Blinding Night

by Chantal Gadoury

  As he opened the last part of the lantern, Darce held it out to me with a smile.

  “So we’re going to release a lantern?” I asked with a laugh. “I didn’t realize this was a rite.”

  “I thought it would be fun,” Darce replied and gestured to the few other visitors who were doing the same thing.

  “Fun,” I agreed. Some of the others who had gathered also had sparklers lit and were waving them around in the air.

  “And it’s not really a rite. It’s more of a wish,” he explained, “We release it into the air in hopes to bring luck.”

  Darce had dragged me from the docks to another shop where we purchased another espa and the lantern. I had been suspicious of his actions, but I didn’t question them. He led me to a small bridge that connected to the island I had seen earlier at lunch. A tall, ancient-looking tower stood on the island, surrounded by large rocks and the sea. I had snapped a few photos for my own memory, though I had been tempted to share something on my Instagram.

  But my phone died before I could open the application.

  Darce pulled a lighter from the plastic bag and rolled it between his palms. He was waiting, timing it all just so. Once the sun dipped below the sea line, creating beautiful shades of pink and orange in the clouds; Darce knew it was time. The sea was dark and rippling with shades of majestic blue. The sunset resembled a painting waiting to be created. It was hard to believe the day had disappeared so quickly—where had the hours gone?

  “You should make a wish before we release it.” Darce held the lantern out to me.

  “Maybe you should,” I said. He flicked a bit of his hair from his eyes, surprised at me for making the suggestion.

  “Me? Make a wish?”

  “Don’t gods make wishes?” I shrugged, trying to tease him. He shook his head as he flicked the lighter, a little flame coming to life.

  “Wishes are for humans,” he stated.

  “I think today... Just this once,” I began, “You should make an exception to the rule and make a wish for yourself.”

  I imagined I knew what Darce would wish for. He’d want a second chance to be with Persephone. He’d want me to remember anything about her—to bring her back to him. I’m sure he wished for her, rather than me. Darce brushed the flame over the burner and took a corner of the lantern into his grasp.

  “Let’s make a wish together then.” He murmured. I felt my stomach twist in a knot as I took up the other corner with a shaky hand. A wish? Where would I even begin?

  * * *

  Let me see my dad again.

  Let all of this be a dream.

  Let all of this be over.

  Let me remember her for you.

  Let me remember...

  * * *

  I repeated the unspoken wish vigorously as I stared at the lantern.

  “The shock value of your intense concentration is often alarming,” Darce said skeptically, though I wasn’t sure if he was teasing or being serious. “What are you wishing for so ardently?”

  “I can’t tell you,” I said, wrinkling my nose, “Or it won’t come true.”

  Maybe I didn’t want any of them to come true. Maybe I wanted all of them to come true. I couldn’t decide. But sharing my wishes wouldn’t help in either case.

  “Who says?”

  “Everyone,” I replied, rolling my eyes. “That’s the rule about wishes.”

  “There are rules about wishes?” Darce said, shaking his head. “I forgot how complex the lot of you are.”

  The burner came to life with a spark from the flame and I felt the lantern pull upwards. It was trying to break free and soar into the sky, carrying our wishes. I looked around. Some of the other visitors had already released their own lanterns and now watched them rise, leaning into one another.

  “Ready?” Darce asked, tilting his chin towards the darkening sky.

  I nodded with a smile and nervously tucked a bit of my hair behind my ear.

  “Ready.” Let me remember... Let me...

  Darce and I released the lantern together, our hands dropping to our sides as it slipped above us. As ours began to float over our heads, other lanterns followed, filling the sky with their incandescent glow.

  “Do you think we’ll be lucky?” I asked as our lantern floated higher.

  “I’m not sure if I ever truly believed in luck,” Darce replied.

  His words stunned me. It was him—after all—who had wanted to buy the lantern and release it. And yet, he didn’t believe in making wishes or things like luck? As I turned my incredulous gaze to him, he raised a brow. I knew there was something more lingering beneath the surface.

