Anne opened her eyes, but she saw nothing but a blinding light. She was hot, and she was holding to someone's neck. She heard a voice say, "Don't worry."
This was after Walter had made a wild run through the house, searching the parlor, the kitchen, the living room, the rest room, and all the while thinking, "It can't be too late, it can't be too late."
His thoughts almost had him seeing through a tunnel, "Time is catching up with us. Anne, the card was wishing me the best, Anne, where is Anne. She can't be gone. She was here with me; she was fine, she was alright. We cheated it. We cheated it, and it knows. She was always the smarter of us, and she warned me, it won't be cheated, or at least it won't be cheated easily."
As he made his run through the house, sometimes people would instantly show, some frozen in place, others zipping at a mad speed. He saw friends and strangers; he saw his daughter dashing about, and his son in law, and all of these people would pop in front of him, making his way in and out of the rooms difficult. If someone was frozen in place, he could not move them. If someone were dashing about, they would bump him and knock him to the floor. The scene was psychotic at best.
He yelped in the kitchen as he entered, there was some sort of celebration happening and a huge cake on the table. The cake knife had zipped by him in someone's hand so quickly he never saw and made a slash in his forearm. People who were frozen in place wielded forks, and to Walter they were as dangerous as any weapon he had ever seen. These paralyzed and flickering people did not see Walter, and could easily impale him with a utensil. He had to get by the kitchen to the hallway, there was only one place left to look for Anne, and that was the bedroom.
He made a run for it. A statue of a man popped in front of him and Walter bounced off it and to the floor. Walter rubbed a spot of blood from his mouth and said, "Okay. I won't give up. You can come after me, but I won't give up. I will get by you!"
Back up to his feet Walter made a second run from the center of the kitchen. Something he never saw caught him on the head, stabbing him with pain. It was a plate which had passed by faster than a bullet. A thick fresh bruise swelled on his forehead and he fell into the hallway. He almost blacked out. Walter pressed his palm against his forehead and growled, "You will not stop me! You won't do it!"
The stairway to the bedroom was void of anyone. He knew of he were headed up, and one of the zipping people were to come on the way down, they would run him over and it would be the end of this game. But it was now or never.
Suddenly, standing in the center of the stairway, a shadowy figure appeared. It was neither frozen nor rapid in motion; it moved at the same pace as Walter. There could be made out an adornment on its head, brilliant and tall. It's face was marked with paints, familiar to Walter's studies. The paints were Mayan in design. The figure pointed at Walter and its voice thundered, "Nyog Ogk Uuooosh.." Walter hissed back at the thing, "I will go right through you if I have to." The bright eyes of the figure glared at Walter, and it said softly, "Nyish, grootu." Walter roared back, "You better get out of my way! I will not let you stop me!" The ghostly man laughed, and faded away. Walter was shaking, yet he rose to his feet and ran up the steps and into the bedroom.
Anne was lying on the bed, motionless. "No," he croaked. "Anne?" He stepped to the bed and looked down at her fragile body. He shook her, but she did not move. "Anne? Speak to me Anne. Wake up honey." She did not move. It occurred to Walter that he could be too late. He leaned down and listened. Faintly, he could hear her breathing, and he instantly went to action. He ignored the raging pain in his shoulder as he lifted her from the bed and cried out with anguish, "I won't let you have her! Do you hear me? You will not take her from me, not her! I won't let you!"
As quickly and carefully as he could, he carried her down the stairs and into the hallway. He had no idea where he was finding the strength, but he knew he would not hold out long. He was at the cellar door, and down he walked, bracing himself to the stainless steel railing which led down into the pit. The small opening he and Anne had went through was now a tall, arched entrance lined with stone. Inside, the fountain gurgled. It almost sounded as though it were growling at him. There were walls constructed around the fountain, and lights overhead. He carried he in his arms into the pool and he heard her murmur, "Walter?"
"Just hold on Anne. Just hold on tight."
Walter knew he would have to go almost to the deepest end of the pool. Slowly he trudged through the water to where the water poured in. "When we get to the other side, we can start all over sweetie. We can start over. We have everything we need over there."
She could not open her eyes, she was far too weak, and she murmured again, "Walter?"
"Hush sweetheart. Just hang on to me. We'll be there soon."
She tried to open her eyes, but she could not. Not because she was too weak, but because it was unbearably bright. She said clearly, "Walter?"
"Don't worry. Everything is going to be alright."
She knew she was soaking wet, and her clothes were hanging absurdly on her. Finally she could see the bright blue sky. Anne looked for Walter, but she only found a young boy, maybe the age of ten. She asked, "Walter?"
The young boy smiled. She looked down below her and saw the crystal blue water, and the glowing apparition of a young ten year old girl looking back at her. "Walter, where are we?"
"It tried to come and get us, Anne. But I wouldn't let it. It was coming for us, you and me. I won though. You said we couldn't cheat it, but we did. We cheated time, and we cheated death."
Walter set her on her feet, and it made perfect sense to her why the glare was so bright. The green forage which had been there before was gone. Where it had been lush, and then wilting, now was replaced by sand., dunes and dunes of hot sand.
Walter said, "We won, we did it. We got away."
The fountain which had poured into the pool was now but a trickle, and she saw the water of the fountain was drying away. She felt hungry, but there was nothing to ear. She felt thirsty, and dropped to her hands and knees to drink the quickly disappearing water. She stood back to her feet and listened to Walter say, while standing proudly with his fists on his hips, "We won, Anne. I told you we could do it."
Anne grasped a handful of sand and watched it run from her closed fist. Where had she seen this before? The sands of an hour glass? There was enough sand here to run on forever.
Walter said, "We cheated it, Anne. We are eternally young now. We won."
Anne whispered, "I don't think so."
From far above the desert, unheard to them, but resounding against the sands of time, the voice of Rod Seling says, "Perhaps there are places you visit, old haunts from your past; and maybe these places bring back a certain energy of youth. Maybe they make you feel somewhat young again. Let that be enough, from lessons learned, in the Twilight Zone."