In the Shadows

by Jill Nolan

  “Mason, please, stop.” He doesn’t slow his speed. He’s just staring past me at Nic. “Mason! Stop!”

  But he doesn’t.

  He just pushes me out of the way. I go flying to the ground, landing hard on my butt. In his partially-vampire state he must have his super strength. When I look up, I see his wings beneath his shirt, ripping the fabric as they grow to their full size.

  My blood turns to ice and my feet feel weighted to the ground as what’s happening starts to sink in. I watch in horror as he grabs Nic by the throat and buries his sharp canine teeth into his neck with an inhuman growl. He tears out a chunk of skin, spitting it to the ground with a spray of blood while throwing Nic down. Blood seeps thickly out of the wound, quickly coating the ground where he lays. Mason lets the blood run down his chin as he watches Nic grasp at his neck to try to close the wound, but it’s too big, the blood is leaving his body too fast.

  There’s screaming. Have they been screaming this whole time? I look around and see Luca, Tom, and Allison paralyzed in fear while the others run for their lives.

  Turning back to Nic, I find that his hands have given up their futile attempt at trying to hold the blood in. Nic’s head lowers to the blood-pooled grass as the light in his eyes goes out.

  No! Everything happened so fast…I realize my hands are covering my mouth, trying to keep in a horrified scream.

  This can’t be happening.

  I reluctantly look to Mason. I see him turn slowly towards the people running to their cars. Realization at what he’s just done seems to hit him. He appears just as shocked as me. He must have lost control.

  How did this happen? How could he do this?

  He looks sat me, gauging my reaction. He must see anger, betrayal, fear, disgust. He looks away quickly with a pained expression.

  All of these people have seen him kill. Worse than that, they all know what he is. I can see him work through what to do next, and I know what he is trying to decide.

  If he should kill them all.

  No, no.

  I have to stop this.

  Mason pulls the remains of his shirt off, releasing his massive wings, fully transforming into the monster I first met, every bit as terrifying and unpredictable.

  “No, Mason! Please, don’t.” I get up off the ground, determined to see no more death tonight. “Mason! Look at me.” He does, but the unsure expression from a moment ago is gone. His face is hardened, devoid of emotion. “Mason, don’t do this, don’t do what you’re thinking. Please.”

  “I have to.” He says this without emotion, like a robot, like he’s numbing himself to the atrocity he’s planning on committing.

  “No, you don’t! Please, Mason! You can’t!” I try to think of the perfect thing to say, the thing that would stop all this from happening. The thing that would make everything better.

  But I can’t think, and I don’t have enough time.

  And maybe no such words exist to stop this, to stop him.

  Mason pushes off the ground, flying towards the people fleeing to their cars.

  "No! Mason!" No, please don’t. Keep going, just leave. Leave! I scream in my head.

  A living nightmare unfolds before me. He descends on Ben who is closest to the cars. He lashes out, throwing him more than twenty feet away where he lands with a thud. No more than a second passes before he's on Luca, biting him just long enough to rip apart his neck.

  The night resounds with the screams of my friends, their blood on the ground, as Mason continues to make his way swiftly through the people who ran for their cars. He moves so fast and with such strength that none of them stand the slightest chance.

  Will he kill me too, this time?

  I search for Allison, spotting her running into the woods with Tom. Mason was already ensuring no one made it to their cars, and he was close enough to block their entrance to the cabin.

  I go after them, desperate to try to save them, if any of us can be saved.

  The screams fade behind me. Worse, they’ve been silenced.

  I am catching up to them when I see him fly over me.

  No.

  No no no no no no no no no no.

  I push myself to run faster, willing that no harm comes to Allison, attempting to telepathically beg Mason to stop this slaughter.

  There’s a scream just ahead and fear twists in my gut. Am I just running towards my own death? Should I be changing course?

  No, no. I have to fight for her. If he wants me dead, he’ll find me no matter which way I run. I have to try to save her.

