The Shadow Box: Paranormal Suspense and Dark Fantasy Thriller Novels

by Travis Luedke

He wanted to open his eyes, to see a friendly face, but keeping his eyes closed was the only thing preventing his tears from flowing freely. Any hope he had of maintaining a degree of masculinity was gone now. Even Jessica, the child, had shown the grace to leave the room for her breakdown. Knowing he was outclassed by a 12-year-old was bad enough. Realizing that everyone was watching his breakdown made it all the worse.

  Violently, he wiped his eyes with his palms.

  “Thanks.” He felt like sinking into the floor. He looked back out the window. The storm still sporadically lit up the waters in the distance, but the thunder seemed very far away. It did not seem to be raining, either on shore or where the lightning fell. Still, some summer storms were like that, even back home. Sometimes it was just the heat and the humidity in the air that brought the storms on. No reason to think it was anything different. Only, it felt different. Maybe something had caused the storm. Maybe, on some level, that something was Wisdom.

  He shook his head and covered his eyes. ‘I have no idea what’s going on. I’m surrounded by members of a secret club, strangers who refuse to tell me what’s really going on. Not that it would do me any good. I can’t even deal with what little I know. I’m a murderer. A freak. Even if I leave Wisdom’s circle of freaks, I can never go back home. I’m totally trapped.’

  ***

  The Vulture Antechamber was dark, lit only by burning embers in incense braziers around the room. At first glance the chamber was deserted. Then Propates saw the whisper of a man hanging in the air.

  The agent from away.

  “Why are you here?” Propates disliked this man. He knew he was an alien, a creature from a planet far away. The fact that he so closely resembled a human disturbed him. It hinted at a common ancestry he could not explain. “Have you acquired the Miscellany?”

  “No,” the agent from away said. “But I know where it is now. I’m assembling a party to retrieve it. We leave within the week. But that’s not why I’m here. I was contacted by the Djinnistani.”

  “What did he want?” Propates shifted on his feet.

  “He was injured. He needs to retreat to the Kaz for a few days, but he wanted to pass along a message. He fought Wisdom and Wisdom won. Don’t let your chin hit the floor, Propates. I need you to concentrate. Wisdom is more powerful than his father expected, which means he’s probably more powerful than you suspect. The Djinnistani also wants you to know Wisdom claims he killed his father in the future. If that happens….”

  Propates' headache was much worse now. He felt faint. “If that happens, all our plans might be for naught. I can’t let that happen. I’m not going to let the world be destroyed simply because Wisdom doesn’t know when to lie down and die.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Josh knew things were moving too quickly. He clenched and unclenched his hands repeatedly as he scanned the room. He did not know these people, did not know who to trust. God, he could not even tell which ones were human and which were things like Wisdom. He wished his father was there. He would know what to do.

  The sudden emptiness in his chest made him realize it was the first time in almost a week that he had thought of his father and the rest of his family. Jan. How was she coping? Had she recovered from the horror of the Laurentians? What did she tell her parents? And what about Matt? Was the damage to his knees permanent? How was he dealing with Tonia’s death?

  But of all the questions that ran through his mind, the worst was: ‘Will I ever find out one way or the other?’

  By now, his father would have scores of CSIS agents looking for him. Nothing was more important than family to Richard Wilkinson. His father was a tall man with the well-groomed look of a Mormon. But behind his eyes, visible now that Josh knew what to look for, was a cold strength. They never talked about the work his father did, but from time to time Josh caught fragments of regret and rage coming off him in waves. Richard Wilkinson knew things about the world. He’d seen things other people were never forced to see. That knowledge was the reason he had trained Josh.

  “I’m heading to the washroom,” he told Elaine.

  “I think Todd’s in there.” She watched him with a cold look that reminded him of his father. “I hear you took out a demon unarmed and by yourself?”

  Josh swallowed hard. “Guess I’m just lucky.”

