Lost in Darkness

by Jeffrey Thomas

  “Soph, is that you?”

  “Dane?”

  “Soph, are you okay?”

  “Tired,” whispered the voice on the other end. “I’m...so...tired, Dane. Sleep. Got. To. Sleeeep...”

  “Soph? Sophie? Can you hear me?”

  The line went dead.

  Dana pocketed her own phone and snatched her winter jacket. “I’m on my way, Sophie,” she murmured, and darted from the room.

  * * *

  Dana’s calves hurt from the walk. She had been cooped up in her house so long now that even a walk seemed like an exertion. To top it off, she had developed a pounding headache along the way. But here she was now at Sophie’s front door, and she buzzed. Waited. Buzzed again. Knocked. Waited. Knocked more loudly.

  “Sophie?” she called. “Sophie!”

  No answer.

  Once or twice Dana had seen Sophie unlock her house by uncovering a hidden key. Now, where had that been kept? She lifted the door mat. Not there. She lifted a stone painted with an ocean scene that Mrs. Girard had bought in Cape Cod. Ah, here it was. Dana was too worried to feel guilty. She took the key and let herself into the Girard house.

  It was gloomy in the kitchen, the shades pulled and curtains drawn. There wasn’t a sound in the house. No radio, TV, not so much as a creaking floorboard.

  “Soph?” Dana said, but her voice barely came out of her. Slowly, she made her way to the worn wooden steps leading up to the second floor. It was even murkier at the top of the stairs. Rather than leading to a higher floor, the dark steps looked like they descended deep into a dungeon or tomb. Dana wanted to call up the stairs, but nothing came from her dry mouth. For a crazy moment she almost left the house then and there, but, steeling herself, Dana took hold of the banister and started climbing.

  The first step creaked with a loud complaint. It was an old house, badly in need of repairs Mrs. Girard couldn’t afford on her own. Every step gave out its own creak, loud or soft, short or long. It was like climbing some giant keyboard.

  Sophie’s door was closed. Dana rapped lightly. By now, her heart was galloping in her chest like a maddened horse. “Sophie?” she said against the wood. “Can I come in?”

  Once again: no reply.

  Dana tried to gulp but her throat was parched as bone. Inhaling deeply, she twisted the knob and stepped into the gloom of Sophie’s bedroom.

  Sophie lay in bed with her eyes closed and her mouth open, one pale arm cast above her head. She almost looked...almost looked...

  Dana rushed to her friend’s side and bent over her to listen for her breath. She had to strain, but at last she heard a tiny sound of air whistling into Sophie’s lungs, and blowing out of her in a weak current.

  “She’s all right,” said a voice from the shadows of the room. “She’s just sleeping.”

  Dana gasped and whirled around. Her heart nearly rocketed straight out of her ribcage.

  There was a dark figure sitting in a chair in a corner of the room. His clothing was entirely black, so his pale face seemed almost like it was floating in midair. And there was a big grin on that handsome face.

  “Hello, Dana,” Ethan said. “What a wonderful surprise.”

  “What are you doing here?” Dana blurted, backing up several steps until she backed into the wall.

  “I’m visiting my poor sick girlfriend. What are you doing here?”

  “I...I...”

  “I know, you’re concerned about her, too, aren’t you? What a good friend you are, Dana.” Ethan switched his gaze to Sophie and his grin grew wider. “Poor Sophie. She’s a really great kisser, you know, but she just can’t take it.” He switched his grin back to Dana. “You’re a great kisser, too, as I recall.”

  “Stay away from me!”

  Ethan pouted and tossed up his hands. “I haven’t moved!” he protested. “I’m just sitting here keeping an eye on my girlfriend, making sure she’s okay.”

  “You did this to her, Ethan. You’re draining the life out of her. Is she in a coma? If she is, I swear...”

  “A coma? I told you, she’s just resting. What are you talking about, Dana?”

  “I know about you, Ethan. I know all about you.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Dana spun around and grabbed at the shade of the nearest window. She gave it a jerk and released it. The shade spun crazily around its rod and suddenly the room was washed in blinding sunlight. Ethan lifted his arm to block his face. “Uh!” he grunted, as the glare stabbed his eyes.

