The Holding Station (Rivercreek Crossing Book 2)

Chapter 1

“For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity. Nevertheless through envy of the devil came death unto the world.”

                                                  -The Holy Bible, Apocrypha, 2:23-24

 She became aware of the darkness before anything else.

Like the universe before God was inspired to create, Reese thought. Good. She could think. Whether God was real or not was another story, but at least she could think. Then she became aware of the silence. If she was home and in bed, there would be traffic sounds even in the dead of night. She waited for anything familiar - a smell, light, shadows. Any clue as to where she was. She wanted to move but had no idea if she was standing, sitting, or lying. She felt like she was floating. No, not floating. More like detached from all physical essence.

"Hello?" Reese called in a low voice. She tried to remember how she got to the dark place, but no memory surfaced. On instinct she called out, "Luke!"

Once his name registered in her mind, the pieces began to fall into place. She was looking for Luke, wasn't she? He was lost and she was going to find him. "Luke!" She called out again, this time louder.

"Reese?" A voice floated by her and all around her. She couldn’t tell from which direction it had come. The boy sounded young, too young to be Luke. But then Reese remembered he had only been twelve when he died.

"Luke? Is that you?" She wanted to move but could not feel her body. She wanted to reach out and willed a phantom arm to move. "What happened to me?" She mumbled to herself.

"Reese? Where are you?" The child’s voice was closer and seemed to be coming from just in front of her.

"I'm here. Can you see me?" Reese wondered if her eyes were open or closed because she couldn't tell. She imagined moving her fingers to her face and was startled when she blinked in response to poking herself in the eye.

A childish laugh rang out so close to her that she thought she could find the source if only she knew which direction it was coming from.

"Of course I can't see you, silly," the child's voice giggled as he spoke. "You have to come out first. Look for the knob."

"The knob?” Reese asked quietly. She recalled Luke having said something about a dark room when he first died. Was she in one of those rooms now? Did that mean she was dead? Oddly the thought did not frighten her.

“Let me see if I can find it. Don’t go anywhere, okay?” Reese called out as she began groping the air in front of her. Air? Was there air all around her? Was she breathing?

Another giggle so close that Reese was certain she could reach out just another couple of inches and feel the child’s head. “I won’t leave you, Reese,” the boy said tenderly.

“How do you know my name?” Reese said in the direction she thought his voice was coming from as she continued patting the nothingness all around her.

“Because you’re Reese. You’re Luke’s sister.” He said it like it was a universal truth and everyone knew who she and Luke were.

She stopped grasping for the unseen knob for a split second. “You know Luke?”

“Of course. Everyone knows Luke.” He sounded proud of the fact.

“Can you take me to him?” She frantically fingered the air. Where the hell were the walls? If she could find a wall she could move along it until she found the door.

“Reese, you’re funny. Luke told me to bring you to him.”

Reese grabbed at her chest with a heave of relief. “Oh my God. Thank you so much. Can you turn the knob for me?”