  Elaine nodded, a vacant look on her face. “There’s more to you than meets the eye. I think we need to find out what that is. I know you don’t remember how you killed the Edimmu, but that type of amnesia is a luxury we can no longer afford. Can’t say I blame you. About the not wanting to remember thing. There are several things in my head I wish I could forget. Like my brother. He was like you, an Anomaly. The Council took him. It’s how I met Wisdom. Long story. Point is, we need you to remember what happened. Talk to Jessica. She can help.”

  Josh asked himself what his father would do in a situation like this. There was not much doubt about that. “Sure. Let’s see what she can get me to remember.”

  ***

  Echo accepted the bowl of noodle soup with a smile. The Chinese man in the white uniform of a waiter reached out his hand, smiled and bowed, under the delusion he’d been paid and tipped well. He wouldn’t realize he was short for hours. By then Echo would have faded back into the crowds.

  She came to New York partially to hide in the crowds, but mostly to be reminded what civilization felt like. This affair with Wisdom and his Anomalies seemed to take up her whole life. Here amongst the noise and the carefully regulated chaos of Chinatown, the secret war seemed a million miles away.

  She was halfway into her noodle soup when she felt the presence. She kept her eyes on the bowl, hoping to hide the fact that she was aware. She scanned the restaurant casually, her eyes brushing over the tables filled with smiling patrons all engaged in quiet conversation. The air was filled with scents: garlic and fish sauce, ginger and deep-fried batter. But there was something underneath it all. Something dark and subtle. Despite the well-spaced lights around the restaurant, there were still puddles of shadows. One in particular stood out. Near the swinging door that led to the kitchen, the door to the broom closet stood slightly ajar. Dropping all pretence, Echo stood and started walking toward it. From the shadows, inside the closet something glistened. A flash of gold. Echo stopped mid-step and looked over her shoulder, judging how long it would take her to make her escape.

  Then, as clear as a bell, she heard a voice whisper from deep within the closet: “Found her,” it said. “Tell the Djinnistani.”

  Echo bolted for the front door of the restaurant. She pushed it open too quickly, too forcefully. It shattered in a rain of glass. She was barely aware of the destruction in her wake. She was too focused on trying to think of somewhere else she could run.

  ***

  Josh sat in a beige armchair and watched the others swirl around him. The power was still out. Garnet and Todd rearranged the candles in the room, making Josh the center of the light. Jessica took a wooden chair from the card table and sat opposite him. She slipped the elastic out of her hair, unraveling her ponytail so her blond hair fell loose around her face.

  “It might help if you take your shoes off,” she said.

  “Why?”

  She shrugged. “Don’t know, really. It just always seems to work better if the other person has their shoes off. Actually, it works best when they wear as little as possible, but I don’t want to see you naked, so don’t do that.”

  “Okay.” Josh bent down, suppressed a grin, and took off his shoes. She was a strange little girl. “Should I keep my socks on?”

  She shrugged again. “Doesn’t matter. Just let me know when you’re ready.”

  Any other time, Josh would have found the little girl precocious. Under the circumstances, he found her a little frightening. He left his socks on and placed his shoes to the right so they were out of his way. As he settled back in his seat, he became aware of all the eyes on him. Garnet and Todd sat nearby on the beige sofa, watching hi
m expectantly. Elaine stood near the foot of the stairs at the edge of the living room. She would not stray too far from Wisdom, but she kept her eyes on Josh with an unblinking stare.

  ‘It’s like they’re all getting ready to watch a movie,’ he thought.

  He nodded. “I’m ready.”

  “Good.” Jessica squared her shoulders and let her hands rest on her legs, palms up. Then she closed her eyes. “Now, this is not like hypnosis. I’m not going to count you down from ten or whatever those guys do. It’s more like I step inside your head and we walk around together.”

  “Have you ever done this before?”

  Jessica opened her eyes. “Of course I have. I do it all the time. Just ‘cause I’m a ‘precocious little girl’ doesn’t mean I’m a newbie. Now, any more questions or can we actually get started?”

