The Beyond by Brosky Ken

Author:Brosky, Ken [Brosky, Ken]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Timber Ghost Press
Published: 2022-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 18

S aladin goes around the other side of the old barn. He turns the corner, giving it a wide berth in case the thing is waiting for him. His rifle points at…

Nothing.

Rain runs down his forehead; he blinks the water off his long eyelashes. His clothes are already soaked through. The soles of his boots collect mud with each step. He moves slowly around the other side of the barn, glancing in through the one open window. He can make out the old livestock stalls, the feed trough that’s rotted through, the bedding hay piled up in one corner.

The forest, then. It ran into the forest.

He walks across the lawn.

BANG!

Saladin screams and turns, aiming the rifle at the corrugated metal flapping in the wind.

“Asshole,” he mutters. Stopping the loose sheet’s auditory assault is as simple as pulling a spare nail from the exterior—there are plenty—and using the butt of his rifle to hammer it into the corrugated metal. When he steps away from the barn, he has to look in every direction multiple times just to keep from having a heart attack. His beautiful lawn has become No-Man’s Land. Out in the open. Exposed from all sides.

Just imagine what the forest will be like.

He’s almost to the edge of his property when the rain lets up; he stops to listen. Glances once over his shoulder. Looks down at the wet ground where the earth is uneven. It’s around here that Saladin’s lawn mower scalps the grass, leaving the ground bare. The scattered brown leaves are legion, but—yes, there’s definitely a partial shoe print in the mud.

The thing is in the forest.

And so that’s where Saladin will go. No deliberating now. No second-guessing. He is, for the first time in his life, confronting his fears.

He chooses his steps carefully. Takes the long way around a fallen tree rather than stepping over it and risking losing his footing. Wet leaves fall from the canopy. The trees sway as the wind picks up. Tall pines and maples with long branches and oaks that span out in every direction. Saladin moves from pine to pine, where the ground underneath is soft and mostly free of any undergrowth. He turns in every direction, searching for anything between the trunks.

Nothing.

“Come out!” he shouts. “And I won’t hurt you!”

Nothing.

Saladin finds a fallen branch and steps on it so it snaps. “Oh dear, sweet Allah! My ankle! I broke my ankle!”

Nothing.

Well, it was worth a shot.

So the hard way, then. He gets to the next pine tree and does a three-sixty. To the east, he can still see his house and the barn between the trees. He’s maybe a hundred yards into the forest—he’ll go deeper, but he won’t let the house and barn out of his sight. His knee still aches a bit from his encounter with Becca in the library basement; he wants the safety of his house nearby.

All it will take is one miss at close range…

No. Stop thinking like that.

He turns again. Searches the forest.

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