“Am I safe?”
“I think so. Just leave the light on tonight, okay? I need to do some things, but I’ll be back for you, I promise.”
“Sure.” I tried to sound confident, but my voice cracked.
“Ari, you’ll be fine.”
I closed the car door and walked inside. Everything was so familiar, but I still felt weird. I lay awake on my bed for hours, scrolling through dumb videos on my phone, but I wasn’t even watching them. I typed the word ‘Unseen’ into my browser, but stopped before I hit Search. I had found nothing last time, and they might be watching my online activity. Whoever ‘they’ were.
I shook my head. This was ridiculous. I was totally paranoid. Maybe I should call Josh, so he could talk me back down to earth. My finger hovered over the call button, hesitating. Because if Rachel was telling the truth, I could put Josh in danger just by talking to him. She seemed genuinely scared for me, and she knew more than I did about all this.
Finally, I locked my phone, and put it down on my bedside table to charge. I had to try and sleep. There was nothing more I could do right now. I turned my bedside lamp on, got changed, and got into bed. I didn’t think I’d be able to sleep, but eventually, I did.
My eyes snapped open. Pinpricks ran the full length of my spine and around my scalp. Something had woken me, but I didn’t know what.
It was dark. Mum must have turned my lamp off when she got home. Normally, the streetlights reflected little puddles of light through my blinds onto the ceiling, but tonight it was so black I couldn’t tell if my eyes were open or shut. I blinked. It made no difference.
A breeze chilled my cheeks. I must have left the window open. I was about to get up to close it when I suddenly felt certain I shut it before going to bed. The breeze crept across my forehead and down my ears. That wasn’t normal.
I fumbled for my lamp, and it fell off my bedside table. The crack meant it wouldn’t be working any time soon. I grabbed my phone off charge, and the screen lit up.
It wasn’t a breeze.
Above me, barely outlined by the pale blue pixel light, was a shadow. That was the only way to describe it.
It had followed me home from the crash site. It had found me.
I tried to move but couldn’t. My legs were frozen too.
The thing clung to the ceiling above my bed like a spider, only way bigger. It had no face and barely had a body. Ten legs gripped the ceiling, and a single dark lidless eye reflected the light from my phone. It was covered in black, wrinkled skin, and two of its legs stretched out, covered in hard shells like cockroach wings. I had seen it before somewhere, in a nightmare or another life, in the desert …
My phone locked itself, and the room went dark. I fumbled for the button and hit it, fingers shaking. The screen came back on, illuminating the ceiling again.
Only, the spider creature had changed.
It was human now. But covered in scales. And it was headless, its neck stopping too early. A scaly black bone stuck out where the brain stem should’ve been, and the ends of its limbs spread into tendrils, blurring into snake-like ropes of smoke. The face was gone, but I could still feel it watching me. My phone went dark again.
I tried to press the button once more, but my hand was shaking too much. My phone dropped to the ground instead, hitting the lamp with a crack. I couldn’t muster the courage to move any further. I was blind in the dark.
The creature leaped on top of me. It pinned me to the bed. I gasped, and tried to scream, but no sound came out.
A finger traced the outline of my face, down my neck, down my chest, and stopped just below my ribs. It was cold. Too cold. The ice seeped through my clothes, through every layer of skin and into muscles and organs.
The tendril stabbed me, a needle past my lungs, right to the center of my stomach. The cold spread, following my veins, pumping into my heart and out into my hands and feet. It burned, and I couldn’t catch my breath to scream. My veins pulsed, the tendril pulsed. My body was on fire.
I must have blacked out from the pain, because the cold blue light of dawn was suddenly creeping through my window. Whatever the shadow creature was, it was gone.
ELEVEN
When it was light enough, I got up, even checking under my bed in case the thing was hiding there. I looked at my stomach, where the cold had been, but there was nothing there, and I wasn’t sore. It felt silly, now, in daylight. It was a dream, for sure. A horrible dream, but a dream nonetheless. The whole thing was weird, I had been hit on the head way too many times recently, and after all the strangeness of the last few weeks my brain was probably glitching.
