From Light to Dark

by Irene L. Pynn

  “Do you know what he did?” Vul’s voice had gone back to its earlier level of distress. “Maybe he should have died! Maybe he killed someone. Maybe he’s going to kill us now!”

  “I didn’t kill anyone.”

  Vul jerked away from him again, and she said, “Why should we believe you?”

  Caer’s hand tapped his side urgently, but this time he ignored her.

  “Because you know the truth,” he said, his own voice rising.

  “What truth?”

  “How many people do you know who have been changed? People who came back from the Shade, totally different people than they were when they went in! How many people have you heard burning at the Pyre? People who only questioned whether light was a bad thing. How many friends have you lost to the Shade or the Pyre? How much of yourself?” He hoped his brief observation of the similarities between Light World and Dark World was accurate. If he was right, they had much more in common than he had ever realized.

  “How do you….” Vul gasped. “How do you know so much about me?”

  “Because it’s my story, too!” He didn’t regret shouting. If people were going to come, they would have been here after Vul’s first outburst. For seventeen years, Eref had watched terrible things happen to the people he loved. And for seventeen years, he had denied how much it hurt. Right now, Vul’s denial and fear reminded him of himself.

  “Vul, Eref, we have to be quiet,” Caer whispered. “The guards.”

  “I’m not a criminal,” Eref said, trying to lower his voice. “It was a mistake. One day, during a special session in the auditorium of the Learning—that’s our school—my friend Balor and I decided to flicker the lights. We just wanted to spook everyone a little. Have some fun. You’ve got to understand that, in Light World, there’s such a great prejudice against any shadows that most underage Light People are fascinated by them. It’s like we’re trying to prove that we’re strong enough to deal with darkness.”

  “That’s what the kids here do with light and fire,” Vul said, her voice filled with sadness.

  “Yes,” Caer agreed. “They play at the Pyre, looking for embers that are still burning after the last execution.”

  “Well, my friend Balor and I were the same. We sneaked out of the special session and found the breaker box for the auditorium lights. Balor and I pulled the switch.”

  “And they sentenced you for that?” Vul sounded incredulous.

  “No. They didn’t sentence me for that.”

  “Then what did you do?”

  “That’s all I did. But something went wrong. The lights flickered, and it was dark all around us. Balor and I stood in the darkness for a moment, just seeing how it felt. Then there was a loud pop. I looked out the window and saw that the whole world was dark. The lights had been turned off for all of Light World.”

  “Oh, no,” Caer said.

  “I can’t imagine Dark World filled with light.” Vul’s voice was a horrified mutter.

  “I don’t know how it happened,” Eref said. “Some kind of malfunction. We didn’t mean to cause such trouble. The police came for us after they got the lights back on. Everyone was upset. Balor’s birthday was the next day, so he went to the Center and came back changed. My birthday isn’t for another two months, so I went to the End.”

  “Horrible,” Vul said. “Light People are horrible.”

  “Dark People too,” Caer said. “Remember what happened to Edad?”

  “Caer....” Vul said, her voice a pleading warning.

  “I’m not going to talk about it. But you know what I mean. It’s not just Light People who are paranoid and horrible. The same thing goes on in our world.”

  An awkward silence followed, during which Eref tried to look strong. He knew he probably just looked blind and confused.

  After a minute, Caer spoke. “Should we go try to get a look at the guards?”

  “What?” Vul made a sharp movement. “With him? They have flamethrowers, Caer.”

  “Just from a distance,” she said. “How else can we find out what they’re planning? They could be going door-to-door for all we know. I think we should just sneak over and listen for a little bit.”

  “I agree,” Eref said.

  “Yeah,” Vul said, “so they don’t have to go too far to find us. We’ll walk right into their hands.”

  “You couldn’t wait to go there half an hour ago.” Caer sounded annoyed.

  “Before I knew you were mixed up in it!”

  “We’ll hide in the bushes and listen to them talking. Just for a few minutes,” Caer said. “Unless they know I have him, we only need to conceal Eref, anyway.”

