Shadow Eyes

by Dusty Crabtree

  “Why, thank you!” She curtsied.

  Kyra’s costume, though, seriously took me by surprise. “A warrior? Is that what you’re supposed to be?”

  She nodded proudly and struck a courageous pose. “Yep.”

  I surveyed her in admiration. She was completely decked out with a medieval fairy-type, floor-length white dress, a white warrior headband that came down in a point in the middle of her forehead with a clear gem in the center, and lightweight silver battle gear that seemed out-of-place on her petite figure. White and silver war-paint on her cheeks and a short, realistic sword pointing to the ground from her small, delicate hand topped off the elaborate costume.

  “I’m not exactly sure ‘warrior’ is what I would have pinned you as. But I think you look amazing!”

  “Thanks!” She dropped her pose. “And might I say the angel outfit is very striking on you.” She paused and waited for me to meet her eyes before adding genuinely. “It suits you.”

  Her sincerity almost made me believe it, but not quite. “Thanks,” I muttered uncomfortably. I half-turned to follow Josh into the living room back to Nicole and Tyler, but we were stopped by the doorbell again. The last guest had arrived.

  “Oh my gosh. Seriously, Sam?” Josh laughed heartily at the sight of Sam’s all-too-appropriate costume as he walked through the door. The rest of us stifled our own snickers. “Tyler,” Josh shouted to the living room behind him, “come here and look at Sam’s, er, costume.”

  Tyler swaggered in with his arm still draped loosely over Nicole’s shoulder, but when he saw Sam, he immediately straightened up and dropped his character. “Whoa. Dude. I think it might be time for an intervention.”

  Sam was wearing a T-shirt with the logo of his favorite video game, he held a video game controller in his hand, a headset with a mouthpiece fit snugly on his head like a permanent fixture, and the open pockets of his cargo pants revealed a bag of Doritos and a bottle of Mountain Dew.

  “What?” Sam peered at all of us innocently. “I’m a gamer!”

  “Yeah, man.” Josh chuckled and rolled his eyes as he put his arm around me and led me away toward the living room. “We know.”

  If I had thought the outside of Josh’s house was impressive, I was in for a surprise. Josh’s living room and adjoining kitchen were even more extravagant. Orange pumpkin lights lit up the room from every place they could have possibly been hung. Cobwebs covered several items of furniture as well as the edges of the ceiling. Also hung from the ceiling or attached to the cobwebs were numerous black spiders ranging in size from the tip of a finger to a giant pumpkin. An aired-up black cat as big as a Great Dane eyed us from one corner of the room, and a stuffed green and purple witch the same size was suspended from a coat rack in the other.

  If all those decorations weren’t enough to get us in a festive, party mood, the variety and massive amounts of food and drinks laid out on the table and counters would definitely guarantee a good time.

  “So, hey there, uh, fella.” Tyler jerked up his chin at Josh, having obviously embraced his gangster character again with a heavy accent. He leaned lazily on the couch with his arm behind Nicole next to him. “What’s the plan for this hop? You got music? We gonna do a little Charleston for my doll here? I mean, check out these gams on her.” He pointed to Nicole’s legs with a cocky nod as she blushed self-consciously, not entirely upset by his crude compliment.

  “Tyler,” Josh said, squinting his eyes and shaking his head. “Just how much researching about nineteen-twenties lingo did you do for tonight?”

  “Hey, fella, lay off will ya?” He adjusted his tie indignantly, pretending to be ruffled. “I did just enough.”

  I laughed, but then became curious myself. “What are we doing tonight?” I glanced at the spread on the table beside me. “Besides eating, of course.”

  “I don’t know.” He gazed into my eyes evocatively and pulled me closer to him. “What do you want to do tonight?”

  I blushed as Kyra swiftly stepped forward and spoke up. “I brought an old black and white horror movie we could watch while we pass out candy.”

  “That sounds fun!” Lexi agreed.

  “Okay, but we have to take turns getting up to pass out candy,” I said. “It’s only fair.”

  “Well, all right then, boss.” Josh grinned. He had intended to tease me about my controlling issues but, instead, reminded me of Patrick who had called me that the first day we met.

