Chapter 1
Taylor turned around and looked at Shannon. He motioned toward her daughter, Ellie, and Mayer took the hint.
“Tania, can you take Ellie next door? She can draw in there.”
“Of course.” Tania bent down and smiled at the small girl. “Let’s get your things.”
“Okay.”
Everyone waited as the two crossed the room and gathered Ellie’s things. Walking back toward the door, Shannon knelt down and gave her daughter a warm squeeze and kiss.
Once gone, Taylor turned back to Evan. “You don’t have much time.”
He looked nervously to Dr. Mayer. Rounding the chair, he took another step backward.
Taylor gazed down at him intently. “You know it’s true, don’t you?”
Evan still didn’t answer.
“The pain should be in your chest by now. Soon your respiratory system will freeze up, and you won’t come back out.” He took another step closer. “Trust me. I know what’s happening to you. The symptoms may be even stronger in you, which means it’s escalating more quickly. In a week, you’ll be dead.”
“I…I…don’t believe you.”
A wry grin spread across Taylor’s lips, and he leaned closer. “Oh, yes, you do. You believe me, and you’re scared to death.”
He was right. Evan had just met the man…but he did believe him. The episodes were rapidly becoming worse again, just like before. And last time he’d ended up in the hospital and barely made it back out alive.
“Evan?”
He looked back at Dr. Mayer, who quietly approached from behind Taylor. Unlike Taylor, her expression was calm and reassuring. Evan promptly stopped his retreat when his right calf bumped against the psychiatrist’s leather couch.
“Evan,” she said again. “The Valium was a mistake. I’m sorry. I didn’t know until Mary called me this morning.”
“It makes it worse,” Taylor added. “But you know that now, don’t you?”
Evan stared at them both before reluctantly nodding.
“And you know what I’m telling you is the truth.”
He knew. That morning he was barely able to get out of bed. It felt like his heart simply wanted to stop beating; something he’d never felt before. And it scared the hell out of him. Until recently, most of the stress his body experienced during an episode, he couldn’t even feel. Not until he came out of it. But now he could feel it even when he was unconscious, while he was having the vision. And now it was happening every night, without fail. After what had happened that morning, Evan was petrified to go to sleep again.
After a long moment, he peered back up at Taylor. “Can you help me?”
Taylor straightened and looked back at both Shannon and her sister, Mary. “Well, I sure as hell didn’t spend three days on a bus for nothing.” He motioned behind him. “And next to a woman who wouldn’t stop talking.”
Evan’s composure softened and he reached to the side, leaning slightly on the arm of the couch. Dr. Mayer had told Evan they’d found someone with the same disorder. He didn’t know what he had been expecting, but it sure wasn’t this.
“So,” he said, with a slight shrug. “When do we start?”
“You’re out of time, kid. We start right now.”
Evan felt a streak of nervousness run down his spine as he thought about something Taylor had just said. Any day could be the day that he didn’t wake up again.
What if that day was today?
Chapter 2
The airport, or LAX, was located sixteen miles from downtown Los Angeles. It was the sixth busiest airport in the world as measured by passenger traffic, serving over sixty-three million passengers a year. Yet it was LAX’s fifteen thousand open parking spaces that also made it an ideal destination for finding a throwaway car, complete with a fresh set of plates.
Most cars parked in a lot near a major airport weren’t expected to be used for at least a few days, providing him more than enough time to use the white minivan before disposing of it. This one even had plenty of gas.
A hundred and fifty miles later, he reached his search area and began circling. The farther away from where the car would be reported missing, the better.
He’d always mused over how much of the public’s knowledge of child abductions was wrong. The vast majority were not committed by strangers, but by family members or acquaintances. Only a fraction were strangers, which in the end, made it that much easier for him. It meant the initial investigation would concentrate primarily on those with some form of connection to the child and, therefore, take several more days before anyone considered someone like him.
He scanned the streets noting the perfectly maintained hedges and trees. The neighborhood was, of course, another help. The more affluent, the more denial everybody was in. Feeling secure behind their metal gates and gleaming security patrol cars, the well-to-do never suspected that they were, in fact, the ideal targets.
Their affluent children were wrapped in the bubble of false security even more tightly than their parents. They asked for everything, did nothing, and expected it as some kind of birthright. It made them weak. Mentally fragile. And all the reminders in the world wouldn’t prevent them from getting into a strange car, given the right amount of incentive and fear. A simple question, getting them close enough to the car to see a gun pointed at them, was all it usually took.
He finally spotted a girl walking by herself on the sidewalk and checked his rearview mirror. The street was almost empty. He pulled over a couple of houses ahead of her and simultaneously slid his hand under a dark piece of cloth on the passenger seat. She looked perfect.
It was easy when you knew what you were doing. This time, the whole thing took less than twenty-five seconds.
