“Momma!” Evan screamed then he quickly scrambled back into the shadows.
“Please!” she cried through the blood and the tears. “Please don’t hurt my baby!”
They cackled together as even more pressed themselves in on the fray. Those that could reach her kept assaulting her.
One of reflections at the fringe by Evan’s mirror broke away. “That sounds like an excellent idea, sweetie!”
“No!” screamed Erin.
The doppelganger ignored her as she turned to face Evan’s mirror. “Evan, come out, come out, wherever you are! Alle alle auch sind frei!” Evan pressed his back against the far wall of his mirror. His little form was silently shaking.
“Oh, don’t be like that, Evan baby,” cooed the reflection as the others cackled.
“Please don’t hurt him!” Erin sobbed.
“Shhh!” the reflections shushed her. They sadistically heaved her up in a tangle of hands and arms holding her up and forcing her to watch them emotionally torture her son.
“No! Don’t do anything to him, please! Take me instead!” she shrilled.
The one closest to her whispered, “We already have you, dear.”
The shade by Evan’s mirror stared at where he sat huddled in the dark. “Don’t worry, little mirror-boy. We will get to you soon enough, but first.” She stooped down and roughly grabbed Evan’s body that lay before the mirror. “We’re going to have a little fun with your meat half.”
The Evan within the reflection gasped and crawled forward despite his mounting terror. With everything else there was to take in, it was the first time that he actually noticed his physical incarnation outside the mirror.
The doppelganger, clearly basking in her malicious joy, cruelly held Evan up by the neck. His head lobbed forward limply. She put the fingers of her other hand on his chin and began to move his mouth up and down. As she did, so she spoke with mocking screechy high voice. “Hello, my name is Evan, and I’m stupid.”
Evan brushed the back of his neck. He could feel the phantom touch of her fingertips on the nape of his neck. He looked up at his limp counterpart feeling both appalled and fascinated.
As the mirror Evan’s eyes flicked across his physical counterpart’s eyes, suddenly the Evan outside the mirror stirred. Physical Evan head turned to look down his reflection. The shade holding him and the Evan inside the mirror stared transfixed at the boy between them. The listless Evan’s eyes sprung open.
“Ow!” screamed the doppelganger as she dropped Evan and clutched her hand painfully.
Evan flopped to the floor with a loud thud.
The offending reflection stared at her fingers with open horror. “It hurts! Oh God, it hurts!” she shrieked. “What is happening? What did he do to me?”
Everyone froze. Erin, her captors, and Evan within the mirror watched her openly.
The doppelganger began to wail incoherently oblivious to their attention. Her eyes bulged as she stared at her hand. Several pinpricks of light began to appear on her fingertips. Her screaming climbing an octave as she fell against Evan’s mirror for support. The light began to crack along her fingers like fault lines forcing themselves out of her skin. Her agonized shriek became silent as the effort to take a breath was blocked by the very pain itself. The cracks swiftly splintered up her wrist, her forearm, and her upper arm. She writhed as the lines halted just below her shoulder and the strange light within began to glow brighter and brighter. They started to spiderweb outward, expanding more rapidly until the entirety of her affected arm became a white mass of light.
The glowing area of the arm burst outward in a white explosion of blinding light. The reflection’s eyes rolled back into her head as she toppled to the floor. Smoke rose from her severed arm, its nub transformed into polished glass.
Glass dust snowed over them all.
Evan hesitantly crawled forward in the mirror. He pressed his hands on the glass and looked from the injured shade of his mother to his body that had fallen to the floor. As his eyes drifted to his counterpart, the other Evan suddenly sat up and turned to face him. The boy’s eyes opened wide and locked onto those of his reflection. He placed his palms onto the glass where his spirit’s matched them. Suddenly both of the boys’ bodies tensed up and their eyes began to glow with the same bright light that had destroyed the doppelganger’s arm.