  Determined not to let my emotions get the best of me on a night meant for fun, I grabbed some food, marched to the couch, and settled in as Josh helped Kyra put in the movie.

  “See ya Sam.” Sam’s ride had just pulled up, making him the first guest to leave. “Have fun killing people online.”

  Sam smirked at Josh, but Tyler was on Josh’s side. “Oh, come on, you know you’re gonna go home and not take off any part of that costume for another two or three hours.”

  Sam laughed sheepishly. “Yeah, you’re probably right. Bye everybody.”

  The rest of us waved from the living room as Josh saw him out the door.

  Nicole and Tyler communicated something nonverbally to each other before both of them stood and Tyler declared, “Well, I guess Nicole and I had better scram. We’re gonna go get a late-night cup of Joe.”

  To his credit, he had continued his act most of the night, despite our teasing, and we’d all learned more about the 1920s than we’d ever cared to know.

  “Wait, Nicole, you’re my ride. Oh, and I’m supposed to stay the night at your house.” I stood up, unsure what to do, realizing we hadn’t thoroughly thought this through.

  Josh, however, quickly came up with an alternative. “It’s okay, you guys. I can take her to Nicole’s house later.” He turned to me, hopefully. “That is if you wanted to stay and watch another movie with me.”

  His eyes revealed much more of his scheme than his words as they probed mine for a positive answer. I even began to see the flicker of his familiar shadow appear right beside him, whispering in his ear.

  I cringed, more embarrassed by Josh’s parasite than frightened. Though no one else could see it, it seemed as plainly visible as Lexi’s red hair, exposing our intimate relationship for the world to see. However, the only person whom I was really concerned about seeing it was Kyra.

  I attempted to inconspicuously glance over at her, sitting on the couch with Lexi, to search for any hint of acknowledgement on her face. Unfortunately, I instead found the same protective look from earlier that week in the cafeteria when Josh was whispering to me about his parents being out late.

  As she stood up, Lexi followed, not wanting to be the only person left sitting, and Kyra looked as if she were ready to overhaul Josh’s face at any moment. Astonishingly, her warrior costume with its battle gear added to, instead of detracted from, her powerful, almost intimidating presence.

  I was startled when she finally spoke, because her gentle tone in no way matched her heavy gaze. “You can come and stay at my house if you want, Iris. I just have to drop off Lexi first. I mean, since everybody’s leaving and everything.”

  She succeeded in making me feel uncomfortable and even more guilty as everyone stared at me to make a decision. My paranoia presumed they were all being judgmental. Whether or not they were actually speculating about what might happen if I stayed as I was certain Kyra was, I didn’t know. What I did know was that I wasn’t about to tear myself away from Josh any time soon.

  “I think I’ll just stay here for a while. Josh can take me to Nicole’s whenever she gets home. Besides, I told my mom I’d be staying there tonight.” I felt like a child making up excuses to her parents in order to do something dishonest.

  “Well…all right. If that’s what you want.” She seemed reluctant to leave but surprisingly not condemning, as if she didn’t condone my choice but accepted me as a friend anyway, which made me feel even worse than if she had blatantly shown her disapproval. Gathering her belongings, she kept eyeing both Josh and me as
we fidgeted with movies, eventually selecting one and pushing play. Nicole went ahead and strolled out the door with Tyler, promising to call me when she got home.

  “Bye Iris.” Kyra gave me one last warm hug, turned to leave with Lexi, but then paused and turned back to add one more thing. “You know…if you change your mind or Josh doesn’t want to go out again, just let me know. I don’t mind coming back out to get you.” She smiled, peering into my eyes with a deeply sincere expression before walking out the door into the bitter cold.

  I stood there dumbfounded, wondering what type of friend would care about someone so much that they would go back out of their warm house in the middle of the night in the freezing weather to get their irresponsible friend who made an irresponsible decision.

  I almost wanted to follow her, but immediately after they left, Josh’s breath brushed my neck as he reached around me to shut the door. He retracted his arm, letting it wrap around my stomach, and his other hand swept away the hair from the nape of my neck.

