Darkness Falls

by Melissa R. L. Simonin

  “No, honey,” Miles said. “I’d carry you.”

  I laughed, and he smiled.

  I tucked my hand in Miles’ arm, and he opened our bedroom door. Like a flash, two gray streaks shot past us and onto the bed, where they then had a minor squabble over who got which side.

  “Break it up kids,” I said, “or your Dad’s going to have to separate you two again.”

  Maybe they remembered, because they lay down and then winked lazily at us, as if they’d been lying there for hours. Squabble? What squabble?

  “The pictures of innocence, aren’t they,” said Miles. “They take after their Mom.”

  I laughed and almost succeeded in slugging Miles’ arm, but he was too quick for me, and smiling, he caught my hand before I could make contact.

  We left our room and walked down the hall. Miles led the way straight to the elevator and didn’t even ask this time, since I was wearing heels.

  As we reached the first floor and the elevator doors slid open, the knocker on the double front doors sounded.

  “Perfect timing!” I said, and we walked through the entryway to greet our guests.

  “Pastor Gary, Annie, come on in,” Miles smiled, as he opened the doors wide. “It’s good to see you both.”

  Miles and Pastor Gary shook hands while Annie and I gave each other a hug.

  “Thank you for inviting us,” said Annie.

  “We’re delighted to have you,” I said, leading the way to the parlor.

  “We’re looking forward to hearing about your week,” Pastor Gary said.

  “We’re looking forward to telling you about it,” Miles replied. “We’ve had some interesting developments.”

  Grandma Polly stood to greet our guests as we entered the parlor, and soon we made our way to the dining room.

  “Your home is just lovely,” said Annie.

  Grandma Polly and I both looked at each other and smiled.

  “Thank you,” we said together, and Annie laughed.

  “Although,” said Grandma Polly, “it is really more Anika’s home than mine, now.”

  “That isn’t a bit true,” I said, giving Grandma Polly a one-armed hug as we walked. “Tell her, Miles.”

  “Your home is right here, Grandma Polly. Don’t even think about trying to make one somewhere else. You’ll have to clear it through me, and that isn’t going to happen.”

  Grandma Polly laughed.

  “You children are very sweet. I’m thankful to have you, both of you.”

  “We’re thankful for you too, Grandma Polly,” said Miles.

  “Do you expect to spend many of your weekends in Cedar Oaks this year?” asked Annie.

  “When Grandma Polly’s in town, yes, we’ll want to see her,” I said. “We’re hoping she’ll come see us in Glen Haven, too.”

  “I intend to, dear. I’d like to see where you two live when you’re at college, and try out that guest room you keep telling me about.”

  “I’m trying to remember,” said Pastor Gary. “Do you attend the same church as Jenny and Xander?”

  “Yes, we do,” said Miles.

  “Last year we spent our weekends here until Christmas break,” I reminded him. “Jenny didn’t. So when we began to stay there on weekends, the first church we tried was the one she went to. That’s where we stayed.”

  “I know the pastor there,” said Pastor Gary. “How are he and his family doing? It’s been a little while since I heard.”

  “They’re doing well,” said Miles.

  “They just had their third baby,” I added.

  “I imagine they’ve got their hands full, no wonder we haven’t heard from them,” said Annie.

  We reached the dining room and were seated. Dinner was excellent, and talk remained light. I enjoyed visiting with Grandma Polly and our guests, but my mind was distracted by wondering if Pastor Gary and Annie would have any insight into all that we’d learned since we saw them just a week ago.

  Dinner came to an end, and Miles and I led the way to Mission Control. On the way there, Grandma Polly said good night.

  “You’ve things you need to talk over, and it’s past my bedtime,” she smiled, as she thanked our guests for coming, and gave Miles and I each a hug. “I’ll see you two bright and early for breakfast.”

  “If by bright and early you mean eight thirty, then yes,” said Miles, and I managed not to laugh.

  “Of course, dear,” said Grandma Polly, patting Miles’ arm as she left us on her way to her room. “I won’t send out a search party if I don’t see you before then.”

