Hidden Darkness

by May, W. J.

  “Are you going down there to bother him again?” she accused, pointing a finger at his chest when he stopped and waited for her to catch up.

  “No,” he said quickly, “I was going to try to find you.” A rather roguish grin crept up the side of his face and his eyes twinkled as he stared down at her. “That was quite the speech you gave. I didn’t know you had it in you, Rae Kerrigan.”

  She grinned reluctantly back. “Yeah, you two bloody deserved it! What were you thinking? Howling at each other like a pack of wild dogs.”

  “I was trying the tough-love approach.”

  Her delicate eyebrows shot up to her hair and she put her hands on her hips. “The tough-love approach? Really? That’s the best you’ve got?”

  He chuckled and clasped his hands together before lowering his circled arms around her waist. “That’s the best I’ve got.” He pulled her closer and kissed the top of her head. “I just hate waiting, you know? I’d rather be moving, hitting the action right in the face. I’m better at fighting, saving the day, charging straight into the path of the enemy.”

  “Well,” she smiled coquettishly up at him, “I can help you out with at least one of those…”

  He inclined his head with a slow grin, bringing his lips to hers. “Is that right?”

  “That’s right,” she whispered. She waited until he’d closed his eyes before smacking him in the cheek. His eyes flew open and she stared back with a smirk. “I didn’t say which one…”

  He chuckled again, rubbing his jaw. “Nicely played, Kerrigan.”

  She moved to the side; she’d barely touched his face and knew it didn’t hurt him. She wouldn’t have hit him hard, and he knew it as well. She waved over the back of her head as she headed down the stairs. “Leave Julian alone. I’ll be back soon.”

  The Bolivian summer sun temporarily blinded her the second she stepped outside, and she took a moment to adjust. She couldn’t get over how different everything was here; from the air, to the temperature, to the people, to the very colors themselves. London was all slate greys and dark blues, even in the summer. But here? She fell in step with the slow-moving crowd heading down the street to the open air market. While the sky was a bright aquamarine, the roads and the houses upon them were a warm shade of rusty brown. Multi-colored blankets and curtains hung from open windows, and every now and then the mismatched diorama would be broken up with a vibrant splash of green.

  Rae loved it. She loved the colors, the pace, even the overly-friendly people who waved to her as she passed by their shops. Everything about it was unspoiled; the perfect antithesis of what life was like back in England right now.

  But, unfortunately, she and her friends had brought some of that life with them, and she didn’t want it to ruin the magic of the city. It was exactly what had brought her to the market. If they were really trying to take every precaution, then step one was simple: they had to blend in.

  “Excuse me?” she asked in fluent Spanish as she ducked into a little clothing store. “How much for that jacket? I love it.”

  The shopkeeper’s eyes twinkled as he grabbed it down for her off the rack. “For you, my dear? Half price.”

  Rae grinned and quickly grabbed three more. Like she’d said, she loved it.

  When she got back to the hotel two hours later, decked out with enough clothes for a small army, her friends were nowhere to be seen. The sun was already setting over the hills, dotting the horizon, and she hadn’t seen them on the streets. She hastily checked all three rooms, growing more and more anxious with each passing second before she finally went tearing down to the front desk.

  “Excuse me,” she gasped, reaching full-out panic mode, “do you happen to know where my friends went? There are three of them, two guys and a girl? The girl is tiny; the boys spent the whole day shouting? Both of them are quite handsome. Different kinds of handsome. One is mysterious, long hair, distinct features. The other is dark haired as well, but model-perfect. Fit, tall, gorgeous. He’s breath-taking just to look at. I’d have never thought in a million years he’d date someone like me.” She blinked suddenly, realizing how ridiculous she sounded.

  The old receptionist laughed hoarsely. “Yes, miss, and you didn’t have to describe them to me. By now, the entire town knows you’re here. The four crazy kids from England.”

  “Right,” Rae mumbled, her face turning red. She’d bought those clothes just in time.

  “When I saw them last, they were heading to the pub. Just two doors down.”

  Rae looked up in surprise. “The pub?” It was the last place she would have guessed.

