What Lay in the Dark

by Casey L. Nash

  Chapter Five: Crazy

  The rest of the week flew by in a blur of newspaper articles and nightmares. Since Egan told me about the demon, every shadow suddenly intensified. Every noise sent me spinning. Mikayla told me that this was only natural, but I still wondered if I was going insane.

  Mikayla asked me to go to Egan’s house on the weekend. I tried to refuse, thinking Egan definitely wouldn’t want me around, but Mikayla assured me that I should go. Eventually I agreed.

  When I walked in, there was only one word to describe what I found; disaster. Mikayla was obviously right about Egan’s cooking – he simply couldn’t master it.

  Ingredients were scattered all over the kitchen. Mikayla was trying to save what was left of Egan’s ‘cake’ while Kieran leant against the wall with a smirk on his face.

  Samuel sat at the table, reading an old-looking book. On the other side of the room, Brenden giggled at Andy’s efforts to squeeze through a window.

  “Andy,” Egan called. “You know that ten and a half metres away from you is a door.”

  “Doors are overrated,” Andy called back. “Brenden, help me out here buddy.”

  Andy held out his hands, which Brenden took and pulled. Andy was hauled straight through the window, landing neatly on top of Brenden. The two of them lay on the floor laughing. Kieran screwed up his nose at their antics and turned back to the kitchen.

  “So.” Egan stood next to me. “I have some good news. I didn’t burn the cake,” he said proudly.

  “If you call this cake,” Mikayla mumbled, holding up a bowl of what could only be called mush.

  “What’d you do?” I asked.

  “He forgot the flour. How you forget to put flour in cake, I’m not sure,” Mikayla answered, attempting to stir flour into the cooked mix.

  “I win, Egan,” Kieran told him.

  “Just this once,” Egan emphasised the number by holding up a finger.

  “Egan,” Andy said, inspecting Egan’s stitches. “What happened to your head?”

  “He went at it too hard with Ailia,” Kieran grumbled.

  “Kieran!” Mikayla scolded.

  “Wait, wasn’t that there last week?” Brenden asked.

  Egan nodded. “I walked into a wall,” he told Andy.

  “Backwards?” Andy asked.

  “Science experiment,” Egan’s explanation seemed to clear up any questions about his injury.

  “Kieran, are you okay?” Mikayla asked.

  “I’m fine,” Kieran mumbled.

  “That’s a no,” Mikayla commented.

  Samuel placed his book face down on the table. “There’s a girl. Kieran wants her. She’s dating another guy.”

  Everyone turned to look at Samuel.

  “How the hell do you know?” Kieran asked.

  Samuel smiled. “I’m clever.” Samuel picked up his book and continued reading.

  Mikayla watched Kieran closely, “Who is this girl?”

  Kieran swallowed. “Ashleigh.”

  “The blonde one?” Egan asked.

  Kieran nodded.

  Mikayla watched Kieran closely. “Do you want to talk about it?”

  Kieran shook his head. “I like her. She doesn’t feel the same way. It happens every day.”

  “We both know that’s not the whole story.”

  Kieran shrugged and Mikayla decided to drop the subject, turning back to her attempts to save the cake.

  “I wouldn’t bother Mikayla,” Andy told her. “This is Egan’s cooking after all.”

  Mikayla looked towards Egan, who raised his hand dismissively. “I’ll clean it up later.”

  “So, I thought in honour of your cooking competition which Egan definitely faaaiiled,” Andy began, staring intently at Egan as he said the word. “I thought I’d make a pie.”

  “Really?” Brenden asked. “Where is it?”

  Andy proudly pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and placed it on the table.

  “Andy, that’s paper, not pie,” Kieran told him.

  “You’re wrong. I wrote 3.1416479974 on it. Therefore it is pi.”

  “Andy, that’s not pi,” Egan replied sadly. “You didn’t get a number right after 3.141.”

  “Alright smarty pants, you do it,” Andy challenged.

  Egan shrugged and walked up to the paper, grabbing a pen and scribbling numbers down.

  “Andy,” Brenden said softly. “You should know not to challenge Egan to do anything with maths.”

  “You shouldn’t challenge me to do anything. I’m just too good at everything,” Egan smiled.

  “You lost the cooking challenge, Egan,” Kieran reminded him.

  “Yeah, but I’m a maths whiz, so not cooking isn’t a problem for me.”

  “How does maths feed you?” Andy asked.

