What Lay in the Dark

by Casey L. Nash

  Chapter Three: Witchcraft

  I woke with Egan’s arms around me. I realised I must have fallen asleep at his house, though I couldn’t remember being in this position and certainly not on his bed. In fact, I couldn’t remember any contact between us at all, just talking. Even so, I found myself oddly comfortable. Today was Saturday, meaning that I didn’t need to go to work, so I wasn’t too worried about moving.

  A few minutes later Egan’s eyes flickered open and he gave me a slight smile. “Hungry?” he asked.

  I nodded.

  Egan quickly disentangled himself from me and rolled off the bed, pulling me up as he headed out the door. Smiling, I followed him.

  “So, where’d the overly normal nice guy come from?” I asked Egan as he rummaged through the kitchen.

  “I’m always nice.”

  “Last night you didn’t want me anywhere near you.”

  “I still don’t want you anywhere near me,” Egan replied with a stern look. “I want you safe, which means I want you as far away from me as possible.”

  I couldn’t understand why Egan’s words hurt me. It seemed I deluded myself into thinking that maybe Egan wanted me around.

  “Are you okay with cereal?” Egan asked. “I’m not much of a cook.”

  “Cereal’s fine.”

  Egan turned to look at me. “Mikayla wanted to talk to you today.” He placed a box of cereal on the bench. “Wants to make sure you’re okay with the demon stuff.”

  “Okay,” I replied.

  “She’ll come around here soon,” he said, glancing at the clock. “I should probably warn you, a few others will be here as well.”

  I nodded, musing over the fact that Egan seemed to have friends. He didn’t want me near him because it was too dangerous, but others were fine? Something was not right.

  “Here,” Egan placed a bowl on the bench in front of me.

  I smiled and began to eat. Egan pointed me to the bathroom once I was done and I took a quick shower. When I’d finished I walked back to the lounge room to find myself face to face with my boss. His eyes widened. “Ailia!”

  “Kieran,” I answered with a smile.

  “What are you doing here?”

  Egan entered the room at that point. “Kieran. The others are outside.” Kieran looked at me suspiciously, but walked out of the room.

  “Probably best not to mention the whole supernatural thing to him,” Egan kept his voice quiet.

  “Okay.”

  “Come on,” Egan led me through the dining room to an outside area. His lawn was surrounded by what would have been very nice plants – if they weren’t dying.

  Taking my eyes off the drooping, yellow-tinged foliage, I looked up to where Mikayla and Samuel were seated on a wooden bench. Mikayla gave me a little wave, while Samuel seemed to stare past me. A slight commotion drew our attention to the high fence surrounding Egan’s backyard.

  “Incoming,” a voice called before a man threw himself over the fence, landing flat on his stomach.

  “Ow,” the man moaned.

  “Impressive,” Egan said sarcastically before helping the man off the ground. “Ailia, meet Andy.”

  The man looked up at me then, shaggy blonde hair nearly covering the slightly worried look in his eyes. “Egan,” he whispered. “There’s a girl in your house.”

  “Yes, there is.”

  At this, Andy shrugged. He trotted back to the fence and climbed half way up it. He leaned over the top, and pulled someone else over and into the yard.

  “And that’s Brenden,” Egan introduced.

  The man waved. Brenden was slightly taller than Andy but had a more innocent look about him. They both seemed quite young, and if Andy’s entrance was anything to judge by, a little bit immature.

  “Why is the girl here?” Andy asked, sprawling himself on the lawn. Brenden sat next to him.

  “Am I not allowed to have friends?” Egan asked defensively.

  Kieran looked from Egan to me, and back. His lip twitched, but he didn’t say anything.

  “Are you Egan’s girlfriend?” Andy asked.

  “Um, no…” I began, feeling awkward.

  “So, friends with benefits?” Andy laughed, drawing an awkward giggle from Brenden.

  Egan shook his head, smiling.

  “So she’s just another of the strange things we’re not allowed to know about, then?” Kieran sighed.

  I smiled, realising that I wasn’t the only one to pick up on the weird secrets Egan seemed to keep.

