by Tim Waggoner
He turned to Caroline and took a step toward her. “Please … you have to believe me!”
Caroline didn’t retreat this time, but her eyes widened and her body tensed, as if she were preparing to either defend herself against him or flee. He remembered what she’d said only a short while ago.
I’ve been going to Penumbra since I was seventeen, and I brought Phillip in a few years after that. Do either of us seem demented to you?
Maybe Caroline wasn’t as obviously crazy as Gerald, but that didn’t mean her mind hadn’t been scarred by her encounters with the Overshadow throughout the years. Gerald’s words were insane, but that didn’t mean Caroline wouldn’t believe them — especially if she were insane as well.
His father’s words returned to him then.
You do realize this is Diane’s car, right?
Aaron frowned as he looked at Caroline. “What did you do to Diane?”
Caroline’s eyes narrowed. “What makes you think I did anything to her?”
“That was her car we were about to fuck on,” Aaron accused. “What the hell is it doing here?”
Caroline sneered. “What do you think? The old bitch listened in while we were talking on the phone — talking about Penumbra. I couldn’t allow her to live with that knowledge, so I took her for a little ride to see the Overshadow. When it was all over, I received the full force of the Overshadow’s gratitude, and let me tell you, it felt so goddamned great I’m surprised I lived through it.”
Gerald’s eyes gleamed in the starlight. “You got it all? What was it like? Tell me, and don’t leave out a single detail!”
Caroline stepped toward Gerald and spoke in a voice that was almost a purr. She ran her hands over her breasts, and her nipples grew erect beneath the thin fabric of her shirt. Gerald’s gaze fastened on her nipples as if they exuded irresistible hypnotic power.
At this point, Aaron was only paying partial attention to Caroline and Gerald. He was too stunned by the revelation that Diane — his office manager and friend of so many years — was dead. And the way she’d died … food for a creature of living shadow. Diane’s only crime was that she cared about Aaron enough to want to look out for him, to keep him from making the same mistake in his marriage that she’d made in hers.
Caroline continued to speak as she inched closer to Gerald. “You wouldn’t believe how horny I was afterward … my cunt was so wet that my panties were drenched and juice was running down my legs …”
Gerald licked his lips with his forked tongue and nervously rubbed his scabby scalp. The front of his pants swelled as his cock became erect, and still Caroline edged closer. Aaron wondered how she could bring herself to go near Gerald as filthy as the man was. Maybe his dirt and stink turned her on, Aaron thought. He doubted any sort of deviance was beyond her.
As she reached Gerald, she put her hands on his shoulders, looked him in the eye, smiled, and slammed her knee into his crotch. Gerald’s eyes bulged and his mouth opened as if he was going to cry out in pain, but no sound escaped his throat. Caroline removed her hands from his shoulders and stepped back. Gerald put his hand to his groin as if to hold his wounded genitals together before falling to his knees and collapsing onto his side.
“Come on!” Caroline ran toward Aaron, grabbed his hand, and pulled him away from where Gerald lay moaning softly. Confused, Aaron allowed her to lead him, and they ran hand in hand.
“Where are we going?” he asked.
“We have to get out of here before he recovers,” Caroline answered.
They ran past the parked vehicles, and Aaron’s dad — who now sat on the roof of Diane’s Accord — waved as they went by.
Aaron realized that something was wrong. They were running in the opposite direction from where they’d left his Lexus. They were, in fact, running toward —
Caroline let go of his hand and rammed her shoulder into his. Aaron lost his footing and tumbled down into the pit. He rolled, slid, then hit the muck in the bottom in a splash of viscous goo. He felt more than heard something break beneath him as he landed, and he realized with sick horror that he had fallen on top of one of the three sheet-wrapped bodies in the pit. He raised his head to look — face and hair smeared with rank, foul-smelling slime — and saw that he’d decapitated one of the corpses, and its head had popped out from underneath its crude burial shroud.
Aaron stared into Diane’s withered, mummified face.
