Shadeland (The Ethereal Crossings, 1)

by D.L. Miles

  Chapter 6

  I sat in front of the apartment building and stared up at it, taking in its concrete exterior coated in windows and balconies. Charlie was about to have her day ruined and she was probably going to ask why I didn’t tell her sooner that her friend was dead; like say, when I asked her for the address. Would she really understand why I did it? Doubtful, but a possibility at the very least.

  With a heavy sigh I opened my door and headed inside. As I climbed into the elevator I swore I saw the same black Charger that had parked behind me earlier pass by but it quickly disappeared as the doors closed. The ride upstairs went far too fast and before I knew it I was knocking on Charlie’s door. There was no answer.

  I knocked again, this time calling out.

  “Hey,” I said, “Charlie, it’s me.” Nothing. It wasn’t like her not to answer the door so I tried turning the knob. The door swung open and displayed a dark, empty hallway. “Charlie?” Fear rose in my stomach; something was wrong.

  I walked down towards her living room after shutting the front door, the temperature so low I could see my breath come out in white puffs. I expected to see her sitting on her couch, headphones in and bouncing to the beat. Instead I found her lying on the floor, motionless. Running to her side I touched her neck, she was cold, eyes wide open. I couldn’t feel a pulse. Unsure of what to do, all I managed to say was a weak, “Charlie?”

  I knew she was dead, but some part of me just told me she would wake up soon. The hopeful part of me that said I wasn’t seeing one of the nicest girls I had ever met on the floor, breathless and frozen. I had only talked to her twenty minutes ago, the familiar fear in my stomach giving me a flashback to my childhood; a different body suddenly in front of me. I heard a siren in the close distance and I noticed the phone in her hand; the number on the screen read 911. I reached for the phone but then heard movement behind me.

  Spinning around I came face to face with a cloaked figure. They moved like fog towards me, fading into the air almost, like smoke. They made no noise, so what had I heard? The edges of the figure dissipated into the air just like my breath. They weren’t human, that much I knew. I stood up to face them, or at least defend myself; not like I knew how to protect myself against what looked like smoke. As they approached me we were both startled by the front door being kicked open.

  “Down!” a man yelled and I ducked just after seeing him raise a gun. He fired at the smoke, the shot so loud I had to cover my ears. I opened my eyes and looked up to see the figure was gone, leaving me alone with the man with the gun. My eyes couldn’t focus on what was in front of me and I fell backwards next to Charlie. When the ringing in my ears stopped I could tell the sirens were just outside the building. He said a gruff, “Come here.”

  The man ran to me and grabbed my arm, dragging me to my front door. I was too surprised and tired to react.

  “Keys,” he said, setting a pair of aviator sunglasses on his head.

  “What?” I asked. I had never been so lost in my life, never so…disoriented.

  “Keys,” he yelled and turned his head as footsteps were heard in the staircase. “Unless you want the cops to think you killed her.”

  I thought for a moment and quickly shoved him aside to open my door. The second it unlocked he pushed me inside and slammed it shut. His back was against the door and he pulled me into his chest, covering my mouth. I tried to tell him to get off, but it was useless. He pressed my head into his chest; I only came up to his shoulder.

  “Shut up,” he warned, tightening his grip on my mouth as he locked my arms down with his other, gun toting arm.

  Just outside my doorway I could hear police thundering through to Charlie’s apartment. My heart was racing, just like it had when I had broken into the crime scene. I wasn’t sure if I should be afraid of the man though he had technically saved me from whatever killed Charlie, and then he helped me not get arrested. But he was now trapping me in what was soon to be my own apartment.

  I could smell the leather of his jacket just underneath the smell of his skin; which was a little like dirt and steel blended together. I thought of his sunglasses and it made me feel like I knew him. I just had no idea from where.

  I don’t know how long we stood there, listening to the commotion outside as police searched Charlie’s apartment for the killer. Finally, there was a knock at the door. The man released me from his arms and turned me to face him.

  “Don’t make a sound, okay?” he said and I simply nodded, only then realising who he was. He was the man that had watched me talk with Luke, or from his point of view, myself, in the alleyway next to the police station. He had a gun, so did that mean he was a cop? Because he sure didn’t dress like one. Detective would be more likely, but then again, we wouldn’t be in this situation, hiding from the police.

  The man opened the door once his gun was tucked into the back of his pants. I was about to come around to face the officer with him but he shoved his hand in my face, pushing me backwards. I took that as a “stay-back-and-leave-this-to-me” message. Not knowing what else to do, I let him take the lead.

  “Do you live here?” the officer asked. They were not the ones from earlier.

  “No,” the man replied, “just visiting my girlfriend. Is something going on?” How did he manage to sound so innocent? I was a fairly good liar when the need arose, but he was spectacular. He had just shot off a gun in my direction and even I found myself believing his act.

  “There’s been an incident next door,” the officer said, “did you hear anything? See anyone go in or out of the apartment?”

  “Incident? No, nothing.” I was a little jealous at how well he could do this. “We’ve been in bed all morning, I was just on my way out. Was it…was it Charlie?” My eyes widened a little; he knew Charlie?

