The Shadow Box: Paranormal Suspense and Dark Fantasy Thriller Novels

by Travis Luedke

  “No, not funny as in weird, funny as in ridiculous. You think Wisdom rescued you? That’s flippin’ hilarious.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Garnet, you should be nice to him. He might kill you, too.”

  “Hey! I’m not going to…”

  “Just kidding.” Jared broke out into a bright smile. He danced over to the demon’s body and kicked it in the head.

  Josh went pale. “You know, Jared, you’re a very troubled kid. What do you mean, Garnet? He did rescue me. If it wasn’t for him, those freaks would have killed me.”

  Garnet laughed, but there was no humor in it. “Honey, if it wasn’t for Wisdom, freaks like that probably wouldn’t exist. Don’t get me wrong. I love the big guy – as much as you can love someone like that – but there’s so much about him you don’t know. There’s even a bit I don’t know about him. The parts I do know help me to realize he never rescues anyone. He might recruit you, but saving you was the last thing on his mind.”

  Jared kicked the demon in the head again. This time the skull flopped about on the broken neck with a series of crackles.

  “Can you please stop that?”

  “Come on! How often am I going to get to play with a dead demon? This is sooo cool.”

  Josh was not sure if he was going to throw up on or throw something at Jared. ‘Have to be careful,’ he thought. ‘I might just kill him by accident.’

  Jared smiled again, this time not so brightly. “Don’t count on that, mister.”

  Josh blushed. ‘Oh my god. I forgot he could read minds. Which means he’s probably still reading my mind.’

  With a snicker, Jared kicked the demon’s head once more and then walked over to Josh.

  “I told you he was a demon, didn’t I?”

  “Yeah. It’s just, he doesn’t look like a demon, does he?”

  “He does on the inside. You know, you have a lot of weird things in your head, too. It’s like you put parts of yourself into little boxes in your mind and thrown away the key. I could help you open those boxes.”

  “Another time.”

  “You can’t always rely on what you see,” Jared said. “Maybe this demon can change his appearance. Maybe he doesn’t really look like this at all.”

  “That’s a lot of maybes.”

  “Have you ever seen a demon before?”

  Josh shivered. ‘Who or what exactly was that thing in my head?’

  “Oh yes,” Jared said with a smile. “I guess you have.”

  Josh turned away. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Not yet. But you will.”

  Chapter Twenty

  David looked over the secret city below. Tall sand-colored spires rose on either side of dust-covered streets. Deep-cut stairs followed the outer wall of the canyon heading to the lower level. The stairs looked solid but the edges were cracked and worn. As they came closer to the city, he made out landmarks that made it more and more difficult to think of the Edimmu as simple winged monsters. Several open city squares lay covered with layers of dust. In one of them, seven forty-foot tall peacocks encircled a dry fountain. Dozens of smaller statues dotted the city: life-sized replicas of sleek humanoid figures with massive wingspans.

  “I’m starting to envy the Edimmu,” he said. “I’d love their wings right about now. At this rate it’ll take hours to reach the city.”

  “You could always jump,” Jessica said. She walked close to Elaine, but she was moving much more easily now. The wounds were scabbing over, the bruises fading. The speed of her healing unnerved David.

  “Are you getting anything from Echo?” he asked for the third time.

  Jessica turned to him, put her hands on her hips, and said nothing.

  “I was just asking.” David focused his eyes on his feet.

  Below, mosaics of turquoise and onyx splayed across several of the larger buildings. One showed a reptilian face, forked tongue out to the side in what seemed to be a smile. The series of white figures to the side of the face reminded him of hieroglyphics. Another mosaic was troubling for another reason. It showed two small reptilian creatures without wings riding the back of what could only be a pterodactyl. Either the Edimmu had been around since the dinosaurs or the mosaic was an advertisement for a children’s fantasy book. He wasn’t sure which idea was more unsettling.

  “Can we rest for a sec?” Todd sat down on the edge of step. He put a hand to his ribcage.

