Leaving a painful and awkward apology over voicemail isn’t how she wants this to go, but she also doesn’t want the argument to fester between them. She doesn’t want it to turn into the kind of gap that feels impossible to bridge simply because they’ve left it too long.
Besides, this was supposed to be their night, walking the boardwalk together, honoring Liddy’s love of deep-fried dough. He should be here.
“I just wanted to check in and tell you—” Goose bumps prickle down her arms, and she glances over her shoulder, her words becoming unintelligible syllables. “And I … I gotta … I gotta go.”
She hangs up and slides her phone into her pocket. A chill climbs up her arm and settles at the top of her spine, dripping like a faucet with a bad leak. Drip. Drip. Drip.
“Red.” He stands at the counter attached to the donut stand, sprinkling powdered sugar into the bag of donuts. She puts her hand on his arm and he twists.
The look on her face must reveal it all because his eyes lift, scanning the crowd, his head snapping from side to side fast enough to make her neck sore. “Obsii,” he growls.
“There’s too many people here,” she says. “Someone will get hurt.”
Red drops the donuts. They spill onto the boardwalk, knocking white powdered dust against her shoes.
He snaps the feathers from the chain around his neck, handing her one.
The quill, soft at first, hardens into sharp metal against her palm. She wiggles the blade, adjusting her grip on the handle. “Point and stab,” she says to herself.
“More or less.”
“Stop listening to my internal panic.”
“It was external,” Red says. “Don’t panic. You’ve got this.”
“Sure, says the angel-boy.”
“To the Limbo-walker, who has already cut down these things before. I’ve watched you do it.”
“That’s true; I saved your life.” She frowns. Did he even have a life anymore? “Or maybe your existence.”
Red looks like he might laugh, but he just whispers, “Stay close.” Then he dives into the crowd.
“I wasn’t planning on anything but,” Casey mumbles as a whistling blast of bright white fireworks explode overhead. Masked by the sound, she swears she hears that shrieking animal scream.
“This way,” Red says. She follows him behind a tent selling knockoff sunglasses. He slows to a creep, eyes scanning in the red and blue and purple blasts that pop overhead, but just as they get a good view of the area, the light fades again. “We should—”
“Don’t say split up,” Casey interrupts. “That never works. In fact, it’s usually a bad idea.”
“I wasn’t going to say that,” Red says. “I was just going to say—”
An obsii lunges out from beneath a row of supply vans as they walk past.
“Holy—!” Casey yells, ducking out of the way as a second obsii emerges from the shadows behind the tent without warning, clawing at them both.
Red twists and turns, fighting with unearthly precision. Beside him, Casey just feels clunky.
All the lights on the boardwalk dim as the firework finale begins and she loses sight of Red. The darkness is supercharged, like it’s full of energy; she feels powerful and also like she’s being crushed at the same time. Maybe it’s just the pressure of her heart trying to beat out of her chest. Or maybe adrenaline and fear were battling for dominance, fighting for control of her limbs.
Casey ducks between a popcorn stand and a bouncy castle, jumping over the trailing power cords. She raises her arm to wipe the sweat from her forehead and accidentally slices through a bag of prepackaged popcorn that hangs from an old tarp awning jutting off the side of the snack stand. It rains down on her head as she flails forward over another power cord.
She hits the dirt; her phone flies out of her pocket and tumbles to a stop a few feet away. The screen lights up with Evan’s face, the phone buzzing as it vibrates against the ground.
Oh, just perfect.
She army-crawls across the matted grass, digging her elbows in to give her leverage. As she lifts her phone, something tall and dark reflects in the screen and Casey rolls onto her back.
She has no voice left to scream as the shadow lunges at her with the finesse of a great cat. Without thinking, she throws her arm straight up, her entire hand and wrist and forearm disappearing inside the center of the creature before it explodes around her.
She coughs, getting her breath back. Ash-like black tar rains down around her, giving the yellowed popcorn a distinct burned look. She rolls away from the cloud, but something else catches her attention.
