by Tim Waggoner
“A little help here,” Caroline said, her voice strained. Aaron heard rapid footsteps, and then several over pairs of hands took hold of him.
“C’mon, let’s get him back into the other room,” Phillip said.
Aaron’s head lolled on his chest as he was carried away from the circle. He was perfectly conscious, but he felt as if the connection between his mind and body had been severed. Fear slammed into him as he remembered how the dark tendril had burrowed into his brain. Jesus, what if the goddamned thing had fucked him up inside, caused him to be paralyzed? He could be a basket case for the rest of his life!
He heard the door open, saw faint light splash into the room. He was carried through the doorway and over to the couch. They laid him down and gathered around, some looking concerned, others amused.
“Get back,” Caroline said. “Give him some air.”
The others did as she said, moving off to the bar and speaking in low tones. Aaron couldn’t make out what they were saying, but they kept glancing back toward him and smiling in amusement. Caroline knelt next to the couch and patted the back of his hand.
“Don’t mind them. They’re just remembering their first time. It can really knock you on your ass, even when you know what to expect.”
Aaron felt his strength slowly beginning to return. He tried sitting up and with Caroline’s help, managed to do so.
“What …” His throat seized up, and he had to swallow several times before he could speak again. “What the hell was that?”
Caroline’s smile fell away, and there was a soft, almost reverent tone in her voice as the answered. “The Overshadow.”
The word was unfamiliar to Aaron. He was about to ask Caroline to explain further, but then he remembered the dark tendril stretching toward his forehead, burrowing through his skin and into his skull. Panicked, he reached up to feel his forehead, expecting to find torn flesh, sticky blood, jagged bone, and soft brain tissue. But his forehead was uninjured, the skin smooth and unbroken.
“What happened in there?”
Caroline looked at him for a moment, as if she were considering how much to say right now. “It’s getting late. How about I fill you in on the ride home?”
Aaron frowned, not understanding. “But I drove myself.”
“I know, but you’re in no shape to drive yourself home. I’ll drive you there in your car, then I’ll just walk back to my house.” She smiled. “One of the advantages of our being neighbors.”
Aaron wanted to protest. What if Kristen woke up and discovered Caroline bringing him home? No way would he be able to explain it. But Caroline was right; the way he felt right now, he doubted he’d be able to pull out of the parking lot without hitting another car, let alone make it home without getting into an accident.
“Yeah, all right.” He held out his hand and Caroline took it and helped him off the couch. His legs still felt wobbly, but he could stand on his own.
Phillip came over, carrying a shot glass filled with vodka. “Glad to see you on your feet, Aaron. The first time always hits like a punch to the gut. Knocks the wind out of you for a bit. But you’ll be back to normal before morning.” He grinned. “Hell, you’ll be better than normal.” He held out the shot glass for Aaron to take.
Aaron thought about declining. The last thing he needed was more booze or drugs polluting his system. But on the other hand, a strong bracing shot of alcohol might be just what he needed to get going again. He smiled gratefully to Phillip and nodded as he took the drink. He held the small glass up to his nose and inhaled the acrid smell of vodka. He put the rim of the glass to his lips and downed the alcohol in one gulp. It burned going down, but pleasantly so, as if it were clearing away the residue Aaron had accumulated from breathing in the back room. He handed the empty glass back to Phillip.
“Better?” Phillip asked.
Aaron was surprised to discover that he indeed felt a little better. Ah, the wonders of distillation!
“I think so. Thanks.”
Phillip smiled. “And thank you for fucking the shit out of my wife. I can’t wait to take an inventory of her bruises and scrapes — both external and internal — when we get home.” He gave Caroline a lascivious leer, and she laughed and swatted him on the arm.
“You’re just an overgrown teenager!” she said, though not without affection.
Aaron thought the vodka he’d just swallowed was going to come back up. It was one thing to participate in an orgy, if that was the right term for what had taken place here tonight. But to have Caroline’s husband thanking him for having sex with her … that was too damn strange.