  Elaine set her guns aside and sat cross-legged with her back to the outer wall. “Once we’re down, we need to find shelter. There should be running water in some of the buildings. Echo told me the aqueducts are still sound.”

  “I’m hungry,” Jessica paced back and forth along the steps. “What are we going to do for food?”

  “Echo stored supplies down here last week, just in case. See that square with the dry fountain? There’s a wooden crate near one of the peacocks. It’s filled with dried goods and bottled water. She said there would be enough for 50 people to survive a few weeks. I’m hoping it doesn’t come to that. Echo’s still around somewhere. Even if she’s not, Wisdom knows we’re here. Someone will come for us.”

  ‘What if no one comes?’ David thought. He looked over at Todd. He saw the same fear he felt echoed in the other man’s eyes.

  David cleared his throat. “How you holding up? I’m surprised you can even move after what they did to you.”

  “It’s one of my EFHBs. PK. Psychokinesis. I can move things with my mind. I’m not as strong as Jessica, but it’s enough to keep a kind of mental splinter around parts of my body. I’ve got three broken ribs, a shattered ankle, and a fractured shin. Plus, I think my arm is toast.” He looked over at Jessica. “I feel bad for her. Her PK is different. It’s better for heavy lifting but hard to manage for small jobs.”

  “I don’t need your sympathy.” Her voice was weak. She coughed and brushed away a loose strand of hair. The hair she pushed away fell stubbornly back into place. She brushed it away again, her eyes wet with tears. “I’ll be fine.”

  ***

  An hour later they stepped off the last stair and entered the city. Walking through block after block of abandoned buildings unnerved David. The shadows, like the light, were dim and ill-defined but numerous. Each window was a square of darkness, each doorway a portal away from the light.

  Though the buildings were made of stone, there was an organic quality he found disturbingly familiar. Several blocks into the city, he realized what they reminded him of: honeycombs. The buildings reminded him of the inner workings of a beehive. Everything felt connected. He could not even distinguish where the floor of the large cavern ended and the buildings began. Entire blocks of buildings seemed to have been carved out of the rock at the same time. The interconnectedness made the city feel like the skeleton of a giant.

  “This place is massive,” he said. “It’s at least as large as Halifax back home. How is this possible?”

  Todd stared up at the tall vacant buildings. “I don’t know. There’s enough housing here for hundreds of thousands of people. What I don’t get is how they lived underground. What did they do for food?”

  “I don’t think people lived here,” David said. “It was Edimmu. Can you imagine those things living in a place like this? I mean, look over there. Either I’m nuts or there’s more of those glowing spheres, the same ones up in Echo’s apartment. That means those things were advanced enough thousands of years ago to have electricity.”

  “And where the hell is all this light coming from?” Todd looked at the ceiling. “Those spheres are nowhere bright enough to light up the whole city.”

  “How is it we know nothing about them? How can a society just get erased from the history books?”

  “You have heard about them,” Elaine said. “They built these cities a long time ago, back when they were in control. There was a time when the people around here called them gods. The lizards taught them things – how to farm, write, forge steel. Stuff l
ike that. They’re all over the Bible. Of course, most of the stuff about them was taken out once the Canon was set.”

  Jessica squinted her eyes. “Are you talking about angels?”

  When he didn’t hear an answer, David looked over at Elaine. She was nodding. Then she stopped. “If you have questions, ask Wisdom. There are things I’m not at liberty to discuss with you Anomalies.”

  “Why do you talk to me like that? The way you call me an Anomaly makes it sound like I’m not even human. I told you, I’m not a monster. I am just as human as you are. I can just do stuff.”

  Elaine sniffed and shook her head. “Whatever gets you through the night.”

  “Goddamn it! Why do you all think I’m not human? I’m not the spawn of Satan! I have a mother and a father, you know.”

  Again, Elaine shook her head. When she finally spoke again, it was the last thing he expected to hear. “When Wisdom gets back, ask him about your parents. You don’t know as much as you think.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  After they found the supplies, they settled into one of the abandoned houses. A cursory look at the provisions confirmed there was enough food and water to keep the four of them alive for months.