  I pass Tom’s lifeless body, and push myself harder, towards Allison. I spot her, just up ahead. Mason is with her, one arm around her and the other hand on her neck. I run towards her. She struggles in his arms. I have to make him stop. He has to spare her, at least her.

  He doesn't look at me as I approach from his right. Maybe if I can just get him to look at me... “Mason, please, not—“

  He pulls her neck quickly to the side, and I hear a sickening crack, that crack that I implicitly know is her spinal column breaking. And Allison…she just crumbles, crumbles to the ground, and everything slows down, I can’t get there fast enough, she’s gone, dead, because of me.

  I slide to the ground, then crawl to her, feeling her neck, praying for a pulse.

  I find none.

  But I’m panting and tired and frightened and nervous, and I can’t be sure there’s no pulse.

  I keep trying. I can’t focus. I vaguely realize that I’m whispering her name, over and over, trying to rouse her.

  I look up at Mason, and he meets my gaze, his eyes hard but almost remorseful.

  I don’t understand. I don’t understand how this happened, how he could do this, how we got here, how I let him anywhere near me before, near all these innocent people. I missed it, his savagery and inhumanity. I missed his capability for evil.

  “What are you waiting for then?” I yell. I suddenly feel very detached from it all. “Aren’t you going to kill me too?” I stand and face him, defiance and hatred burning in my eyes. There’s so much I want to yell at him, I want to hurl all the hatred I feel at him, but I don’t have the words. No amount of them could convey how I’m feeling.

  It's more than that though. It's betrayal. It feels like he's already ripped me apart.

  “No,” he says as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “You’re mine.” Somehow that seems worse. I look back up at him, seeing regret in his eyes.

  He holds my gaze as he says, "You will remember nothing of tonight."

  The back of his hand flies toward my face, and everything goes black…

  Chapter 33

  I open my eyes to darkness. Where am I?

  My hands touch grass on either side of me. I become aware of the uneven ground, of sticks and crushed plants beneath my body. Why am I in the middle of the woods?

  No. No. No, please don’t let it have happened.

  I look to my right and see my dead friend lying next to me. My few precious moments of ignorance disappear.

  I scramble over to Allison, tears spilling over my cheeks. I fight the revulsion that I feel when I look at the lifelessness of her and force myself to check her pulse.

  I wait to feel a heartbeat, but I know, I know, she’s gone. The sickly paleness of her, her unfocused eyes, the odd angle she is resting at, even the odor of death that I try to ignore. It hurts to look at her, and before I know it, I’m bawling. My nose quickly clogs, my vision won’t clear for more than a second, but still, I press on, my fingers feeling for a beat that isn’t there. That will never be there again.

  No beat.

  There’s no beat.

  I scoot back and cry harder, shaking violently.

  At some point I get up and start walking back toward my cabin. I check Tom's pulse as I pass his body. Nothing.

  As the cabin comes into sight, so do the rest of the blood-covered bodies. I dread walking through them, seeing their gruesome injuries up close, having to t
ouch their lifeless forms on the slim chance that they're still alive. Why didn't he clean them up? Why leave them here for me to see?

  "Hello?" I croak. No one answers me.

  I force myself to stop at each one of them, feeling for a pulse. I didn't expect any of them to have survived, but the confirmation of that is crushing. Each lifeless face becomes seared into my memory, and shame all but strangles me.

  How could I?

  How could I?

  How could I let this happen?

  How could I ignore his victims? Ignore his warnings? Ignore all the evidence that pointed to this as an inevitability?

  How could I let myself be with a murderer?

  This never would have happened if I hadn't started dating him.

  He should have killed me too.

  I should have died with them.

  I should have died with them.

  I should have died.

  I can barely breathe, my face feels red and swollen, my body shaky. So many negative emotions bounce around inside me, making me feel unhinged.

  I scream hysterically, over and over, in loss, in shame, in rage, in hate.

  I hate Mason, but mostly I hate myself.

