As she was rinsing the last beaker and turned to her right to place it on the drying mat, she caught a glimpse of someone standing nearby. With a shriek, the glass beaker fell from her hand onto the floor and her heart slammed against her ribs like it was trying to escape the prison of her body. It was Heidi.
“Why won’t you speak to me?” Harmony asked, struggling to keep her voice from shaking.
The woman didn’t answer. In the daylight streaming through the topmost part of the windows, she appeared to be glowing. The upbeat music in the background would have been comical if Harmony hadn’t been so scared.
“Why are you following me?” The woman suddenly looked sad. “You are beautiful.” Harmony said as if she had just realized this fact.
Harmony wasn’t sure what made her blurt it out, but the comment seemed to please Heidi. She placed her right hand flat against her lips and moved it outward in what Harmony recognized as the ASL sign for “Thank you”. Heidi then turned to leave.
“Don’t go! Sign to me. I’ll figure it out. I need to know what’s going on.”
Heidi ignored these words and continued to walk towards the metal closet, and Harmony noticed the door was hanging open. Heidi’s footfalls made no sound on the concrete floor, which was even stranger.
At that moment, Harmony decided she wouldn’t allow her fear to get the best of her. She stepped over the broken glass on the floor and rushed after Heidi. As her hand reached out to touch the girl, it passed right through. Harmony’s skin tingled and her mind exploded into a vision of Arrow. He was in a jail cell somewhere and looked miserable.
When the vision cleared, she saw that her touch hadn’t slowed Heidi in the slightest and that she was already disappearing into the darkness. “Where is Arrow?? Where are you keeping him?” She called.
She continued to run after Heidi and when she was level with the doorway of the supply closet, she looked inside and saw nothing but mist. It only took her a moment to deliberate on what she should do and then she continued to follow her. The mist quickly turned into thick fog and she was unable to see more than a foot in front of her. The temperature had shifted abruptly from the heated mansion to cold. The ground beneath her was firm earth with patches of grass here and there. The lack of visibility made the world around her seem vast and claustrophobic at the same time.
“Heidi!” She screamed one final time before her foot hit a tree limb and she went flying face-first into a creek.
Sputtering, she pulled herself up out of the cold mud and coughed up water and leaves. Up in the tree, she heard the shrill cry of a crow followed by distant rumbling. More cautious now, she pulled herself onto a large stone nearby and listened harder. The rumbling continued as if a storm was coming. She still could only see slivers of the tree that had tripped her and a creek.
It occurred to her that this couldn’t possibly be inside Zion’s supply cabinet. It also occurred to her that this was not outside the mansion. It was bright and sunny before and now she was somewhere else entirely.
Standing to her feet, she tried to reorient herself and head back the way she came. She was certain it wasn’t very far from where she stood so she felt confident. Heidi was nowhere to be found, and Harmony reasoned that it wouldn’t help Arrow if she didn’t have a clue where she was.
After more than ten minutes of wandering, her confidence waned. There was no doorway and the fog continued to be as thick as ever. She was much more careful with where she stepped so she didn’t fall into any more creeks, but that didn’t do anything to ease the rising panic welling in her throat.
Even though she thought she was heading away from the storm, the ominous rumbling continued to echo in the space. She jumped at the cries of unidentified animals and began to see strange things lying on the path below her feet that she couldn’t describe. She hoped that if she kept moving forward she would stumble across something or find someone, but she was beginning to doubt that anybody would be able to survive in this place. Heidi must have led her into a trap.
Even though she wasn’t religious, she said a prayer to whichever entity would listen. As if in answer to her prayer, a figure suddenly appeared in the fog. She could not identify any distinguishing characteristics, but from the outline, it appeared to be a woman in a dress or cloak.
“Hello?” Harmony’s voice quivered, but it seemed loud in this place.
The figure did not answer but continued to move towards her. Everything in Harmony’s body was telling her to run from danger, but her mind was trying to reason that maybe this person was lost like her and that her anxiety was playing tricks on her.
Her instincts were right the first time though, because the familiar horrific face of the impaled woman at the gas station appeared and was moving faster in her direction. Without any concern for the tree roots beneath her feet, she ran away from the danger and off the beaten path.
***
Pat and Zion arrived back at the main house and went to the dining room for a late dinner. Pat was much hungrier than he expected. He and Zion continued to chat over their meal and Pat had to admit he was beginning to like this man. Zion’s joy was contagious and Pat could feel it in his bones. Pat didn’t recognize himself when he wasn’t sad.
“I think we should go get Clive after dinner, then head back to the lab.” Zion said happily.
“Where do you think he is at?”
“I’d say we should check his room first. Maybe he just needed a day off.” Zion stood and dropped off his dirty dishes in the kitchen. Pat followed suit.
Once they had said hello to practically every resident in the place, they were finally outside Clive’s room. Zion knocked loudly and called out. As they waited a few beats, the only sound they heard was distant chattering from downstairs.
“Dr. Evers?” Zion called again and rapped on the wood surface. “Maybe something’s wrong.” He muttered as he pulled a ring of keys from his pocket.
Once inside the room, it was apparent that Clive wasn’t there.
“Maybe he’s already in the lab.” Pat offered.
“You could be right.” Zion conceded brightly.
Clive was not in the lab either, but Pat immediately noticed that it was much cleaner than how they had left it.
“Did you leave the closet open?” Zion asked, pointing to the supply closet at the end of the room.
Pat shook his head. Zion walked around the tables and made a beeline for the supply cabinet, but before he could get there, his shoes crunched something on the floor. Pat looked down and saw Zion picking glass shards from the bottom of his shoes. For a room that had just been cleaned, the glass on the floor was odd. Zion’s eyes widened and he hurried over to the closet. As Zion peered inside, Pat followed him, making sure to avoid the broken glass.
“I think we have what we were looking for in our very own lab.” Zion breathed.
“What do you mean?” Pat took several long strides to stand beside Zion and peered curiously into the cabinet. As Zion moved aside slightly, Pat could see that a dense fog seemed to fill the space and a few black tree limbs seemed to be reaching for the two men. A vicious pleasure rose inside him as he sensed this place was similar to the place from his portal at home.
“I wonder if somebody might have been taken.” Zion wondered aloud.
“Taken?”
Zion nodded slowly, the wheels turning behind his eyes. Finally, he said, “Do you think Dr. Evers has been taken?”
“If he had, wouldn’t we have seen this before we left?”
“He could have come down here later.” Zion suggested. He then sighed and looked to the ceiling. “May the good Lord preserve whoever has been taken.”
