As Dana’s vision returned, she saw Will standing there in front of her. Alone. The girl in his arms had vanished.
“Will!” Dana gasped. “She got away!”
“She’s gone, Dana.”
Dana stepped out of the elevator. “Well let’s go after her!”
Will stepped out, also. His voice sounded sad, full of regret, as he repeated, “She’s gone, Dana. Gone forever.”
“You mean...you mean you killed her?”
Will made an uncomfortable face. “She wasn’t alive. She wasn’t human. She was working on it...she was close...but now she’s gone.”
A huge crazy grin spread across Dana’s face. “Will! Will, you did it! You did it! Our theory worked, after all! You can do what they do! You can steal their energy!”
Will broke his eyes away, as if ashamed. “You’re right,” he said bitterly. “Now I’m a vampire, too. Just like them.”
“Will, it isn’t like that. Listen to me.” She rested her hand tenderly on his arm. “You aren’t like them. They’re evil, and you’re good. You only did it to save us.”
“I know,” he sighed. “I know. But she looked...she looked...so human.”
“I understand.”
He returned his gaze to her, and it was intense. “I don’t know if I can absorb the other two, once they get fully mortal. We can’t let them do that. We can’t let them kill anyone.”
“Let’s go back down to Mike. We have to fill him in on all this.”
They returned to the elevator, rode it back down to Mike’s floor. As they moved toward his door, Anne Tower emerged from the room and came forward to meet them. “Your friend was just here. You missed her,” she said.
“Our...friend?” Dana said.
“Celeste, she said her name was. She gave me this to give Mike.” She held up a teddy bear to show them. A teddy bear with a purple bow around its neck.
“Is Mike okay?” Dana blurted.
“He’s tired...he’s been taking a nap. Maybe we shouldn’t wake him up.”
“Just for a few minutes, Mom, I promise. Go have your coffee...we’ll be right with you.”
“All right, whatever...but don’t keep him awake long. Here.”
Mrs. Tower handed her daughter the teddy bear.
Dana hated to touch the thing, but she accepted it. “Thanks. And Mom? Be careful.”
Mrs. Tower made a face. “Careful? Okay, ah...thanks. You kids be careful, too.”
Mrs. Tower strode away, leaving Dana and Will to enter Mike’s room. He was sleeping as innocently as a baby. Dana gently shook his arm.
Will went to look out the window. “Celeste is going to be mad at what we did to her sister.”
“They’re both going to be mad,” Dana said grimly. “Real mad.”
14
“Do you two really expect me to believe all this?”
Dana sat on the foot of Mike’s bed, and Will leaned against the wall by the window. They had just given Mike a quick version of the whole story, nothing held back, right up to their battle with Vesta in the elevator.
“Mike, you have to believe it! Your life is in danger!”
“So those two girls who kissed me were really brain-draining, soul-sucking, shape-shifting monsters, huh?”
“Well, what do you think they came after you for? I mean, Mike, you are cute and everything, but how often do two strange girls run out of the swamp and start smooching you?”
“Not as often as I’d like.”
“Mike...”
“You expect me to believe your boyfriend here is a ghost?”
Dana blushed at the term “boyfriend,” but went on, “How do you think you went into a coma? Those creatures did it.”
“Those ‘creatures’ kissed me. And I guess I fell over or something and hit my head.”
“You didn’t hit your head! You have no injuries like I did when I hit the phone pole. They couldn’t figure out what happened to you. Mike...those things came back here today to finish you off, I’m sure of it! You won’t see the redhead again, but if that clone comes in here you can’t kiss her. Do you understand? Don’t let her kiss you!”
Mike chuckled and wagged his head. “Man, I don’t know about you.” He glanced over at Will. “Hey, Dane, I got to get my kisses somewhere, right? I’m not getting them anywhere else...like some more privileged guys I know.” He lowered his head and pretended to pick at his hospital I.D. bracelet.
Dana sighed impatiently. “You have to believe me. You have to!”
