All Shadows Eve

by Alana (Siegel) Mag

  Jade’s lips parted in surprise when she saw Zander getting off a bar stool. She hadn't expected to see him. She had been thinking about the information Nic shared and her brother. In a single glance, they shared mutual sadness.

  Nic leaned over and asked, “Who's the guy?” He recognized the look of desperation on the guy’s face.

  “My ex-boyfriend.” Feeding the re-discovered rush of adrenaline from living dangerously in the Land of the Free, he placed his hand on the small of Jade’s back. The look of agony on the guy’s face sent a thrill through Nic’s body. If he was going to live on the wild side, then he was going to have a little fun, and nothing excited him like a healthy competition for a girl.

  Zander paused mid-step. Was he having a nightmare? There was another guy whispering in Jade's ear.

  Jade pulled her eyes from Zander and headed over to Bobby. To Zander’s dismay, Nic followed.

  It felt like the world opened and swallowed Zander whole. Had she moved on that quickly? His heart was broken. He could no longer watch. He headed out the door.

  Rayley followed her brother, but she recognized the pain in his eyes. Nothing she said would console him. Only time would heal his tender wounds. She would leave him to go home alone and check on him in the morning; she could always catch a ride home with someone.

  As she stood at the corner watching Zander open his car door, something strange in her peripheral vision caught her eye. With her brows furrowed, she turned her head in time to see half a dozen eye floaters cross into the alley next to McCallister’s.

  She blinked her eyes to clear them. She would have chalked up the strange spots to the weather when she heard shuffling around the corner, like shoes on pavement. The cold air nipped at her cheeks, but curiosity pulled her toward the alley.

  She moved slowly. Were the spots something more than met the eye? She took another step forward. Footsteps heading in her direction grew louder. She sucked in a breath. What was she about to meet face-to-face?

  “Stay away!” Trip yelled as he pushed past her. He turned into the alley and seconds later the doorman from Murphy’s Music Hall and Lorenzo joined him. Rayley hesitated.

  “This isn’t a safe crossing spot,” Lorenzo said. Who was he talking to? What’s a safe crossing zone? Rayley heard a scuffle break out. She felt her chest constrict, but something compelled her to see what was happening.

  She took a steadying breath, but when she turned into the alley, Trip, Lorenzo, and the doorman were alone. They seemed surprised to see Rayley.

  Lorenzo quickly smoothed his features. “Hello, Rayley. Did I see Zander leave the bar in a huff? You better check on him. I’ll call you a ride.” He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and walked her back to the bar. The confluence of events rendered Rayley speechless as he led her inside.

  * * * *

  Chapter Seven: The Thanksgiving Eve When He’s Dating Someone Else

  Two Years After Law School

  Age: 26

  Jade's phone alarm sounded like a siren in Nic’s dark and silent studio apartment. Nic groaned from the pillow next to her. She reached across him and ripped open the curtain on the window, soaking the tiny room in sunlight.

  “Keep 'em closed,” Nic grumbled. He picked up Jade's pillow and flung it at her. Jade had slipped quickly into this new life with Nic. She had been hungry for answers, and Nic was right there to provide them between soft murmurs and kisses.

  “I have to go,” Jade said. She stared at Nic’s lean sexy torso. It was marked with red scars and dulled wounds. The tattoo of a purple flower with clustered, bell-shaped blooms dripping with a metallic substance climbed his right side. She knew the tattoo continued down his arm hidden under a pillow.

  Jade remembered asking him about the tattoo the first night they were together. As he had held her in his arms and had traced her face with kisses, he had said, “It’s the symbol for Mercury, a gang on the Isle of the Lost.”

  “A gang of convicts?” Jade had pulled back from Nic in surprise. She had thought of the nursery rhyme that her mother used to sing at bedtime.

  Quicksilver and foxglove snipped, poured and mixed in a brew

  For American convicts in 1832

  He had puffed out his chest and had said, “We are proud to be descendants of the Rogues who were forced to swallow a cocktail of foxglove and quicksilver.”

