It looked like the Fourth of July out there. Unless they were already dead.
I turned around to see the house through tear-misted eyes and remembered I’d forgotten Mr. Fluffy Rabbit. But we’d covered much ground in the few seconds since we’d left. The house was now thousands of feet away. We moved so fast that Remi went in and out of focus next to me. I convinced myself it was a dream and we were all still asleep.
We raced ahead faster than it was possible for humans to run. I closed my eyes and listened for His voice. I wondered if He was out there, if He knew I needed him right then.
The wind whipped around us, growling like a ferocious animal about to rip trees from the ground. It made my spine rigid. Visions came and went, and my mind seemed stuck on auto-play. Images of the strange creatures I’d seen beneath my window, scenes of people I had never met, but who felt strangely familiar, and a garden like the one He’d taken me to, then nothing. White noise, like they’d stopped broadcasting.
I looked behind me, though I shouldn’t have. My stomach lurched when I noticed we were airborne, slightly above the ground, maybe five inches. I was sure I was going to be sick. Stars raced above us while the moon lit up the sky like a disco ball. On any other night, I would have enjoyed the sheer impossibility of it all. This was not that night. Another vision began, and this time, my head slumped onto Remi’s shoulder and I let it take me away.
***
The fragrance was of honeysuckle, pancakes, berries, and something I couldn’t place. Sweet pea, maybe freesia. A slight breeze made me feel almost giddy as I walked.
Above me, sky poked through ancient trees—maples, oaks, elks, willows, and pines. Fruit trees produced every kind of fruit imaginable. I stumbled upon a cherry blossom field. I resisted the urge to twirl and twirl until I became dizzy. But the feelings remained: happiness, joy.
I came upon a large, open, grassy area where two banyan trees stood. The first looked as if it could sweep you up into its arms and devour you with its many twisted trunks. I kept my distance. With branches stretching from either side, forming a crescent shape above, the great tree’s leaves jutted out across and around the tree in deep red. Beyond the first tree, in the center of the grassy area, was another, covered in leaves of sunburst yellow and bearing shiny, succulent-looking fruit.
It was strangely like a mirage, and yet I suddenly felt famished. But I wasn’t there to eat. I walked, resisting the urge to pull fruit from the curious tree, inhaling its scent as I did. It was intoxicating. This garden was not unlike the one in my dreams.
Near the edge of the clearing was the mouth of an oddly-shaped stream. Clear water refracted light into a rainbow that stretched across it. Four distinct paths of flowing water ran from the stream and into a forest. Thirsty, I knelt at the base of the stream and drank pure, clean-tasting water. Satisfied and replenished from that one drink, I was certain I would not need to drink again for a long time, if ever.
Perfection lay at every turn. If this was heaven, then I was dead. What if I was dead? I clutched at my chest, my heart pounding as if trying to remove itself from my chest cavity. A warm breeze caressed my face, then covered me in an embrace so magnificent I wanted to stay there forever. Then I was falling, thrown abruptly back to reality as the wrenching in my gut began.
***
I never really thought about all Remi was capable of until those things crashed into our house and lifted it from the foundation. “Respice post te!” the voices insisted.
I looked behind me again. Big mistake. Gigantic dogs. So big they could have been horses. Their open, chomping mouths kept coming at us, saliva slinging from left to right. While I watched, the giant dogs transformed again, their tails changing into rattlesnakes’ tails. The loud rattling echoed through the night and sent a chill through me.
“Aggghhhh!”
Something had ripped the skin on my calf to shreds. As I bent to try and keep my skin together, the bloodthirsty creatures gained on us.
Remi looked quickly behind us and pulled me along. I knew we weren’t going to make it, and if he hadn’t known it