  “I’m sorry,” the officer said, “we can’t say anything at this time.”

  “Oh…all right,” the man looked down the hallway to the bathroom, “I don’t think she’ll take this very well.” The officer said goodbye and left without further prodding. The man shut my door and turned to face me.

  Instinctively, I took a step back, only to remember there was a wall there. My eyes glanced at the kitchen where a set of knives sat neatly on the countertop and then back to him.

  “You’d never make it,” he said, blue eyes piercing into me, apparently reading my every thought. I didn’t say anything and he crossed his arms at me. Now what? I stared into his eyes and he stared right back, unblinking. For some reason he looked away first, into the kitchen. “We need to stay here for a bit.” He turned and went into the living room.

  Instead of following him, I walked right out the front door. Bet he wasn’t expecting that. I shut and locked the deadbolt behind me, making sure that he wouldn’t be able to get out without a key. It crossed my mind that he would kick the door down, like he had Charlie’s, but there were cops just next door; he couldn’t do it without raising suspicion.

  The doorknob rattled and he banged on the door, frustrated. Trying not to look out of place I glanced into Charlie’s apartment, already bordered off by yellow tape; all the officers inside. The door sat on the floor, the man had completely broken it down, right off its hinges. I raised my eyebrows at that; it was impressive.

  As I walked down the hallway to the elevator I kept my head down, it wouldn’t go well if anyone recognized me. I pretended to check my phone for messages when I spotted the two detectives from the first crime scene.

  “Another one? Already?” the female detective asked.

  “Yep,” the male said, “that means the kid didn’t do it.” He pointed at the uniformed officer behind her. “Radio the station to let the kid go, but make sure he knows he’s still a suspect. They could be working together.” The officer nodded and did as he was told. They?

  When the elevator doors closed I smiled wide. Luke was going free, so I wouldn’t have to do an
ything else to try and help him. Soon it was going to be behind us and we could return to a nice, semi-normal life where smoke didn’t try to kill me, Luke wasn’t in jail and crazed gunmen didn’t try to lock me in my apartment. Yet he was locked in my apartment and it was only a matter of time till he found his way to the fire escape. With that thought in mind, I ran to my car the second the doors reopened, bumping into a woman on the way.

  My heart sank in my chest when I saw my car. I had parked in the far corner of the lot, next to a line of trees on the passenger side and nothing else on the left. Unfortunately behind it was sitting a black Charger, just an inch away from my trunk; I had no way of getting out, completely blocked in.

  So it seemed the black Charger belonged to the man currently in the apartment. Perfect. Rather than waiting around for him to get me, I started towards the police station. It was within walking distance anyway, I would get Luke and then figure out what to do then.

  “Hey!”

  I turned to see the man in the leather jacket pointing at me. I started running in the opposite direction without another thought, hoping he wouldn’t chase after me. I hoped wrong. He began to run towards me, yelling, “Stop!”

  I ran down an alley, trying to lose the man using a shortcut only locals knew about. Hopping the three foot fence with a little help from a box it wasn’t long before I made it to the police station.

  Out of breath I checked behind me. He was there; he was actually there just behind me. The man was coming up fast but stopped as a cop car drove by; a dead stop in fact. I watched as he eyed the police cruiser passing by. He put his hands on his hips and shook his head towards the ground; he didn’t want to confront me so close the police station. The man looked back up at me and I shrugged at him, my lips twitching to hold back a superior smile. I turned and walked into the station, knowing I would most likely regret this sooner or later. Most likely sooner, if I knew any better.

  Just as I opened the door Luke was standing at the receptionist’s desk asking to get something else to wear.

  “So what,” he said, “I just have to walk back in my boxers?”

  I hadn’t thought about that. He was arrested wearing only stripped blue boxers and a white tank top; but I thought they would have given him something to wear at least. Officer Bunny was going to answer him when she saw me and pointed.

  “Look, you’re girlfriends here,” she said, not impressed that he was being released so soon, “she can drive you home.”

  “Girlfri—“ he started and turned to see me. He seemed incredibly relieved and I felt it in his hug. I lightly hugged him back. “I’ve never been so happy to see you in my life.”

  “Yeah,” I said, “me to. I’ve got some…news.” He let me go and looked into my eyes.

  “Bad news?”

  I nodded and the grateful sparkle in his eye disappeared.

  I sat with Luke on the front steps of the police station and explained what had happened, speaking quietly so nobody overheard about finding Charlie and seeing the smoke figure. We were waiting for a taxi to arrive; I didn’t want to risk running into the gunman on our way home. Luke had asked why I didn’t drive down but I only told him I had felt like the walk. He wasn’t impressed, most likely resisting the urge to ask me why I didn’t anticipate his need for pants.

  “So the only reason I’ve been released is because Charlie’s dead?” he asked eventually, pain making his voice crack.

  “It’s not your fault,” I said.

  “I should’ve seen it,” he said, “I should’ve seen it with Alice and with Charlie and even Alex!”