  “Yes, and, at this point, I’d be surprised if you couldn’t find them. They’re pretty hard to miss. By looks, and sound.” He chuckled as she thanked him and left.

  * * *

  “Rae! RAE!”

  The pub—more of a bar—was a virtual circus, but Rae heard Devon yelling the second she walked inside. Her eyes shot around and found him in an instant, waving as if his life depended on it. All her senses went into overdrive as she darted through the crowded room as quickly as decorum would allow, scanning for signs of trouble along the way. So far, nothing. But Devon’s dilated eyes sent chills up her spine.

  She pushed herself even faster, rudely elbowing people out of her way. When she finally made it to the other side, she found her boyfriend slumped happily against the wall, holding a half-empty bottle of beer, and sharing a table for two with a man who looked as old as Cromfield should be, had he aged properly.

  “Thank goodness you’re here!” he gasped before she could say anything. His face was suddenly as serious as she’d ever seen it. “I need to introduce you to Phil.”

  Phil? Who? What the hell?

  “Is this her?” the man named ‘Phil’ croaked, looking Rae up and down appraisingly.

  “Yep,” Devon shot him a proud grin, “I told you, right?”

  The man nodded slowly, studying Rae’s look of surprise with a critical eye. “Well done.”

  “Cheers!”

  They clinked bottles as Rae stared on in amazement.

  “What the…?” She grabbed the bottle from Devon’s hand just as she realized the table between them was littered with at least twenty more. “Are you…are you drunk?”

  Phil leaned forward like some sort of coach. “Now, this is where you need to set a precedent,” he said wisely. “If you give her an inch now, she’ll start hounding you for the rest of your married lives.”

  Rae’s mouth fell open. “Married lives?” She turned to Devon, who promptly turned a sickly shade of green. “What exactly have you been telling this guy?!”

  “I didn’t say we were married,” he recovered quickly, pulling himself unsteadily to his feet, “I just said I wanted us to be married.”

  Her heart froze in her chest as he stared back at her with an unfocused smile. “You…” she began hesitantly, trying to get a handle on things. “You know what? You know what’s really great about what you just said?”

  He draped his arm heavily across her shoulders and pulled her in for a sloppy kiss. “What’s that, darling?”

  She stroked his face sympathetically as he smiled sweetly into her eyes. “You, darling, are not going to remember a bit of this in the morning.”

  He scoffed, as if she was being ridiculous, before turning back to her with a suddenly blank expression, clearly having no idea what they were just talking about. “Sorry…what?”

  She fought the urge to roll her eyes, and put a supportive arm around his waist as she guided him drunkenly to a table in the corner. “Don’t you worry about it.” She glanced back with a sarcastic wave. “Nice meeting you, Phil.”

  “Prost!” he toasted her.

  “Now,” she said as she settled Devon into a chair, “what inane part of you thought it would be a good idea to get wasted at the local Bolivian bar?”

  The kinds of questions a girl had to ask her boyfriend…

  “Come on, Rae,” he slurred, twirling her hair cl
umsily between his fingers, “you basically told me to go.”

  She pulled back with an incredulous look on her face. “What? How in the world do you figure that?”

  “You told me to go find Julian.”

  “I told you to stay away from Julian!”

  He patted her arm consolingly. “I knew what you meant. Anyway, he was so tired and frustrated with this whole ‘visions’ thing, he decided to come over here to blow off some steam. He asked Molly if she wanted to come, too, and you know I couldn’t leave those two alone.” He hiccupped adorably. “There’s no telling what sort of shenanigans they could get themselves into.”

  For the first time since she got there, Rae looked around, suddenly remembering that Devon was not the only one to have strayed off the reservation that night.

  The hotel receptionist was right. It was almost too easy to find them.

  Molly was sitting on a throne-like chair in the middle of the room, preaching a group of rough-and-tumble men a sermon on what sounded suspiciously like shoes. “…And so, it’s really just more about finding the right pair of heels for you, you know? You find the heels, you find yourself. It’s kind of an existench…existall—Julian, what’s the word?”

  “Existential,” he murmured, his eyes never leaving the wall.