  Egan looked up. “I’ve got the numbers for eight different take away stores memorised and I know exactly how long to put those microwaveable dinners in the microwave for.” He held up the sheet of paper for Andy to take.

  “Egan, how do you know this?” Andy stared at the paper which was now completely covered in numbers.

  “I got bored.”

  “So you memorised pi?” Andy looked up from the paper.

  “Only the first fifty-four numbers.”

  “Yeah, only,” Andy muttered.

  “Andy, its Egan,” Kieran spoke. “What do you expect?”

  “Fair point,” Andy nodded.

  “By the way, you realise that’s your worst joke yet, right?” Kieran asked.

  “Yeah, I’m running out of ideas,” Andy admitted.

  “Kieran, you don’t look okay,” Mikayla said.

  At first he looked fine to me, but when I had a closer look I noticed the darkness in Kieran’s usually bright blue eyes.

  “You’re mad,” Samuel said in a low voice. “You don’t like that Ailia knows.”

  Kieran gave Samuel a confused look. “What are you trying to prove?”

  Samuel shrugged and turned back to the book.

  “Kieran, we’ve told you why we keep these secrets from you.” Mikayla spoke softly.

  “Yeah, but she walks in from Ireland and finds out straight away.”

  “I would prefer it if she didn’t know, actually,” Egan interrupted.

  “He’s over people telling him that he doesn’t want to know things,” Samuel told Egan.

  “What are you doing?” Kieran asked.

  “Helping them understand what you’re thinking,” Samuel replied.

  “Leave it, Kieran,” Egan told him. “And Samuel, you should probably leave him alone.”

  “I would like to know what’s going on,” Kieran stood up straight.

  “And we’re not going to tell you.” Egan said with a determined look on his face.

  “At least tell me what mind tricks he’s got going on!”

  “He’s trying to understand how I’m practically reading his every thought,” Samuel explained.

  “Stop doing that,” Kieran demanded.

  Mikayla walked over to Samuel and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Leave him alone.”

  “Can you at least explain how he’s doing that? Please?” Kieran asked.

  Egan sighed. “Samuel?”

  Samuel nodded.

  “Sit down guys,” Mikayla instructed. Before long all of us sat at the table except Egan, who disappeared into another room. He returned, taking a seat next to me.

  “Samuel,” Egan began slowly, “is psychic.”

  “What?” Brenden spoke before anyone had time to think.

  “Well, that makes a lot more sense now,” Andy said softly.

  Kieran sat silent for a moment before speaking. “That’s not possible.”

  “Which is why Samuel is able to know exactly what you’re feeling, Kieran.”

  “Lucky guess,” Kieran suggested.

  Egan smiled. “I knew you’d say that,” He passed Kieran a pile of cards.

  “What are these?” Kier
an asked, flipping the cards and looking at the symbols on the other side.

  “Zener cards,” Egan replied, “the most common form of testing for clairvoyance.”

  Kieran looked confused. Then the concept dawned on him. “So if I were to ask Samuel what this was,” he began, holding up a card so the blank side faced Samuel.

  “Star,” Samuel told him. Kieran raised his eyebrows and placed the star on the table.

  “I’m going to assume that was a lucky guess,” Kieran said, holding up another card.

  “Circle. And the next one is a square, followed by another star.”

  Kieran was surprised, but flipped over the next two cards revealing a square and a star. “What...” Kieran didn’t finish the sentence.

  I smiled. I never believed in psychic abilities, but this, if it was the truth, explained a lot. I recalled what Egan told me when he met me in the park – ‘Samuel said you’d be here.’ Now I knew how.

  “That was pretty much my reaction,” Egan said.

  “It’s scarier when he starts telling you about your dead Grandfather who he’s never met,” Mikayla murmured. “That was a good way of breaking it to me gently.”

  “Next one?” Kieran asked.

  “Wavy lines, square, cross, circle… don’t know about the one after that.”

  “I’m picking a star,” Andy said.

  Brenden looked up at Andy. “You’re not psychic.”

  “I might be. You never know.”

  Brenden shrugged as Kieran began flipping the cards over. Wavy lines, square, cross, circle and a square.

  “The next one’s a star, then a square, then a circle, then a square, then a cross, then a circle,” Andy guessed.

  Brenden looked at him.

  “Well, I figure that if I guess enough, I’ll have to get one right,” Andy explained. “Then, boom, I’m psychic too.”

  “You’re guesses aren’t considered significant unless you’re constantly getting nine or more right, Andy,” Egan told him.

