Beyond the Pale: A fantasy anthology (8 page)

He lowered himself onto the stool, and
slowly held out his right hand. His fingers were trembling slightly, and just
as Jordan took his hand in hers, he noticed a small grouping of cookie crumbs
on his palm. He thought about mentioning it, but before he could, her fingers
had already brushed them away. She squeezed his hand, closed her eyes, and
released a cleansing breath.

That’s what she called it. A cleansing
breath. As if every problem in the world could be lessened by simply taking a
deep breath and letting it out slowly.

Alek took a breath and blew it out. If
nothing else, it didn’t hurt to try.

The room suddenly seemed very quiet,
although it was no more silent than it had been just a moment before. After a
moment, she frowned, as if he’d done something wrong. “Relax, Alek. You have to
relax or I can’t sense what your Gift will be. You’re so tense, I’m not getting
it right now. Just breathe, okay?”

He took a deep breath, and as he released
it, he focused on his muscles, relaxing each and every one as well as he was
able. Maybe his concerns were baseless. Maybe he was just being stupid,
worrying about his Gift. But he’d never know if he didn’t chill out and relax.

“Ahh. Hmmm.” She opened her eyes then, and
averted her gaze from meeting his. She patted him on the hand in a way that was
designed to comfort him, an act that sent his heart into a more concerned
rhythm. Was something wrong? What was his gift? Last year, she’d smiled
brightly right away. The year before, she’d hugged him. But this year, her eyes
were wide with concern and darting all around the room. Maybe his gut had been
right after all. Maybe his Gift wasn’t going to be much of a gift after all. Or
maybe he wasn’t receiving a Gift at all. It would be a first in Misery, unheard
of, but Alek’s imagination was running wild.

He gathered up what courage he could and
asked, “What… what is it?”

She shook her head, and shrugged, a
strange cloud settling over her usually cheerful exterior. “It’s… nothing.”

Jordan blew out a breath, instantly
relaxing. Nothing! It was nothing. He couldn’t have felt more relieved. He
settled back on the mushroom stool, every bit of tension leaving his body. “Oh,
man. That’s great. You have no idea what that means to me, Jordan. I was so
worried all morning that it would be something bad.”

Then Jordan met his eyes at last. She
gripped his hand once again, but this time as if to keep him from running away.
When she spoke, her voice was tinged with panic. “No, Alek. You’re not
understanding me. Your gift. It’s nothing.”

“You mean...” His heart beat twice, hard
and hollow inside his chest. A sick feeling filled his pores, seeping deep
inside of him. “You mean I don’t get a gift this year?”

It was ridiculous and horrible and not
anything at all that could possibly happen in Misery. So why was it happening
to him?

“That’s not what I’m saying.” She cupped
one hand over the top of his and gave it a squeeze, as if trying desperately to
comfort him in a situation where no comfort could be found. “Listen. When I tap
into a person, I generally receive a vision of what their Gift will be. And
this year, yours was… nothing. I saw nothing. It was a cloudy haze. It was… nothing.
For your Gift, you are receiving nothingness. Non-existence.”

The last word she spoke sat in his chest
like a hot stone. “Non-existence? You mean… I’m going to die?”

Everything in the room suddenly seemed
smaller. The table, the mushroom stools, the picture frames, the walls. As well
as every molecule of air that was available to breathe.

“No,” she said, after a too-long pause. “You
won’t die. You’re just not going to
be
anymore. By the end of this day,
you’re no longer going to exist.”

Alek’s heart was pounding in his ears. His
breaths came sharp and quick as the panic took hold of him, and it felt very
much like something had gripped his lungs and was squeezing them as tightly as
it could manage. He shook his head, giving himself over to denial, and met
Jordan’s eyes. He wanted to see even a hint of a smile in them, like this was
all just some sick, cruel joke. But all he found was the truth. He was going to
blink out of existence by the day’s end.

Tears welled up in Alek’s eyes against his
will. This couldn’t be it, couldn’t be the end of him. He was just a kid, just
a teenager. he hadn’t even kissed a girl yet. When he spoke, his voice shook
slightly. “Please, Jordan. You have to help me.”

