by Blythe Baker
My heart started to beat faster, but I kept my eyes on the shard.
When I touched it, my mind was overtaken by such strong images and emotions that it was like a tsunami crashing inside my head.
I was standing in a dense forest, dark trees all around. But I wasn’t alone.
In front of me was the hulking form of the monster. There were glowing pits for eyes, and its claws were shining in the dim light.
And on either side of me, there were people, standing with me preparing to fight the beast.
“Marianne!”
I blinked, and my mind cleared.
Lucan was looking at me with great concern.
“What happened?” he asked.
“I…saw something,” I said, clutching my head which was now pounding. “A forest. The monster. A huge group of people – ”
I reached out and touched the shard again.
The image returned, though this time it was stronger, sharper. I could almost smell the scent of the pines, feel the dirt beneath my feet.
“What are you seeing?”
The images vanished again. “It’s the same thing,” I said, shaking my head to clear it. “Which is weird…the last few times I’ve touched a crystal ball, I’ve seen something different every time.”
“But it was the same this time?” Lucan asked.
“Yes,” I said. “The same group, all of us standing in front of the monster.”
This time, I lifted the shard out of the velvet-lined drawer and clasped it tightly in my hand.
The image in my mind returned, and I could see the faces of some of those around me. “Lucan, I see you. And Alessa. And Mrs. Bickford…” I shut my eyes, trying to allow the image to focus even further. But it wouldn’t. Faces were blurry all around me as the image wavered slightly, like a blacktop street in the heat of the day. “I don’t know, it’s hard to see.”
“Don’t strain yourself,” Lucan said, laying a hand on my arm.
I opened my eyes, and saw him, returning to reality.
“You’re new to this type of magic. You don’t know how it will affect you,” he said, a note of worry in his silky voice.
“You’re right,” I said. I gently set the shard down on the coffee table in front of me. It glimmered in the lights of my cabin. I sighed. “I think that’s where all this is heading, though.”
“What?” Lucan asked.
“That vision,” I said. “I think that’s where all this is going to end up. Me, the monster, lots of other people for support…”
Lucan’s face paled slightly. “Marianne, we really must be careful moving forward,” he said. “How can you be sure that’s where this is all going?”
“Why else would I keep seeing the same thing over and over?” I asked.
“I have no idea,” Lucan said. “I’m not adept at divination in any regard.”
“That’s the problem, I have no idea either,” I said, shaking my head. “Ugh, why did Rue have to walk in when she did last night?”
“I’m sorry…” Lucan said. “I didn’t realize that you had so little time to talk to Zara.”
“It’s not your fault,” I said heavily. “Well…I guess I should have known this is where this would all end up. Zara told me as much. This monster…it’s like darkness incarnate. Apparently it appears to fight against the Light when it’s chosen.”
“Or perhaps the Light appears right when it’s needed,” Lucan said in a low, gentle voice.
We stared at each other for a few moments, and eventually, he reached over and took my hand in his.
“We’ll get through this,” Lucan said. “I promise. And I’ll be by your side.”
I squeezed his hand. “I know you will be. And I hope you’re right.”
5
The next morning brought a frosty start to the week. Mondays were usually more difficult than others, but this week, it felt particularly difficult.
I slipped on the way to my SUV that morning on a patch of black ice, which caused my coffee to slosh out of my travel mug and all over my glove. Scalded at first, I scrambled to pull my now steaming glove off my hand, but just as soon as I did, the cold chapped my fingers, and I shoved my hand deep into my pocket.
Thoroughly annoyed, I drove through town toward the antique shop, but ended up getting stuck near the cemetery by an accident; someone’s car had slid into the ditch, and two police cars and an ambulance were blocking the street. It took a half hour for them to make a path for me, and by then, I was already late.
I made it to the antique shop twenty minutes after it was supposed to be open, apologizing profusely to Abe Cromwell, who insisted that everything was fine.
I knew better than that, though, since the cold had been making his limp worse.
Thankfully, with the roads as bad as they were, we only had two customers that day, both of whom showed up well after the snowplows had gone through the valley and thoroughly salted the roads.
Just as I was about to close up the store for the day, my cell phone rang.
I was surprised to see that it was Mitch calling me.
“Hey, Mitch,” I said, pinning the phone to my ear with my shoulder as I finished clocking out the register. “What’s going on?”
“Hey, Marianne,” he said.
Immediately, his tone gave me pause. There was an unsettledness to his words, and I could have almost sworn I heard a tremble.
“What’s the matter?” I asked, my heart nervously jumping around inside my chest like a frightened rabbit.
“Um…Look, I’m sorry to bother you, but I really didn’t know where else to turn,” he said.
My eyes narrowed. “It sounds like you’re driving,” I said. “Are you on your way home?”
“Yes – I mean, no,” he said. “I am, but I can’t go back yet. I just – ”
“Mitch, tell me,” I said, my heart starting to beat even more quickly.
“I saw something,” he said. “Today, while I was on shift. And – Marianne, I don’t believe in any of that paranormal stuff, but I just can’t get it out of my mind – ”
“What was it?” I asked.
