Lost in Darkness

by Jeffrey Thomas

  “Anything interesting happening at school?” Dana asked, propped up in her bed. She watched as Mike doodled on the back of her lunch order. He was a very good artist. He had pretended to be disappointed that Dana wouldn’t let him sign her wrist brace, since she didn’t have a cast. She had declined his offer to sign her head bandages, too.

  “Nope. I was gonna bring you some homework but your mother told them not to give you any, yet. I like that in a mother.”

  “Hey!” Dana laughed. Mike had flipped the lunch order over and was checking every selection. “Cut it out!”

  “You talkin’ to me?” he said, arching one eyebrow at her like Robert DeNiro.

  “So how is Morticia doing?” Sometimes Dana and Mike jokingly referred to Sophie by that nickname.

  Mike wagged his head. “I dunno, she’s avoiding me. She looks pretty gloomy, though. I think she blames herself for what happened.”

  “She shouldn’t. Jeesh...it was just a stupid accident. I tried calling her last night and her mother said she wasn’t home. Yeah, right—but I called her cell phone first, and she didn’t answer. I’m sure she told her mother to say that. I’ll write her a letter tonight, and have Mom mail it.” Dana wrinkled her nose in disgust when she saw what Mike was doodling now. “Is that a brain with a straw in it?”

  “Yeah. Didn’t you know that’s how they did it? This doctor, Dr. Curly, didn’t know how to save you but luckily he had this chocolate shake, see, ‘cause he just came back from lunch. So he drilled a hole, stuck the straw in and sucked the blood out of your skull and spit it into his cup. Unfortunately, though, another doctor came up and told him he was doing a great job and slapped him on the back, and Dr. Curly swallowed a whole mouthful of it.”

  Dana nodded. “I see. Thank you for sharing that story with me, Michael.”

  “No problem.” He kept on drawing.

  “Well, thanks for the teddy bear, anyway...that was very sweet of you.”

  “What teddy bear?” Mike looked up.

  “That one.” She pointed to the stuffed bear sitting on her side table. It had a purple bow around its neck. “Wasn’t that from you?”

  “Nope.”

  “It was there this morning when I woke up. The nurse told me a boy with dark hair came in to see me but I was still sleeping, so he left it for me. I thought it was you.”

  “Nope. I didn’t come by earlier...I was in school, remember?”

  Dana pouted. “I wonder who it...Ethan?”

  Mike had returned to his sketching, but he lifted his head a little. “Ethan? So who is that?”

  “The grandson of my roommate. He came in here to see her last night and he talked to me for a minute.”

  “I guess he took a liking to you, huh?”

  Dana thought she detected a touch of jealousy in Mike’s voice. And she noticed he was drawing a heart on the lunch order slip. In the heart he wrote the name Dana, and then the name Ethan.

  She slapped his arm and laughed, “Cut it out!”

  * * *

  After Mike left, Dana flipped through a fashion magazine. It made her head ache a little to try reading, but so did watching TV, and she was already bored with the small selection of channels. She had to rest the magazine in her lap for a few minutes to give her eyes a break.

  Behind the curtain in her room, she heard the family of her roommate saying goodbye as they prepared to leave. She was shy about talking to these strangers, but her curiosity was strong. When the elderly woman’s son and his wife appeared, she smiled at them.

  “Excuse me,” she said. “Hi, my name is Dana. How is she doing?”

  The son smiled weakly. “A little better. But she’s eighty-one, you know. And how are you doing? We heard you had a nasty accident.”

  “I’m okay. Ah, your son Ethan came in to see her last night. He’s a nice guy.”

  The man wrinkled his forehead in confusion. “Ethan?”

  “Well, he’s one of her grandchildren, right?”

  “Not one of my mother’s, I’m afraid. There are no Ethans in our family that I’m aware of.”

  Dana’s mouth dropped open a little and for a moment all she could do was blink. “You...you don’t know an Ethan? A boy of about fifteen, sixteen, with dark hair?”

  “Afraid not,” the man chuckled. “Maybe you dreamed him.”

