“It shouldn’t be this cool so close to summer,” Jakob remarked as he unbuttoned his black and white letterman jacket. “It’s not bad right now, but it’s weird to think I’d even need this coat so late in the game.”
The sun had set almost an hour ago, but the night’s inevitable reprieve was neither stark nor crisp enough to entail the coverage. Yet Jakub Cooper saw to it that he’d wear his athletic jacket just in case a sudden gust of wind gave him pause for regret. The gentle breeze was tousling the copper wire of his short, brownish-orange hair as he made one last adjustment with his coat. The stars above shone benevolently upon his black and white face as he breathed in the fragrant perfumes of late spring coalescing in the night air.
“I’d call it a blessing,” Khloe cheerily chimed. “Just you wait, in a month’s time, days like this will be sorely missed. Enjoy them while you can ‘cuz it’ll get hot before you know it.”
Even with her more artistic, if not quirky, exploits, the badger always felt as if the possum was peculiarly restrained despite it. She was an open book all right, but the language written therein was occasionally puzzling. Even with her height, Jakub sensed now and again that Khloe could easily spirit away to some secret refuge only she could visit. He knew this to be true. The evidence was admittedly scarce, but Jakub knew this nonetheless.
He just knew.
“All I ask is for a bit of normalcy,” he chuckled as he kept pace behind the possum.
The walk itself had thus far been refreshing, but the night had given the experience unmistakably unsettling undertones. They had traveled less than a mile from the Carr Park lot off Meadowlane Avenue to their current position along the trail just past the towering power lines. A moment ago, the badger and possum had left behind a dense copse of oak and elm trees that appeared nigh impenetrable from the inside.
Jakub could now see semblances of civilization a mere five-hundred feet from where they stood across the South Skunk River off to his right. But the four neatly arranged baseball diamonds nestling serenely within that park’s lush green growth were orbiting some far-flung star lightyears away from them. The undeniable contrast was simply impossible to overlook when you were standing near outwardly untamed wilderness some thirty feet to your left. And while it wasn’t a long walk to Naomi’s home off Stagecoach Road at the trail’s end, that twenty-minute trip by foot felt much longer in the oncoming dark. In that moment, there was no safer place than that den of wolverines. But her house, just like those four baseball diamonds, rested across a single, vast chasm of stars separating them from the wider world.
“JP, you’ve lived here long enough. You should know better by now. The weather’s never going to be normal around here.”
“I think I’ll never get used to Iowa,” he returned. “If it hasn’t happened after fourteen years, then I don’t see things ever changing. The whole state should pick a season and stick with it. I just want a week. One week where everything makes sense.”
His response had given Khloe cause to smile. The badger had, in that moment, swayed her interest away from the text she just received. The contents of which had conjured a stream of uneasy thoughts to swell near the back of her mind and crest over the riverbanks into conscious recognition. Khloe let the phone fall by her side as they meandered along the circuitous Skunk River Trail.
“Why would you want that?” Khloe countered in good nature, but her cheer was faltering perceptibly. “Life would be too dang boring if you always knew what came next.”
These two were not unfamiliar with the path laid out before them. Only two miles from Ames High, the only high school in town, Khloe would ordinarily take Jakub straight from school come Friday to North River Valley. There were times when she took others with them, most often Tyson when they were still dating, but this trek was commonly the one comforting, if not sacred, ceremony they shared only together. Routines of this nature seemed to transcend mere ritual. Khloe had undertaken this one task down this same spread of soil once a week since she was thirteen. As to what the young woman specifically sought, one could only guess. The most the possum had ever revealed was that she was scouring the earth for a long lost bike. But the way Khloe went about the search with such resilience, you could have sworn she was on the hunt for buried treasure. This was but the consequence of trying to understand Khloe’s unfamiliar language with its charming and puzzling mystique.
“We’ve never done this so late before,” the badger proclaimed, spirited mischief now coloring his voice as he crept closer from behind. “It’s a bit creepy back here. It barely looks like the same place at night. Somebody could just sneak up from behind, and you’d never know until it was too late.”
Smirking, Khloe looked over her shoulder, shot the badger a deliberate wink and coyly asked, “Why do you think I let you tag along? I’ll need your muscle mass in case a crazy guy jumps me with a knife. That or monsters. A big guy like you is mighty useful, Jakub. I’m using you to cover my bases.”