  Yes! Dana thought, a fierce grin coming to her own face.

  Slowly Ethan lowered his arm, blinking. He squinted against the harsh light, but his smile returned. “Lovely day today, isn’t it? Would you like to go for a nice walk with me?”

  Dana’s grin drained from her face. So did her color. Maybe the Shadow Beings feared the destructive blaze of the Gate of Light, but the blaze of the sun obviously had no effect on them.

  “You’re acting kind of strange, Dana,” Ethan went on. “Are you feeling well enough to be leaving the house so soon after your scary accident?”

  “Why don’t you and your sisters leave my friends alone, Ethan? I know what you did to Mike.”

  “Mike? Mike who?”

  “Don’t play games with me!” Dana screeched at him, close to tears but trembling with fury. “You or your sisters drained him almost dry. You probably would have killed him if you could. Why didn’t you? Did he fight you off? Was a car coming and you got scared and ran into the swamp? Or did you just get so full on his life force that you couldn’t eat another bite?”

  Ethan made a cross from the index finger of both his hands, and held it out as if to ward Dana off. “Keep back, girl, I think you’re losing your mind!”

  “I thought I was losing my mind, Ethan, but now I know I’m not. Why haven’t you killed Sophie yet, Ethan? Are you playing with her like a cat plays with a mouse before he eats it? Huh? Are you...are you sipping her life slowly, like you’re taking your time enjoying a fine wine? Is that it? Or are you just toying with her...using her to get to me? That’s it, isn’t it? You pretty much showed me that at the library. I’m the one you really want, aren’t I?”

  Ethan stood up from his chair. His eyes moved down Dana’s body slowly, then slowly up again. It felt like a dirty caress. “Yes, Dana,” he admitted. “It’s you I really want. I’m in love with you, Dana.” He held out his right hand to her invitingly. “Come to me, beautiful, beautiful Dana. Come here. Please. I want to hold you. I want to kiss you. And I know you want to kiss me, too.”

  His voice was like velvet. And his tone was so, so sincere.

  Dana’s heart began to pump even faster than before. But not with fear. She realized that it was beating fast in excitement. Yes...she did want to kiss Ethan. She had to kiss him.

  Dana took one step toward him. Another step. Shuffling as though walking in her sleep—or hypnotized. She began to reach out her hand toward his hand. She wet her dry lips with her tongue, hungry to press her mouth against his.

  His eyes were so intense, locked onto hers. Beautiful eyes. They almost seemed to glow...

  Glow with a faint violet light.

  Dana screamed and pulled back her hand. Instead of reaching out to Ethan, she slapped herself hard across the face.

  “What are you doing?” Ethan cried. “Dana, stop it! Are you crazy?”

  He took a step toward her, still reaching out his hand.

  “Keep away from me!” Dana jumped back against Sophie’s desk. A cup holding pens and a pair of scissors was knocked over, spilling its contents across the doodled green blotter.

  “Dana, you need to calm down. Let me help you.”

  That reaching hand was close to touching her.

  Dana was trapped. She had no choice. She grabbed the scissors off Sophie’s desk and swung her arm in a vicious arc. The scissors in her fist made a whooshing sound as they slashed through the air.

  The scissors tore across the palm of Ethan’s reaching ha
nd.

  “Ah!” he hissed, withdrawing his hand. He clamped his other palm over the wound. Suddenly, for the first time, Ethan didn’t look so confident.

  I hurt him, Dana thought, I can hurt him! The Shadow Being might not be fully human yet, but he was close. He was made of flesh, and flesh could be cut.

  But to Dana’s horror, she didn’t see blood ooze between the fingers of the hand Ethan pressed against his wounded palm. Instead, thin wisps of black smoke began to curl from between his fingers. This black mist was pouring from Ethan’s sliced flesh in the place of blood.

  “You shouldn’t have done that, Dana,” the boy said in a very low and very serious voice.

  “Get out before I do it again!” Dana snarled at him, holding up the scissors like a dagger.

  “Put those down. We need to talk.”

  “I don’t want to hear what you have to say.”

  “I want to be your friend, Dana.”