Erin’s fixation on the boys was interrupted as the world around her started to vibrate. She looked around and realized that all of her reflections were shaking violently. Their grips on her loosened, so yanked herself free and stumbled out of their adjoining mass. She scrambled over to the two motionless boys.
Their eyes were glowing bright and getting even more brilliant with passing second. Within moments, she had to avert her eyes because the brightness burned to stare at them directly. The energy emanating from their strange light felt warm and pleasant. Suddenly, the light flashed outward and enveloped everything around with its blinding glow. The light whitewashed her vision away and she felt it pass through her. It washed through her being, and she felt every point of pain and discomfort before grow very warm. The pain from the scratch on her face, the shooting pain down her back, and even the aches in her arms and legs from her hours of hiking here all evaporated in its incandescence. There deep warmth in her belly and her baby squiggled with the sensation. Erin touched her abdomen in response and her fingers tingled
Her fixation in her own euphoria was only momentary, shattered as a chorus of horrible mutilated screams erupted behind her. She reflexively pressed her hands to her ears and fell down to her knees to quell the noise. To no end, the brutal sound of their unified tortured voices pulsed through the core of her, reverberating through her body and mind. Their shrieks gave way to rasps and gurgling quickly followed by a very pronounced silence. An instant later, the warm light began to soothe the ringing in her ears.
All at once the light vanished as instantaneously as if a switch was thrown. She wasn't left with the light blindness she expected, but rather, once the light was gone she could see perfectly.
She looked around confused. Every one of her twisted reflections had vanished. Even the jagged edges of the mirrors themselves were gone. The panels holding the mirrors’ frames revealed only bare walls behind them. Her clothing and the floor all around her was covered in a fine, sparkling powder.
Is this all that’s left of those things? she wondered. Evan! The thought nailed her back to her reality.
She twisted around. He was lying on the ground directly before the bare wall where his mirror had been obliterated as well. There was only one of him. He had no glass powder on him at all, but he lay motionless, staring blankly at the ceiling.
“Oh no!” she whispered. She bent down and scooped him up, pressing her ear to his chest to hear his heart. “Oh, God! Not again! Not again! Please be okay, baby! Please be okay!” She buried her face into his chest and began to weep.
Tiny fingers brushed against her face. “Momma?”
She jumped up in surprise. She looked down, her wide eyes glistening with tears. His voice came from the body she was holding so tightly in her arms. He looked up at her with a weary smile beneath his tired, fearful eyes. His little hand reached up and brushed the side of her face in a motion that he had done so often years before when she was still nursing him. In his eyes was the unasked question she had expected.
She smiled at him softly as she answered, “Yes, honey, I’m here.”
His smile broadened then he too burst into tears and buried his face into her chest. “Oh, Momma! I'm s-so glad to see y-you!”
“I’m so glad to see you too!” cried Erin.
She clutched him tighter to her. For one moment, she had forgotten the world of darkness surrounding them, and all the troubles that lay ahead. She was just thankful for finding her son whole and safe, glad to hold him close, and for the moment it was enough.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Exits
She wasn’t sure how long sh
e held him. For the first time during this perilous journey since she had recovered his body, he actually felt warm. She was thankful for that warmth, thankful for the way he clung to her back, and as tragic as his shuddering sobs were, she was thankful for them as well. Any activity meant he was finally whole and here with her.
She rubbed the streaks of his tears away with the tip of her thumb: “Evan, are you okay, honey?”
He shuddered, and her heart ached to have witnessed such a haggard mannerism from her little boy. His breath quickened just before he found his voice, and his lip trembled as he spoke. “Momma, I was so scared.”
He looked at her, repentant. Erin felt another stabbed at this.
“Momma, I’m so sorry I went down that slide. It looked like it would be so much fun, but when I went down it, I knew I must have done something bad because it just kept going and going and going. It was really dark. I fell into a place that wasn’t the park. I couldn’t see and I was covered with leaves, I think? I don’t know, really, I couldn’t see them! I was so scared! I kept trying to call you! But you weren’t there! Where were you, Momma?
