Alchemy of Shadows

by David L Burkhead

  We trooped out to the parking lot and climbed into the Green Monster. Jeff took the seat next to me and Becki the seat behind him.

  I drove to the hospital and parked in the garage, not even looking for a spot in the free lot. The elderly woman at the front desk gave us directions to Darryl’s room.

  The hospital had moved Darryl to a private room. He reclined in the bed with the head end elevated to about a thirty-degree angle. The television was on, but the sound low. I cast a quick glance in its direction and saw a football game playing. I didn’t recognize the teams.

  I took a good look at Darryl and finally let my gaze fall on what I had been studiously avoiding—the dark-lensed glasses covering his eyes.

  Darryl noticed my stare and laughed. “Yeah, I know. Sunglasses indoors right? Room’s not even that bright. But apparently whatever hit me has left my eyes really sensitive.”

  I tried to keep my face still but I could not keep my own eyes from narrowing at Darryl’s words.

  “So what happened?” Jeff asked. “Have they figured it out?”

  “Coach Ata was by earlier today and cleared it up. Looks like somebody spiked my drink at the party. Police were here just before you came. They’re trying to figure out who drugged my tea.”

  “At a party?” I found myself asking. “Didn’t you collapse at your apartment.”

  “So I’m told,” Darryl said. “I don’t remember. Some kind of delayed reaction, I guess. Took time to get into my bloodstream or something.”

  “Hmm,” was all I said.

  Becki pulled up a chair next to Darryl’s bed and sat down. She patted the back of his left hand. IV tubes ran to Darryl’s elbow on that side.

  “I’m just glad you’re better,” she said. “We were all worried about you.”

  “Eh, I’m tough,” Darryl said. “Take a lot more than that to kill me.”

  Jeff grabbed another chair, reversed it, and sat with his arms crossed over its back. “So, what happens now? You off the team?”

  “Coach Ata said that’s up to the doctors,” Darryl said. “And the doctors want to do more tests. Thing is, I feel fine. I could hit the practice field today; play if the coach would let me.”

  Becki raised a finger and wiggled it from side to side. “Uh uh. You do what the doctors say.”

  “Yes, mother,” Darryl said. I couldn’t see his eyes behind the dark lenses but I could hear their roll in his voice.

  “I’m going to get coffee,” I said. “Anybody else want some?”

  “Please,” Becki said. “Two sugars, one cream.”

  “Black,” Jeff said.

  “Three sugars,” Darryl said.

  I stopped, my hand on the doorknob.

  “Kidding!” Darryl said. “The doctors would have a cow.”

  I nodded and opened the door.

  I had suspected given his reaction, or the lack of it, to the elixir. The dark glasses, keeping light away from his eyes, seemed to confirm it.

  Shadows.

  Definitely time for me to leave.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Darryl did not react to me when I brought the coffee back to Jeff and Becki. I had long since learned that the Shadows were individuals. It was entirely possible that whatever Shadow rode Darryl did not recognize me. So I decided not to draw attention to myself. I’d return Jeff and Becki to the apartment then I’d quietly slip away.

  I sat in the corner sipped my own coffee. When coffee first came to Europe, I thought it vile stuff. But I investigated it as an alternative to my own elixirs to increase vitality and alertness. It worked—not as well, but without the long preparation my elixirs required. The addictive nature was a small price to pay. I’ve been a fan ever since.

  Jeff chatted with Darryl. Becki sat in a chair next to me. A nurse came in to check on Darryl, made some notes and, retreated from the room, apparently satisfied.

  I set my coffee on the table next to me and noticed a light pressure on my left arm. I glanced down and saw Becki’s hand sitting there. How long had that been there?

  I looked up to meet her smile.

  “Thank you,” she said. “You’ve been a good friend.”

  “Happy to help,” I said.

  She squeezed my forearm and let her hand drop back to her own lap.

  I ran my hand over the point of my arm where her hand had rested. I suppressed a smile at the pleasant tingle her touch had left behind.