  “I know you believe in something,” I said.

  “Can you be sure of that?”

  Was this his way of playing cool and distant?

  “How can I not be?” I shrugged. “Clearly you believed in Persephone. So much so, you’ve waited for God-only knows how long for her to return...”

  He stared at me. Hard. I could see the shadow of his pain; he was aching with it.

  “And you?” he cleared his throat, “What do you believe in?”

  The question left me frozen. I didn’t know what I believed anymore. So much had changed just within the last few days. Or was it weeks? Being in the Underworld felt like it was in an entirely different time zone than the rest of the real world. I didn’t know how to answer his question.

  “I don’t know,” I murmured honestly. “The things I used to believe in seem irrelevant now.”

  The way he sucked in his breath, I could tell my answer wasn’t one he had expected. He shoved his hands into his pockets and tilted his chin towards the sky. Our lantern was nothing more than a tiny blip now. By tomorrow, it would be a memory. Then the memory would become a phantom, long forgotten but always lingering.

  Like the accident.

  “Ghosts,” I said. “I believe in ghosts.”

  Darce rounded on me, obviously perplexed by my answer.

  “You mean the spirits you see? They aren’t ghosts.”

  “No, no,” I started, “Ghosts. Real ghosts. And like, the ghost of something.”

  “Care to explain what you mean?” He asked, raising a brow.

  I didn’t really know how to spell it out, it was just a feeling I had. It didn’t have to be people, or a personal item. It could be the ghost of a memory. Something that could haunt a person. A lot like the car accident, or the promise of my dad’s reunion. Both of which nagged at me. I didn’t understand it. I didn’t know why it happened or how it happened.

  But it felt something like being incomplete…

  “Okay, so I saw this movie once when I was younger, right? It was really cute and all, but it had an element of seriousness to it too.” I felt stupid for bringing it up, but I didn’t know how else to explain to him.

  “So you saw a movie when you were younger?” He urged. I could see he was interested, and also trying to encourage me to continue.

  “‘Casper.’ It was called ‘Casper,’” I bit my lip and paused, “He was a ghost, and he had three really obnoxious Uncles who were also ghosts. But he didn’t mind it so much? Anyway, this living girl comes along and they hit it off, even though she’s sort of skeptical about the whole thing. It gets kinda crazy, because Casper falls in love with her and gets to be human for a little bit—”

  “Summer—”

  “And they’re at this Halloween party and she’s swooning over this new guy that shows up, but we all know it’s just Casper as a human again. Only she doesn’t know it, so they start dancing and it’s cute—”

  “Summer?”

  “I mean, really cute, Darce. Casper leans in and he’s all, ‘Can I keep you?’ and when I was younger I just thought that was so romantic! But Casper can’t stay human because he’s dead, and it’s also really kind of sad. Cute but sad, and I—”

  Darce gripped my shoulders, pulling me back. “Summer, what is the point of this story? Please.”

  “Oh, right,�
� I coughed, recomposing myself, “I guess what I’m trying to say is I believe in unfinished business and I think that’s what ghosts are. I think everyone has some form of unfinished business at the end. Whatever that means to them.”

  “You believe in unfinished business?”

  “I mean, yeah, I guess I do,” I said with a shrug.

  “That was a long-winded explanation,” Darce said with a chuckle. “You could have just said so and skipped the entire summary of the movie.”

  “Whatever, it was a good movie.”

  Darce contemplated my answer a second longer. “What was it he said to the human girl? You thought it was romantic.”

  “Oh, he said, ‘Can I keep you?’” I replied.

  “Right, of course. And if I recall—” Darce wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me close, “—They were dancing in the ballroom of an old mansion beneath a chandelier?”

  I felt my arms prickle as his other hand took mine. What was he doing?

  “Darce…?” I whispered.

  “Don’t look down.” But I looked down.

