rang out, nine men came through the opening of each hut except for the one with the smallest passageway. Their faces were like gray stone, their eyes dark, hair dark or missing; gnarled hands and fingers stuck out of thin, dark brown tunics.

The garb of the men reminded her of the medieval renaissance fair she’d gone to out in Carnation a few summers back. But these people obviously weren’t pretending.

Brandon looked behind him, then turned to Reece. “I’m guessing we go through one of those huts to get to Marcus.”

Reece did a slow spin.“I’m thinking the same.”

Dana glanced at the men’s faces. “And I’m presuming our new friends won’t be completely enthralled with that idea.”

Reece did another slow spin, then addressed a stocky man with a shock of hair that looked like a bird’s nest made of black roots and grasses. “We’d like your help.”

The man stared at each of them for at least five seconds, his gaze finally settling on Reece. “Speak of this help.”

“We have a friend we need to reach. I believe we need to go through one of your huts to get to him.”

“You have spoken rightly.” The man glanced at the others in front of each hut, then back to Reece. “That is the way for you to reach him.”

“May we pass?”

“Yes.”

Brandon turned to Dana and whispered, “It may have taken me a few times to get the lesson, but I think that sounds a little too easy.”

Dana nodded but kept her eyes on the nine men.

Reece took a step toward the stocky man. “You won’t offer resistance?”

“No, you are free to pass through whichever opening you choose.” The hint of a smile appeared on the man’s face and grew into a full-out grin. The men in front of the rest of the huts joined him, and then all of them burst into laughter. When their mirth finally subsided, the man who had spoken to them shuffled forward a few paces.

“Is there anything else we can assist you with?”

Dana looked at the smoke surrounding the outside of the huts, which had grown into an ink-black wall thirty feet high. Reece and Brandon were looking at it too, and she met both their gazes when they turned back. None of them needed to speak. Unless the Spirit decided to offer up a miracle, going outside the cirle of huts wouldn’t be their path to wherever Marcus was. Going into one of the huts was their only option.

“Which is the hut that will take us to our friend?”

“Have you not considered the possibility that the gates here are closed to travelers such as yourselves?”

“No, and there’s no chance of us considering.”

“I understand.” The man motioned with his gnarled hand to each of the openings. “In that case please look on the ten passages
before you. One of them will take you to Marcus Amber. The others will take you to nothing. And if you pass through one of those gates, you will reside in that nothingness for eternity.”

“Is there one you can recommend to us?”

“I am not afforded that honor.” The man grinned for the second time and again his comrades joined in his laughter. “Only the one who made the huts has the right to show you which to choose.”

Reece motioned Brandon and her toward him. He took their shoulders and drew them in close. “Which one—are either of you hearing anything?”

“Nothing,” Brandon said.

“Dana?”

“Same.” But a moment later she did and pointed to her right at a hut that sat back from the circle by only a foot, maybe less. “I have a sense that is our path.”

“How sure are you?”

“It’s only an impression.”

Reece stood straight and stared at the opening, then leaned down again. “Since it’s the only one any of us have received, we’ll go with it.”

“I’m thinking we might want to be a bit surer,” Brandon said.

“That would certainly be nice.” Reece strode toward the hut and stopped at the entrance, waiting for Brandon and her to join him.

The man they’d spoken to started to clap and one at a time the others joined him. Their rhythm was slow and the sound their hands produced was low as if each of their hands were made of tree trunks. Dana came to a halt five feet from the opening, squatted, and stared into the darkness. For an instant a thin ray of light inside the hut shot across her vision, then vanished.

A sign? Again she searched for confirmation from the Spirit and again there was no answer. She stood and walked up to the entrance. The smell of fish was stronger here and turned her stomach.

“Should we try another?” Dana peered at Reece. “It was only an impression and it’s gone now.”

“No, time is even less on our side here than in the other realms. We must act.”

Dana nodded, ducked her head, and forced herself to step through the hut’s opening. Again the shaft of light appeared, then vanished and hope stirred in her. But the instant Dana had cleared the opening, something from behind shoved her onto the dirt floor of the hut and she landed hard on her hands and knees. “Uhhhhh!” Then whatever had shoved her forward landed on her back and slammed her to the floor and knocked the wind out of her. She groped for air and struggled, face pushed into the putrid-smelling ground.

“Dana!” Brandon’s muffled yell floated through the walls of the hut and she heard him push through the opening. She caught her breath and cried out, “No!” but too late. A second later Brandon lay sprawled out beside her.

