Shadow of Time

by Jen Minkman

  “Are we just going to sit here?” she whispered nervously.

  “You can sleep if you want,” Josh reassured her. “I’ll hold you.”

  She smiled, nodding her head. “I’ll do that.” She lay down, her head in his lap. He looked down on her with a gentle look in his eyes.

  Hannah dozed off into a light sleep. Every once in a while, she would hear Ben’s and Josh’s voices. Fortunately, they were an anchor to reality for her, because the images she saw scared her senseless. She heard coyotes howl in her sleep. Her dreams were populated by black shadows with red eyes glowing up in the dark, claws with nails of pitch black steel wanting to grab her. Using all her willpower, she tried to stay as focused on the chindi as she could, knowing it would be harder for them to use their powers on her once she set foot in their domain for real, a few hours from now.

  She jolted awake from a confused slumber when Josh gently touched her head. “It’s time,” he simply said, his mouth set in a firm line.

  Hannah scrambled to her feet, embracing Josh for a few seconds. Ben was next to her, and she embraced him too when Josh took a few steps toward the cave.

  “We’ll be fine,” she whispered to her brother. “You were a kick-ass hataalii in your previous life, and you’ll be kick-ass now. I trust in you.”

  Ben just let out a sigh, throwing away the butt of his cigarette.

  “Here we go,” he mumbled.

  At the cave entrance, Sani was waiting for them, dark rings under his eyes. “Inside, it is dark,” he said solemnly. “Do not lose each other. Whatever you do, do not let go of each other.”

  Josh nodded. He and Ben each took one of Hannah’s hands. It seemed easy enough, stepping into a cave, but they were about to enter the place that was most dangerous to Hannah in the world.

  The hataalii handed Josh a torch. “Keep the fire burning,” he said explicitly, like the torch wasn’t just there to give them light, but also had a symbolic meaning.

  Then, it was really happening. Josh stepped forward, pulling Hannah and Ben along. “Hózhó nahastlín,” he whispered. “All will end in harmony.”

  Hannah gulped down the lump in her throat as she crossed the imaginary threshold separating the cave from the outside world. A gust of cold air touched her skin. She could hear Ben behind her, breathing heavily. They turned the corner and then entered a large cave, illuminated by the dancing light of Josh’s torch. Hannah felt her knees buckle, and straight after that, a strange sensation in her abdomen. She blinked her eyes, trying to push away the dizziness slowly creeping up on her.

  All of a sudden, it was pitch-dark.

  “What happened?” Ben’s voice piped up anxiously behind her.

  “The torch was blown out,” Josh answered in a tense voice. “It must be the draft. Do you have a lighter?”

  “Obviously,” Ben said, too nervous to make it sound dry. Hannah heard him fumbling in his jeans pocket, and she desperately tried to suppress the panic building up inside of her. She couldn’t see a thing.

  “It’s in my other pocket.” Ben turned toward Hannah. “Just let go of me for a second, Han.”

  Gingerly, Hannah let Ben’s hand slip out of hers. “We were supposed to hold on to each other at all times, right?” she said in a small voice, as his left hand pulled out the lighter they needed. He took it in his right hand and a tiny flame jumped up in the darkness.

  “I got you,” he said soothingly, grabbing her hand again. “Don’t worry.”

  Josh walked up to Ben and held the torch in the flame. The torch caught fire immediately. Sani must have dipped the tip in inflammable oil for it to catch fire so easily. Hannah didn’t understand how the draft could have extinguished the torch so quickly, but maybe it wasn’t just that. There was a certain oppressive quality to the atmosphere in the cave, like there was less oxygen than outside.

  “Now what?” Ben asked, when they could make out their surroundings again.

  “Over there,” Josh pointed forward. They rounded another corner, stepping into a second, larger cave with a blackened spot right in the middle of it.

  “The fire,” Ben whispered. “The fire they were sitting around. Or are sitting around.”

  “Why don’t we see what’s happening in the past?” Hannah asked with a worried frown. “I thought Sani had made a passageway?”

  “Maybe they’re hiding.” Josh looked around him furtively and took a few tenuous steps forward.