  Jade had laid her head against his bare chest. “What is it like on the other side?”

  Nic had ran his fingers through Jade’s hair and had brushed his lips against her forehead as he had painted a solemn picture of his life as second class citizen. “I lived in Zone Concrete. The Parallel Military Intelligence managed the city like a corrupt war zone. It was overcrowded and dirty. People didn’t have much. Sometimes we needed to steal food and supplies to survive. Not because we were criminals. We were hungry.

  “Life in Zone Concrete could be soul-sucking, but being a part of Mercury was like having the protection of brothers, especially when the PMI bore down on us.”

  “What did they do?”

  He had brushed the inside of her arm with his lips until he had reached her wrist. He had glanced up with hatred in his eyes—not for her, but for the PMI that tortured him and his brothers. “They chained us up like animals, forcing us to wear hydro cuffs.”

  “What are hydro cuffs?”

  “A metal restraint laced with a tube of liquid that presses against the culprit’s skin and neutralizes the Rogue’s abilities to turn into a shadow, robbing them of their unique identity and forcing them to the will of the PMI officer.”

  Jade had shivered, and Nic had smiled at her. “It wasn’t all bad. Every once in a while, there were beautiful sunsets. Oranges, pinks and reds painted the sky and lit up the rips between the Isle of the Lost and the Land of the Free.”

  Jade felt like she had been whisked away from Woodpine during those first few months. She spent as many hours as possible asking him questions and learning about the Isle of the Lost. She learned that Nic and her mother weren’t the only Rogues hiding in plain sight. An underground network helped Rogues attempt regular lives among the Americans.

  As Thanksgiving approached, Nic grew edgy and argumentative like Jade’s mother. They argued about silly everyday things, and Jade wondered if she had fallen for Nic or had simply wanted to learn the secrets that had been kept from her.

  Nic rolled on to his back and checked his phone. “It's too early for work.”

  “I'm going to find my brother. It's going to be a tough week for him.” Jade couldn't believe a whole year had gone by since last Thanksgiving. She had learned about the bigger world around her. She had pushed everyone in her life aside to focus on Jade.

  If she was honest with herself, she understood why Bobby reached for drugs. He saw shadows and heard voices and thought no one else did. He thought he was an outcast, and she had felt the same way. Drugs were an easy escape.

  Bobby and Jade had lived in parallel nightmares, and it was time to show Bobby that he wasn’t alone. She had been selfish long enough. Now that she saw things clearly, Bobby deserved the same clarity.

  “Leave the kid alone. He has enough problems,” Nic said with his arm over his eyes.

  “I'm trying to help.”

  “He obviously doesn't want you to meddle in his business. You never leave things alone.”

  “What does that mean?” Jade stood at the end of the bed with her hands on her hips.

  Nic rolled his eyes. “Nothing.” He threw his legs over the side of the bed.

  “Where are you going?” She sounded like a scolding school teacher.

  “Department L to wait for a friend.” Nic went every year since he crossed from the other side. He couldn't risk going back, but he had promised his friend that he would be there if and when he was able to cross.

  Department L was a prime crossing location for Rogues. The storeroom was rarely visited during the year and almost always empty when people left for Thanksgiving holiday. On th
e other side was a morgue in the bottom of a run-down hospital in Zone Concrete.

  Nic provided general stories of the squalid life on the Isle of the lost, but he kept up a wall between Jade and the details of his personal life. He enjoyed spending time with her, especially in his bed, but he believed she was only with him to feel a connection to a heritage that she didn’t know.

  “Who is this mysterious friend?” Jade asked.

  “His name is Oleander, but we call him Ollie.” It was too early in the morning to stealthily avoid Jade’s questions.

  Occasionally, Jade asked something personal, but Nic’s curt responses put an end to the topic of his life. Nic didn’t think she wanted to know the answer. She wanted a sweeping fairytale about the life she missed by being taken to the Land of the Free.

  Not that it mattered. Nic didn’t want to talk about the old days. He didn’t want anyone’s pity.

  “What makes you think he will shadow travel this year?”

