The Girl In Between series: Books 1-4

by Laekan Zea Kemp

  “You think Michael’s lying?”

  “We think Michael killed him,” Domingo cut in.

  “But you stayed all this time,” I said. “Why?”

  “We never had proof,” Andre added, “and if Lathan trusted Michael to be in charge, well, I trust Lathan with my life. He’s the one who found most of us.” Andre met my eyes. “The man gave me a home.”

  “And now we don’t know where the hell he is,” Domingo said.

  “We haven’t for a long time.” Andre gripped the top of his knee. “That’s what kills me the most, that all this time has passed. What if we’d had a chance to find him or to save him? To do for him what he’d done for us. Only now it’s too late.”

  “We still have time,” Domingo said. “The odds that he’s dead are slim. We know the shadows are somehow keeping us from our Dreamers even in death so there’s a good chance that he’s still out there somewhere.”

  “Or that he’s been sucked dry and turned into a human flesh suit by one of them,” Andre said.

  They both stared at the floor, absorbing the possibility.

  “Is there no way to reverse it?” I asked. “I know Michael said there was nothing we could do for Tolly and Xavier or the others but what if he was lying? If we found Michael and managed to kill the shadow that was controlling him, what if it’s possible that he could go back to the way he was?”

  “Who knows?” Domingo said. “But I doubt he’d be the same. That is if we could somehow kill the shadow without killing him too.”

  “Shit’s tricky,” Andre said. “Even after all these years it’s still hit or miss. Like those damn things are always evolving or something. My first time destroying one was pretty much a shit show.”

  Domingo smirked. “My first time…the clothesline caught fire and I burned down my neighbors’ fence.”

  Andre laughed at that. “That’s nothing. My first time I singed my fuckin’ eyebrows off. Took three months for them to grow back.”

  “How’d you explain that?” I asked.

  Andre shrugged his shoulders, a mischievous look in his eyes. “Told my mom I’d lost ‘em in a dare. I was always doing bullheaded shit like that when I was a kid. My dad on the other hand…well, it turned out he had secrets of his own.”

  “Secrets?”

  “He died when my mom was pregnant with me. Offed himself.” He met my eyes. “Apparently I inherited more than just his good looks.”

  “He was like you?”

  “It’s not supposed to work that way. Shit, I’m not even sure if we’re supposed to be able to reproduce.”

  Domingo and Shay laughed but I couldn’t get past the fact that Andre’s father had actually managed to find a way to kill himself.

  When it was quiet again Andre said, “I still don’t know how he did it, how he managed to do what none of the rest of us could.”

  The air was gone. No laughing or even breathing.

  “My mom…” I cleared my throat. “She killed herself too.” I remembered standing with her in the bathroom, her eyes, her voice. Her words. “Before…she kept saying ‘it’s not a dream.’”

  Somehow the room got even quieter.

  “How did you know,” I asked, desperate, “that your dad was like you?”

  “Found an old journal of his. Apparently someone had tried to treat him for hallucinations.”

  “What about your mom?” Domingo asked, his voice low. “Was she—?”

  I shook my head, still confused. “She was treated for depression. They thought…” I stopped, wringing my hands. “They thought it was postpartum.”

  “When did she die?” Andre asked.

  I glanced out the window, remembering that it was already winter. “Last year.”

  Andre shook his head. “I figured I’d just inherited his failure or something, sort of like unfinished business, but you…”

  “She wasn’t like me,” I said. My throat was dry and I swallowed. Because for some reason I knew. My mother wasn’t like me. “She was like Bryn.”

  There was a crash on the other side of the wall, sharp like glass shattering. I heard Felix’s voice, raised but not screaming. He sounded like he was pleading.

  “What the hell was that?” Andre asked.

  “I don’t know.” I stood. “I’ll be right back.”