  “It’s not your fault,” I repeated.

  “No, but I should’ve…seen it,”—he waved his hands by his head—“I’m an Eidolon, this is what I’m supposed to do Liv.”

  “Do they have any real evidence that you did it?”

  “No, nothing. But they think I’m partners with that guy that took Rosa…so I just…I don’t know.”

  That was a blessing at least; them not having any real evidence. A taxi pulled up to the curb and we climbed in. Luke told the driver our address and he started driving, not seeming to care that Luke had no pants on. At first I was going to tell him to go somewhere else, the gunman knew where we lived, but he wouldn’t risk anything with the cops patrolling the area.

  That raised another question though; did the detectives know that Charlie lived right next door to their original suspect? They must know by now, but if they didn’t, they were about to find out.

  The taxi pulled up in front of our place. I paid him with the money I thankfully had in my pocket, forgotten from another time. Luke quickly went into the building and pressed the elevator button. I checked the area around and didn’t see a Charger anywhere, or any sign of the gunman. That was either a good thing, because he was gone, or a bad thing because he was waiting upstairs. I guessed I was going to find out soon enough.

  The elevator doors opened and we found we were facing the two detectives. They didn’t seem surprised to see Luke standing in front of them though. Without a word they walked past us, the male detective moved two fingers to point at his eyes before shoving them in Luke’s direction. Luke swallowed loud enough for me to hear and we went up without a word.

  My heart was pumping when we came to our door. Was he in there, waiting? I opened it to find an empty apartment, quiet and dark, it felt it was safe to go in. Luke immediately went to his room for a change of clothes and I went to mine. I checked my closet first to make sure nobody was there, and then moved on to Luke’s.

  “What are you doing?” he asked as he put on a fresh shirt.

  “Nothing,” I said. I was going to keep the gunman to myself, along with breaking into a crime scene. Luke didn’t need to know any of it, not if I wanted our lives to go back to how they were. This would remain a secret, for him. I smiled at him. “Nothing at all.”

  “I’ve been awake all night,” Luke said, “I’m going to lay down for a bit.” I nodded and left his room, shutting the door behind me. Peeling my sweater off, I tossed it into my room before walking into the bathroom. I flipped the light on and splashed my face with some cool water. As I looked into the mirror I felt a primal fear squeeze my stomach.

  The shower curtain was all the way across; I always made sure to keep it open, and I made sure Luke did too. It was a pet peeve, or paranoia as Luke would say, of mine from years of being scared by my brothers; a closed curtain was easy to hide behind. That way, when it was closed, like now, I knew somebody was hiding behind it. Slowly, I reached for the door.

  “Please, don’t do that,” came a voice as the curtains swung open, revealing the man in the leather jacket bearing his silver pistol. He stepped out of the shower and wiggled his finger. “Come here.” I sighed and did as I was told. I would have been much more comfortable locked in a tiny room with a possible killer if I had my sweater on and not just a far too tight halter top. Maybe.

  He took a pair of handcuffs out of his back pocket and locked my left hand to the fake, center drawer on the counter. Obviously I was not a threat to him, otherwise he would have cuffed me to something a little more sturdy.

  “I have to say,” he started as I tugged on my restraints, noticing the wood was beginning to chip around the handle, “I wasn’t expecting you to run.” I shrugged at him, looking into the mirror rather than making eye contact again. He suddenly grabbed my face and forced me to look into his eyes. “You’re welcome, by the way, for saving you earlier. You were about to join your neighbour on the floor if it wasn’t for me.” He had me there.

  “Thanks,” I said looking back down as he released me, “I guess. Who are you?”

  “No no no,” he said, waving his gun back and forth, “I’ll ask the questions first. What were you doing in the Stafoff house? Your boyfriend forget something after he killed the lovers?” He leaned against the far wall and I followed him with my eyes. He must have felt my a
nger at his comment.

  Instead of answering, I yanked on the cuffs with one hand, wincing as they slid on my wrist. The weak handle ripped right off of the wood. The man looked surprised but didn’t rush to stop me. I moved to the door, not really running; I knew he wasn’t going to hurt me, not now anyway. He was investigating just like I was, in a strange and illegal way.

  “What are you doing?” he said, grabbing my wrist and spinning me around. He pressed the gun to my head but it didn’t scare me and he seemed to notice that. He put it away, glancing away from me every so often. “Look, I’m trying to find the killer and everything points to your boyfriend.”

  “No it doesn’t,” I said looking down. “Just…go away. Luke just wants a normal life.”

  As much as I would like to help the man catch a killer, I needed to think of Luke. He didn’t need this right now, not after everything that had happened with the revolution. Luke had always wanted a normal, human life and I was going to make sure that’s what he got.

  The man took off the handcuffs and leaned in close to my face, forcing me to back up against the door. I did give myself credit for not looking away this time though.

  “Too bad,” he whispered, “because you’re already involved.” He set my cellphone onto the bathroom counter and moved me out of the way to open the door. “I’ll be in touch soon.” He walked to the front door and left me in my bathroom, wondering what to do.