  Josh cleared his throat. When was he going to learn to watch his thoughts around these people?

  “If you must know,” Jessica said, closing her eyes again. “I used to do this all the time with my big brother. It was like a game for us. At first, I thought I was just a good guesser. Then I told him I knew what our uncle did to him at the cottage. We stopped playing after that.” She stopped talking and Josh felt his head grow heavy and distant, like he had ingested too much cold medication. Something was happening. Then there was a vibration in his head, almost as if he could hear something: a distant noise.

  “I feel something,” he said. “Is that you?”

  “You’re fighting me,” Jessica said. Josh watched the way her face was scrunching up and looked to Garnet for a clue. He didn’t know how he could be fighting something he did not understand.

  “Close your eyes, Josh,” Garnet said. “It’ll help. Think about whatever you’re trying to remember. If you don’t concentrate, your mind will fill up with random thoughts. That will make it more difficult. For both of you.”

  Josh nodded and closed his eyes. It really was like fighting someone. If your mind was on anything outside the fight, you had a better chance of losing. He took a deep breath and concentrated. He thought back to the bush party, focused on the memory until he could smell the smoke from the bonfire. He saw himself standing next to the keg, laughing with Brian, but he could not remember what they were laughing about. Then, the vibration in his head changed. It stopped being a faint rumble and became a clear ringing, like metal hitting crystal.

  ***

  At the bush party, he stood next to Brian. They were checking out Moira McDonald, a cheerleader wearing a tight blue turtleneck. He started his third beer from the keg when he saw Tommy Delonki running.

  ***.

  “I knew.” He said aloud as the thought ran through his head. “As soon as I saw him I knew they were there. I knew the Edimmu had come back for Tommy. They were going to kill him if I didn’t stop them.”

  ***

  Tommy collapsed at his feet, as if he had reached a safe place. There were long bloody gouges along his legs and arms. A few people swarmed around Tommy. Most, the under-aged drinkers, ran for their cars. All this blood meant someone was going to call the cops. They were more worried their parents would find out about the drinking than whether Tommy was going to live or die.

  “They came back for me,” he said. “I told you they would.”

  Several of Tommy’s teeth were missing. Several others hung by threads to his gums. Somehow, this seemed the worst of his injuries. Josh wiped tears from Tommy’s eyes. Something inside him went very hot and solid.

  He leaned close and whispered: “I warned them.”

  He stood, reaching into the bonfire to take out a burning log. He chose not to let his hand burn: a solid, conscious decision.

  ***

  “How is that possible?” he asked.

  “Don’t fight it.” Jessica’s voice seemed clearer than his own. “Don’t think. Just focus.”

  ***

  He walked into the woods. He didn’t need to ask Tommy where they were. He could feel them. The stink and wrongness of the creatures pulled on him like magnetic North. They called themselves Edimmu. They wanted to do things with Tommy. They said he belongs to them. They said he has been promised.

  Josh’s memory changed. Dark trees and the smell of blood dissipated into a fog, only to be replaced by clean walls and the smell of a good dinner still lingering in the air.

  He stood beside the closet door while Tommy Delonki sat up in the bed behind him. Tommy wore his Star Wars pajamas, the ones with C-3PO and R2-D2 repeated over and over against a blue background. Tommy pulled the blankets up to his chest. He looked cold, shivering against the headboard, even though it was mid-July, the temperature well into the 80’s.

  “I’m serious, Josh.” Tommy drew his knees up, hugging them close to his chest. “They’re real, and if you don’t get away from the closet, they’re going to get you.”

  Goosebumps rose over Josh’s chest, but he didn’t move. Sweat trickled down from his armpits, but he also felt something inside him get as strong as steel.

  “Maybe,” he said, “or maybe I’ll get them.”

  He stood there staring at the door as Tommy turned off the light. Tommy cried into his pillow. Josh saw a flash of purple light under the closet door. It seemed familiar.

