“Goodbye, Will.”
“If you need me, I’ll be around.”
“Goodbye.”
Dana closed the door in his face, and locked it. Then she trudged back to the sofa and fell onto it with a weary grunt. She pointed the remote and switched the TV back on.
But while she watched the TV, Will’s words kept playing again and again in her head, like a tape recording that wouldn’t stop. She shuddered, and unconsciously tucked her legs and her arms closer to her body, curled up on the sofa like one big question mark.
8
It took all her strength, but Dana showered and finished getting dressed just minutes before her mother got home. She didn’t want her mother to realize that something was wrong, and fret over her like a baby. At the dinner table that night, Dana tried to act cheery and normal. And after a while she actually began to feel a little better. The food helped. She felt stronger, more awake.
Dana couldn’t stop thinking about Will Garner. But she also couldn’t stop thinking about her friend Sophie Girard, and how different she had seemed at the library. After dinner, Dana gave her old friend a call.
“Hello?” Sophie said in a slurred voice.
“Soph? Is that you?”
“Yeah, it’s me.” Sophie sounded groggy. “I was just dozing off.”
“Sorry. Um, it was good to see you again last night, and I just thought I’d call to say hi.”
“Yeah, it was good to see you again, too, Dane. I’m glad there’s no hard feelings.”
“There never were, Sophie. I missed you.”
“Mm,” Sophie said sleepily.
“Are you okay? You sound funny.”
“I stayed home from school today. I’m so tired I can hardly keep my eyes open. I think I caught a bug from Ethan. He told me he was feeling weak, the other night. Now today when he stopped over he said he was feeling great, but I feel like crap.” Sophie giggled a bit. “Maybe I caught it when we kissed goodnight.”
Dana was feeling too confused to be jealous. Had she, herself, caught a bug from Ethan when he kissed her? Was that why she’d been feeling so weak?
Sophie went on, “Isn’t he gorgeous, Dane? I’ve never met such a cool guy. I can’t believe he likes me. I’m in love, girlfriend, I really am.”
Dana wanted to tell her friend how Ethan had tried to ask her out, how he had kissed her. Sophie should know what Ethan was really like, but Dana couldn’t bring herself to hurt Sophie with the truth. And, she was afraid, wouldn’t Sophie get mad at her? She would blame Dana, as if it was her fault they had kissed. Dana knew how Sophie could be. All she could manage to say was, “I think you should take it slow, Soph. Get to know him well before you start making the marriage plans, you know what I mean?”
Sophie sounded very far away now. “He’s such a great kisser.” She acted as if she hadn’t heard what Dana said.
“Sophie?”
There was silence on the other end. Dana realized that Sophie had fallen asleep.
With a sigh, Dana thumbed the red key on her cell.
Everything just kept getting stranger. She had been weak all day, but now she was feeling stronger. Sophie had been weak all day and obviously still was. Was that because she had kissed Ethan longer, and caught a stronger dose of his bug? Was that really the answer to this? A virus?
Ethan had felt weak yesterday, Sophie said. Now he felt better.
Three people feeling weak. Drained.
Three hungry Shadow Beings, needing human life force.
Was it possible that she, Sophie and Ethan had all been attacked by the three Shadow Beings? Was that, and not a virus, the answer?
“What has that Will done to me?” Dana murmured in disgust. “If there really is a Will Garner.” She had touched his arm, but she still found it hard to believe that a boy claiming to be some immortal spirit had come to visit her today.
And then Dana remembered something that she had seen, or imagined she’d seen, when she was kissing Ethan Sebastian last night.
She had seen purple glowing eyes, burning through her closed eyelids.
Purple glowing eyes, like the eyes of the inhuman face she had seen through the window in her near death experience. Purple glowing eyes, like she had dreamed were staring at her in the hospital recovery room. When she had opened her eyes, Ethan had been in her room. And most recently there was her dream of the teddy bear with eyes glowing like those ultraviolet lights used to nourish house plants; the hungry teddy bear, trying to feed on her mind, her thoughts, her soul. The teddy bear Ethan had given her.