  As he kissed my neck and throat, my modesty and self-control vanished. I let myself melt into him. Hormones took over and I was virtually ready to do whatever he led me to do.

  After slowly making our way to the living room, still very much attached to each other physically, I moved my hand to switch off the lights, more to veil his looming shadow so I wouldn’t be forced to look at it than to set the mood. That didn’t need any help.

  Most of the Halloween lights remained lit, however, only making his dark, fluttering friend slightly harder to detect and considerably more creepy. I attempted to ignore it by closing my eyes and focusing on Josh. As we lay on the couch together, I let all other senses dictate how my mind and body processed what was happening.

  I heard our breathing getting heavier, muffling the sound of the movie we hadn’t even tried to watch. I smelled his cologne and my perfume mingling with our perspiration. I tasted his lips and tongue. I felt an intense, electrifying chill around my entire body as his hands caressed me, one now slowly creeping up my leg and under my dress.

  The phone rang.

  My eyes flew wide open, and I screamed. The horrifying realization that had eluded me when my eyes were closed exploded in my head like a giant balloon with too much air. The black, sinister mass that had once been merely lingering beside Josh was now completely surrounding both of us, wrapped around our twisted tangle of arms and legs like a massive, oppressive blanket. I could hardly breathe.

  Josh shot straight up, startled by my scream, but then laughed as he breathed heavily.

  “It’s just your phone, Iris.”

  Through his uneven laugh and subsequent deep sigh, I sensed an undertone of agitation and frustration, as though he were mad at my phone for spoiling his plans.

  Nevertheless, the stormy shadow that was now recoiling back to Josh was the only excuse I needed to jump off the couch. I ran to my phone, which was blaring my inappropriately chipper ringtone from the kitchen. Any arousing feelings I had been experiencing five seconds ago had completely drained away like blood rushing out of one’s body. All that remained was hysteria and revulsion over the fact that I had let myself get so out of control I ended up snuggling with the very thing I’d hated, resented and feared for the last three years.

  I took deep breaths, trying to calm my nerves before answering the phone, but not succeeding. “Hello?”

  “Hey, Iris?” Kyra’s voice pierced through my dark, shrouded spirit like a warm beam of light. I had never been so grateful to hear from someone. “I just dropped off Lexi and went to look for my phone but I can’t find it. I think I may have left it on Josh’s counter. Can you check?”

  “Uh, sure. Let me look.” Josh eyed me from the couch inquisitively with barely concealed irritation. “Here it is. I found it. You were right; it was on the counter.” I held up Kyra’s phone for Josh to see and he rolled his eyes.

  “Would it be okay if I stopped by real fast to pick it up? I hate to be away from my phone. You know how that is, right?”

  I hesitated and pivoted to Josh cautiously, covering up the mouthpiece and whispering, “Is it okay if she comes by to get her phone?”

  “Whatever,” he muttered as he grabbed the remote to increase the volume of the movie. Pressing his head into his fist, he sat glaring at the TV.

  His unexpected temper and my already high-strung emotions made my eyes well up with tears. But I refused to let them fall. I slowly turned my back to him and returned to Kyra. “Sure. Come on over.” I bit my lip and my small voice quavered. “How far are you?”

  “I’ll be there in three minutes, sweetie. I’m already on my way.”

  I pulled my phone away from me and stared at Kyra’s comforting name flashing on the screen before it disappeared and reverted back to my wallpaper—a picture I had taken of Josh and me at the bowling alley together.

  By now my tears were falling freely, although I hid them from Josh, and my heart split jaggedly down the center with a brutal rip. After a few minutes, I stood up and inhaled slowly in an effort to compose myself.

  Josh still hadn’t removed his eyes from the TV or made an effort to speak to me, so I put my phone and Kyra’s in my purse, grabbed my coat, and bravely walked outside to wait for Kyra in the cold.

  Chapter 12

  ON MAIN STREET AGAIN at the old, deserted strip mall, I shivered on the sidewalk miserably, wrapping the same black cloak tightly around myself, but to no avail.