  “I don’t like this,” Vul said. “He’s making you do stupid things.”

  Eref cleared his throat. This plan didn’t make him feel very safe, either, but he couldn’t see what else to do. “Is there another option?”

  “We have to do it,” Caer said. “You don’t have to come if you don’t want to, Vul.”

  Vul’s voice dropped to a tragic whisper. “You’re going to leave me alone? Tonight?”

  Eref waited.

  “No. I won’t leave you alone. I’ll stay with you all night and I’ll keep you safe,” she said.

  A painful silence filled the room, and Eref had the feeling it had nothing to do with his presence in Dark World. He wished he could leave the room to give them privacy, but he couldn’t see his way out. This was the kind of empty promise all friends made to each other on the night before someone’s eighteenth birthday. There was no real safety, but no one wanted to hear that before the Eighteener Entrance.

  “I’ll go,” Vul said finally. “We have to. There’s no other way.”

  Caer gave a small cry of relief. “Thank you, Vul! I promise it’ll be just for a minute, just long enough to find out what they know and what they’re planning.”

  “We’ll have to be careful with him, though. It’s dangerous.”

  “Of course. We’ll leave tonight.”

  Outside, something rustled in the bushes.

  “What was that?”

  “Someone’s coming,” Vul said.

  “Someone’s out there?”

  The sound of feet crunching on the grass seemed to be very near. “We need to go now,” Eref said.

  “But—”

  “No time anymore!” Vul hissed. “That could be a guard! Come on. We’ll leave through the back door.”

  Vul pushed Eref through the room and stopped him at one end. The footsteps outside grew louder. “Caer, come on. We’re leaving.”

  Caer seemed to be hesitating. “Who’s out there?”

  “We don’t know!” Vul’s strong hand clenched his wrist and tugged him away as she whispered back into the room. “It could be anyone! But if it’s a guard and he sees the Light Person in here, we’re all going to get arrested. Hurry!”

  At the distinct sound of footsteps before the front door, Eref’s jaw tightened. With his complete blindness, he couldn’t protect Caer and Vul.

  Or himself.

  Someone tried the front door handle. “Yes,” Caer whispered finally. “Let’s go.”

  Four fuzzy hands led Eref out the back door and into the moist, grassy land. He took a deep breath and smelled flowers, leaves, and water. Birds chirped all around him. The air felt warm and wet.

  “Wait,” Caer said, her voice shaking. “I forgot—”

  “Caer, don’t go back in there!”

  Eref stood still, listening helplessly as Caer opened the back door again.

  “Atc! I love you, sweetie! There’s food in the cupboard. Can you get it on your own? Don’t tell them where we’ve gone. I’ll see you soon, and I’ll make you that new collar you said you—”

  She slammed the door. Her breath sounded rapid and heavy.

  “Run,” Caer said. “Now.”

  They ran. Vul set the pace in front, while Caer hurried behind them. Eref followed the sound of their breath and their feet squelching in the muddy ground. Th
ey leapt over roots, ducked under branches, and slipped through mud. Finally, they stopped. Caer and Vul pulled what felt like an enormous wet leaf over the three of them.

  “What happened?” Vul panted.

  “I saw someone. He was walking in. He looked… so… horrifying.”

  “Who? A guard?”

  “No,” Caer said. She sounded terrified, and a little bewildered. “A Light Person.”

  Chapter Five

  Dark Home

  This had to be the place. Balor looked around the apartment, which comprised just two circular rooms hollowed out beneath a tree. All of the homes in Dark World appeared to have been constructed beneath trees.

  Five small wooden planks and a tree branch handle served as the front door. It didn’t lock, so Balor had let himself in.

  The front room opened like a black hole, reminding Balor of the initial fall from Light World. He adjusted his glasses to improve his vision in the enveloping shadows.

  Brown roots snaked through the walls and ceiling. They poked wooden fingers through lop-sided cabinets. Pillowy furniture with cushions that looked soft enough to smother a person crowded the room.

