In the Dark (Dark Time Book 1)

by Iris Sweetwater

  She grabbed her stomach and noticed it was suddenly feeling better, then she grabbed her flashlight, readying for the signal. This was not waiting until morning. She was going to have to figure it out now; they both were. It was too important.

  She flashed the light five times, their signal that he should get up and come over. Her foster mother was quite the heavy sleeper, and a few times he had just come right in the front door. Besides, he liked boys, so it wasn’t like they were ever going to get into the kind of trouble she might be worried about. She was a more leave alone kind of woman, and that’s what worked for the both of them.

  As soon as she heard the click of the living room door shutting, she raced into the dark, grabbing at Tanner’s hand and dragging him into the room, shutting the door as far as she could with all the clutter, so the light wouldn’t disturb. She reached under her pillow to grab her diary and flipped on the lamp by her bed as he sat down on the end, looking around like he might catch something from the mess. Really, it was all papers and boxes, nothing gross, but he was a bit of a clean freak. He was even always cleaning up after his younger siblings because he just couldn’t stand to look at the mess.

  “Do you have your diary with you?” she whispered frantically, as she opened hers up on the bed. “I just had another dream or vision or whatever you want to call it. You’re not going to believe this one!”

  Tanner reached into the pocket of his shorts and pulled out a folded up clump of paper; his diary. “I figured it was something big, so I brought it. Most of it is about being sick right now, so I don’t know how it’s going to tell us anything, but tell me about the dream. Maybe we can finally figure out this power of yours. I have been researching things while I have been bored and sick in my room, and I am pretty sure now it’s not anything having to do with seeing the future.”

  Carlie looked up at him with great interest. It was good news to hear he might have figured it all out. Her power was a strange one, a discombobulating one, really. It would be nice to have some answers about that.

  “Maybe you should go first. I don’t think I can wait to hear about this one,” she admitted sheepishly, making him smile at her.

  “Always so impatient,” he teased, reaching out to tickle her side a little. For not the first time, Carlie wondered what she would do without him. She probably didn’t want to know with all she had been through. She had met foster kids in other homes who didn’t turn out so well, who were likely in jail or on the streets now. Or dead for that matter. It was not the kind of life many teenagers could handle; the pure boredom and constant poverty, or being pushed aside and ignored. That alone could make a kid go crazy and stop trying. She would like to think she had the drive to keep going regardless, but deep down, she knew a lot of her sanity had to do with this guy sitting right across from her.

  “Okay, so I was just looking around at different forums and psychic websites. I know a lot of it is bullcrap, but I also knew if something out there was real, it would still be in those places, because nobody talks about this out in the open, right? And I found a term that I think describes what you are doing. I saved some of the info to my phone. I am sure they are going to kill me for the data usage this month over this, but I think it’ll be worth it.”

  Tanner handed over the phone to her to look at. It was really old, a hand me down from his mother from like the first generation of smartphones. It was awkward to use, but it would do.

  Carlie began to scan over the pictures he had saved from the screenshots, and she ran across a word; astral projection.

  “The method in which an individual can separate his consciousness from his physical body,” she read aloud, thinking it over. “So, like, my mind is traveling somewhere while my body is still in the bed.” It sounded nuts coming from her lips, but then again, it described almost exactly what was happening. “Then, what I see, it’s not the future. It’s what’s happening now?”

  Tanner nodded. “I think so, or at least, close to now. There might be a few hours in difference or something. Astral planes can involve time and all of that, so I can’t exactly say the time it’s happening is while you’re in bed, but it can’t be more than a day off. Some cases say they are animals, like birds looking from above, while others say they are just super close observers, like over someone’s shoulder. Didn’t you say that’s what it was like?”

  “Yes!” k*1*2

  “Then, I think we have our answer here. Your mind, spirit, whatever it is, is leaving your body to travel to another place or time. So, you are seeing things in real time as they happen. There must be a reason you’re seeing what’s happening to this girl. Does she have powers too or anything?”

  Carlie shook her head. “No, she doesn’t seem to have any that I have seen, but she knows something. In fact, I think she knows more than we do. You are seriously going to trip when I tell you what I saw this time. If we hadn’t already seen and done so many impossible things, then I wouldn’t believe it could be real at all.” She cupped her mouth as a reminder to whisper. She was having a hard time keeping her voice down with all of the excitement buzzing through her over this. Something big was happening.

  Tanner instinctively scooted closer to her as she began to tell it, what she had seen. She tried to show it all justice, but it was like something out of a movie.

  “So, she was in this, I guess, old bell tower with a clock belonging to a church. She was able to get into like, the part where the bell is. I watched her like, go up the stairs and then come around the bell, and she saw something there. It was a man, but he had wings. When he came out of the shadows, you could see he had these red flashing eyes and his wings were almost on fire like they were burning away. I couldn’t hear him speak. I am not sure why, but I heard what she said. She was telling him that she is reliving the same day, that everyone around her is and she is the only one doing anything different. She was saying people are dressing the same and the news is the same every day. That’s why I asked if you had your diary. I wondered if we could see if anything like that was happening with us.”