Erin shook her head. “I came after you, honey. As fast as I could.”
He nodded. “I heard something coming for me, and I thought it was you at first! Then it talked and I knew I was in trouble! Momma, I tried to run, but I wasn’t fast enough, and it was so hard to run though those . . . stupid . . . leaves! Then something grabbed me!”
Erin gasped. Evan suddenly burst into sobs. She rocked him, pulling his face into her shoulder. He remained there for a long time. When Erin found her voice, it came out so slow and hesitant at first, but grew in conviction as the words flowed. “Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are…”
Her voice flowed into other songs that she had sung to him in their nighttime rituals. She sang “Jesus Loves Me”, Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide”, “Baby Mine” from Dumbo, and on and on. She sang to him until her voice ached, but she kept on singing until Evan had finally stopped crying. He was looking up at her with the same loving expression he’d had when he watched her sing as a baby. Erin felt her heart constrict.
She took a slow deep breath. "Did it hurt you, honey?"
He produced another very grown up shudder, "Yes. It touched me with hurt that felt like ice." He pointed to his chest and abdomen. "I felt it inside me, right here. It was a scary touch."
"What happened next, baby?"
"I don't know. I think I fell asleep or something. I woke up in this dark mirror place. I was trapped behind the glass. I tried to look around, but the other things behind the mirrors kept saying scary things to me. I tried to run away, but I was trapped in this room, and I didn't want to leave the glass because the rest of the room was so dark. I was so scared, Momma."
A strange expression came over his small face. "I was there so long. Then I felt like someone was hugging me. It was a lady. She hugged me like you do.” He looked at her confused. “I couldn't see her and I couldn’t touch her either, but I did feel her. I wasn't as scared anymore. She held me for a long time.
"She told me that she had to go, but that you were coming for me, Momma, and she told me that she was helping you get to me. She told me to be brave and wait for you." His face glowed as he looked at her. "I was brave, Momma," he told her proudly.
Erin smiled down at him. "I know, honey. You were so brave. I am so very proud of you."
His smile broadened for a moment then it faltered. "Momma?"
"Yes, honey?"
"Who was that invisible lady?"
She answered him without hesitation. "That was your Grandma Marsha, Evan. She came down from heaven to help us here."
He accepted her explanation without question. His only comment was, "I like Grandma Marsha. She gives nice hugs."
"Yes she does, honey. I liked her hugs too."
"Momma?"
"Yes, honey?"
"I want to go home now. This place scares me."
"I know, honey. I'm ready to leave too, but we first have to find our way out of here."
Suddenly a static-filled buzz erupted behind her and the area was bathed in a crackling red light. She stood up, clutching Evan to her as they turned to stare up at the light source. She knew that the environment had heard her and responded in its own unique way. Such a routine sign that she had seen countless times before had never in her life held so much power and meaning as it did now. She read the sign with near reverence.
The four glowing red letters read “EXIT.”
Below the sign was now a door as well. She approached the door carrying Evan and saw the handle did disappear as she reached out. She grabbed it and twisted the handle it opened without resistance. She pulled the door open easily, and then she did exactly as the sign advised.
On the other side of the door, she immediately recognized her surroundings. She wasn't sure if it was minutes or hours later. Time, after all, seemed very hard to pin down here. Regardless, she recognized the blood-red lights of the Funhouse overhang.
She wasn't sure how, but somehow on her terrifying trek through the ironically-named “Funhouse,” she and Evan found themselves exiting the exact same door that they had entered from. She had travelled a full circle. It was strange, but it felt right.
The world beyond the overhang was the same horizon of pitch black. Her eyes were automatically drawn to the flickering light of her torch was just in front of her. The wooden hand that had grasped it just before she embarked on her journey within the Funhouse now hung limply. The torch teetered precariously from its dead grip. Erin walked forward and plucked the torch free effortlessly.
