“That’s enough!” Reeves finally said. “Pete, did you say these kids could have your bike? You know the security-cams won’t lie.”
“Cameras?” Robby gulped. The Death Squad exchanged worried looks.
“Of course I didn’t give it to them!” Pete said. “I won it, and it’s mine!” Pete had a black and blue swelling around his left eye. Robby must have laid a good one on him before Jodi and Gabriel got there.
“Jodi, you and Gabriel take Pete back to the house and get cleaned up before Julia sees you. I’ll lock up the barn.” He turned back to the death squad. “As for the rest of you, we’re going to have a little talk.”
Robby and his friends didn’t need any more encouragement. They raced past Reeves and went screaming into the darkness. Reeves lifted his two-way radio and informed security that they had a few teenagers to escort off the property.
Reeves caught up with the children in the kitchen. He was still angry, and he seemed to be especially disappointed with Gabriel. “You could have killed somebody!” he said angrily. “What were you thinking?”
“But they started it!” Gabriel insisted. “They attacked us!”
“It’s true,” Pete supported. “If Gabriel hadn’t jumped in, they might have killed us.”
“They weren’t going to kill anyone,” Reeves said. “They might have taken the motorbike, but is that really worth risking your lives over?”
They all stared guiltily at the ground. “You especially should have known better, Gabriel. With your abilities, it’s a wonder you didn’t break somebody’s neck. I’ve watched the security video three times and I still don’t know how you pulled off some of those moves.”
Gabriel was downcast. “I didn’t even know I could do that stuff,” he said. “It just kind of… happened. I wasn’t trying to hurt anybody.”
“I know. That’s why I’ve asked Julia not to punish you over this. I know that you’ve had a rough time of it and you’re still trying to figure some things out. However, be that as it may, I don’t ever want to hear of something like this happening again. Let this be a lesson to you. Now that you know what you’re capable of, you need to learn to control it. Otherwise, someone might really get hurt.”
“Okay,” Gabriel said meekly. It wasn’t fair. The Death Squad had started it all. They had attacked first, and all Gabriel did was stop them. Why was he taking all the heat? There was no point in arguing with Reeves, though. It was obvious he wasn’t going to get anywhere.
Julia appeared in the doorway. “Are we through?” She said. Reeves nodded. “Good. Gabriel, you’ve got a room full of gifts needing to be cleaned up. Don’t forget to keep all the cards so we can send out thank-you notes later.” She turned her attention to Pete and Jodi. “You two better be running along.”
Jodi and Pete started to leave, but then Jodi paused. “I almost forgot your present!” she said. She reached into her back pocket and withdrew a long, thin cardboard box.
“You didn’t have to get me a present,” Gabriel said. He was surprised, because until that evening he was pretty sure Jodi hated him.
“Don’t be silly. Besides, it’s no big deal. Just something I thought you could use. And it’s from Reeves, too. Are you gonna open it or what?” Reeves and Jodi exchanged a secret smile.
Gabriel accepted the box and looked it over. It was rather smashed, and he wondered if its contents had survived the fight. He tore the ribbon off and opened it up. Inside, he found a blackened-steel digital watch with a thick leather wristband. It was surprisingly heavy and appeared to be very well built.
“Thanks,” he said. “This thing looks tough!”
“Don’t thank me yet,” she laughed. “Read the instructions carefully.”
Gabriel pulled the little booklet out and flipped it open. It said:
Congratulations on your purchase of a Schlock & Hemmler tazer watch. The 500,000-volt discharge capacity will give you many reliable years of peace of mind. Please read all instructions carefully…
“Tazer watch?” Gabriel said.
“Yep,” Jodi smiled. “You know, just in case anything should happen. It’s a real tazer, so be careful with it.”
Gabriel stared at the thing. “Thanks,” he said numbly. He wasn’t sure what to think. He was suddenly reminded of their earlier conversation about Dark Matter and shadow creatures. Pete interrupted his thoughts.
“Guess we could’ve used this in the barn tonight, huh?” he said mischievously. Reeves gave him a look and all the kids burst out laughing. “I’m only kidding, Reeves… But seriously -Jodi, do you think I could have one of those?”