  Tanner furrowed his brows in concern. He pulled out his diary again and stared at it, and Carlie could tell he was almost afraid to look. She could kind of understand, especially someone so meticulous about everything. What was it going to feel like if they looked in there and found that they had relived the same day without even knowing it? But then again, they did the same thing all the time, so in a way, it would be easy not to notice if they weren’t paying close attention.

  “Do you want to look together?” she offered, knowing it would make it easier. She placed hers in her lap as he nodded. “Okay; 1….2…3!” They both began to read through their entries and look at the dates, and Carlie was stunned. Out of the six days she had written down, two sets of them were somehow the same day. She pointed to it under the light and showed him, and then he showed her he had the exact same thing. They were reliving days.

  “No way is this just a fluke, but I wonder why you said she is living the exact same day while we still creep forward.”

  “I guess we will have to go to Kingsbridge to find out,” she said with a mischievous grin on her face. “What can it hurt if time never moves forward there, anyway? We will have a chance to come back and make it right.”

  Tanner looked down, and Carlie was sure he was feeling some kind of guilt about leaving his siblings. She placed her hand on his. “We will find a way to get money and send it to them. They will be fine. But we don’t know what this is, Tanner, and what if it’s the three of us that have to fix it?”

  He sighed. “You have a good point, but that doesn’t mean I like it one bit. I think I need to use my power and make sure we are the only ones experiencing this though, the only ones that know about it. Then, you can use those few days to devise a plan for us to get out of here and get to Kingsbridge. Can you handle that?”

  “Of course,” she answered confidently. “I was born to do something like this.” She laughed softly, feeling the i
rony in that. Of course, she would have had to be born for this with the powers that were manifesting. She was somehow always destined to take this path; she just had no idea where it would lead. And she had a feeling she would take that part of the journey much better than her friend would.

  Chapter 9

  The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. ~ Lao Tzu

  CARLIE popped on a pair of sunglasses and tied her shirt up on her hip, a matching pair of worn out skinny jeans on her legs. It was sunny but not as hot as some places get in the summer, but she was going to feel like it was summer, especially since it looked like it would stay summer for a while.

  She took the steps to her neighbor’s house and saw that Tanner was already waiting for her there, his suspenders over a red henley shirt this time. “Well, don’t you look trendy today,” he commented as he came down the steps to greet her.

  “Yep, I am all ready for our adventure today. How about you?” she asked him, the question loaded. They planned to spend the day going to busy places, the kind of places with plenty of minds for Tanner to read. The plan was simple; to find any minds that were thinking things like they were, that were wondering about special powers or why time was messed up.

  “I am as ready as I will ever be,” he said, squaring his shoulders and strutting forward as his chucks pounded on the brown pavement.

  Carlie shook her head and chuckled, patting him on the back as she caught up. “Oh my goodness, I love you, Tanner, did you know that?” she asked him with a smile. He looked down at her with a crooked smile.

  “Yes, I did know that, Carlie. I love you too.”

  The first time they had said that it had felt strange and hurt her a bit because she knew it wasn’t the way she wanted a boy to love her. She may have had a tough exterior, but with all of the years she had moved from home to home with no family, she wanted so badly for a guy to latch onto her and love her the way she saw them doing with other girls at school.

  Now, it didn’t bother her because as far as she was concerned, Tanner was her family and always would be, no matter where they went from there. If he went to college, she would follow, even if she had to work instead of going to school herself. That was the unspoken rule. They were not getting separated because they meant so much to one another, but she always hoped in the back of her mind that a guy would come and sweep her off of her feet and would fit right into their dynamic with each other. And maybe Tanner could find a guy too, one that would have no problem with their relationship; one that would understand.

  They made it to the mall in one piece even though traffic was a well….you know. Drivers didn’t exactly take well to teenagers crossing the street, even if they were doing so entirely legally.

  If only they knew that she and her teenage companion had the makings of superheroes, they might think twice before honking and flipping them off.

  Walking inside, Carlie gestured to the food court, the epicenter of sorts of the mall, where even in the middle of the day there were enough people hanging about to get a good read. “So, whose mind are you reading first?” she asked him as they look awkwardly for a place to sit.

  “Shouldn’t we look like we are here to eat or something? I don’t want to look like a vagrant.”

  Carlie rolled her eyes and pointed over to a group of girls standing in line to get some pizza. One of them had cash just hanging there in her back pocket, and they were clearly there on their parents’ hard-earned dimes. She doubted that kind of girl would miss a 20.

  “Just turn the other way,” she told him, leaving Tanner to go find a spot to sit in the back and ignore the illegalities of what she was about to do.

  Sure enough, she slipped it right out with no one knowing and slipped it into her own pocket, waiting for her to be the next one in line. It paid for a large soda and two slices with a little bit left over for a cookie or something later.

