“The stone bench beneath the oak tree,” he whispered. “The place where I first took you to in the gardens of the mansion, after I selected you during the ceremony.”
“That works, Shadow. That works. Let’s boogie.”
Leah shook her head and laughed. “I guess Shadow’s taste in women devolved from sophisticated and refined to…whatever it is you are.”
“No, I think Shadow’s taste in women evolved from prude to fun.”
“Ladies, please.” Abel scolded us like we were ten year old girls.
I focused my attention back on Shadow. The muscles on his face seemed more relaxed now.
“You there, Shadow?”
“I’m there.” He said it in a way that told me he was relaxed which, in turn, made me relax as well.
Abel nodded. “Now comes the tricky part.”
“What?” I asked surprised. “Trying to free him from soul-sucking versions of his loved ones wasn’t the tricky part?”
“I’m afraid not,” Abel said. “To find the root of it all, we need to dig deep. We’ll need to send him down one further level of his consciousness. If we’re not careful here, we can do a lot of permanent damage to his mind.”
Leah sat up in her seat. I read the look of concern on her face. “Aria,” she began. “In all seriousness, can you handle this? If not, let me take over. This is Shadow’s life we’re talking about.”
She was right. The stakes were high, especially when the life I was responsible for was not my own. I reflected on all the shit I’ve been through over the past couple of months: countless firefights, assassination attempts, assisting in the destruction of the Crow brothers, the death of my best friend, a wedding massacre, devising an epic jailbreak, getting shot by a tranquilizer while thinking both Shadow and I were certified goner, and now this.
“I can handle it,” I said. “Compared to everything else, this is a walk in the park.”
“The bitch has stones.” Leah said it almost in a way that came off like a compliment.
“The biggest stones,” I agreed.
For the next five minutes, Abel gave me a run down on what I needed to do. The entire time, I wasn’t thrilled by what he was suggesting. He wanted me to tear open Shadow’s old wounds and search around there for wherever this ‘monster’ of his was hiding.
“I don’t like it,” I finally said.
“None of us do, Aria,” Leah said. “But it needs to be done. Otherwise Shadow is a threat not only to himself but to us all.”
I took a deep breath and agreed.
“Let’s get at it then.” I tightened my grip on Shadow’s hand. “Shadow, I need you to go back to the day when you discovered your parents’ murder.”
“What? Why?” Shadow asked.
“Because I think the monster that’s inside you is hiding somewhere deep in that memory. It knows you’re afraid of digging around too deeply in there.”
Suddenly the way Shadow spoke made him seem much younger, like a child. “You promise to be there with me?” he asked.
“Yes, of course.”
“He’s reverting back to the mind of a ten year old, the age when both his mother and father were murdered,” Abel explained. “It’s imperative that we make sure Shadow maintains full control of his mind and the situation. You’ll need to reassure him along the way. You’ll need to give him the strength and confidence to journey through this horrific stage of his memory.”
I thought about my father and how he had supported me throughout my entire childhood along with all the things he said and did for me.
“No problem,” I said. “I know exactly what to do.”
“Shadow, where are you now?” I asked. I allowed my voice to go soft.
“I’m outside the study,” Shadow replied. I pictured the frightened ten year old boy he must have been on that horrific day. He had no one around when he first faced this tragedy. This time, he had me.”
“Open the door sweetheart. I’m right here with you.”
“I don’t want to. I know what’s behind there,” he whispered. “I don’t want to see it again.”
“Do you want me to go first then?”
There was a moment of pause. Finally Shadow shook his head.
“No,” he said. “They’re my parents. Just stay close.”
“I will. Never worry about that.”
Shadow took a deep breath. I felt his hands twitch.
And then he screamed.
“It’s okay, honey. I’m right here. I’m right here. Let me be your strength when you can’t do it on your own.”
“I didn’t want to see it again. Oh God, there’s so much blood.”
“Let me clean the blood then, Shadow. Okay?”
Leah looked at me puzzled. “Can she do that?” she asked Abe.
Abe shrugged. “I don’t see why not. It’s not like she’s disturbing a physical crime scene. She’s altering the image of that horrific day, and making it more bearable for Shadow. I can only see positives.”
Leah nodded. “Smart then,” she said. Was Leah softening up on me?
It made no matter. My entire focus was on Shadow at this point.
“Shadow, wait outside the door,” I said. “And then when I tell you to come back in, the blood will be all gone.”
“Okay.”
I turned to Abel. “So what’s exactly kosher here? What boundaries can’t I cross?”
Abel thought about it for a moment. “His parents must remain dead. The details of the murder must retain their facts—his father’s neck was sliced open and his mother was stabbed.”
“The facts must remain the same but the presentation can be altered?”
“Yes, I suppose so,” Abel said. “Why, what are you thinking?”
“Sit back and relax, doctor,” I said. “I’ve got this covered.”
“Should I be worried?” he asked.
Lincoln, who remained relatively silent up until this point, replied: “With Aria, always.”
“Hush, let me work here,” I said as I turned my attention back to Shadow. “Alright honey, everything’s all clean now. Come in.”