  Hannah hadn’t expected him to be this insecure, and fear took a sudden hold of her. Clearly, Josh had no idea what was going to happen, or what was waiting for them here. He was scared out of his wits. What the heck were they doing here?

  At that moment, a horrible, unearthly sound emerged from the far corner of the cave. A corner shrouded in darkness. It was a cackling, eerie whine, and it sent goosebumps all over her body. Terrified, she squeezed Josh’s hand, and was half-tempted to desperately start yammering herself.

  “What... what the fuck is that?” Mortified, Ben stared at the dark corner the sound had come from. His mouth fell open. Hannah followed his gaze. The corner wasn’t shrouded in shadows at all – no, a shadow had been hiding in that corner. It took a step forward, suddenly standing erect, towering over them in all its horrible dark splendor.

  “Oh my God.” Josh pulled Hannah closer. The skinwalker almost touched the ceiling of the cave. He opened his eyes, a terrifying glow emerging from the narrowed slits in his face. Not red, but a ghastly, cold blue. The panting sound of raspy breath filled their ears. It was laughter. Mocking, cruel laughter coming from the mouth of the apparition.

  “What do you want?” he thundered, booming with a volume high enough to make the floor shake. Out of nowhere, two other shadows popped up on either side of the skinwalker, growing to the same proportions in mere seconds.

  The yenaldlooshi on the left growled softly, which sounded even more threatening. Hannah backed away and bumped into Josh, who was utterly silent and didn’t say a word. The torch shook in his trembling hand.

  “We have come to beat you,” Ben said aloud, sounding insecure and scared.

  That caused the skinwalker on the right to start laughing, spitting out an insane cackle before taking a few steps closer to Ben. His mouth opened into a muzzle full of sharp teeth.

  “Don’t make me laugh,” the middle and tallest shadow then spoke haughtily. “In this place, we are invincible.” His gaze drifted to Josh. “How on earth did you convince these poor mortals to join your cause?” he softly asked. It almost sounded like a reprimand.

  Hannah cowered when she saw a lonely tear slide down Josh’s cheek. Had he given up hope? Were these dark, vindictive creatures right?

  “We chose this ourselves,” she managed to whisper, and didn’t cast down her gaze when the skinwalker directly fixed his gaze on her. “We won’t abandon him.”

  The skinwalker smiled coyly. “You should have run when you had the chance,” he replied, cold and without mercy.

  Suddenly, the shadow with the muzzle full of pointy teeth stood next to Ben. The monster was twice as tall as the boy. Lashing out with one giant paw, he sunk his nails into Ben’s chest. Hannah’s heart skipped a beat when Ben slumped to the floor, his shirt torn and bloody. More blood was oozing from the wound on his chest, soaking the light fabric. Struck down by a predator from a realm of shadows.

  “Ben!” Hannah and Josh simultaneously screamed. Hannah kneeled down next to him, staring at him as if frozen in time.

  “Help me,” her brother whispered, his eyes wide open in terror.

  Then, the shadow creature grabbed his ankle, lifting Ben up and flinging him against the far wall with a sickening thud. He hit the floor like a rag doll. The chindi cackled in cruel pleasure. The tallest skinwalker walked over to pick Ben up and slam him against the rock wall once more.

  Hannah’s body refused to move. The skinwalker wasn’t more than a hazy, motion-blurred shadow in front of her, hacking away at Ben with his claws, slamming him against the wal
l over and over again, not showing the slightest pity for the boy who softly begged for mercy. His cries sent shivers down her spine, but it was even worse when the cries subsided altogether. No sound was coming from his lips when he was finally left alone, his skin bruised and bloodied. He landed on the soot-stained floor in the middle of the cave.

  “No,” Hannah whimpered. “God, no, please. Let it stop. They’re killing him! They’re murdering him.”

  Josh rushed forward, trying to use his torch to drive the threatening shadow away from Ben, but he was swatted aside by one of the other skinwalkers. “Josh,” Hannah sobbed, when he too landed on the floor, his head hitting the stones with a smack. He landed next to Ben’s lifeless body, temporarily distracting the skinwalker from his first prey. Tripping over her own feet, Hannah ran to her brother and her boyfriend. The torch was still burning on the floor next to Josh’s limp hand. She picked it up to try and keep the shadows at bay, even though she knew it would be to no avail. She bent over Josh, putting a hand to his face.