  David found a corner and ate a quick meal of dried fruit and canned beans. The silence and the sore muscles began to work on him. Despite the dirt floors and the stale air in the ancient underground city, he felt exhausted. He leaned his head back. The second he touched the wall, his mind went somewhere else.

  ***

  Once again he stood on the rooftop. He watched the Edimmu city burn, smoke rising to the stone ceiling. Inhuman screams rang out in all directions. A guttural whisper, both intangible and irresistible, filled the air. Something was in the shadows, swarming the city and killing Edimmu.

  With a jerky abruptness, the vision changed. The flames died out, revealing a different horror. Lines of Edimmu, shackled and yoked together, marched in tight formation through the streets toward turbulent ovals of darkness. The ovals swirled like black holes; stripes of bright blue light clearly defined eddies and ridges within them. The Edimmu walked, heads lowered, into the black portal. They didn’t reappear on the other side. They were simply gone. Soon the last of the Edimmu disappeared into the darkness.

  And the streets of the city were empty.

  David heard the whimper of the abandoned metropolis. It screamed for vengeance.

  Then he was flying. His mind pulled off the roof and into the darkness. He stood before a mirror, seeing not himself but the body of an Edimmu. Then he flew into the mirror, through it to the other side.

  He floated above cages and enclosed pens filled with Edimmu. All around the cages, vaguely-humanoid shapes moved. Many were masses of viscous pus, abscessed flesh and bleeding sores that bore no similarity at all to humans. Some had tentacles that flapped in the air. Others were hideously misshapen dwarves. At least one, in the distance appeared to be a mutated Tyrannosaurus Rex with vestigial wings. There were several thousands of them, hundreds of thousands stretching in every direction.

  And at the middle of the place, just on the horizon, was a large body of black water. A Black Sea.

  “It is called the Axeinus,” a voice nearby said. David whirled to see who was talking to him. He nearly screamed, but was stunned into silence when he saw the source. An Edimmu. Age sat heavy upon the reptoid who, although hairless, gave the impression of being gray. He was dressed in flowing red robes that hid most of his body.

  “This is where they held us,” the Edimmu said. “After the fall of Atlantis, they were gone from the world for a time. When they returned, they sought a new work force. They found us. We remained their slaves for three hundred years. Then Propates found us. He rescued us. He’s our savior. He could be your savior, too. If you stop fighting, we can teach you many things. If you continue to fight, you and the Anomalies will end up just as we did. Slaves to a dark power.”

  “I will not be a slave,” David said.

  The Edimmu reached out and touched David’s face. “Child, you already are one.”

  ***

  David woke, leaping away from the wall.

  ‘Was that real?’ He stood, moving silently to not wake the others. Jessica and Todd had nodded off nearby. ‘It felt stronger than last time. Clearer. If what I saw was real, maybe the Edimmu aren’t the real enemy. Maybe what we need to be worried about are the creatures on the other side of the mirror. The things that live in the Axeinus.’

  Elaine stood in the hallway looking out through a large open window. She scanned the empty streets, hands on the submachine gun. She didn’t turn around as he approached, but when she spoke it was apparent she knew exactly where he was.

  “You should still be sleeping. Your injuries are just as bad as the others'.”

  “I feel okay,” David stopped beside her and looked out the window. “Looks like I heal fast, too. Besides, I don’t sleep much. Never have. Too many bad dreams. Not the kind you talk about.”

  “Makes sense. Wisdom thinks one of your EFHBs is psychometry. It means you can feel things by touching them. This place must be wreaking havoc on you. Bad things happened here. What did you see?”

  David shifted on his feet. “Edimmu. They were taken away, enslaved by shadowy monsters. It felt so real.”

  Elaine looked at him briefly out of the corner of her eye. She let her eyes drop down the front of his body until they reached his abdomen. She smiled.

  David’s face turned completely red. Suddenly, it was very hard for him to breathe. In the dim light, he found her suddenly beautiful. Involuntarily, he took a step closer to her.

