Chapter XVII

Miles away, it had also been a long, sleepless night for Nickole. All of her mind was centered around the events of the previous day. She was a twelve-year-old girl who had witnessed her brother vanish in seconds inside the darkness of an unstable, abandoned mine. It was traumatizing, and no matter how many times Alex’s friends tried to assure her that he was going to be alright, Nickole’s irrational mindset caused her to visualize the most horrific possibilities.

What chewed Nickole up almost as much was the part she played in Alex’s predicament. For months, all she wanted was to strengthen the old relationship she had with her older brother. Their mother had been so protective and sheltering ever since their father left, and while Alex was out with his friends for most of the afternoon, she hardly had any time during the day to spend with him, if he even spent time with her at all. The one time she had stood up and told a seemingly harmless lie to her mother, just to go with Alex and his friends, she watched him disappear right before her eyes.

Hetrick had driven a shaken Nickole off the mountain and dropped her off at her friend’s house, where she had told her mother she would be. Hetrick quickly informed her friend’s parents of the incident at the clay mine but was careful to take Nickole out of the picture, after which he hurried back to his truck and sped off to get help.

Nickole barely spoke to her friend or her parents. The shock was still gripping her. By the time her mother picked her up, Nickole had done her best to pull herself together. She was in such a stressful position between her lie and worrying about Alex. Her mother never asked about Alex for the rest of the afternoon, and all Nickole could do was wait out the remainder of the day until the bomb was finally dropped.

Her fears had begun to be realized when her mother finally started asking where Alex was and why he had yet to come home. Nickole tried to play the part of knowing nothing about the incident, but found it difficult to remain calm as she was so full of worry. It was not long before the telephone started ringing, and Nickole’s mother answered it to hear the Lake Placid Fire Department informing her of the situation at hand; that there had been an accident at an abandoned clay mine on the side of the mountains that left her son trapped inside, and that they were working to get him out.

Feeling so welled up with fear and guilt, Nickole confined herself to her room for the rest of the day and did not come out, not even to eat. She woke up numerous times that night, sometimes because of discomfort and sometimes due to nightmares; irrational thoughts that she might never see her older brother again. Her mother was also quite shaken, but told Nickole many times that he was going to be fine.

At the first light of morning, Nickole lied awake in her bed, her eyes burning from a poor night’s sleep. With the sun’s rays cutting weakly through the dense, early fog, Nickole pulled herself up and sat on the edge of the bed, rubbing her eyes. It was much quieter without her brother in the next room throwing darts against the door.

The sound that did break the silence, however, was that of someone knocking on the front door. Nickole stood up from her bed and went over to look out the window. She could not see the door from her angle, but what she did see was a single Lake Placid Police cruiser parked along the side of the road in front of her house. A cold ripple went up her spine. There was only one reason she could think of that would bring the police to their door. Nickole heard the door open. She ran over and opened her own door a little to listen in to the impending conversation.

“Sorry to bother you, ma’am,” came a low, male voice, obviously belonging to the officer. “This is the Lee household?”

“Yes,” Nickole heard her mother’s brief response.

“And are you the head of the house, Mrs. Lee?” the officer asked.

“Please call me Eira,” her mother answered coldly. “Yes I am.”

There was something of a short silence as Nickole anxiously waited for the conversation to continue. “I wonder if we might come in?” the officer said at last. Nickole did not hear her mother say anything, but she soon heard the sound of footsteps walking through the house. Interested, she slipped just outside of her room and peered down the hall toward the stairs, where she could see her mother leading two uniformed officers to the dining room. They disappeared right around the corner and Nickole was once again reduced to listening.

“Just to recap,” the first officer began upon sitting down, “we are dealing with a case of a fourteen-year-old boy missing as of yesterday afternoon. This boy, Alex Lee, is your son, correct?”

Eira nodded her head. “Yes,” she replied with a shaky tone of voice. “Have you found him?”

The two officers exchanged looks. “The report says that Alex and friends were exploring around the entrance to an old abandoned clay mine when the mine gave in and only Alex was trapped inside-”

Eira put her hand up. “I know that already!” she said, getting annoyed. “What I want to know is if anyone found him!”

The officer sighed. “The fire department was called up and helped to safely remove the obstruction. When they did, they conducted a thorough search of the tunnels in the immediate vicinity. They found nothing there.”

In the uncomfortable silence that followed, Eira found herself a bit confused. “What does that mean?” she asked, growing increasingly frustrated. “Where is my son?”

“Ma’am,” the second officer spoke up to try to calm her down. “It’s most likely that your son found his own way out of the mine. The tunnels are very old and caved in at many places. If he were still in there they would have found him.”

“But I still don’t understand,” Eira was still unsatisfied. “If he got out of the mine then that means he has to have been wandering around the mountains all night. Did nobody think to send a search party out to look for him?”

The first officer’s eyes suddenly went down, as if he was trying to find the appropriate next words to say. “Therein lies the problem, ma’am.” He exchanged quick glances with his partner again before finally breaking the ice. “Our department fears that your son may have unknowingly wandered into the Dark Zone.”

Eira did quite know how to respond. Her eyes widened at the officer’s words, but she was more confused than anything. She did not know what he was talking about. “What do you mean by the ‘Dark Zone?’ What is that?”

The officer swallowed nervously as he could see he was forced to deepen the wound. “You’re not familiar with the term, ma’am?”

Eira shook her head impatiently. “No, I’m not.”

“Well,” he began to explain, “there is…a district deep in the mountains, the borders of which stretch close to the area of your son’s accident. It was marked off limits back around ‘89 or ‘90. It’s out of our precinct. We are not permitted to go into the area for any reason.”

Dumbfounded, Eira responded, “If it’s off limits, how could my son get inside? Isn’t it fenced off or something?”

“No, ma’am,” the officer replied. “It is a desolate area. Nobody goes into it. The state did not issue the raising of a fence or a wall. To be completely honest, this is the first case our department has ever received about someone getting lost out there.” He took a deep breath before continuing. “I’m afraid your son is on his own as long as he is on the other side, but until he finds his way out, we will keep our eyes open.”

The atmosphere grew cold and dreary. Nickole felt the gust of the appalling news engulf her. She was speechless as she stood halfway out of her door. Despite that the odds were as great as her brother simply navigating his way out of the mountains, Nickole was very uneasy and welled up with the feeling of loss. Not knowing what to do, she just watched with watery eyes as her mother saw the officers out, and then she retreated into her room and shut the door