  We were floating. We. Were. Floating. Above the ground, in the middle of nowhere with bright floating lanterns above us. I jumped in his arms and held on tighter.

  “And then Casper whispers,” his breath was hot against my neck, “Can I keep you, Summer?”

  Every particle in my body was screaming and Darce was laughing. He was laughing at me. I should have been angry that he would go so far to tease me, but the sound of his voice was refreshing. When our feet touched the ground, he was practically crying. I had never seen him so...happy.

  “You played me,” I said accusingly.

  “Never.”

  “You’ve seen it, haven’t you?”

  Darce held his stomach and stood upright, trying to hold back another fit. “I have had a long life, Summer. I’ve spent plenty of time in the human realm. And besides, I like a good ghost story.”

  “You really are something, you know that?” I retorted, doing nothing to hide my glare. He was so infuriating sometimes. I pushed him back and crossed my arms across my chest.

  “Ah-ha, there’s the Summer I know,” he said teasingly.

  “It’s clear you don’t have a real romantic bone in your body.”

  “You don’t know that,” Darce said, reaching out for my hand. His warm fingers interlaced with mine and held them firmly. “You haven’t explored my body to know…”

  The thought was enticing. Even more so if it meant he’d kiss me like he had the night before. When I closed my eyes, I was almost sure I could still feel his soft lips against mine; the warmth of his tongue trailing on the seam of my lips. I wondered what he looked like underneath his casual clothes. I felt my mouth dry up as I darted my gaze down to my shoes. How was I supposed to respond to that? Had Persephone…?

  No. I wasn’t going to even let myself wonder.

  “You look a little flushed,” Darce said with a chuckle. “I apologize. There. Happy now? How unchivalrous of me.”

  He wasn’t sorry. I knew he wasn’t. He wanted to plant that seed into my head. And it might have worked. Maybe. Darce didn’t wait for me to reply. Instead, he knelt down, finding a seat amongst the rocks. He patted a spot beside him.

  “I won’t pick on you anymore.”

  “Seems unlikely,” I muttered under my breath as I took a seat beside him.

  I watched many of the other lanterns from the few strangers still lingering nearby, float across the sky. It was beautiful. It was more beautiful than anything I could have captured in a photograph or painting. I missed the sunsets at home, and the sunrises at college. I missed the scent of my dad’s hot coffee in the morning, wafting through the house. I missed going to the art studio late at night and painting while listening to classical music like Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92: II. Allegretto.”

  Then, as if he had read my mind, Darce broke the silence.

  “What is it that you miss about your world the most?” It was slightly startling.

  “Besides Netflix and pizza?” I asked jokingly. I was doing my best to keep my deep dark longing hidden away. “Just my home. I miss my own bed. And I miss driving around my town, when mom would let me have the car. I miss the small group of friends I have. Or had,” I wasn’t actually sure if I’d ever see any of them again, “But mostly my dad.”

  Darce seemed to be studying me in the darkness.

  “If you were home, what do you think you’d be doing right now?”

  The question was simple, but yet, riddled with so much emotion. Of course, Darce would wonder what the reincarnation of his late wife was doing millions of miles away from his underworld hideaway. Why would he want to know what kind of mundane things I did back in the states? I didn’t understand.

  “Right now? If I were home?” I repeated and shrugged. “I’m sure my dad would have had the history channel on. He was always really into watching historical documentaries. And I always found them interesting. And I’m sure we would have been eating a bowl full of mint chocolate chip ice-cream.”

  “And your mother?”

  “Reading,” I laughed. “She was always reading romance novels. Sometimes she’d be gardening. She made a little herbal garden in the kitchen once. Dad kinda killed everything.” I grimaced with a laugh at the memory. Darce shifted beside me.

  “I’m sorry,” he whispered. It was the first time I had ever heard him say those words in such a way. As if he were truly sorry I had lost such an element of my life. As if he understood the pain I felt; the longing my memories gave me. We sat there, silently, staring at one another. I resisted the urge to ask him questions that I knew he’d never have an answer for. The sort of questions a girl who was crazy about a boy, would ask.