  The thing inside him burned even hotter now, but he wasn’t sweating. And he wasn’t afraid, even though he knew he should be. He stepped in front of the closet. As it opened, he moved with it, hiding behind the door while the monsters from the closet came out.

  The room looked so dark. Though some illumination came from the streetlights outside and a nightlight in the shape of the Death Star, everything seemed much darker with the closet door opened. He could just barely make out the shapes. There were three of them, but their bodies did not seem normal. He stared at them, bile rising. These were the things that made his best friend so scared. Even though they were much bigger than him, he made up his mind to hurt them.

  He was about to yell at them when something strange happened.

  Tommy never said what they did to him at night. He just said it was bad. Josh assumed it was a sex thing. That is what they taught in school: strangers can be bad and want to touch your private parts. This was much weirder. It was like they were playing doctor. One of them put a black shape that looked like a briefcase on the bed and took out a bunch of needles. The metal parts shone in the dark.

  “He’s not asleep,” one of the things said. Josh thought the voice sounded familiar, too.

  “No problem.” Another one of the things put a hand over Tommy’s body. Shadows deeper than darkness poured out of the hand and covered all of Tommy’s body. There was a lot of screaming. The bed bounced up and down. Josh held his breath. With all this noise, Tommy’s parents would surely come in to see what was going on.

  But no one came.

  Josh tried to step forward, but found he couldn’t move. He looked down at his body. It seemed normal, but his muscles refused to respond. It reminded him of the time last Christmas when he had drunk a few of his dad’s beers and fallen asleep on the floor. His body just would not listen to him.

  ‘Move, I say!’ His body always did what he told it to do, at least when he consciously told it to do something. It was why he was good at sports. As soon as he made up his mind, the sleepiness was gone from his body. Now he was really mad.

  He slammed the closet door closed. The three creatures turned. Despite the darkness, he saw them very clearly. He saw the way their wings hung limp at their sides, the way their scaly skin gleamed under the nightlight. And he saw the way their eyes glowed red in the dark.

  “You’re bad men and you need to go away.”

  “Josh, what are you doing here?” one of the creatures said. “This isn’t your concern.”

  Josh snapped his fingers and the lights came on. “He’s my friend and you aren’t going to hurt him anymore.”

  The Edimmu nearest Tommy finished taking blood while another knelt down beside Josh. It ruffled his hair and smiled. �
��I know you like him, but don’t forget where you come from. Let us finish up and we won’t have to tell your dad about this, okay?”

  Josh slapped the Edimmu’s hand away. The creature cried out in pain.

  “Tell my father whatever you like, but you are not going to bother my friend again. Don’t forget who I am!”

  ***

  Josh opened his eyes.

  Jessica stared at him.

  Josh stood too quickly and his knees gave out beneath him. He fell forward limply, each slow breath he took the only thing he could really feel. His head was spinning. He felt as if a part of him was still outside his own body.

  “What was it?” Garnet took a few steps toward him. She reached out her arms as if to help support him, but Josh shook his head and waved her away. “What did you see?”

  “I don’t ... Oh God. I don’t know...” He looked up at Garnet, took in her beauty, and for a moment her green eyes seemed the most solid thing in the world. “What the hell am I, Garnet?”

  “Josh,” Jessica said. Her voice was weak. When he looked back, her eyes were wide and rimmed with red. She looked completely terrified. “We’ve got to finish. I can feel you don’t have very many blocks left.”

  Josh shook his head as he pushed himself back to his feet. He heard people shout but did not know why. Then he realized he was on the floor again. Todd and Garnet helped him get back up and led him back to the chair.

  “Maybe it’s best if we wait for Wisdom,” Elaine said. She took a few steps toward Josh. He looked up and saw that her hands were placed lightly on the sub-machine gun.

  “That can’t be real,” he said. “It can’t be a real memory.”

  Josh didn’t realize he was still shaking his head until Garnet rested the palm of her hand against his cheek. There was such tenderness in the touch the remnants of his dignity disappeared. He sobbed, confused and exhausted.