  “Can't hurt to be optimistic.” Nic was hoping Ollie would make it. If the rumors were true, life on the other side was getting worse. Jade wouldn't understand. She had the good life, and she didn't even know it. “We can celebrate his arrival at McCallister's tonight. Your hometown pub is always a raging party.”

  Jade knew he was being sarcastic just to grind her gears. He spoke down to her often, belittling her for not being worldly…or otherworldly, actually. “No, I'm not going to McCallister's.”

  “Worried that we'll run into your nerdy ex-boyfriend?”

  “No. Shut up.” She furrowed her eyebrows and turned away from him, picking up her belongings from his messy apartment floor.

  Jade felt crestfallen and guilty about the way things ended with Zander, but the relationship had been built on a fantasy. She tried not think about the way things could have been if she hadn’t met Nic or if she had been honest with Zander.

  Jade missed his soothing voice, careful touch and the fantasy they lived in, but it hadn’t been realistic. She had built him up to be her savior when she needed to learn to face the monsters herself. She may not care for Nic the same way she loved Zander, but at least she knew who she was.

  Jade and Zander hadn't spoken in a year. Their relationship was over. She didn't understand why Nic was jealous of a guy he didn't know, but then again, Nic's list of insecurities was long.

  “Come on, I was kidding.” Nic came up behind Jade and wrestled her to the bed, covering her with kisses. Jade giggled and gave in to Nic's sudden display of affection. No matter how much his prickly personality got on her nerves, the chemistry between them was undeniable. He kept many secrets from her, but he was the first person with whom she had none.

  Jade waited on the swing in the back of the house she had grown up in. She could have waited inside, but just being in the yard where she grew up and her mother still lived made her feel claustrophobic. Zander, Marcus, Bobby, her mother—they were all on the list of people she had brushed aside this past year.

  The weather was unseasonably warm for Thanksgiving. The air held a touch of humidity, making it feel thick and full of angst, like it was eager for a fight.

  Jade looked into the sky, searching for tears between the worlds. Here and there, eye floaters appeared and disappeared. With the knowledge of what they were, she wasn't frightened of them anymore. She may not have experienced the horrors of the other side, but she had seen the pain in Nic's eyes when he talked about it. She said a silent prayer, hoping the Rogues found their destination safely.

  Jade heard a car roll up to the house. A door opened and slammed shut. Shoes crunched on the gravel on the side of the house. For a moment, Jade was shocked to see her brother looking gaunt and unsteady, but she let out an audible gasp when he jumped, grabbed the windowsill, and began pulling himself up.

  “Bobby, what are you doing?” Jade asked.

  Bobby cursed and dropped to the ground. “Why are you hiding out here, Jade?”

  “The same reason you're climbing to your bedroom window, I would guess.” Neither of them said the M-word. “Come sit with me for a minute. I came to talk to you.” Jade grabbed the metal rings of the swing next to her.

  Bobby angled his body, like he was going to turn and walk away. “Sorry, I have a lot to do.”

  Jade raised one eyebrow. “It will only take a minute.”

  Bobby sighed and reluctantly walked over. Jade watched as Bobby dropped into the swing. He was a shell of his former self. His arms hung in his jacket sleeves.

  Jade took a deep breath and told herself that she needed to tell him. Otherwise, he was going to wilt away. “Do you ever see an eye floater that's moving oddly like a person?”

  Bobby’s body stiffened but he snorted and said, “No.”

  “Have you ever seen shadows in dark corners or heard voices from somewhere just out of reach?”

  Bobby stood up and glared at her. “No. Why are you talking like a crazy person?”

  Jade was undeterred. It was the reaction she was expecting from her defensive brother. “Bobby, I've seen and heard them, too. I've been struggling with their unexplained appearances my whole life.”

  Bobby crossed his arms and set his jaw. “Great, we are both crazy. Have you been speaking to Marcus? Do you want a pill to block it out? Why did you come to me?” Bobby walked over to a tree and threw his fist at the bark.