“Kids?” Mrs. Tower poked her head into the room. “Hey, Mike, how are you? You look great.”
“Hi, Mrs. T. I’m doing better, I guess.”
“Excellent. But we really have to get going. Dana told me she wouldn’t be long, but I guess she forgot.” She arched one eyebrow at her daughter.
Sighing again, Dana got off the bed. “Just think about what I told you, Mike. Please.”
“I’ll think about it,” he replied, but his face was strangely blank. He wasn’t acting like her old Mike at all. Was the spunky, funny Mike still in a coma? This Mike seemed so serious, even bitter.
“I’ll see you,” Dana told him, following Will to the door. She paused in the threshold. “Please, please be careful.”
“I will. No kissing for me. Got it.” He saluted her.
Angry with his sarcastic attitude, Dana left him.
On the ride home, in the backseat together, Dana and Will spoke in whispers while Mrs. Tower played the radio and politely tuned out their muted conversation.
“He’s acting like Sophie!” Dana hissed, still angry at her friend.
Will gave her a little smile. “Don’t you see, Dana? He’s jealous of me.”
“Of you?”
“You told him how we kissed, so you could give me your energy. He’s jealous. He’s in love with you.”
“Mike? In love with me?”
“You never suspected it? Never sensed it?”
Dana watched the world flashing by outside her window. “I guess not. I mean, I always thought he was cute. We tease each other, flirt, you know. But I guess I never really thought about it. We’ve been friends a long time.”
“Trust me. He loves you.”
Dana returned her gaze to the blond youth. She swallowed with a loud click, and when she spoke again it was in a whisper so soft that Will had to lean his ear close to her lips to hear it.
“Will...you got a lot of strength from the creature’s energy, didn’t you?”
“Yes. I feel much stronger.”
“You killed...I mean, you destroyed her. Right? So does that mean that you’ve become a human being, now?”
Will shook his head. “No, Dana. No. Even if I destroyed all three of them and took their energy, that could never happen.”
“Why? Why not?”
“The Shadow Beings aren’t alive, like I’ve said. Never were. But I was once alive, Dana. Then I died. My mortal life is gone forever. I can’t have it back...only this false life, for as long as my energy can keep the candle lit before it melts away.”
“Isn’t there any way? Some way you can...stay here?”
“Not for long. Not forever.”
“Are you absolutely sure?”
Will leaned away from her so he could look into her eyes. Again, he shook his head. “I’m sorry.”
Dana’s eyes began to film over with moisture. “I have...I have feelings for you, Will.”
The boy’s smile was sad with regret. “I have feelings for you, too, Dana. But—”
She turned sharply away from him to stare out the window again. “I don’t want to hear it,” she cut him off. “I don’t want to hear it.”
* * *
Mrs. Tower refused to let Dana go out that evening to visit Sophie. She reminded her daughter that she was still recuperating, and told her she’d had enough excitement for one day. Dana protested, and ended up asking her father instead. He didn’t want to get in the middle, so he sided with his wife. Mrs. Tow
er was furious that Dana had tried to win her father to her side, and so Dana gave up on the fight before it got worse. She went to bed early that night, and watched TV in her bed until late.
When the house was silent, she padded stealthily out of her room. She had changed from her nightgown into black tights and a tight black sweater, like some kind of cat burglar or suburban female ninja.
Will was waiting for her in the cellar. Mrs. Tower had dropped him off at his false address after the hospital visit, and shortly after supper Dana had sneaked downstairs to unlock the bulkhead door and let him in. He had been hiding patiently down there in the dark for hours.
“You’ll get in trouble if your mother finds you missing,” Will warned her.
“Sophie’s in bigger trouble.”
“Will she be awake?”
“Probably. She likes to stay up real late Fridays and Saturdays, listening to her headphones or watching horror movies.”
“Should we call first to let her know we’re coming?”
“No,” Dana answered. “If I explain anything about why we’re coming, she’ll want to know more, and this isn’t something we can discuss over the phone. I’d rather she wasn’t expecting us.”
