The Shadow Box: Paranormal Suspense and Dark Fantasy Thriller Novels

by Travis Luedke

  Then…

  “I’ve got the handrail,” he said. He heard Jared sigh. He also heard a snap like someone cracking their knuckles. Step by step they went down the stairs. With no carpet to dampen sounds, each footstep rumbled like distant thunder. Josh looked all around him, desperate for some sign of light, but found nothing. When they hit the first landing Garnet gave a little yelp of surprise.

  “One more floor to go,’ he said. Now both sets of breathing behind him were short and fast. He found it hard to breathe, himself. It was not until they reached the door on the next landing that he realized how afraid he was that they would never make it out of the stairwell.

  “We’re here.”

  He opened the door to even more darkness. This floor reeked of sulfur and fresh blood. He walked along the left-hand wall until he hit an edge. He traced his fingertips around the curve of the doorframe until his knuckles hit the sharp corner of the door. If someone had closed the door at that moment his fingers would have been snapped off. The thought made him jerk his hand back. He reached out with the palm of his hand, felt the flat surface of the door and used it to guide him forward. When his fingers hit empty air again, he bent his hand around the outer edge of the door until he held it in his grasp.

  “Hurry in here. I’ll close the door.” Two sets of footsteps passed by him. The only breathing he heard came from within the kitchen instead of the hallway. He used his right hand to turn the doorknob all the way to the right. Then he pressed the door closed and released the doorknob. It closed without a sound.

  “Now what?”

  “Find the silverware. Knives, forks, spoons, anything.”

  “You think a knife will stop this thing? The guards have guns.”

  Josh sighed. “You have trust issues, don’t you? Just find the silverware first.”

  The hand left his side. Footsteps moved slowly away from him.

  “Is it safe to turn on a light?” Jared’s voice was so soft it was barely audible.

  “What do you mean, turn on the lights? The power is still out.”

  “Not that kind of light. Garnet, do your thing.”

  “Do I have to?” Her voice was no longer throaty or soft. It came through the darkness flat and icy. “Fine. Whatever.”

  Josh turned away as a flash of orange light appeared. After the long period in the dark, it was painful. He put the fire extinguisher down and rubbed his eyes with the balls of his palms until the pain subsided. He blinked several times more before being able to look back at the light. Flames danced around a square chopping block. Now it was just fuel for the fire.

  “Couldn’t you have done that before?” Halfway through the sentence, he remembered he was supposed to be whispering and lowered his voice.

  “And what would I have set on fire, Josh? The carpet? Even now, it will be a miracle if we don’t set off the fire alarms. Luckily, the counter’s metal or we could end up setting the whole building on fire.”

  Now that there was a little light, Josh could look around the room. It felt sterile. Like the countertop, the cabinets, fridge and stoves were all stainless steel. He left the fire extinguisher by the door and rummaged through the drawers. It did not take him long to find what he was looking for.

  “Got them.” He grabbed handfuls of silverware. “Jared, help me out. Grab those butter knives and follow me.”

  “What are you doing?” Garnet ran her right hand under a stream of water in the sink. She hissed in pain as steam rose up from her hand where it contacted the water.

  “I’m reaching, that’s what I’m doing.” He placed the forks and spoons in front of the door. “This thing, demon or not, can probably see in the dark. Otherwise he wouldn’t have cut the power. Since none of us can, this should help us know where he is in the dark. If he walks through that door, he’ll have to cross over the silverware to get to us. The silverware will make noise and – voila! - homemade radar. Even if he tries to sneak around it, we’ll still hear something. That’s right, Jared, put them just like that.”

  Garnet looked over at the block of fire, bared her teeth like she was hissing and shook her head. “This is sooo not what Wisdom would have done. It’s not going to be that easy for me to set him on fire, you know?”

  As Josh stood, his back cracked loudly. “I wasn’t thinking of you burning him, Garnet. I didn’t know you could do that. My plan is a little different. I learned a few things from my dad about fighting dirty. I know a few things about death.”