  “I...probably should be heading back,” I said. “Do you need me to come pick you up later?”

  Had those words just come out of my mouth? I didn’t need to be making promises. I needed to be leaving.

  “Jeff?” Becki said.

  “Hm?”

  “Adrian’s heading back. I think I’ll go with him. You?”

  “I’ll hang here for a while,” Jeff said.

  “Will you need a ride back later?”

  “Coach Ata called earlier,” Darryl broke in before Jeff could reply. “He said he’d be coming by. I’m sure you could catch a ride back with him.”

  “There you go,” Becki said.

  I nodded. “Good enough.”

  I held the door for Becki. We walked side by side to the parking garage and I unlocked the passenger door for her.

  “I really appreciate this, Adrian,” Becki said as I slid into the driver’s seat.

  “Not a problem,” I said.

  I chewed on my lip as we drove back toward the apartment. Seeing Darryl reminded me how very little I knew about the Shadows despite centuries of running from them. They could take refuge inside a person, hiding from the light that seemed the one thing that hurt them. I did not know how they did that, or how much control they had over the person they rode. That they had some control, I had no doubt. But there must be some limits or they would already have taken control of the world.

  I hit the brake.

  A shadow had taken Darryl and I had left Jeff alone with it.

  “Adrian?”

  “I’m going to feel really stupid in the morning.” I said. I made a U-turn and headed back to the hospital.

  “What’s going on?” Becki asked.

  “Nothing, I hope,” I said. I shook my head. I couldn’t explain but I had to come up with something.

  “Adrian?”

  “I just had a crazy thought,” I said, making up a story as I went. “My grandfather had a heart attack. I mean, he was old so it was no great surprise. But when he recovered from the heart attack he had the same light sensitivity Darryl’s complaining of. Turns out it was a really weird allergy. Maybe that’s what’s affecting Darryl.”

  Becki’s expression said she thought I was borderline crazy. Maybe she was right. “You’re saying he’s allergic to light?”

  “No. That would be silly.” I shook my head, thinking fast. “But allergies can affect the eyes, make them sensitive to light. In Pawpaw’s case it was one of the medicines they were treating him with. First he had the light sensitivity, then he went into shock. They caught it, and he was okay, but it was close. I just want to make sure the doctors here know about it, just in case.”

  In retrospect, that was a horrible lie. Too complex. Full of holes you could drive a string of barges through.

  Becki just nodded.

  #

  When we returned to Darryl’s room, we found a large man standing by Darryl’s bed. Seen from behind, it took me a moment to recognize him as the same man who had been on the field during football practice, the coach.

  Jeff looked up. “Becki? Adrian? What are you doing back?”

  “I remembered my grandfather had a light sensitivity after his first heart attack. I wanted to talk to the doctors, make sure they knew about that.”

  The story sounded less plausible every time I said it.

  The big man turned and looked at us through mirrored sunglasses.

  “Becki, how nice to see you. And this is?”

  “Coach,” Jeff said, “this is a friend. Adrian Jaeger”.

  �
�Jaeger?” The coach smiled. “That means ‘hunter’ in German, does it not?”

  I shrugged. I knew quite well what the name meant, but the youth I was pretending to be likely would not.

  He held out his hand. “Aleki Ata.”

  I did not hesitate. A Shadow riding a human had to depart its human host to touch me. I took the hand.

  “Pleased to meet you.”

  My mind raced because Shadows clearly rode the coach and at least one more team member. Had they known somehow that I was coming or was it just chance that I encountered a nest doing whatever it was they do?

  I tried to release Ata’s hand but he held tight. He jerked me close, so that his mouth was near my right ear.

  “What a pleasant surprise...Johann.”

  My eyes opened wide. I pulled back. The lights went out. I tugged but Ata still held my hand fast in his grip. By the dim light spilling around the curtains I could see Ata reaching for his glasses.

  I’d left the flare in my right pocket. Stupid. I could not reach it with my right hand secure in Ata’s mitt.