He tried to crawl away from the grisly thing, but all he managed to do was thrash about in the slime and damage Diane’s brittle, desiccated corpse even more. He forced himself to stop moving and reflexively licked at a glob of slime on his lip. As he swallowed, from off in the distance he heard his dad shout, “Congratulations! On top of everything else, you’re now officially a cannibal!”
Aaron’s stomach rebelled, threatening to eject its contents in a single violent eruption. But Aaron fought to keep from throwing up, for the idea of vomiting all over Diane’s remains made him feel even worse than the notion that he might’ve just ingested part of her. Besides, his dad was wrong. He hadn’t just become a cannibal; he’d been one the moment the Overshadow touched him after feeding on Bryan. Like a mother bird regurgitating half-digested food for her babies, the Overshadow used a small portion of its meal’s lifeforce to reward its servants.
He heard the sound of a car engine starting and recognized the vehicle as his Lexus. A moment later the engine roared and he heard gravel crunching. The noise faded as quickly as it had come, and he knew that Caroline was gone. It seemed that she had bought Gerald’s story that Aaron was in league with him and had decided that her latest recruit to Penumbra could no longer be trusted.
He was almost completely covered with slime. He tried wiping it off his chest, face, and arms with his fingers, but he succeeded only in smearing the horrid gunk around. He took one last look at Diane’s head. He felt as if he should try to take her remains out of here with him — to give her a decent burial, if nothing else — but covered in slime as he was, he wasn’t sure he could get himself out of the pit, let alone do so while carrying Diane’s body.
Diane’s head stared back at him, eyes sunken so deep into the hollow of her skull that they were barely visible, even to Aaron’s enhanced night-vision. He told himself that he imagined the look of sad rebuke Diane’s head seemed to be giving him, then he turned and began trying to claw his way out of the pit. It wasn’t easy, for the sides sloped sharply downward and the slime coating his body turned the ground to mud beneath him as he went. But yesterday’s rain had softened the earth enough for him to dig his fingers into the soil, and slowly, torturously, he managed to make his way toward the rim of the pit. As he reached the top and was about to put his hand over the side, the ground beneath his feet started to give way and he began sliding back downward. He flailed about, trying to find some purchase to halt his descent, but he continued sliding.
Then a fleshy hand reached over the edge of the pit and latched onto his wrist. It was followed by another hand that grabbed hold of his hair. Their grips held and Aaron stopped sliding.
Gerald crouched at the pit’s edge, looking down at him and grinning with twisted yellow teeth.
“Looks like your new girlfriend ditched you, huh? But don’t worry; I’m not going to abandon you. We’ve got work to do, you and me. Serious work. And it’s high time we got to it.”
Gerald began hauling Aaron out of the pit.
Headlights illuminated the asphalt surface of the road and spilled over to glaze the trees on either side as the Lexus flashed by. Caroline gripped the steering wheel so tight it felt as if the skin over her knuckles might tear. Her bare legs felt cold, and she realized she’d left her jeans behind. She flicked on the car’s heater and adjusted it to direct the warm air onto her legs. Better. The gas pedal was rough beneath her bare foot, but she’d left her shoes with her jeans, so there was nothing she could do about it now. She did ease off the accelerator, though. While Gerald’s balls might have recovered eno
ugh for him to be capable of getting into his car, there was no way his piece-of-shit Beetle could catch Aaron’s Lexus. She had no need for speed, and as upset as she was, she might get into an accident by driving too fast.
“Slow and easy, girl. That’s the way to take it.”
Caroline sighed. “Yes, thank you, Momma. I know.”
She glanced in the rearview mirror and saw a gray-skinned, skull-faced creature with sunken eyes and white wisps of hair clinging to her parchment-dry scalp. This was exactly the way Caroline’s mother had looked when the Overshadow finished with her. Caroline believed her mom chose this appearance to make her feel guilty. If so, it wasn’t going to work; it never did.
“So Aaron turned out to be a jerk,” Caroline’s mother said, her words distorted by her tight, leathery lips. “All men do eventually.”