“Monsters? I expect that kind of talk from Isaak,” he asserted with a keen smile, thinking fondly of the silver fox, “but never not from you of all people. In what world would monsters ever stop you from exploring?”
Jakub’s thoughts wandered through the motions of pleasant reminiscence. He and Isaak were both unlikely comrades. The badger was a social butterfly who played varsity football, and in contrast, the shy silver fox with the white eyeliner would often keep company only with a close few. It just so happened that Jakub was among that esteemed and select lot. They each had a shared interest in paranormal activity and would even carve time out of their busy lives to survey a supposed haunting if the rumors they heard proved too enticing.
Jakub considered Isaak to be his best friend, and the badger knew wholeheartedly the silver fox reciprocated with the same appreciation. It had been that way since the first grade. Isaak also shared that mantle with Khloe, Tyson and Naomi. Yet it was taxing trying to get them all in one place for any period. And even when those auspicious stars were strung together by fate, Jakub still felt instinctively as if some puzzle pieces were conspicuously absent. Jakub could never shake the assumption that critical components had been lost or overlooked like faces pared from a faded photo.
‘Why’s it always so hard for us to all hang out together? It’s not like we avoid each other,’ the badger pondered as he looked over Khloe’s shoulder. ‘But life gets in the way too much. Like we’re being pushed apart.’
“A linebacker has more than one use. I’ll want you around if things ever get weird.”
“It’s Sasha, isn’t it?” Jakub abruptly asked. “She texted you, too, didn’t she?”
The possum promptly froze in place. She wasn’t aware of it at the time, but as she spoke, Khloe had mistakenly raised her smart phone at eye level in anticipation of more troubling news to come. Jakub first saw the glistening screen and then the subtly disconcerted look upon her face. Khloe wasn’t sure why this elicited such a strong, subconscious reaction. The text itself wasn’t terribly portentous, but those words nonetheless, still sent a shiver streaming down her back as if she’d been doused with cold water. In all that time, she’d yet to think of a satisfactory answer for Tyson’s little sister.
Tyson with you guys? He turned his phone off. Brent won’t pick up. It’s saying his number is out of service. Tyson should be home by now. Makes me worry.
“Have you seen either of them lately? I'm not sure what to tell her. I have no clue what’s going on. I haven't seen Tyson in days." He chuckled and then flippantly proposed, “Maybe they just want some alone time, y’know? Time away from prying eyes in some motel room down in Des Moines or wherever.”
“She doesn’t know about Brent,” she hesitantly answered.
“I don’t get it,” the badger implored, openly apprehensive. “What’s wrong with Brent?”
“Brent’s gone,” Khloe solemnly answered as she slowly turned around. “He broke up with Tyson the day before yesterday and disappeared from social media some time after. I tried calling his parents, but they won’t tell me where he went. They won’t tell me anything. It’s almost like he’s gone into witness protection."
“That makes no sense,” he declared, recollecting recent memories with perfect clarity. “They were fine, weren’t they? I can’t remember them fighting or anything.”
“Jakub, I don’t really want to talk about this anymore,” Khloe softly asserted. “I’m sure everyone is okay, but this whole thing has been a real mess. Tyson won’t tell me anything else, and right now, I don’t know what to think.”
The badger opened his mouth to speak but his rebuttal was held back by mystifying forces that were impossible to fathom and yet impossible to ignore. The debate was inexplicably silenced in that very moment by the indistinct yet invasive sound of wind chimes towing his interest toward the concentrated, woodland area bordering the river to the north. They each simultaneously turned and stared wide-eyed in the direction of that discreet clinking and clattering sound of bells. From this advantageous standpoint, the badger and possum also easily made out the faint flickering of blue lights glimmering past the tree line. It was as if both the pleasing sounds and bright lights worked in tandem to beckon them into the forest interior. Into unknown territory.
“This is it,” the possum stated with hushed astonishment. “We found it.”
With that said, and without any warning, she strode headlong toward all those inviting sights and sounds with purposeful intent.
“Stop,” Jakub meekly exclaimed, his feeble plea catching in his throat. “Khloe, it could be dangerous!”