She grew very quiet, brushing a few tears
from the tip of her nose and her cheeks. He’d fully expected her to shake her
head, to tell him that there was absolutely nothing that they could do to
preserve his future. But she didn’t. After a moment, she released his hand and
sat back in her chair, cradling her arms around her waist, darting her eyes
about the room, as if a thought had popped into her head. One that had deeply
disturbed her.

Alek sat forward, his eyes locked on her
grief-stricken face. “What is it, Jordan? What can I do? There has to be
something! And if you know and you don’t tell me—”

“There is something.” She met his eyes,
and then blinked, as if she were shaking off a bad dream. “Maybe. But I can’t
help you with it. And it might not even work. It probably won’t work at all.”

“But it might.” He wasn’t feeling a burst
of optimism, but he did know that if they, if he, did nothing to prevent
himself from dying, blinking out of existence, whatever you wanted to call it,
then that was exactly what was going to happen. “Please?”

She stood, arms still wrapped around her
waist, and began pacing the small room slowly. “Have you ever heard of a man by
the name of Cameron Boswell, Alek? Probably not. He was here a bit before your
time.”

But Alek did remember him. Not from
memory, but from whispers around town. People said he was a troublemaker.
People said that Misery was better off without him here. But people said little
else about him.

 
She didn’t wait for an answer. She merely
paused for a moment and became lost in thought again, leaving her parlor, Alek,
and the entire town of Misery behind for the time being. In her eyes, Alek
could tell that she was someplace else. Someplace better. Then worse. A brief
smile touched her lips before crumbling away like ashes in the wind. Whatever
she had been thinking about had made her happy—incredibly happy—but
whatever that was gone now, and all that was left were shadows. “He was a kind
man. Outgoing. Generous. But not well liked around town. Maybe it was because
he was different than everyone else. Not in any way that you could see just by
looking at him. But Cameron... Cameron was different.”

Her smile returned long enough to lightly
brush the edges of her lips before fluttering away again. “On his fifth
anniversary in town, Cameron came to me to receive his Gift. It was the same as
yours, Alek. His gift was nothing.”

Alek sucked in his breath. He wasn’t the
first to receive the gift of nothing, and what scared him most about that was
that Cameron was nowhere to be found. Blinked out of existence, maybe. He
swallowed the lump in his throat and said, “What happened to him?”

She moved to the archway and stared out
into the foyer at nothing in particular. Slowly, she raised her right hand and
gripped the drapes gently, as if they might help to steady her should she fall.
“He came to me with this crazy theory. He thought that if he could manage to
leave Misery, he might not cease to exist. If he could somehow get past its
borders and head for the next town, then maybe he’d be alright.”

Alek’s forehead creased as he strained to
recall where exactly the border to Misery was located. Had he ever been to the
edge of town?
Was
there an edge to town? He wasn’t certain. He only knew
that ideas were only crazy-sounding to those who had other options. If Cameron
had actually left Misery, and was living out his days somewhere else, if he had
proven that it could be done, then Alek was totally on board the crazy train,
without hesitation. “Where is it? The way out of town, I mean.”

“I’m not sure anyone really knows. Cameron
thought that you could leave Misery by heading north, and climbing that really
big hill there. He said the other side of it was the border. I don’t know if he
was right or not.”

But Cameron had known. And Alek very much
wanted to know that too. That there was a way out. That he didn’t have to blink
out of existence, just because Misery had deemed it so. He stood at last and
brushed past her into the foyer, determination driving him forward. “I’m going.
I have to try.”

But before his fingertips could make
contact with the doorknob, she gripped the back of his shirt. “Wait! You can
go. You should! But don’t tell anyone else. The people who live here... in a
way, they are Misery. If they know you’re trying to leave... I don’t know. It’s
not safe, Alek. They’ll stop you.”

Alek paused, letting his hand fall back to
his side, before turning back to Jordan. If he didn’t ask her now, he might not
ever know. “How do you know all of this, Jordan? I mean, I get that the Gift
giving is some kind of psychic deal. That’s not exactly a secret. But how do
you know all about Cameron?”

Her eyes glistened with tears, and when
she spoke, her voice cracked slightly. “Cameron and I were engaged.”

Engaged. And then Cameron went away
forever. It had to be an impossible thing to face—losing your fiancé in
one way or another. Either by him disappearing completely or leaving town
forever. “I’m sorry.”