Julia shooed them out of the kitchen and followed after to lock the front door. Over her shoulder, she said, “You’d better get to work on that room, Gabriel. It’s getting late and tomorrow’s a school day.”
Gabriel felt a jolt of panic. School? He was going to school? “Okay,” he said weakly.
He took a step towards the doorway, but Reeves placed a hand on his shoulder. “By the way, those were some fantastic moves,” he whispered. He gave Gabriel a wink and then pushed him towards the doorway.
On the way to his room, Gabriel decided that everyone he knew was crazy. That wasn’t necessarily bad, though. He liked them all, and they all seemed to genuinely care about him. He supposed that was what it was like to have a family. Unfortunately, it just reminded him that he already had a family somewhere out there. Didn’t he?
Chapter 11
Gabriel had forgotten about the Book of Shadows, until it fell out of his pocket as he was getting ready for bed. He crawled between the covers and read a few chapters. The first outlined a rather complicated explanation of shadow creatures. It described them as life forms comprised of Dark Matter. The text went into some scientific detail, and was rather difficult to understand. Gabriel only skimmed through it because he wanted to see the pictures. Once he’d seen them, he regretted it.
The Minotaur from mythology had always seemed more or less silly to Gabriel, until he read about them in the Book of Shadows. The book described them as ten-foot-tall demi-humans with a thirst for human blood and a pair of horns that they used to gore their victims.
The book also described a creature called the “Jersey Devil,” a legend from American folklore. Apparently, it wasn’t just a legend. The creature was approximately seventeen feet in length with a wingspan of almost thirty. It was somewhat humanoid in appearance, except that it had a bird-like head, long bat-like wings, and a tail. It had the strength to lift a moving car from the ground and carry it for several miles. Once the creature had its victims in a safe place, it devoured them, leaving only bones for the police to find.
Some of the other creatures in the book were even worse. Much worse. There were several different classifications of shadow creature. Two of the primary sub-classifications were parasitic and carnivorous. The parasites functioned just like normal parasites, consuming energy and resources from the victim until he became sick and eventually died. Some of them were as large as a house.
The carnivores always consumed their prey even if it was still alive, and even if that prey was human. Another interesting sub-classification was ethereal. These creatures were primarily harmless, and they seemed to appear in the dimensions of both light and Dark Matter. Of all shadowkind, the least was known about the ethereal creatures. The Book asserted that they were accountable for most reports of ghosts and hauntings.
Gabriel tossed and turned all night, and woke feeling more tired than when he’d gone to bed. When he glanced out the window and saw the estate blanketed in fog, he had the urge to crawl right back into those warm blankets. He couldn’t though. Today, he had to go to school.
After a quick breakfast, Reeves gave him an ATV ride down to the highway to wait for the bus. Gabriel had hoped Jodi would be there to wait with him, but she wasn’t. The bus arrived ten minutes later, and Gabriel climbed on board.
The bus driver gave him a friendly smile, but everyone else just stared at him
. He heard a few whispers as he wandered down the aisle and settled onto an empty seat near the back of the bus.
“That’s him,” someone whispered.
“Hey, it’s the kid from TV.”
Gabriel didn’t recognize any of the kids as attendees from the party, but he couldn’t be certain. He’d met so many people the night before that by the time it was over, his memory was just a collage of different faces all pasted together. He glanced around. Whenever he met the eyes of another child, they jerked away and pretended not to be looking at him.
Several stops later, Pete came crawling onto the bus. He saw Gabriel and waved. “Morning,” he said cheerfully as he settled down next to Gabriel. “Where’s Jodi?”
“I haven’t seen her. Does she usually ride this bus?”
“Of course, she lives just down the road from you. Hmm. Her parents must have given her a lift.” Pete reached into his backpack and pulled out a steamy plastic bag. Inside there were two English muffins, stuffed with folded over omelets. “Hungry?” he said. “I brought two.”
