White Walker (16 page)

She realized he had known even then that she was
pregnant and he wanted that child for himself. That had been his
plan all along.

“We have to get out,” Teddy said as he slipped his
arm around Judy’s shoulders. “The building’s not safe anymore, the
roof could come down at any moment.”

“But what about them?” Judy said, indicating Harriet
and the schoolhouse.

Teddy shrugged. “I don’t know what to do for them.
We can’t take them with us.”

“They have to cross over,” Jasmine said from Judy’s
other side. “They’re trapped here by a desire to protect one
another. But it isn’t safe. If he doesn’t get them this time, he
will eventually. Crossing over is the only way to protect
them.”

Harriet turned and smiled in Teddy’s direction and a
deep feeling of love that emanated from her shimmering figure
overwhelmed him. She wanted only what was best and Jasmine’s
suggestion appeared to be the only option open to them.

Norman screamed behind them and Teddy turned to see
him running towards the back door with Andrea in pursuit. It was
all coming to a head. The end was upon them and what they did in
the next half hour would affect them for the rest of their
lives.

“You have to convince her to cross over.”

“How?” Judy said.

“I don’t know.” Teddy shrugged as the sound of the
back door slamming open rang through the call center like a
gunshot. Time was getting short. The roof above them sagged even
more, the ceiling tiles that remained rattling in their frames as
the roof undulated like a wave on the ocean’s surface.

Judy turned back to Harriet and reached out for her
with her hands. Harriet smiled and placed her hands in Judy’s, who
was instantly transported to Harriet’s world. Everything around her
had become deathly still. And even though she could hear the sound
of the wind whistling down the short corridor, nothing moved around
her. She glanced back over her shoulder at Teddy but couldn’t see
him directly. Turning her head to one side, she caught a glimpse of
him in her peripheral vision. Her twin stood next to him, his arm
draped over her shoulder, or was it her physical self that remained
with Teddy while her spiritual self ventured into a world only
glimpsed by those gifted with the sight to see?

Jasmine was one of these and Judy realized she was
watching her progress as she followed Harriet towards the
schoolhouse. She also realized she could see Jasmine better than
she could see Teddy. She stood as a silhouette, her features
shrouded behind a shimmering veil, a dark halo encasing her
body.

Black wasn’t good, was it?
she wondered as
she approached the front steps.

The children were waiting in the schoolhouse when
she followed Harriet into the interior. Their emotions a seething
mass of devotion for their teacher, curiosity about her presence,
and fear of that which had gained entry to the call center.
Everything was as it had been that day nearly two hundred years
before. Four orderly rows of small desks were lined up in formation
before a single larger desk that sat directly in front of a
blackboard, upon which a variety of mathematical equations had been
written with chalk.

They have to cross over
. Jasmine’s words
whispered in her mind
. But how
? she wondered as she gazed
upon the small room. She had never had to do this before so there
was no experience for her to fall back upon. Nor was there a set of
instructions to guide her. She had only her instincts to follow as
she approached the center of the room where the children were
gathered around Harriet.

As if in answer to her unvoiced questions, a small
vortex formed in the center of the blackboard. Beginning as a small
gray dot, it quickly expanded, devouring the equations around it
like a voracious black hole that would swallow the planets that
circled it. It grew, and as it did, a faint white light shimmered
from within.

Images appeared in the center of the vortex,
glimpses of the past that had transpired within this place, and she
understood as she watched it grow that this was one of those
special places in the world. A place where the past and the present
existed within the same space with the fabric between them at its
thinnest. There was another reality beneath the one she currently
occupied. The children could not see it, nor could Harriet. Judy
watched the scene unfold at the center of that growing vortex, and
she understood she was witnessing something that occurred long
before man had developed a means to effectively communicate.