  “Maybe I did,” Dana murmured. “But...no. He left a teddy bear for me this morning. At least, I think it was him. Maybe his grandmother is here in this ward but he got the wrong room. After all, I don’t remember that he even looked behind the curtain at your mother last night, not even to say goodbye. That has to be it...he had the wrong room.”

  “Sounds like it,” the man said. “Well, we have to leave now, Dana. Good luck to you.”

  “Yeah,” Dana said, her mind drifting off into a gray cloud of confusion. “Um, thanks.”

  * * *

  Dana poked around in the contents of her open suitcase with one hand while she held her cell phone to her ear with the other, listening to the ringing of Sophie’s family’s phone. She had already showered and changed into jeans and a sweater. Her father would be coming by any time now to bring her home. It had been easier for him to leave work early today than it would have been for Dana’s mother. But he was a little late and Dana was bored, so she’d decided to try to get a hold of Sophie again. As before, Sophie hadn’t answered her cell phone, so as before Dana was giving the family’s landline a try.

  Dana glanced at the hospital room’s clock as the phone rang for the third time. It was only three-thirty, so maybe Sophie wasn’t home yet. She might have gone out with friends after school.

  Friends? What friends? Dana and Mike were her best friends, just about her only friends.

  Fourth ring. Just as Dana expected the answering machine to pick up, the phone receiver was lifted. Sophie’s mother said, “Hello?”

  “Oh, hi, Mrs. Girard...it’s Dana.”

  “Hi, Dana. How are you feeling?”

  “Pretty good, really. I’ll be going home today. Not back to school, yet, but soon I hope. Is Sophie home?”

  “Not yet. She’s probably out with her friends.”

  “Oh.” Dana’s forehead frowned. “Um, Mike?”

  “No...the two girls from Farmington. I can’t think of their names. She met them last week at the library.”

  “Oh. Well, that’s nice that she made some new friends. It’s good that they’re from Farmington. It’s stupid the way so many kids from Farmington and Eastborough hate each other. It’s just because of that stupid football rivalry, I think.” Dana remembered that her mysterious friend Ethan was from Farmington, too.

  “Dana...” Mrs. Girard sounded uncomfortable or embarrassed. “Ah, you know...Sophie feels very badly about what happened to you.”

  “Mrs. Girard, please tell her not to feel bad about it. It was all just a mistake! It was nobody’s fault. Not hers, not Mike’s, not the driver of the car. It was just like fate, you know? I really don’t want her to torture herself about it.”

  “I’ll tell her,” Mrs. Girard sighed. “I hate to see her so depressed. She barely even talks to me, lately.”

  “Tell her to call me tonight, okay? Her cell phone is still in service, right? She hasn’t been answering.”

  “Oh, she’s always forgetting to charge it, Dana, you know that.”

  Sounded like Sophie’s mother was covering for her again, but Dana didn’t challenge her. “Please just tell her I’ll be home, and to give me a call, okay?”

  “All right, Dana, I will.”

  “Thanks, Mrs. G.”

  “I’m glad you’re doing better, Dana. Good luck.”

  “Thanks. Bye.”

  Dana slipped her phone into her pocketbook and sighed, glancing again at the wall clock. “Come on, Daddy,” she groaned.

  Boy, Sophie was taking things even harder than Mike had said. Poor Sophie. She was always so moody, gloomy by nature, but Dana’s accident appeared to have swallowed the girl in
a black cloud. Dana hoped that when Sophie saw her healing, she might start to heal, too.

  New friends, huh? Making new friends was a good sign, wasn’t it? It showed that Sophie was coming out of her black cloud, opening up to other people. Dana was happy for her. At the same time, Dana felt a funny little twinge of jealousy. She knew that was immature, and not fair to Sophie, so she tried to shut the feeling out. Sophie needed all the friends she could get.

  “Hey, angel!” exclaimed a voice behind her.

  Dana turned, sighed when she saw her father there. He was all smiles, and gave her a gentle hug, mindful of her bruised ribs. “Hi, Dad,” she croaked, feeling a twinge of pain anyway. “I wish you and Mom would stop calling me that. After what happened, my angel days are over.”