  “You want to kill me! You tasted my soul back in the Passage, and you like it...and now you want the rest of me!”

  A frown came to Ethan’s face. “The Passage? How do you know that name? Who told you that?”

  “I...I just know it, that’s all. I was there in the Passage, don’t you remember? On Halloween night. You were there, too. You and your sisters. The three of you hitched a ride on my soul and came into my world.”

  Ethan began to nod slowly. “Ah, I understand now. That other boy grabbed onto you, too. He must have come through with us. That...bright boy.”

  “That’s right, Ethan, and he’s on his way here right now,” she lied, smiling, trying to act tough.

  “Oh...I shudder at the thought.” Ethan let go of his palm and held it up for Dana to see. There was a deep crease there, but the sliced wound had already healed most of the way closed. No more black smoke wisped out of it. “You’d better not hang out with that boy, Dana. That will make me very angry.”

  “Get out of here before I cut your throat!” Dana slashed the air menacingly. “I mean it!”

  Ethan shifted his position. Dana could see he was hesitating, confused, still unsure of himself and what to do next. Finally, he began to walk backwards toward the door. “I think you need time to calm down, Dana. I guess I’ll leave you alone with Sophie for a while.”

  “Leave her alone for good or I’ll kill you!”

  “Dana, I can see you’re all worked up and everything, but I wouldn’t tell your parents about any of this if I were you. Unless, that is, you want me to come visit them next.” Ethan smiled cunningly. “Maybe your mother is a good kisser, too.”

  Dana swung the scissors again, her eyes bulging crazily. “Get out!” she yelled. “Get out!”

  “Goodbye for now, beautiful angel. See you around.” And with that, Ethan left the room. Dana heard the old steps creaking, letting her know that he really was going downstairs. When she heard the front door close, she moved to a window and peeled back the shade. Ethan was crossing the street with his hands in the pockets of his black jacket. He turned the street corner without looking back, and was gone.

  “Dana?”

  Dana spun on her heel. Sophie’s eyes were opened, puffy and glassy. “Sophie! Oh, am I glad you’re awake.”

  “Where did Ethan go?”

  Dana rushed to her friend’s side and wrapped an arm around her. Despite her stabbing headache, she began hoisting her friend out of bed.

  “Hey,” Sophie protested groggily, “what are you doing, girl?”

  “Get dressed,” Dana commanded her. “You’re coming over my house where I can keep an eye on you.”

  10

  “Stand up, walk around, come on.”

  Sophie groaned and ignored her friend, sipping a mug of the coffee Dana had brewed for her. It was her second cup. “Ease up, Dane, will ya? Man, I can’t believe I let you drag me all the way over here. I feel like I’m gonna pass out.”

  Dana was pacing as if she had been drinking a lot of coffee herself, hot and itchy inside her clothes from their strenuous walk, and flushed with hot emotion. “You’ve gotta get it together, Sophie. This is a matter of life and death.”

  Sophie was seated cross-legged on Dana’s carpeted bedroom floor, her back propped up against the side of the bed. She yawned and set her coffee down, stretched out on her side on the floor. “You still didn’t tell me where Ethan went to.”

  Dana quit pacing long enough to bulge her eyes down at her friend. “I chased him off, okay? I chased him out of there.”

  “Why? You don’t think I should have a boy in the house while my mother is at work? What are you going to do, tell her?”

  “She wouldn’t believe me if I did. Soph, you don’t realize what great danger you’re in. Me too. And Mike.”

  “What are you saying, girlfriend?”

  “Mike is in a coma, girlfriend. He was attacked yesterday after school on his way to see his cousin Peter in Farmington. He was going there to ask a few questions about your pals, the Sebastian triplets.”

  Sophie sat up again and gaped at Dana. “Mike—in a coma? Who attacked him? I’ll kill them!”

  “It was your boyfriend, Sophie. Him or his sisters. You don’t know what they really are. I do.”

  “And what is that?”

  Dana drew in a long breath, and then related to her old friend the strange dream—the near death experience—she had had after her accident on Halloween night. She told her about Will Garner, and all he had explained. And, at last, she told Sophie what had happened just an hour ago at Sophie’s own house. The scissors, the smoke for blood in Ethan’s veins.