  I scream and I scream and I scream.

  I pace as I scream.

  I scream until I fall down.

  I punch the ground, over and over, wishing I was hitting Mason, wishing I was hitting myself, fixating on the physical pain in my knuckles, the physical pain that’s so much easier than the emotional pain.

  I feel hopeless and helpless, and there’s no one there for me. No one I can call. I feel so alone.

  So alone.

  No one can comfort me. There’s no one. And I fear I’ll fall apart without someone, anyone to hold me together. I can feel myself breaking, and it’s more painful than I ever thought it could be.

  I curl up to die, or at least, that’s what feels like will happen.

  ◆◆◆

  Sometime later, when my tears have dried and numbness has begun to descend, I hear a car pull up. I lift my heavy head from the ground, spotting Mason’s car.

  I’m off the ground immediately, running for the house. I lock the door behind me, but I know that won’t keep him out.

  I run upstairs and pull out the weapons that I had hidden away, foolishly thinking I wouldn’t need them. I stick a knife in my pants and knock an arrow in the bow, hoping my aim will be steady enough.

  I can hear Mason banging on the door.

  “Keegan? Keegan! Let me in!”

  I expect to hear him start breaking down the door. Instead, it becomes silent. And the silence is worse.

  I see him through my glass door. He’s climbing up to my balcony.

  Is that door locked?

  Shit! I don’t remember.

  Our eyes meet through the glass, and he looks at the bow in my hand.

  “Keegan, what are you doing?” His voice is muffled, and he looks confused.

  I don’t answer. He’s trying to distract me. I’ll stay focused long enough to shoot him through the heart.

  I watch as he opens the door, but stands off to the side, preventing an arrow from reaching him. As soon as he tries to step through, I let an arrow loose. He steps to the side immediately and the arrow just grazes his arm. He looks down at the wound in shock, like he’s in disbelief that I would have the audacity to actually try to shoot him.

  I grab another arrow and knock it in my bow, panicking because I can see Mason running towards me.

  Hurry, hurry!

  But I run out of time to pull back before Mason’s on me, ripping the bow from my hands. As soon as my hands are empty, I grab my knife. I hold it out, just trying to keep him away from me. He comes closer anyway, and when I slash at him, he grabs my wrist, twisting until the pain forces me to drop the knife.

  I fall to my knees in the process and scoot backwards, ending up in the corner. He's blocking my path to both exits, so there's really nowhere else for me to go. I can't stop the tears that stream down my face at the frustration at failing, at being defeated, at the uncertainty of what he will do to me now.

  My knees are against my chest, and I keep trying to push myself further and further into the corner and away from Mason, hoping for that one in a billion trillion chance that I'll actually go through the wall.

  “Even though you just tried to kill me," he says this through gritted teeth, "I would never hurt you. You know this."

  I scoff, flashing back to all the ways he's already hurt me. How many more people will he kill? How many more friends will I lose? Will my family be next? He threatened them once before. I should have listened better. I put everyone I care about in jeopardy. He was clearly violent, ruthless, psychotic from the start. How did I miss it? It seems so obvious now.

  "Killing my friends is hurting me, you fucking psychopath!" I’m so full of rage and grief and fear, and now I’m crying again, frustrated that I can’t control my emotions.

  "I didn't kill your friends. What happened here, Keegan? You're covered in blood. Are you hurt?" His voice is so soft, trying not to spook me, trying to calm me. I look up at him in disbelief. What happened here? What happened here?! What kind of mind game is he trying to play? What does he think—

  You will remember nothing of tonight.

  Why did he tell me I wouldn’t remember? Did he try to compel me to forget? He said he didn’t have that ability, but he’s lied before. He’s acting like I don’t know what happened, like I didn’t see everything he did…

  Maybe I'm not supposed to remember.

  I start crying more. “Please, just leave me alone,” I scream.

  "Keegan, tell me what happened.”