  I knocked on Bryn’s hotel room door but beneath the stomping of footsteps and Dani’s voice I didn’t think they’d heard me. Or maybe they just didn’t feel like having an audience. One of the doors to a room down the hall suddenly opened, an elderly woman with her hair in curlers peering out at me. She looked annoyed. Soon after other doors opened down the hall, more people peering out. I tried knocking again but when no one answered I gripped the handle, snapping it down until the lock shattered.

  When I stepped into the room it was a mess. The sheets had been torn off the beds and one of the mattresses was leaning against the wall. The television screen was cracked, chunks of glass gleaming against the floor. Dani and Felix were squared off in front of me. Dani was holding the desk lamp like she was going to hurl it at Felix’s head.

  “What. The. Hell.”

  Felix glanced at me, just as confused as I was, but just for a second. He looked afraid to take his eyes off Dani.

  I let the door fall closed behind me, lowering my voice. “What the hell is going on in here?”

  I looked from Felix to Dani. He looked stricken and slightly terrified while she looked…

  “Dani?”

  The scowl let go of her, her eyes darting around the room as if she was taking in the destruction for the first time. But even the debris was nothing compared to her face. Her eyes were red, veins like deep red cracks across her irises. And they were wide on Felix’s face, something between terror and hatred swirling in them. At first glance she looked like she hadn’t slept for days, like she was sick with something or had been out in the cold for too long.

  “Dani?”

  At the sound of my voice she stopped, her train of thought severed along with her rage. Her arms fell limp, the lamp tumbling out of her grasp and shattering on the floor.

  “I’m…” She trembled and Felix reached for her but in an instant she shrunk. “I have to go.”

  “Dani, please.” Felix followed her to the door. “Let’s just talk about this.”

  “No.” She stared at the grain, not looking at him. “Just please, leave me alone.”

  Felix took a step back, letting her leave. We both watched as she rushed down the hall toward the elevators and stepped through the open doors. She pressed one of the buttons but just before the doors slid closed she looked up, straight at us, and paired with a feral smile that made my blood run cold, her eyes were black.

  When the Rogues and I met Felix down on the street he was staring straight up, trying to take in Andre’s girth without quaking.

  He swallowed. “Let me guess, these are the ones from that top secret biker gang Bryn was telling me about?”

  “These are the ones,” I said. “Sorry we don’t have time for introductions.”

  Domingo was already edging onto the street, surveying the dark. “Which way?”

  “I saw her heading west from the window,” Felix said, snapping out of his stupor.

  “That was some intense lovers quarrel going on in the next room,” Andre said.

  Felix threw up his hands. “And would you believe I didn’t do a goddamn thing? She just…she lost her mind for a minute or something and she started yelling at me.”

  “About what?” Shay asked.

  “About…shit, I don’t know. She was just annoyed by my existence, I guess.” He lowered his voice as if she might be nearby. “I think she might be on the rag.”

  “Oh, she’s on something,” Andre murmured.

  I shot him a look. I didn’t want Felix finding out that his girlfriend might possibly be possessed by the very thing that had knocked her unconscious and totally lose his shit. Not yet at least. Not until I had an ounce mo
re of definitive proof, though I wasn’t sure what else I needed to see. My gut was already churning with a storm but it wasn’t just with the fear of what might have happened to Dani, it was with the dread of having to tell Bryn. I didn’t want to worry her without knowing how bad the situation was first.

  Domingo stopped at the waterway, staring out over the city. It looked endless from where we stood, a tangled mess of dark corners and empty buildings. She could be hiding in any of them.

  “You said you saw her go west,” Domingo repeated.

  Felix nodded, scratching the chill from his arms. We separated into groups, Shay and Andre taking the northwest route and Felix, Domingo, Stassi, and I taking the one to the south.

  “What the hell is wrong with her?” Felix was still shaking his head. “She was out of her mind, right? I mean no normal chick just loses her shit like that for no reason.”