  Directly across from where he stood, another door hung ajar. Balor walked toward it.

  This next room was just as crowded as the first. Balor squinted at the large bed and chair that seemed to battle for dominance over the tiny space.

  How people in Dark World could live without any structure was beyond Balor. He thought of his own bedroom: square, with stone chairs and a modest bed. That was how people with respect for order lived. No roots running randomly through the walls. No oversized chairs that barely fit the room.

  “What arrre you doing in herrre?”

  Balor whirled around and stumbled, sinking backward into the soft bed. Crouched on the floor, covered in long blue fur, was some kind of animal.

  “What the hell?”

  “You aren’t a friend of Caerrr’s. Why arre you herre?”

  “What?”

  The strange blue animal slipped onto the bed with Balor, who struggled against the sheets to back up against the wall. The plushy mattress undulated beneath him, slowing his movements.

  “I” the animal said, placing a heavy emphasis on the word as if it were the king of the land, “am Atc.” Its body was long like a snake’s, but fat. Its face, though covered in blue fur, looked unsettlingly like a person’s.

  “What the hell is an atc?”

  Now the thing crawled onto his lap, its silver eyes peering into Balor’s.

  “Atc’s my name. What’s yourrrs?”

  “I’m looking for someone.” Balor stood up, knocking the snake thing to the floor.

  “Ooof! Look somewhere else, thennn. It’s my dinnnerrr time.”

  The atc slid its long body into the first room, up the wall, and over the roots. It opened a cabinet with its mouth.

  This was a pet? Balor despised animals, in Light World or Dark World. They were always so needy for attention, pretending they wanted love when they really wanted food.

  He stood up from the bed and scratched an itch at the back of his head. “Where is your owner?”

  “Nonnne of yourrr business, intruderrr,” The atc called from the first room. With a sickening jerk of its head, it pulled a can out of the cabinet and popped it open with its pointed teeth.

  “It’s too damn dark to see in here,” Balor muttered. Shadows taunted him from every corner. Caer could be hiding just inches away. Eref could be hiding, too.

  The atc licked food from the can while it sat perched on the wall. “Yourrr glasses don’t worrrk forrrr you?”

  He didn’t have time to let this animal humiliate him. The thing could probably see Caer crouched in one of the corners of the house, hiding Eref under a blanket. All three were probably laughing at him right now. He strained harder to see, and a dull pain stung in his head.

  “Can’t you see anythinnng, Light Perrrrson?”

  “Eref! Face me!” Fury pounded in Balor’s veins. He grabbed the oversized chair and flung it into the front room.

  “What arrre you doinnng?”

  Balor darted in circles through the tiny bedroom, grabbing tables, boxes, and books, and throwing them all on the bed. Everything he moved just gave way to new shadows. It was like drowning.

  Atc slid into the room and looked up at Balor. “Stop that, intruderrr!”

  “I need light!” Things crashed and cracked as Balor hurled them around the room. “Give me Caer!”

  “You’rrre insane,” Atc growled. “Get out.”

  “I came here for someone, and I’m leaving with him. Caer has the person I need.”

  “Caerrr says that we shouldn’t hate the Light People for who they arrre,” Atc said. “But she doesn’t know you. Arrre all people in yourrr worrrld out of theirrr minds?”

  Balor’s head pounded. It was too dark to focus. Everywhere he looked, he saw sickening shadows. They mocked him, threatened him. And the snake thing’s growling voice grated on his ears.

  “Get out of my mistress’s house, intruderrr.”

  “Shut up,” he said. His head ached. His heart banged against his chest. Where was Eref? Balor felt his enemy’s presence here. He was so close. He could finish this now and go home.

  Balor ripped the sheets from the bed. He would find Eref and confront him. He would tell him what his words at the End had done. They had turned Light People against Balor. But Balor hadn’t done anything wrong.

  He tore a picture from the wall and heard it smash on the floor. He would tell Eref how angry he felt inside about…something.

