Winter's Edge

Chapter 61 - The Shining Man

Ian

THE painless sensation of flesh tearing from bone surged through my body as I sat up and rose to my feet on the interstate outside of Bennett. I had no soreness. No aches. No weight to carry. My limbs moved as if gravity had taken a lunch break. I felt better than I'd ever felt in my life.

I looked down the stretch of I70 to the east, then turned back to see the monk staring down at a dead body on the ground. The guy was turned on his stomach, his face partially obstructed from view.

"You can't save them all," I said to the monk. Heck, I couldn't even save one.

The monk didn't respond. Didn't even acknowledge me. He just bent down to pick up the body and hoisted it over his shoulder like I wasn't there.

The body's face came into view. It looked strikingly like me. As I took a closer look, I gasped and stumbled back a few steps.

It was me.

There was a strange familiarity to all of this. The dots connected. I'd separated from my body like Abby. Had I just developed a new power? No, that wasn't it. Something else was going on.

I was dead...and I needed to get back into my body! Where was the monk going with my body?

"Hey, I'm right here!"

The monk vanished into curls of black smoke along with my body.

"Hey," I yelled, "I need that." How was I going to get back into my body? I threw up my hands. "Son of a—" I bit off the last word, clenching my teeth. Had I gone mad?

I turned in a circle and laughed. I spun 'round and 'round, taking in the scene.

Madness. That's what this was. Why else would I feel weightless and be laughing for no good reason?

As I spun, a dark tunnel appeared in the sky with a bright light at the end. It looked like it was coming out of the storm clouds above. It pulled at me.

And I let it.

As I passed through the tunnel, I came out into the light. A scene painted itself around me. I took in a sharp breath and came to a stop.

The scene was my house, thirteen years ago, on that fateful day when my life had changed forever. But instead of seeing it from my own eyes, I saw it from above.

My five-year-old self walked into my dad's office, a black haze outlining him. What was that?

I wanted to reach out and turn the naive kid around, tell him what was about to happen. But somehow, I knew he wouldn't hear me. All I could do was watch the horrific scene play out just the way I knew it would.

Dad sat at his desk in his brown, leather chair. But something was different. This time, he had a black haze around him like the one I saw around the five-year-old Ian.

Little Ian asked his dad to play, and he refused. A dark look came into the child's eyes. His arms flexed, and the black haze around him began to take shape. It formed into a massive, human-like beast, easily four times Little Ian's size. Its eyes glowed a deep crimson, and it heaved air like an angry bull. Black horns protruded from the sides of its head, twisted forward. He was inside and outside of Little Ian all at the same time. This seemed like the beast Abby had described from the graveyard.

I watched another black haze spread from the monster throughout the room like a bubble. When it reached the desk, objects shook and vibrated, pushing backward. The energy touched the walls. Little Ian flexed, and the walls bowed outward. The force exploded from Little Ian and the walls recoiled. Energy blew out the office door and the window, slamming Dad back against it.