by David Gallie
‘Sorry,’ my bottom lip trembling as I wipe away the tears.
‘It’s alright, we understand how traumatic the fire, your classmates and then the asylum must have been for you. But please we need to get going before the law starts it search for you,’ Derek starts walking towards the door and Steven follows him while me and Slendy hang back.
‘Where are we going to go?’
‘We have a safe house in Washington,’ there is no hint of a lie on Steven’s face.
‘I can’t go to Washington. Not yet anyway,’ I shake my head rapidly. There is no way I can leave Orange knowing that those things were preparing to rise up from hell.
‘Lynk, it’s the safest place for you to be right now,’ pleads Derek.
‘Those things, shadows, smoke creatures set fire to my school. They killed my classmates and they’re going to do far worse unless I stop them,’ I shout, feeling the frustration rise in my chest.
‘But Lynk, it’s only a matter of time before the police come here,’ says Steven and I can see the anxiety in his eyes.
‘If we help you get rid of the shadows, will you come with us then?’ Asks Derek, there is a darkness to his face that I don’t like, and Slendy can sense it too because he moves closer to me as if I’m being threatened.
‘Yes,’ I say, folding my arms across my chest.
‘Okay. Steven, can you contact Bill and Joe and ask them to meet back here if it’s safe,’ says the older man, then he turns his attention to me, ‘if we can, we’ll stay here until sundown and then we’ll go to the school. Although I have no idea what you’re hoping to find.’
‘The person who set them free,’ I say.
CHAPTER 8
The rain continues its barrage on the old house as I sit on the bare floorboards. Steven has disappeared somewhere, probably looking for the two men who freed me from the asylum, while Derek stands reading from a book that looks really old.
Every so often we hear a police siren which makes both of us jump, but they quickly fade into the distance each time and eventually I can feel my body grow heavier. The tiredness sets in quickly and before I can stop myself I’m slipping away.
I find myself in the hallway of my school, right outside the door of my classroom. When I glance through the glass window on the door I can see my classmates listening to the teacher or writing on their pads. A couple of Jocks I never got to know flick balls of paper at each other every time the teacher’s back is turned.
I try to push my way back into the classroom but the door won’t budge and when I look down I see that the shaft of a fire axe has been shoved through the handle. Panic starts to rise and I taste something metallic in my mouth as I turn back to the hallway.
I can’t understand why I’m outside. Was it me who blocked the door with the axe? I don’t know and before I can look at my classmates any longer my legs are moving, carrying me further down the hallway past the other classrooms until I reach the doors which lead to the bathrooms.
When I reach the door to the girl’s toilets I find my attention drawn down the hallway to my right. I know it leads towards the gymnasium.
My legs are moving again. I’m heading in the direction of the Gymnasium and before I know it I’ve already pushed through the doors which open out into the vast space. It’s empty except for the figure. Some kind of strange symbol has been drawn with chalk and the figure who I who is wearing a long black hooded robe kneels in the center.
As I move closer I can hear its voice uttering words which are foreign to me. They could be Latin or maybe something even more obscure. Either way, their meaning was lost to me.
By the time I come to a stop just a few feet away from figure, its words have reached a crescendo, and it raises its arms to the heavens like its demanding Gods attention. Then comes the sound that makes my stomach lurch with fear and panic. It’s the strange crackling, sizzling sounds of something burning.
When I look around the vast hall I can see flames, bright red and orange, rising up from the floor and licking at the wooden stands until they catch fire, then it’s spreading rapidly, engulfing the building.
‘Their almost free now,’ I hear the robed figure say in plain English and when I snap around to look in that direction I find it’s on its feet and looking down at me.
The hood casts a shadow making it impossible for me to tell who’s face it is hiding. Even its voice sounds distorted.
‘Who is almost free? Why are you setting the school on fire?’ I ask in a panic.
‘The shadows Lynk, the shadows are almost free. Just one more ritual to go and their bounds to hell will be broken,’ the figure says, and I feel certain its smiling under the hood.
None of it makes any sense. A few moments ago I was on my way to the bathroom. Was he the one who blocked the classroom door? It’s that thought which sends me into a panic. I run for the doors and the hooded figure laughs.
I don’t look back as I run, but I come to a screeching halt when I see Slendy standing just a few feet ahead of me in the hallway. He says nothing as I cautiously approach him. He looks frightening and yet I don’t feel scared of him. I feel like I know him already.
‘Who are you?’ I ask him, my heart pounding.
‘I’m your friend and you need to get out of here Lynk, the shadows will overtake the building before the flames do,’ he says and I wrinkle my nose at him as if he was talking the same kind of gibberish.
‘What are these shadows I keep hearing about?’ I ask, feeling uncertain I will get an answer.
‘They’re on the walls right now,’ he says and I glance to my left and right, listening to the flames of the inferno behind me as I watch the strange black shapes dart across the walls and then they leap from the walls to the floor, then up again onto the lockers before jumping back onto the walls.
‘I need to save my friends,’ I scream at him, tears rolling down my flushed cheeks.