  Paul Tower let go of his daughter. “You’ll always be my little angel.”

  Dana smirked at him. “I think I’m gonna puke now. Better go call the nurse.”

  “Don’t get smart.” He gestured at her suitcase. “So, you’re all packed already, or what?”

  “Yup. Just waiting for you. And waiting. And waiting.”

  “Okay, okay, I get the message. So, can I make it up to you? You wanna stop and get some pizza on the way home?”

  Dana stood up from the bed. “Cool.”

  “It’s a date.” Mr. Tower latched Dana’s suitcase for her and pulled it off the bed. “You taking that guy, too?” He pointed to her side table.

  Dana followed his pointing finger. Of course, she had almost forgotten the teddy bear with the purple bow. She picked him up, a bit embarrassed to carry him through the hospital like a little kid.

  “Okay, babe, get your coat. It’s gotten a lot colder out there since you came in here, you know.”

  Dana stuffed the teddy bear under her father’s arm. “Here.” She slipped her arms into her coat. “You better carry him. I’m still feeling a little weak, you know?”

  “Yeah, I wouldn’t want you to strain yourself carrying a teddy bear. So what’s his name?”

  “Why does he have to have a name?”

  “Oh, because I seem to recall that you’ve named all your teddy bears for the past ten years or so, is why.”

  Dana smiled shyly. Of course, there could only be one name for this teddy bear.

  “Ethan,” she said.

  * * *

  When Dana and her father got home around five-thirty, her mother was home waiting for her. So were her aunts, some cousins, some friends and neighbors. Mike was there, too. “Surprise!” they all yelled, loud enough to give her a headache again.

  A cake was brought out, Welcome Home Dana squiggled across it in frosting.

  “Oh, brother!” Dana said, embarrassed but very pleased.

  When Dana was no longer being smothered in the hugs and kisses of her family and family friends, Mike sneaked up to her and gave her a little brown bag. “What’s this?” she asked him.

  “Check it out.”

  She peeked inside. “Candy?”

  “It your Halloween candy. I went back the next day and saved a few pieces for you. The rest got run over.”

  Dana chuckled and shook her head. “You’re a nut, Mikey, but I love you anyway.” She gave her friend a big hug.

  Mike’s face flushed red. “Hey, great...um, love you, too.” She let him go and he shuffled his feet, swallowed shyly. “Hey, that candy started the whole problem, so I thought you should at least have a couple pieces.”

  “I’ll never eat it, Mike. I’ll keep it forever.”

  “Well, if you’re not going to eat it, can I at least have the peanut butter cup, then? I love those things.”

  “Sorry.”

  “Oh well, I tried.”

  It was a fun little party, but Dana hadn’t been lying to her father earlier...she was still tired and weak from her hospital stay. Her face was very pale and her eyes puffy. The party broke up early, and Dana changed into her pajamas right after a late, light supper. She was glad to get back to her own bedroom, her own bed, though she expected it would be a little funny sleeping in it the first night or two.

  She propped the teddy bear named Ethan against her pillow. Maybe he’d bring her good luck.

  Dana brushed her teeth, slipped under her covers, and decided to read for a little while. Her eyelids began drooping after about a half hour, and when she rested the book in her lap she realized that Sophie had never called her tonight.

  Had her mother delivered Dana’s message, or had she forgotten? No, Dana believed that Mrs. Girard had delivered the message. A little angry, Dana checked her bedside clock to see what time it was. Only nine...she could still give Sophie a call.

  No, Dana decided—if she doesn’t want to talk, that’s up to her. Dana had tried to call her twice since the accident, and neither time had Sophie made any attempt to get back to her. Sophie hadn’t come to visit Dana in the hospital, sent a card or even given Mike a message to pass along.

  Dana realized that Sophie might be more than just depressed and guilty. Maybe Sophie was actually mad at Dana. Maybe she blamed Dana for the depression and the guilt she was feeling about the accident, because Dana had gone and let that stupid car hit her.

  Well, Dana couldn’t comfort and reassure Sophie if she didn’t call. And Sophie didn’t seem willing to call. But would Sophie still avoid her once she returned to school? Only time would tell. For now, Dana decided to leave her alone.