  Julian was heavily involved in what looked like a game of darts, only most of the darts were broken on the floor, and the thing he was aiming now with such precision was half a pencil.

  “Game point,” he muttered to the lethal-looking man standing at his side. “If I miss this, you pick me up in the morning and I’ll help you fix your roof.”

  “Um…” Rae jumped up quickly to intervene, taking the pencil from his hand, “I’m sorry, but I think he’s going to have to pass on this one. Sorry, boys.”

  There was a small outcry as she led Julian to the table, and the colossus that had been standing at his side put a heavy hand on her shoulder. “Hey there, lady! We weren’t finished. Your friend here owes me a serious debt if he misses this shot.”

  Rae sighed and picked up a broken dart from the floor. “This shot?” she asked impatiently, gesturing to the target. “From here?”

  The man smirked. “That’s right. You want to take it for him? See if you can hit the board, little lady.”

  With a slow smile, Rae turned to look the man right in the eyes. She was still looking when she pierced the final dart right through the bullseye. There was a loud cheering behind her, but she never broke contact with the man’s dumbfounded face. “All debts paid. You have a good night now.” She smiled sweetly, leaving them in applause behind her.

  Now to get Molly… Who knows what the little renegade is up to now?

  “The thing is, now there are all these expectations, you know? We’re going to be living in the same city, just like ten minutes away, and I don’t know how it changes things. I don’t even know how it’s supposed to change things!” Molly threw up her hands with a little sigh, turning with tears to an ancient man sitting beside her. “And Luke is just the sweetest guy. I don’t want to mess it up.”

  The man nodded slowly, keeping his eyes closed so long that Rae thought he might have fallen asleep, before his lips cracked open and he muttered something inaudible in Spanish.

  Molly’s eyes grew wide as she nodded up and down. “You’re so right, Eduardo. I never even thought about it that way. Do you think that we could exchange emails or—”

  “Molls?” Rae popped up behind her and clapped her on the arms. “The guys and I got a table over there in the corner. You want to come?”

  “In a minute…” The pint-sized girl downed the rest of her whiskey, her enormous eyes still locked on Eduardo like he was pure magic. “I think this is where I’m supposed to make the right decision Eduardo—hey!”

  Rae picked her up with a strength that might have seemed strange to any other audience, except everyone in the tiny bar was drunk out of their minds. Carrying Molly across the room so her feet barely touched the peanut-shell-covered floor, she plopped her down beside Julian at the table. “So,” she said expectantly, looking at each one of them in turn, “it seems you all decided to go a little crazy tonight. Hmm?” She expected remorse, prepared herself for a long list of excuses from all three of them. What she wasn’t expecting were the next words out of Molly’s mouth.

  “I think I found my spirit guide…”

  It was like the exclamation opened the floodgates. The next second, all three of them started talking over each other, so wrapped up in their own stories they hardly noticed.

  “I’m done with my visions. I want to start doing work with my hands. Geo and the rest of the guys are roofing some houses on the other side of town tomorrow, and I think I might join.”

  “You know that Phil’s been married eight times? I think that makes him an expert. Or maybe it makes him the worst person in the world to talk to about it. What do you guys think? I wonder if I should go and talk to him again.”

  “…and then he looked me in the eyes, and I just knew he understood what I was saying. It was like he was seeing into my very soul…”

  Feeling a bit like the only person in the room not on crazy pills, Rae held up her hand. The others fell silent, watching her in various states of intoxication, waiting to see what she’d do next.

  But looking around at their faces, she didn’t know herself.

  This was too much to ask of them, she understood that. Too much pressure to place on the shoulders of four teenagers. Her eyes flickered between their white knuckles, and the sleep-loss bruises under their eyes. It would be too much for anyone. This was to be expected.

  They needed a break? Needed to take a second to breathe? Well, so did she.

  “I think I’ll have a whiskey.”

  Three hours later, the four of them were sitting in the hotel lounge. They had been forced to relocate when the bar shut down, but, as the boys quickly discovered, the lounge also served drinks.

  Julian grinned as he topped off Molly’s drink. “This…this is the good stuff.”