  Jade ran over and grabbed his arm. “No, we are not crazy. I know what they are, and I came to tell you.”

  Bobby's chest heaved, but he didn't pull away. “What are they?”

  “They are people shadow traveling from a parallel universe that is right on top of ours.”

  “People?” Bobby faced her, looking incredulous.

  Jade nodded. “They are escaping a life of turmoil on the Isle of the Lost. They come here for a new life.”

  The sneer was back on Bobby's face. “Who spun this story for you? Your hard-knocks boyfriend?”

  Jade straightened her back. “He's one of them.”

  Bobby burst out laughing. “You fell for a terrible line, Sis.”

  “I've seen him shadow travel.”

  Bobby stopped laughing. He studied her face for a moment. “Fine. Why is it a big secret?”

  “Shadow traveling is dangerous. The people doing it are desperate. The government hunts them down and ships them back.”

  “Why should I care, Jade? What does this have to do with me?”

  It was Jade's turn to snort. She grabbed Bobby by the arm until they were nose to nose. “Mom is one of them.”

  Their mother marched out the back door. “That’s enough. Both of you get in the house!” She used her hands to shove her children inside. She looked around to make sure no one was watching.

  Jade and Bobby sat at the kitchen table, looking at their mother expectantly. Their faces were grave, like a fire burned under the surface.

  This was the first time the three of them had been in the same room at the same time in years. It was a miracle that they were even speaking. Were they finally going to speak about the elephant in the room? Would all the secrets be laid out on the table?

  “It’s true. You are a Rogue from the Isle of the Lost,” Jade said. She wasn’t asking for her mother’s confirmation. She was looking to move the conversation forward.

  Ms. Miller’s eyes widened. She ran over to the window and shut the blinds with a huff.

  “Is it true?” Bobby asked. His hands were in fists.

  “That is a dangerous question. You are jeopardizing our family just by asking.”

  Bobby slammed his fists on the table. “Just answer the question!”

  Ms. Miller straightened her back and stuck out her chin. She nodded once. “I came here over two decades ago to give you a better life.”

  Bobby’s face was flushed. “I can’t believe it. This whole time—my whole life—I’ve felt different, like something was wrong with me, but no one would tell me why. Now, you admit that it’s true. I wasn’t born here. I’m like an alie
n!”

  “You don’t know what it was like,” their mother insisted.

  “Tell us,” Jade said.

  Ms. Miller swallowed hard. “I lived in a remote town in Zone Frontier, and my family owned a small shop. It was bare bones. We didn’t have much. The PMI would steal supplies whenever they wanted and often cleaned out the shop. We were left hungry.”

  “PMI?” Bobby asked. His eyebrows synched together in confusion.

  “The Parallel Military Intelligence,” Jade clarified.

  “The what?” Bobby looked exasperated.

  “They are a branch of the police that hunt for escaped Rogues and force them back to the Isle of the Lost,” Jade said.

  “Shhh!” Their mother had a panicked look on her face. “Your father was obsessed with retaliating against the PMI. He would provoke them and compromise our lives. He was irrational. To keep you safe, I had to escape.”

  “He didn’t leave with you? Is he still alive?” Bobby asked.

  Jade stared at her mom with equal surprise. Her mom avoided her look and was silent.

  Bobby stood up. “I asked you a question. Our dad. Years ago, you told us he was dead! Is he still alive?”

  Ms. Miller hesitated. “He might be. I don’t know.”

  Bobby glared at his mother for a minute and then he marched out the back door.

  Jade shook her head in anger and frustration. “This is your fault. Bobby wouldn’t be spiraling out of control if you had told us the truth,” Jade said. She waited to hear how her mom might try to defend herself. When Ms. Miller didn’t respond, Jade turned on her heel and walked out.

  Jade slammed the door of her car and glared at Nic. “If you are going to sulk, why are we going out?” She hurled the question at him like it was a grenade.

  “I told you I'm fine. I just need a beer. Quit whining. You're just anxious because it's been a year since you saw your perfect ex-boyfriend.” Nic slammed his door shut as well.