Part 44

David didn't need to follow the children to know they were in the barn.

Once he got close enough he heard them. First there were some scuffling movements, then the sound of something being knocked over, followed by whispers... and a silence that was eventually broken by the wail of an infant. The girl had been carrying the baby when they fled, and now the child was... not screaming, exactly, but complaining quite loudly in the only way it knew how.

There was more hurried movement as David approached the door. He walked up to it and, confident that all of this was merely an illusion, kept walking-

-WHAM!

...only to realize that the barn existed in the present as well as the past. So did its door, which solidly resisted David's attempt to walk through it .

"Ouch..." David rubbed his forehead.

Inside, the rustling had ceased.

Had they heard him?

Cautiously, David crept to the edge of the barn door, which stood slightly ajar. He peeked in. The darkness on the other side of the door was absolute.

"Hello?"

"I'm going back!" said a young male voice. The boy.

"No, you can't!" What had the girl's name been? Angela?

"I can fight! I can help!"

"We have to hide!"

Silence.

Sudden movement-

"No!" the female voice whispered frantically. "Come back! Hide!"

The baby began to cry. David took that moment to slip inside.

There was no sign of the children although he could tell that their voices were coming from the back. They'd hidden themselves well. And the darkness seemed to be actively assisting them in their efforts.

"Hello?" he said. "Can you... can you hear me?"

"Keep her quiet!" said the boy. Fear and desperation oozed from the voice. The sound of it was... familiar. "Please!"

"Shhhhh...."

They were definitely in the rear of the barn. David headed for the sound of the infant.

Something cold brushed past him.

"Please!" said the boy. "They'll hear! They'll HEAR!"

"I can't!" The girl sobbed. "She's scared and I'm scared and... and this is all your fault!"

Silence. REAL silence... the baby had chosen that moment to cease its noise.

David squinted into the darkness.

"I can't see you," he said. "Hello?"

"That's better," said the boy. David swiveled his head toward the sound and caught a faint movement. As his eyes completed their adjustment to the interior of the barn, the movement resolved itself into a young boy creeping toward him.

...no, not toward HIM... but toward the front of the barn, moving along the same path as David, merely in the opposite direction.

David stepped aside and watched.

"What's your name?" he asked the boy has he slipped past.

The boy paused and turned back.

"Did you... did you hear something?" he whispered.

"I think... I think... we should just hide." Angela sobbed quietly in the dark, tucked behind a bale of hay. She held the baby close to her chest as she rocked back and forth on her heels. "Just hide," she repeated. And then a third time, like a mantra "...just hide..."

"We can't," said the boy.

"You have to run!" David whispered. His lips were inches away from the boy's ear. "They're right out there! You can't hid in here, they'll find you! Run!"

"It's too late." They boy's whisper was so low that David doubted the girl could hear it. It was almost as if...

...as if he wasn't INTENDING it for the girl.

The boy turned his head away from Angela to look directly at David.

"They've found us."