“All right,” Will shrugged, “then I guess we’re off.”
Together they left the house, and Dana made sure she locked the back door securely behind her. With Vesta destroyed, there was no telling what the remaining two Shadow Beings might do to get their revenge. No one was safe.
The night was cold, and Dana slipped her arms into the sleeves of her ski jacket. It wasn’t black, but at least it wasn’t bright. She had let Will borrow a pull-over black sweater with a hood. For a while they walked in silence, and occasional white specks of an early snow started to slant through the air, ticking against their faces.
At one point along the way, a car started to turn onto the street they were going down. Ducking behind two trees that lined the sidewalk, they waited for the dark vehicle to pass. It wasn’t the police, but they still didn’t want to take the chance that anyone would see two young teenagers out past midnight, and wonder what they were up to.
At last, with the snow now picking up a bit, stinging their red faces, Sophie Girard’s house loomed directly ahead of them. Sure enough, the soft blue flicker of TV illumination glowed in Sophie’s second floor window.
“Will her mother be upset?” Will whispered, hesitating at the door before knocking.
“Well, I’m sure she won’t be happy about us coming over at this hour, but she tends to stay up late, too. Go on...knock. Hopefully she’s asleep, and only Sophie will hear us.”
Will knocked. They waited in silence a few moments, listening to the insect-like rustling sound of the snow striking the brown leaves that carpeted Sophie’s front lawn. Will knocked again.
“Maybe I should call her now,” Dana said, starting to pull out her cell.
“Wait,” Will whispered, “I hear someone.”
The door creaked open. A figure stood in the gloom inside. There was no light on in the front hall, but Dana could still tell that the figure wasn’t Mrs. Girard. Or even Sophie. Despite the darkness, Dana could see that the figure was Celeste.
In her dark clothes, it looked as if her head floated by itself in the murk. A smiling head with crooked front teeth.
“Well, what a pleasant surprise,” she greeted them sweetly. “Please come in.”
Will stepped back from the door, blocking Dana with his body. “Where are Sophie and her mother?”
“I said, come in.”
“And I asked where Sophie and her mother are.”
“You won’t know until you come in, will you?”
Will spoke to Dana over his shoulder, not taking his eyes off the pretty grinning girl in the doorway. “I’ll go in, Dana. You go home.”
“No way.”
“Dana...”
“We can’t both leave, because Sophie and her mother need us,” Dana said in a trembling but determined voice. “I can’t go home alone because it isn’t safe—we don’t know where Ethan is. So that leaves just one thing: we both have to go inside together.”
“She’s got a point—Will,” Celeste agreed.
“Put on a light,” Will ordered the strange girl.
“Sure. Whatever.” She turned, fumbled around for the hall light, found it and flicked it on. Then she backed off to give them plenty of room to enter the house. First Will and then Dana entered, and Dana closed the door after her.
“Now,” Will repeated, “where are they?”
“Come up here,” Celeste replied, beginning to climb the front stairs.
“Wait,” Dana told Will. She flicked another wall switch, and a lamp came on at the top of the stairs. Then Will and Dana began following the girl up to the second floor, keeping a safe distance behind her.
“This way,” Celeste chirped, waving for them to join her at the top. And with that, she stepped into Sophie’s bedroom.
There was only that flickering blue light inside. Again, Dana stopped Will, and reached her arm inside the dark room, scratching at the wall. She expected a hand, maybe even a claw, to seize her wrist, but she found the switch to Sophie’s light and flipped it. The murky room filled with light.
Together they entered, and there stood Celeste beside Sophie’s bed. Sophie was nowhere to be seen, and neither was her mother, but Ethan sat propped up in Sophie’s bed, his legs stretched out and his shoes still on. They were caked with mud, too, Dana noticed...from his lurking around in Eastborough Swamp.
“Well, well, well,” Ethan purred. “I was expecting two other friends, not you two. But it’s still nice to see you. Glad you could come.”
“Are you?” Will asked.