  Mikayla smiled. “Yes, Kieran.”

  Kieran shrugged and sat down on a chair which he pulled over from the side of the house. “One day, I’m going to work it out.”

  “You’re really not,” Samuel replied.

  “Are you all right?” Mikayla suddenly asked Samuel, who was still looking straight past me.

  Samuel nodded. “I’ve never seen so much purple in my life,” he muttered.

  Kieran shook his head at Samuel, with a confused look on his face.

  “Egan,” Samuel whispered. “Black.”

  Egan’s eyes widened and he looked straight at Mikayla, who cast a meaningful glance back. Samuel turned his eyes to them, before all three stared at me.

  “Anyone else get the feeling that there’s some major telepathy going on here?” Andy asked, looking at the three of them.

  “That’s not possible Andy,” Kieran muttered.

  “Actually, Einstein –”

  “Thank you, Egan, but we don’t need a science lesson right now.”

  “But there was this thing he noticed with split atoms that may have been proof of…”

  “Thank you, Egan,” Kieran repeated.

  Egan grinned. It seemed he enjoyed teasing Kieran in this way.

  “He’s jealous ’cos I know more than him,” Egan told me.

  “I am not,” Kieran groaned in a way that told me he probably was.

  Egan signalled to Mikayla, and she and Samuel got up to walk inside with him.

  “Arrgh!” I heard a cry. I turned my attention away from Egan to find that Andy decided it would be fun to jump on Brenden.

  “Oh no,” Kieran put his head in his hands, while Andy and Brenden rolled around on the lawn. “Do you have to act like ten-year olds?” Kieran sighed.

  “Yes!” Andy yelled from where he now pinned Brenden on the ground. He placed a knee on Brenden’s chest and held his hands above his head. “I am victorious!” He cried. Brenden giggled.

  “You are gay,” Kieran replied.

  “Come on, Kieran! Why do you have to be such a spoilsport?”

  “I’ll stop spoiling your fun when you stop rolling around like gay children.”

  “You know that I’m straight, Kieran.”

  “You don’t act like it.”

  “You know, you’re the biggest homophobe I know and you’re the only person I know that goes around labelling people gay when they’re not.”

  “You’re the only straight guy I know that acts gay.”

  I slowly slipped away from their argument and stood by the doorway leading to Egan’s dining room, where I could hear whispering.

  “Egan, you have to tell her.” I assumed it was Mikayla who spoke.

  “We can’t, Mikayla,” I recognised Egan’s voice. “She already knows too much.”

  “What else are we meant to do?”

  “Hope that she never sees us again. For her sake.”

  “Egan, you can’t fight it,” Samuel told him.

  “I have to,” Egan replied, quietly.

  “You’ve taken a liking to her, haven’t you?” Mikayla said and I heard the hint of a smile in her voice.

  Egan ignored the comment. “Mikayla, if she stays with us, she’s going to get hurt.”

  “She’s going to get hurt if she’s not with us. You can’t keep doing this Egan. And you definitely can’t push her away.”

  “I can’t let her get involved in any of this. And, that means that she
can’t get involved in me, you or any of us.”

  “None of us have a choice,” Samuel told him.

  “We always have a choice.”

  “This choice has already been made,” Samuel murmured.

  “Egan,” Mikayla said softly. “She has to know.”

  “Doesn’t she know enough already?”

  “All she knows is that we hunt demons.”

  “I thought that was enough. Mikayla, we can’t do this to her. We can’t put her through this.”

  “Imagine what she’s going to go through if we don’t stay near her, Egan. It’s not going to be any better. She needs to know.”

  “What do I need to know?’ I asked; growing tired of listening to their conversation, which I was quite certain, was about me.

  Egan looked up at me and shook his head.

  “Egan,” Mikayla insisted.

  Egan sighed and walked out the door.

  Mikayla rolled her eyes. “Ignore him. He means well.”

  I nodded. Mikayla looked behind her and signalled for Samuel to leave.

  “Come sit with me?” She asked as he left, leading me to the couch. I sat next to her. “How are you coping?”

  I shrugged. “I guess it’s just a lot to take in.”