  Tell him what happened. Like he doesn’t know. “I don’t know.” I manage to get out.

  “What do you mean you don’t know?”

  “I don’t know!” What does he want from me? Is he here because I'm "his”? I feel sick thinking I liked when he said that before. Now it feels dirty. A cold and ruthless possessiveness that I want out of.

  “Okay, okay. Then why are you trying to kill me? Why are you so afraid of me?”

  I don't answer him. I’m not playing his twisted game.

  “This wasn’t me. I swear.” He reaches out, but I flinch away from him. "I don’t know who did this, but I will find out. Let me get you out of here first.”

  No, that can't happen. I find myself just shaking my head.

  “It’s not safe here; I can protect you.”

  No, no, no, no no no no nononononono.

  He reaches toward me, and I try to scoot further back.

  “We need to get out of here. You can either walk, or I can carry you.”

  I don't want him to touch me; I can’t let him touch me. I stand up, staying against the wall, as far away from him as possible. I follow him down the stairs, through the living room, out the door. My only thought is about when I should run.

  I feel a strong revulsion thinking about being trapped in a car with him, and before I can think more about it, I’m running, running in the direction of the closest neighbor. I can get there. I can be faster than him.

  I only get a few feet before Mason grabs me and throws me over his shoulder.

  No! How did he know? Why didn’t I run sooner?

  I kick and punch and elbow and scream, which only causes him to move faster.

  I hear a beep as we near his car. He bends forward, throwing me into his arms, then dumping me in the trunk and slamming it closed.

  He just locked me in the trunk. My breathing becomes even faster, and I struggle not to freak out in the dark and tiny space I’ve just been shoved into.

  My back hurts from the landing. I pull car cables out from underneath me, relieving only some of the pain. I try to force myself to breathe. I can get out of this. I’ve seen this plenty on tv. I just need to hit out a taillight. Or find a latch. I feel around but find nothing that opens the trunk for me. This car is probably too old for that.

  I
feel the car rumble to life and immediately placed in gear. I continue trying to find a latch. When I fail, I search the rest of the trunk, hoping to find some kind of weapon, but there isn't one.

  Just then, he brakes, enough to sending me rolling towards the front of the car. As soon as my weight is on my shoulder, a searing pain hits me. I quickly roll onto my back, as waves of pain emanate from my upper arm.

  I lightly feel around the area, realizing I have a huge cut there. I don't know when it happened or how I didn't notice it before, but it's impossible to not notice it now.

  I have to get out of here.

  I reposition myself and kick at where the taillight is, cursing at how loud it is. I keep kicking, hoping I can finish before he can stop me. I need to do this before he ties me up or knocks me out. I kick and kick, all the while thinking I don’t want to get hit again.

  I feel the car stop. My stomach drops as I hear the sound of a car door. And then the trunk opens.

  I’m in no position to gracefully jump out of the trunk, but that doesn’t stop me from clumsily trying. He catches me immediately and holds me down. I’m terrified of what he’ll do to me.

  “Why are you this scared of me again? I’m sorry to keep you in the trunk, I am, but I’m trying to get you somewhere safe.”

  “I would be safe with the police. Please, please, just let me go.”

  “Whatever did this, the police won’t be able to stop.”

  “Whatever did this, didn’t kill me, so I should be okay. Please.”

  “I’m not taking that chance.” He’s taking me under the guise of protection, when I know it’s ownership. “Try to kick out my break lights again, and I’ll tie you up. Your choice.” He slams the trunk so hard I wonder if it’ll break. Unfortunately for me, it doesn’t.

  I start crying again. I feel overwhelmed by the horribly potent feelings inside me, the self-pity, self-hate, depression, loss, and fear.

  I cling to my one semi-neutral feeling of confusion. My confusion over what Mason’s plan is. At least that’s something I can set my mind to: figuring it out. Something that helps build anger instead of sadness. Fear comes along with it, but I’ll take that over the other, darker emotions inside me right now.