  “You know, she will probably get it back tomorrow if it’s a repeat of today anyway,” she told Tanner, as he gave her a somber look when she came to sit down with the food. “Besides, we need it more. We have to do what we have to do.” She shrugged, not bothered by this in the way he was. There were times when stealing was the only way she ever ate, so morals in that way were out the window. They just didn’t matter when it was life or death, which this could turn out to be anyway. She just didn’t want to make Tanner feel any more pressure or tension than he had to over this. She needed to protect home for as long as she could, though she didn’t know how well she would be able to do that once they were in Kingsbridge. That would be a whole new adventure.

  Tanner reluctantly picked up a slice and discreetly looked around before slowly chewing, concentrating on the task at hand.

  Carlie wasted no time in digging into her own slice, feeling a hunger pain catch her stomach. Plus, she needed to give him time and space to read some minds. She didn’t know how hard it was to do, considering her power didn’t require effort, not conscious effort anyway. She could see the concentration on his face as she reveled in the orange grease that stuck to her hands, which she had to wipe with a napkin. How girls gave this up just to be thin she didn’t know. She was lucky enough to be naturally thin, but she wouldn’t care of she wasn’t. She would enjoy her damn food.

  Finally, Tanner broke out of the trance and shook his head with a grunt. “It’s a big jumble, hard to get a single one, but mostly I hear about boys, shopping, money, food…nothing that indicates anything strange. Are you sure this is the right place? Like would they be at the mall if they knew something?”

  “Aren’t we here?” she shot back, and he scoffed at her. He knew she was right though, which is why he said nothing else about it. Instead, he went ape all over the pizza before they both drank their fill of the soda, the bubbles filling Carlie’s throat and nose satisfactorily.

  “You ready to try somewhere else? Maybe the game store?” Carlie suggested, pointing to the other end of the mall where some shops would be. “I mean, playing video games seems like a good way to pass the time when you know that you’re going to be reliving the same day over again,” she said, trying to convince him. She saw a smile creep over his face, and she pointed out that he had a bit of stringy cheese hanging from his mouth. He wiped it off with a little laugh and stood up, taking the tray with him to get rid of as she carried what was left of the soda.

  They made their way over to the game store, a little shop where video games could be traded in, repaired, and purchased for various systems. The highlight of the place was actually a wall of nothing but televisions, hooked up to various games so that people could test them out; when really they were used for the amusement of the workers when they got bored, and they showed off their overly practiced skills to customers to try and keep them in there long term, buying more so they could learn to be as good as they were. It was the ultimate selling technique. Maybe one day when all of this was over with and she needed to make a living she could play video games in front of people to sell them. It was certainly better than anything any of her foster parents had done for a living. It was a life enough for her.

  They walked in, and she was instantly sidetracked by all the noise and the bright lights on the television. She looked over at Tanner with worry in her eyes and wondered if he was ever going to be able to hear anyone’s mind in this mess.

  “I think I can do it. Let’s just split up and look around,” he whispered into her ear, and she agreed, walking up to a shelf and picking up one of the games, reading the back of it. She tried to not pay attention to him and what he was doing, but if she was being honest she was entirely fascinated by what he could do and how he could do it. She had been serious before about him trying to speak to the dead. Maybe he really could. Maybe he would get a hold of secrets that no one else in the world was privy to.

  The minutes ticked by as she began to get impatient, wanting to know if he had heard anything. Finally, his hand touched hers, and they were out of there as he shook his head.


  “It was actually easier, being close to them. But, there was nothing out of the ordinary at all. I don’t think there is any point to this. I think us and that girl, we must be it.”

  He stopped suddenly as they were approaching the door. It was in the middle of the aisle like the way a car would slam on their brakes in the middle of traffic. He was staring off into space, and she didn’t know what to do or think. It was actually scary for a second, and she worried she might never get him back. What if he was like forgetting everything, being erased and brainwashed back to be like everyone else again? Then, she would really be alone. She would have to go all the way to Kingsbridge and find this girl by herself.

  But then, he started walking again, practically dragging her along. She didn’t dare ask him what it was because she could tell it was something big, something he wasn’t going to be willing to say to her in that mall.

  They got back behind the dumpsters at the back of the mall before he even stopped to look at her and let go. “What the heck happened back there? What’s going on?” she said as he began to pace back and forth.

  “My powers, it’s more than just clairvoyance. I can see things; decisions, outcomes. I can’t be for sure about anything, and it’s all based on choices. I don’t have all the answers, but I can see what could happen if we follow this path, or even if we don’t, Carlie.”

  He wasn’t making any sense. “Slow down, slow down I don’t get it.”

  “I can see the future, visions, what you thought you could do. Not all the future or the for sure future, but I can see what could happen if we chose to try and go to Kingsbridge and find this girl. If we use our powers. I can see what happens for sure if we don’t.”

  “What happens?”

  “The world ends, Carlie. It’s gone. We have to go, and we have to go soon.”

  She nodded. He didn’t need to tell her twice. “Okay, we sneak out tomorrow night. Pack your bags and say your goodbyes. We’re going to Kingsbridge.”