  My eyes scanned the sidewalks and street desperately for anyone who might be able to help. I wanted to cry from my exhaustion and fear. Crippled and broken, I crashed onto the concrete. As I clung to my freezing cloak, an icy, erosive helplessness ravaged my stomach and ate its way to my fingertips, freezing me from the inside out.

  I sat there feeling defeated, wondering to myself what would become of me and if anyone would even care. But then my eyes suddenly widened with a glimmer of hope. A glowing silhouette across the street was waving at me in a friendly gesture. His warmth and kindness radiated from his core, and I could physically see the bright warm stretch halfway across the street as if it were trying to reach me.

  I told myself, I just need to make it to the edge of his luminous aura and step into it.

  Burdened against the heavy pressure of my now frozen cloak, I had to rally what remaining strength I had and strain against the weight to stand. However, I had barely taken four faltering steps in my attempt at a sprint toward my deliverance before I was intercepted by those familiar, cold hands gripping my mouth and throat. They refused to let go.

  I tried to breathe but only achieved short, choked gasps. I began to fade, a weak and powerless victim with no more energy left to fight. Luckily…I didn’t have to. Just before losing consciousness, a glimmering, slender arm reached down from behind me, forcefully pushed aside the hands that suffocated me, grasped me under my arm, and effortlessly lifted me up away from my attacker.

  I awoke abruptly to Kyra gently shaking my arm. “Iris? Are you okay?” She was full of concern but not alarmed.

  I swiftly looked around me in confusion and finally remembered I had spent the night at Kyra’s. I relaxed and smiled at her. “Yeah. I’m okay.”

  Focusing on my breathing, I let the memory of last night seep back into my brain. I had waited outside for less than a minute when Kyra pulled into Josh’s driveway and I’d jumped inside her car. Out of breath and freezing, I’d slammed the door behind me and had handed over her phone, begging to stay at her house that night. I had probably sounded like a runaway in a chase demanding the taxi driver to floor it without telling him why. Thankfully, she hadn’t asked, because there was no way I’d have admitted the real reason. I had wanted to distance myself as quickly as possible from Josh and his disturbing shadow that I had regretfully used as a blanket only minutes earlier.

  That last painful memory made me shudder under the covers and Kyra asked again if I was all right. I wasn’t sure anymore. I just shrugged my shoulders and stared at the wall, knowin
g if I attempted to speak, tears might flow instead.

  “Let’s go out for coffee and donuts. Does that sound okay?”

  Surprisingly, the idea of having to be around strangers and their dark shadows in a public place was no competition for Kyra’s bright, encouraging voice. I nodded my head.

  We went to a coffee shop down the road, called “Coffee at the Ritz” that also served donuts and cupcakes and was decorated in 1920s art deco. Oversized couches and chairs in deep browns, blacks, and purples with curved armrests clustered together in various corners. Pictures of flappers, swirling colors, and geometric shapes covered the charcoal-colored walls. Had Tyler and Nicole come here last night for their “late-night cup of joe?” The thought of how fitting they would have been in their costumes made me chuckle despite my heavy mood.

  The place smelled deliciously of rich coffee, warm, fresh donuts, and light, sugary cupcakes. It was fairly dead for a Saturday morning, so after we purchased our mocha lattes and chocolate-glazed donuts, we were able to snag a nice secluded section where we could talk in privacy.

  After eating most of my donut and drinking half of my steaming cup of coffee in silence, I began to suspect that Kyra had no intentions of starting our conversation. I finally caved.

  “This is a really cool place!” I surveyed my surroundings appreciatively. “I’ve never been here before.”

  “Oh, yeah? I’ve been several times. I took Lexi once.” She eyed me from over her coffee cup. “I think I’ve seen Josh here once too with Tyler.”

  Hearing his name made me shift uncomfortably. I tried not to look Kyra in the eyes, but she noticed anyway.

  “Iris?” She wouldn’t continue until I had lifted my eyes to meet hers. Her face was an unusual mixture of concern, protectiveness, understanding and frustration. Somehow, though, I could tell the frustration wasn’t meant for me. “What happened last night with Josh?”