  I am not a fighter. One does not live as long as I have by getting into fights all the time. I avoid fights. But neither does one live as long as I have without being able to fight at need. I lifted my left leg then stomped forward into Ata’s knee. I then raked the edge of my shoe down his shin. As his leg started to fold, I turned, twisting my right hand up. I continued to pivot and drove the heel of my left palm into Ata’s wrist. His grip, loosened in reaction to my kick, popped loose from my hand. I drove my hand down into the pocket of my pants and dove aside, hoping to avoid the tendrils of shadow that I knew were protruding from his eye sockets.

  I succeeded. My hand wrapped around the magnesium flare, withdrew.

  I struck the flare. Light blazed forth. Tendrils of shadow recoiled, not just from me. Some, I saw, reached for Becki but those too recoiled. Becki stood, her eyes wide for just a moment before her left arm rose to shield her eyes. Her right arm hung limp at her side. On the far side of the room Jeff stood, his mouth agape, his face cast into stark relief in the actinic light. Darryl still lay on the bed, his arms across his eyes, his mouth open in a soundless scream.

  I had to think fast. The flare only gave me a few seconds of light. My first instinct was to run, get away before the thing riding Ata could recover. But the Shadows kept their existence as secret as I kept mine. That meant Jeff and Becki…

  “Run!” I shouted.

  Neither Jeff nor Becki moved.

  I dove onto the bed, reaching across to grab the front of Jeff’s shirt. I pulled. It was like pulling on a tree, firmly rooted in a mountain.

  “Run,” I said again.

  Jeff stumbled, his arm still shielding his eyes but he started to round the bed in the general direction of the door.

  I pushed myself off the bed but pulled up short. Darryl had grabbed the edge of my sleeve. I jerked away, harder. Fabric tore. The sleeve came off in Darryl’s hand. I whirled and placed a hand on Becki’s shoulder, turning her toward the door.

  “Run,” I said yet again. I moved my hand from her shoulder to the small of her back as I chivvied her toward the door. We reached it just ahead of Jeff.

  The fluorescent lights of the hallway provided what seemed a dim illumination after the brilliance of my flare. Bright purple after-images from the flare rendered me nearly blind but I could hear people shouting, see others running toward us.

  I turned in the direction I remembered for the exit and pushed Jeff and Becki in that direction. I did not have time to let my eyes recover naturally.

  I pulled the vial of elixir from where it hid behind my belt. The lesser elixir would serve for this purpose but even so, I dared not waste it. When I confirmed Jeff and Becki were moving, I twisted off the cap of the vial. I tipped it to moisten a finger tip, then flicked a few drops into first my left eye then my right. My vision cleared immediately.

  Hospital personnel were running for the room we had just vacated. Strangely, nobody was paying any attention to us. I moistened my finger with the elixir again and flicked some into Becki’s eyes, then into Jeff’s. They both stopped as their own vision cleared.

  “We’ve got to get out of here,” I said.

  “What...what was that?” Becki said.

  “Later,” I said. “We’ve got to get out of here.”

  I grabbed her by the arm and pulled. She followed me.

  Jeff hung back. “But...”

  “Later,” I said again. “I’ll explain everything later. Right now, we’ve got to get out of here.”

  The light leaking past the door to Darryl’s room died as the flare within burned itself out.

  “Now!” I said.

  Becki came with me. Jeff followed.

  The lights in the hall went off. Gloom filled the hallway, broken only from the light leaking from open doorways along its length.

  “Scheisse!” I whispered.

  Door. Where was the door?

  I found the door opening button and pressed. Nothing. The door itself resisted my push. I let go of Becki’s arm and placed my shoulder against the door to shove. It creaked partially open, then stopped. Panic rose in me. Even without power those doors should open.

  I heard a shout behind me, not quite a scream, then silence.

  “Johann?” Ata’s voice.

  Jeff rammed the other leaf of the door. It burst open. His left hand twisted in the front of my shirt while his right grabbed Becki by the arm. He pulled us through the doorway. I stumbled for a moment before my feet caught the rhythm and I ran after him.