Shadow nodded.
I gave him a few seconds, before speaking again. “You see, sweetie? Doesn’t it look better? And look! I’ve placed your parents in caskets as well. They look so much more peaceful. Your dad has a scarf around his neck and your mother is wearing her favourite outfit.”
“They’re still dead,” Shadow said.
“Yes honey, they still are. I’m sorry. Your sister, that crazy bitch, still killed them and there’s nothing we can ever do to change that. But for now, if you want, you can say goodbye to your parents.”
“You know the one thing I wish I knew?” he asked.
“What’s that?”
“A prayer for them. I’m not religious, but sometimes I kinda wish I was. I always thought with the way they died, they could never move onto to a better place. Do you know any prayers?”
It’s been so long since I last prayed. I had given up on it when the good Lord decided to ignore my prayers and allowed my dad to succumb to cancer.
But I still remembered how to pray. Perhaps for Shadow what little faith I had left was more than enough to help him out.
“Bow your head then honey,” I whispered, “And let’s see if God will listen to us today.”
“Okay.”
I took a deep breath. “Dear God, it’s been a while since I last spoke to you, but I’ve come here today to ask you for your help once again.” I licked my lips. “I ask for you to open your arms to Shadow’s parents and allow them the peace that they deserve. Take them, love them, and grant them everlasting life and in return bring peace to Shadow who has more than suffered enough in his lifetime. Please. Amen.”
“Amen,” Shadow replied.
I let the finality of the prayer sink in before continuing.
“Shadow, are you ready to take the next step in our journey together?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“There’s a monster hiding in here somewhere,” I said. “If we don’t find him and catch him, he’s going to do us harm.”
Shadow frowned. “The monster’s not hiding.”
“He isn’t?”
“No. It’s been watching us this entire time.”
I felt chills penetrate through my skin, gripping my spine, and clawing their way up my entire backside.
“What does he look like?” I asked.
“She’s wearing a mask, the solid black one I wore on my birthday when I first saw you; that and a pretty blue dress.”
This entire time I had thought the monster surely was a ‘he.’ However it made sense for it to be a female, seeing as how it was created by his twisted sister.
I turned to Abel. “Now what? It looks like the monster’s been waiting for us this entire time.”
Abel nodded. “He’ll need to confront the monster, break it down, and destroy it completely.”
“How? Like lay a beating on it?”
“No. If we can find the trigger for it, the words that Shadow hears that instigates his transformation, we may be able to extract both it and the monster from his head completely.”
“How do we get his subconscious to reveal the trigger?”
Abel took a deep breath. “Masks are clearly used to hide something. In this case it’s a person’s face. Perhaps in his sub consciousness the mask is hiding a secret, one which could very well reveal the trigger.”
It made sense. “Shadow,” I said, “I need you to remove the monster’s mask. Can you do that?”
“She left already,” he replied.
“What? She did? Where did she go?”
“Through the door.”
“You need to follow her.”
Shadow agreed.
I could only imagine what craziness was buried deep in his mind. I waited a few moments, allowing Shadow to chase the monster in his head.
“Where are you now?” I asked.
“It’s raining,” he said. “I’m at the Academy, standing on the rooftop gardens. I think I’m waiting for someone.” His manner of speech had grown slightly more confident. No longer was he the child. He was growing along with each moment of his life that he was reliving.
I noticed Leah stirring in her seat.
“What’s going on there, Shadow?” I asked.
“Leah is going to break up with me,” he replied.
Well that was unexpected.
I could tell Leah wanted to say something, but Abel motioned her to stop. This was my show now. I was in control of everything.
“Don’t worry, you’re better off without her,” I stated, which immediately ellicited a frown from Leah.
“I was bad to her,” Shadow said. “I realize that now. At the time though, I was too blind to see it. I loved her. I always thought I’d be with her until the end.”
Well this was awkward.
Leah crossed her legs and leaned forward, basking in the glow of Shadow’s little trip down memory lane.
“She always deserved better than I could give her. But I was the fool thinking that she’d stick around forever,” Shadow sighed. “She’ll never know how much she hurt me that day. The only thing that was good in my life at the time got up and walked away from me.”
Leah looked stunned.
“I can never blame her for it though. It always was my fault. Abraham always said my pride often outweighed my better judgement.”
“Shadow?” Leah whispered.
Suddenly, Shadow’s voice was filled with apprehension. “She’s here.”
“Who?” I asked. “The masked girl?”
Shadow nodded. “She’s hiding in the foliage in the rooftop gardens.”
“You need to corner that little tramp and rip her stupid face off,” I said.
Shadow shook his head. “She knows I just saw her. She’s running again.”
“Follow her.”
“I can’t. I have to wait for Leah. She’s going to break up with me. Maybe this time, I can change that from happening. Maybe if I said the right words this time, she’d stay with me.”
I swallowed hard.
Buried deep within Shadow’s self-consciousness, he still hadn’t gotten over Leah. A part of him still loved her.
I didn’t know how I was going to deal with that. If he wanted Leah back so badly, where did that leave me?
