She came to a landing, turned, descended to the next level. Another landing. Another staircase. Another landing. Another staircase. How far down did these staircases go?
She counted nine staircases before she finally reached the bottom level. Here, another hallway stretched before her...but at its end there was no bright light. Instead, at the end of the hall was a doorway into blackness.
But this was not just any blackness. It made the dark around her look light by comparison. Even the black void she had seen through the window in the cell door paled by comparison. What Dana saw at the end of the passageway was like staring into the heart of a black hole. In her science class she had learned that a black hole captured even light itself. What lay beyond this doorway might be even darker than that.
And just as she had imagined that there were people in the light watching her, so did it seem that there were people in the darkness observing her. Unseen people, waiting for her. Waiting for her to join them.
In fact, she began to hear their voices in her head.
“Join us, little girl. Join us, little angel...”
“No,” Dana whimpered, trembling violently. She started walking backwards, back to the stairs. “No!”
“Join us...Dana!”
“No!” she cried. “No!” Dana whirled and dashed up the stairs. She fought against the stabbing pain in her skull and the weariness of her limbs. She knew she had to get away. Back up to the light...
“Dana!” she heard voices roaring behind her, and they seemed to be coming in pursuit. She thought she could feel a cold wind rushing after her, an icy arctic wind that came blasting out of that black void.
Up one staircase she flew, then another, the pain in her head making her see dazzling fireworks of colored sparks. She thought she might lose consciousness at any moment. And then, she knew, the things from the darkness would claim her. Drag her back into those frigid-cold depths.
The roaring things seemed to be right on her heels. She imagined them as black leopards, all sharp fangs and powerful muscles, but somehow she knew they were even more frightening than that. Any minute now their claws would latch onto her.
But at last she had made it to the top of the stairs. Tears streaming across her cheeks, Dana bolted down the murky hall with the last of her strength. Ahead, through its threshold she saw the bright length of the main hallway.
She saw the handsome youth there, waving for her to come. This time, she raced right toward him. Dana smiled with relief. He was here to help her. He would save her from the shadow creatures. Just a short distance more...
The first creature behind her leaped and caught a hold of Dana’s back. It felt like it was digging into her with its claws, and she screamed. It was not physical pain, however. It was something different, like something digging into her soul and her mind. Another creature pounced onto her from behind, sinking its hungry jaws into her soft soul, clamping its talons securely into her mind.
Somehow, Dana kept running. A third shadow-thing sprang onto her back, but they didn’t seem heavy. They still didn’t feel like physical beings, but dark spirits. Dana was able to keep up her pace. It helped her to keep her eyes on the youth. He would know how to help her, she thought. Only this ray of hope kept her mind from shattering.
“Into the light!” the boy told her. “Bring them into the light, Dana! They can’t live in the light!”
As she neared the main hallway, Dana again saw that blazing bright void at its end. The awesomeness of it terrified her. Not like the black hole had terrified her, but it was still a totally alien sight. No...no...she couldn’t go in there, either. She just wanted to go home. She just wanted to get back to...back to her body, she realized.
Dana didn’t stop to let the boy help her. He reached out for her but she brushed past his hands. She started racing down the hall in the direction she had originally come from. These beings that had latched onto her like parasites, like hungry leeches, would be stripped off her when she plunged out of this world...plunged back into her body. Wouldn’t they?
“No, Dana! Let me help you!” the youth cried. She could tell he was chasing after her now, full speed. His voice was deafening in her mind. “You can go back if you’re not ready to come with me, but let me help you first! Don’t go until we set you free!”
She couldn’t stop running, though. She had panicked as though she were on fire. Anyway, Dana could tell she was near the end of the hallway. She was almost ready to leave this place. She could hear a growing throb in her mind now and she knew it was her own heartbeat, the heartbeat of her body waiting somewhere ahead. The sound was like a beacon guiding her back.
The claws and fangs hooked into her squeezed, tightening their hold. Dana whimpered, almost stumbled, but just a few steps more...
“Dana!” she heard the boy yell, and suddenly he leaped after her like the creatures had done. He threw his arms around her as if to tackle her.
And together, they plunged out of one world and into another.
3
Dana opened her eyes. She gasped, like a swimmer who was finally coming up for air after being underwater for too long a time.
Light sparkled and throbbed in front of her eyes, making it difficult to see straight. It was as if she had stared into a very bright light and it had burned an afterimage onto her retinas. For a few moments she couldn’t even tell where she was, but she knew she was lying on her back in a bed. She tried not to panic while she waited for her vision to clear. It didn’t clear all the way, but it got a lot better, and now she heard a woman’s voice paging a doctor over an intercom. She realized she was in a hospital.
Dana could see a ceiling through the sparkly light, and slowly she turned her head. The dazzling light came back stronger, and her dull headache became sharp, like a wicked thing digging a nest behind her forehead. She winced at the pain. But she saw a buzzer beside her head, and she reached out for it. Her arm felt like it was made of lead and moving in slow motion. Her finger trembled. But at last, it touched the button.
“Hello?” came a voice from a speaker.
“Mom,” Dana croaked, closing her eyes to shut out the pain and the blazing light. “I want...Mom.”
