MirrorWorld

37.

I wake slowly. Dazed. Half aware of the world around me. Events replay in my mind. I screamed for I don’t know how long. Then passed out. I’ve seen fear do strange things to people, including fainting, but to me? Not a chance.

The memory drags me from sleep a bit. I’m comfortable. In a soft bed. But moving. Undulating.

Carried.

I’m not in a bed at all.

Adrenaline surges. My pulse quickens. My heart feels like it will explode.

I’ve always kind of looked down on people who panic. I’ve never understood it, in the same way the average person can’t understand what floating in zero gravity feels like. Fear was foreign to me.

Was.

Control it, I tell myself. Though I’ve never been good at controlling my impulses, I’m not without discipline. I should be able to wrestle my emotions down enough to act. With building confidence, my pulse slows. A measure of control returns. Now I just need to see where I am.

I open my eyes.

Four bright-yellow split-pupil eyes of a Medusa-hands peer down at me, hovering just a foot above my head. I suck in a tight breath as my whole body seizes. I struggle to move but am still bound. I fight for freedom, fueled by a fresh adrenaline dump in my veins.

I’m scared out of my mind, but I haven’t lost my mind. Yet. I’ve seen the effect the Dread have on others, and this isn’t it. I’m afraid—there’s no doubt. Nearly paralyzed, but I haven’t lost myself to it. This knowledge fuels my defiance, and I return the Dread’s cold stare.

Then it whispers in my head.

Waves of fear wash through my body. My insides twist. I scream, but my voice is raspy and raw. The sound that escapes my mouth is a crackling, ragged thing. My mind slides toward oblivion, shouting, Run! Hide! Escape!

And then some instinctual part of my mind that has been unneeded since the day of my birth asserts itself.

In a flash, I’m free of the tentacles’ grasp.

Pain worms its way through my body, but the fear destroying my mind is gone. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that I can’t breathe.

Where am I?

I’m held still. Perfectly still. Unable to move. Unable to expand my chest to even attempt to breathe. Absolute darkness surrounds me. Grit stings my eyes, so I close them. I manage to exhale and pull a short breath. If there is oxygen in the breath, I don’t feel it. Instead, I get light-headed and detect a trace scent of something familiar.

Dirt.

The reality of my situation snaps to the forefront of my mind, and fear grips me once more. I’ve slipped back into my home dimension—fifty feet below the surface. I’m buried beneath the Old Pine Cemetery, deeper than anyone would ever think to dig.

And if I stay here much longer, I’m going to suffocate.

Think! I will myself. People overcome fear all the time.

But not against the Dread.

They’re ugly as sin, but I can look at them if they’re not trying to inject fear into me. If I take them by surprise, I might be able to escape. They feel fear, too. I’ve seen it. And they seem just as uncomfortable with the emotion as I am.

My lungs burn for a breath, hungry for air.

Not yet, I tell myself. Focus.

Am I armed? I have no memory of the Dread taking my sidearm, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t. Nor do I have a memory of them removing the knives from my hands. I was bound in place, the blades useless.

I try to wiggle my hands, but can’t. The earth hugs me tight. When I slipped out of the mirror dimension, my body replaced the matter that was here and carved out a perfect me-sized space in the soil. But I still should be able to shift my body subtly—unless… It’s not dirt I’m encased in, it’s solid stone. Most of New Hampshire sits atop a bed of granite, and now I’m inside it, trapped like a fossil.

Focus!

I turn my attention to my hands. While cold is seeping into my body from all directions, my fingers feel colder. But is that a circulation issue or are the oscillium knuckles wrapped around them conducting the cold into my fingers? It’s the blades, I decide.

My body quivers and then contracts, unable to even wiggle.

Ignore it.

I visualize my return to the Dread world. There will be a moment of surprise. Just a moment. And if I let fear paralyze me then, I’m done. They’ll probably kill me before I can slip back into my perfectly formed tomb.

Attack, I tell myself. And then run. Run and don’t stop.

My pulse quickens in anticipation.

My lungs scream for air.

Now, I think, now!

Part of me resists the idea of facing those monsters again, but this fate is far worse. I’d rather die fighting and horrified than suffocating as a coward. And only one course of action offers a chance for survival.

I slip back into the mirror dimension and fall atop a bed of flesh.

The tendrils surrounding me snap back in surprise, as do the collection of Medusa-hands who have come close to inspect the location of my disappearance.