I wanted to call Rachel nonetheless, just to tell her about the dream. It had felt so real, I needed to talk it out with someone. My phone was broken under my bed, which was weird. It seemed it had hit the lamp, which was busted like in my dream. Maybe in the thrashing around from my nightmare I had knocked it onto the floor. That part of the night was real. Of course, even if my phone had worked, it wouldn’t have mattered. I didn’t even have Rachel’s contact number. I had no way to reach her.
As I stood, I heard Skye leave with Mum, who had obviously let me sleep in. Mum would drop Skye at school and then head to work. She had a double shift today, so she wouldn’t be home till the following morning. Skye would walk home after school, and it would just be me and her tonight.
I didn’t like the thought of being alone, even with Stewie snuffling around in the yard. The nightmare still had me creeped, and even without it, there were some really disturbing things happening. I felt like I should call the police, even though I didn’t know what I would tell them. Plus, all evidence pointed to the fact that at least some of them couldn’t be trusted. Without knowing if I could trust them, there was no way I was going to take that risk. Noah had already died because of whatever this was. I called Josh without thinking.
“Ari?”
“How did you know it was me?”
“Psychic powers. And also caller ID.”
I laughed. “Sorry, bit paranoid at the moment.”
“Not going to school today?” He sounded concerned.
“No. Not up for it. Want to skip it and come over?”
“Always. Be there soon.”
I staggered to the bathroom, exhausted. My pyjamas were dry with old sweat, and they practically cracked as I took them off to shower. I stood in front of the mirror for a moment, to check that I was definitely okay.
There was a black dot on my stomach that wasn’t there before. I tried to rub it off, but it was stuck. It looked like ink. I hopped in the shower, shivering as the water warmed up, and scrubbed at the dot as hard as I could. It didn’t make a difference—just turned my skin bright red and raw. In fact, scrubbing it seemed to spread it further. And no matter how hot I made the water, my stomach still felt freezing cold.
What was happening?
“Hello?”
I swore. Josh was here already. I jumped out of the shower and wrapped myself in my white fluffy towel. “Just a minute!” I called.
“The door’s open; I’ll just come in.”
I squeaked in protest and ran to my room, throwing on an old pair of jeans and the first t-shirt I could find.
“Ari?” The door to my room opened. I had dressed just in time.
“How about you knock next time?” I snapped, breathing hard.
“I did. I was knocking at the front door for like ten minutes. I was getting worried.”
“Well, just. Yeah.” I had nothing.
“Nice shirt.”
I looked down. I had thrown on a joke T-shirt Josh had given me last year. He’d made them for me and Caitlyn. It was custom printed with a photo of his face, and the words “Josh’s groupie” on it.
I grinned. “Pretty much your dream girl right here.”
He smiled and said nothing. My cheeks went hot. What a dumb thing to say after yesterday.
“So, what do you wanna do?” he asked.
“Nothing.”
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“Sounds fun.” He paused. “Are you okay? You seem … different.”
I wanted to tell him what had happened to me, what I had experienced the night before. I wanted to tell him about my nightmare and Noah and the cover-up and the accident scene that made no sense, but with him here it all suddenly felt so far away, like it had happened to someone else. Telling him now would make it real. I wasn’t ready for that.
I shrugged. “Yeah, just tired.”
We spent the day watching old cartoon reruns from our childhood that made me nostalgic for the good old days. So much had changed recently that my childhood felt like someone else’s life. Sitting there with Josh reminded me of one time, before Dad left, when Mum and I were sitting on the couch together. She was feeding baby Skye, and this silly cartoon came on. I don’t even remember what it was now, but Mum thought it was hysterical. She laughed like crazy, and I laughed with her. We felt so connected then, like she really understood me. Baby Skye even managed a giggle. Dad had come home and joined us, and soon we were all in stitches, not so much from the cartoon anymore but from laughing at each other, with each other. Together. It was nice to remember that moment, before the world got so complicated.
The front door opened. Skye was home from school. The day had gone quickly.
