The Girl In Between series: Books 1-4

by Laekan Zea Kemp

  She reached a small grove, disappearing behind the trunks of the trees, and I took quiet steps in her direction. I followed her footprints through the grass, stopping when I reached the first tree. I could see her silhouette through the leaves. She was still.

  The darkness shifted, rising like smoke and carving itself into defined shoulders and legs. Suddenly there stood a man, tall and sharp like a thorn among the trees. I could feel the pull even from where I stood, something so sinister about him, so unearthly that it tried to swallow me.

  The chill around him grew fierce but I’d never seen the shadows look this human or feel this dangerous, my insides tightening with every breath. No. This was something different—someone—and he was much, much worse.

  The man reached out, brushed her face, and my great-grandmother finally stirred. My teeth clicked and I bit down hard, the shaking travelling down to my knees. Because I could see his eyes. Through the dark, from that place at the edge of the grove, I could see how empty they were.

  My great-grandmother saw it too, the sight sending her to her knees. She raked at the grass, trying to hold on to something, to claw away. But then something snapped, her body heaving off the ground, and I realized it was her spine.

  He lifted her off the ground, twisting each limb like she was made of thread. She screamed something silent, her jaw pinned open, and I clutched the trunk of the tree, afraid I was going to be sick.

  He loosened his grip on her, letting her fold in mid-air. Then he revealed a flash of teeth as he spoke in her language. “You waste your energy struggling.” The words were buried under something ancient, his voice deep and dark like the night he was drowning in. “You know who I am.”

  “Anso. Please.” Her voice was barely there.

  “Thirty years,” he said. “Your time is up.”

  She trembled, indignant, and it seemed to be the only response she could manage.

  He reached out and gripped her throat. “You’ll undo what you’ve done. You’ll find me the others.”

  “No.”

  “I was afraid you’d say that.”

  He flicked his wrist and she twisted, wrung out like the bark I was clinging to. This time I felt the scream more than heard it, a tactile echo that rattled inside me.

  I pressed my hand over my mouth, forcing the air back in until I was almost choking on it. His head twitched, gaze shifting to the tree trunk I was hiding behind. I shrunk back, the house in the corner of my eye. The kitchen light was on again.

  “You’re not alone,” he said.

  My great-grandmother fell limp, trying to breathe. He took her chin in his hands, wrenching her gaze to meet his.

  “My husband,” she finally forced out. “He’s sleeping.”

  “Who else?” He leaned in close. “Children?”

  She shook her head. “No.”

  He was quiet for a long time, checking her for cracks. Her eyes fluxed and widened and I absorbed her shaking, gripping the trunk of the tree to keep myself steady.

  “If you’re lying…” he finally said, never loosening his grip.

  “I’m not,” she whispered. “I’m not.”

  He tipped his chin and she collapsed, writhing in the dirt. He circled her. “If you are, I’ll find them.”

  “Please.” She choked the words, struggling to her feet. “I’m not!”

  He threw her onto her hands and knees and she collapsed again.

  “Please.” She looked up. “Just take me.”

  He lifted a hand and she rose too, her knees bent and her arms dragging at her sides. There was a rip in the night, everything swirling toward where my great-grandmother stood, her back bent as she fought the invisible pull dragging her into the vortex. Silent sobs wrecked her insides.

  And I couldn’t stand it. I couldn’t watch him take her.

  I stepped out from behind the tree, those first few steps into the damp grass like wading out into the middle of the ocean. I felt the emptiness all around me, the wind thrashing against my body but it wasn’t just my imagination.

  Seams glittered against the darkness as it tried to swallow my great-grandmother whole, vines reaching out from within the vortex, thorns biting into her wrists. Then I saw the rain. It fell down in a rush, spilling into the present, and the smell ignited tears. Because I knew exactly where she was going, the same place I’d been haunted by since I was a child.