“Oh my...” Dana’s jaw dropped open. Was it possible?
Ethan. Ethan and his two weird sisters?
Ethan wasn’t weak because he’d been attacked by a Shadow Being. Ethan was weak because he was a Shadow Being...and his energy level was dropping. But he had kissed Dana a little bit, and then kissed Sophie goodnight for a longer time. Now he felt strong, and Dana and Sophie were still recovering from being sapped.
Was it possible? Could Will be right, after all? Could a monster disguised as a boy called Ethan really have sucked some of her life out of her, last night?
“I’m going crazy,” Dana said, trying to laugh, but her voice was trembling. “I’ve just gotta accept the fact. I’m going totally bonkers.”
But couldn’t she try to find out more about Ethan? That wouldn’t hurt, would it?
Dana thought of a way. She picked up her phone again and punched out the number of her friend Mike Costello. Mike’s six-year-old sister Rosa answered his cell, and Dana asked the little girl if she could speak to Mike.
“Hey, give me that,” Dana heard Mike scold his sister. Then, to Dana he said, “Hey, Blondie.”
Dana swallowed hard and collected her composure. “Mike, I need your help.”
“What can I do for ya?”
“Your cousin Peter goes to Farmington High, right? Can you call him and ask if he can find out about some kids for me?”
“What kids?”
“Sophie has a new boyfriend. His name is Ethan. He’s the boy who gave me the teddy bear when I was in the hospital.”
“Oh...him.” Mike suddenly sounded less cheerful. “You mean Sophie’s dating him? How’d that happen?”
“I’m not sure. But I think he might be dangerous.”
“What do you mean?”
“He’s...weird. Please, just ask Peter about him, okay? Ethan says he goes to Farmington High. And he has two sisters, Celeste and Vesta. Their last name is Sebastian. Are you getting all this?”
“I’m writing it down. Ethan, Celeste and...what?”
“Vesta. Sebastian.”
“Got it. You think these kids are bad news?”
“They could be. I’m concerned. I met them at the library last night and...well, I just got a funny feeling about them.”
“Tell ya what—tomorrow when I get outta school I’ll take my bike over to Pete’s house. I’ll ask him in person. How’s that?”
“Thanks, buddy, I appreciate it.”
“No problemo. Tell me what these kids look like. Maybe Pete will know them by face but not by name.”
Dana gave her friend a description of Ethan and the twin girls, and added, “They seem to like black clothes a lot.”
“They sound weird, all right. No wonder Sophie likes them.” Mike made an effort to sound casual instead of jealous when he said, “I thought maybe you were interested in this Ethan dude, yourself.”
“I am,” Dana admitted. “But not in the way I used to be.”
* * *
The next day Dana called Sophie’s cell and then the Girard house to see if Sophie had stayed home from school a second day. No one answered either phone. Had Sophie recovered like Dana had...or was she too tired to wake up and come to the phone?
During the day Dana glanced repeatedly out the windows of her house to see if anyone was outside. Anyone meaning Will Garner. But every time she looked, the sidewalk out front was empty. Dana didn’t know whether to b
e disappointed or relieved. In a way, she wanted to find out more about the mysterious youth. And of course, he was about the nicest looking guy Dana had ever spoken to.
On the other hand, everything he said to her turned her brain into a rushing whirlpool of confusion. His very existence confused Dana about her sanity.
To take her mind off Will, and her anxiousness to find out what Mike’s cousin Peter had to say, Dana tried to keep busy. She didn’t want to vegetate on the sofa for a second day. If she was going to get back to normal, she had to push herself. After changing the sheets and blankets of her bed, Dana took the dirty laundry into the basement to wash them. Her mother would probably freak out that she had carried a basket of laundry downstairs. Dana had to grin. Her mother usually nagged Dana to do her laundry and homework and unload the dishwasher and such. Lately, it was the reverse. There just was no pleasing some mothers.
