The Space between Atoms 67

 “I thought you said she was safe from Wednesday here!” Terah was frantic.

“I said probably,” Calum sighed.  “There’s something afoot.  That much is clear.”

“How do we find her?”

Calum turned to face the younger man.  “I’m not sure that we can.”

Real panic hit Terah now.  Having been with Lindsey so long he couldn’t face this homeless life without her.  He simply couldn’t imagine it.  “Why not?  What about your library?”

“You’ve got to understand.  The supernatural is beyond human control.  I’ve got books on all kinds of supernatural subjects, including missing persons and remote viewing.  Missing persons are seldom found—some of them may have been taken elsewhere.  Remote viewing only works when an adept has a target, a place.  If your psychic connection with her is strong enough, you might be able to reach her somehow.  Otherwise we’ve got an entire world—perhaps even universe—in which to look.  We’re under a quarantine as well, so we can simply drive around asking people, as is that would work.”

“Has she gone far, do you suppose?”

“She was clearly taken.  Smell the ozone?  This isn’t the case of a runaway.”

“If it was Wednesday he might’ve taken her back to the asylum.”

“At least that’s a place we can check.  I’ll have Kjell take care of things here.  We’ll need to be careful, however.  Police are keeping a close eye on teen gathering places these days.  They don’t seem too worried about the pandemic.  But Terah, if we can’t find her there we can’t randomly go to revisit all your haunts.  If she can escape she’ll come back here.  It won’t do to have us getting infected or to be missing ourselves when she gets here.”

Terah, distressed as he was, couldn’t believe the variety of cars in Calum’s garage.  “We don’t want anything conspicuous,” he reasoned.  “Just what someone might drive out for groceries.  Let’s take the Prius.”  The classic silver hybrid was unlike anything Terah had ever driven.

“This thing’s half computer!”  It momentarily replaced his worry about Lindsey.  Would they find her at Honest Oahusha?  He wished he knew more about demons and what motivated them.

Calum steered the mid-size from the garage.  “Don’t get your hopes up, Terah.  I’m fairly sure Lindsey’s still alive, but I don’t know what the demons might want with her.  She’s been able to fight back against them, and that doesn’t make anyone happy.”

“She fights back?  How?”

“That’s part of what I taught her.  It’s our duty to resist evil, no matter what the cost.  She’s taken that to heart.  The training is a form of meditation, a rewiring of the brain.  Demons are spiritual beings that can affect the material world.  We, on the other hand, are a blend of material and spiritual.  We tend to concentrate on the former, but if we train our souls we can accomplish great things.  Sometimes at great cost.”

The eerie drive through ghostly roads devoid of cars sent a shiver through Terah’s shoulders.  They had to find her.

Clearly, Calum knew his way to the asylum.  Since it was abandoned, the road that once led there was barricaded.  No other cars were parked along the stump road.  “Many people are using the pandemic to get out for walks, but it looks like this isn’t a popular spot.  He pulled on a pair of latex gloves and offered the box to Terah.  “For germs,” he explained.

Following the road beyond the barricade was simple enough.  The place looked very different in the bloom of spring.  Terah recalled approaching the hard way, through snow-filled woods.  His heart fell when he saw the front door hanging open.  Still, perhaps Lindsey had been whisked here and hadn’t had time to set up her alarm system.  The light inside transformed the central room.  The windows were still far away but seemed capable of admitting more illumination than they could muster in winter.  The men stood and listened to the utter silence.  A strange nostalgia nearly brought tears to Terah’s eyes.  So much had happened here.

“This way,” Terah said, recalling the blazes.  Calum had been prepared, so flashlights appeared and Terah led Calum to the basement and its boiler room.  There was no sign of Lindsey.  “This is where we stayed,” he explained.  “We should check out the necessary room, just in case.”

Lindsey wasn’t there.  After a sweep of the basement, Terah took Calum up to the room where he’d first seen Wednesday.  The demon was assaulting neither ghost nor human.  Honest Oahusha was dead.

“Perhaps she’s at Dickinsheet,” Terah said as they made their way back to the car.

“We can drive part-way there.  It is a hike, as you know.”

Terah insisted.  Nobody was on the streets of Stroudsburg.   So much had changed since he’d walked through here with her.  They wound their way through tortured back roads to where Calum knew to turn onto the grass track leading to the back entrance.  The Prius wasn’t intended for off-road driving, and they had to walk from a distance.  Although it was spring, the sky was threatening to lose its light.  Terah recalled Caileigh and the thought of a wood nymph wasn’t exactly comforting in these circumstances.  She was capable of harm.

Damage from the windquake was evident everywhere.  Ancient trees toppled, limbs down.  It had been a few weeks, but worlds had changed.  The scene at Dickinsheet was sobering.  The houses were all damaged.  They saw no-one.  Terah knew the men were secretive with strangers.  “They know both of us,” Calum pointed out.  “They’d have no reason to hide.”  He called out.  No answer.

“Where could they be?” Terah wondered.

“They probably split up.  It’s difficult to support a community with no money.  Besides, look at all the damage.”

“We need to check her house.”

The light was fading and the silence was total.  The chirping of birds ceased.  Insect noise grew.  Terah led the way to what remained of Lindsey’s house.  They stepped inside and although a momentary flush of her presence washed over him it was clear that she wasn’t there.  He turned to Calum utterly lost.

“We may not find her,” the older man said. “But we must carry on.  The spaces between atoms are where we find answers.”