“Don’t forget Gillian!” Trevor said. “Aaron drilled her so hard, her pussy has openings in both the front and back now!”
“Fuck you,” Gillian said, though she didn’t sound upset by the comment.
Everyone laughed. Everyone except Aaron, that is.
“I really need to go,” he told Caroline.
She nodded, linked arms with him for support, and led him toward the outer door.
“Good night all,” she said. “Screw you later.”
More laughter, punctuated with farewells and Phillip saying, “See you at home, darling!”
As Caroline opened the fuckle door and helped Aaron step out into the night air, he realized something. He had no idea what had happened to the rabbit.
Gerald was wide awake when Aaron and Caroline stepped into the parking lot. He hadn’t needed to work very hard to stay alert, for he didn’t need to sleep anymore — at all.
From the way the vet was staggering — and from the way Caroline was helping him — Gerald knew that they’d taken him to see the Overshadow … and on his first night in Penumbra! He clenched his teeth as a toxic mix of envy and jealousy twisted his gut. He’d had to wait until his third visit to Penumbra to see the Overshadow, and even then he’d had to work to convince the others that he was ready. What was so bloody fucking special about Aaron Rittinger that he’d been invited back on his first visit?
Maybe Caroline took him back on purpose tonight … maybe she knows that I’m watching, and she did it to taunt me.
The thought both pleased and alarmed him. If Caroline wanted to tease him, that meant she was thinking about him, that he was still important to her. But if she knew he was watching Penumbra and she told the others … then he was a dead man. He experienced an urge to start his VW, throw it in gear, and get the hell out of there as fast as he could. Forget Aaron Rittinger, forget the plan — just save himself.
He got as far as reaching for the key in the ignition, actually grasping it between his thumb and forefinger. But instead of turning it, he removed his hand from the key and reached up to vigorously massage his scalp. He felt the wetness beneath his hand as scabs tore off and blood welled forth, but he didn’t care. The pain was minor and it helped calm him.
He continued rubbing his scalp, smearing blood over the top of his bald head as he watched Caroline help Aaron to the passenger seat of his car. She buckled him in, closed the door, then went around to the driver’s side and got behind the wheel.
“Had a little too much of the good life tonight, huh Aaron?” Gerald muttered.
A rustling sound came from the back seat. Gerald thought the girl had fallen asleep, but she was awake now.
“Settle down back there,” he said in a toneless voice. “I don’t want to have to mess you up any more than I already have.” He kept his gaze trained on Aaron’s Lexus while he said this. The girl whimpered softly and then fell still, so Gerald figured that she’d gotten the message.
The Lexus’ headlights came on and the car pulled out of its parking space. Gerald started his VW but he didn’t hit the headlights; he didn’t want to give his presence away. When the proper time came — when Aaron was ready — then Gerald would have no problem making a scene.
Caroline drove Aaron’s Lexus onto the street. Headlights still off, Gerald backed out of his space then moved forward, hoping he’d be able to keep up wi
th Caroline. But as he pulled his VW bug out of the lot and onto the road, there was more rustling in the back, louder this time, frantic.
“Goddamn it, I warned you!” Gerald tromped on the brake, causing the Volkswagen to fishtail. When the car came to a stop, he slid the gearshift into neutral and set the parking brake. He wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, so he had no problem turning around, leaning over the backseat, and pounding the bound and gagged girl as hard as he could. Once, twice, three times … When he was finished, his hand was sore and swollen, and he wondered idly if he’d broken a couple knuckles. The girl hadn’t made a sound after the first strike, and she appeared to be unconscious. Cheeks and jaw red and swollen, nose mashed and broken, bleeding as if her nostrils were twin faucets gushing crimson. Gerald had no idea if she was still alive, and at this point, he didn’t care.
He turned back toward the windshield and looked for the taillights of Aaron’s Lexus, but he saw nothing. Not that it mattered; he knew where the man lived. Caroline, too, since she and Aaron were neighbors. He caught movement out of the corner of his eye, and he turned to look out the side window. The other members of Penumbra were leaving the club and heading for their cars.