Casey, are you there?
She spins on her knees before she realizes the voice is echoing inside her head.
Casey, where are you?
Casey climbs to her feet but the sights and sounds of the boardwalk fade.
The world flashes inside her head: a raging surf crashes up against jagged rocks. The vision scans down the gloomy beach, storm clouds swelling in the distance. A lighthouse climbs between the clouds, a solitary figure among the storm, the twisting light in its peak flashing against the coming darkness.
Rain starts in tiny drops. It picks up and the vision rushes up the beach, away from the water and toward the thick woods that run along the border.
“Liddy.”
SIXTEEN
“C’MON, RED,” CASEY whispers, holding on to the open door and standing on the bottom ledge of the car for a better view. She taps impatiently on the roof. He’s nowhere to be seen, still lost in the crowd of Shore Fest goers. Every streetlight on this road feels like the gaze of a thousand people, urging her to hurry, and her heartbeat drives a steady, painful rhythm against her ribs.
She can’t wait any longer. She needs to get somewhere safe, somewhere she can enter Limbo. She clutches the feather in her hand tighter. Somewhere Red will be able to find her.
She gets into the car, lets the police officer still directing traffic wave her through the intersection, and then speeds across town, attempting to beat the onslaught of people leaving after the fireworks die down.
She heads home. It’s the closest. Her tether to Liddy will pull her to the harbor from wherever she is, but opening up a doorway to Limbo doesn’t feel like the kind of thing you do on the side of the road.
Karen’s car is gone, meaning she’s out or at work, and Casey praises her luck. She races inside and stands in the dull light of the living room.
The clock in the hall ticks and the singular sound of her breathing fills the space between the walls. Outside the odd car passes, someone’s garage opens, but nothing distracts her from the feel of the blade curving in her hand, feather melting to metal, obeying her touch as easily as it does Red’s.
She hovers in the living room for a moment and watches for movement. For any sign that she’s been followed.
Nothing stirs in the shadows and her plan—the frantic and dizzy mess currently rattling around her head—comes to life.
If I wait, it might be too late, she tells herself.
It might already be too late.
She can’t take that chance.
She gathers herself, steeling her nerves, hardening like the blade in her hand. Then she’s dashing to her bedroom. The door closes behind her with a soft puff.
She’s watched Red do this half a dozen times now. Doing it without him is daunting, but doing nothing isn’t an option.
Choosing a spot, Casey kneels down on her floor and lifts the dagger. She expects more resistance when she slams it down, but the metal glides as easily as it moves through the air. It emboldens her. She can do this. Squeezing the hilt, she drags the blade around, closing the circle and that familiar pressure gathers—just pressure, pressure, pressure.
She keeps her eyes open this time, watching for the moment the darkness fades, only to find that it never really does. Instead, the darkness becomes a stormy blue landscape of withered trees. She studies them through the window of a small office, arriving
in Limbo behind a counter with an old boxed computer, a desk calendar, and assorted pencils. On the wall beside her are a series of keys. She runs her hands along the blue plywood, familiarity settling in her gut.
She knows this place. It’s the inside of the boat rental shack.
Casey grips the dagger tighter, battling down the guilt, replacing it with thoughts of Liddy, opening herself up to the sounds of Limbo.
If Liddy really is here, she’s going to find her.
This time, she’s going to save her.
She rushes to the next window and this one is filled not with trees, but with crashing waves. The center island rises up from the water, the lighthouse standing steady among dark clouds.
The harbor.
Casey slips beneath the counter and rushes to the door and looks up. A wooden board is tacked near the roof. BOAT RENTALS. The world outside the building is chilled, the sand soggy beneath her feet. She stands by the door, waiting for some sort of sign.
It arrives, as she expects, like a whisper. It’s not words this time, but a broken sob. Sad and lonely cries, full of trembling fear.
She bumps against the building, hand pressed to her lips.