‘You can’t, there is no time Lynk, you need to get out of here before the shadows get you,’ he shouts back but there is no anger in his voice.
I ignore him and run for the classroom door again, almost skidding on the floor as I turn the corner too fast. The flames seem to be rising up from every direction as I grab hold of the axe and try to pull it free. But it won’t budge.
My tears are still flowing as I use every ounce of strength to pull the axe and while I do that I notice that my classmates are still sitting in their seats as they were before. I see no fear or even any kind of recognition that they’re worried about the flames licking at the walls around them.
I don’t even know if they can see the flames.
‘Lynk, you need to run now,’ shouts Slendy and I glance up at him long enough to see the shadow creatures bound from the walls to the floor until their approaching me like a pack of wild animals. Their bodies have no real form. They look very much like black smoke with a life of its own.
I panic and turn to run. But I’m too late. I can feel the weight of the shadows as they pounce on me, one after the other, pinning me to the floor. It’s only when I scream that the nightmare ends.
I let out a surprised yelp as my eyes dart open. It takes me a few seconds before I realize I’m back in the abandoned farmhouse and this time, I can see Steven, Bill, and Joe playing a card game on the floor while Derek is still standing where I last saw him with his book in his hand. They all turn to face the mad girl with startled expressions.
‘Are you alright?’ Asks Steven, his eyes wide. God, I was starting to fall in love with those beautiful eyes of his, even though I wasn’t technically sure how falling in love was supposed to feel.
‘There is one more ritual left before they’re free from hell,’ I say, wiping a thin layer of sweat away from my brow as I remember what the hooded figure in my dream told me.
This seems to get the attention of Derek more than the others and he closes his book before he moves closer to me.
‘What kind of ritual Lynk?’ He asks.
‘The guy in the robe
just said he had one more ritual to go before the shadows would be completely free,’ my butt was almost numb from sitting on the floor too long and I had to force myself back up onto my feet.
‘You saw a man in a black robe?’ Asks Derek.
I explain my dream to him and the man I saw in the gymnasium kneeling in the strange symbol drawn with chalk.
‘Could you describe the symbol, please try, it could be important?’ he asks and I try my best to recall what details I could.
As I recall the dream I realize that I had seen many lines drawn from the rim of the circle and they all led inwards towards the shape of a pentagram. When I relate this to the Derek he quickly flips through the pages of his book all of which are written by hand.
‘Does it look like this?’ He asks, handing the book over to me.
When I look at the top of the page I see the symbol I remember from my dream and nod my head. I try to read the writing below it but it’s in a language I don’t understand.
‘That symbol is part of a ritual called The Arcane Rights. What the basically means is that he’s given the shadows back their power. The first ritual would have been to make them aware he planned to free them, and the second ritual will be to unlock the nearest portal to hell. I’m assuming that will be either somewhere very near the school or in it,’ he takes his book back.
‘Is there a specific time when these rituals have to be performed,’ I desperately wanted to rub the numbness out of my butt but couldn’t bring myself to do it with so many eyes on me.
‘If the movies are to be believed they would have you think that there must be a full moon on a very specific date and stuff like that. In reality, these rituals can be performed at any time of the day, although the second ritual does have something specific to it,’ I watch the old man close his book and he cradles it by his side like it’s his most cherished possession and for all I know it probably is.
‘What’s that?’ I ask.
‘Well, the second ritual involves opening a portal and like any doorway, he’s going to need a key to open it. The ritual alone will not be enough.’
I find myself looking to the others and even Slendy for some more backup information on the key part but no one seems willing to talk while Derek has center stage.
‘What would the key look like?’ I eventually ask.
‘Well, it would have to be something that represented the entity or entities when they were alive. It could be anything from a piece of clothing to a sacrificial altar,’ he shrugs and I can see the lines under his eyes growing deeper as the tiredness sets in. I fight the urge to tell him to go for a sleep because he looks awful and instead take a moment to think.
‘Slendy, what to do you make of this?’ I know everybody is watching me talk to thin air, but the truth is if I ask mentally I feel like I really am insane.
The tall man in the fine black suit squints at me for a moment as if he’s considering my question.
‘I can’t give you any more than I already have. You’re going to have to learn to trust your own instincts on this one,’ he says and I pout at him.
‘Fine then,’ I continue pouting as the others stare at me. They say they can sense him but I’m not so sure.
‘What did he say?’ Asks Steven, rising to his feet and making no bones about rubbing the numbness out of his butt. How I envied him.
‘He said I need to figure this one out on my own. Don’t suppose anyone has a computer?’ I smile at them feeling certain the answer would be no.
CHAPTER 9
I’m not surprised to learn that none of the men have a computer at their disposal and I was about to sink into a dark depression when Steven started rummaging around in his pocket.
Eventually, he produces a smartphone. I had only been locked away for a year but the design of this thing looked so space age I even wondered if it was used to make calls.
‘You can go online with this, just use the web browser,’ says Steven, handing me the phone.