  “What the hell is going on?” Jeff asked.

  “Get to the car. I’ll explain.”

  He let go of me. I glanced over at Becki. Her right arm still hung at her side. Jeff still held her left, not quite pulling her along.

  “Jeff,” she said, “let go. I can—”

  Her right foot slid out from under her. She started to fall. Jeff pivoted, moving with an agility I never would have imagined in someone as big as he was. His left arm caught her, just under the shoulder and he set her back on her feet.

  I leaned back hard, coming to a stop before colliding with the two of them.

  We stood for a moment, panting.

  “Let’s get out of here,” I said. “I’ll explain everything. But we’ve got to get out of here, away from that thing, now.”

  “What thing?” Becki said.

  I waved at her immobile arm. “I’ll explain later," I said. "Let’s go now.”

  Without further argument they followed me to the car.

  #

  The car started. With the way the lights had been going off at the hospital, and the emergency lighting failing to start as it should have, I had more than half-expected to find the car dead too. The garage gate even opened for us.

  This was bad. Ata, or the shadow riding him, had recognized me, not the role I was playing, but me. I was out of time.

  “What was that?” Becki asked from the passenger seat.

  I sighed. “I call them Shadows. What they are, where they’re from, I don’t know. They’ve been chasing me for a long time, a long time indeed.”

  “Oh, come on,” Becki said. “How long can it have been?”

  I pulled up to a stoplight and took the opportunity to turn and look at her. From the corner of my eye, I could see Jeff in the back, his eyes wide, his face pale.

  I met Becki’s eyes. “More than two hundred and fifty years.”

  “You’re crazy.”

  I smiled. The light turned green and I accelerated easily from the stop.

  “Perhaps,” I said. “But I’m also a lot older than I look.”

  “You know what’s crazy?” Jeff’s voice held a hysterical edge. “Crazy is that darkness coming out of Coach’s eyes, and out of Derek’s. Crazy is the lights in the hospital. Crazy is...” Silence for a moment. “Crazy is this whole...whole...thing.”

  “And, yes,” I admitted, “Crazy is thinking I am centuries ol
d. But crazy is often true.”

  I tapped my fingers on the steering wheel while I thought.

  “I was born in the Year of Our Lord twelve hundred and fifteen in a village...well, you could not know the name. Dortmund has grown to swallow where it once stood. So, call it Dortmund, Germany. My parents named me Johann. At twelve my parents arranged an apprenticeship for me, all in secret because he had taken holy orders at the time, to an alchemist of some repute. At that time, he was going by the name Albertus Magnus, but he had many names over the centuries.”

  “You’re trying to claim you’re over eight hundred years old?” The disbelief in Becki’s voice was no surprise.

  I shrugged. “Believe me or not, it’s the truth.”

  “I don’t suppose you could offer any proof.”

  “Like what? A birth certificate? There might be a church record of my birth, somewhere in Germany, but all that would tell you is that a boy child named Johann was born on a particular date to a certain family. It would not prove that I am that child.”

  I glanced at Becki and smiled.

  “When we get back to the apartment, I’ll show you some things. They might make the rest of the story more believable.”

  Becki turned her left hand palm-up. “Then go on.”

  “I first encountered the...things I call Shadows in seventeen forty, when I was living in Maryland Colony. It...did not go well. I ended up fleeing into the frontier for the next seventy-some years.”

  I pulled into the apartment parking lot, selecting a spot as near the entrance as I could find.

  “We can continue this inside, while I finish packing.”

  Becki unfastened her seat belt. “Packing? You leaving?”

  “They’ve found me again. I can’t stay.”

  “So you’re just going to run?”

  Before I could answer, she opened the door and stepped out of the car.

  I opened my own door and jumped out.

  “I don’t have a choice,” I said. “I don’t have any way to fight these things. Light seems to hurt them, drive them back, but they just return.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  “So.” Becki stood, left hand on her hip, right still hanging at her side, belligerence radiating from her. “You wanted to show us something?”