  Well, leave her alone with those new friends of hers. Dana couldn’t help but feel jealous again. But hey, if Sophie wanted to turn her back on all the good times, all the fun they had shared over the past few years, and switch to new friends instead, that was her choice. If it took her mind off the guilt she felt, fine.

  Feeling a little hurt and abandoned, Dana pulled soft, fuzzy Ethan into a hug and reached out to shut off the light.

  5

  The whole world was darkness. There was no up, no down, no side to side. Dana was floating in a void. It might have been outer space...except that there were no stars. No light of any kind. No sound, either. She just hung there in the void, like a baby in its mother’s womb.

  Dana reached out her hands above her head, and they touched something there. A wall? No, she realized, it was the headboard of her bed. So she was still in bed. Yes, now she could feel the mattress underneath her and the blankets over her, where she couldn’t before. It gave her some comfort. Did this mean if she sat up and swung her legs off the bed, she could walk across the floor? Or was her bed floating in the void? If she got off it, would she tumble away into an infinite nothingness?

  She was afraid to move. Afraid to reach out for her lamp.

  And then, she saw two eyes open beside her pillow.

  She saw the eyes because they gave off a purplish light. The light wasn’t very bright, but it illuminated the face of the eyes’ owner. It was a furry face. A friendly face with a little smile. Ethan, the teddy bear. She had propped him up beside her head to bring her good luck.

  As she watched his cute, harmless face, his little smile grew wider. His mouth opened to grin at her. It was full of multiple rows of sharp teeth, like the jaws of a shark.

  Dana wanted to scream, but when she opened her mouth the darkness poured down her throat like a liquid...black waters that were drowning her. She began to wave her arms in panic. She saw those purple glowing eyes coming closer to her. The grin of sharp teeth kept growing wider...wider.

  She tried to bat the face away with her wildly thrashing arms, but it still kept coming.

  And then, the small animal lunged at her. He opened his fanged mouth impossibly wide, like a snake unhinging its jaws to swallow a rat. The bear grabbed Dana’s hair in both his little fists, and clamped his jaws onto her head. She felt those rows of tiny teeth sink into her skull.

  She felt the bear sucking at her brain. He was inhaling her thoughts, her memories, her mind, like a vampire sucking blood down its throat. These things—thoughts and memories—were what a person’s life was built of. Dana’s bra
in was like a biological computer filled with data and programs. The bear was tapping into it like a computer hacker, robbing the information. The human brain crackled with electrical activity like a powerful battery, and it was as if the bear had hooked himself up for a jump start. He was stealing everything she had. He was sucking the life right out of her.

  Dana beat at the small animal, clawed at him, tried to push him away, but despite his size he was powerful and couldn’t be budged. She felt her mind being swallowed in blackness now. She was being extinguished like a candle flame.

  In one last burst of panic, Dana was able to get a scream up out of the darkness that was filling her lungs.

  She kicked, kept lashing out with her arms, but she was getting weaker. Her mind was going dim like a dying light bulb. She was almost sucked dry. The electrical activity of her brain was growing faint, the programmed information becoming blanked out. She had lost so many memories that she had developed amnesia. She didn’t know who she was...all she knew was that a tiny monster had latched onto her skull like a leech.

  And then came a blast of light so blinding that the darkness was burned away completely. Dana’s lungs cleared, her brain’s computer whirred back to life, the memories of who she was came flooding back into her mind. She realized she was in her room, in her bed, her arms and legs tangled up in the bed sheet and blankets.

  “Dana?” said her mother. Her hand was still on the light switch near the door. “Honey, are you okay? I heard you cry out.”

  Dana sat up in bed so quickly that a blinding headache exploded in her skull like a cherry bomb going off in there. It made purple blotches of light swim in front of her, like weird ghostly fish floating around inside her eyes.

  “I...I guess I had a bad dream,” she panted. “My head...hurts.”

  Her mother made a face of concern. “Are you going to be all right? Should I call the hospital?” She came closer to the bed.