The Gift of Illusion: A Thriller (22 page)

Virginia rose to her feet, still trying to
peer through an impenetrable layer of fog that over much time had
proven to be such a charming and resilient foe. “The path is
gone.”

Isaac took a few small steps forward and
nudged himself next to Simmons. “So, what do you think we should
do? Can we continue forward, path or no path?”

“I think if we continue forward we’ll be
blinded by the fog. We could find ourselves traveling through areas
most seeing men wouldn’t dare go. I think this could be swamp
water. Worse yet, I'm beginning to think the mansion could be much
further than any of us realize.”

Virginia focused on Isaac as she spilled the
bad news. The expression on his face told the story of a man who
hung on to hope by a burning thread. His grip slipped, grew weaker
by the moment, and the ashes began to pile up on him from above.
Soon he would be buried in the ashes.

“But we've made it this far,” said Virginia.
“Just stay very close to one another.”

The group strayed off the path, still one
behind the other, but much closer than before. Virginia decided it
might help if they held hands to keep from getting separated, and
no matter what happened along the way, try not to let go. The weeds
stood chest high. Virginia pushed them apart and cleared the way
for the other’s to follow. Being the leader meant she had to be
extra careful, not only for her own safety, but for the safety of
those following directly behind her as well. One wrong step and it
could mean trouble for all three of them. Thus, she took her time
carefully pacing each movement as the whole of her ankles drowned
over and over again in thick, swampy water.

It wasn’t long before the fog took their
vision completely and forced them to feel their way through the
challenging terrain. Hordes of mosquitoes surrounded them in the
rising mist and latched on to any piece of flesh they could draw
blood from. The weeds shortened, while the water level rose inch by
inch with every step forward. The rising water made each movement
harder than the last, and the thick layer of muck at the bottom
provided unnecessary suction on their shoes.

Virginia tried not to imagine where they
were or what they were traveling through. Perhaps being blind was a
blessing. Something could be hiding in the fog. It could be
anything, and it could be beside them, in front of them, or even
right below them. If the water at her feet shifted lightly or in a
different manner than before, she wondered if a moccasin could be
circling her from below. The thought of being bit by a venomous
snake at this time of night and this far away from town sounded
like quick death. But while that gentle motion could be a snake, it
could also be nothing, just a natural bubble formed from trapped
air beneath her shoe. The unknown is always the most
frightening.

The water level was nearly waist high now
and yet still seemed to be getting deeper. Without knowing for sure
how much further they had to go, it was impossible to tell how deep
the water could get. They could have only begun to break the
surface of the swamp, before long the water could be straddling
their necks. This fear was felt collectively, though none spoke a
word. The group held their thoughts within where they were safe and
undisturbed by the ears listening in from all around.

Thankfully, not more than a minute later,
Virginia noticed the water level evening out just above her waist.
She took this as a good sign, a sign that they were perhaps halfway
through the cold and murky swamp, and increased her strides.

The water, once calm and steady, now stirred
back and forth with each quick jolt forward and created a minor
ripple that drifted outward from the group. Just moments earlier,
Virginia was focused on patience, carefully timing each step and
trying to make as little noise as possible, but in an instant speed
became her prime focus. With each continuing decrease in water, her
motivation gained more fuel. It was as though she could see the end
directly within her sight and was desperately scrambling to reach
it before it disappeared again, next time for good.

Then, unexpectedly, Virginia clicked off the
burners and stood motionless in the water. A light splash died and
smoothed out just above her knees.

“Did you hear that?” she whispered.

“Hear what?” asked Simmons.

Virginia listened closely, certain she had
heard something.

Isaac wallowed up from behind Simmons and
stood next to Virginia. He could barely make out her face through
the fog but could tell by the way she frantically looked around
that something had flustered her. “I didn’t hear anything,” he
said. “But why don’t you let me go ahead and you can follow?”

“I’m serious Isaac. I heard something.”

“What did it sound like?” asked Simmons.

“Like a deep humming. I only heard it for a
split second. Then it stopped.”

The group waited, wondering what to do next,
wondering what choice they had, when the humming returned. The
sound came from the left not far ahead of them.

“I think we woke it up,” Isaac said. “We’d
better get out of here.” He took a deep breath and listened while
the hum grew louder.
“Right now.”

The group trampled through the thick water,
building more speed with each dip in depth. Even though they had
promised earlier not to let go for any reason, the urgency of the
situation quickly made them forget about holding hands. Trying to
run through swampy water was challenging enough on its own, holding
hands would not only reduce the speed but the movement in which
they could progress. The idea was to look after each other but to
not let any one person sacrifice the group. No one agreed to the
idea, it was simply understood.

The water level dropped to just under a foot
and now splashed up at their knees. They tried to keep their focus
while the low hum matured into a powerful bellow and now seemed to
be coming from all around them. It was almost as if the sound had
multiplied in seconds, forming a barrier that enveloped them within
it.

Isaac felt confident he knew the creature
making the sound striking such fear into all of them. He could
think of many living things native to swamps, but only one that
bellowed with such authority, and it was also the most
dangerous.

The fog dissipated and the forest steadily
came back into view. Virginia never thought she would be so glad to
see the large, daunting trees again. Just ahead, she watched Isaac
and Simmons cross over the water's edge. They turned and looked
back with expressions of equal dismay, waiting for her arrival.

Safety was near, maybe seconds away, but
nothing could have prepared Virginia for what happened next.

While she passed through the last few feet
of water, her right foot slipped on a slick layer of muck causing
her to lose her balance and fall head first to the water. Somehow,
at the last second, she was able to prop her arms out in front of
her, saving her head from going under.