  I knew I couldn’t use the same words I’d used back in the hotel room when I was explaining to the rest of the group what I’d just seen. When Felix was panting down on the street. When all I could think about were her eyes, those same eyes I’d seen in the clearing that morning, worn by Michael who, according to Charles was dead long before he disappeared that day right before our eyes.

  Dead.

  She can’t be.

  “Roman.” Felix seemed to sense that I was more worried than I was letting on. “What happened to her?”

  I shook my head and lied. “I’m not sure.”

  Luckily Domingo and Stassi were quick to back me up. “We’ll find her,” Domingo promised. “Do you have a picture? Something I can look at?”

  Felix scrambled for his cell phone. “Here, I took it outside the hotel.”

  Domingo examined her face for a long time and then he started walking. Stassi held tight to his hand, trying to keep up as Domingo almost broke into a run down a dark alleyway.

  He stopped, listening. “She was here.”

  Felix looked around, kicking at some wet newspaper. “Here? Why?”

  Domingo led us down another side street until we’d emerged in a small square. The clouds parted, igniting shadows that raced across the cobblestone steps. We all spun, searching every dark corner.

  “Dani?” Felix wandered, his voice desperate. “Dani!”

  Domingo shook his head. “She was here.”

  He took a few slow steps around the square, trying to catch a hint of her. Stassi’s eyes darted and then she let go of Domingo’s hand, the only thing severing her from the chaos that had exhausted her earlier. She braced herself for it, though her hands were still shaking. Domingo reached for her but she didn’t reach back. Instead, she stepped to the center of the square and spoke.

  “Where?” she whispered. Her eyes shifted, absorbing something supernatural the rest of us couldn’t see. Her head snapped to the left and she pointed. “That way.”

  “How do you know?” I asked.

  “The past isn’t just a place,” she said. “And there are dead here like I’ve never seen.”

  “Seen. You can see them?”

  She clenched her jaw, looking around the square once more, and then she said, “I can see everything.”

  She reached for Domingo’s hand again and led us to a fire escape. Domingo pulled the ladder down with one hand, the metal shuddering.

  “I’ll go first,” I said, hoisting myself up.

  The first rung snapped and I lifted my leg higher, testing the second bar. It held and when I reached the top I pulled myself onto the roof stomach first. There were air vents filled with the silhouettes of birds and when I finally got a good look at the main street below, I saw that the hospital was at the edge of the parking lot directly across from me.

  Felix was already halfway up and I called down to Domingo and Stassi. “You wait there, keep an eye on the street.”

  Domingo nodded and Felix and I took quiet steps around the rooftop, flanking every air vent before peering around the sides. Rocks skittered over the edge of the roof and we both stilled.

  I pointed to a shadow a few yards away beyond another one of the air vents and Felix followed behind me. When I stepped around to the front, Dani was crouched, something long and wiry gripped in her fist. She hadn’t noticed us yet and as I took another step closer I could see that it was a coat hanger, hook snapped, the sharp end pressed to her forearm. She was carving something into her skin.

  Felix fell to his knees, rushing to tear it from her hands, but I pushed him aside.

  “Stand back,” I said.

  Felix hesitated but fear finally won out and he stepped behind me. Dani looked up, eyeing me curiously, but I wasn’t sure what to do next. I knew how to kill them, I was made for it, but I didn’t know how to do it without killing Dani too.

  Her eyes glistened with tears, hands possessed as she said, “Please. I can’t stop.”

  “Dani…” Felix crawled forward.

  She cried out, the blood dripping down across her legs. “Felix?”

  He crept towards her.

  “Felix…what’s happening to me?”

  “Dani.” He reached a hand out, trying to steady her own and take the piece of wire. “It’s okay.”

  “But it hurts.”

  “I know. Just let me…”

  He wasn’t watching her eyes, not close enough. But I was.

  “Give it to me, Dani.”

  They fluxed like something wild and then Felix was screaming.

