Prologue

            It was not dark, but Louise was afraid. It was as if the fading sunlight promised that something dark, other than night, was coming.

She was at house number three, at the corner, then four houses down. Her and Autymn were seven houses a part. Seven was Louise’s lucky number, so when she had moved in with her foster parents, it made sense that she would make friends with Autymn.

Yet, as she rounded the corner, a chill ran up her spine. She had insisted that she could walk home by herself. She was ten, and she had done it before, so why was this evening different. Not to worry, she could always run. Her house was just three away. Louise could see her brother playing basketball in the driveway.

There was a shudder of air, maybe a ‘whoosh’ sound from behind. A blast of cold hit her back and swirled about in front of her. She stopped. The cold air seemed to take the shape of a hand. It moved toward her and pushed against her. Something whispered to her.

“Turn around.”

Slowly, with her body against the translucent hand, Louise pivoted to look behind her.

In the center of the sidewalk was a dark rectangle, like a door. It was as if a picture of another place appeared where there should have been a sidewalk, grass, the neighborhood and sky should be. The setting in the door was dreary with fog and shadowed ground of a heavy forest. It stood in sharp contrast to the pleasant neighborhood Louise was familiar with.

Something within moved.

“Louise,” said the whisper. “Come to me, Louise.”

And Louise, a smart girl, summoned her courage and said, “No.” She twisted against the invisible hand and put her shoulder into the palm and pushed. She made three steps. Through the hand, as if looking through a plastic bottle, Louise could see her brother running out of the yard toward her. He was too far.

“Hold on Louise,” he was yelling. It sounded like it was in her head.

Her eyes blurred from the tears of exertion against the hand.

Again she heard his voice. “Fight, Louise. Fight.”

Anger welled and she punched against the hand. It wavered back, and she took another step. Her brothers distorted form was closer. He looked as if he to were pushing against something. She punched again. This time the hand did not move. A thought flashed into her mind.

Louise put her back against the hand, counted to three, and then dove forward onto the rough cement of the sidewalk. The cold hand rushed over her and into the dark door. Thunder rumbled from inside. In a flash, Louise jumped back to her feet as a ‘Ha-ha’ broke from her grinning mouth.

She ran to toward her brother. He was struggling against the other hand when it seemed to darken as it solidified into dirty water. It became stronger. It knocked him to the ground. Then, as if he were a bug, it rose up high and came smashing down upon him with a hard slap of water on cement.

Louise screamed. Her brother lay motionless in the receding puddle.

From behind, out of the door, came another dark hard that seized her and pulled her away. In another swirl of wind, the door shut.

The only sound left was a skittering of a few innocent leaves in a dying breeze.