Chapter 3
Evan sat on the dark leather couch facing Taylor. He turned to watch Dr. Mayer close the window blinds then looked down when Mary, a nurse, gently slid his right index finger into a small pulse oximetry sensor. They had used it before to measure his heart rate and oxygen levels.
Mary noticed Taylor watching her with interest. While she wrapped a small piece of tape around the plastic sensor, she answered the man’s question before he could ask it.
“Yes, it’s a little crude, but it gives us some warning.”
“And then what?”
Mary frowned and looked at Taylor. “Then we scream and shake him until he wakes up.” She didn’t mention the last time, having to actually slap Evan to pull him out of it.
Taylor looked grimly at Evan. “That’s not going to work anymore. He’s too far along. The only person who can bring him out now is himself.”
Mary paused and exchanged a worried look with her sister Shannon.
Taylor continued watching Evan. He finally glanced at his watch. “Alright, kid, tell me what you see during these ‘episodes’ of yours.”
The experiences had started after a serious bicycle accident, which occurred just weeks before and included a concussion. Thankfully, it was not fatal, but the resulting visions were causing frightening physiological effects. In fact, effects were an understatement. The truth was that each episode was slowly sucking the life from him.
“I’m not really sure. It starts off dark and gets lighter until I’m surrounded by it. It looks a lot like…fog. That’s the closest thing I can think of.”
They all turned as the office door quickly opened. Evan’s mother stepped into the room, looking for and finding her son. “Evan, are you all right?”
“Yeah, Mom. I’m fine.”
Connie Nash glanced at Shannon, standing a few steps away. Her look was one of gratitude. Shannon had called Evan’s mother and stalled until she could get there. It was part of Shannon’s promise to the woman that there would be no more attempts with Evan without her knowing about it. And it was not a promise she would soon break considering their tumultuous beginning.
Connie crossed the room and sat down next to Evan on the couch. She took his hand and squeezed it, glancing at Taylor in front of them.
“You must be Mr. Taylor.”
Taylor nodded. “Dan.”
“Thank you for coming, Dan,” she said, wrapping an arm around her son. “Can you help Evan?”
“We were just getting to that. Your son is living on borrowed time, so whatever we’re going to do, we’d better hurry.”
She turned to Evan with raised eyebrows.
“He’s right, Mom. It’s getting really bad.”
Taylor turned his attention back to Evan. “So, it looks like fog?”
“Yeah, sort of.”
“Is it moving?”
“Yes.”
“What else?”
“When the fog moves, it kind of opens up. Almost like a tunnel.”
“And what do you see in the tunnel?”
Evan shrugged. “I don’t know. Different things. People. Places. Sometimes I don’t see anything. But the last several nights, I saw stuff, even with the Valium.”
“And your reactions?”
Mary spoke up next to him, her eyes still on Evan. “Sweating, heart palpitations, rapid temperature changes in the skin. Combinations that don’t make any sense. His heart rate and blood pressure go in opposite directions.”
Taylor leaned forward and took a closer look into Evan’s eyes. “How are you feeling now?”
“My chest hurts.”
After a long moment, Tayler seemed satisfied and leaned back in his chair. “What color?”
“Color?”
“The fog. What color is the fog?”
“Uh…white.”
“Do you see any other colors?”
The three women in the room remained quiet. Shannon wondered where Taylor was going with his questioning but said nothing.
“Evan thought about his answer for a moment. Yes. There’s red too.”
“Where? In the fog or around it?”
“It’s more like behind. As the fog moves, I can see patches of red behind it, trying to get through.” Evan hesitated. This was the part he had not yet told anyone. “That’s when it starts. That’s when I start to feel things.”
Mary raised her eyebrows, surprised. “You mean that’s when the symptoms begin?”
He nodded.
“Wait a minute,” Shannon said. “This happens when you see what exactly? The fog?”
“No, when I begin to see what’s behind it.”
“You mean the red area?” Shannon asked, looking between the two. “Why? What is it?”
Taylor remained quiet, waiting for Evan to answer. But he didn’t so Taylor spoke up. “It’s not just a color. Is it, Evan?”
Evan shook his head quietly.
“What does that mean? Is it some kind of object?”
“You could say that. I think the kid knows what it is. He certainly should by now. It’s not the fog that’s causing his body to panic. It’s what’s behind it. And it’s not an object. It’s more like…an ocean.”
They could see the look of fear growing on Evan’s face as Taylor spoke.
“An ocean of what?”
“An ocean of blood…of pain…agony. Whatever you want to call it. That’s what’s been causing his body to panic. I’m guessing he’s been too afraid to tell you, any of you, that what he really sees behind that fog is an endless sea of death.”
They were dumbfounded. “What…what does that mean?”
“It doesn’t mean anything. It’s what it is. The kid hasn’t told you about this, because I think he already knows what it is. The images he sees are coming from the space that lies between the world of the living and the world of the dead.”
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