“Reece, stay out!” But again she was too late and Reece lay quivering on his stomach next to them.

Desolation swept over her. The blackness inside the hut seemed to grow and her thoughts felt thick, as if the mud they’d stood in outside the huts had filled her mind. She tried to get to her knees, but whatever held her down was like iron. Sharp, tiny rocks sliced into her cheeks and tried to force their way into her eyes.

She reached up to block them, but her hands wouldn’t move and the force behind her continued to shove her face harder into the ground. Her vision blurred and blackness started to seep into her mind. Then the ground gave way and she melted through the dirt floor and seemed to be floating down—for how long she didn’t know. The darkness swallowed her and silence pressed in on her. She cried out but her voice made no sound. With each second the darkness seemed to grow thicker as if she were sinking into black glue.

Finally her feet came to rest on a damp, undulating surface as if she stood on an old waterbed leaking tar. Dana felt her face with two fingers. Wet. Blood she guessed, but the pain was minimal. The cuts couldn’t be deep. Small consolation. A feeling of isolation rose up inside. She was alone in the nothingness. There was no doubt.

“Am I alone?” Brandon’s voice, thin and hollow, flittered through the darkness and echoed in her head. Relief thundered through her. “No! I’m here. Reece? Are you there?”

A response came as if from miles away and it echoed. “Yes.”

“Where are we?”

Neither Reece nor Brandon answered.

“I made the wrong choice.”

“I don’t think so,” Reece said. “I’m not sure any of the huts would have led us to Marcus. In fact, I’m sure they wouldn’t.”

“Where are we?” she asked again.

“I don’t know,” Brandon said, his voice growing fainter.

“Don’t leave me!” Dana strained to push through the darkness toward the sound of Brandon’s voice.

“I won’t.”

But his voice came to her even softer than before.

“Spirit, come.” She cradled her head in her hands.

“He’s not here, Dana.” Only a hint of Brandon’s voice came to her now. “You want to know where we are? In nothing. Alone forever.”

Her brain felt like it was stuffed with black cotton. “Reece, help me fight this!”

“Fight? Yes, we have to.” His voice sounded thick and as if he spoke in slow motion.

“We have to get out of here. There has to be a way.” The mud continued to fill her brain and tried to push out thoughts of escape. No, she wouldn’t give in.
You say I can do all things with your strength, Lord? Now would be a good time to fill me up.

“Stay with me, Reece. What would Marcus say if he were here? What would he teach us in this moment?”

“Marcus? The physics professor? He’s the one we’re trying to rescue, yes? Is that why we’re here?”

“What would he say!” Dana screamed the words but the sound sounded like a whisper coming out of her mouth.

“That the observation of quantum events affects the outcome.” Reece’s words sounded like they came to her from oceans away.

“What else?”

“That in the same way, our faith affects the outcome of events.” “Like this one.” The words crossed her lips and fell to the ground, but she had to get them out. And had to keep Reece talking. Speaking truth.

“Yes.”

“So one of our greatest weapons is . . . ?”

“Faith,” Reece said.

“Another?”

“Hope.”

“And the greatest of these?”

Brandon’s voice flittered through the darkness. “The greatest is love.”

“Yes.” It was the first word Dana had spoken since they reached the bottom of the pit that didn’t feel like it had fifty-pound weights on it.

Brandon’s voice grew fifty decibels in volume. “And the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.”

“And with it there has to be a way of escape.” Reece sounded like he was right next to her.

A moment later it felt like ice had been shot into Dana’s veins, and a voice that seemed to come from everywhere interrupted them. The tone was that of the stocky man they’d spoken to outside the huts.

“You are wrong. Here you will stay forever. You know this to be true. Separated from the people you love. Separated from your life on earth. And separated forever from the God you have so blindly and futilely served. You made the choice and now you will live with the decision in utter solitude. You know this to be true. After a month you will give up. In two you’ll go mad. With thirst, with hunger, but you will not die. In three months you will tear each other apart. You know this to be true.”

Dana’s head snapped back. “It can’t be. That can’t be true. It’s a lie.”

“No, it is true,” Brandon muttered.

“Do you think it’s true, Reece? What do you believe, Temple?”

“No, I won’t believe that . . .” The words sounded like Reece spoke underwater and he gasped for air as he pushed his thoughts out. “I believe this voice lies. I believe all that we see here is deception. I believe we have the power to take these thoughts of evil captive to the obedience of Christ.”