The afternoon grew cloudy and cold, and the warm breeze morphed into a chill that whistled through our back screen door. It had changed fast. Really fast. Years ago, Dad had put in a small black fireplace so we could save money on heating during the winter. We had stacks of trees in our backyard; it was a deep yard with five giant grey ghost gums. We used to pick up fallen branches for the fireplace, but these days Mum would get wood delivered and cut up into logs.
I ducked outside to collect some from the pile out back, watching for falling branches from the gums as their leaves thrashed wildly through the air, frenzied by the frantic weather. The birds were quiet now, hiding in that mysterious place they disappear to before it rains. The sun was setting, and the clouds further darkened the shadows under the trees, deep purple mixing with green and brown and turning them all the same shade of murky grey. The air crackled. A storm was coming.
I was in the middle of grabbing my last handful of kindling when the wind disappeared. There was silence, just for a moment. I thought I heard a sound and slowly turned to face it.
Nothing.
But something. The wind picked back up, and I ran to the house without looking behind me, in case something was there. Sprinting up the porch stairs, I dashed inside and slammed the door behind me, panting. Josh saw the wild look on my face and ran to look outside through a crack in the curtains. After a moment, I dared to join him.
There was nothing in the backyard but trees and a very startled owl nestled on a crossbeam under the porch roof.
“Sorry,” I said, embarrassed. “I spooked myself.”
Josh held me close, his hand on the back of my neck, and I felt safe again. Skye seemed oblivious as she continued playing with some chipped wooden toys Josh had found during a clean-out of his grandparents’ place. The toys looked really old, and paint was coming off in places, but to Skye, they were brand new. She had never seen wooden toys before. If you wait long enough, everything old is new again.
We defrosted some sketchy-looking lasagne from the freezer and had a quiet meal. After, Josh got the fire going, and it soon began to warm the house. We sat in silence, although the night was anything but quiet. The wind crashed through the canopy outside, rain smashed against the window, the fire crackled and hissed where the firewood hadn’t quite dried, and Skye clunked the toys together as she played in front of the fireplace.
There was nothing good on TV, so Josh and I just sat next to each other on the couch. I nestled into his arm, watching the flames and Skye. They were strangely similar, Skye and the fire. Both so alive, so untamed and unpredictable. She jumped up and twirled around, her skin glowing red with light from the flames, hair spinning in dark circles around her. She was the fire itself, a glowing ember, a dancing flame.
I can’t remember falling asleep, but when I woke, the fire was low. Josh was slumped across me, and Skye was curled up on the rug in front of the fire like a cat. I gently rolled Josh off me, and he grunted in protest. Skye was light, and it was easy to carry her to her room. She was already in her pyjamas, so I laid her straight in bed. She stirred. “Is Mum home?”
“No, not yet,” I replied. Was she ever?
“I want to stay up until Mum’s home.”
“She’s doing an overnight. She’s not going to be home until morning.”
Skye started to cry quietly. Not a tantrum, not even a sob. Just slow, soft breathing and a tear trickling down her red cheek.
“It’s okay, I’m here.” I held her close.
“I know. I missed you when you were in hospital.”
“I missed you too.”
“One day, you’re going to leave, aren’t you?” she asked.
“What makes you say that?”
“Mum told me one day you’re going to go off to the city and you’re going to leave me.”
“Well, I might … But I won’t be gone forever.”
“That’s what Dad said.”
I swallowed the lump forming in my throat. I’d always thought Dad leaving had affected me more than it had my sister. But I guess it doesn’t matter how young you are, it still blows your world apart. There was nothing I could say now. Any words, and I would have lost the plot completely.
“I love you, Ari.” Her eyes were still red, but a smile pushed its way through.
“You too, little one.” I kissed her on the forehead and turned out the light. The glowing nightlight at the end of her room cast star-shaped patterns on her walls.
Back in my own room, I got changed and flopped onto my bed, feeling more alone than I ever had before.
TWELVE
It felt like only moments later that I woke to the sound of Skye calling my name from her room. As I sighed and dragged myself out of bed, I checked the clock. It was just after three.
“Ari!”
She must have had a bad dream. As I trudged down the hall, something felt off. I put it down to the questionable lasagne and opened her door. Skye was sitting up in bed, sweat pouring down her face.
