I don’t know whether Luke pities me because of my tone or the fact that I feel as if I’m about to burst into tears. Regardless, he softens his tone and some of his rigidity softens. “You’re alive for a reason, Daniel. You came back for a reason, and that is to slay Dark Ones—as many as you can find and whenever you are drawn to them.”
As if clearing an Etch-a-Sketch, I shake my head and try to process what Luke’s said. “I don’t understand,” I admit. “Why me? None of this makes sense! Why would I need to be running around killing people?”
“People?” Luke screws up his features. “You see these things as people?” The planes of his face are razor sharp and his eyes are suddenly glacial tunnels. “They are pure evil. Each one you kill saves countless lives, make no mistake about that.”
Deep in my marrow, his words resonate with inarguable verity so profound I shudder. What he’s saying is true. That much makes sense. What I don’t understand is why I would be charged with such a task?
That question, more than any of the others that burn in my mind, plagues me. It troubles me so that when Luke’s voice echoes, my head snaps up. “When you died, what did you see?” he asks.
I’ve longed to tell another living soul besides Sarah what I saw since the moment I returned, yet now that the opportunity has been presented to me, now that I’ve been asked, words escape me. Words cannot do it justice. I close my eyes and see it. I see the purest, clearest light I’ve ever seen. But moreover, I feel it. The peace that emanated from it, the warmth of an embrace and the safety of a home unlike any I’ve ever known; it was a sensation that could never be replicated. “I saw the most beautiful white light. I was drawn to it. I wanted to be a part of it so badly.” Even now as I speak of it, the yearning returns, the aching need to move toward the light.
“You’ll never be a part of it.” Luke’s words are a sledgehammer to my temple. My eyes snap open and I regard him quizzically. Again, I’m certain in a way that’s inexplicable that what he’s saying is true. “So forget about it.”
“Why?” The loss I feel as I accept what he’s said causes physical pain. I clutch the space above my heart.
“You’re here forever.” His words ring with finality. “You have a mission to accomplish that’s far more important. You’ve been entrusted and charged with the task of protecting humankind. The powers above made you one of us.”
The world tilts on its axis and I’m suddenly dizzied by what’s been revealed. Chosen by the powers above to protect humankind? What does that even mean? And who are the “us” that he refers to? “One of who?”
Luke sighs. “I already told you, you’re a Hunter of the Dark Ones, a Hunter of the Light.
“Dark Ones and Light? I hunt both? It seems counterintuitive.” My hands splay at my sides.
“You hunt Dark Ones to end their existence on this earthly plane and you hunt light to sustain your existence. Do you understand?”
“No, not at all. I don’t understand at all, and I don’t understand why me? Why I was chosen?” my voice pitches up and my frustration and confusion mounts.
Luke shrugs. “I don’t know. I don’t see it.” He eyes me up and down with disappointment. “But you must have something inside you, a strength. Decency. Whatever the reason is, you were deemed a good match and chosen.”
“Match?” I can’t help but ask.
Luke rolls his eyes. “We’re not doing that again, are we, the parrot thing?”
I quickly shake my head no.
“What else did you see when you were near the light?” he ignores my question concerning being a match.
Licking my lips, I hesitate for a moment. “There was a man, a powerful being.” My gaze grows distant as I recall what transpired. “I was headed for the light. I was close, so close.” I squeeze my eyes closed and my lungs burn between breaths. “But this man, this being with a life force that rivaled the light itself, pulled me away.” My eyes open slowly. “The next thing I knew, I was in my hospital room and surrounded by a stunned staff of workers.”
“You didn’t come back alone.” Luke’s statement is grave and leaves no room for argument.
“Wait, what? What’re you saying? I did come back alone. No one else landed in that hospital bed with me. Unless he was there and I didn’t see him, is that what happened?” My head is spinning like an out of control merry-go-round.
“You just don’t get it, do you?” he shakes his head at me as if I’m a complete idiot.
“No, I don’t.”