With her load of wash churning, Dana moved into the family room on the other side of the basement, and put on the radio while she smacked a few balls around on her father’s pool table. But despite the clean brightness of the cellar, and the lively music on the radio, Dana began to feel a little creeped out alone down there, beneath the earth, as if she had been buried alive in a tomb. A nice tomb, but a tomb just the same. The old piano in the corner suddenly seemed hulking and sinister, as if music would come from it at any moment, its keys moving by themselves. The shadows of the room seemed darker than they should be, hiding secrets. As if dark spirits might be crouched in them, waiting to emerge.
Dana decided she’d dry the laundry after her mother got home. She realized she was gripping her pool cue like a spear. Setting it down, she crept to the stairs leading back up into the brighter ground floor of her home, and climbed them a little faster than she meant to.
The day dragged. Dana ironed clothes, read for a little while, made herself lunch, and again and again peeked out the windows. Finally it was two-thirty. Mike would be biking over to his cousin’s house in Farmington. It wouldn’t be long now. Hopefully he’d call her immediately from his cousin’s place as soon as he had his information.
But an hour passed, and another hour, and before she knew it, Dana’s parents were home. And an hour after that, she was sitting down to dinner. Had Mike forgotten to go altogether? Maybe he was waiting for Dana to call him. She finished her meal quickly so she could go up to her room and try him. He didn’t pick up on his cell phone, so with a huff of exasperation Dana tried his family’s line instead. This phone was picked up on the first ring. It was Mike’s older sister Mary, and she sounded like she’d been crying. “Yes?”
“Hi, it’s Dana Tower. Is Mike there?”
“Oh, Dana, Mike’s not here. He’s in the hospital.”
“What? The hospital?”
Mary Costello was obviously trying to keep her voice from crumbling. “He was in an accident or a fight or something, Dana; we don’t know yet. Somebody found him on Cedar Road in Farmington, down by the swamp. He was on his way over to see his cousin Peter but he never made it.”
“Oh...no...I don’t believe it!” Tears began to well up in Dana’s eyes and she had all she could do to keep her own voice from breaking to pieces in her throat. “What’s wrong with him? You said he was attacked?”
“Like I say, they aren’t sure. He had some cuts and scrapes but they don’t know if he was beat up or if it was a hit and run. Cedar Road is kinda out of the way, so nobody saw it happen. He was just lying beside the road near his bike.” Mary sniffed. “Our parents are at the hospital with him, and I’m here watching my little sister.”
“But he’s gonna be all right, isn’t he?”
Now Mary’s voice finally shattered and Dana could hear her sobbing. “Mike’s in a coma, Dana.”
“A coma? No...he can’t be.” Tears burst free and coursed down Dana’s cheeks, and she wagged her head in utter disbelief. “Mike...he can’t be in a coma.”
“I have to go, Dana,” Mary moaned. “My sister needs me.”
“I’m so sorry,” Dana told her. “I’m so sorry.” And she hung up the phone.
Yes, Dana was sorry. Because it was her fault, wasn’t it? She had sent Mike to see his cousin Peter. It had been all her idea. All her doing.
It couldn’t be an accident. That was just too coincidental.
Mike had been attacked. Dana had no doubt of it. The Shadow Beings knew Mike was her friend. They had been drawn to him because of that, just as they had been drawn to Sophie. The three trick-or-treaters. They had followed Mike, waited until he was alone, and pounced like leopards on their prey.
And she was to blame for it. Dana had pulled Mike into this, and sent him straight into a trap like a moth flying into a spider web—with three hideous spiders dwelling in it.
“Mike, Mike, I’m so sorry! Oh, no. No.” Dana lowered her hot, wet face into her hands.
She lifted her head suddenly, looked over at her dark bedroom window. Dana got up and went to it, pushed it open. She then pushed up the storm window. A gust of frigid arctic air blasted into her cozy warm room, but she didn’t care.
The sidewalk outside her house was empty.
“Will!” Dana called into the night air. “Will!”
No answer. Just a dog barking distantly. Maybe a dog startled by her voice on the wind. Or startled by the trio of cruel spirits it sensed out there in the dark somewhere.
