Dastardly Bastard by Edward Lorn Page B

“Daddy?”
    He suddenly became aware of his mother screaming.
    She had her back to him, looking the way he had run off, at the place he should have still been. “Where’d he go?” she wailed.
    Lyle watched her take off in the opposite direction. He wanted to call out, but she vanished before he could form the words.
    Something slammed into him from behind. He dropped forward, and his cell phone slid across the ground. The dustcloud it raised drove him into a coughing fit. Finally, he spit out a lump of black gunk. “Eww!”
    “Lyle?”
    He rolled over and saw his mother, confusion and fear playing over her face. She looked up, and he followed her gaze.
    “That’s not possible,” she whispered. “They were behind me. I left them standing there.”
    She was right. It wasn’t possible, but there they were, Justine, Trevor, and Jaleel, staring in the other direction. They didn’t seem to have a clue he and his mother were behind them.
    “I left them behind me, but now they’re…” His mother’s voice trailed off.
    When he looked back at her, she had her hand over her mouth. Probably chewing at her hand again.
     

19
     
     
    JUSTINE COULDN’T BELIEVE HER EYES. First, Lyle had disappeared. There one moment, running full tilt, then he was gone.
    Next, the boy’s mother had pulled the same trick.
    After a minute of silence, the tour guide said, “Where’d they go?”
    “I-I don’t… what the hell?” Trevor stammered. Justine saw the utter confusion on his face, and imagined her expression mirrored his.
    “Lyle! Marsha!” Jaleel yelled.
    “Here!”
    Justine thought the chasm’s acoustics were playing tricks on her hearing, but the voice sounded as if it had come from behind her. She spun around and found the mother and her son further down the trail, just past the outcropping.
    “What the fuck?” Trevor asked.
    “Now I’ve seen everything,” Jaleel said. His shock seemed forced, dishonest, like someone walking in on a surprise party they’d known about in advance.
    Lyle and Marsha moved back toward them, coming back up the pathway.
    “How did you get behind us?” Justine asked.
    “I-I don’t know. The last thing I remember, I was chasing Lyle.” Marsha looked befuddled, as if she would cry or laugh, or both.
    Justine felt as though she could do the same at that moment.
    Trevor bent over and picked up a loose rock.
    “What are you doing?” she asked.
    “Trying something.” Trevor reared back and threw the rock at the spot where Lyle and Marsha had disappeared.
    The rock hit the ground twenty feet ahead of them and rolled, finally coming to rest another ten feet further up the trail.
    Trevor shrugged. “Seems to be all right now.”
    Marsha grabbed her son’s hand. “I don’t like this. I really, really don’t like this. Come on, Lyle. We’re getting out of here.”
    A total of five steps. That was as far as Lyle and Marsha made it before they vanished into thin air.
    Same scene as before. First they were there, then they weren’t. Justine could feel her head spinning, gears working overtime trying to make sense of the insanity. Out of instinct, she turned around.
    And found Marsha and Lyle at the outcropping once again.
    “This is crazy,” Jaleel said.
    Trevor said, “But the rock went through. We all saw it. Right?”
    “You guys wait there!” Jaleel called to Lyle and Marsha.
    “What are you thinking?” Justine asked, following the tour guide as he began walking toward the beginning of the trail.
    “I’m thinking I want to see this for myself. Hang back with him.” Jaleel pointed at Trevor.
    The tour guide didn’t even make it five steps. Justine couldn’t be sure, but maybe he’d made it three. The distance to disappearing range seemed to have grown shorter.
    “Look,” Trevor said.
    Justine turned and saw Jaleel standing at the outcropping with Marsha and Lyle. “That isn’t possible.” Those words had become a mantra of sorts.
    Justine spun back and slowly