  “Shan díín,” he rasped, clutching her hand as she sank to the floor between him and Ben, still sobbing. “You have to... get away.”

  Through her tears, she focused on his face. It felt like something had punched a hole in her soul. She didn’t dare look at Ben’s face, but she knew he was in a bad shape. He was dying.

  Her brother. Her little brother and best friend. He’d gotten involved because he’d wanted to help her and Josh, but most of all, her. He’d believed in a happy ending, and now, he would never see the light of day again.

  She couldn’t lie to herself. She knew how this would end. The look in Josh’s eyes didn’t leave her any illusions. They would die here, all three of them, and it was her fault. Her love for Josh wouldn’t just prove fatal to herself, but to Ben and Josh as well.

  “I can’t... leave,” she heaved. “I can’t leave you here. Where’s Sani?”

  Behind her, she felt the skinwalker coldly breathing down her neck. The draft extinguishing their torch had actually been their evil influence all along, lurking in the darkness.

  Josh grabbed her hand more tightly. “He’s ... on the other side. The real world ... he didn’t pass through the veil. Didn’t use the passageway.” His eyes rolled back in his sockets.

  “Don’t leave me alone,” Hannah shivered. “Josh, please, don’t leave me. We have to help Ben. We must ... ”

  In a flash, she felt the heat of burning fire on her skin. One of the skinwalkers had pulled the torch from her hand and thrown it on the floor, where a mighty ring of fire sprang to life, imprisoning her, Ben and Josh. There was no way out anymore. She was trapped.

  Faintly, she heard a high-pitched voice shriek with an edge of hysteria, and suddenly realized that voice belonged to her. The searing pain of the flames on her skin was unspeakable. She tried to beat the licking fire away, lift Josh and Ben to drag them away from the blaze, but it was like her knees were locked and her feet were glued to the floor. She couldn’t get up. Smoke filled her lungs, and she started coughing and retching, tears in her eyes. The hairs on her arms swiftly singed. The smell of burning skin filled her nostrils. Gagging, she tried to crawl away from the fire, her back against the wall, her knees pressed to her chest.

  Floating. She was floating. The pain she felt was so bad she was beginning to drift out of consciousness, and in a sick way, it made her almost relieved and happy. She welcomed the silence. The darkness. She couldn’t take any more. With tears still streaming from her eyes, she looked up at the heavens she couldn’t see from this dark cave.

  Her gaze caught on something unexpected. Hannah’s breath faltered. Amidst the red glow of relentless fire torturing her body and slowly eating away at her skin, she saw a bright-blue, dancing light. Her heart started to beat faster.

  “Whenever you’re lost, follow me,” she heard a light and friendly voice in her head, and then she suddenly recognized her butterfly. The same blue butterfly that had shown her the way in a vision, before she’d agreed to participate in the first ritual. The butterfly from the haunted house.

  “What on earth?” she mumbled, dumbfounded, trying to reach out to the butterfly. She lifted up her hand, hoping the butterfly would come nearer, somehow comfort her in her death throes, when she took a closer look at it. Her hand. Its outline was fuzzy. There were no fingers.

  A dream. This had to be a dream.

  “This is not real,” she stammered. “This is not happening!”

  Gasping for breath, she fell down a deep, dark hole. She kept falling. And then, she opened her eyes for real.

  Hannah stared into Josh’s brown eyes. They were filled with a fear bordering on insanity. She was on the floor of the cave, Ben and Josh hunched over her. Ben had tears running down his cheeks. Josh held the torch in a death grip, his other hand caressing her forehead.

  She coughed, sitting up straight to draw a deep breath. Her arms still hurt like hell. When she looked down at her forearms, she saw huge burn marks on both of them. Real burns, caused by the visions planted in her brain by the skinwalkers. Lost for words, she gaped at the red wounds on her skin.

  “Honey,” Josh whispered in a broken voice. “I thought we’d lost you.” He put the torch away, balancing it against the wall, and scooped her up in his arms, almost knocking the air from her lungs.