Caroline considered turning on the radio and cranking the volume all the way up in an attempt to drown out her mother’s voice. But she knew from past experience that it wouldn’t work. Momma would just shriek her words over the music.
“He’s more than a jerk, Momma. He’s a fucking spy for the Forsaken!” But as soon as she’d spoken the words, she wondered if they were really true. She only had Gerald’s word for it, after all, and he was a goddamned dement, just like all the other Forsaken. Maybe she was overreacting, being too impulsive … She’d always been the sort of person who acted first and thought later — if she thought at all. But it seemed that she’d been getting worse over the last few years.
“Of course you have, darling,” her mother said in a voice that rattled like ancient bones. “You’re a dement, too, you know. All the Insiders are. The only difference between you and the Forsaken is that they’ve descended to greater depths of madness. But don’t worry — you and the other Insiders will catch up to them soon enough.”
“You’re the crazy one,” Caroline said. “You tried to sacrifice me to the Overshadow when I was seventeen, remember? Why should I listen to anything you have to say?”
“No reason … other than I’m right.” It was difficult for Caroline’s mother to communicate expressions given the condition of her face, but she managed to achieve a look of smugness now.
Caroline knew better than to argue with her momma. The rot-faced bitch could be so stubborn sometimes. She decided to turn the subject back to Aaron and his betrayal. “Aaron was working with the Forsaken all along. He wants to help them take over Penumbra. But I don’t understand why he would want to do that. He’s already a member, and he has me — not to mention Gillian and Shari. What could the Forsaken promise him that he doesn’t already have?”
“They could’ve promised him anything, dear,” her mother said. “Money, power, you as his eternal sex slave … What do the specifics matter? The point is he did it, so what are you going to do now?”
Caroline drove on in silence for several moments while she contemplated her options. She’d been so shocked by the revelation of Aaron’s betrayal that all she’d wanted to do was get away from him and Gerald. But now that she was free, alone, and safe she realized she had no clear idea what step to take next.
It was one of the most important rules in Penumbra: when a member dements, he or she is given to the Overshadow. No exceptions. But over the years several dements had escaped their former friends in Penumbra, banded together, and started calling themselves the Forsaken. Caroline knew little about them. Not where they lived or even how many of them there were, exactly. She knew only that they were crazy and dangerous. Wyatt and Phillip tried to hunt the Forsaken down from time to time, but while they’d managed to find and take out a few, they had yet to discover where the dements nested.
Maybe Aaron’s betrayal could turn out to be a blessing in disguise. If she and the others could capture Aaron, maybe they could force him to reveal the Forsaken’s hidden lair … maybe even use him to draw them out into the open so they could be destroyed once and for all.
But before any of that could happen, she had to find a way to bring Aaron back to her. She couldn’t simply turn around and go get him. He wouldn’t trust her now, and she didn’t have the strength to force him to come with her. Plus, she’d have Gerald to contend with. She needed some kind of lure, and sex wouldn’t be enough. Not this time.
“When I was alive, the most important things to me were always my husband and daughter.” The dead thing in the back seat bared its dingy teeth in a hideous grin. “Family is everything, dear.”
Caroline’s lips stretched into a smile that mirrored her mother’s.
“Thanks, Momma. I know exactly what I need to do now.”
Caroline pressed down on the gas pedal once more, and the Lexus sped toward town.
Aaron sat in the passenger seat of Gerald’s VW. The stench inside the tiny car was so thick it was almost a physical thing — and the slime that coated Aaron’s body didn’t freshen the air any. But he barely registered the stink. He couldn’t stop thinking about Diane’s head, and the accusing look on her dead face that had to have been his imagination but which didn’t hurt any the less for that.
He remembered what Caroline had said to him in Deja Brew before Bryan had come over to hassle them.
You and I are explorers. Adventures in the realms of sensation … We need to live, Aaron, live big. And Penumbra allows us to do that, to transcend mundane day-to-day existence and be more than just walking-sleeping-eating meatbags … No price is too high when it comes to reaching your full potential, Aaron. Never forget that.
