A Death Displaced (23 page)

‘Hmmm. Sparrows aren’t that shy, maybe we’ve just scared off the other birds?’ Nick put forward.

‘I don’t know. It’s eerily quiet here. But that pool of light … it’s soothing to focus on. Can you feel it?’

He put his mind to the glowing pool and was immensely relaxed by it. ‘But what is it?’ he asked.

‘Don’t call me nuts, but I think it’s a portal.’

‘A portal?’ Incredulous, his eyebrows stood up. ‘A portal to where?’

‘The Otherworld.’

He wasn’t so ready to believe in that. Even though he’d wanted to become a Wiccan in the past and most Wiccans believed in an otherworld, this was just too hard to take in. ‘What? How could you know that? It could be anything. Maybe it’s a natural substance, or maybe it’s manmade. Aldrich could have had this built. There could be lights under the liquid. It just looks like glitter mixed with water and soap.’

‘Do you really believe that?’

‘I … don’t know.’ He huffed, but then focused on the puddle … and felt better. ‘Maybe it is a portal … or I don’t know.’
How could this be possible?

‘I saw something go into it. Not a spirit, but something else.’

‘What was it?’ he asked, and then realised how stupid his question was.
If she knew what it was, then she would have said!

‘I don’t know. It looked like a firefly. But if that
is
a different world through there, then it could have been anything,’ she said, sounding frustrated.

Nick laughed. ‘What? Like a fairy?’

She pulled a stern face, and then smiled. ‘Anyway,’ she diverted, ‘I think the portal spoke to me. When I came here earlier, I was thinking about what the pool was, and then as if it read my mind I heard the answer inside my head.’

‘This is getting more far-fetched by the minute, Juliet. So now you’re saying it’s a telepathic portal to the Otherworld?’

‘Nicolas, stop mocking me and just ask it a question. See if it responds to you,’ she demanded.

Nick ignored her unreadable attitude for the time being and looked over at the sparrow. It hopped about, flicking its head around like it was … assessing them?

‘I feel like that sparrow is watching me; I’ve got stage fright.’  Shyly, he laughed and looked at Juliet. She ignored his comment and waited.

‘Okay …’ He faced the lustrous puddle. ‘What are you?’

No reply.

He turned to look at Juliet. ‘Ask again.’

‘What are you?’
Whatever you are, you weren’t in my vision,
he thought.

Then it came from no particular direction:
Hello, Oracle.

He physically jolted.
It just called me Oracle. Does it know I can see the future?
Are there others like me?

‘What’s the matter?’ Juliet leant near him to ask.

‘I heard it.’

‘I didn’t hear anything ...’ She appeared bewildered. ‘What did it say to you?’

‘I don’t really know what it said,’ he lied. ‘It wasn’t very clear. I’ll try again. What are you?’

It rumbled in his mind:
Well, I’m certainly not Moloch.

Not wanting to share his knowledge of the sacrificed children with Juliet, he’d already decided to tell her in the future. She didn’t need to know now; it would only make the circumstances harder for her too.

‘But what
are
you then?’ he asked impatiently.

:
You don’t need to know that.

‘Fine,’ he resigned. ‘Then where are you?’

:
The Otherworld.
  

Turning to Juliet, he said, ‘It said it was in the Otherworld. I think it
is
a portal.’

‘Nicolas, Tamara told me that my soul is in the Otherworld. If I could get it back, I think I would stop seeing the spirits … I’d be normal again.’ She frowned, and Nick thought she seemed vulnerable.

‘Please don’t tell me you’re thinking of going through there?’ Reprovingly, he shook his head.

She pivoted, looked away. Then she swung back around and said, ‘It’s my choice. I don’t need your approval.’ She started forward.

Nick grabbed her wrist, but she yanked it free. ‘Juliet. Just wait, please. We don’t know what’s on the other side, like you said. There could be anything! Give it a bit more thought, five minutes, and I promise I won’t try to stop you if you decide to go through.’

‘Why should I wait?’

‘Because if you don’t, and you go through there now, then I will follow you. Do you want to risk both our lives?’

She gave him a look which could only portray: Are you for real? Then she said, ‘If I go through there, and you follow me, then it’s
your
choice to follow me, and
you
are putting your life in danger. I’m not taking responsibility for your actions.’