  Molly downed it in one shot and made a face. “It tastes like death.”

  “It’s supposed to.”

  Rae laughed and sipped at a drink of her own. “How do you know about all this stuff? I mean, we all went to Guilder together. I’m fairly sure there’s not a secret underground cocktail lounge.”

  “That you know of.” Devon winked.

  Julian threw back a shot and grimaced. “Actually, I had this for the first time with you, Dev, in where was it…? Uganda? That burned-out stable? The diplomat’s daughter?”

  Rae turned to Devon with raised eyebrows, but he was quick to change the subject. “So, Molls, you getting dating advice from the locals now? I heard you talking about Luke.”

  “Yeah, so? Who am I supposed to get advice from?” She gestured to the rest of them with a giggle. “You guys are about as ‘star-crossed’ as you can get, and you, Julian? Didn’t your last date stand you up at graduation?”

  Rae giggled at the look on Julian’s face, while Devon clapped his shoulder in a way obviously meant to be supportive, but ended up spilling his entire drink.

  “Angel,” Julian said with a sigh, wiping the table with a napkin.

  “Wait,” Rae hiccupped, “her name’s Angel?”

  “Well, Angela, but Angel for short.”

  Devon grinned. “Wait a minute… Angel, Angel? The girl with the—”

  Julian flashed him a look. “Yes,” he said quickly, “that Angel.”

  Molly was all over it. “The girl with the what?” she demanded. When Julian ignored her, she slammed her glass down, spilling her own drink all over both him and the table. “Julian, seer of all things, you tell me!”

  He laughed and picked up the napkin again, thoroughly drenched in whiskey. “Angel’s inked like the rest of us. She has a tatù.”

  “A really awesome one,” Devon prompted with a grin.

  Julian rolled his eyes. “She could stun people. Freeze t
hem in place with only a touch. Kind of like our PC Tasers.”

  Rae giggled. “And is that how she got you, Jules? Did she stun you to the core?”

  “No…” his cheeks flushed with a sudden, incriminating grin. “She saved that for later.”

  “What?!” Molly shrieked, clapping her hands together.

  “So what happened?” Rae asked curiously. She couldn’t imagine any girl in their right mind breaking up with Julian.

  “I don’t know,” he said, looking suddenly thoughtful, “I didn’t see her decide to do it. But I try not to sneak into people’s heads when I have a choice.”

  His face suddenly clouded, and Rae’s heart went out to him.

  Yeah…except lately.

  As usual, Devon seemed to be mirroring her thoughts. “Maybe we should all try to get some sleep,” he suggested. “Start fresh again in the morning.”

  Rae nodded, pushing gingerly to her feet. “That’s a good idea.”

  “I’ll say…” Molly yawned widely and lay her head down on the sticky table. “Goodnight.”

  Julian chuckled softly and picked her up. “I think you’d regret that come morning. ’Night, guys,” he called as he carried her up the stairs.

  Finally alone, Devon leaned in and gave Rae a quick kiss before they headed up the stairs themselves, walking hand in hand. Despite their close proximity with this shared mission, Rae felt like she hadn’t had a second alone with him in a thousand years.

  Maybe that’s because whenever you’re together, you get all weird about the future.

  She pushed her annoying subconscious to the furthest reaches of her brain and settled down beside Devon on the bed. It surprised her how quickly she had fallen into this ‘coupley’ routine. Get finished with a long day’s work, head home, curl up with her boyfriend in bed.

  On most days, she couldn’t think of anything better.

  After getting the news of her immortality, she had to admit it had become a bit strained.

  It wasn’t tonight, though. The liquor had done its trick, and the two of them stretched out on the rickety mattress without a care in the world, coming together in a tangle of limbs and kisses. His breath was sweet with whiskey, and she smiled to herself at some of the more outrageous things he’d done tonight. First there was his impromptu ‘drink-off’ with Julian the second they’d gotten back to the lounge, then there was when she’d heard him gravely explaining his ‘super powers’ to a dog lingering outside the bar, and then, well, then there was when she’d first walked in and he’d told some guy named Phil that he wanted to marry her.