She saw a fire, the flames nearly horizontal, bent
under the force of a wind that shrieked with the voice of a
banshee. In front of the fire, a man was hunched down between the
upraised knees of a woman lying upon several animal skins. There
were grunts and groans, cries of agony, moans of pain, not
pleasure, for this was not what it at first seemed. The woman was
struggling to give birth, the man doing everything in his power to
assist. But it was no use, there were no emergency rooms in this
reality, no doctors, and but one rule.

Only the strong survived.

The woman screamed her last as she gave a final
push. The man cradled the newborn against his chest as it cried in
a weakening voice. He sobbed as the newborn gasped for air,
expiring before it had existed an hour. The man staggered away from
the blazing fire, into the wilderness and a fierce winter storm.
Vanishing into the snowfall as the snow slowly covered the body of
the woman who lay unmoving next to her dead son. The sense of loss
that washed over her from the scene that had played out filled her
with remorse.

Other images appeared, flickering to life like the
first frames of a movie as an aged projector struggled to come up
to speed. She saw a wooden totem rising twelve feet into the air,
the top image representing an impassive face with eagle’s wings
growing from either side of its head where ears would normally be.
The sky above was an unblemished blue. Those gathered around it
wore animal skins as they worshipped the deities the images
represented. Time passed, the wood of the totem aged, becoming a
silvery gray color as the grain of the wood widened into splits.
The image changed and she saw the totem one last time, scarred and
worn, lying at the bottom of a pile of firewood sitting outside a
small one-room schoolhouse, the same schoolhouse she now stood
in.

As her awareness of her surroundings grew, she
realized a child had placed his hand into her own. She looked down
into the clear blue gaze of a young boy not more than six who
watched her with rapt devotion.

“They can’t stay here,” Judy said and Harriet
crossed the floor towards her. As she did Judy saw the fire, the
smoldering rage that illuminated her eyes from within. Flames
danced along Harriet’s arms as she reached out towards Judy, who
shrank from her grasp.

“They are my responsibility,” Harriet said.

“He has come for them.” And with that statement Judy
heard the commotion that was happening in the call center. The
rumble in the roof as more of it collapsed under the growing weight
of the snow. The cries of those who still remained. She heard yells
and screams as Norman emerged from the hallway, only it wasn’t
Norman anymore. She felt his presence in the chills that raced
across her flesh as he approached her from behind.

“They have to go. He’s inside now, and he’s coming
for them.”

“Where?”

“You have to let them cross over, to continue their
journey. You can’t protect them anymore.”

“But I must,” Harriet said as she placed her hand on
Judy’s shoulder and what felt like the flames of hell raced across
her flesh, pushing back the bone-numbing cold that had enveloped
her with Norman’s approach.

“It’s too late,” Judy said, as the vortex grew
brighter until it had been transformed into an intense white light
that threatened to blind her if she gazed into it for too long. The
glimpse of the past had become a passageway to the future, offering
safety to the spirits of the children and their teacher gathered
around her. Harriet took her hand away from Judy’s shoulder and
Judy nearly fell over with relief as the pain of the fire that
burned within her was extinguished.

“You have to go,” Judy said.

“It’s okay, Miss Butler,” the oldest boy said as he
approached the light. He stepped through, followed by the twins,
who passed into the light while holding each other’s hand.

“It’s okay,” Judy whispered as the children quickly
filed through that seam in reality. Harriet was the last to pass
through and she stopped to caress Judy’s cheek with one cool
finger. Her anger had fled when she realized Judy was only trying
to help. She stepped over to the opening and with a final look back
stepped through. There was a flash of light that briefly blinded
her and Judy reached out with one hand to steady herself.

As her eyesight returned, she saw she was back in
the call center. The image of the schoolhouse slowly collapsed upon
itself, drawing into a single point of light that winked out of
existence with an audible pop.

The four of them jumped as the sound of the back
door slamming open echoed through the building like a gunshot.

“Where’s Norman?” Cody said. All eyes going to the
chair he had been sitting in. A cold wind screamed down the short
hallway, pages torn from the bulletin board fluttered into the main
room as a faint light filled the hallway. Something stepped into
the light, casting a long shadow into the main room, staggering
forward as the wind swirled around their feet.