“Sure!” Gabriel’s breakfast had consisted of a bowl of oatmeal and a slice of toast. He hadn’t eaten much. Somehow, it didn’t have the same appeal as a warm omelet-stuffed muffin.
“Made it myself,” Pete said. Gabriel smiled, remembering what Pete had said about his parents being gone. It occurred to Gabriel that he and Pete were alike in many ways. They were both alone, but for different reasons. At least Gabriel had Julia and Reeves around to look after him. Pete had a family, but his parents chose not to be with him. Gabriel felt sorry for him.
Pete brought up the incident from the night before. He was enamored with Gabriel’s fighting skills, and he made several comments. “I bet you could have taken out that whole gang if Reeves hadn’t shown up!” he said at one point.
“Maybe,” Gabriel said, “I’m glad he did, though. I’m pretty sure some of them were carrying knives, maybe even worse.”
“You could tell that just by looking at them? Wow, you are good. I warned you about those guys. What really sucks is that now you’ll have to watch your back everywhere you go. Trust me, those guys will be looking for a chance to get back at you.”
“Great,” Gabriel said.
The bus arrived at school half an hour early, so Pete showed Gabriel around. The school was a three-story building with several additional wings that had been added over the years. The front of the building stretched along half a city block. The campus behind spread out over several acres and then gave way to rural farmland.
They ended on the lawn next to the front steps. While they talked, Gabriel couldn’t resist walking up to one of the stone lions that guarded the school’s entrance and feeling the smooth stone. He ran his hand along the lion’s mane and then felt the tip of one of its bared fangs. “Ouch!” he yelped as the fang sliced his finger. Gabriel saw blood gathering, and he quickly stuck his finger in his mouth.
“That’s the school team,” Pete explained. “The Shadow Falls Lions. Doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue does it?”
“They’re pretty cool-looking. Except when they bite you.”
Pete laughed at that. “Yeah, I guess so.” At that moment, a long black limousine pulled up to the curb. Everyone stopped talking and watched as Jodi stepped out. “What the heck?” Pete said. “Who’s she with?” Gabriel peered into the tinted windows.
“I can’t see. The windows are too dark.” The car pulled away and Jodi came up the steps to join them.
“Good morning,” she said.
“Good morning?” Pete echoed. “You pop up in a limo and all you have to say is morning?”
“Oh, that. Just some friends of the family. Did Pete show you around Gabriel?”
“Yes,” Pete answered for him. “We just finished.”
“Really? Did you get Gabriel’s schedule, and his locker?” They exchanged looks, and Jodi sighed like an overworked mother. “Come on,” she said. “The bell’s about to ring.”
Gabriel had homeroom with Pete and then classes on his own all day long. He had some sort of tutoring program with Mr. Oglesby for sixth period. Jodi laughed when she saw that, but would only say that she had the class as well. Gabriel was a bit disappointed not to have more classes with his friends, but they did have lockers next to each other, and they also shared the same lunch hour. Apparently, there were so many kids jammed into the middle school that they had to have three separate lunch times.
The bell rang and Gabriel turned to go, but Jodi grabbed his arm. “Watch your back,” she warned. “The Death Squad will be gunning for you. Don’t go into any dark hallways and stay out of the basement. They’re called the Death Squad for a reason.”
Gabriel nodded. “I’ll be okay,” he assured her. He wasn’t that sure of it himself, but he didn’t want her to worry about him.
Gabriel somehow managed to be late for every class. With only five minutes between rooms, he just couldn’t manage it. Some of the teachers gave him books that he had to take back to his locker and that made it even worse. At lunchtime, Pete gave him some helpful advice “Take your books for periods one and two, then go back for three and four,” he said. “Or whichever classes are closest to each other. Only go to your locker when you have to cross from one side of the school to the other.”
After lunch, Gabriel found his history class tucked away in a distant corner of the third floor. It was the most out-of-the way spot imaginable, but apparently, it was the only place they had room for the class.
It wasn’t the room that bothered Gabriel, though, it was the long, empty hallway. His spine prickled as he walked along the semi-lit corridor, thinking about the Death Squad. He passed several empty classrooms, and glanced nervously at the impenetrable darkness behind the windows. If there was a better place to get jumped, he couldn’t imagine it.