  “But a minute past that, we can expect a knock at our door,” Miles said softly, and I had to clamp my hand over my mouth to keep from laughing out loud.

  We reached Mission Control. The day had turned stormy and overcast, and a cold breeze blew outside, justifying the fire that burned brightly in the fireplace, warming the two big dogs lying in front of it.

  “Have they been here all day?” I wondered.

  “Probably not the entire day,” said Miles, then turning to Pastor Gary and Annie he motioned and said, “Please, have a seat.”

  We all did, Miles and me on our favorite loveseat, and Pastor Gary and Annie on another.

  Almost immediately one of the servers wheeled in a cart with dessert and coffee. I’ll bet he’s thankful for the elevator, too!

  “Thank you,” said Annie, as I handed her a dessert plate that held a generous slice of white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake. “Your chef is absolutely wonderful.”

  “Thank you, and he is,” I agreed, as I handed a plate to Pastor Gary, and one to Miles.

  “He’s excellent,” said Miles.

  “Who remembered this was my favorite though, Chef, or you?” I asked Miles.

  “I have a feeling Chef remembered, but I did put a request in for it,” said Miles. I smiled and kissed his cheek before taking a bite of the cheesecake.

  Miles glanced toward the open door, and it closed and locked, giving us privacy so that we could talk openly.

  “I can’t get over how you can do that,” said Pastor Gary. “I never dreamed this sort of ability existed outside of the movies.”

  “I’m very thankful Miles has the abilities that he does,” I said. “He’s saved me more than once by using them.”

  We told Pastor Gary and Annie everything we learned about my abilities in the week since we saw them. There was a lot!

  “This is beyond anything we expected,” said Pastor Gary. “We met just last Friday, and at that time you’d only heard the splintered voice and had no idea what it was.”

  “It was the very next day that I heard the voice clearly for the first time. It’s grown stronger ever since. I’m not able to focus for very long in large crowds, so it’s overwhelming at times. I’m practicing though, and getting better.”

  “You’re doing great,” said Miles. “It’s amazing what you’ve been able to learn so quickly.”

  “Think of the difference you’ll be able to make in people’s lives,” said Annie thoughtfully.

  “It will be very satisfying to put Rob Westin away for Ryan Mead’s murder,” I said. “What he did… it was terrible. And to the one guy who’d been his friend. I don’t know if he’s guilty of other deaths, or not. But there won’t be any more, after he’s convicted for what he’s done.”

  “Imagine the asset you’d be to law enforcement if only they knew what you’re capable of. They’d know right away if they were investigating the wrong person or not, and wouldn’t waste resources on an innocent person,” said Pastor Gary.

  “We feel very strongly about keeping our involvement in solving this case and any other, a secret,” said Miles. “Neither of us want the attention.”

  “I can prove what I can do,” I said. “That doesn’t mean I’d be believed. We’d end up investigated ourselves. That would be a huge waste of our time and hamper our own ability to search for the truth.”

  “It would,” said Annie. “You don’t want so
meone else choosing how to use your ability, either. You’ll be led where you need to investigate.”

  “Until Anika came along, no one had any idea Ryan Mead was murdered,” said Miles. “Much less that the murderer stole his identity.”

  “Good point,” said Pastor Gary.

  “Realizing a murder’s been committed and finding evidence to prove it is one thing that I can do, but I’d like to help people so that they aren’t murdered in the first place.”

  “As in missing persons?” asked Miles.

  “Yes,” I said. “When I think of that, I feel positive. I’ll do whatever is placed in front of me, but that’s what I’d choose to seek out if I have a choice.”

  “You do have a choice,” said Miles. “And I feel positive about that, also.”

  “With your abilities combined, I can imagine you’d be good at it,” said Pastor Gary. “No locks would stand in your way if you determined where a missing person was being held.”

  “Nothing else could stand in Miles’ way, either,” I said. “A person could be armed, and it wouldn’t do them any more good than a cup of scalding coffee.”