He wasn’t sure if she was being purposefully cold and hard-hearted, but her words stung him. He supposed what she said was fair;
I’m an adult, my choices are my own.

‘Okay.’ He sighed. ‘I shouldn’t try to guilt-trip you. But let me ask as a favour instead. Please just give it at least five minutes?’

She looked up at the haloed sky through the tree-tops as if it could provide a solution. Her shoulders lifted and then dropped. ‘Sure. I’ll wait.’

‘Thank you. I’m going to try find out more from it before you make a decision.’

The little sparrow was motionless, and Nick thought,
Is it watching us?
He remembered the seagull outside of Creaky Crystals in Amiton before the car incident, and the crow that had clunked on his bonnet earlier today.

The portal spoke:
The seagull, the crow, the sparrow.

‘What?’ said Nick.

Silence.

He thought about what Juliet had said. That she was thinking about the pool of light when it had responded to her.
Do I have to talk aloud? Or can I speak to it in my head?

:
Yes, in your head.

He heard the answer,
feeling
it inside his skull, like his own thoughts. It was pervasive and unnerving to have someone (or something) else’s thoughts so clearly in his mind.

Aiming back at the portal, he thought
, Okay, why does Aldrich think you are Moloch? What happened to the children he sent into the light?

:
Aldrich is an idiot, desperate to believe in a higher reason for his killings. In the past, he burnt the children in worship to a false god. Now he sends them through here. They are better off on this side.

The portal’s ‘voice’ was clear, but oddly it seemed to say everything simultaneously, yet Nick could pick out and understand the separate strands.

He directed his thoughts again.
How many of you are there? What use do you have for the children? Aldrich said he sacrificed roughly one every ten years or so. Why? Are they alive on your side?

:
You ask too many questions. Why not come through yourself? Please do, I’d love to have your company. Your first name is Nicolas, what is your full name, Oracle?

No,
he mentally replied, desperately trying not to think his middle or last name, in case the portal read them.

Juliet interrupted, ‘Nicolas, are you talking with it in your head? What is it saying?’

: Nicolas, Nicolas, Nicolas ...

The portal sung his name to a creepy tune. ‘I don’t trust it, Juliet. I don’t think you should go through there,’ he said, almost desperately.

‘Well, I haven’t heard it say anything, so why should I trust your judgement? How am I supposed to know you’re not hiding important things from me? I’ve seen you keep information from your brothers already.’ Juliet spoke forcefully, demanding justification.

‘I know you’ve seen me dodge the truth, but you know the reasons I didn’t tell them everything. I’m trying to protect them, and I’m trying to protect you.’

Then they heard a male’s voice, panicked and crying out. Nick and Juliet both shifted to listen. Whoever was shouting, they were saying, ‘Help!’ and wailing a man’s scream.

‘My brothers. We have to go back.’ Nick spoke fast.

They rocketed towards the entry bush of the clearing, but before they reached it they were vaulted off their feet. They tumbled and scraped along the floor. A stentorian boom let loose, and fire billowed from the steps, followed by a cloud of black smoke.

The portal had exploded and the steps began to crumble inwards. The ground in the centre swirled like a whirlpool, eating up the steps. It sounded like bones and rock scraping, cracking, splitting.

Nick, propped up on his elbows, watched in fascination. ‘What … the …?’ he almost said. ‘I told you we couldn’t trust that portal.’

Smoke caught in his throat and he coughed violently. The explosion, like fire, the steps, the smoke, the choking sensation. No time to think. The explosion had chucked him a good few metres, and his bruises were fresh with pain.
Again!

The little sparrow was gone; the noise must have frightened it. Nick could no longer hear the demulcent humming from the portal, only crunching and the earth shifting.

Rising to her feet, Juliet stared at the transforming ground, her expression unreadable. ‘My soul …’ she said, low in volume.

‘We need to get back to my brothers.’ Nick stood up and brushed down his clothes.

After a grinding roar that came to an echoing stop, the earth settled into a flat muddy area as if the portal had never existed.

‘It’s gone.’ Juliet didn’t move.

‘
We
need to go!’