  ***

  “I’m serious, Josh,” Tommy drew his knees up and hugged them close to his chest. “They’re real, and if you don’t get away from the closet they’re going to get you first.”

  He stood beside the closet door while Tommy Delonki sat up in bed behind him. Tommy wore his Star Wars pajamas, the ones with C-3PO and R2-D2. He was only 12, but he was starting getting grey hairs. Josh watched as Tommy pulled the blankets up to his chest. He looked cold, shivering against the headboard even though it was mid-July and the temperature was well into the 80’s.

  Josh, also 12, felt goosebumps rise on his bare chest. He wore plaid Joe Boxer pajama bottoms. His mother had bought them for him the last time they'd gone to New York – a business trip for his father. He didn’t understand why a mechanic needed to go on business trips at all. He thought they just fixed cars. Father said it was something about getting products. He could tell by the way his mother looked on the flight there and back she didn’t believe him, either.

  “Maybe,” he said. Sweat trickled down armpits that had yet to grow any hair. “Or maybe I’ll get them first.”

  ***

  “What is it?” Garnet moved away from the fire and placed her hands on his cheeks. They felt very warm – even the one that was damp from being run under the tap.

  Josh shook his head and looked down at himself. Somehow he had ended up on the floor. He pushed Garnet’s hands away and got to his feet.

  “It’s nothing. I just remembered something. Let’s find the plates. We can put them on the floor, too.”

  ***

  On the 13th floor of a building in London, a thing of darkness walked. Wherever it walked, it stole the light. The name of this darkness was Paeder Ferris. He was dressed in a black leather jumpsuit with yellow trim along the collar and cuffs. It matched his motorcycle parked two streets over.

  As he walked by the window, he caught his reflection in a wall of glass. Since he was a teenager, people had said he looked a little like Robert Redford. His hair was strawberry-blond and he had a well-chiseled face with freckles and deep blue eyes. He couldn’t see the resemblance. When he looked at his reflection, all he saw was the same lines and curves as his brothers.

  His brothers.

  He turned away from the window and spat on the floor. The carpet and the cement underneath bubbled under his saliva.

  Before entering the building, he had reached into the shadows and sent a blast of Discord throughout the high-rise. The anti-energy consumed all electricity and the light was gone. It hurt to expend that amount of power but he knew it was worth it. Nothing made humans more irrational than what they could not see. If they could see it, name it, it gave them a sense of power over it. In the dark, they had no power.

  From behind a reception desk, two security guards shot at Paeder Ferris. Bullets bounced off his skin and ricocheted off the painted walls. Before his transformation, bullets would have killed him easily. Now he was one step closer to Eyeness. He was much harder to kill.

  He leapt ten feet forward and slammed his fist into the head of the nearest guard. He hit him so hard across the chin his neck snapped back, broken instantly. Even as the body fell, Paeder grabbed the second man by the throat and lifted him off the ground. He held him there until he heard bones snap.

  The guard’s legs still twitched, but he was dead. Paeder sensed the life leaking out like air from a tire with a slow leak. When the legs stopped twitching, he dropped the corpse. He brought his hand up to his nose and smiled. He cou
ld smell the sweat and cologne of the dead man, but that was not what excited him. It was the scent of death.

  He walked towards the elevator. He put his hands against the metal and used his new powers to dissolve the cohesive bonds that kept solid objects solid. The sensation danced over his skin like an orgasm. It continued to build until the metal turned to rust and flaked away. This was the power of decay, the third level of Eyeness. Most humans could not carry this power for long – their bodies gave out long before their will did – but Paeder did not care about that. He would survive long enough to retrieve the boy. He would drag the boy back by the hair if necessary. And once the Council was done with him, Josh Wilkinson would die.

  He slammed the side of his fist into the rusty metal. It shattered like brittle ice. The actual car was somewhere above him. As long as he kept the power off, it was not going anywhere. He leapt into the shaft, grabbed the nearest set of wires and started to climb.