I don’t see how he’s surprised by my admission, but he is. His eyes widen before narrowing to thin slits. “He is a part of you. He saw something in you—strength decency, whatever—and you were chosen.” He folds his arms across his chest, satisfied with the answer he’s given, the one that answered exactly none of my questions but only spawned more.
Shaking my head as my brain struggles to comprehend what I’ve heard and continue to hear, I rub my forehead. “I don’t feel anyone with me.” I say the first thing that comes to mind and immediately regret it. Luke regards me with the kind of contempt one regards dog poop on their sneaker.
“Daniel, please!” He runs his hand over the smooth front portion of his hair. “He’s not with you in a literal sense. You’re one and the same now. Do you understand?”
I shake my head no.
Luke grinds his teeth so hard I hear enamel cracking.
“The being that you encountered on the other side, he was of the higher power. He came back too.” Pale emerald eyes hold me hostage where I stand.
“Okay. He came back with me?” I ask dumbly.
“No, you are him and he is you.”
None of what he’s saying makes sense on the surface, but in a deep dark recess of my being, it rings true. “But what about the light?” I can’t help but ask, the powerful, all-consuming allure of it too great to overlook. “Why won’t I ever get to go there, to be a part of it?”
“Because you can’t,” Luke says sharply. “Never. Should you fail and fall by the hand of a Dark One, every part of you will cease to exist, just like when one of them dies, their souls are destroyed. You’ve seen it happen, yes?”
I nod, knowing exactly what he’s talking about. I could never forget it. It’s indelibly etched in my mind.
“You need to know that with each Dark One you claim, you will grow stronger. Your powers will grow.” He delivers this information as casually as he would tell me it’s going to rain later. I am left dumfounded and with my mouth agape. “Say something, Daniel. If you continue to stand with your mouth open as it is, something is sure to fly inside.”
I don’t know whether he’s attempting humor or is simply being mean. Either way, I heed his warning and ask the first question I can think of. “How many have you killed?”
“Two hundred thirty one.” He puffs out his chest slightly and beams.
The number staggers me. “Wow,” I gush and hate myself for doing so. “That’s a ton.”
“I have been a Hunter for a hundred and eleven years,” he says and the smile slowly sags.
Surprise carves my features as my brows rocket to my hairline. “You’re more than a hundred years old?”
Luke nods somberly. “I was chosen when I died of polio when I was eight, so technically I guess I’m a hundred and nineteen.”
“Whoa.” I slump back so that the CRV supports my weight. “So you don’t age?”
“We age until we are fully grown. Then we remain as such forever.”
I envision myself in a perpetual state of youth and imagine the questions that would arise. “Don’t people find that strange?”
Rolling his eyes again and shaking his head in annoyance at my question, he says, “I’ll answer your inane questions another time. Right now, I need to know what you know about the murders in Patterson.”
“Nothing really.” I bob my shoulders then place both hands in my pockets. Then my mind focuses on the message in my locker and my hands ball into fists so tight
my fingernails dig into the tender flesh of my palms. “But someone threatened Sarah.” Luke leans in. “Someone put a note in my locker threatening her. I thought it was you.”
“Me?” Luke jerks back. “Are you out of your mind? You couldn’t sense I was like you?”
“No.” I shake my head slowly.
“Wow. That’s not good.” He scratches the scruff on his chin. “It means that whoever’s doing this is powerful, most likely far older than me and has probably killed hundreds of Hunters. Only one who’s claimed many has the ability to camouflage his power and walk among our kind unnoticed.” His gaze intensifies. “I can’t even sense him and I’ve been in Patterson for six months. This definitely isn’t good.”
“So they get stronger when they kills us?” I ask to verify that what I’ve heard is true.
“Of course,” Luke huffs. “It works both ways. When they died in their first life, they went a different way for whatever reason the powers that govern the universe saw fit.” He points to the ground, his implication clear. “And they returned to this earthly plane possessing an evil within them beyond all comprehension.”