  “Scalding coffee?” asked Pastor Gary.

  “When class started on Wednesday, Rob Westin pretended to trip, and hurled a full cup of steaming coffee at me,” I said. “If Miles hadn’t been watching via the webcam, and intervened, I would have been badly burned. Instead of hitting me, it went all over Rob Westin.”

  “I’m so glad you weren’t hurt!” Annie exclaimed. “I don’t know why it shocks me that Westin would do that, knowing what else the man has done, but it does.”

  “That’s terrible, I’m glad you weren’t injured,” said Pastor Gary.

  “Anika dropped the class after that incident,” said Miles. “No one in class could have done anything to stop that, it happened too fast and was so unexpected. If the webcam feed had been interrupted, then she would have been on her own.”

  “So… what prompted you to choose sending the coffee back at Rob Westin?” asked Pastor Gary.

  “I had several options,” said Miles. “Send the coffee off to one side. Send it straight down onto the desk and cause it to roll uphill and over the front edge and onto the floor. Send it back into the cup, and keep it there. Or, send it back at Westin.”

  “He suspects that Miles has abilities as a result of the brain injury that Second-Miles had. He was testing to see if that was true or not. He must think you can see through walls too, because he doesn’t know about the webcams. I’m sure of that,” I said. “If you’d done anything other than send it back at him, it would have been obvious to everyone that supernatural forces were involved, and that would be very bad.”

  “True,” said Miles. “Most importantly, it sent a message to Westin. If he attempts to harm Anika, he’s the one who’s going to get burned.”

  “If Miles wanted to injure him or take revenge, if that’s what you’re wondering, he would have sent the coffee into his face. That’s what Westin tried to do to me.”

  “Don’t think I wasn’t tempted,” said Miles, putting his arm around me.

  “I understand, Anika,” said Pastor Gary. “Miles could do much worse than that if he wanted to. I suppose I was wondering why he didn’t. If someone were to try and harm Annie,b and I had that kind of power… to be completely transparent, I’m not sure I’d stop at that.”

  “In anyone else’s hands this kind of power would be dangerous,” I said. “Miles is different. He can be trusted with it.”

  “I wasn’t easily angered and didn’t tend to react even before I became semi-transparent. Then, during those years of isolation I had a great deal of practice at being patient and in thinking things through before acting.”

  “Miles has amazing reflexes too,” I said. “In a situation where the rest of us would be reacting, he somehow manages to think things through and choose an action, instead.”

  “I wondered, when he mentioned all of the options available after Rob Westin hurled the coffee at you. So you really had time to consider all of those things?” asked Annie.

  “Well… it didn’t take much time, but yes,” said Miles.

  “When George Frank tried to shoot me, I thought he succeeded. When I realized I wasn’t covered in blood, and that Miles had his abilities again, I said I supposed it was the water bottle that hit me in the chest. You’ll never guess what he said. Miles apologized! He apologized, and said he had to stop the bullet and disarm and disable George first, but that he got to the water bottle as soon as he could.”

  “That’s amazing,” said Pastor Gary.

  “It is, completely amazing,” said Annie. “I can’t even imagine being able to think and act that quickly.”

  “I’ve always had good reflexes by other people’s standards even without my abilities. Not like this, though. They’re a part of the abilities that I have.”

  “You’re amazing, and I feel very safe with you,” I said as I pressed my cheek against his shoulder.

  “It concerns me what Westin may try next, though,” said Miles. “I picked Anika up from class that Wednesday and as we left, he said he wasn’t the only one with something to lose if certain secrets came to light.”

  Pastor Gary and Annie looked worried.

  “Miles said anything Westin thought he knew about us, would only make people question his own sanity, and we left,” I added.

  “I’m making certain that Anika isn’t alone when she’s outside of our apartment, but no one else has the ability to protect her like I do. I’m considering dropping the classes we don’t have together so that I can focus on keeping her safe, at least until we have this guy put away.”

  Pastor Gary and Annie nodded, but I didn’t!