  The place I was haunted by even when I was awake, every memory of my childhood spoiled by the fear of being dragged back there. I remembered the blood and the rain and the sharp pain of the vines around my rib cage, my body snapping while at the same time straining for air. I could feel that place trying to summon me back there, my great-grandmother already being dragged through. But I couldn’t let her go.

  I pushed forward, reaching, trying to call out, but before I could get close enough the night stole her and she was gone. But not before she’d turned, meeting my eyes. And not before the stranger turned too, eyes wide and wanting, lips curled into a wicked smile as he realized that the woman he’d come to claim did have children after all.

  Dr. Banz was quiet. It was a grating quiet, swollen with things he couldn’t bring himself to say, and yet, in his eyes was the smallest twinge of something bright, of something like hope.

  “You can control it now,” he said, the summation of everything I’d just told him sounding much more deflated than it actually felt.

  “That’s a good thing,” I said, waiting for him to agree, desperate for him too. “Eve she…she couldn’t. What if that means—?”

  “That you’re different?” he asked. “Oh, Bryn I’ve always suspected as much. Eve’s been my blueprint for studying your condition but that doesn’t mean she’s the rule. It doesn’t mean…” He stopped.

  “That I’ll die?”

  He gave me a sad smile. “No.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  I used to think that dying was the worst thing that could happen to me but then I thought of Dani and how I’d almost lost her and I knew that it wasn’t. I told Dr. Banz what had happened and he’d asked me to bring her in but it was late and we’d have to wait until morning.

  “We can set you up in a room,” Dr. Banz offered, anxious.

  I shook my head. “I need to stay with her.”

  “Tomorrow?” he asked.

  “I’ll try.”

  He sighed. “It’s important that we continue reviewing those stills, Bryn. Finding a pattern is crucial.”

  I stared at the door, too tired to listen. He was growing impatient, I could tell, but I was growing impatient too. After weeks of being in Germany Dr. Banz was still concerned about collecting more data even though he had nothing to show for it. I knew I didn’t have KLS, not really, but I was still suffering from something I didn’t quite understand and the more I pressed Dr. Banz for answers, the more vague his explanations were.

  I faced him and all I could see was a widow. All I could see was the maddening sadness pushing him, not to save me, but to save himself.

  “I’ll be here tomorrow night,” I finally said.

  He didn’t look pleased. He looked tired. But with Dani waiting for me back at the hotel it was all I could offer him.

  I checked my phone as the taxi shuttled me back to the hotel. After I woke up this afternoon I only escaped to the hospital for an hour but by now the sun was already starting to spill gray over the river. When I got back to the room my mom was waiting, my aunt peering at Dani from the doorway. She was still sleeping.

  “Did you girls stay up all night talking?” my mom asked, a strange lilt to her voice.

  “Uh…sort of,” I lied. She looked worried and I added, “Her headache came back this afternoon so she took some aspirin. I guess it knocked her out again.”

  I sat on the empty bed. It was freshly made, the sheets pulled taut and my grandmother’s clothes off the floor. She was probably down in the laundry room. Or at least I hoped she was. For some reason I was afraid that the
second she saw my face she’d know—what I’d done, what I’d seen—and that after years of wondering what had happened to her mother, she’d hate me for it. Not just for knowing instead of her but for watching him take her and not being able to do anything about it.

  “You feeling up for dinner?” my mom asked.

  My phone buzzed. I’d had it off while I was in the hospital but as soon as it shuddered on I noticed almost thirty missed messages from Felix. Now thirty-one.

  “Huh?”

  “Dinner. You’ve been in here all day. Are you sure you don’t want to go downstairs? Take a break?”

  I could tell in her voice that she wanted me to go with her but I had to call Felix before he jumped on a plane and flew over a thousand miles just to make sure Dani was okay.

  “You go,” I said. “I’ll wait for Dani. It’s probably all leftover exhaustion from the past few nights. We didn’t really get much sleep.” I went to nod to my grandmother’s suitcase in the corner but then I realized it wasn’t there.