  ***

  As soon as the plates and silverware were in place, Josh had Garnet dump a pot full of water over the burning knife block. The air was now thick with smoke, although it was too dark to see any of the black clouds. Josh and Garnet hid behind an industrial-sized steel fridge. Jared curled up in a nearby corner. Josh could hear the crinkle of the kid’s jeans as he rocked back and forth.

  Garnet peeked past the fridge. “My God. I can feel him now.”

  “Just stick to the plan.” Josh put a hand on her bare arm and drew her back to their hiding spot.

  “The demon is angry,” Jared said. Jared smacked his head against the wall with a soft thud.

  “Stop that,” Garnet said. There was no heat in her voice, no sense of worry, either. But it was enough. Jared stopped.

  The weight of the fire extinguisher grew heavy in Josh’s hands but he didn’t dare set it down.

  “Are you sure it will come in here?” Garnet whispered close to his ear.

  Josh nodded. “If there was any doubt before, the smell of smoke will solve that. Now hush. Let’s not speak until…”

  “It’s gone,” Jared said.

  “What’s gone?”

  “The demon. I can’t feel it anymore.”

  Josh rose to his feet, pins and needles shooting through his legs.

  “Garnet?”

  “I can’t feel it either,” she said. “One moment it was there, this pool of pestilence, moving through space. Then it was gone. I can’t feel the taint anymore.”

  Josh shifted his weight and listened. “I can. It’s coming.”

  Click.

  Garnet gulped in air. Then there was absolute silence.

  Josh held his breath and listened. His head buzzed, like a sudden hangover pounding in his skull.

  Tap tap tap.

  ‘That’s the door being pushed all the way open,’ he thought. Then he heard a series of clicks and ringing vibrations. ‘A fork being thrown against a spoon and tumbling into a plate.’

  Then nothing.

  Silence.

  Eventually, he detected a third pattern of breathing. Deep and solid. Despite his blindness, the sounds gave him a perfect visual of where the demon was.

  ‘Almost there. Just a few more steps.’

  ***

  Paeder couldn’t help it. His eyes lit up and he fought not to burst out laughing.

  ‘Utensils on the floor? This is the man that slaughtered my family?’ After the forty or so armed guards, he felt like he had stumbled upon a child trying to catch their pet dog in a fancy mousetrap. The only thing that kept him focused was the memory of his mother’s dead body, vacant eyes in a cold skull.

  The Third Level of Eyeness also allowed him to see without light. He was in a kitchen big enough for a restaurant. Metal pots and pans hung from the ceiling over three of the islands. The walls were filled with cupboards.

  ‘Reminds me of our place in the Laurentians,’ he thought. He sniffed at the air. Smoke masked the stench of sweat and fear making it difficult to pin down locations.

  ‘Hide all you want. I’ll still find you.’

  He crept forward, dropping to all fours. ‘There. I can hear them breathing.’ The sound came from the left. ‘If I concentrate just a little harder…’

  He heard something like wind in the air. He turned just in time to see the thing flying through the air. He caught it with both hands and called up the power of decay. It shot through his hands before he recognized what the object was. The area around his fingers melted, creating quick holes in the pressurized steel container. He did not have time to curse before the fire extinguisher exploded.

  ***

  As soon as he threw the fire extinguisher, Josh moved.

  “Garnet, now!”

  Behind him, Garnet held up one of Jared’s sneakers and set it on fire. The flash of light was blinding but this time he was prepared for it. He closed his eyes and rushed to where he’d thrown the fire extinguisher.

  The explosion took him by surprise. It threw him back several feet. Luckily, he was far enough away not to be hurt. The blast lasted only a second. Afterwards, there was an eternity of screams. The demon held hands over his foam-covered face, metal shards sticking out of its upper body.

  Before the demon could focus beyond his pain, Josh kicked and shattered its kneecap. The demon fell, still holding its face. Josh slammed both his fists down on the back of its head. It hit the floor face-first; metal shards dug deeper into its body.

  “It’s not dead!” Jared screamed.