As a group they moved towards the doorway. Teddy was
the first to reach the opening and he leaned around the corner to
see what was coming. Norman staggered down the hallway, the door
standing wide open behind him, accompanied by a halo of dancing
snowflakes that drifted to the floor, where they melted
instantly.

Teddy rushed to his co-worker, slipping his hand
under his arm to help him.

“I’m sorry,” Norman said in a pained voice.

“It’s all right, man. Where’s Andrea?”

Norman straightened up at this and glanced back over
his shoulder at the open door. He saw Jimmy standing in the snow at
the edge of the dock, watching him silently.

“I’m sorry,” was Norman’s only response.

Cody reached Norman’s other side and slipped
Norman’s arm over his shoulder. As a group they moved towards the
main floor. The only way out was through the front, into the
parking lot. Teddy recalled the towering funnel of snow that had
gathered in front of him when he arrived, and he hesitated. He had
convinced himself that what he’d seen earlier had just been an
illusion brought on by the strangeness of the storm. But now, after
having witnessed what had happened with Kevin and the schoolhouse,
he was afraid to expose them to such a force.

“We have to get out of here, the roof is about to
collapse,” Teddy said.

“Where are the others?”

“We’re all that’s left.”

“What about the schoolhouse? The kids? The
teacher?”

“They’re gone, man. Judy convinced them to cross
over.”

Norman shook his head. “They can’t be gone, she
promised.”

“What?”

“She promised her first-born child.”

“What are you talking about?” Teddy said.

“What’s he babbling about?” Cody said.

As they reached the doorway into the main room, Judy
and Jasmine stepped into view.

“Give it to me,” Norman roared, tearing away from
Cody and Teddy to lunge towards Judy. Jasmine stepped in to stop
him and he violently shoved her aside, driving her to the ground as
he threw himself at Judy.

“You owe me, bitch,” Norman shouted as he raced
towards her with his arms outstretched.

Judy tried to back away but wasn’t quick enough.
Norman slammed into her, his weight forcing her back against the
wall. Pinning her in place with his forearm across her throat. She
struggled to breathe as she slapped at his face and arms.

Teddy tried to pull him away and Norman pushed him
back across the hall where he slammed into the wall with enough
force to buckle the drywall. Stars exploded behind Teddy’s eyelids
as a distant ringing sounded in his ears, accompanied by the rumble
of the roof above their heads, ready to surrender to the weight of
the snow atop it.

Norman turned back to Judy, who squirmed under his
forearm, which had never left her throat as he dealt with
Teddy.

“You promised me,” he said as he placed his hand
against her belly. A spot of intense cold erupted at the point of
contact and Judy struggled to breathe as that chill spread out like
the ripples on the surface of a pond. Looking down, she watched in
horror as Norman’s hand slowly vanished into the fabric of her
shirt. She gagged as that chill flowed across her chest.

Teddy shook his head and pushed himself away from
the wall, crossing to Norman, intending to put an end to this
bullshit once and for all. Cody slammed into Norman from Teddy’s
left, driving him away from Judy, who doubled over as she gasped
for breath.

Cody drove Norman into the main room just as another
section of the roof collapsed. They vanished beneath the raining
debris of twisted steel and wet snow.

“We gotta get out of here,” Teddy shouted to be
heard above the shrieking sound of the wind.

“What about Cody?” Judy said as she searched at the
pile of snow before her.

Teddy stopped and gazed at the new pile of snow as
he shook his head. As much as it pained him to say so, he knew
there was nothing they could do for them.

“We can’t help him now,” Teddy said as he crossed to
Jasmine and helped her to her feet. Together they joined Judy at
the entrance for the hallway. The three of them skirted the new
pile of snow and twisted steel as they made their way across the
main floor towards the front of the building. As they neared the
hallway leading to the front door, they heard movement within the
pile of debris.