* * *
“Oh, honey. Dana.” Anne Tower, Dana’s mother, leaned over the bed and held Dana’s hand in both of hers. “I’m sorry, baby...I’ve been here with you all along but I just popped down to the cafeteria for a minute for a cup of coffee. Dad was here too but I sent him home a few hours ago to get a little sleep.”
“What...happened?” Dana groaned weakly.
“You don’t remember any of it? The doctor said you might not. He said a little amnesia is normal.”
Dana squinted. Her vision had mostly cleared, and if she didn’t move suddenly the headache stayed dull. “I remember the accident. A car hit me…”
“Was it their fault, Dana?” Mrs. Tower’s voice became angry suddenly. “How fast were those two boys going?”
“It wasn’t their fault, Mom. We weren’t wearing reflective bands or anything. It was a dark side street. Mike was hunched down in the road picking up my candy. I ran and pushed him out of the way. The car couldn’t stop in time.”
“Oh, Dana, how could you let this happen? You could have been killed!”
“What happened to me? Am I gonna be okay?”
Anne Tower squeezed her daughter’s hand tighter. “You’re going to be all right. But it was serious, Dana, I won’t lie to you. When you get better I’m going to take you to look at that telephone pole. I heard you put a dent in it. I always knew you were hard-headed, but for once I’m glad you were.”
Dana glanced over at her other arm. It was in a brace. “I broke my arm?”
“You just sprained your wrist. And bruised your ribs and hip pretty nicely, too. You need to see yourself under that gown of yours—your body is half purple. But nothing serious there. It was hitting your head so hard that had us scared. Honey...you had what they call an acute subdural hemorrhage.
That’s when a blow to the head ruptures blood vessels between the brain and the dura mater. The dura mater is the outermost membrane of the three layers that cover the brain. Are you following me? When the blood leaks from the damaged vessels, it forms a mass called a hematoma, and this puts pressure on the brain. If it keeps growing...well, it can kill a person.”
“That’s...that’s what I have?” Dana slipped her hand away from her mother and lightly touched the bandages around her head.
“That’s what you had. The hematoma is gone. They gave you, um...” Mrs. Tower unfolded a paper from her pocketbook and read the notes a doctor had given her. “To control edema—which is brain swelling—they gave you medication called corticosteroids and diuertics. Now, after surgery, they’ll be giving you an anticonvulsant drug called, ah, phenytoin to prevent you from having post-traumatic seizures.”
“Surgery? I had surgery on my brain?” Dana said in a whisper.
“Dana, you were very lucky. The blood didn’t clot so they didn’t have to do a...” Mrs. Tower looked at her notes again “...a craniotomy. That’s when they have to open up the skull. For you, all they had to do was, ‘perforate the skull and evacuate the blood by suction.’”
“Perforate? You mean...they drilled a hole? In my skull?”
“Yes, baby. They sucked out the hematoma and then clipped the ruptured blood vessels.”
Dana touched her bandages again. Her thick blond hair was just as full and long as ever on the sides, but what about on top? “Did they shave off my hair?” she moaned. She had visions of wearing a baseball cap for months to hide a giant bald spot.
Mrs. Tower laughed. “Oh, they just shaved a little patch; with that mane of yours nobody will see it.” She wagged her head. “Teenagers. You had a hole drilled in your thick head and all you’re worried about is your hair!”
“Well, do I have anything to worry about, Mom? Will I be paralyzed? Do I have brain damage? Am I going to be normal?”
“You...normal? Not my kid.” Her mother smiled gently. “You might experience giddiness. Of course, you’re always giddy so that would be hard to tell. You might have attention difficulties. That might be hard to tell, too! You could have anxiety, headaches...just like you’ve given me. Nothing too serious, honey. You’re going to be fine, but it’s a long process to recover from something like this. Sometimes six months. And even then, it might take two years for you to get a hundred percent better. But the doctors said you made it through nicely.”
“Oh, Mom. How much school am I gonna miss?”
“As much as it takes. We can’t rush things. A few weeks, maybe, but I don’t want you to try going back before you have a chance to rest and get stronger.”
“Mom, I don’t want to stay back. I want to graduate with my friends!”
“It’s early in the year...it’s only November! Mike promised us he’ll bring your work home for you, but I don’t want you to even strain yourself studying at home. If worst comes to worst, there’s always summer for you to make up what you lose.”
Dana sighed, but said, “If that’s what it takes. Anything, so long as I don’t have to stay back a year.”
“Don’t be so negative, huh? I guess I have more faith in you than you do.” Dana’s mother patted her leg. “Come on, smile! You cheated death, my little angel.”
“Death!” Dana muttered. She fixed her gaze on her mother’s eyes and frowned. “Mom...did I die?”
“What? Die? Of course not!”
“I mean while they were operating on me. Did I die for a few minutes?”
“Not that they told me. You very well might have died, if they hadn’t drained the hematoma, but they got it in time.”
“But I was near death, then?”
“Well, yes. It was scary for a while, there...I thought I might lose my little girl.”
“Mom—I think I had a near death experience.”
“A what? You mean...like people say they have? They float out of their bodies, and look down at themselves on the operating table?”