Hearing that, my thoughts immediately returns to Sarah. “I can’t let whatever it is get to Sarah. I won’t let them . . .” I can’t bring myself to say “kill her.” To do so would somehow give those who hunt her power in my mind. Raking a hand through my hair, I push off the SUV. “I haven’t even told her she’s in trouble but I told her what I know, about the strange things that’ve happened to me and that I died.”
Luke’s head, bowed as he listened to me, whips up. His gaze clashes with mine. “You told her about yourself?” He is practically shouting, anger so potent it bubbles and brims like lava venting from a volcano.
“Uh yeah,” I admit with trepidation. “Why?”
“You can’t do that! People cannot know what you are. Do you understand me?” He articulates each word and punctuates them by jabbing the air with his pointer finger.
“Yes, yes, I understand.” I back away, my hands at chest height with my palms facing him.
He heaves several breathes then says, “All right. Let’s get out of here.” He turns to get into his car but pauses mid-movement. He looks over his shoulder at me. “You’d better figure out who it is that’s after her. If you don’t do it soon, she will be lost.”
His words are a finely honed blade that lance my core, my heart. I nod and feel a fierce determination infuse me as I open the driver’s side door and slide behind the wheel. I return to Patterson filled with a healthy dose of fear tempered by pure resolve.
Chapter 11
As soon as I’m in the driveway and stepping out of my car, I dial Sarah’s number. The first ring strikes a chord of fear so deep it vibrates through my being and causes my hand to shake. The second one sends me into a full-blown state of panic. That panic is only allayed when I hear her melodic voice on the other end.
“Hello?” she says. She sniffles. I hear the emotion in the single word.
“Sarah.” I can’t hide the relief in my tone. “Are you okay?”
“No, not at all.” I hear her hiccup. “I-I can’t believe Jenny is gone.”
“I know. I’m so, so sorry,” is all I can say. Words of comfort do not exist when pain and grief is this raw, when a young life is claimed from this earth. Sarah lost her best friend. There’s nothing I can say that will make her feel better. All I can do is comfort her, and guard her with my life so that she doesn’t meet the same fate as Jenny.
The threat of Sarah ending up like Jenny sweeps up my spine like an arctic breeze, chilling my skin and causing me to shiver.
“Me too.” Her voice is breathy and quivers with emotion. I feel her pain, ache for her.
“Sarah, I wish there was something I could say, something I could do.” I’ve never felt so inept, so lost for words.
“I know. But there’s nothing you can say. Nothing anyone can say.” She takes a trembling breath. “I’m just so hurt. I’m glad my parents are here with me. Imagine that! I am actually glad they’re home and hovering.”
You and me both, I feel like saying. I don’t, of course. To do so would require me telling her why, that she is in mortal danger. I don’t want to do that. Not yet at least. “They’ll be home for the night?”
“Yeah, they’re not going anywhere. We’re just going to have dinner and stay in.” She sniffles again and I swear that if I listen closely enough I will hear the mournful beat of her fractured heart.
I clutch the left side of my chest and silently wish I could take away her pain, absorb it and have it as my own. Swallowing hard, I close my eyes. “That’s good,” I say. “You need them close. Let them take care of you.” I open my eyes and pinch the bridge of my nose. I listen as she sighs. “Sarah, again, I’m so very sorry. I wish I knew the magic words that’d make you feel better, that such words even existed. Please just know that I’m thinking about you and that I care about you.” My heart sinks like a stone. “And that I’m sorry about Jenny.”
“Thank you, Danny. That means a lot to me.” I hear warmth in her tone and it melts me. “Call me later?”
“Absolutely.” I pause for a moment, my forehead leaning against the doorway to the kitchen, and want nothing more than to tell her how I feel, to tell her that I love her. “I’ll check in on you in a little while.”
“Okay. Talk to you soon.”
