The Gate
Mr. Anderson was a bulky man. His family had been the caretakers of Willow Shore for over a hundred years. He remembered his grandmother telling him about how she grew up on the first street within the neighborhood. She had remembered Ms. Margaret, as all the children called her, being a kind, lovely lady, until Elias disappeared, of course.
The man stood with his back straight and his face calm as Tara ranted about having to wait, and country people not understanding professionalism. He took it all calmly and patiently, and when she was finished, he handed her the huge set of keys and instructions on how to return them to him.
He had turned and walked away before she could start another rant. Tomas smirked at Tara's quiet look at the huge mass of keys. He saw the moment when she regained herself. She had straightened and moved to Marcus.
"Marcus, you are in charge of the keys." As she walked away, Tomas quickly looked down, not wanting the duty to pass to him.
The entire time Selene sat, waiting. She had decided to ride with the equipment and Ben, the only person they could find that would drive them to Willow Shore. Marcus's assistant would drive the other vehicle.
Selene could see that Ben was nervous. His eyes continually shifted back and forth, he wiped his hands on his pants over and over, and he opened and closed the car door, for no reason, way too many times. She felt comfortable with him; someone else who understood things were not quite right.
She didn't notice when they had started out, her mind snapping back from her daydreaming when Ben coughed. She looked forward to see his head turning back and forth as he tried to watch both sides of the road.
The team, Tara rather, had decided to go straight to the property and not worry about surveying the ten miles between it and Briarwood.
Selene's eyes slid to the road passing outside her window. She half-expected to see Margaret Morrison-Willen standing on the side of the road looking back at her, but she saw nothing, and that was probably more jarring.
Ben sat behind the wheel of one of his own rental vehicles. He had regretted investing in these pricey things. No one would rent them—his friends and neighbors only wanted to rent his ATVs, plowing, and construction vehicles.
Then along came Allen Developers and his opportunity to cash in, but then that crazy lady wanted at least one local with them. It was either go with the nuts or lose out on the rental altogether.
His palms were sweaty again and he ran them, one at a time, along his pants legs. His mind had just registered that they were two miles from the cursed place when he heard the lady behind him gasp.
He looked to the rearview mirror to ask if she was okay, but he saw her face drained of color and her eyes wide and facing the passenger side of the SUV.
He will never understand why he turned and looked.
His eyes bulged from his head as they focused on the scene. Children, clustered together, various ages, clothes from different time periods—some holding hands, others standing alone—all boys and all seemingly together.
They were all surrounded by an oddly sentient, ethereal blue fog, light flowing through it like cloth waving through the wind, sparks lighting randomly throughout its density.
Ben swallowed hard. His mind ticking to a time that seemed ancient to him. A time that seemed old and familiar. His eyes focused on three boys in particular. Their faces he knew, and he watched them clearly looking at him.
The taller of the three shook his head at him. The one to the right's mouth moved slowly, words forming and falling from his lips like the slow drip of frozen ice melting at the first signs of spring. And the final boy, standing to the left, pointed back in the direction of Briarwood.
The words came to his ear in real time, and as he heard them and the scene fully registered, he slammed on the brakes.
"Go back, Ben. If you enter, you will be lost. If we cannot find you, you will become one of the fog. Go back, Ben—now."
The words flowed through him like electricity, and his entire body clenched and went stiff.
Selene flew forward and slammed into the back of his seat, her eyes never leaving the sight of the children surrounded by the fog. The second SUV slammed on its brakes and swerved to avoid slamming into the back of them.
Ben was out and walking back to Briarwood, his eyes still on the ethereal scene. All three of the boys nodding their approval as the entire group began to shimmer and disappear like a mirage in a vast, arid desert.
Selene moved to the driver's seat and shut the door like it was the only natural next step. She gripped the steering wheel and waited.
Ben violently shook his head as Tara opened her door, his cheeks flapping lightly against his face from the effort.
"Don't even try it, lady. I got you close enough. None of us know that place anymore, and when my lost family come to me and tell me to get my ass back to Briarwood, then I am going back.
"Keep the SUVs. If any of you make it back, we can talk. If none of you return…"
He shrugged, his steps never slowing or faltering. His steel-toe workboots banging against the pavement.
"… Good riddance to the damn things. They were more stress than anything else."
Marcus, Dr. Chen, and two of the assistants had gotten out with Tara, all of them looking perplexed. Tomas's eyes stayed fastened to the spot where the children had been, two quick signs of the cross made across his chest as he slowly looked down at his digital camera.
He had snapped over a hundred stills with the high-speed lens; he quickly moved through them now.
Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing. He stopped, his finger frozen over the advance button. He swallowed hard over the lump in his throat.
An image of a boy, maybe nine, full, round face, bright green eyes, and a slow, small spot of blue that formed and bloomed outward from the center of the picture. Tomas advanced, and another shot of the boy, closer this time, then another, and another, and another, until the photo was just his face.
His green eyes were even more piercing, and reflected in them, a large pond circled by dozens of willows. Tomas frowned, and then he heard the faint whisper.
His camera flew up into the air and out the SUV window, landing with a crash onto the asphalt.
The voice still burrowing into his brain even as he cursed.
"Do you know where my mommy is?"
Allen, Marcus's assistant, picked up the camera, sucking his teeth, and handing it back to Tomas. "I think that's done for."
Tomas looked at the shattered black screen and pursed his lips.
Selene drove the second SUV the remainder of the way, Dr. Chen opting to ride with her. They had all been rattled by Ben's departure and his words.
Tara had immediately gotten on her phone with Dan, demanding that they should not pay for the SUV rental. It took considerable time to calm her, with Marcus reminding her of her schedule, getting her to refocus and get everyone back in the vehicles.
Now the ominous wall was flowing beside them like a huge, foreboding marker of a place never meant to be explored by humans.
It was a massive thing of pristine iron, flourishing design curling thickly along its top. It was sheer and unblemished, and they all felt small riding alongside it.
The road gently curved to the right and they saw the gate ahead. Both cars stopped side by side before it, and still there was room for two vehicles, on either side of them, to easily drive into the massive thing once breached.
They all leaned against their windows, their gazes upwards, as they tried to see the top of the thing.
It was like a forbidden entrance into hell. The iron was stamped with a willow, and "Willow Shore" arching over it, as if it designated the level of the underworld that it kept the outside world safe from.
Dr. Chen's voice trembled when he spoke. "Is this a neighborhood or a correctional institution?"
He looked to Selene with a shiver as her hollow voice rang in his ear.
"It's the entrance to a hell created in the name of love."
She sighed as she put the SUV in park.
"And we are willingly walking into it."