She waits for the sound to pull her in, to give her direction. Like the needle on a compass, her body bends, automatically tuned to the voices of the dead and she sets off at a run. It leads her toward the trees, to a hill with a sharp incline that overlooks the harbor. The ground is slick, forcing her to lean forward, digging her hands into the earth. Using small tree trunks as footholds makes it easier.
As she nears the top, the sobs string closer together. Louder.
“C’mon, Liddy,” she whispers. “Where are you?”
She rolls herself over the top edge of the embankment using her leg as leverage and flops onto her back. The sky is empty, scarred by the limbs of trees that spring outward, reaching their arthritic branches above her.
Propped up on her elbows, she takes in her surroundings. The sobs rattle in her ears, but then she sees her, sitting between the weeds and tall grasses and moss-covered logs that rise up around them, and the world falls silent.
Liddy.
She’s filthy, hair stringy around her face, eyes smudged. Her legs are tucked up against her chest, head resting on her knees.
“Liddy?” Casey calls, desperation filling her voice as she rolls over, leaping to her feet. “Liddy!”
Liddy looks up, eyes bright and blue but strained with wiry red lines. Dirty hands smudge the tears from her face.
Casey stumbles toward her, her mind rushing faster than her feet can. She collapses to her knees; it’s a jolt of pain she barely registers as she throws herself at Liddy.
The hug feels like enough to shatter her, but Liddy only clings tighter and Casey lets her, overwhelmed by the smell of earth and salty tears. It seems to last forever, but when she pulls away, Casey knows it’s too soon and she tugs her back.
“Where have you been?” Liddy whispers through her tears.
“I’m so, so sorry,” Casey says against her shoulder, over and over, until the words sound unfamiliar.
“It’s really you, then?”
Casey wonders how many times Liddy has imagined this moment, wished it, prayed for it.
“I’ve been searching for you,” Liddy whispers, pulling away. She studies Casey. Liddy is still dressed in the clothes she died in—a pink and white summer dress over her bathing suit. Casey watches the realization on Liddy’s face as she takes in their appearances. Her jaw tightens. “I wasn’t ever going to find you, was I?”
Casey winces and her next words taste like vomit. “You’re dead, Liddy.”
It takes her a moment, but Liddy nods. “I thought so.” Her cheeks twitch. “I thought it was a nightmare for a while. But it never ends; I never wake up.”
“It’ll end now,” Casey promises.
“I heard you,” Liddy says. “Before I thought I was chasing a ghost, but this time I heard you, calling me back to this place, like some kind of sick joke. But I came back, just in case you were here.”
“I could hear you, too,” Casey says, her eyes watering. She takes Liddy’s hand. “I have to get you out of here.”
“You know how to get out?” Liddy says, so desperately, so broken, that Casey pulls her into another crushing hug.
“I’m sorry you’ve been lost for so long.”
“I don’t care anymore,” Liddy says. “I just want to go.”
“That makes two of us.”
A familiar, creeping unease fills her and Casey looks around, searching for shadows among the trees.
“C’mon,” she says.
“Where?”
“Anywhere that’s not here.” Casey takes her by the hand, part of her afraid that Liddy will disappear on the wind, blowing away like smoke, if she lets her go.
“This way,” Casey says. She tries to figure out a bearing, but it’s hard to sort through the noise in her head suddenly—too much emotion filling up the space.
She tries to find another doorway, somewhere the voices call from, but all she can hear is the creak of the wind between the trees. There’s also too much elation in her chest, having Liddy so close again. All these things make it very difficult to concentrate, to put her mind in order.
From the top of the embankment, Casey can see the rental shack. It’s like a doll’s house, a tiny thing set against the water, storm-beaten and faded.
“Now where?” Liddy asks.
“Give me a second.” Casey scans the grim horizon, eyes going wide when she feels an ominous tingle at the back of her neck.