  Elaine went deathly pale. “Oh God.” She turned away from David quickly, her voice dropping to a whisper. “Goddamn you, Wisdom. Please tell me I didn’t...”

  David frowned. “Didn’t do what?” He wanted to tell her how beautiful she looked, how he envied her strength, but his instinct told him to stay quiet. He took another step toward her.

  Elaine leaned against the wall, a genuine sparkle in her eyes. “Nothing,” she said. “Forget I said anything. I should sleep.” She turned from the window and slid her back down the wall until she was sitting on the floor. “Do me a favor? Just stay awake for the next little bit. Wake me the second you see or feel anything strange.”

  David stared down at her. She raised her head, smiled and winked her left eye.

  ‘What the hell was that all about?’ He shook his head and left Elaine. He heard a cough and a curse from the nearby room. He walked briskly down the hall and arrived in time to see Todd help Jessica to her feet. There was blood on her lower lip.

  “I don’t know about this.” Todd looked at Jessica with wide wet eyes. His face was pale and, despite the cool air, he was sweating profusely.

  “You don’t have to ‘know’ anything. Besides, Ms. Ryerson put me in charge. That means you have to do what I say, right? So stop being a baby and just do it already.”

  “God! How did you get to be such a witch?” Todd grunted as he helped Jessica move to the center of the room. His voice, though still a sort of whisper, was much harsher now than it had been. “Ms. Ryerson put you in charge for like ten minutes. Elaine’s here now. As far as I am concerned, that means she’s in charge. Let’s run it by her before….”

  “We don’t have time for that. I told you. Twice. I’m bleeding inside. If I don’t stop it, all my blood is going to end up in my stomach or someplace like that. If I don’t have any in my veins, I’ll die, right? So you’ve got to close up my wounds with your PK. I’ll mind-link with you, tell you what to do. It’ll be that simple. I’d do it myself if I could, but you have way more control and finesse than me. Don’t smile like that. It doesn’t mean anything. Not really. And don’t even say what you are thinking because I can tell what you’re thinking and it’s not something you should ever say to me. Ever.”

  David felt his eyes go wide. Any second now he expected her to say ‘I’ll tell my mother on you.’

  �
�Don’t you start, Mr. Ross,” Jessica said. “I can hear your thoughts, too. Would you like me to tell Elaine you want to sleep with her?”

  “Hey! I never said that.”

  “Don’t worry,” she said. “I won’t say anything. Sadly, I think she wants to sleep with you, too. Adults are just ridiculous. Now if Todd here doesn’t stop being so Todd-like and do what I’m telling him to do, I won’t be able to say much of anything much longer.”

  Todd frowned. “What does that mean, ‘so Todd-like’?”

  Jessica coughed. More blood came to her lips. Todd became even paler. “You know, you’re right, Todd,” she said. “Maybe if you just whine enough, my internal bleeding will stop. Now get over here and help me get this shirt off.”

  Todd hesitated a moment longer, then walked over to Jessica. He slipped the tattered shirt over her dislocated shoulder and off her body. Seeing such serious wounds on such a small body reminded him of made-for-TV movies about child abuse. What kind of person was Wisdom that he could put someone so young in a position like this?

  “Jesus,” Todd said. “You’re nothing but bruises. I’m afraid to touch you anywhere.” He handed the torn shirt back to Jessica. She grabbed it like a towel in her left hand and used it to wipe sweat from her forehead.

  “Is it the bruises or are you just afraid to get more blood on your delicate hands? Besides, who said anything about touching me? Keep your hands to yourself. Just hold them out. Yeah, that’s right. Point them at me. It will help direct the power.”

  “What if I use too much power? I could snap something by mistake. This is too dangerous.”

  “It’s not as dangerous as doing nothing. I’ll let you know how much to use. We’re mind-linking, remember?”

  “At least lie down. What if you slip?”

  “If I lie down you won’t be able to move the bones the way you need to. You could end up pushing a bone down into the floor instead of back into place.”