We each say our good-byes, and in the back of my mind I can’t help but fear it’ll be our last. My heart rate spikes and my hands tremble. It takes every bit of strength that I have to not call her back, tell her all that I know, drive to her house and not leave her side until I figure out what the heck is going on and how I can protect her. Tears of frustration burn the backs of my eyelids. I ball one hand into a fist while the other grips my phone so hard I fear it will bend. I resist the urge to throw it, realizing the second before I hurl it into the far wall that I need it. It is my lifeline, my connection to Sarah at this point. I reconsider and lower my hand, replacing the phone to my pocket, then head straight to my room. Once inside, I grab my laptop and the student directory, a voluntary handbook that lists social media accounts of participating people whose parents have consented. I begin looking up random people, anyone I’ve seen in recent days who seemed capable of doing such a thing. The problem is, I can’t conceive of a student—an average kid who worries about acne and body odor—committing a heinous act such as the murders taking place in this town. Still, I search, due to the fact that the girls didn’t show signs of struggle. In the vision, they were at the Hanson Mansion voluntarily, so they were obviously with someone they trusted initially. Though the likelihood of the murderer being someone outside of the school exists, every cell in my body screams otherwise.
On a hunch, I search Chris. I look through his Facebook page and any other public social media site he belongs to. I read posts on his wall, look at pictures he’s posted and read his Tweets. After exhausting the social media avenue, I turn to a general Google search, and when I do, what it reveals causes my blood to run cold. In a local newspaper article that dates back seven years, I discover that Chris had drowned in the family pool when he was ten. His uncle found him and was able to resuscitate him after he’d been found lifeless and floating face-down near the diving board of the in ground pool. His mother was quoted as saying his survival was a miracle.
A miracle.
Was his miracle similar to mine? I wonder.
Slamming the lid of the laptop shut, my mind begins to spiral out of control. It’s him. It must be. It’s not a coincidence. He died and came back. Instances such as that are not common occurrences. It has to be him. The only anomaly exists in the form of what happened at the party. I handled him with ease. Did he allow it? The possibility is a likely one. If Chris is as strong as Luke thinks he is, so strong that even he didn’t sense his presence, than he very well may have allowed me to overtake him in order to keep up appearances, to maintain his charade. It also served to throw me off
his trail. It was a smart move on his part if all that I’m thinking is true, which I grow more and more convinced of with each second that passes.
Feeling as if my blood is boiling within my veins, I strip out of my clothes and into a pair of sweatpants I sleep in and a T shirt. After heading to the bathroom and brushing my teeth, I return to my room and plop down onto my bed. Leaning back, I interlace my hands behind my head and close my eyes. Immediately, Sarah’s face fills my head, but quickly, images of Chris usurp it. He is now on my radar. He is my primary person of interest. His is the last face I see before sleep claims me.
Hours filled with fitful nightmares end with the incessant beeping of my alarm clock. I jump, my heart lurching as if it’s been hit with a defibrillator. I sit up and blink several times to clear the bleariness, to purge the horrific images of sliced open wrists that’ve filled my brain for the last five hours, before swinging my legs around and placing my feet on the floor. I make my way to the bathroom, brush my teeth and shower then quickly dress for school. After breakfast, I leave for school and as soon as I get there, I look for Chris.
Scanning the faces of everyone that passes me, I am a hunter, and nothing will satiate my need for prey but Chris. Several moments pass. I worry he’s absent and am about to leave before I’m late for first period when I see him round the corner and strut down the hallway. Blonde hair styled meticulously, fawn colored eyes and deep dimples on either cheeks are what everyone sees. They see a tall, athletic teenage boy, good-looking and popular by any standards. But I don’t. I see something else. I see a killer.
As if sensing my eyes on him, he meets my gaze, a strange, unreadable expression flashing across his features. I do my best to not bear my teeth like a junkyard dog, to not reveal that I’m onto him. I casually look away but do not leave when his small group stops in the vicinity of my locker. I fiddle with the combination to my locker, opening it and lingering as if searching for a book and listen as one of his friends asks him to hang out after school. He declines, stating he has plans yet refuses to say what they are when pressed. In fact, he gets snippy and changes the subject, even going so far as to say his friend is acting like his mother. And in the moments that I hear that interaction, I decide I will catch him in the act. I will follow him tonight. I won’t let him harm Sarah.
The Dark One Page 11
