I COULDN’T SLEEP THE REST of the night, too afraid Grandma would get up on her own, too afraid I would wake up and be back in Nightmare Town, too afraid I would be back to Jordan.
School was torture. I fell asleep sitting in the cafeteria during lunch and was positive I was going to do it again in my first class after lunch. After a test I was sure I failed, our teacher started in on the next unit.
“All right, this week we’re starting our local history section,” Mr. Higgins said, passing out thin books to each of us. I gave it a cursory glance and stifled another yawn. “We’re going to start with a really neat area just thirty miles south of us with a town called Singapore.”
He jabbed at a blank space next to the big lake on a hanging map. “So Singapore was right here—”
“There’s nothing there,” the girl next to me pointed out.
“Right, keep listening. So, Singapore was settled in 1836 by a man named Oshea Wilder who wanted it to become a large port town like Chicago. He was successful and the town grew. It had mills, general stores and even the state’s first school house. Then in the winter of 1842 a devastating storm blew in, causing a forty-day-long blizzard.”
“Is that why the town’s not there?” the girl next to me asked. “Cause they all died in the storm?”
Mr. Higgins sighed. “No, actually they all survived. How about you let me lecture and save the questions for afterwards? So, with what has to be one of the most fortuitous coincidences ever, a ship called the Milwaukie wrecked right off the shore of the town. The people were able to retrieve food and supplies from it to last out the storm. Then a few years later, the man who founded the town left and it was bought up by another man who then sold it to his brother. This man was named Artemas Carter and he was responsible for the building of a very large schooner that transported lumber from West Michigan to Chicago. It was hugely successful and the town grew to hold several hundred people.”
I discreetly rubbed my eyes and checked the clock again.
“But that was almost part of the town’s downfall. All the lumber that was sent to Chicago was used to build new buildings and in 1871, when the cow kicked over the lantern and started the famous Great Fire of Chicago, it swept up into lower West Michigan. The town was spared but the woods around it were not and because of the deforestation the town became eroded by sand blowing in off of Lake Michigan. It was abandoned in 1875 and completely covered over by sand.”
“Well it not must have been that big of a town to get covered up just by sand,” one of the guys said.
“Oh, on the contrary,” Mr. Higgins said, hitting a button on his computer, causing a picture to come up on the screen. It was an old black and white photo of an old town. A dirt road ran between two rows of one- and two- story buildings. It looked familiar and I wondered where I had seen the picture before. “That building on the left is one of two of the town’s banks,” he said, then clicked to the next picture. “Here is the schooner built to transport the lumber,” he said of a massive ship docked in a large wooden port. “And this, this is one of the general stores. You can see it was converted from an old barn and we all know how large barns are. Imagine this being completely covered by sand in only four short years.”
I glanced up at the picture and felt my heart completely stop.
It was Abe’s store. It was a perfect, exact picture of his store with the only thing different being the absence of the unused gas pumps. My chest continued to constrict painfully.
Shakily, I raised my hand. “Is that, um, you say that is a real place?”
Mr. Higgins frowned at me. “Of course. Well, it was. I imagine the store is probably still there under one of the dunes, although it’s probably in pieces.”
“Can people still get to the town?” I willed my hands to stop shaking.
“Oh yes,” he said. “People still visit the area where the town was. It’s one of Michigan’s most famous ghost towns.”
“Is it haunted?” someone asked.
“Well, local legend says that it is. There was a dark side to the town. Being such a large port far away from the prying eyes of Chicago authorities, it was a haven for mobsters. They smuggled all kinds of things through the port and town and even used it as a vacation spot. They brought with them the crime and violence they perpetrated in Chicago and it rubbed off on the town. People say now you can see ghosts moving through the trees around the dunes over the town or hear weird noises or see unusual lights in the sky, akin to the northern lights.”
I couldn’t look away from the picture. I scanned it inch by inch, looking for any detail that would prove it wasn’t the same general store I had been dreaming about for years. I flipped through the book Mr. Higgins had handed out and scanned through the black and white photos in it. In the very beginning was a detailed map showing were the town had been and how to get to it. I knew then I wouldn’t be attending the rest of my afternoon classes.