He had to get moving again before the others saw him parked in the middle of the street. But where should he go? Should he follow Aaron and Caroline? If he did, he risked Phillip being behind him since they’d be driving to the same place, and of all the current members of Penumbra, Phillip Langdon was the hardest to fool. He’d be bound to notice that Gerald’s rattletrap VW didn’t belong in his neighborhood, especially at this hour. And if Phillip decided to check out the ancient junker, who would be find behind the wheel but his old friend and orgy partner Gerald Messer? Gerald doubted he’d live very long once Phillip caught him. Gerald would’ve liked to talk with Aaron some more, get his reaction to his first visit to Penumbra, maybe bask in the smell that was sure to still be clinging to him. Body wash, after shave, perfume, mold, and most of all, the more odiferous remnants of sex.
To hell with it. He could always catch up to Aaron tomorrow. Despite the lateness of the hour, right now the other Forsaken were back at the Homestead waiting for him — and for the plaything he’d procured for them this evening.
He released the emergency brake, put the car in gear, then pressed down gently on the gas pedal. When he was half a mile away from the Valley View Shopping Center, he turned on his lights and started heading out of town toward the country. He really hoped he hadn’t killed the girl, but if he had, it wouldn’t be a complete waste. There were other things they could do with her then. Lots of things.
Whistling, Gerald continued driving down the road.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Aaron sat in the passenger seat of his Lexus, the side of his face resting against the window. The cool of the glass felt good on his skin, but the vibrations of the car moving down the road were giving him the beginnings of a fierce headache. He supposed he should sit up straight, but he was too tired to bother.
Caroline had turned the radio to an eighties station, and the sterile sound of new wave synth-pop drifted out of the speakers. She sang along with the song, and though Aaron felt he recognized the tune, he couldn’t remember the name of it or the band. He decided it didn’t matter; so much of the music of that decade was interchangeable.
He looked out the window as they drove through the night streets of Ptolemy. He was rarely out and about at this hour, and he was surprised by how dark it was. The neon signs of businesses and fast-food restaurants were off, and aside from his Lexus, there were no other cars on the road. The houses they passed were dark as well, no lights glowing in the windows, no porch lights shining like lonely beacons in the darkness. It seemed like the entire world was asleep. No, more than that — like it was dead, deserted and empty, and Caroline and he were the only two people left on the planet.
The commercial district gave way to residential. The trees growing forth from the lawns here seemed like large black masses of concentrated shadow, and Aaron imagined they were kin to that thing in the back room of Penumbra — the Overshadow, Caroline had called it. He envisioned dark tendrils unfurling from the black shapes on either side of the street, pictured the shadowy strands snaking toward the Lexus, wrapping around the car, covering it in darkness as they yanked the vehicle to a stop and searched for a way to get inside … to get at him. For a moment the image seemed so real that Aaron thought he wasn’t just imagining it, and he jerked his face away from the window with a terrified gasp.
“What’s wrong?” Caroline asked, voice filled with concern.
“The trees …” Aaron trailed off. The trees outside were just trees once again, nothing more. He let out a shaky breath. “Nevermind. I guess I was just seeing things.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised. The first time you experience the touch of the Overshadow it can really mess with your head.” Her smile was visible in the glow of the dashboard lights. “After my first time, I refused to eat or drink for two days. I was convinced the Overshadow would never touch me again if I soiled my body by taking any nourishment. Luckily, I got over it. As diet plans go, that one was a little extreme for me.”
Aaron smiled at her joke, but the smile didn’t last long. “These … aftereffects. Are they permanent? I mean, did it — ” He couldn’t bring himself to say the word Overshadow yet — “damage my brain somehow?”
“Of course not, Aaron. You’re perfectly fine.” She didn’t turn to look at him as she answered, though, and her tone seemed too deliberately casual. Still, Aaron wanted to believe her, so he didn’t press the issue.