In his mind, he saw again the look of accusation on Diane’s dry, withered face, and he knew that Caroline was wrong. Some prices were much too high.
“It won’t be long now.” Gerald reached up and rubbed his scalp. He performed this action at least once every couple minutes or so, more often when he was excited, and Aaron was beginning to get used to it. “We’ll be at the Homestead soon, and I’ll introduce you to the others. Then you can tell us everything you’ve learned.”
The dome light flickered on and off erratically, like a firefly caught in the throes of a grand mal seizure. Normally the malfunctioning light would’ve annoyed Aaron to the point of distraction, but it seemed appropriate for Gerald, as if it were wired directly into the man’s misfiring nervous system.
After Gerald had helped Aaron out of the pit, he’d followed the lunatic back to his Beetle and climbed into the car without thinking twice. He supposed he’d been in shock or something. But though his mind still felt sluggish, he was starting to think straight once more. He wasn’t sure where they were — he didn’t have a clear memory of getting back on the road or what route they’d taken after that. He looked out the window now and saw that it was still night, though he didn’t know the time. Maybe three a.m. or thereabout. He glanced at the clock set into Gerald’s dashboard, the old-fashioned kind with slim red hands and white hash marks indicating minutes on a black background. It said 9:20, but the second hand wasn’t moving, and Aaron knew the clock was broken. He looked out the window again and saw there were few trees around; instead they drove past fields of tall cornstalks. So they were out in the country. A suitable location for a place called the Homestead, Aaron thought.
“What makes you think I know anything that will help you?” These were the first words Aaron had spoken since Gerald had helped him get free of the pit. And once they were out of his mouth, more followed. “You and the other dements — I mean, the Forsaken — all used to be members of Penumbra, right?”
“Yes,” Gerald said. “Some of them for quite a few years before being forced out.”
Before they went crazy, you mean, Aaron thought. “That means you and the others know the place inside out. Far better than I could after only going there twice. What possible help can I be to you?”
Gerald slowed as the VW drew near a gravel driveway. A rusty mailbox sat atop a weathered wooden post at the road’s edge, the door hanging open as if eagerly awaiting a delivery that would never come. Gerald pressed the brake pedal and was reward
ed by the squealing groan of worn brakes struggling to do their job. He turned into the driveway and accelerated, leaving clouds of gravel dust in the Beetle’s wake.
“You’ve interacted with the Insiders more recently than any of us,” Gerald said. “You’ll know if they’ve made any changes to Penumbra’s layout, if they’ve set any traps to stop us, stockpiled any weapons …”
Aaron snorted a laugh. “You make it sound as if Penumbra’s a military bunker instead of a place to get drunk and get laid.”
Gerald turned to glare at Aaron, bloodshot eyes seeming to spark in the flickering illumination cast by the dome light.
“It’s much more than that, and you know it.” Gerald sounded almost sane as he said this.
“All right, I’ll concede that point, but I didn’t see any signs of traps or weapons. You’re just being paranoid, Gerald.”
Gerald’s lips tightened and his jaw clenched. “We’ll just have to see about that, won’t we?” He turned to look forward once more, and Aaron decided it would be best not to press the issue any further.
Fields of waist-high grass rose on either side of the driveway, waving in the night breeze like undersea plants caught in slow, steady tide. Not far off he could see a farmhouse and a barn, both illuminated by a fluorescent light mounted on top of a telephone pole. He had no doubt that this was the Homestead to which Gerald had referred. Now that his mind was reasonably clear again, Aaron realized that he had made a huge mistake allowing this nutcase to bring him here. Caroline had said that all dements were dangerous, and she’d implied that the Forsaken were the worst. Just because Gerald said all they wanted with Aaron was to glean whatever information about Penumbra he had to share didn’t make it so. Or didn’t provide any guarantee as to what else they might do to him when they were satisfied he had told them all he knew. And since he didn’t know much, it might well be a short and extremely unpleasant interrogation. It looked like he would have to go along with Gerald for now and keep both eyes out for opportunities to escape. And if no opportunities presented themselves, he would just have to make them himself.