  “Miles, I hate to think of you doing that! Please don’t,” I said.

  “We can talk it over later. It’s something I’m thinking about, though.”

  Ugh. I didn’t want him to feel he needed to do that. I hoped our PI would get things figured out soon, and get this guy turned in to the authorities, so that Miles’ mind would be relieved.

  “Getting back to what we were talking about earlier,” said Miles. “We need to come up with a reason why we’re getting involved in missing persons’ cases. Otherwise, we’ll have the same issue we just talked about. We’ll be putting ourselves under suspicion of being involved.”

  “True,” I said. “I’ll bet we can figure—oh my goodness, Miles!”

  “What?” he asked, smiling as I bounced up and down beside him on the loveseat, in my excitement. “Watch out, I’ll be calling you Fidget again.”

  I thought about that briefly.

  “That’s not the truth, you know I don’t like that,” I said, and Miles, Annie, and Pastor Gary all laughed.

  “I’m finding it difficult to tease her about anything anymore,” Miles said.

  “That’s not the truth either,” I smiled. “You can tease me all you want. You just can’t fool me.”

  “Okay. Good to know,” laughed Miles. “I’ve always enjoyed teasing you, so I won’t stop.”

  “I’ll play along sometimes for your sake, because I love you,” I said.

  “Thanks, I appreciate that,” smiled Miles. “So what did you just figure out?”

  “Oh! The Bannerman Foundation.”

  “Anika, that’s brilliant! It’s a perfect fit!” said Miles. He was as excited about the idea as I was, except he wasn’t bouncing. “You are so smart, in addition to being talented and beautiful.”

  I smiled, loving how he praised me. He did that a lot, but I never grew tired of it.

  “That’s an excellent way to make a difference in people’s lives,” said Pastor Gary. He was excited about the idea, too.

  “Your combined abilities are ideal for that,” said Annie.

  “They are,” I agreed. “I love this.”

  “Imagine being able to reunite children and their families!” said Annie.

  “This is great. I love this, Anika. We’ll talk mor
e about it later, and figure out the details of how the program will be run,” said Miles. “Then I’ll set it up.”

  “Perfect,” I said, hugging him.

  Miles hugged me back, then moved the conversation to an area of concern that we had.

  “Today, after Anika observed the truth of Ryan Mead’s murder, she was in darkness,” he said.

  “It was darker than anything that exists on earth,” I added.

  “Darker than our cave without flashlights,” said Miles. “That’ll give you an idea of how extreme this was.”

  “I was stuck there for a long time. There was no sound, and I was terrified. Eventually I remembered what you said last week, Pastor Gary, about Truth being the enemy of darkness. So I prayed for help, and there was a blinding flash of intense light. Then I found myself back in our room with Miles again.”

  “No time passed for me, but to Anika it felt like hours,” Miles said. “My concern is this. Why was I not able to protect her from that darkness?”

  Trix sat up and shook. We all looked at her, and she looked at Pastor Gary and Annie, then walked to Miles and sat down. They looked at each other for several seconds.

  “Trix says that I did protect you. She said that now, maybe we understand how important it is that I be with you when you encounter this darkness, even when examining the truth that you learn. Some truth contains darkness.”

  “That’s… amazing,” said Pastor Gary, his eyes on Trixie. “I believed you before, but to see you two communicate myself…”

  “We need a new word,” said Annie. “Amazing doesn’t do this justice.”

  “Trix has been my friend since the day we met,” said Miles. He patted his knees and she placed her front paws there and stood, and he hugged her.

  “You don’t get more faithful than this,” I said, scratching behind her ears. She smiled and put her paws back on the floor, then rested her chin on my lap.

  “I’m starting to think she likes you better than she does me,” said Miles. There was a teasing light in his eyes, and I knew he didn’t really think that. For a few seconds, Trixie looked at him seriously though.

  “Good save, Trix,” Miles smiled, then said to the rest of us, “Trix loves Anika because she makes me happy. So in a way, Trix said loving Anika shows just how much she loves me.”