  Mikayla smiled. “How did you sleep?”

  “Fine.”

  Mikayla raised her eyebrows. “I couldn’t sleep for a week after I first came across a demon.”

  “I was with Egan.”

  She seemed rather understanding. “It’s easier when you’re with someone that you’re comfortable around.”

  “I barely know him.”

  “So?”

  I had to give Mikayla that one. I may not have known Egan well, but I already felt comfortable around him.

  “You wanted to tell me something?”

  “I wanted to tell you a lot of things, Ailia. Egan won’t let me tell you most of them.”

  “Right. Because I’m safer not knowing.”

  “He’s afraid you’re going to get too caught up in all of this.”

  “Demons? I’d rather not get caught up in that one.”

  “No one wants to get involved with demons. Some people can’t help that. But what I need to talk to you about is your aura.”

  “Aura? They exist?” I always thought of the energy field around people as a fairy tale.

  Mikayla smiled. “Demons exist, but auras don’t?”

  “Just because I am willing to change my beliefs on monsters, doesn’t mean I want to change all my beliefs.”

  “You mean your lack of beliefs,” Mikayla corrected.

  “Yeah, that.”

  Mikayla smiled. “What Samuel was saying about seeing purple and black...”

  “He was seeing my aura?”

  “Yes, he was. Purple is the colour of magic.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Well, it goes hand in hand with the moment you shielded us in the graveyard.”

  “How did I shield you, exactly?”

  “You used magic to protect us from the demon. I don’t know how.”

  “Right.”

  “That amount of magic, Ailia, means that you’re a witch.”

  In that moment my brain stopped working.

  “Ailia, are you okay?”

  “I’m a witch,” I repeated. “What do you mean, I’m a witch?”

  “There are a lot of people who are gifted in the use of magic. They call themselves witches. The term kind of got turned around to represent a creature of evil when people started writing books and movies.”

  “Okay, so now I have to believe in demons and witches.”

  “That’s just the beginning,” Mikayla smiled.

  “I can use magic?”

  Mikayla nodded.

  “What about the black? What does that mean?”

  “We’re not sure yet. Black usually represents darkness and evil. We just don’t know why it’s connected to you.”

  A sudden crashing noise interrupted the conversation. “Oh no,” Mikayla murmured, getting up.

  I followed her outside, to find Andy and Brenden went back to their play fighting, knocking over a chair. They sat on the ground laughing, while Kieran shook his head.

  “Really?” he sighed, though there was a smile on his face.

  “They’re just having fun, Kieran,” Egan told him.

  Kieran shook his head again. It looked as though he was about to argue, but he chose to occupy his thoughts with something different.

  “Did you tell her?” Egan asked Mikayla.

  Mikayla shook her head. “But you should.”

  Egan looked at something over his shoulder.

  “Stop fighting it Egan,” Samuel advised. “You can’t escape this time.”

  Egan shook his head.

  “Anyone else confused?” Andy asked, looking between all of them.

  Brenden nodded.

  “Are you in on the secrets?” Kieran asked me.

  “A couple,” I admitted.

  “But not all of them,” Kieran muttered thoughtfully.

  “I don’t know. I suppose they haven’t told me everything,” I replied, drawing a smile from Mikayla.

  “So what have they told you?”

  I stared at him.

  “Come on, you have to tell me. I’m your boss.”

  “I don’t believe that has anything to do with Ailia’s private life,” Egan interrupted.

  “And you’re her private life?”

  “Well, he’s not really my work life, is he?” I asked, grinning.

  “I like her,” Andy commented.

  Mikayla smiled at Andy. “Good, because she’s going to be around a lot.”

  “Really?” Kieran asked, interested.

  “Apparently,” Egan murmured.

  “Why do I get the feeling you’re not so happy about this, Egan?” Kieran asked.

  The corner of Egan’s mouth twitched.

  “Egan’s not too sure about some things going on in his life right now,” Mikayla answered.

  “Why? Is he in love or something?” Andy teased.

  There was no answer, but Mikayla and Samuel shared a look which quite obviously said ‘not yet.’