“Bad dream?” I asked.
She nodded.
“It’s just me and you here, and Josh out on the couch. You had a nightmare. It’s all okay.” I walked over and sat on her bed, stroking her hair for a while. That always calmed her down. It calmed me too. Even now, when I was still creeped out from the night before.
The stars from her nightlight twinkled on the walls around us, and we both began to breathe a little easier. Skye drifted back to sleep.
“Thank goodness for nightlights,” I murmured under my breath and gently stood to leave.
Just as I reached the doorway, there was a sharp gasp. I turned, and Skye was again sitting bolt upright in bed. Her eyes were wide, and she whimpered. “There’s something here.”
Her blanket ripped off the bed, and her body was thrown into the air. She hung like a doll, suspended from her stomach by a long black shadow, as black tendrils seeped from inside her mattress like fog. Her head turned to me, and her eyes bled smoke. I froze, heart thumping. I wanted to run, but I couldn’t leave her.
She spoke, but it wasn’t her voice.
“PUELLA ELECTIS EMPROBAS AETERNO.”
There was something else inside her.
The stars from the nightlight shrunk. Darkness leaked out of every wall, soaking up light and sound and feeling. I wanted to run, but I couldn’t leave Skye, not like this.
Her little body slammed back down on her bed, the tendrils gone. For now. She was breathing but still seemed to be unconscious, so I grabbed her and ran out the door.
Into an inferno.
The hallway was on fire. But I didn’t stop. My feet blistered as I reached the kitchen, and I turned to see a ball of flame forming in the air beh
ind me. The orb exploded, blowing me off my feet and into our island bench. My rib cracked against it, but I kept hold of Skye and pulled myself up. Around us, darkness leaked through the walls. It was bleeding through the paint, stretching towards me, trying to grab hold of my arms, my hair, any part of me that brushed close enough. It was hungry.
I stumbled out to the front room as smoke filled the house. Something stopped me, and instead of opening the front door, I glanced through the tiny window next to it. Outside were nine forms dressed in the same robes as the demon figures from the night Noah died. If I ran out the front door, I knew I would be killed instantly, smoke blasting out of my mouth like it did Noah’s. I had to take the back door.
As I hoisted Skye higher over my shoulder, the two edges of my broken rib ground together. I winced but stumbled towards the back door as my lungs filled with smoke. A dark coil reached down towards me from above. The walls were on fire and the ceiling was black, but it wasn’t from smoke. It was covered with the darkness. Slimy, crawling darkness, like the one from the dream. The dream I now knew was real.
Black snakes reached for me, dripping from the ceiling like spiders from a nest. I froze as they came perilously close. The chill ran across my scalp and rippled through my hair as one made contact. I had the horrible feeling it liked me.
Warmth. In my hand. A wonderful warmth, alive and strong.
Josh.
His hand in mine unglued my frozen body. My feet moved as he led the way to the back door. The tendril lost its grip, but others stretched for me, reaching to pull me back. One snaked towards my head, and I ducked. A huge section of ceiling collapsed onto the couch behind us, sending sparks and ashes into the air. Tripping over the doorjamb, I stumbled outside, smacking my shoulder into the porch railing. The stairs were hard to navigate with Skye’s added weight, but I made it down and across the yard, careful not to be seen from the front of the house.
I felt safer under the trees at the back of our yard, although I knew we wouldn’t be for long. The only way out was over the fence into the yard behind ours—the Johnsons’. They were away on holidays, and thankfully, they took their huge, angry dog Basher with them. Josh took Skye, and I climbed up and checked over the fence. The Johnsons normally had a trampoline pushed up against the fence on their side, and today was no exception. I jumped over the top, landing safely on the trampoline surface, and Josh hoisted Skye to me. I lay her down on the canvas for a moment to catch my breath. Josh leaped over too and nearly overshot altogether. I stood, the canvas rolling under my feet like a boat in a storm. The Johnson’s yard was on the higher side of the street, so from here I could see over the fence, and our roof, and get a good view of the road.
The Fire Unseen Page 7