  A bloodied hand reached out and grabbed Josh’s ankle. It clawed at him, trying to drag him off his feet. But Josh was lucky. He leapt free of the hand and landed near a block of knives. He grabbed the two largest blades and spun around. That’s when he caught his first good look at the face of the demon.

  “You!” he said. When he'd heard there was a demon coming, he'd imagined horns and scales. He didn’t expect to see one of the Redford twins.

  The demon smiled back at him. “You killed me mumsy. I’m going to make you scream.”

  An oily tentacle darker than the shadows reached out from the demon’s hands and grabbed Josh by the throat. Josh screamed. Searing pain burned into his neck as the tentacles tightened. He was vaguely aware of Garnet throwing something she’d set on fire, but it was hard to concentrate.

  ‘Have to move or I’m dead,’ he thought. He slid his fingers under the bottom edge of the tentacle and concentrated. Nothing happened. He focused harder, ignoring the howl of pain as the corrosive ropes burned his skin. Then his mind was clear. There was nothing in the world but silence.

  In his mind’s eye, the smoke and pain parted. A figure appeared dressed in a tuxedo woven from living maggots and writhing beetles. Wet intestines wrapped around its neck and waist, crafting a mockery of bowtie and cummerbund. But it was the face that struck Josh the most: the dull grey slate of a powered-down television cracked open in scales and oily boils, lips like wet tar and beautiful blue eyes that were far too familiar.

  ‘Ah.’ the creature said in his mind. ‘Now there’s my boy.’

  Josh howled, filled with terror. His hands broke through the tentacle. He fell to the floor, gagging and struggling for breath. Something flew over his head – a flaming shoe. It hit the demon in the chest.

  “Josh! Look out!”

  He didn’t have time to react to Garnet’s warning. Something solid grabbed him by the throat again. With a grunt, he kicked out as hard as he could. Luckily, his foot connected with something and the grip around his neck broke free. He shook the blackness from his eyes in time to see the demon holding its left knee.

  All the Redford twin’s clothes and hair were on fire. Still, it would not fall.

  ‘How the hell am I going to beat this thing?’ Even as the thought came to mind, the demon pointed at him. Another tentacle of darkness shot out toward him.

  “No.” Josh held his hands out. As soon as he said the word, the tentacle stopped moving. It hung in the air, twitching, dripping shadows, but it did not move fo
rward. Josh looked the demon in the eye.

  “You killed my best friend. Tortured my girlfriend. Making me angry was the worst decision of your life.” Something pulsed in his mind. Then it jumped forward and wrapped around the demon. With a violent jerk and a loud snap, the demon’s head twisted clockwise and up. Then, wide-eyed, it fell.

  Paeder Ferris was dead before he hit the floor.

  Josh stared down at the body. ‘What the hell have I done?’

  ***

  The building came back to life with a series of whirls and hums. The kitchen overflowed with light. Josh blinked several times, forcing his eyes to adjust. Garnet came forward and knelt beside the Redford twin.

  “He’s dead,” she said. “No more demon thoughts. Would you agree, Jared?”

  Jared stood up from where he had been hiding – behind one of the islands – and nodded. He was crying. Somehow, he looked more frightened now than before the demon attack.

  Garnet rose and stood in front of Josh. “That was pretty hard-core there, Mr. Wilkinson. I didn’t know you were capable of that.”

  Josh shook his head. He could not look her in the eyes. “I’m not sure that was me.”

  Garnet raised her eyebrows. “Then who was it?”

  Josh remembered the man in his mind, the creature in a living tuxedo. For a moment it felt like the creature had taken control of his body. “You wouldn’t believe me. You’d think I was crazy.”

  “Whatever. It worked. We’re alive. That’s all that matters now. You knew him from somewhere, didn’t you?”

  “He’s one of the psychos from Quebec, the ones Wisdom rescued me from.”

  “That’s funny.” Garnet examined the wounds around Josh’s neck.

  “Weird is an understatement.” Josh stepped back away from her prying eyes and fingers. Then she gave him a look that froze him in place.