  “Why nine?”

  “The odds of guessing nine correctly are twenty to one,” Egan said.

  Brenden raised his eyebrows.

  “That’s pretty good,” Andy said.

  “Well, what does Samuel get?” Brenden asked, probably out of curiosity.

  “Nineteen or twenty most of the time,” Samuel answered.

  “How many cards are there?” Andy asked.

  “Twenty-five,” Kieran answered. I realized he was counting the cards throughout this conversation.

  “That’s scary,” Brenden whispered.

  “Ailia should try,” Mikayla suggested.

  Kieran looked confused. “Why should Ailia try?”

  Egan looked at him.

  “More stuff you’re not telling me?”

  Ignoring him, Mikayla reached over and grabbed a card off of the top of the pile, holding it up to me.

  “How should I know what that is?” I asked.

  “Just guess,” Samuel said.

  “I dunno…square?”

  Mikayla placed a cross on the table.

  Samuel smiled. “I used to get the squares and crosses mixed up.”

  “Ailia, look at me,” Egan instructed. “Close your eyes.”

  I did as he said.

  “You should be able to feel things around you, energies, if you concentrate.”

  Egan was right. I felt a tingling sensation. Everyone seemed to have their own energy signature.

  “Is Ailia psychic too?” I heard Brenden ask quietly.

  “We don’t know,” Mikayla whispered back.

  I tried to cut their voices out, focusing only on the energy.

  “Can you tell us what the next card is, Ailia?” Egan asked.

  “Star,” I don’t know why, but I just felt it was right.

  I heard the flip of the card, but didn’t look to see if I was correct. Instead, I was stuck in the energy around Kieran. It was dark, darker than everyone else’s.

  “Ailia?” Egan asked softly. “What do you feel?”

  I forced my eyes open to look at him. “Darkness.” I whispered.

  Egan tensed, and looked toward Samuel.

  “It’s not hers,” Samuel told him.

  “What’s going on?” Kieran asked.

  “Nothing Kieran,” Mikayla said calmly.

  “Him,” I said, looking at Kieran.

  “You guys are nuts,” Kieran told us.

  “Something’s wrong, isn’t it?” Brenden asked softly. Andy reached over and squeezed his shoulder.

  “What’s going on guys?” Andy asked.

  “There’s a demon,” Samuel murmured. “With Kieran.”

  “What?” Andy asked before anyone could blink.

  “What?” Brenden repeated, only a second after Andy.

  Kieran stared at Samuel blankly. “You’re insane.”

  Mikayla turned to Samuel. “We don’t tell them these things for a reason, remember?”

  “If Kieran has a demon, he should know,” Samuel argued.

  “But what if he doesn’t have a demon? Now he just thinks we’re crazy.”

  “No,” Kieran corrected. “Now I know you’re crazy.”

  “Kieran, perhaps we should give them a chance to explain,” Andy suggested.

  “No, I don’t think so.” Kieran said getting up. “I might’ve been able to deal with the psychic thing, but this is too much. I have to go and see my friend anyway. Of course, she’s probably a demon too, but what the hell?” Kieran shrugged and walked out the door.

  “That went well,” Egan commented.

  “Ailia?” Andy asked. “Are they actually crazy?”

  At first it seemed weird that he asked me the question, but when I thought about it, it made sense. The three of them had always had their secrets. I had only just arrived from Ireland, but I already knew a lot more about them than their lifelong friends. I sighed. “I wish.” I touched my necklace as I said the words.

  Mikayla nodded. “Egan doesn’t actually walk into walls for science experiments.”

  “Wait, a demon did that?” Brenden asked, standing up to get a better look at Egan’s stitches.

  Egan nodded.

  “I don’t think I like demons,” Brenden said quietly.

  “You’re not meant to like demons, Brenden,” Andy said softly.

  “Were all of Egan’s science experiments demons?” Brendan asked.

  “No,” Egan answered. “I actually did electrocute myself. And the stitches on my leg were me too.”

  I said, “You ended up with stitches from your science experiments?”

  “Don’t ask,” Andy advised. “You’ll end up with a lecture.”

  “You sure? I’ve got one fully prepared.”

  “No thank you, Egan,” Andy smiled.

  “I know! Let’s teach Egan how to make a cake!” Brenden suggested happily.

  “Step one,” Mikayla instructed. “Add flour.”

  We started laughing.

  Egan later told me that was the best thing about the group; they could be having the scariest conversation and the next thing everyone was laughing.