13.

It's not so much it feels as it were alive as it does perhaps feel we're among the dead, a multitude of lost souls coming together and going forward as one entity feeding off the energy of the gathered living and searching for a particular kind of energy the likes of which needs to be outsourced more than taken from what passes through.

Terrance wakes on his back in a bed within a room he is unfamiliar with. Before he has an opportunity to think he hears a voice speak.

'Good morning, Mister.'

He turns his head to his right to see Mary lying on her left side smiling right back at him. They are both almost fully covered by the bed linen. Terrence speaks his thoughts out loud.

'I am naked?'

'Yes.'

'You are naked?'

'Yes.'

'And last night happened?'

'Yes ... it most certainly did. Don't tell me you can't remember?'

'Oh ... I do' he says propping himself up a little. 'I remember it all.'

'Good' she says moving in on him and planting a smacker full on and onto his lips.

'Oh my' he says when he gets the opportunity.

'Are you ready for round two? Or should I say round five?'

'Err, what about breakfast?' he asks slightly embarrassed but happy to be right where he is.

'Breakfast can wait; I don't think I can ...'

***

Breakfast is had together, and the trip home soon gets underway. Midday is about half an hour away when Mary pulls into her home's driveway. She and Terrance get out of the car at the same time, she moves towards him, and they share a brief kiss before parting company. Terrence moves out of the driveway, turns then watches Mary enter her home.

'What am I doing?' he quietly asks himself once she has closed her house door.

Terrance crosses the street and begins to walk up towards his own house. Instead of stopping and heading inside, he keeps on moving heading towards the entrance to the estate, or rather the exit of the estate since he currently already is on estate grounds.

He begins to walk down the town and passes the turn that would bring him close to the park. He continues walking down towards town before turning onto then down along Main Street turning left at the end rather than heading straight towards the sea. Soon he is approaching the street, from the other end, which would bring him back close to that park.

Once again having a 'what the hell?' moment, Terrence makes his way into the park for he believes is the first time of doing so and once again he queries himself 'what am I doing?'

His heartbeat quickens as he counts the amount of steps he takes into this park ... five ... six ... seven. Counting steps will do little other calm him slightly, if even it will do that. This park is a rather large place as Terrence is yet to properly find out. With those steps he is still counting ... eight ... nine ... ten ... and looking to his right he can see a canal which becomes more a river spreading to become lake like the further in he goes.

It is clear from what he can see already that there is nowhere a seven-year-old boy can go or could have gone in a matter of seconds that he would not be seen. There are trees behind which he could hide though he would at least be seen doing so. A seven-year-old boy would also not get down to that canal and fall in within a matter of seconds without being seen. This place took Mary's little brother, it done something the instant the boy entered the park, and it may still have him.

With whatever connection he has, if he truly has one, Terrence cannot help but call out for Todd. There is even a little part of him, somewhere down deep, that expects to hear a reply. One does not come and as it is at this point there is no one else in this place for as far as he can see. There are people out beyond the park entrance and those who are anywhere near that entrance do not show any signs of actually coming in.

Step count continues ... twenty-six ... twenty-seven ... twenty-eight ... then something comes that put Terrence off count. For a second or two he is sure he can hear multiple whispers, voices that are saying 'not yet' and 'not ready'. This does not deter him from moving forwards. Sure, didn't that Dale fellow tell Terrence that the place wants him, just not yet and he also did say that the park is alive.

Continuing on along the trail which corresponds with the canal, it isn't long before he comes to a bridge that crosses the water. He sees this bridge a matter of seconds before reaching it. There is a sinking feeling stirring up within him and it fills him wholly, collapsing in on itself. With being right where he is, Terrence is having a very strong de ja vu feeling and it does not feel all so good.

He has been right here before, he has been on that bridge but as far as he is aware, this is the first time he has been inside the park, this is the first time he went past that park entrance. That dream he had; it had been a dream ... hadn't it?

If he had been unsure about anything before, he certainly is unsure now.

14.

For the first time, so he might believe if he were able to take anything on face value, Terrence has come to be within the town park, a place of which has been the center of his thoughts for a least a few days now. Or at least this very moment is the first time he has intentionally entered of his own free will.

He had come close to the grounds at least twice before without going in, despite that fact he knows he had somehow been right at this particular bridge before. It wasn't a dream he had or a vision no matter if it presented itself as such. He is sure he physically has been to this exact spot on at least one occasion prior to now. Without a doubt it is the exact same place. How can that be?

Climbing up the steep steps he moves up onto then along towards the center of the bride and looks out at the water. Yeah, he is sure that the surroundings are identical to what they were when he stood in such a place on at least one prior moment. This is impossible right? Maybe not, he thinks. The two times he did come close to the park time skipped.

The first time Terrence came close to this park was on the day he moved to his new home. He had been to this new town a matter of minutes before coming so close to what may be the most unique place in the world. It would have been a little after ten in the morning when he came to be where he was on that day. Time appeared to be continuous until when a phone call he received had him realize that two hours passed in an instant, two hours that seemed to have skipped right on by.

Then there was that moment on a separate occasion when he had come right up to the park entrance without going in and on that occasion three hours had somehow vanished or perhaps skipped on by. Terrence can't help but consider the possibility that he may have actually entered the park on either or both of these occasions and somehow any and all memories of doing so were blocked for some reason.

So, if that is true then is what he is feeling actually some sort of memory? Maybe he has stood on this bridge once before. Maybe something more than de ja vu is occurring. Something now happens that can blow any and all theories, any that Terrance can come up with, out of the park so to speak.

There is movement to his right, someone running, an animal perhaps? A dog passes, a German Shepard followed by a young lady dressed in running attire. Wait this moment has happened before, right? This lady runner is Karen O'Neill, right? He recognizes her from one of the flyers Mary had delivered to him. If Terrence goes after this lady, will he once again run into something that is not there?

Terrence does move off from that bridge and back onto that trail. It is too late; she is gone out of sight as has the dog. What the hell is happening to him? Time to do nothing else other than head home; if this park is alive and if it indeed does want Terrence then it will let him go on this occasion, sure hasn't the whisper he heard essentially told him this?

If Terrence can even begin to entertain thoughts that he himself is losing it, if he can allow the idea that his own mental health is not what he believed it to be, then what will his upcoming moment of arriving back home do to him?

There is a police vehicle outside Mary's house, and she is in her front yard talking to two police officers. The very second in which she sees Terrence, she makes a run towards him with tears in her eyes. Her hair is a mess as she is too from what Terrence can see.

'Where have you been?' she asks while throwing her arms around him.

'Why? What is wrong?'

'Terry' she says looking him in the eyes. 'You've been gone five days without having said a thing, your car remained here. I thought something happened to you.'

'Five days? No, that's not right. We only got out of your car no more than forty-five minutes ago.'

'Ou of my car? From when we went off on those interviews? No, no, we arrived back five days ago this morning ...'