  There was a small piece of the wire hanger sticking straight through the flesh of his hand. He fell back, blubbering, the wound gushing blood.

  “What the fuck?” he choked.

  Her eyes were empty again and this time Felix saw it too, stumbling back behind me, his own eyes seething as if he could finally see the thing inside her. Dani faced her arm again, tracing the same marks over and over.

  “Shit, man!” he said. “Do something.”

  I rubbed my hands, letting them warm up gradually. But the second she saw the light she sprung to her feet. I reached for her, my hand singeing her skin, and she threw herself on the ground, writhing against the pain. She swatted at me with her bloody fingernails and gnashed at my wrist with her teeth.

  And I let go. One second of hesitation and she slipped from my grip. She crawled out of reach, the shadow exposing itself, seeping from her pores until she was made of mist. And just like Michael, the night swallowed her and she blinked into nothing.

  43

  Bryn

  The breeze whistled between us but I couldn’t stop staring at her face.

  “But you’re…”

  “Dead,” Eve whispered.

  “You’re dead,” I said.

  She broke off into German and I shook my head. “I don’t understand.”

  She chewed on her lip, thinking, and then she said, “Dream.”

  “Is that what this is?” I asked. “Not the past but a dream.”

  Eve parted her lips as if she wanted to say more but then, frustrated, she stopped.

  “I’m sorry…” I said.

  She managed a small smile and then she pushed the door open, leading me inside. The small living room was cluttered with antique furniture, table lamps and pale crocheted blankets; porcelain ring catchers and leather bound books and baskets full of firewood. Eve threw a log on the simmering fire, stoking it until the floorboards weren’t frozen anymore.

  She stood in the center of the room, forehead pinched, thinking. Then she rushed past me and knelt down next to a black bag. The zipper scratched open and she pulled out a small syringe, holding it up to me.

  I stared at it, hesitating before taking it in my hand. Before I could ask why she’d handed it to me she was digging in the bag again. Her father’s bag, I realized, his name monogrammed near the handle. I looked back down at the syringe, thinking of the scab on my arm that hadn’t healed.

  “Eve…”

  She took the syringe, setting it on a side table, and then right next to it she placed a gold pocket watch,
the face open. The slow tick filled the room and I examined the engravings but there were no initials, no clues. I knew Eve was trying to tell me something important, a warning maybe, I just didn’t know what.

  She opened the watch face, sliding the glass back. The tick grew louder and then it stopped as she led the hour hand in reverse with her finger.

  “So this is the past,” I said and instantly I knew why Dr. Banz had sent me back here. Not to see if I could or even to see Eve. He sent me to the past so that I could change it.

  Eve stepped to the nearest bookshelf and came back with a photo album, slipping a black and white picture from the page and holding it up to me. It was of Eve and an older woman who must have been her mother. They had the same dark eyes. Eve pointed.

  “Your mother?” I asked.

  She shook her head, moving her finger to the landscape in the background—a mountain range.

  “Mountains.”

  She sighed, shook her head again. I examined Eve’s flyaways beneath a crocheted hat, her dimples adjacent to a row of tall trees in the distance. There were spots just beneath them. Tracks of someone who’d recently ventured through the snow. But among the dark shades of the forest there was another darkness, languid and leering.

  “The shadows,” I said.

  She nodded, setting the picture down, the two of us examining all three items. Then she opened the photo album again and slipped one more photo free. One of her father.

  “Dr. Banz.”

  The sound of his name made her lip tremble. She pointed to the photo of the shadow again, finger tracing a line back and forth between the darkness and her father’s eyes.

  I took a step back. “No.”

  I wasn’t sure what crept up on me first, the silence of the ashes in the fireplace or the cold. But the second I saw the smoke thickening near the chimney Eve and I were both running for the door. I threw it open, the sky clear, but then she pointed, words tripping over her lips in a fury.

  “What is it?” I scanned the empty field.