  Ben embraced them both in his turn, shaking his head as if in a daze. “You’re back, sis,” he mumbled, staring at her vacantly.

  “I thought I’d lost both of you,” Hannah cried, clutching the two boys. What an incredible relief. She wished she could stay in this embrace with her brother and her boyfriend forever. The burn marks made her sick with pain, but it was bearable now that she knew Josh and Ben weren’t dead. They were unharmed.

  “What... what happened?” she stuttered. “Where did I go?”

  “We don’t know exactly,” Josh replied, his voice still shaky. “We stepped into the cave, and then I noticed you started to slow down, like you were hesitating. Ben said you let go of his hand, and seconds after that, you fainted.”

  “At first, you were lying completely still, but then you started wailing,” Ben whispered, wiping away his tears. “Wailing like mad. Like you were being murdered. And then we saw those ... those burn marks appear on your skin, out of nowhere.”

  “You were burning alive, right in front of us,” Josh said quietly, “and there was nothing we could do. We couldn’t wake you up.”

  Hannah swallowed. “The torch blew out,” she whispered.

  “The torch was on all this time,” Josh said.

  “So that wasn’t real.” Hannah turned to Ben. “I let go of your hand because you wanted to let go of mine.”

  “No, I didn’t. Not for a second. I would never do that. Sani told us to hold on to each other.”

  Hannah gave her brother a baffled look. “How on earth is that possible?”

  “When we entered the cave, the yenaldlooshi must have invaded your unconsciousness at once,” Josh muttered monotonously. “They’re stronger than I thought. They led you to believe you had to let go of Ben’s hand, and once you did, the bond between the three of us was severed, and they pounced on it. Sani wasn’t joking when he warned us.”

  For a moment, they were all completely silent.

  “How did you manage to wake up?” Ben then asked, puzzlement in his voice. “We tried everything, and I mean everything to make you come back.” He balled a fist.

  “That butterfly,” Hannah breathed. “I saw the same butterfly I’d seen before, in a dream. It showed me the way.”

  Josh started to smile broadly. “Your animal spirit,” he simply said.

  “You think?” she said, her face in awe.

  “It used to be, in your previous life.”

  “Let’s not dawdle.” Ben determinedly picked up the torch, reaching out his hand to Hannah. “I came here to lift the curse for Josh, and that’s what I’m going to do.” His voice sounded grim. “Besides, no one burns my sister to a cri
sp without paying the price.”

  His words brought a small smile to her face. Josh grabbed her other hand, and once more, they made their way through the tunnel. Hannah slowed down as Ben turned the corner. She half expected to see the same large cave as before, with the same soot mark on the floor, but that didn’t happen. Instead, they were in a ceremonial cave with masks on the wall and a burning fire in the middle. Around it were three men in a deep trance, coyote furs around their shoulders

  “We have come,” Josh spoke.

  Hannah looked sideways, suddenly spotting Shash, the bear, near the furthest wall of the cave. An echo from the world beyond the veil. An owl was sitting on his shoulder, and a butterfly was fluttering around his head. Apparently, they had a back-up team.

  The oldest of the three warlocks opened his eyes, inhaling sharply when he saw Josh standing in front of him.

  “Murderer,” he hissed, hatred burning in his eyes. “You will never find peace.”

  His sons awoke from slumber as well, and turned around to face the trio. Hannah blinked when she saw their faces. She recognized the man and the twins from that bizarre encounter at the Safeway parking lot. So this was what they really looked like.

  Heart hammering in her chest, she didn’t hesitate as she stepped forward to face the yenaldlooshi. She addressed the oldest skinwalker imploringly. “I understand the pain you must feel. The idea that anybody would ever take Josh away from me tears me up inside. That’s what you must have felt too, when your lover was taken away from you.”

  The black magician looked at her, unperturbed. “My soul died that day,” he spoke quietly, but clearly. His voice cut right through her.

  Hannah held her breath. When the skinwalker didn’t say anything else, she apprehensively continued. “Your soul is immortal – it cannot die. Just take a look at Josh and me. We’ve found each other too, and who’s to say that won’t happen to you and her as well, once you leave this life and this world behind? That’s what she believed in too, wasn’t it?”