It was colder now. The soothing effect of the portal was no more, and goose bumps prickled over Nick’s skin. He looked up and noticed the trees had begun to change. Rapidly. Their vivid green leaves browned and withered. The lavish foliage shrunk, giving sight to the brisk white sky.

Crinkled leaves fell from the branches. It reminded Nick of nature documentaries where they video recorded something over days, weeks, or months and then played it back, but sped up. This looked the same.

Juliet finally drew her attention away from the buried portal, and headed for the bush. Nick joined her and they ran through the woods the way they had come. The beautiful flowers were now rotted and flat. The trees shed their newly-browned leaves, showering down.

The ground steadily disappeared in the piling up of autumn, and running became difficult. Nick was mesmerised by it all and wanted to stop and watch the transformation, but he heard the man shout again. It sounded like Aldrich, so he picked up his pace.

Nick and Juliet made it back. A fallen leaf or two had snagged onto Juliet’s black jumper. She stroked them off, huffing at the state of her clothes, but when she looked up, the shock in her eyes stabbed horror into Nick’s chest.

Appearing bewildered, Tommy shuffled on the spot, near the tree Aldrich
had
been propped against.  

‘Tommy …’ Nick put a hand to his forehead, his face dropping. ‘Where’s Aldrich?’

Chapter 18

Staring blankly at where Aldrich should have been, a fear crept up inside of Juliet, shaking her.
Where is he?

Aldrich’s mind ability was all she could think about. Pivoting, she glanced through the trees in an attempt spot him. Nothing. No movement. No sounds.

All that was left behind was the chocolate-brown throw, and the black wire that had been used to tie Aldrich’s hands.

At any moment, he could come back and take control of me.
Her body went rigid with anger.
No … Maybe if I stay alert, I can keep control of myself …?

‘What was that noise? That loud bang? And that weird rumblin’ sound?’ she heard Tommy ask, even though Nick was waiting for an answer to where Aldrich was.

In disbelief, Nick answered, ‘It was some odd contraption in the woods; maybe a trap that Aldrich had built, or some kind of machine.’ He sounded impatient. ‘We couldn’t tell. It blew up.’

Even in her panic Juliet sighed, irritated at Nick’s persistent lies. She could understand why he bended the truth about the portal, but what upset her was how readily and easily he fabricated reality.

‘Someone might have heard it. They could be on their way,’ said Tommy.

‘I doubt it; the nearest houses are over two miles away,’ Nick said, fast. ‘
Anyway
, answer my question. Where’s Aldrich?’

‘I … I don’t know.’ He shook his head, squinting confusedly.

Nick looked to Tom.

‘Tommy took off the blindfold ... and the rest is kind of cloudy.’

‘Aldrich’s blindfold … you took it off?’ Nick’s head swung back to Tommy. ‘Are you insane?’

Tommy stuttered, deep mumbling sounds.

‘Well, uhhh, you can’t just tell us it’s his fault Mum’s dead and then walk off.’ It seemed he was trying to sound sure of himself, but he wasn’t quite there yet.

‘I said I was going to tell you everything. You could have just waited.’

And then he found his attitude. ‘Yeah right, like I can trust
you
, Nick. Yuh ditch everyone when the goin’ gets tough. Like yuh left me and Tom with Dad. You’re selfish. Always have been.’

Juliet’s face scrunched up. She couldn’t believe they were arguing like children when a man who’d tried to kill them, a man who’d killed their mother, was on the loose.

‘But why did you take the blindfold off?’

‘He said he’d tell us everythin’.’

‘And
did
he?’

‘More than
you
told us,’ Tommy answered stubbornly, as if the results justified his actions.

Nick huffed and threw his arms up. ‘How do you know that, Tommy? Maybe he got inside of your head like he did to Juliet.’

‘
Hey!
’ Juliet stressed in a loud whisper. They all stared at her. ‘We need to find him … or get out of here.’ Then she remembered something.

The shotgun
. About to say ‘The shotgun is still in the manor; he might have gone back for it’, she stopped, in case Aldrich was listening nearby. The thought gave her the sensation of bugs crawling all over her body.
What if he has gone to get it? He’ll come back. He’ll hunt us down …