“The day I gave him his Gift, he told Mr.
Whirly and I about his plans to leave. Mr. Whirly used to be a joyous man, full
of a bubbly, infectious spirit. But he changed after hearing Cameron’s plans.
He just seemed... darker.” She lifted the corner of her apron and dabbed at her
eyes. “Cameron didn’t really have a chance after that. He made it to the bottom
of the big hill before he disappeared. I was there. I saw the whole thing
happen. He simply... ceased to be. It was horrible. I don’t want it to happen
to anyone else.”

Alek watched her for a moment, wishing he
could take her pain away. Then he reached out and gave her hand a squeeze. She
squeezed his back, and they exchanged nods before putting on pleasantly false
smiles. By the time Alek opened the door, all seemed well with the two of them,
though it was anything but.

Sara crammed the remainder of a half-eaten
cookie in her mouth and chewed fast before swallowing. As she skipped across
the porch to Alek, who was closing the door behind him, she said, “So? What’s
your Gift?”

Alek smiled, remembering what Jordan had
said about Mr. Whirly. “I can’t tell you just yet. But I know where to go to
get it.”

“That’s weird. Where do you have to go?”
She followed him down the steps, a doubtful crease in her forehead.

Alek paused as they reached the next
block. He had to get rid of Sara, couldn’t risk her changing like Mr. Whirly
had with Cameron. What if Jordan was right? What if the townspeople really were
the town? He couldn’t fully trust anyone. Maybe not even Jordan—something
that sent a nervous chill down his spine. Shrugging casually, he couldn’t help
but notice Virginia toiling in her flowerbeds again. “The north side of town. I
can go get it and bring it back.”

“Don’t be stupid. I’ll come with you.” The
words had no sooner left her mouth than Virginia looked up at them, a burning
curiosity in her gaze. On any other day, Alek might not have noticed such blatant
curiosity. But today was different. Today was his last day in Misery, one way
or the other.

He lowered his voice, trying to keep any
sense of nervousness out of his tone. “I’d kinda like to get it on my own,
okay?”

Sara threw her arms up in exasperation. “Why
are you acting so weird?”

Virginia had stood up then, and approached
her picket fence. Mr. Hoffman had stopped on the sidewalk where he was walking
his poodle. Both stared at Alek with an intensity that solidified his belief in
Jordan’s words.

Alek tugged her sleeve and headed north.
He had no choice but to take Sara with him. “I’m not. Come on then.”

Sara moved up the sidewalk with him, but
slowly, almost reluctantly. They’d moved two blocks before Alek felt eyes on
him, almost burning their gaze into his back. Glancing as casually as he could
manage over his right shoulder, he noticed Mr. Hoffman following from about a
block away. He was pulling back on his poodle’s leash as it barked and showed
its teeth, the way that Alek had never seen it do before. Behind Mr. Hoffman by
a matter of steps was Virginia, who had seemed so kind and caring just a few
minutes before he’d set foot in Jordan’s house. But there was no kindness in
her face now, no smile on her lips. Misery had changed, with the mention of a
single word: nothing.

“Alek, slow down!”

Sara was jogging beside him now. Alek
hadn’t even realized that he’d instinctively picked up his pace. But he
couldn’t slow down, couldn’t face whatever it was that Virginia and Mr. Hoffman
had planned for him.

As he reached the final street block at
the foot of the hill, Sara panting behind him by several feet, he dared a
glance over his shoulder again. Several more townspeople were hurrying to his
current location, none of them looking happy at all. Mr. Whirly was bringing up
the rear. Alek couldn’t be sure, but he swore he saw a large gray crow circling
overhead. But the hill was right there! He was so close to freedom, so close to
being safe. He turned back to the hill with a determined breath. And a familiar
hand fell on his left shoulder.

Alek turned to face Sara. She was still
his best friend, still the girl he told everything too, and why should this be
any different? But as he opened his mouth to explain, his eyes met with hers.
Only her eyes were different now. They sparkled like glass in the sun. Her eyes
were that of the crow’s from the fountain. Because she was a part of Misery as
much as it was. Her mouth contorted into a maniacal grin. “You can’t leave us,
Alek. You can’t ever leave us.”