What Lay in the Dark

by Casey L. Nash

  ***

  After Brenden and Andy left, Mikayla decided to go and check on Kieran and Samuel headed home. Mikayla told him she would not allow him to see Kieran as he’d probably make matters worse. I was soon the only one left at Egan’s house. For some reason it seemed to me this was planned.

  I sat staring at the image of a star on a card flipped over on the table. I reached over and touched the next one, predicting it was a square. I flipped it over. It was a circle. I tried again, predicting a cross and getting a square.

  “Not everyone can do it, you know,” Egan was leaning against a door frame. “A lot of psychics struggle.”

  I smiled.

  Egan walked over and lifted up the next card.

  “Wavy lines,” I said, without realizing I was doing it.

  Egan smiled, and placed the wavy lines down on the table. “It’s also easier to do it telepathically. Although Samuel can’t read me.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I suppose I subconsciously block him out,” Egan shrugged. “Confuses all of us, really. Apparently my subconscious wants to make sure he doesn’t know a thing about me.”

  “You don’t trust a lot of people, do you?”

  Egan looked at me. “Why would you say that?”

  It was my turn to shrug. “You just, sort of half-answer questions. And you don’t tell anyone anything if you can help it.”

  “No one’s ever picked up on that before.”

  I smiled. “They’re probably your best friends and you don’t tell them anything. You wouldn’t tell me anything if you didn’t have to.”

  Egan smiled. “Come with me,” he said.

  I followed into his backyard as he ducked under a tree branch on the edge of his garden and slipped through a hole in the fence. On the other side was a narrow path, surrounded by forest. Egan looked back at me to make sure I was there. The light shining through the tops of the trees cast an eerie glow on Egan’s face. I realised how terrifying he could be. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near him if he got mad. I also realised that I trusted him.

  I didn’t trust a lot of people, but I was willing to put faith in a man whom I barely knew. It dawned on me that I’d probably follow Egan anywhere. And that probably wasn’t a good thing.

  Egan walked down the path, leading the way to a clearing in the forest. Fallen trees formed a semicircle on one side of the clearing. The other side was relatively clear.

  “The three of us come here a lot,” he told me, “When we need to talk about supernatural stuff without the others finding us.”

  “It’s nice.”

  “I thought you’d like it.”

  I turned to look at Egan. He was so strange. One day he wanted me completely out of his sight and the next he was leading me to a forest because he thought I might like it.

  “So,” Egan sat down on a log, “What are you thinking?”

  I looked at him, and for a moment was totally blown away by his eyes again. I managed to tell myself to sit with him. “What’s going to happen to me?”

  “I don’t know,” Egan admitted.

  I smiled. “Samuel didn’t tell you that part?”

  “So you worked out that Samuel foresaw you then?”

  I nodded. “It’s pretty obvious when you think about it. All that stuff Mikayla and Samuel said to you about not escaping and choices being made. Something is intended to happen with me. They know what it is but you don’t like it; to the point that you refuse to believe it will happen.”

  Egan seemed surprised at my deductions. “Samuel told me a while back there would be a woman from Ireland who showed up.”

  “And?”

  “And that she would become a hunter.”

  I looked at a tree across the opening. “So I’m meant to become a hunter then?”

  “Not if I can help it.”

  I looked back at him.

  “Ailia, this life, the life of a hunter, it’s not a good one. I wake up every morning wondering if this will be the day a demon kills me and hoping that if it is, I at least get to save one more life, protect one more person or banish just one more demon before I go.

  “You can forget any thought of a relationship or a family. It’s too dangerous for anyone to be too close to someone like me. It’s bad enough that I have friends.”

  Egan shrugged, “Mikayla and Samuel, they’re a rare breed of hunter. I’ve never met another hunter who was willing to even try any sort of relationship.

  “This is a life that no one deserves to live. I only do it because I have to. It’s too late for me to drop out, but there’s a chance for you. In the end, I just want to try and keep you safe.”

  My heart warmed slightly at Egan’s final words. Maybe he didn’t want me near him, but perhaps he did care, even just a little bit. “Egan, what happens to my safety while there’s a demon attached to me?”

  “I won’t let you get hurt,” Egan replied.

  I took a deep breath. “Can I learn to fight it?”

  “Absolutely not.”

  “I’m not allowed to be able to protect myself?”

  “If I can’t stop it, you won’t have a chance.”

  “How do you know? Aren’t I a witch?”

  “You don’t want to start fighting demons, Ailia. Once you start, you don’t stop. It’s not easy. There are too many traps to fall into. Let me handle it.”

  I made a decision to back down from the argument, if only for a little while. I got the feeling Egan was the type of person who didn’t change his mind easily. It would take some time. “What if you can’t stop it?” I asked instead.

  “If I can’t stop it, you can say goodbye to your normal life.”

  “Then what?”

  Egan’s voice dropped to a whisper. “I don’t know.”