  “I guess you’re right.” My mom squeezed my aunt’s arm, leading her toward the door. “The girls will be fine.”

  I called Felix as soon as they left.

  “What the hell?” he said. “You two can’t just disappear off the face of the earth. Is Dani mad at me or something? Shit, I shouldn’t have taken her to Ihop. Why am I always doing the dumbest shit? I should have taken her to Olive Garden or Red Lobster. She loves those crab stuffed mushrooms. Tell her as soon as she gets home I’m taking her to Red Lobster.”

  “Felix…”

  “Wait.” I heard his hard breaths on the other side of the phone. “Don’t tell me something bad happened. Just don’t, okay, because if you do I’m going to lose it.”

  We were both quiet but the silence was even worse than the truth.

  “Bryn…”

  “She’s…sleeping.”

  “But she’s fine,” he said.

  “Felix, she’s been sleeping for the past twenty-four hours.”

  “But she’s fine,” he said again, his voice hard but breaking.

  “Felix, something happened.”

  “What? Just fucking tell me. What happened?”

  “She was hurt.”

  “Was? How?”

  “Something…” I exhaled. “I don’t know how to explain it. It’s not…”

  “The shadows?” he said.

  “How do you know about that?” I asked.

  “Dani told me. She said you were seeing things. She said she’d found you in the middle of the road that night I’d asked her to prom and you’d been attacked by something.”

  “She doesn’t remember,” I said. “She thinks she just hit her head.”

  “Her head? What did it do to her?” he asked.

  “I…I don’t know.”

  “But she’ll be okay,” Felix said again.

  I was quiet.

  “Bryn?”

  Dani had barely moved since we’d tucked her under the blankets. I watched the slow rise and fall of her shoulders. Wake up. I brushed her face but she didn’t stir.

  “Bryn. She’s going to be okay.” It wasn’t a question but a demand.

  “I don’t know,” I finally said.

  “I’m coming.”

  “What?” I wasn’t sure I’d heard him right.

  “I said I’m coming.”

  Then he hung up and I knew he’d meant it.

  36

  Roman

  People filled the square, shadows billowing up from the steaming gutters below them and swirling with car exhaust. The swarm above us looked like fog and every time I blinked the world alternated between light and dark—a grey town square, fall finally taking root, and a dark pool of midnight coy, shadows settling in a thick film over an otherwise normal Saturday night.

  “Well, at least we know she was here,” Michael said.

  Valentina shook her head. “I’ve never seen anything like this. There’s so many.”

  “I know and for some reason they don’t seem to be very deterred by our presence.”

  “I guess that means they’re not exactly afraid of us anymore,” Domingo said.

  "Maybe that means it's our turn to be afraid of them," Valentina added.

  Michael nodded. “Come on, we have to find her before they do.”

  Michael and Domingo led one group around the west side of the square in search of the Dreamer from Spain they’d been tracking while Vogle and I followed Shay and the others around the east side. Shay was gripping some kind of metal hexagon in her fist, a soft tick escaping from inside. It rose and fell like a pulse, testing the air for energy.

  “It’s really impressive how you managed to come up with that,” Vogle said.

  He’d hung close to her as we walked, trying to get a better look at the tracking device in her hand as well as the grenades strapped to her waist.

  She nodded. “It’s simple, really.” He eyed her, waiting for her to elaborate. “Sort of like checking for a live wire.” She looked down, her Irish accent thickening. “Not the most accurate though. Domingo’s much better.”

  “It’s still impressive. Do you make all of Michael’s…gadgets?”

  Shay nodded, blushing. “Grenades, trackers, even tried to rig up some goggles with special shadow cold sensory once. Still working out the kinks on that one.”

  “And what about the cuffs you used on us and that high powered Taser?”