“That part didn’t happen to me. But it was like they say, Mom. I was in a dark hall, like a tunnel. And there was this light. A boy was waving for me to come in the light.”
“Oh, Dana. When people have those experiences I think they’re just dreaming it. After all, you had a pretty good conk on the head! We don’t understand how the mind works. It can trick us.”
“Mom, I know what I felt. It was so real. It was like I was in a hospital, and—”
“Of course it was like a hospital. Part of you was aware that you were in a hospital. See? It was just a dream, honey. Don’t dwell on it. You could have died but you didn’t, that’s all that matters. Right?”
Dana pouted thoughtfully and nodded. “Yeah. Yeah...I guess you’re right. What I saw couldn’t be real. It couldn’t be.”
* * *
Dana opened her eyes. She realized that she had fallen asleep...but now that she was awake, she sensed a dark presence nearby, watching her.
She tried to lift her head from her pillow to look, but it was too heavy and it hurt too much to move. Her heart began to beat more quickly. Was the presence getting nearer? She thought she could hear a whispery movement, but the hospital room around her was in shadowy gloom.
She wanted to call out for her mother, but then she remembered that her tired mother had gone home earlier that evening.
All she could do was wait for the presence to come to the edge of the bed. And it did.
Dana turned frightened eyes to her left just as a figure started to lean over her. Maybe it was a doctor checking on her, because the figure began lightly touching her bandages as if it might be trying it peel them back.
But when the shadowy figure looked down at her, Dana could see its eyes were glowing a violet color in a face like that of a black leopard.
* * *
Dana opened her eyes and sat up straight in her bed. The sudden movement made colors splash across her eyes in a dizzying kaleidoscope. A blade of pain twisted in her bruised ribs, but worse than that, fireworks of agony went off in her head.
Across the room, someone put on a single light.
“Sorry,” said a male voice. “Are you all right?”
Pressing a hand to her forehead, Dana tried to make out the source of the voice. The colors faded away almost entirely, but the pain in her skull was still at high volume. She wanted to cry but held it back.
“Who’s there?” she managed.
A boy a year or two older than Dana stepped closer to her bed. He was dressed entirely in black, which made him look very attractive but hadn’t helped her to see him in the dimly lit room. He wore his dark hair sleeked back, and his eyes were narrow and glinting. His smile had the mysterious mischief of a Cheshire cat. “I hope I didn’t scare you,” he said in a soft, velvety voice. “I’m Ethan.”
“I’m Dana Tower.”
“Charmed.” He stood next to her bed. “Were you having a nightmare?”
“Yeah...a bad one. I think I heard you come in and my mind turned it into something else.”
“I came in to see my grandmother.” He nodded over toward the curtain which separated Dana from an old woman who had suffered a stroke. She was Dana’s roommate in the hospital’s neurosurgical unit.
“Oh. I feel so sorry for her.”
“So do I. But she’s very old and she’s lived a good life. But you, you’re so young. What are you in for?”
“I got hit by a car trick-or-treating.” Dana was suddenly embarrassed to admit to such a good-looking boy that she’d been trick-or-treating like a little kid. “We were just goofing around on our way to a party.”
“And you hurt your head, I see.”
“Yeah.” She touched the bandages around her head. Her fingers found that one corner of the patch of tape across her forehead had peeled back. She pressed the gum against her skin again. “I had a hemorrhage on the outside of my brain, but they were able to drain it.”
“Brain drain, huh?
”
Dana smiled. “Something like that.” The pain was finally getting dull again. She glanced at the clock on the wall. “Wow…it’s past ten. Aren’t visiting hours over?”
Ethan’s grin grew wider. “I know, but I couldn’t make it down to see my grandmother earlier. I’m sorry, Dana—did you want me to leave you alone?”
“No, no, that’s not what I meant. I was just curious.”
“Well...as you point out, it is getting pretty late, and I’m sure you could use your rest.” The boy who called himself Ethan extended his hand. “It was nice to meet such a lovely young lady, Dana.”
She hoped he couldn’t see that she was blushing. She shook his hand. His grip was strong. “Thanks. Nice to meet you, Ethan.”
“I hope to see you again.”
“Maybe you will.” She shrugged. “Do you go to Eastborough High?”
“Ah, no,” he told her. “Farmington High.”
Dana nodded. Farmington was the next town over from her town of Eastborough, Massachusetts. “Well, thanks again.”
Ethan moved to the door and smiled back at Dana over his shoulder. “Go back to sleep. You want me to turn the light off for you?”
“Um, you can leave it on for a while. I might read.”
“All right, then. See ya around.”
“See ya.”
Ethan slipped out the door. Yes, very good-looking, Dana decided. But he had sure given her a nightmare, sneaking in like that to see his poor grandmother.
Dana had lied to him. Her head hurt too much to read. She just wanted to sleep with the light on because she was suddenly very afraid of the dark.
4
Without his zombie makeup, Dana thought Mike Costello was cute in a goofy kind of way. He was gangly and wiry, his black hair always falling into his big sleepy eyes. She was glad to be visited by his friendly face today.
Lost in Darkness Page 2