‘Thank you,’ I say and take the phone from him.
Within seconds the web browser is fired up and I note that there is a really good signal even for such a remote place in the county. I type in The Shadows Orange County and wade through a list of results the search engine gives me before settling on the Wikipedia page. I had been told by my teacher not to trust everything I read online, so I tried to view the information I was looking at as a starting point and nothing else.
‘May I ask what you’re looking for?’ Derek steps forward, his ancient looking book still under his arm and I suspect that he would probably guard the thing with his life.
‘To find the key we’re going to need to know more about the shadows,’ I say and start reading the entry.
Way back in 1867 Orange county was basically nothing more than a small town comprised of farmers and other agriculture businesses. A farmer by the name of Ezikal Hansen decided it would be fun to use his field as a gathering place for other local farmers to have a small get together.
The idea was that he would be able to forge strong links with the rest of the community. The idea seemed to be a success. Farmers and merchants from around the county would visit Ezikal’s farm once at the end of every month, and under the moonlit sky, they would hold a small party.
However, over the course of two years Ezikal lost his wife and started using the party as a way to celebrate her life, and from there it kind of steamrolled into a religious ceremony. Eventually, Ezikal turned to the dark side, performing rituals and spells that he thought could bring his long dead wife back to him.
The majority of locals who used to attend the party started to realize that Ezikal wasn’t of his right mind, which sounds familiar, and avoided the party, simply referring to it as the party of shadows.
The locals begin to feel that Ezikal has cursed the county with his rituals and black magic and so they did what any God fearing American’s would do. They set out to burn him and his followers as witches.
The last recorded party of shadows was in 1872 in January. Ezikal and his group of acolyte’s had gathered on the field where the Orange County High School now stood and began performing a ritual called The Bloodline, which according to Wikipedia is all about re-enforcing the ties between the living and the dead.
It was during this ritual that the other locals descended on the group and after a brief struggle was able to bind them to a hastily made pyre upon which they were put to their deaths.
The rituals were fairly simplistic in nature, but there was one, in particular, Vernika, a ritual used to breathe eternal life into those performing it, which involved an altar carved from the nearby trees.
There is no mention of what the shadows sacrificed on the alter, although knowing that they were all farmers I assume it would have most likely been some poor farm animal such as a chicken or maybe even a sheep.
‘Take a look at that, I think that’s the key,’ I say, handing the phone over to Steven and I watch as the others gather around him to get a better look at the small screen.
‘The altar?’ Asks Derek, raising his eyebrows at me.
I nod my head, feeling my stomach knot again as Slendy moves forward until he’s maybe about a foot away from me.
‘Do we have any idea where it might be, the Wiki page doesn’t say,’ Asks Bill, looking up from the screen and directly at me.
‘I know there is a small museum further in town,’ I say, absently adjusting the hooded top I was wearing, it felt unusual not to have something like a T-shirt on underneath, ‘if it’s going to be anywhere I would assume it would be there.’
The four men look at me. Steven turns the phone’s screen off and slips it back into his pocket.
‘Don’t you think the person, whoever it may be, who has been performing the rituals wouldn’t already have it in their possession?’ Asks Joe, again his eyes are on me as if I should know everything about the shadows.
I shake my head as I think back to my dream. I get a sense that the hooded
figure knows where the key might be but isn’t one hundred percent sure. Although he is sure enough to perform the first ritual.
‘If he knew where it was from the start, then he would have already performed the second ritual. He wouldn’t wait this long. Which also tells me that he might not be a true local, because if he was the first place he would check would be the museum,’ I say, starting to feel tired all over again.
Behind me, Slendy puts his hand on my shoulder. There is no weight attached to it and yet I can still feel it. It doesn’t feel weird at all. It reassures me that everything is going to be alright, even if that might not be the case.
I offer the tall man a smile and I’m glad that not everyone can see him. He is the one thing that I can say is unique to me, at least at this point in time. Outside the rain is coming down harder than ever before. I can hear it bouncing off the windows and somewhere on the floor above me, I can hear it dripping inside.
‘We have about two more hours before the sun goes down,’ says Derek, his expression is thoughtful, and I can see the wheels turning behind his eyes, ‘we’re going to have to be extra careful snooping around town at night, but I think it would be worth visiting this museum first before we go to the school.’
I feel a sense of alarm and my mind immediately drifts back to the dream I had while still a guest in the dungeon. The smoky black shadow had stabbed me in the heart but before that he had told me to leave them well alone. I don’t feel fear when I think about it, but the warning was very obvious and I’m not sure if these men I’m surrounded with had the ability to take them on.
I know I don’t.
CHAPTER 10
We all agreed that checking out the museum first was probably the best idea. It’s strange, but as I sit back down on the floor, I realize that despite being surrounded by these people there was a sense of loneliness building inside me.
It feels like I’m being kept in a bubble which was thin enough for me to interact with the world, but not so thin that I could glean any emotional comfort from others. I wished for people of my own kind. The kind that can see and hear and touch the dead.
