“I've got a question for you,” I say.
“Okay.”
“No humans can see you, because you're in the Umbra, right?”
“Uh huh.”
“But they can see me, unless I fade into the shadows.”
“Yeah. Is this going somewhere?”
“You think it might be possible for me to disappear like you, since I can interact with the Umbra?”
She looks at me as we walk. I can see she's trying to work it out in her head.
“Well, I guess it should be possible, but ...”
“But what?”
“I have no idea how you would do it. The other problem is, I wouldn't know if you were invisible or not, since I can see you all the time.”
“Okay, I was just wondering.”
“I mean, I suppose the longer you remain with us in the Umbra, you might begin to ‘disappear’ in the human world, but you're so different, we just don't know, besides, you being able to be visible might come in handy down the line.”
“I think I may have to change my hair, so I won't be spotted by the police or someone who knows me,” I say.
“Probably a good idea until we figure out this…stuff.”
“Yeah.” I say, before reaching out and taking her hand.
She squeezes my hand gently and I start to focus on the task ahead. The closer we get to my house, the slower I begin to walk and the faster my heart begins to beat. Kateri obviously notices and she stops, turning to look at me. I watch the colors swirling in her eyes, and it's almost hypnotizing.
“Listen, I can go in and get your things. You can stay outside.”
“No,” I say, trying to be tougher than I feel, “I need to go.”
She nods. “Okay, come on.”
As soon as the house comes into view, I almost have a change of heart, but I force myself to keep walking.
“You think you can stream up to your window?” Kateri asks as we cross the street.
“I think so.”
I look both ways, searching for anyone who might know me from the neighborhood, before I slip into the alley next to my house. As soon as I step into the shadows, I fade and stream up to the fire escape landing just outside my window. A split-second later, Kateri joins me. I open the window and step inside, and instantly I feel an overwhelming sense of loss. My room looks exactly as it did on Monday when I left for school; my bed unmade, dirty clothes scattered on the floor, a half-empty water glass on my nightstand. Kateri closes the window and steps up next to me, standing silently at my side.
“Come on, we should get your stuff and get back as soon as we can,” she says, trying to gently prod me into action.
I nod as I feel the sorrow returning the longer I stand and look at things. Walking over to the closet, I open the door and pick up a small black suitcase, while Kateri pulls some clothes out of my drawers, laying them on the bed for me to go through. I take most of them, tossing them haphazardly into the bag. After a few minutes, I have everything I can think of I want to take. I look over at my X-Box, games, books, CDs, and everything else that used to be so important to me. I'd give them all up for just one more minute with my mom.
“Is that all you want?” Kateri asks.
“There's a couple pictures downstairs,” I say as we head toward the stairs.
I freeze in my tracks when I hear the front door opening. For the briefest moment, I expect my mother's voice to come drifting up from the landing, but then reality sets in and Kateri pulls me back into my room. We step into a shadow that stretches from the window to the door, cast by the neighboring building. A minute later, Amanda walks into my room. I can see dark circles around her bloodshot eyes. She stands just inside the door, her head down and then she begins to cry before collapsing on my bed.
I feel my heart breaking with every sob. Kateri takes my hand and pulls me closer. I lean into her and my own tears begin flowing. It seems wrong to be standing here watching this private, intimate moment, and what's worse, I could ease her pain, tell her I'm okay, but I can't.
“Come on,” Kateri says, as she starts pulling me toward the door.
We're both faded of course, so Amanda can't hear or see us. Luckily, the shadow extends into the hallway and just around the corner. It's no problem for Kateri, but as soon as I step back into the light, I'll be visible again. Reluctantly, I follow Kateri into the hallway. She pulls me into a hug, holding me tight as I try to stem the tears. A few minutes later, I look into her eyes and smile grimly.
“I need something from my mother's room,” I say quietly.
“Okay. Just be quiet. You're going to be visible in there, remember that.”
I nod and move quickly into my mom's bedroom, slipping around the corner as quietly as I can. As soon as I'm inside, the smell of my mother's perfume, the sight of her clothes, and the vase of wilted flowers instantly overwhelm me. I stumble and collapse. Kateri rushes in and catches me before I hit the floor. She holds me tightly against her, trying to muffle the sound of my crying, but it's a futile effort. Ever so slowly, she drags me toward the small shadow thrown by my mother's bed. As soon as we step into it, I fade, and my cries turn to wails of agony as the full impact of my loss hits me head on again. I can still hear Amanda, only a few feet away, as she continues to cry out. Kateri sits on the floor with me, simply holding me against her as I cry, and cry, and cry.
Suddenly, Kateri becomes instantly tense and alert.
“What?” I ask, between sobs.
“Something's here,” she replies, the colors in her eyes, dark and stormy…and then I feel it. A cold dark sensation that chills me to the bone.
“Demon?” I ask, sitting up and wiping my face.
“Demon.”
“Shit.”
“You can say that again,” Kateri replies. “Stay here.”
