Forces from Beyond Read Online Free PDF Page A

everything we need to know.”
    Melody hesitated, not wanting to leave Happy, but he shot her a reassuring smile.
    “Go,” he said. “I’ll still be here when you get back.”
    “Will you be all right?” said Melody.
    “Hard to tell,” said Happy. “But I’ve got JC and Kim. All jolly companions together. Go.”
    Melody headed for the door, then stopped abruptly. Without taking her eyes off it, she said, “JC, did you shut this door?”
    They all turned to look. The door to Room 418 was very definitely closed.
    “I never touched that door,” said JC.
    “Me neither,” said Happy.
    “And I can’t,” said Kim.
    “A door that closes on its own, when no-one is looking,” said JC. “Now that’s more what I expect from a haunted room.”
    He strode past Melody, took a firm hold on the door-handle, and yanked the door open. It didn’t resist him, but when JC looked through the open doorway, there was no sign of the corridor outside. Instead, he was looking into Room 418. With Melody and Happy and Kim facing him. JC turned slowly, to look over his shoulder; and they were all standing behind him. In Room 418. He braced himself, and strode through the open door. Only to find himself walking back into Room 418, towards Melody and Happy and Kim. There was no sense of being turned around. It all felt perfectly normal until he thought about it, then his head hurt. JC walked back and forth through the open doorway several times, and still couldn’t feel anything.
    “Will you please stop doing that!” said Melody. “You are seriously messing with my head.”
    “I like it!” said Happy.
    “You would,” said Melody. “How the hell are we going to get out of here?”
    “Could be an illusion,” said JC.
    “No,” said Kim. “Because I’m seeing it, too, and you can’t fool ghost eyes. That . . . is real, in its own twisted way.”
    “Okay,” said Happy. “Not panicking even a little bit here.”
    “Nobody is to panic,” said JC. “We aren’t necessarily trapped.”
    He went over to the window, only to stop and consider it thoughtfully. The curtains were closed. JC was sure they’d been open when he entered the room. He took a firm hold on the curtains, yanked them apart, and looked out. And then made a low sound of pain, in spite of himself. There was no view; instead, the window held a complete absence of everything. A terrifying blankness that hurt the eyes, hurt the mind, just to look at. JC averted his gaze. Look at nothing for too long, and the human mind starts to unravel. He carefully pulled the curtains together again and didn’t look back until he was sure the window was completely covered. He turned his back on the window and looked at the others.
    “All right, it appears we might be trapped in here after all. Any suggestions that don’t involve loud noises of distress and involuntary bowel movements?”
    Kim tried to disappear and found she couldn’t. She frowned prettily, concentrating, and headed determinedly for the nearest wall, to walk through it. Only to find she couldn’t do that, either. She didn’t actually bump off the wall; she just couldn’t seem to get anywhere near it. She looked back at JC.
    “Something very odd is happening here. I mean, I’m not in any way material, but I’m still being affected by whatever’s in this room.”
    “It’s all in the mind,” said Happy.
    “What is?” said JC.
    “This room . . .” said Happy. “We won’t be allowed to leave until the room is finished with us. Finished its business . . .”
    “What business?” said JC, just a bit harshly.
    “Life and death,” said Happy. “The soul in balance. Truth will out . . .”
    JC looked at Melody. “Do you know what he’s talking about?”
    “I’m just telling you what I’m picking up,” Happy said patiently. “What the room is saying to me. Or rather, whatever it is that’s in this room with us.”
    JC grabbed up the telephone on the bedside table, but there