“What is it? That … thing in the back room in Penumbra. What did it do to me?”
“Not just to you — to all of us. Everything else we do in Penumbra — the sex, the booze, the drugs — is only a prelude, an appetizer for when we go in back and … experience the Overshadow, when we receive the pleasure it offers. Be honest with me, Aaron. You’ve never felt better than you did when the Overshadow touched you, when it entered you.” Caroline shivered as if she were experiencing the Overshadow’s cold touch anew.
Aaron couldn’t deny it. Whatever the Overshadow had done to him, the sensations had been so intense that for a time it was as if he’d ceased to exist, as if the being that was Aaron Rittinger — his personality, thoughts, memories, emotions — had been obliterated, leaving behind in its place nothing but absolute raw pleasure.
“It was beyond anything I’ve ever imagined,” he said.
“And that was after just a rabbit,” Caroline said. “If you thought tonight was something, wait until — ” She broke off and closed her mouth, lips pressed tightly together.
“Wait until what?” Aaron asked.
Caroline didn’t respond. Instead she slowed and hit the turn signal. Aaron glanced out the window and saw that they’d reached their subdivision. They’d be at his house in another minute or so. Caroline turned onto their street and pressed the gas pedal, driving faster than she had a moment ago.
Anxious to get home or hoping to get me there before she has to answer my question? He decided to try a different angle during the short time he had left.
“What was the rabbit for? What happened to it?”
Caroline didn’t say anything, and Aaron thought she wasn’t going to answer any more questions tonight. But as they drove past her house, she said, “Before the Overshadow will touch us, it must be … fed.”
“You mean it ate the rabbit?” He couldn’t believe he was sitting here in the passenger seat of his Lexus, still weak and shook up from the aftereffects of the most wild experience he’d ever had, and discussing the feeding habits of some kind of monster or demon or whatever the hell it was.
Caroline slowed as she approached Aaron’s house. She pulled into the driveway and turned off the lights. She put the car in park, but she didn’t turn off the engine. She then turned to regard Aaron for a long moment before speaking once more.
“The rabbit wasn’t a meal, exactly. More
like a … a sacrifice.”
Aaron felt his balls shrivel and draw in close to his body as the implications of Caroline’s words hit him. The Overshadow wasn’t a monster, at least not to Caroline and the other members of Penumbra. It was a god.
“What’s wrong with him, Doctor?”
Aaron looked down at the animal sitting on the examination table. What isn’t? he thought. The creature was the size of a smallish dog or medium-sized cat, but it had features of both. It possessed feline eyes and ears, but its elongated snout was definitely canine. Its upper gum was bereft of teeth, and yellowed nubs that resembled human teeth protruded from the lower jaw. Instead of fur, its body was covered by a feathery white down, like a recently hatched chick of some sort. Its tail was serpentine and covered with mottled scales, ending in a snake head that glared at Aaron, mouth stretched wide, venom dripping from wickedly curved fangs. Worst of all was the thing’s smell, like a cancer-ridden skunk had sprayed its diseased stink on a piece of rotting meat which someone had then taken and marinated in a septic tank for a month. Aaron kept trying to breathe through his mouth so the smell wouldn’t make him vomit, but it didn’t help much. The stench was so thick that he could’ve bitten a hunk of it out of the air and chewed.
Aaron struggled to maintain his professional composure as he responded to the creature’s owner. “It’s difficult to say. We don’t see too many animals like this around here, and while I do treat exotic pets, I have to admit that it’s, ah, not a specialty of mine.” He gave the owner an apologetic smile.
The man frowned and vigorously rubbed his scabrous bald head. “Well, aren’t you going to run some tests on him? Take some blood, stick a thermometer up his butt, something?”
Aaron looked at the creature’s hindquarters. The snake head at the tip of the tail hissed at him, as if to say, Don’t even think about ramming one of your cold glass sticks up MY ass, pal!
“Maybe if we rolled the animal over, Doctor?”