Behind them the Funhouse’s structure creaked ominously. She glanced at the message board.
It read:
gasp . . .
The red light of the overhang began to flicker dangerously. The universe of darkness that they hovered in became even more precarious as the oppressive night weighed down on one of the few lights that barely held it back. The Funhouse’s light would not last much longer.
“What is that, Momma?” Evan asked pointing at her hand.
“It’s a torch, baby. Your Grandma Marsha gave it to me to protect us from the dark.” He nodded and snuggled closer to her. “Come on, baby.” she told him. “I think we need to leave this place.”
“I don't want to go out there, Momma.”
“I know honey, but we have to go. This place is not safe. I know you’re scared. You have every right to be, but you have me here with you now, and I will do everything in my power to keep you safe. Okay?”
Evan nodded and then asked nervously. “Where are we going now?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. I just know that we cannot stay here any longer.”
He shuddered.
“Just hold on tight to me, sweetie.” Evan nodded and his grip tightened as he buried his face into her shoulder.
She gave him a reassuring pat and stepped out into the darkness. She walked a few steps and nothing untoward happened. She breathed a slow sigh of relief.
“Momma?”
“Yes, honey?”
“Can I walk holding your hand?”
She looked at him surprised. “You don’t want me to hold you anymore?”
He shook his head. “I do, but your arms are getting tired, and you’ve been carrying me for a long time now.”
“I haven’t been carrying you that long, honey. I just found you.”
“You’ve been carrying me since you rescued me from the pool.”
Erin’s eyes widened, “You-you know about that. How?”
Evan shrugged. “I’ll hold onto your hand.”
Erin weighed what her son said. After a few moments she nodded. “Okay, honey. But before I put you down, I need you to remember some things.”
He nodded. “I want you to hold onto my hand no matter what. Also always stay in the light of the torch. Do you understand?”
“Okay, Momma.”
“Thank you, honey.
” She praised him, but did not lower him quite yet. “You’re a brave boy.”
She lowered his little feet to the ground. Once they touched, he snatched her hand with his. She squeezed it gently. He looked up at her trying to put on a brave front. She had to admit that he had done a fair job of it too, except maybe for his pale lips. He nodded at her. It was a gesture so similar to his father’s that it made Erin’s heart ache even more.
Trying to suppress a fresh wave of tears, she carefully looked away so that she would not upset him. Her eyes were drawn back to the torch. Its flames cast a circle of flickering light about them.
“Okay, Evan, let’s go.”
Before either of them could take more than a few steps, a loud buzzing crack erupted behind them. Erin whirled around pulling Evan into her. He collapsed more than willingly.
The sound was coming from the Funhouse itself, specifically from the clown-head caricature. Erin suppressed a gasp. The figure looked altogether different than it had when she had first approached it. It looked sick.
Its malicious grin had been replaced with a solemn expression. Its mouth drooped below sagging eyes that were drained of their evil intelligence. Its white skin had the sickly pale tone of death more than clownish makeup. Its cartoonish four-fingered hands now looked decrepit and bony. Even its tufts of hair looked worse for wear. The hair was faded and dangled in disarray with several strands sticking out. Its face was a frozen mask of weariness that stared at them with cold, empty eyes. Those eyes appeared to be far too depleted to conjure up any of the hate it had radiated before.
The entire building flickered with the clown as the last spurts of dying energy began to finally give out. Without their life-forces to sustain its demented existence, the dark creature disguised as a building was quickly starving.
She savagely thought that it was a fitting end to the thing.
Apparently sensing her thoughts, the Funhouse’s lights spluttered one more time. In the flickering light, the clown’s expression changed from weariness to agony. Sparks burst from its dead eyes. Was it actually crying as it died? The building glowed brilliantly for one more instant then several of the red fluorescent lights blew out with loud pops.
Leaves and Shadows Page 15