“Will,” Dana sobbed, “you told me you’d be around if I needed you! You told me!” She slid to her knees, lowered her head onto her arms. The icy wind slashed at her hair, making it stir like a ragged flag, but Dana could care less. “Will,” she moaned, “I need you. I need your help...”
Dana’s door opened behind her. She looked up, expecting to see Will there. But of course it wasn’t Will. Dana’s father stepped into the room, saw her kneeling in front of the open window and rushed to squat down by her side.
“Baby, what’s going on? What’s the matter?” He saw her tear-slick face. “We heard you yelling.”
“I called Mike’s house. His sister said he got attacked over in Farmington. He’s in a coma!”
“Oh no...oh baby, I’m so sorry.” Paul Tower pulled his daughter against him protectively, soothingly.
But Dana felt ashamed, as though she didn’t deserve her father’s sympathy, his comfort, his love. She had sent her innocent friend straight into an ambush. Sent him, maybe, to his death. And the only way to atone for what she’d done was to find the Shadow Beings...and destroy them.
She believed Will Garner now. Whatever Will Garner was, human or spirit, she believed him all the way. If only she’d believed him before. If only she hadn’t hesitated.
Paul Tower let his daughter go and moved to shut the window again. “Honey, you’re gonna catch your death.”
Dana had to smile at that, despite her tears. Catch her death. Yes, she thought, maybe I am going to catch my death.
If the Shadow Beings didn’t catch their death first.
9
“Please keep the doors locked,” Anne Tower told her daughter before going off to work, “and don’t let in any strangers for any reason, okay? We don’t know what happened to poor Michael, but there could be some dangerous weirdo out there, and Farmington is just one town over from our town. Okay?”
Dana sat at the kitchen table eating her cereal and unconsciously rubbing at the small spot where her head had been shaved to “drain her brain,” as Mike had kidded her in the hospital. She had been brushing her hair the opposite way she usually did, in order to keep the little bald patch covered. Now a stubble of new growth was sprouting there. “Okay,” Dana said absent-mindedly, absorbed in thought.
Mrs. Tower patted her daughter’s arm as she passed behind her on the way from the room. In the doorway she paused and looked back. “Honey, I hate to leave you today. I know how worried you are about Mike, and I’m worried about you. Are you sure you’ll be all right? I can call in sick at work, you know. Would you like me to do that?”
&
nbsp; Dana stopped rubbing her head. “No, Mom, I’m fine...really.” She gave a brave smile, putting a little shine into it to charm her mother the same way she had always charmed her father as a little girl. It worked now like it always had, and put her mother at ease immediately.
“Okay, then...but call if you need me for anything.”
“Will do. Have a nice day.”
“You too.” Then Mrs. Tower left the room, and moments later Dana heard her car start up. At the sound, Dana immediately rose up from the table and jogged from the kitchen, up the carpeted stairs to her bedroom.
Dana changed from her pajamas into jeans, a T-shirt and a sweater over that. She brushed her hair quickly, just to get it done. This was no date. She had work to do.
She was going to walk on over to the high school and waltz right on into the school library. She knew she would attract attention from the other students, and maybe even teachers, but she would do her best to brush them off. She had to see Sophie, and she knew Sophie had a second period study on Fridays.
Dana went into her parents’ room and found her father’s Red Sox cap, adjusted it to fit her head. She slipped on her funky sunglasses with the round purple lenses. Maybe it would help if she disguised herself a little bit, to keep the other students and teachers from noticing her. Dana checked herself out in her parents’ mirror. Through the sunglasses, she looked dark and purple.
Purple. Was this how the Shadow Beings saw the world? Saw their victims?
Dana shuddered, and took the glasses off. She had another pair with red lenses that Sophie had given her for her last birthday. She’d wear those instead.
She glanced at her wristwatch. She should start walking over to the school soon. But Dana had another thought. It might be a good idea to try calling Sophie first, in case she had stayed home from school like she did on Wednesday. Sophie’s school attendance had never been great even before she met Ethan.
Dana’s intuition was correct. After the second ring, a groggy voice croaked, “Hello?”
Lost in Darkness Page 6
