NightWhere

Chapter Forty-Nine

NightWhere

“Turn here,” Selena said softly. She pointed at an old farmhouse surrounded by a stand of maples and pines. They’d been driving for almost forty-five minutes to get clear of the suburbs. The highway had gone from four lanes to two after they’d passed Wheaton, and traffic went from scarce to nonexistent when they’d pulled down a potholed farm lane. The landscape now consisted of long rolling hills bordered by scrub trees and fences to keep the livestock in.

Mark pulled the Sonata into a gravel driveway. At least three dozen cars and SUVs were parked in the grass near an old barn behind the house. “Just follow the crowd,” Selena said.

Mark pulled around a row of vehicles and parked near the driveway. Easy exit, he thought.

When he turned off the key, Selena grabbed his arm. “Please don’t do this,” she said. “I’m begging you not to go. I can give you what you need.” One bloodred tear trailed down her cheek.

Mark took a deep breath and, with his finger, wiped the trail away. “I have to do this,” he said. “You know I do.”

“I can’t help you anymore once you go inside.”

“I know,” he said. “Stay here? And stay out of sight.”

He kissed her once again, tasting the despair on her lips. Earlier, after they’d left the pawnshop and found a secluded forest preserve to park in, she’d tasted urgent, wanting, demanding. Now her lips tasted bitter, defeated.

The door on the front of the barn opened, letting light escape briefly into the night. A half-dozen people came walking out together, and the door shut behind them. But Mark could see the shadows bobbing across the gravel. They were headed towards Mark’s car.

Jesus, could they be onto him already?

Mark’s stomach froze. He slipped lower in his seat, and he motioned for Selena to do the same.

And then just as quickly, he relaxed. The group dispersed as soon as they reached the rows of cars.

“The night is winding down,” Selena said. “They’ll all begin filing away soon. First the newbies, then the regulars. And then the inner circle will finish their rituals and the last of the visitors will leave for the night. Just as we should.”

Mark nodded. “I need to hurry.”

He eased the car door open and stepped out. The early morning air was cool and moist-heavy with fog and dew-pregnant with the coming day. He drew it into his lungs in a long, deep breath as he patted the knife in his back pocket and the pistol in his front.

It might be the last time he tasted the predawn air.

Selena sat like a statue in the front seat of the car. She would not look at him as he closed the door. Mark shrugged and turned towards the barn. He got it. Selena thought she’d had him “hooked” and here he was risking his life for another woman. A woman Selena probably thought of as a worthless, evil slut.

But Mark had allowed Rae to be caught up in the allure of NightWhere. It seemed like a cult to him, in the end. And the only way to save someone from the brainwashing of a cult was to sever all connection to it. You had to force them away from the people who were playing with their heads.

If Kharon and the Watchers were all demons…then Mark had to believe they were using some kind of spell over Rae. The woman he loved and had lived with for years would never have considered using him as a sacrifice before.

He bent low and crept softly through the rows of cars. He didn’t want to be noticed by any hidden sentries before he was at the door. He’d have to move really fast then; he didn’t need them to be tipped off any sooner.

Mark stepped past the impromptu parking lot and began to follow the barn wall to the main door the crowd had just exited.

A cool hand grabbed him by the wrist.

“Mark, wait.” Selena whispered. She pulled on his arm until he backtracked around the corner of the barn. “I know a better way,” she said. “You can’t just walk in the front door waving a gun around. They’ll take you down before you ever leave the Blue Room.”

“I’ve never seen another entrance,” he whispered.

“There is. There’s a door to the Field of Flesh,” she said. “If you walk through there, you’ll come out in the hallway that leads down through the center of The Red. Once you pass the whipping rooms and the rooms of mutilation, atrocity and desecration, you’ll arrive at the final room before The Black. You can’t go anywhere but through, or back. That room is where you were last night, and it’s where Rae will be tonight. It’s used for the rite-of-passage room to The Black.”

Mark nodded. “Sounds much better than forcing through the front door.”

“Just remember,” she warned. “Do not listen to anything you hear in the field. Like everything in NightWhere, it’s a poisonous place. It will play on all of your fears. It will twist whatever love you have into hate and try to turn what you hate into love.”

“Ears closed,” he said.

She led him to a small side door in the barn. “I can’t go inside,” she said. “They’d be on me in a heartbeat.”

Mark nodded. “Thanks for getting me this far.”

She leaned in to kiss him. “Please don’t let them catch you,” she said. “I gave up too much for you to die now.”

“I won’t,” he promised.

He eased the door open, but still it squealed in the quiet of night. Just as he slipped inside, Selena said one more thing.

“Mark, I love you. I always have.”