Act! I think. Before they do!

I get my feet under me and spin. I haven’t seen the trench knives yet, but I feel the resistance of flesh on their blades as I turn and swing.

Tentacles fall to the floor, spraying purple.

Several Medusa-hands flail back, shrieking, missing tendrils of their own.

I’m close to puking in fright as the tendrils come for me again. I swing twice more, carving a path. I dive free, roll to my feet, and run. Halfway to the exit, I spot my machete on the floor. I scoop it up and return it to the scabbard on my back. As I reach the arched exit to the long circular path, I make a mistake and glance back.

Two of the Medusa-hands, eight eyes locked on me, send a wave of fear in my direction. I scream when it hits me and stumble to the floor. But they’re not the only thing frightening me. At the center of the chamber, the tendrils, some of them hacked in half, bleeding bright purple, rise out of the ground, pushed up from beneath by something larger.

I crush my eyes shut, pushing tears free, and fight the Dread’s fear-inducing effect. My feet slip over the dry floor as I peel out like some kind of Warner Bros. cartoon. Then I’m off, running up the slope. I open my eyes and find the path ahead clear.

The ground shakes. It’s subtle at first, but then powerful enough to stumble me. Fear and adrenaline drive me onward. With every staggering vibration, I gasp in fright and run faster. I’m not sure I’ve ever run so quickly, but the fear also makes me clumsy and more apt to flounder.

Whispers fill my head.

A chill runs up my spine, warning of unseen danger, urging me to turn around.

I look back not really expecting to find anything, but a Medusa-hands is right behind me, tentacles outstretched.

With a shout of surprise, I lash out, burying the trench knife in my right hand into its skull. The body falls slack, pulling me down to the ground. I try to pull the blade free, but it’s stuck. I slip my fingers out of the knuckles and stand, leaving the weapon behind.

Movement catches my attention. The tunnel behind me is alive with motion. An army of Medusa-hands writhes toward me, their external veins and eyes glowing in the semidarkness. All around me, the veins that fill this world pulse with frantic energy. I turn away from the Dread stampede before they can paralyze me with fear and run.

The slow incline frustrates me as the rumbling grows more violent. Whatever was buried in the chamber below is rising.

Coming for me.

A warm, wet breeze makes my cheeks sticky. The smell of rot tickles my nose. Almost there.

Feeling a presence behind me and a chill on the nape of my neck, I draw the P229 and fire blindly. Shrieks fill the tunnel. I don’t know if I’m killing them or just injuring them, but they don’t catch me.

The entrance is just ahead.

A bull appears, its head twitching back and forth, no doubt summoned by whatever is still rising from the earth. Its eyes lock onto me, but before it can react, I act, driven by desperation and guided by instinct and skill. The remaining trench knife stabs up through the Dread’s chin and into its brain. I slip my fingers out of the oscillium knuckles and continue running, leaving the blade behind. The bull mewls and staggers away, not quite dead, but on its way.

I run out into the swampy clearing, slipping in the muck.

As the mob of Medusa-hands charges out behind me, I slip back into my reality and partially out of their grasp. But not completely. If they get their tendrils in my head, who knows what kind of thoughts they’ll put in there. If there is pain from the frequency shift, I don’t notice it. Fear, and its by-product, shock, can numb the mind from physical pain—I’ve heard.

Back on firm ground, adrenaline pumping, vision narrowed, I cover the hundred yards to the ATV in twelve seconds. I jump on the seat, turn the key, and rev the engine. One last peek into the mirror world reveals eight Medusa-hands, twenty yards back and closing fast. Behind them, the lobotomized bull staggers but can’t chase.

None of that fills me with as much trepidation as what happens next. The colony bursts open like an overfull aluminum-foil Jiffy Pop pouch. Massive flakes of the hivelike walls burst into the air. A giant limb, the size of a thick tree trunk, rises from the ground. Its foot, a triangular-shaped pad with long, thick, hooked claws descends to the ground. I can’t feel the impact in this dimension, but I can see the Medusa-hands stagger.

Having seen enough, I blink and see only the cemetery. I know the Dread are still there, coming for me, but not seeing them allows me to calm down. Focus.

I turn the ATV around and tear down the old road, back toward route 202. Despite my escape, return to reality, and speedy retreat, I can’t fight the building fear gripping my chest. Whatever that thing was rising out of the ground, it’s coming for me. Dammit, I think, it’s coming for me.