It was a gorgeous drive down there and I saw almost none of it. My mind kept jumping back to the picture of Abe’s general store and I could barely concentrate on steering. Following the map and setting my odometer, I finally arrived to where the town had been. Pulling over on the side of the road suddenly made me fearful and I had to make myself get out of the car. Trees grew tall overhead and let in dapples of sunlight. Birds chirped and squirrels knocked cascades of crunchy leaves to the ground. The lake was a faint rushing.
Book in hand, I set off on a faint path that led up the dune. Cresting the hill and finally breaking through the trees, I could see a huge expanse of sand rolling down to the water. I stood, catching my breath, and took it all in.
Finally it hit me and with tears starting to flow, I had to sit. Somewhere beneath me was the actual building I had been dreaming about for years. It was real, perhaps all of it was real, and I didn’t know if that made me crazier than I already was or not crazy all.
“I suspected you would finally make it here,” a voice said from behind me.
I scrambled to my feet, sand flying everywhere. Behind me stood a man dressed unusually with large scarf wrapped around his head and swept across his face. He seemed to be staring out towards the water. I took a few slow steps backwards, all too aware he was between me and my escape to my car.
“I hadn’t even suspected it, not until Jordan finally told me how he first found you, in your dreams.” That stopped me. I looked the man over again, took in his broad shoulders, his enormous size.
“David?” I asked. Then, “Oh my God, oh my God, this is all real.” The shaking in my knees took over my whole body and I had to sit down again. Even my shadow on the sand was quivering.
I couldn’t see his face, just barely his eyes as he glanced at me. “Of course it is. You of all people should know that. And you of all people should know why you and Jordan can’t be together.”
“Why? Why should I know that—why should I know anything?”
David sighed. “You really don’t know? How can you not? How old are you?”
“Sixteen,” I answered, confused by the question.
He sighed again. “Your mother must be dead.”
“I … yes.”
He nodded. “And she must have died before you turned fourteen.”
“Right again. Did Jordan tell you that?”
“No.”
He stood, silent. I studied him from the corner of my eye. Finally I asked, “Can I see your face?”
“No.”
I blew out a huff of air. “Okay. What do you want, why are you here?”
The wind flapped the scarf around his face, revealing his one icy blue eye. I shivered as he stared at me. “You really don’t know? Even not being told you never figured it out? What about your aunts, your grandmother?”
“My mom was an only child and my Grandma has had Alzheimer’s for years. What is it I’m supposed to know?” I asked, irritated.
“You’re a Gatekeeper. You are supposed to be guarding this pass way.”
I shrugged uneasily. “
Whatever, man. You’re just messing with me.”
David took an angry step forward and I scrambled back. “I know you dream about this place, I know you probably see it as if it hadn’t been abandoned. I know you probably think of it as your town. You know everyone there, don’t you? And they know you. I bet they are very angry with you.”
A cold wind gusted over me. “They wouldn’t talk to me last night. And dream Lincoln was mad. How do you know that?”
“Who do you think you’re supposed to be guarding against?”
I shook my head, unable to process anything.
“Us, all of us, all the djinn. You are supposed to be keeping us out, separate and instead you’re ‘dating’ one of us.” He took another step closer but I was too numb to move back. “You can’t be with him, you can’t be with Jordan. You have no idea what hell you could unleash on both our worlds.”
The spit dried in my mouth. “You’re lying, you just don’t like humans and you don’t want me with him.”
He turned away from me. “Do these woods look familiar to you?”
“I …” I looked around, really looked at the trees and forest, wondering if I would recognize them as the woods surrounding Nightmare Town. “I don’t think so.”
“Your brother does. He spent almost two weeks here.”
I stood to my feet and crossed my arms tight over my chest. I couldn’t say anything, I could only wait for him to confirm what I had been suspecting.
“Trapped in these woods, in the in between place between my world and yours. He’s seen how our faces really look, did he tell you? Was he able to describe it?”
“He said it was a demon,” I whispered.
David gave a little laugh at that. “Close, but not exactly.”
Tears were flowing from my eyes and I wiped my nose on my sleeve. He crossed the few feet to me slowly and only stopped when I started backing up. “I am sorry,” he said quietly.
“No you’re not. This is what you wanted. You hate human women and you didn’t want me around. I just can’t believe it took you this long to tell me,” I spat.
He reached his hand up and stroked the hair falling out of my braid. “So lovely. You almost look like her.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, too scared to move back from him. “You win. It’s over between me and Jordan. Please just go.”
The only answer I got was the rushing of the waves.
Chapter 18