The Place He Was Always Heading (Part 3)

Part One

Part Two

Maureen and I met at the airport and drove out into the desert in our cheap rental. We had a map and a GPS but the truth is we didn't need either. The pull was so much stronger I couldn't have gotten lost it I tried.

At home, it was a feeling, a desire to move in a certain direction, an itch that needed to be scratched. It wasn’t overwhelming, it was just always present in the back of your mind. There the road in front of us seemed to glow, I could actually see where it was leading, and the air seemed to hum with electricity. I wondered if I physically could turn around if I wanted to, if enough free will remained for that. Our lives sat on a knife's edge, our success or failure would decide the remainder of our days. There was no going back from this, the only way was forward.

We arrived in the town several hours later and settled in (for obvious reasons, I won't be explaining exactly where it is). We decided to share a motel room to look out for each other, so we settled in on two dirty twin mattresses and a force that seemed as though it could push me across the room, back out into the streets.

The town itself wasn't much to see. It appeared to be holding on for dear life in the desert, trying to avoid fading away into nothing. A few rundown looking buildings along a main drag, and small homes dotting the desolate wilderness around it. There was not a lot to see.

We located a bar, a diner, a motel, some sort of multi-purpose government building, and a handful of businesses. We walked around a bit, since it was getting dark and we wouldn’t be able to explore until the next day.

The town had a sense of dread everywhere, the air seemed heavy with dread. No one greeted us as we walked down the street, but I swore I caught glimpses of people staring at us through windows, smiling eerily at us as they watched.

We wound up eating a quick meal at the bar next to the hotel. The bartender was blind, seemed friendly Neither of us drank, the pull was too strong to risk dulling our senses.

We left and walked back to the hotel when I saw her: an old woman, shuffling along the road. She was clearly in a daze, but Maureen and I couldn’t snap her out of it. She just kept shuffling along in the direction of the pull, until she disappeared into the darkness.

Sleep was hard. I tossed and turned, beset with horrible dreams, and once woke to find myself trying to open the door as Maureen shook me awake. Morning couldn’t come quickly enough.

Waking up in the town was an odd feeling, disorienting and familiar all at once. We ate and then worked our way towards the source of the pull we felt.

We left the main road and followed a path away from town. We made good time, not talking a lot, and trying to make sure we could make it back well before nightfall.

We finally arrived at a place where everything felt alive with energy. Before us the ground sloped down to an entrance into the rock. My eyes traveled down along the long ramp towards a huge hole in the earth that must have been either a cave or an abandoned mine. The exposed rock on each side of the slope had long lines that seemed clawed into it.

We stood there staring at it full of fear. Maureen was the first to say it and break the silence: “We can’t go down there without a plan.”

I nodded, “Let’s head back and regroup. Maybe there are some explosives we can buy to seal the opening with.”

Walking back to town felt like swimming against the current. We were exhausted when we got back to town and both collapsed as soon as we were in the motel.

I woke up hours later, feeling somewhat rested for the first time since arriving here. I looked over at the other bed to see how Maureen had slept.

She was gone.

I went running out into the street. She was nowhere to be seen, and I had no idea how long she had been gone. The sun was already down, and despite driving as far up the trail as I dared given the tiny clearance the rental had, there was no sign of her. She was gone.

I went back to the bar, now lonely and feeling awful. This time I did drink. A lot.

Finally the bartender asked me about Maureen.

“She’s gone.”

“Followed the path, did she?”

I glanced up at him. “How did you know?”

He smiled in my direction. “Lots of people come through here. Same way I wound up here. Some like you two think you’re going to stop what is happening, but no one can. Once you caught a glimpse of it there was no hope for you."

“Caught a glimpse of what?”

“The beast.”

“I never saw a beast.”

He laughed, “probably in your dreams, but that’s how it starts.”

I stared at my drink before asking the next question, “if it can’t be stopped, how are you still alive?”

He took off his dark glasses and let me see the scarred remains where his eyes had once been. “I removed my eyes, only way to stop it from pulling you in.” He slid a small knife to me across the bar. “If you’re smart you’ll do the same.”

It was long after midnight when I drove the car wildly along the trail, I got it stuck twice but managed to keep going, until the headlights shone right at the hole in the earth I was so scared of.

I walked down towards it screaming wildly. Shadows danced around me and the hum in the air seemed deeper and almost overwhelming.

Suddenly my grandfather was in front of me. “Did you come to find me?” he asked.

I staggered backwards.

“Best come with me, Maureen could use our help,” he said as he turned and gestured.

I heard a yell from beside me and turned to see my grandfather there too, “It’s a trap,” he yelled.

I looked back towards the hole and now Maureen stood there too, crying. Behind her, I saw something moving in the opening of the hole, something unimaginably large. I gripped the knife in my pocket.

They found me two days later several miles outside town. I had blinded myself with the knife and would have died had I been out there another day. They never found Maureen.

I slowly got back to something resembling normal. I found a job I could do, learned to navigate the world, and helped raise my daughter. Life got better, and then one day I got a call from my daughter's kindergarten. She had wandered away from the rest of the kids at recess, in some sort of trance. Only an alert teacher managed to stop her and get her back. When I asked her about it later, she said she couldn't remember, but that she felt like there was somewhere she was supposed to be heading.