“Yes, Will. I’ve been wanting to meet you in person.”
“Same here.”
“You look great, for a phantom. Been eating well, I presume?”
“Not for the same reasons you do.”
“Oh? You didn’t enjoy snacking on our little Vesta? And you didn’t enjoy taking a sip of Dana’s sweet soul, to make your body in the first place?”
“I do what I have to do.”
“So do I.” Ethan grinned broadly. “So do I.” He had been watching TV, but now he pointed the remote and shut it off. “Your timing is impeccable, friends. We were waiting for Sophie and her mother to come home from the movies. Late show, you know...some horror thing Sophie wanted to see. She’s feeling a little stronger. I’ve been letting her get her strength back a bit, you see. I’m nice that way. She wanted me to go to the movie with her, last night, but I can’t stand those scary horror films.” The dark-haired boy gave an exaggerated shudder.
“Do they know you’re here waiting for them to get back?” Dana demanded in her shaky voice. “They don’t, do they?”
“We were going to…surprise them,” Ethan admitted.
“You were going to kill them!” Dana gasped. “So you can both become human.”
“You killed Vesta!” Celeste snarled, no longer playing sweet. Her eyes began to glow violet. “No more games, no more toying with our prey.”
“Yes,” Ethan agreed. “It was fun while it lasted, but if you’re going to start playing rough, then I guess we’ll have to play rough, as well.” And with that, Ethan suddenly went from leisurely lying back on the bed to springing onto his feet, as agile as a cat. His eyes glowed purple, and when he smiled black smoke began to flow out from between his grinning teeth.
“Run, Dana!” Will shouted as he leapt at Ethan. He locked his hands around the other boy’s neck.
Celeste jumped onto Will’s back from behind, growling like a madwoman. Black mist was pouring from her mouth, her nostrils, her ears, her skin. Together, the two Shadow Beings pinned Will to the floor under them.
“You stole Vesta’s life...now I’m going to steal it back!” Celeste taunted him, and then she clamped her mouth over Will’s mouth hungrily while Ethan held him down.
“No!” Dana screamed h
elplessly. “No!” Paralyzed with terror, she looked around her for a weapon.
Ethan lifted his head to leer at her. It was increasingly difficult to see him through the growing, billowing clouds of dark mist. Through the fog, his purple eyes were two eerie beacons.
Will’s struggles grew weaker. Weaker. His hands fell away from his attackers. He lay limp under them.
“No,” Dana sobbed. “Will...”
The clouds obscured the two Shadow Beings and their victim entirely.
“Finish your angel food, my dear,” Dana heard Ethan say to Celeste. His voice was changing, become inhuman. A weird rumbling growl, like a lion’s warning. “The girl is mine.”
Dana whirled around and bolted from the room. Down the stairs. She almost tripped, grabbed onto the banister to catch herself. She wrenched her shoulder badly in the process, and as she gathered herself up again she glanced back up at the landing.
Smoke wafted out of Sophie’s bedroom. And then something emerged from the room, from the smoke. A large dog? Some kind of animal? All black...except for those blazing ultraviolet eyes.
Dana didn’t stay to see more. There was nothing she could do to save Will, now.
She lunged for the front door.
There wasn’t much she could do to save herself, now, either.
15
Whenever Dana walked to school with Sophie after she had spent the night at Sophie’s house, they always cut through a few neighbors’ yards on their way. Dana hated doing it, but Sophie did it every day. Dana had no problem with it now. She tore through the first yard at top speed, her throat burning as she gulped at the sharp night air, and then she raced across a street and cut through another backyard. She wasn’t sure where she was going, though...this was just the first direction that had occurred to her. Cutting through these yards, she hoped to throw the Shadow Being off her trail.
She hadn’t heard anything pursuing her, but then she didn’t dare slow down to even glance over her shoulder. She was afraid of what she might see behind her.
Maybe she had lost the thing. He would expect her to run down the street, sticking to the sidewalk. Maybe he’d expect her to run back toward her own house, or the police station.
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