The minute I got home I tried video messaging Mr. Saltzman but there was no response, so I sent him a text urging him to call me as soon as possible. I started to explain about Wendy and the events of the day, but I decided against it at the last second. I didn't think it was safe to send that kind of information out into some nebulous technological cloud that could later be used against me.
I didn't understand why it was taking him so long to call me again. Was he in some kind of trouble? I didn't want to jump to any conclusions, but I couldn't shake the sense of foreboding that was growing in the pit of my stomach. My computer dinged, alerting me to an incoming text from Marv.
Heard about Alex. Crazy! We beat Lincoln 21 to 7!!! Just stopped for dinner and about to get back on bus. Reception is shitty, battery low. Will call when I get in and charge phone.
I immediately sent him a message, indicating that there was a lot more to the story and that we needed to speak right away. I debated alluding to the video Mr. Saltzman had shown us, if only to drive my point home, but I didn't dare risk it. I waited patiently for a response, but I didn't get one.
I received an email letting me know that classes were cancelled for the following day. I guess the administration didn't want to take any chances in case there was some undiscovered bomb hidden somewhere on campus. I just couldn't believe how incomprehensively out of hand the whole situation had become.
I walked over to my closed window and looked across the orchard. I could see the dark outline of Mr. Saltzman's two-story Victorian in the distance. I'd forgotten to leave the lights on for Graham in my rush to get back to the café. I felt bad for the poor Great Dane all alone in the dark, empty house.
I had just changed into my pajamas when I had an idea. I walked to the end of the hallway and knocked on my aunt's bedroom door, but she didn't respond. I made my way downstairs and found her making herself a late night snack in the kitchen.
"Is it okay if I bring Graham over here tonight? Mr. Saltzman is still out of town and he's been locked up in the house all by himself." I poured it on as thick as possible. "He can sleep in my room."
She didn't answer right away. She'd never been warm to the idea of pets and even complained under her breath on the rare occasion when a customer with a service dog walked into the café. The fact that she hadn't immediately shut me down was a good sign. "I don't want him making a mess in the house."
"He won't," I promised, "he's better house trained than Tanner."
My comment elicited a rare smile from her. "I guess I owe you one after today. He can stay in your room, but if he starts barking in the middle of the night you'll have to take him back."
I wrote Mr. Saltzman a quick note explaining that Graham was going to be staying with me for the night. I told him it was very important that he come over as soon as he got in, no matter how late it was. I underlined the word important several times to emphasize my point. My aunt would be cranky if the doorbell rang in the middle of the night, but time was running out and the feeling that something worse was coming was only growing stronger by the hour.
The city had never bothered with streetlights on our block, so I made my way to Mr. Saltzman's house in darkness. I usually used my phone as a flashlight and felt another wave of anger towards Wendy for having broken it.
The on and off again rainy weather over the last few days had caused the temperature to drop dramatically. The murky moonlight was dampened further as it slipped behind a low hanging cloud. I taped the note to the front door before unlocking it, and braced myself for Graham's enthusiastic greeting, but the Great Dane was nowhere in sight. I peered into the dark living room and tried not to think of the coffin sitting in the locked room as I ran my hand against the wall feeling for the light switch. I took a step inside the house and called Graham's name.
The house remained still for a few moments, but then I heard muffled sounds coming from the second floor. The big dog's shadow appeared at the top of the staircase, startling me a little. Graham slowly hopped down the stairs and put his head into my hand. I was so relieved to see him that I pressed his giant head against my chest and squeezed tight. I finally managed to find the light switch. Well, it wasn't so much a switch as it was a button that you pressed into the wall.
I grabbed his blanket, his favorite chew toy, and a doggy bag with a few treats in case I needed him to behave. I was about to put his leash on when he ducked out of reach and ran into the front yard. If he made a break for the woods I would be royally screwed, but he didn't run away. His tail wagged the entire way back to my house. He playfully pulled his toy out of my hand before shoving it back to me. Before I opened the front door, I leaned over so we were face to face. The dog stared back intently.
"You have to be good for me," I said, trying to get my point across, "okay?" Graham responded by licking me from chin to forehead.
As soon as I opened the door, he bolted into the living room and began sniffing everything in sight. I held his leash at the ready, prepared to snap it on and drag him out of the house in case he got any funny ideas, but he seemed content just to smell every piece of furniture. Next he waltzed into the kitchen where my aunt was finishing up some paperwork. She ignored us, but she didn't ask me to get him out of there. Graham took his time sniffing every bit of the floor. He must have smelled food, but he wouldn't find so much as a crumb. My aunt prided herself on keeping an immaculately clean home.
I laid out his blanket at the foot of my bed and gave him his toy. Graham appeared determined to rip the head off its body. I shut the lights off and listened to the steady sound of chewing for a few minutes before I fell into a deep sleep.
* * *
It was the middle of the night and the Great Dane's low growling woke me up. I sat up in bed and rubbed the sleep from my eyes. His front paws were perched on the windowsill, his large ears flat against his head.
"Stop that," I said groggily. "I already took you out on a walk."