“I know what this looks like,” she called out over her shoulder enthusiastically, “but you gotta trust me here. This is where we’re meant to be.”
With no other words, the badger then pulled his thoughts together and proceeded to follow the possum further from the beaten trail. The two were mostly silent as they traveled a steady clip under the shade of colossal oak sentinels surrounding them. Jakub wasn’t aware of it at first, but as he passed deeper into the woodland, the young man was able to make out what appeared to be a lonely and disheveled dirt path. Lined with dead leaves and forested detritus, it was supposedly conducting them both near the source of those bells.
As they made their approach, not only did they become louder, the lights accompanying them grew brighter and more numerous. Before the badger had any more time to ponder over their nature, he’d wandered unsuspectingly into the clearing at the end of the path. At the other end from where Jakub stood, laid two tall oaks whose branches formed a portal into the forest. It was here inside this portal, past this arboreal window, that caught the badger by surprise and held him still in astonishment.
“Oh my God,” the possum breathed, stooping over a vintage red and white Schwinn bicycle. Even though it must’ve been out in the elements for who knows how many years, it appeared like a brand new model fresh off the assembly line. “It’s still here. The Bicycle That Isn’t a Bicycle. After all these years, it looks just the same as I remember. I bet the thing still weighs a thousand pounds!”
“Khloe,” he asked, rendered almost speechless, “we’ve been here before, haven’t we?”
“I’m sure we have, JP. I’ve had dreams about this place since middle school. But I’ve always known they were more than that. More than just dreams.”
“Buried memories,” he murmured.
Just beyond those two trees, was a single tunnel enclosed on either side with other trees that shone alien colors of blue, indigo and violet in resplendent bioluminescence. The trail ahead into this extraterrestrial forest seemed to extend for hundreds of feet until it ended suddenly within a haze of blue stardust. The longer he stared, the brighter they seemed to become with remarkable profundity. A rush of wind roared into these celestial gates and provoked the clattering bells to resonate with wild approval. He knew, for some mysterious reason, that this road ahead would take them far away from home. Jakub knew that this portal these oak branches formed—these night-kingdomed gates—was not of this world.
He just knew.
“We need to show the others,” the badger determined, stepping lively toward the oak opposite Khloe and that peculiar bike. “We know how to get here now. We go back and take them here. Bring them back and see what they remember.”
“It’s not safe to walk that road. You’ll never know just where you’ll wind up.”
Reacting as if hastily stirred from a sound sleep, they both speedily spun around. Ultimately, both the badger and the possum were confounded with what confronted them. It was the opaque vision of a young man whose clothing and facial features were somewhat obscured in the dying light. He was a lean jaguar with solid black fur interspersed with mingling rosettes. The mass of grayed brunette hair up top was spilling prominently past his forehead in an untidy bundle. The stranger had the lustrous, gleaming eyes of a man whose domain definitively and indisputably rested within the night’s concealing shadow. And while those old, tired eyes seemed ostensibly kind, they still conveyed a suppressed proclivity toward violence. They held a quenched, grisly thirst that would soon return in due time if left unchecked. Drunk with moonlight’s glistening blood, they were monster’s eyes.
“Who are you?” the badger demanded, incensed at being boxed into a corner. Nevertheless, Jakub stood in defiance before the oak’s sturdy scaffold. “Have you been stalking us this whole time?”
“Jake, it’s okay,” she argued before the other could answer. Khloe spoke those words with the implicit surety of somebody whose belief and fidelity stood on solid ground. Even if she herself was unsure as to how she knew this to be true, Khloe still held firm with instinctive zeal, “I don’t think this guy wants to hurt us.”
“Yes, I mean no harm. I’ve come here to help,” the young man maintained with a steady, august conviction which contradicted his youthful appearance. “I need you both to come with me,” he said, motioning them with a clawed hand from underneath a blue duffle coat.
His other paw was partly obscured behind the young man’s back. The clenched fist he made kept the source hidden, but whatever was held inside glowed a bright bluish-purple blend of spirited light. But this marvelous sight was all but passed over in the pertinence of this presentation.
“It’s urgent.”
“What’s wrong?” Jakub asked innocently, at once lulled into a sudden trustfulness.
“It’s about Tyson,” the jaguar said as he cast the clout of his ancient stare over them. “Your friend is in danger.”
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