  Sophie chuckled and wagged her head. “You’re sick, Dane, you know that? Are you nuts? I mean, I’m almost afraid to be in the same room with you!”

  “I know it sounds insane, but look how he saps your strength! Look what happened to Mike!”

  “Did he really kiss you in the library?” Sophie asked, narrowing her eyes. “Or did you hallucinate that, too?”

  “You’re more worried about me kissing him than you’re worried about poor Mike, huh? Well let me tell you—yes, he kissed me, Soph. And he tried to kiss me again today. He told me he loves me. It’s me he really wants.”

  Sophie leapt to her feet so quickly that she knocked her coffee over, and it soaked into the carpet. Her blast of anger had swept away her weariness; her face was red and split with a twitching grin. “I see, Dana, I understand perfectly. You just want to scare me away from Ethan. You want him for yourself.”

  “Oh boy, I knew you’d give me this crap! I don’t want him, Sophie—I only want to help you!”

  “By kissing my boyfriend?”

  “He kissed me! Sophie, I cut his hand open today trying to fight him off! I don’t want him for a boyfriend!”

  “Liar, liar, pants on fire. Hot pants.” Sophie picked up her jacket off Dana’s bed and slipped it on. “I’m going back home now, Dana. And don’t come breaking into my house uninvited again or I’ll call the cops on you.”

  “You have to believe me! What about Mike, what about him?”

  Sophie stuck a finger in Dana’s face like a gun barrel. “You’re lucky I don’t kick your butt right here and now, girl. Because you used to be my best friend, I won’t. But because you used to be my best friend, what you did and what you’re trying to do now is unforgivable. You ever go near Ethan again and I’ll scramble your brains worse than that telephone pole did.”

  “I don’t know why I worry about you, sometimes, I really don’t.”

  Sophie went to the door. “Well you don’t have to worry about me anymore, Dana. As far as I’m concerned, you no longer exist.” And with that, Sophie left the room, thumped down the stairs and slammed the front door after her.

  Dana rushed to the window and pushed it open to call Sophie back. But as she looked down at the sidewalk, and began to push open the outer storm window, she saw another figure standing on the sidewalk. It was Will Garner, and he was watching Sophie as she strode away in a huff. She had walke
d right past him without realizing he was the boy Dana had told her about.

  Will looked back up at Dana’s window, and she waved out at him.

  “Dana...hi,” he said, smiling.

  “Will,” she said to him, leaning out into the chilly air, “I believe you now. I need your help.” Tears began to pool in her eyes. “Please. Help me...”

  * * *

  “Not bad,” Will observed, setting his coffee cup down on the kitchen table. “A little bitter, maybe.”

  “You want more sugar?”

  “No, it’s okay. It makes me feel warmer, like you said it would.” He rubbed his arms. “I haven’t had a body in a long, long time. I forgot how uncomfortable the cold can get.”

  Dana sat opposite the handsome blond youth. His presence made her feel stronger, calmer, less alone. “So you were a human being once.”

  “Yes. Like I say, a very long time ago. But the Shadow Beings were never people. They’re just—themselves.”

  “Where have you been staying?”

  “I’ve been hiding in a garage here, a storage shed there. In the woods down by the swamp. I’m sure the three Shadow Beings have been doing the same kind of thing.”

  Dana had babbled her story for Will, just as she had related it for Sophie. She had told Will that now she believed in the reality of the Shadow Beings—and had figured out that they were Ethan and his sisters Vesta and Celeste. She had described them to Will, and told him how Ethan had been trying to charm her, win her. She told Will how she had wounded him with scissors.

  “That’s one good thing about them getting closer to being mortal,” Will told her. “They become more vulnerable to harm.”

  “Speaking of which, you don’t look so great yourself, Will. You look so pale. Can you eat?”

  “I can, but it won’t nourish me.” He smiled. “I told you how the only way I can feed is to absorb a person’s life force, like the Shadow Beings do. But I don’t want to do that. I’m not like them.”

  “Well, at least you know who they are now. At least we’re closer to fighting them. Hopefully we can beat them and get you back to the Gate of Light, somehow, before you use up all of your energy.”