He turned his head, looked back at me, and whimpered. That's when I saw the silhouette of a human form on the other side of the window duck out of sight. I jumped out of bed, my heart hammering in my chest. I slipped into my sneakers and ran down the stairs. I wasn't exactly quiet about it, but accidentally waking up the entire household in the middle of the night was the least of my worries.
Graham shot past me as soon as I opened the front door and tore down the porch steps. I don't know what Wendy thought she was doing, but she wasn't going to get away with it. Invisible or not, Graham would surely be able to sniff her out.
I turned the corner of the house and stopped directly below my window, expecting to find Wendy still climbing down the ladder. But there was no Wendy and no ladder. I was hit with the immediate realization that Marv and I had locked the ladder in Mr. Saltzman's house. How, then, had Wendy managed to get to the second floor window? Was she able to fly as well? I searched the night sky for her but couldn't see anyone.
Perhaps it had been nothing more than a trick of the moonlight. Graham sniffed the ground and looked up at me. I could see the same confusion in his eyes that I was feeling. His ears twitched and he whipped his head around. He took off running towards the back of the house barking wildly. I chased after him, deeply aware that my aunt was going to be pissed.
Graham disappeared around the corner of the house. His barking cut off momentarily, followed by a high-pitched yelp. It was beyond chilling. I skidded around the corner, but Graham was nowhere in sight. The moon slipped out from behind a cloud and cast a silver light over our dusty backyard. I called out his name and got an anxious whine in response from somewhere above me. I looked up and saw Graham was standing on the edge of our slanted roof. He began to whimper in earnest. I had to get him down before he slipped off.
Someone grabbed me around my waist and lifted me straight up into the air at an alarming speed. Within seconds my house was nothing more than a miniscule dot below me. I fought off a wave of nausea. It felt like I had left my stomach back on the ground.
We flew through a thick cloud and the temperature dropped by a dozen degrees, at least. It was like breathing in ice water. My lungs and chest began to ache. I couldn't see anything but white mist all around me. It was an incredibly claustrophobic experience. I gasped for air, which only made my chest and lungs ache even more. I began to fight back. I kicked my legs wildly and tried to get in a solid punch, but I wasn't able to land one. The cloud began to dissipate around us until I could see patches of glittering lights through the breaks in the clouds. We were impossibly high up.
A numbness spread throughout my body as the temperature dropped even further. I was so frightened of falling to my death that I was having difficulty concentrating. I felt Wendy's grasp falter for just a second. I used the opportunity to turn my body around and slammed the palm of my hand into her face. My unforeseen attack caused her to lose her grip and sent her tumbling away from me, completing two feet over head revolutions before coming to a halt in an upright position. I realized I had been very wrong. It wasn't Wendy. It was the figure of a man.
The two of us faced one another with nothing but thousands of feet of air below us. The man was wearing some sort of black mask, which completely hid his features. His long trench coat flapped violently in the harsh wind.
"Who are you? What do you want?" It hurt to talk, and I found myself having to shout into the wind to make myself heard.
The figure tilted his head slightly. I thought I was going to pass out from sheer terror. My body was completely numb, my teeth were chattering, and my head was pounding with the sound of ten thousand drums.
The Silhouette shot up into the night sky. Before I even knew what I was doing, I took off after him. I flew as if by instinct. I willed myself forward against the freezing air that was numbing my body. It was hard to see anything with so much cold air pummeling my face. I was forced to continually blink to keep my eyes from drying out.
The Silhouette slipped into a patch of clouds above me. I let out a cry as I slipped into them as well. I knew I couldn't take the cold much longer. I had no idea in what direction I was flying, but I kept my arms locked in front of me in case I accidentally collided with him. I shot out of the clouds and saw the city of Kane far off in the distance. I searched the sky, but there was no sign of him anywhere. I turned around and squinted towards the clouds behind me, thinking I had perhaps managed to get ahead of him.
After nearly a full minute of slowly backing away to keep the clouds from enveloping me, it was clear that I had lost him. I couldn't feel my body any longer and my teeth were chattering uncontrollably. I began to descend until I could feel the air grow warmer.
I couldn't believe I was actually flying. It was terrifying and exhilarating all at once. I didn't allow myself to stop and think about what I had just achieved in case it broke the spell and I found myself crashing back down to Earth.
Finding my way back home wasn't difficult. It was the last house in our town before the landscape went dark. I flew at a steep downward angle and felt all the blood rushing to my head. My aunt's house grew bigger and bigger until it was no longer a dot on the ground.
Graham wasn't on the roof. I desperately scanned the perimeter of the house hoping he hadn't gotten hurt in the fall. I stopped several hundred feet off the ground and did a thorough search of the roof and the surrounding area, but I couldn't locate him anywhere. That's when I noticed an object in the dirt glimmering slightly in the moonlight. I accelerated towards it until I was about ten feet off the ground. I tried to slow down but I didn't have any actual brakes, so I crash landed on the ground and did a couple of somersaults before I came to a stop. I tried to shake the pain off as I searched for the glimmering object. I spotted Graham's dog collar just a few feet away. I picked it up and noticed it had been torn off.
A bright light caught me off guard and blinded me. I covered my eyes with my free hand, trying to see who it was.
"Jackson," I heard my aunt say. "What the hell is going on?"