She whips around to look, eyes darting between wiry tree trunks. Shadows slowly begin to peel themselves away from the bark, hunched figures taking form. Faceless heads turn skyward and that hideous shriek fills the air around them.
Liddy cowers against her, palms pressed to her ears.
“We need to go,” Casey cries, eyes trained on the obsii as she pushes Liddy toward the edge of the embankment. “Down, Liddy. Go!”
“Wait!” Liddy staggers against the edge.
Red’s voice fills her head. Run.
“No time.” Casey pushes the spot between Liddy’s shoulder blades. “Go!”
Liddy screams as she slides over the edge. Casey throws herself down after her, weight tilted back to avoid pitching down the slope headfirst.
The earth splits under her feet, sweeping and tumbling and dragging her down faster. Behind her, the obsii gather, their cries haunting. Casey drives the dagger into the dirt to slow her skid.
Liddy slides past her, reaching the bottom first. She stands, disoriented, pitching to her knees before she can get her balance.
Run!
Casey’s feet hit even ground. The shrill chatter picks up behind them, closer and closer, until her entire body feels charged with frantic energy. Beside her, Liddy cries, tears leaving pale tracks through the dirt against her cheeks.
Shadows tumble down the hill in pursuit and Casey’s heart ricochets off her rib cage.
RUN!
She squeezes the dagger. Fighting isn’t an option. It isn’t even a last resort. They have to get out of here. She remembers the boy beneath the streetlight, dragged from this in-between world by shadow.
She can’t lose Liddy again. Not in this place. And definitely not to those things.
Reaching out, she snags Liddy’s hand and drags her forward, pulling her when she trips, refusing to let her stop, refusing to let her go.
But then Liddy is tugging on her. A shadow takes hold of her, dragging Liddy across the sand and out toward the water.
“Liddy!” Casey screams.
“Casey!” The obsii begins towing her into the surf.
Casey’s feet sink into the sand. She can’t. She can’t. She can’t.
I can’t lose her again.
Liddy bobs on the surface, spitting out water. “C-Casey!” she chokes.
Casey races into the waves.
Sprays of water fly up
around her as she picks up her feet, wading deeper and deeper until the swell of the surf is too much and she dives in.
She holds her breath as she kicks beneath the waves, surfacing not far from Liddy. The first thing she sees is the pale shape of Liddy’s arm above the swell of another wave. She throws her arms over her head, pulling against the water, propelling her closer to Liddy as she fights against something.
Casey grabs her hand just as Liddy is pulled beneath the water. Their hands tug and slide and Casey locks every muscle in her arm, but the current is strong.
She takes a deep breath and dives beneath the surf, kicking toward Liddy. There’s darkness under her; it swirls in shadowy shapes that drag her down. Down. Down.
Casey lets go of Liddy’s hand.
She kicks even harder, swimming down past Liddy, and swipes the dagger through the water. The shadows twist and pull, releasing Liddy and shooting off through the murky underworld of the harbor.
Liddy kicks upward and Casey pushes at her feet.
When she finally breaks the surface, she finds Liddy hacking up water. They both drag themselves onto the sand. Casey’s arms shake from exhaustion. The surf runs over her fingers in blue-foamed ripples. But then they turn black, the water thick like sludge.
“Get out of the water,” Casey gasps. She crawls forward through the sand. “Get out!” she screams at Liddy.
The two of them scramble up as dark shadows climb from the water, their humanoid faces breaking free, their long, clawing limbs driving deep into the sand. They scream that terrible scream and Casey covers her ears.
She whips around. Darkness descends from the trees.
“The rental shack,” she says to Liddy. That’s it. That’s their only option.
They sprint across the sand. Liddy gets there first.
Casey stops, turning to face the wall of shadow that creeps from the ground. Something at the top of the embankment catches her attention. Not the black swarm, but the lone figure that stands among them, dark wings fluttering in the breeze.
Azrael.
The shrieks of the obsii draw her back and she brandishes the dagger.
The Dark In-Between Page 18