She gets up and moves slowly to the door as she draws her ever present sword, spinning it once with her wrist before pressing herself up against the wall. Ignoring her instructions, I crawl across the bed and move to her side. She looks at me and shakes her head.
“Take my knife, since you're not going to listen to me,” she says, frowning.
I slip the knife out of her belt and lean in a little closer.
“Do you see it?” I ask.
She shakes her head.
“Not yet, but—” she starts to say before stopping abruptly. “It's coming up the stairs.”
“Amanda,” I say, a little louder than I intend.
“Damn it!” she replies.
At that moment, the beast reaches the top of the stairs. I peer around Kateri. This monster looks nothing like either of the other demons I've encountered. It's not human, but it doesn't look like the devil either. This one's more animalistic; walking low to the ground on all fours with dark black fur covering it from its head to its long sweeping tail. I can hear it sniffing and snorting as it pauses on the landing. Long curved teeth line both its upper and lower jaws.
“Will it attack her?” I whisper.
Kateri nods. “It might. Once it's in the Umbra, it has to wait a certain amount time before it can enter the human realm. That's why we dispatch teams to stop them before they can slip through.”
“We have to stop it. We can't let it hurt Amanda.”
She nods again. “Don’t worry. This one's going down.”
Without another word, she steps out into the hall, her sword at the ready. “Hey!” she says loudly.
The demon whips its head around and snarls at her. I can see now that it looks like some sort of steroid enhanced wolf, with a little wolverine thrown in. For a second it turns back and looks toward my old room, before returning its attention to Kateri.
Taking the initiative, she charges at the beast, swinging her sword at its front legs. It dodges to the right and then backs up toward the open doorway where Amanda is laying on my bed. Kateri moves again, bringing her blade down at its chest this time. The weapon strikes home, but it barely seems to faze the thing. It r
ushes at Kateri, snapping at her sword arm. She fends off the attack, but the demon throws its entire weight behind its attack, slamming into her chest. She stumbles and falls backwards toward me.
Without even thinking, I charge out of the room, leaping over Kateri and plunging the knife into the wolf's back. It roars, and whips around to face me. I step back, leaving the shadows and knocking a vase off a small table set against the wall. The ceramic decoration shatters into a hundred pieces on the hardwood floor. I slip to the side, keeping my distance from its claws and mouthful of dagger like teeth. I'm out of the shadows now and back in the world of light. I can still see the thing, but it can't seem to see me, as it looks left and right frantically searching. A second later, Kateri pierces the beast through the back of the head, the end of her sword emerging out of its mouth. It stands stock still for a moment, before collapsing.
I smile at Kateri, but she’s looking at something over my shoulder, and something is terribly wrong.
“Eve?”
I spin around, coming face to face with Amanda.
Chapter Nineteen
“Crap!” Kateri says, grumbling under her breath.
“Shut up,” I say, and Amanda looks at me, stunned.
“What?” she asks, her hands trembling.
“Nothing. Sorry,” I reply.
The next thing I know, Amanda is hugging me, her arms around my neck as she cries into my shoulder. I return the embrace before looking back at Kateri. She just shakes her head.
K ~ Father's going to love this.
E ~ I'll handle Father.
After a few moments, Amanda releases me, taking a small step back.
“Where have you been? What happened to you? Are you okay?”
“Amanda, slow down a little. We need to talk,” I say, reaching out and taking her hand, gently leading her back into my bedroom. “You should probably sit down.”
She lowers herself onto the edge of the bed, refusing to release my hand.
“People only say ‘you should sit down’ when they're going to say something bad,” Amanda says.
“It's not bad ... or not all bad, maybe shocking would be a better word.”
She nods and looks up at me.
“So, are you okay?”
“I'm fine,” I reply, as I sit down next to her. “Well, I'm as good as can be expected.”
“What happened to you? You just disappeared from school. Everyone's looking for you. You've been missing for four days.”
I nod and sigh. “I know, and it's a really long story, Amanda, but you have to promise me something before I tell you.”
K ~ This is not a good idea.
E ~ Probably not.
“Okay. I promise.”
“You need to promise me as your best friend, okay?”
She frowns at me. “See what I mean? You're going to tell me something bad.”
I sigh. “Just promise me as my best friend.”
“I promise,” she says, and I tilt my head to the side, “as your best friend. Now, what the hell is going on.”
“You can't tell anyone that you saw me, okay? And you really can't tell them anything that I'm going to tell you.”
“Now you're seriously starting to freak me out.”
“Give it a few minutes, Manda, and you're really going to freak out.”
Kateri moves over to the corner of the room by the window and leans against the wall. I wish I had told Amanda about the voices and the shadows I used to see, because it would make this so much easier.
“Okay, it all started about a year ago. I never told anyone about this, not even ... not even my mom,” I say, and she reaches out and takes my hand.
“Told her what?”
“I used to hear voices and see things,” I say, not exactly sure how to tell her about everything and not sound like a crazy person.
“You heard voices?”
“I know how this sounds, but you have to hear it all, okay?”
She nods and looks at me with more than a bit of skepticism. “Keep going.”