He hesitated. “Look, I’d feel better discussing this in person,” he said. “I just need to get my head together before I go home.”
“Sure, that’s no problem,” I said. “I’m just closing up the antique shop right now. Where should I meet you?”
“How about on the corner of Pine and Northland Avenue?” Mitch said. “That’s just a few miles from my house.”
“That’s fine, it’s on my way home, too,” I said. “Are you sure you’re alright?”
“I’ll be fine,” he said. “I just…need a minute to calm down. I’ll see you in a few, alright?”
“Yeah, I’ll be there shortly,” I said.
I was grateful for the SUV’s four-wheel drive, which made trudging my way slowly through the frozen roads a little less precarious.
It wasn’t long before I saw Mitch’s truck, parked right on the corner where we’d agreed to meet. It was just outside a popular neighborhood, along a tree-lined road.
It was already dark, and the thick pine trees on either side of the road certainly didn’t let through any of the moonlight that had already appeared in the sky.
The truck was on; the headlights were glaring into the dark, and the steam from the exhaust pipe was billowing up behind the tailgate.
I parked my SUV behind the truck, and hopped out.
I was surprised to see Mitch’s front window open.
Probably rolled it down as soon as he saw me pull up, I thought to myself, my feet crunching on the icy road as I tried not to slip.
Then my boot crunched on something else…something that sounded more like glass.
My heart sank.
The window wasn’t open; it was broken.
Tiny pieces of glass shimmered on the ground like shards of ice. Jagged pieces protruded from the door.
My heart pounded in my ears as I looked through into
the truck…
And a scream escaped me as I stumbled backward.
Mitch was there, alright, with a huge gash across the front of his chest, his head lulling against the headrest.
“Mitch!” I said, hurrying back over. “Mitch, are you okay? Please, open your eyes. Stay with me!”
I didn’t want to touch him out of fear of injuring him worse.
“Mitch, please,” I said, my eyes stinging. “Open your eyes.”
My lips trembled.
He wasn’t waking.
“…Light…”
A shiver racked my spine. I whipped around and saw a blurry, dark shadow standing in the headlights.
The beast.
My knees became weak, and I clung to Mitch’s truck for support. “Y – you did this,” I said, bile rising in my throat. “You killed him.”
“…Yes,” the beast said.
The sound of its voice made goosebumps appear on my arms, making my skin crawl like when hearing nails on a chalkboard.
It took a step toward me, and I slunk back.
“Why?” I asked. “What did he do to you?”
“…Summoned you, of course…” the monster said.
My heart raced, beating so fast it was making me lightheaded.
It had never spoken before. I’d only ever seen its blurred shape, never able to really focus on it.
Now it was like staring at static on a television screen, always shifting and moving, still blurred along the edges.
It towered over the truck, and its claws gleamed from where hands must have been.
“You are the Light,” the monster growled. “And where you are, I must go. For one of us cannot exist without the other.”
My eyes narrowed. “That’s not true,” I said. “You can’t exist with me here. Because I’m the one the forest has chosen.”
“But the forest does not know the power I have,” the monster said. “You and I are alike. Two sides of the same coin.”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I am nothing like you.”
“Oh, really?” the monster hissed.
Suddenly its form morphed into a much smaller being…the same height as me. The white static grew hair the same length as mine, stood the same way I did.
“I am you…just the part that longs to live in the shadows,” the monster said.
“No…” I said, stepping backward. “No!”
The monster laughed in a low, dangerous manner, and suddenly faded into nothingness.
My heart pounded in my chest. It wasn’t gone. I just knew it –
Smash!
The whole hood of Mitch’s truck crumpled like it was nothing more than paper, and huge, gauging claw marks appeared, screeching as they formed, the invisible claws digging through the metal as easily as if it were dirt.
I pulled the cobalt blue wand Zara had given me from my pocket and held it out in front of me, my hand shaking.
“Terminio!” I shouted, glad that I’d been reading through the book that Zara had given me during the lulls at work that day.
A bright green light burst from the end of my wand and slammed into the monster, revealing its position to me more clearly.
“…The Light acquired a wand?” the monster’s voice said right in my ear. “…How interesting.”
I was about to leap out of my own skin, whipping the wand around, this way and that, unsure of where to send another attack.
There was a sharp zing! that sang through the air, and a second later, a hunk of metal burrowed itself in the side of Mitch’s truck…less than a few inches from my shoulder.
It was one of Dante Fain’s silver arrows.
Another growl echoed against the truck and the trees, and the monster reappeared, its head swiveled all the way around like an owl’s.
Dante stepped out of the line of trees on the opposite side of the road, his bow already knocked with another arrow. “I got you now, you miserable, disgusting – ”
The monster snarled, and took off down the street at a speed faster than I could even keep up with, and was soon hidden in the shadows of the night.
Panting, I collapsed against the side of Mitch’s truck.