  “Mine too. Sorry about that by the way.” She swallowed. “Actually, I was going to school to be an engineer.” Her eyes suddenly brightened when she said, “I was the only girl in the entire department. Some feminist group was paying my way. Would you…” She looked up at him. “Would you like to try it for a while?”

  “Are you sure?” he asked.

  She nodded, handing over the tracking device. “Someone else should take the lead for a while.”

  “Thanks.” Vogle was about to burst as he made his way to the front of the group, the device held out in front of him as he examined doorways and dumpsters and cracked fences.

  “I think you just made his day,” I said.

  Shay was watching the ground, distracted, and I wasn’t sure if she’d heard me. But then she said, “What was it like?”

  “What?”

  She lowered her voice. “When you met Bryn.”

  I stopped walking, the group getting ahead of us. I thought back on what Shay had said about her Dreamer having died before they’d even met.

  “I didn’t know about any of this,” I admitted. “I sort of just…landed in her dreams.” I knew it probably wasn’t the answer she was hoping for but the truth was I didn’t know how to describe the first time I’d met Bryn. There’d been something between us but at first I’d thought it was just my own fear. Then I added, “I was sort of terrified.”

  Shay lowered her voice as the rest of the group rounded the corner of the street. “I dreamt with Calvin too.”

  “But I thought you said…”

  “I never met him in person but I knew him.” Her cheeks were pink.

  “I’m sorry,” I said.

  Shay was still for a long time, staring down at her hands. “I saw it happen.”

  “You saw…” I wasn’t sure how to finish.

  She met my eyes. “I watched him die.” Her back was to the street now. “I’d just fallen asleep and when I opened my eyes in the dream I was standing over him. He was shaking, so pale I could…see straight through him. And I couldn’t stop the blood. I couldn’t even tell where it was coming from. But he was covered in it. Then he disappeared.”

  “He woke up?”

  She nodded. “Whatever was keeping the Dreamers hidden, it used to keep injuries from following the Dreamers back into the real world. But that’s changed like everything else. Now they’re vulnerable whether they’re sleeping or not.” She chewed on her lip. “And I wasn’t there. I was supposed to protect him.”

  “It’s not your fault.” I hated saying someth
ing so obviously pointless but it was all I could offer.

  She scraped the tears from her cheeks before I’d even realized they were falling. “I should have gone to him sooner. Whoever, whatever’s been protecting us gave me that chance. That’s why the Dreamer’s abilities are hidden for so long, isn’t it? So that we have time to find each other in the real world. So that we can protect them when they turn eighteen and need it the most. But I was afraid. When I first started dreaming of Calvin I didn’t understand any of it and for a long time I didn’t try to.”

  “I still don’t understand any of it,” I admitted.

  Shay brushed a strand of hair from her face. “Michael says whoever’s been hiding us is starting to reveal the Dreamer’s sooner but I’m not sure that’s right.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Shay eyed the street, then turned back to me. “I think something else is exposing the Dreamers and whoever’s been protecting us until our eighteenth birthdays is using the dreams to bring the Dreamers and the Rogues together before it’s too late.”

  I stared down the road, absorbing her words. “It makes sense…Have you told Michael?”

  She shook her head. “No. He’s been really preoccupied since Lathan left but I’ve told Domingo and a few others.”

  I tried to tread carefully with my next question. “Why do you think the Dreamers are being killed?”

  Her voice was almost a whisper. “I don’t think they are.” She glanced up the street again but there were only strangers making their way to their cars. “At least not intentionally. What Calvin and Bryn can do, it’s special, it’s important, or else what would be the point of trying to hide it? No, I don’t think they mean to kill the Dreamers, I think they mean to control them, only something’s gone wrong.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Before Calvin died I think he knew he was being followed. I think he knew the shadows were after him, in the real world and in his dreams, and the closer they came the longer he stayed asleep.”

  I found the wall, leaned against it. “What were they doing to him?”