“So, I used to hear voices and I would see things, people or something out of the corner of my eye, and then they would disappear. I couldn't tell anyone, not you, not my mom ... because I'd sound like…”
“Like you do right now. Crazy?”
I sigh and sit for a moment looking at her.
“I'm going to show you something, and then we can talk again.”
“Eve. I'm your best friend but come on, you sound a little
para—” she says before I interrupt her by standing, stepping into the shadow in the corner, and instantly vanishing.
She jumps off the bed and spins around, whipping her head from side to side.
“Eve! What the fuck? What is this?”
“I told you, this was a bad idea. Even I thought you sounded like a crazy person,” Kateri says.
I shake my head. “I know. That's why she has to see it, at least as much as she can.” I step out of the shadows again and reappear.
When I move forward, Amanda takes a small step back. I can see the fear in her eyes.
“What the fuck is going on?” she asks, a slight tremor in her voice.
“I'm sorry, but I needed to show you. Now I can tell you the rest,” I say, extending my hand.
The wait for her to take it is excruciating. I honestly wouldn't blame her for running away, but I know her better than that. Finally, she places her hand gently in mine and we sit down on the bed again.
“Is this like one of your books?” she asks, looking over at my collection of young adult novels.
“Yeah, sorta. Are you ready for the rest of it?”
A smile begins to build on her face, and she nods.
“Hit me.”
For the next hour, I tell her everything, or almost everything. I tell her about fading, streaming, Shayds, the Umbra and the Abyss, my fights with the demons, and finally, about my father and how I'm some sort of half-human, half-Shayd hybrid with special powers. To be honest, it still sounds like I'm half-human / half-crazy. I leave out some details, like Kateri, but she figures it out, like I knew she would.
“Kateri's one of them, isn't she?” she asks.
I nod and smile, and she can see the answer on my face.
“She's right here,” I say.
E ~ Show her.
K ~ Come on, give me a break.
E ~ Just do it.
Kateri sighs before walking over and poking Amanda in the side. She squeals and scoots a little closer to me on the bed.
“Shit. Are you kidding me?”
“That's her.”
“Son of a bitch,” she mutters, looking in Kateri's direction.
“Yeah, but there's more.”
“What else could there be?”
“There's a reason you can't tell anyone about any of this, besides the fact that they would probably lock you up in the loony bin.”
I know I have to tell her, but I don't even want to say the words. I know every syllable will feel like a knife to my heart, but she needs to know.
“The plane crash,” I say, and Amanda goes instantly pale, her eyes filling with tears. I force myself to stay calm as I continue, “was no accident.”
“Jesus,” she utters.
I nod slowly, and she squeezes my fingers.
“They'll never find any evidence that it was anything but mechanical failure, or pilot error, but we know better. They did it to try and stop me, and they're not done yet. Kateri and I just killed a demon in the hall out there. I think it was coming here to kill me, but you were here instead.”
Her mouth drops open.
“That's why I can't come back, why I have to stay hidden. Anyone I'm with is in danger, so I need cut all ties, at least until things calm down.”
“When are they going to calm down?”
“I don't know,” I say, shaking my head, “but you need to stay away from here. It's not safe.”
“Will I see you again?”
&nbs
p; I look over at Kateri. She frowns at me.
“I don't know, maybe. I'm not going to make a promise I can't keep, so I have to say, I don't know.”
She nods and smiles weakly. “I understand ... I don't get all of it, but I understand…I think.”
“Thanks Amanda.”
“Can I say one thing?”
“Sure,” I reply a little tentatively.
“Not to you, to Kateri.”
I look over at her and she shrugs her shoulders before stepping over in front of Amanda.
“She's right in front of you,” I say.
Amanda stands slowly and looks directly at nothing in particular.
“You better take care of her, or I swear to God, I'll find you and kick your ass, invisible or not,” she says, as a few tears trickle down her face.
Kateri looks at me, and I swear there are a few tears in her eyes as well.
“Tell her, I will.”
“She says, she will.”
Amanda wipes the tears away and turns to look at me again.
“She better,” she says before throwing her arms around me again.
We hold each other for a few minutes, before she finally releases me and takes a small step back.
“Well, I guess this is goodbye,” she says, sadly.
“Let's just say, see you later.”
She nods and smiles. “That sounds better. Um ... I don't know if you know or not, but your mother's memorial is tomorrow.”
I take a deep breath and hold it, trying to keep from crying. I feel a little ashamed that I didn't know.
“Oh,” I say, wiping my face with my hand. “Where?”
“Down at St. Edwards. It's at eleven.”
“Thanks.”
She hugs me one more time, before turning and picking up a picture of us at Pointe State Park in Pittsburgh off my nightstand. A second later, she's gone, and I feel the loss all over again. I turn to Kateri and she pulls me to her.
“I was wrong,” she says quietly.
“About what?”
“It was a good idea, you needed this, with her.”
“Thanks,” I say, before burying my face in her shoulder and sobbing quietly for a few minutes.
All Things in the Shadows Page 17