  What did you want to be when you grew up? What was your happiest memory? What’s your worst habit? What’s your favorite song? They all sounded so simple and definitely not the kind of questions I should be asking a God. He was a revered ‘mythological’ character living a life as a part-time hotel owner.

  What kind of questions was I supposed to ask?

  “When did you know you loved her?” I asked, tilting my head curiously. “Was it really like in the story? Did you just see her and know?”

  Darce flashed a smile, however brief, and leaned back against the rocks; his hands keeping him slightly upright.

  “I just knew,” he replied.

  “And her too?” My voice shook as I asked.

  “And her too.” Darce nodded confidently. “It was just... as if two pieces of a soul had found each other.”

  “Do you believe in soulmates?” I asked as I prayed Darce couldn’t hear the pounding in my chest. My heart was beating wildly. “Or do you not believe in that either?”

  He smirked and slowly rose to his feet.

  “It’s probably best that we return now,” Darce said as he tilted his head back towards the road. “I wouldn’t want anyone to worry.”

  “Do you really think they’ll worry?” I asked, turning my gaze back regretfully to the other floating lanterns above our heads. Many of them were mere specks in the sky now.

  The sun had disappeared, leaving behind a vibrant, a lurid blue and purple tint. But Darce didn’t reply. Instead, he laced his hand with mine and gently began to tug me away from the clearing, and the rest of the visitors. My day in the sun was over; the time had been fleeting. And now I would return to the Underworld, just as before.

  As we began to stroll across the bridge, I paused, still grasping his hand. He turned to face me; his features were weary and yet, intrigued.

  “Thank you,” I murmured and sighed. “Thank you for bringing me here today. I...I needed this.”

  His dark eyes flickered from my own to my lips. I could feel my stomach tighten as he took a step closer and lifted his fingers to my chin. I was finding it hard to breathe—or to think, really. Was he going to kiss me?

  “And you said I didn’t have a romantic bone in my body
,” Darce said softly with a smirk.

  His face seemed to come closer and closer; I lifted my hand to his shoulder to brace myself. I was surprised by how welcome his affections were now. But just as quickly as Darce had gotten closer, he eased away and began to chuckle. I was confused as I stared at him and his lips, before I realized he had no intention of kissing me at all.

  Instead, he stood in all his godly glory, and mocked me. I couldn’t help but feel wounded—humiliated too. Was he trying to determine how much I wanted him? How much I was willing to accept? I had no desire to play a set of confusing games with no rules. I broke away and crossed the bridge alone, back out towards the main road we had used to travel to Gythio.

  “Summer!” I heard him call my name as he strolled along after me. His hand grabbed mine, causing me to stop in my tracks. Before I knew it, his warm lips were on mine; his fingers—tangled in my hair. He was everywhere, and everything. Only as he eased away just enough, did I hear him murmur, “Let’s go home.”

  I nodded hazily as he slipped his lips over mine again. Darce would be the death of me–this I knew. He’d suck the life right from my lips. And I–the stupid human that I was–would welcome it. Even if it only meant I would be his for a short amount of time.

  Chapter 21

  My hand buzzed with adrenaline, but then, so did my body.

  We had held hands all the way back to the Underworld entrance. Palm to palm, fingers laced together just like lovers. Lovers. I laughed at myself mentally, mostly because I was nervous and feeling entirely too silly about our adventure. It was the best day I had had in a long time. I had sorely needed it, and even though it would be a memory by tomorrow, I held onto his hand to remind myself it was still happening.

  It wasn’t as hard going down the steps and I didn’t complain. I think he wanted to apologize, because he turned back every few seconds with a wrinkle between his brows. He looked like he wanted to say something, but wasn’t sure if he should or could bring himself to say it. I didn’t press him, though. I wanted to hang onto his earlier mischief, how happy he was; not worry about the sad things he might say.