  He couldn’t remember clearly anymore. He would take Eref’s throat in his hands....

  He would kill Eref.

  The pain in Balor’s head increased until he couldn’t take it anymore.

  “I said get out! You’rrre not welcome herrre!” Atc leapt on Balor’s face and bit his cheek.

  Anger found its outlet. Balor put both hands around Atc’s throat and squeezed. Atc’s face paled. His eyes turned purple. Tiny, strangled noises came from the animal’s open mouth.

  Balor pulled the choking Atc to his own lips. He thought of Eref. He thought of the End. He thought of the darkness. He thought of the pain in his head. So strong. So overpowering.

  There was nothing to think about. Nothing to do but cause pain. Transfer this throbbing, burning, horror to someone else. Open the valve. Release the pressure. Balor bit. Atc struggled. It was over in a moment.

  Balor dropped Atc’s headless body to the floor. He chomped down, chewed, and swallowed. Give pain to release pain.

  And then….

  It was a miracle. All around him, bright light, as bright as any day in Light World, filled the room. The pain in his head eased. His anger fell away.

  He could see.

  Balor pulled off his dark-vision glasses and looked around. Caer’s house had a low ceiling through which grass and vines grew. The walls were made of clay, and hard-packed sand carpeted the floor. Smashed glass and broken wood lay all around the floor and on the bed.

  Balor walked into the front room, where he’d thrown the chair. The light followed him there. This room was grander than the bedroom but still would have been too small for a Light Person. In Light World, people liked wide open spaces. They lived on the tops of large stones with no roofs. Here, people lived in caves under trees.

  Several cabinets lined the walls. One of the doors stood open, and a can of food lay on the floor. Balor picked it up and read Tinghept Tuck In, Food For the Finicky Tinghept. Uninterested, he closed the cabinet door and set the can on the wooden counter next to the sink.

  He looked around the room. A stuffed bookshelf, a swollen couch. Tiny bugs crawled across the roots that ran like serpents through the foundations of the house.

  Nobody was here.

  No….

  Darkness flashed in Balor’s eyes. Someone was here. Light returned, and he stumbled backward into the kitchen counter. “Hello?”
>
  Silence.

  Balor blinked. For a second he couldn’t remember why he had jumped through the hole in the first place. He wished were back home.

  He shook his head, forcing himself to focus. He wouldn’t go back before he’d killed Eref. Not if it took him the rest of his life.

  He felt dizzier by the minute. It seemed the longer the light glowed from inside him, the weaker he felt. He leaned on the counter for support.

  Darkness flashed behind his eyes again, and he heard someone’s voice—a faraway memory. “Come on, Balor! I’ve found something!”

  His head burned. Then the light returned, and the room fell quiet again.

  “What’s happening to me?”

  His body shuddered under the effort to stay upright. The light grew stronger. It blazed all around him. Light from Light World. Light from home.

  The Dark World house faded from his eyes.

  “Come on, Balor! I think I’ve found some of shade!” Eref waved Balor over to where he squatted in the sand, his small sneakers coated with red clay and dirt.

  “No way. Where?”

  “Right over here! Climb down a few feet. It’s just under this stone.”

  Balor peered over the rocky ledge. There it was. About the size of a fingernail, hidden under an overhanging rock, there was a dark space where the light didn’t shine. “Woah, a real shade! Have you touched it? Are you sure it’s safe?”

  “Of course it is. Come on. Give me your hand.” Eref reached up.

  He drew back. “I don’t know, Eref. In the Learning they say—”

  “Who cares what they say? It’s really awesome. Come on. Touch the shadow before the Governors send someone to shine it out.”

  “What does it feel like?”

  Eref smiled. It was the reassuring look that one friend can give another to instill confidence like magic. “Here, you tell me.”

  Sucking up all his courage, Balor stepped down and slid his hand under the rock, into the darkness of the shadow. “It’s so cold.”

  “I know. Isn’t it great?” Eref beamed.