From what seemed like miles away, Virginia
could faintly hear Isaac and Simmons yell as her hands and knees
dug into the deep slime. She raised her head and looked up at them
standing less than ten feet away, motioning with their hands for
her to hurry and get up. She ripped her palms from the thick mud,
brought her legs forward underneath her chest to regain balance,
and then stood up.

But when she went to move, her right foot
slipped again, and this time she was unable to stop her head from
going under. Her eyes were wide open as her face submerged in the
brown, muddy water. She couldn’t see anything, only blackness. Her
eyes burned, painfully, worse than at a public pool with a double
dose of chlorine. So she closed them, and they burned even
more.

From underneath the water, Virginia could
hear the humming much clearer and louder, so loud her ears trembled
from the vibration, and the trembling became worse as the deep hum
drew closer.

Closer.

She raised her head to the surface and
opened her eyes. Tiny drops of water dashed down from her forehead
and fell into her eyes blurring her vision. She closed them and
wiped the water away from her forehead. When she opened her eyes
again, they were still hazy, but she could see something ahead,
coming toward her. It looked large, colorless, but out of
focus.

And the powerful bellowing returned.

Water gently splashed around her. She prayed
for her eyes to find their focus, soon.

As she reached up to rub her blurred eyes
for the second time, something wrenched her hand away from her
face. She looked up and slowly opened her eyes. They still burned,
but most of the blur had gone. She saw Isaac. He towered over her,
holding her thin wrist within his grasp.

Then he dragged her from the water.

Halfway to the trees, Virginia was able to
get back to her feet. She hunched over and propelled her body
forward with her feet slapping against the slick mud, while Isaac
still tugged at her hand in front of her. Once they were clear of
the water and her shoes hit solid ground, she snuggled next to
Isaac and Simmons a few yards into the forest.

“Thank you,” she said, glancing up at Isaac,
his hand resting on her shoulder.

At first, Isaac didn’t respond, just nodded
back toward the swamp. Virginia turned to see two medium sized
gators floating soundless on opposite sides of where she had
fallen, their eyes scarcely protruding from the water, focused on
the group.

“You’re lucky I was crazy enough to go back
in there and save you.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Isaac responded. "I owed you."
He removed his hand from her shoulder and glanced over at Simmons,
then back at Virginia. “Now come on.”

The group hurried down the path cut off by
the swamp on the opposite side. The thick fog that had taken their
vision just a little earlier dissipated. The fog rose from the
treetops overhead, treetops that looked to be spreading out and
allowing the dark sky to show itself for the first time. Soft
flashes of lightning flickered into the forest, casting mysterious
shadows on to the ground. And as the treetops widened, so did the
path; it was now at its widest point since the beginning of the
trek through the forest, and the group could finally walk side by
side.

Minutes later, they stepped past the last
tree, ducked underneath a low hanging branch, and one by one gazed
across the open land at the stone mansion waiting for their
arrival. After fighting their way through the winding forest for
over an hour, around thorns and trees, water and weeds, and
narrowly sneaking past the kings of the swamp, they had arrived.
They were shaken up, dirty, cold, and sopping wet, but somehow they
survived.

Somehow, they passed the first test.

4

The stone mansion stood fifty yards away. A
giant, much bigger than Isaac imagined, and much more frightening
than Virginia remembered. The shape of the mansion formed a perfect
rectangle, two stories tall. The dark gray stone almost looked blue
under the electric sky. A light fog drifted from the forest, hugged
the corners, and rose up the walls. Four tapered windows peered
outward like bruised eyes on each half of the manor and two tall
circular pillars stood in the center, marking the entrance to the
front double doors at the end of the muddy path.

Other than a few patches of grass and weeds
left to grow to outrageous heights, little plant life surfaced,
just small dirt hills and water holes scattered across the large
yard surrounding the mansion. The path to the front entrance,
however, was wide open like it was at the edge of the forest. There
were no hills to climb over, no gully’s to climb out of, and no
weeds to sort through, merely an open path welcoming all who dare
travel to the end.

Midway to the entrance, Isaac veered left
off the path and jumped down a steep slope of mud and grass into a
few inches of water. Virginia and Simmons watched from the path as
Isaac wandered away, unsure of where he was going, and unsure if
they should follow.

Meanwhile, Isaac walked down the ditch to a
large drainage pipe at the edge of the property. He couldn’t
believe it was here. The same ditch from Maria Avenue; the ditch
the Civic was driven into. This was just the other side. And now he
had a sneaking suspicion, and the closer he moved to the large
pipe, the more that suspicion appeared to be coming true. He knelt
down and placed his hand into a small footprint in the mud then
glanced to the left at the tracks continuing up the hill.

“Damn,” he muttered.

Virginia and Simmons approached and peered
into the dark tunnel uncovered by steel bars.

“There are footprints in the mud. And
they’re coming out of here.” Isaac pointed toward the long, dark
pipe. “I think we took the long way. I remember the grate on the
other side was bent from the car crashing into it. And, now, what
do you know, this side is missing a grate. In other words, that was
no accident. He did it on purpose.”

“But how did he know this side was open?”
asked Simmons.

“Yesterday afternoon Stevens told me that
they had found the deputy’s squad car abandoned somewhere down
Maria Avenue. Of course, at the time it meant nothing to me. But
this was before she came into the picture,” he said, pointing his
finger at Virginia. “Now it makes sense. The maniac was here
earlier. He had planned all of this.”

Isaac looked up at the gloomy sky and let
the light rain splatter against his face. The storm was reforming,
preparing to come back around for a second turn. Then he glanced
over the hill at the large stone mansion resting in the distance,
still waiting to greet them, waiting for them to come inside.
“We’re being led into a trap.”

The group climbed out of the ditch and
headed back on to the path at the point they had veered off. As
they moved closer to the mansion, the fear of what was to come grew
stronger, more definite in each of them.