“Shadow, do you still want to be with Leah?” I asked.
I held my breath while waiting for his answer. This was his subconscious talking. This was the truth.
The only word I could use to describe the thick silence in the room was ‘uncomfortable.’
“No,” he finally said. “I don’t want to be with Leah. Despite the fact that we loved each other, we were never good for one another. I just wanted a chance to turn a wrong into a right. There’s no point in changing that now.”
The relief swept over me felt like cold air on a humid day. Thank God!
“And who do you want to be with?” I asked. I wanted to cement my claim in this boy’s heart.
“You, Aria,” he replied, this time with no hesitation. “You’re the one that’s right for me.”
I wanted to leap out of my chair and do a round of high-fiving, as if I just won the World Series. However, I refrained.
I needed to focus on the task at hand and that was to perform an extensive exorcism on whatever mind fuck Calisto planted in my man’s head.
“Do you still see the girl in the mask?” I asked.
Shadow nodded. “She’s running away now.”
“Hunt her down,” I said.
Abel leaned in towards me. “We’re going deeper into the sub-layers of his mind. I’m afraid if we go too far down we’ll lose a piece of him down in there. Make sure that wherever he ends up next is the last stop on this journey. He needs to corner the ‘monster’ and unmask it.”
“Gotcha,” I acknowledged, before turning my full attention back to Shadow. “Where are you now?”
He frowned. “I’m at the Inferno.”
Of course, it would only make sense that he ended up in the place where Calisto revealed her true colors to Shadow—the darkest shade of black.
Thinking about the Inferno casino and hotel made my blood run cold. Too many horrors had occurred in that place; too many memories of the dead.
“Are there other people there with you?” I asked.
“Yes. The ghosts of everyone’s who’s died are trapped inside. James, Brevin, Donald…” he paused. “Justin.”
Though Justin no longer haunted my mind, thanks to Isadora’s help in allowing me to come to terms with his passing, Shadow still felt some responsibility for his death along with the rest of his friends.
“They’re not there waiting for you. They’re there waiting for your bitch sister to return so they can haunt the shit out of her,” I said, reaffirming the fact that all their deaths were on Calisto’s hands and no one else.
“They’re all watching me.”
“They’re looking at the person that can set them free,” I said. “Find the girl, unmask her, and deliver her to them.”
“The heat in this place is almost unbearable,” Shadow said. “I never did like the name ‘Inferno’ for the hotel. It was my sister who wanted it.”
I noticed the faint hint of perspiration on Shadow’s brow. Wherever he was in his mind, he certainly was feeling the physical effects of it.
“Do you see the masked girl?” I asked.
“Yes. She’s in the main room. It looks different now,” he said. I noticed he was breathing heavier. “She’s standing at the center of some sort of pentagram. There are candles around her.”
The image he was painting was the exact setting of when we found Sinister, a.k.a stupid bitch Calisto, at the top of the helipad of the Inferno hotel.
“Go to her, Shadow,” I said. “Unmask her.”
“She’s holding a knife,” Shadow said.
I turned to Abel. “What does
that mean?”
He frowned. “It’s a defensive mechanism created by the person who brainwashed Shadow. Most likely once Shadow is close enough to the girl, she’ll stab him, triggering some sort of mental reaction that could be harmful to Shadow. When it comes to tricks of the mind, it can be a very powerful thing. The brain, if provoked, could shut down a critical function of a person’s body.”
Hmm. Well this was a predicament. Get close to the girl, and she’d essentially stab Shadow in the brain. Unless…
“Shadow, what are you wearing right now?” I asked.
My question drew some strange glances from the others in the room but I ignored them. I repeated my question. “What are you wearing right now?”
“Uhh, black t-shirt and jeans?” he said, choosing his typical outfit of choice.
“Wrong,” I stated. “You’re wearing a thick layer of protective armor, like a knight. That’s what you are, Shadow: a big shiny knight. Got that?”
“Yes.”
“Now tell me again, what are you wearing?”
“Big shiny armor?”
“Yes,” I agreed. “Big shiny armor. Now go and get that bitch.”
Abel scratched his chin. “Your methods are highly unorthodox,” he said.
“But they’ll work, right?”
“So to speak, yes. However, the mental footprint you’ll leave in Shadow’s mind is quite large.”
“Who cares?” I asked. “As long as it doesn’t provide any negative effects, it should be fine, right?”
“I suppose so.”
“She’s stabbing me,” Shadow said.
“But that’s not a problem, right Shadow?”
“No, it’s not.”
“Why?”
“Because of this big shiny armor I’m wearing,” he replied.
“That’s right love. Now grab that bitch and rip off her mask.”
There was a moment of silence while we waited for Shadow’s mind to lay a smack down on that little hoe.
Finally, Shadow spoke. “The mask is off. I know who it is.”
“Who?” I asked.
“It’s Alice.”
Who the hell was Alice?
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Aria
I turned to Lincoln. “Do you know who Alice is? Don’t lie to me.”
Revenant: The Midnight Society Book Three Page 17
