Into the Beyond Books 1-3

Lewis ran all the way home ignoring the pain in his ribs, made worse by every jarring footfall. If Mr. Gray wasn't going to help him, the only thing he had left to consult was the book Josie gave him. He hadn't finished reading through its pages yet, having not had it with him in the hospital, and so could only hope that there might be something of use to him in one of the passages. Perhaps there was more about the Agares or... he didn't know what, but it was the only hope he had left. He clung to it like a life raft in a sea of despair.

He snuck back in the side door and found the book right where he left it beside the air mattress. He sat down on the couch and read until there were no more words left to read. There was no more mention of the Agares. He flipped back through and reread the section about them that he'd already seen. Nothing new stood out to him. The Agares saw life from all the other realms as inferior to their own. To them, snipping Lewis's world would be like steamrolling over an anthill to make room for condominiums. There was no reasoning with something like that—they wouldn't care to listen.

Lewis reread some of the earlier passages, making sure he hadn't missed anything. An hour later, he knew for sure that the book wasn't going to aid him in finding Josie. It was disheartening, to say the least.

A reflection of light shined across the wall, coming in through the dining room window. Lewis assumed it was a passing car at first, but it didn't move smoothly enough. It danced back and forth until Lewis got up to investigate. He stared out the window into the darkness searching for the source.

Across the street, masked in shadow, a hooded figure was holding up a small round mirror—perhaps from a makeup compact—and reflecting the light from a nearby lamp into his window.

Josie?

Lewis tossed A Secret History of Parcae down on the air mattress as he made his way to the side door and snuck out once again. He ran around the house and out into his front yard. The figure was gone. He stepped into the street and strained his eyes in the darkness as he searched back and forth for the mysterious individual.

A blur of motion moving away from him in the distance caught his eye, back in the direction of Josie's house. Lewis chased after it but quickly lost sight. His heart was pounding in his eardrums as he neared the creepy house. He glanced over at the structure just as lantern light flashed out through one of the downstairs windows.

An unsettling feeling began to gnaw at the lining of Lewis's stomach. He approached the house quietly, glancing all around as he went. He knew Landon and his terrible friends had broken into the house before in the past, but it could also be Josie trying to get his attention.

As he got closer, he noticed a bright red streak of blood at chest level in the light of the moon. It was smeared across the peeling siding at the corner of the house. A hand, covered in blood, had been dragged across the wall. Lewis could make out the individual finger lines. The smear led to a broken window down the side of the house. An open space remained where boards had once sealed it off.

Lewis turned to run back home—he preferred for the police to come and sort the whole thing out—but then a bloodcurdling scream echoed out from deep within the house. He was sure it was Josie.

Filled with terror, part of Lewis wished Mr. Gray was there to advise him. Ultimately, though, there was only one thing to do. He used the sleeve of his hoodie to push away several pieces of broken glass from the windowsill. He then climbed up into the opening, using every ounce of concentration he could muster to avoid crying out in pain as the ledge pushed horribly into his ribs. He wiggled forward as quickly as he could until he was able to use his body weight to tumble the rest of the way into the house.

It was too dark to see anything as he got back onto his feet. The floorboards were covered in the remains of the busted out window. Shards of glass fell from Lewis's clothing, tinkling as they landed back on the hardwood. The air was musty and stale. No sound broke the silence apart from the crunch of glass beneath his feet as he shuffled them slightly. He hurriedly pulled his phone out of his pocket and illuminated the room with its flashlight. Trash and leaves littered the sides and corners of what was once a dining room.

A scraping sound pulled his attention to the nearby hallway. Lewis didn't want to call out—it felt too dangerous. He took a lunging step to avoid the shattered glass and then moved swiftly into the hallway. The scraping sound continued—it was coming from behind a closed door halfway down the hallway. Lewis hurried to it and silently cracked it open.

Behind the door a set of stairs led down into a basement.

Lewis stepped into the doorway, moving as quietly as he possibly could. A rustling from down the stairs made him think about the passage he'd read in the book about the rogue Parca who'd gone around scaring people into believing in ghosts. Before he could take another step forward, the door slammed behind him into his back. Lewis was propelled down the stairwell, tumbling head over heels. He landed in a pile at the bottom of the stairs, grunting as he tried to regain his breath.

He grabbed his phone from beside him off the floor and then limped, clutching his side, back up the stairs as fast as he could. He grabbed the handle, but it wouldn't turn.

Locked in....

A high-pitched voice called out to him from back down the stairs. "Come back down, Lewis."

Lewis descended the stairs slowly. Mr. Gray was waiting for him at the center of the basement.

"No cell service down here. No one finds you for months," said Mr. Gray. "You die of thirst, alone and pathetic."

Lewis scanned his eyes across the empty basement, hoping to find anything at all that might help him break down the door. The cement slab of the floor stared back at him, mockingly. Apart from Mr. Gray, there was nothing of consequence at all.

"What about my destiny?" asked Lewis. "The decision I'm supposed to make?"

Mr. Gray shook his head. "Don't you see? You already made it when you chose to come into this house. What you do from now on doesn't matter anymore. There are no more decisions that can impact anything."

Lewis felt as if the walls were pressing in on him. "But you can change all that, right? You've got to help me get out of here!"

Mr. Gray chuckled. "No, no," he said. "You have fulfilled your destiny. You were fated to die here from the beginning. You can no longer meddle with immortal affairs. It's for the best."

"The best for who?"

Mr. Gray ignored him. He turned away and walked over to the side of the basement and reached his hands out into the empty air one more time. The light from Lewis's cellphone deadened as it fell across the portal. Mr. Gray stepped forward to leave Lewis to his doom.

"There's one more thing you didn't see coming," said Lewis.

Mr. Gray paused for a moment and glanced over his shoulder at him.

Lewis dove forward with all his strength, slamming into Mr. Gray like a linebacker. They both tumbled through the narrow opening and into the Beyond.