Dante lowered his bow, but didn’t un-knock his arrow. He shifted his gaze to me, his dark eyes narrowing. “You alright?”
Gasping, I nodded. My mouth was too dry to speak.
His eyes traveled from me up to the shattered window, and finally to the crumpled hood.
“Poor fellow…” he said, striding over to the truck and peering in the window. “Wonder what the monster wanted with him.”
“He wanted me,” I said with a croaking voice. “He said he used him to summon me here.”
Dante’s brow arched, disappearing underneath his wide brimmed hat. “Hmm?”
I straightened up, but still kept close to the side of the truck. Not only did I not want to see Mitch again, but I didn’t think my knees were going to hold me up. I swallowed, though my throat was tight. “Mitch was my friend,” I said. “He was there at the meeting for the paranormals that day you showed up.”
Dante nodded. “I wondered why he looked familiar.”
“He called me and said he saw something strange at work today,” I said. “He asked me to meet him so he could talk about it with someone before he went home to his – ” The words died on my lips…
His wife and kids.
“So he wanted to talk to you?” Dante asked.
I nodded. “He told me he didn’t believe in any of the paranormal things, but he just had to figure out what he saw. And – I think it must’ve been the monster…It must have been following him, and decided to use him to get to me.”
“Why, though?” Dante asked, his gaze sharpening.
I swallowed hard, wondering how much I should really share with him. I may have confronted the monster in his presence, but he still didn’t know who, or what, I was.
And the longer I kept it that way, the longer I was likely to keep my head, too.
“It’s after me,” I said finally. As much as I hated to admit it outright to him, telling him the truth was still definitely the better option. “I wish it wasn’t, but that’s what it told me.”
“It…spoke to you?” Dante asked.
I nodded. “Yeah…”
“Well, that’s a first…” Dante said.
“I thought the same thing…” I said.
Dante ran his fingers over his chin. “I’m sorry, Marianne…” he said.
“Why are you apologizing?” I asked.
“Because if I had ended this monster sooner, you wouldn’t be in this mess,” he said.
If only he knew the truth…I thought.
“Don’t blame yourself,” I said.
Dante’s eyes moved down to the wand I still clasped tightly in my hand. “What’s that?” he asked.
I quickly hid it behind my back. “Something I was working on at work.” Not a complete lie, but definitely not the full truth, either.
Sometimes I hated being a faery. The lies came too easily now.
He didn’t push the matter. “Well…you have my word, Marianne, that I will end this. That monster will be lying dead at my feet. That much I promise you.”
I thought back to the image I’d seen when I’d touched the piece of crystal Lucan and I found in the clock. Had I seen him in that group? I couldn’t remember…
“Just be careful…” I said. “The monster isn’t afraid to kill to get what it wants now.”
“I’m well aware,” Dante said, sparing Mitch a glance, his face hardening. “And I won’t let it happen again. Next time, I won’t be too late.”
6
“I will never forgive myself,” Lucan said. “I should have been there with you.”
I looked over at him, my heart aching. We were in his car. Afraid of driving after everything I’d just gone through, I’d called Lucan, who hadn’t hesitated to come out and meet me.
“It’s not your fault,” I said. “How could you h
ave known that anything like that was going to happen?”
Lucan gritted his teeth, his eyes glued to the road. We were having to drive extremely slow; it had started to snow.
“I’m sorry about Mitch…” Lucan said.
Tears welled up in my eyes. “Me, too…”
Lucan slammed his fist into the steering wheel, making me jump. “Why is this monster insistent on causing so much destruction?” he asked. “And it spoke to you? Why now, of all times?”
“…I think Mitch was a warning,” I said, looking over at him. “It could have easily killed me. You saw the front of the truck, how mangled it was…”
“Why would it waste its time?” Lucan asked.
“I don’t know,” I said, a shiver running down my spine. “But something it said is unsettling…”
“What?” Lucan asked.
“It said that we were like two sides of the same coin, but it was just the darker part of me that longs to live in the shadows,” I said.
Lucan shook his head. “That isn’t you. I believe we all have our own struggles and regrets, but that doesn’t mean you’re evil, Marianne.”
“I know,” I said. “It’s just…it sort of transformed itself into something that looked like me. It’s almost like…it’s like the opposite of me. Like an anti-faery or something.”
Lucan’s eyes widened. “That’s a rather frightening prospect…” he said.
“I know the stories about the faeries that were dark and tricksters,” I said. “Do you think they were all just manifestations of the darkness?”
“That’s a good theory,” Lucan said.
He took the next left, and the police station appeared at the end of the street.
My heart jumped in my throat. “Whatever it was, we need to put an end to it. Now.”
Putting in a phone call to Sheriff Garland just wasn’t going to cut it anymore. Not when this was becoming personal. If the monster was going to keep on its spree, then I needed to find a way to defeat it, sooner rather than later. And the only way I could do that was to get support from as many people as possible.
And for now, starting with Sheriff Garland and letting him know about Mitch was a good place to begin.
“Maybe we should tell him the truth…” I said, looking over at Lucan.