Fortunately, he experienced nothing worse than being five minutes late and having the teacher make a joke at his expense. Everyone laughed at him because he couldn’t find the class, but after the day he’d had, Gabriel didn’t even care. He took his assigned seat and flipped though the pages of his history book while the teacher droned out a boring lesson about ancient Greece.
Finally, the bell rang signaling the end of fifth period. Gabriel had been waiting for this moment all day long. It was time for Mr. Oglesby’s class. He knew that Mr. Oglesby taught astronomy, so he was hoping that they would get to use telescopes. The cynical little voice inside of him told Gabriel that Mr. Oglesby was probably the toughest teacher in school, but he ignored it.
“You’re late,” Jodi said as he entered the room. She was waiting with Mr. Oglesby. There were no other students.
It was at that moment that Gabriel decided history class wasn’t in the most out-of-the way place imaginable. It was a close second. Mr. Oglesby’s astronomy class was the third story of the library, on the far side of the campus overlooking the river. And it wasn’t in the third story. It was the third story.
It was a huge room. The walls were plastered with astronomy charts and pictures from space and there was an enormous telescope in the center of the room that was twenty feet long. It pointed up through a glass dome in the ceiling.
“We don’t get to use that one very often,” Mr. Oglesby explained when he saw Gabriel staring. “We have a night class every third Friday to do some stargazing, and of course during astronomical events. Other than that it just sits there most of the time.”
“What can you see with it?”
“Oh, just about anything. We can see the planets, and it’s a lot of fun to watch things like meteor showers, comets, and solar storms. We’ll get to that later, though. For now, why don’t the two of you take a seat and we’ll get started? Jodi tells me she’s already begun your education.”
“A little,” Jodi said. “I don’t think he got it though. He’s kind of hard-headed.”
Gabriel glanced back and forth between the two of them. Was she talking about the Dark Matter thing again? About the shadow c
reatures? It couldn’t be. That was some sort of joke or something, wasn’t it?
“You don’t believe any of it, do you?” said Mr. Oglesby. Gabriel shook his head. He had to be honest. “I thought so. I certainly don’t blame you. I would want proof as well.”
“Proof?” Gabriel said. He shot a glance at Jodi. She was beaming.
Mr. Oglesby walked over to a nearby wall and tapped it with his cane. Gabriel did a double-take. He was sure Oglesby had left the cane leaning next to his desk a few minutes before. That was strange. He forgot all about it though, as the wall began to open up.
“This should convince you,” Oglesby said.
Chapter 12
The section of wall slid to the side exposing the bricks. Gabriel saw an elaborate design painted inside a large circle. It reminded him of some sort of astrological chart, but all of the glyphs were totally unfamiliar. “Jodi has explained Dark Matter to you, but I’d like to be a bit more thorough. If you’ll bear with me a moment…”
Mr. Oglesby reached over and pressed a button mounted on the wall. A laser shot down from above, targeting the center of the design. The image seemed to absorb the light, and it began to glow. It pulsated for a moment and the bricks vanished. The wall turned black and shimmered like inky water. “What you’re seeing is the school campus. Only, you’re not seeing our campus, you’re seeing the other one.”
It took a moment for Gabriel’s eyes to adjust. At first it looked like the wall had become black, but then he realized that it had actually become some sort of window. Gradually, Gabriel began to see shapes out there in the darkness. He saw buildings first, or what was left of them. They looked more like crumbling ruins. Gabriel slid his eyes across the scene, trying to pick out shapes he might recognize. There weren’t many.
The trees were there, and the river, but nothing looked right. They all looked lifeless, as if they had been built rather than grown. Nothing out there appeared to be alive… until he saw the shapes. At first, he thought it was a trick of his eyes, but after a few moments, he became certain of it. There were things moving out there. Not humans, not even animals, but things. They were shapeless, moving slowly across the landscape with no apparent destination. They were like slugs, but closer to the size of a German shepherd. “What are those?” Gabriel said.
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