The girl let go of my hand and shot out both of hers to hold the doorknob shut. Her heels dug into the floor, tiny muscles along her pale arms straining hard.
My breathing was loud in my ears. The pendant glowed green steadily, making everything look possessed. The stone had never glowed before, although I’d always expected it to because of the heat it emitted. I took it as a bad sign. Claustrophobia overcame me; I didn’t want to be in the enclosed space.
I want to go home right now.
The girl, still straining to hold the door shut, began whispering to herself very fast. So fast that it didn’t sound like words, more like shushing sounds. I looked around and saw with mounting horror that the shadows in the corner were starting to form into shapes. I could have reached out to help her, but I didn’t want to risk touching her sandpaper skin again.
The voices outside went silent and heavy footfalls crashed through the brush. It was the dog, I knew it. He began to bark furiously, making the children scream again. I crushed my hands to my ears to block the sound. Ferocious growls echoed in the still air.
The dog must have charged on the children. The sounds of a scuffle ensued. Even though the girl inside kept holding the door shut with what looked like all the strength in her small arms, it banged back and forth. The growls intensified, accompanied by ripping and tearing sounds.
I felt something on my bare feet. I bent down and put my finger in it. Wet. Lifting my fingers up to the light from the necklace I saw that the tips were coated in dark red liquid. The liquid smelled metallic, like hot iron. Blood.
I stood, wiping my hand furiously on the dress, my shoulders beginning to shake. A bang came from the corner of the room. I felt paralyzed from the waist down, but I managed to move my head. A strange girl wearing a gingham dress was standing there with an angry expression. Her hair was cut in a short, old-fashioned flapper bob. She stalked up to me, pulsing fear through my veins. Reaching towards my chest, she ripped the necklace from my neck. I quickly descended into blackness again and stayed there.
###
I opened my eyes. Lids blinking slowly, I saw ashes fluttering down. Not ashes—as they fell towards me, I saw they were little, late-season snowflakes. The inky sky didn’t hint at whether it was late at night or early morning.
I tried to get up.
I couldn’t move. My body was numb from the neck down.
The realization seemed surreal at first. I thought maybe it was a holdover from my dream. My limbs must have fallen asleep. I kept trying to twitch my toes and fingers. No sensation, not even the slightest of pins and needles. Panic began to set in. My eyes darted around.
The gate was to my right. I was outside of it, lying in the middle of the street. What if a car came? I tried wiggling my appendages again. I almost thought I felt the feeling in my feet and toes stir, but it could have just been mental habit.
What if I’d actually had some kind of bad seizure or stroke? What if I couldn’t get help? Just as Jenna had feared, no one knew where I was. I hadn’t left a clue as to my whereabouts, and this was a back road that didn’t see much traffic. There were wild animals in those woods….
As if in answer to my fears, I thought I heard a grinding car engine coming close. I was wearing dark colors on the dark road; they might not see me even with the maroon on my coat. I began even more furiously trying to move, trying to kick my legs, arms, anything. No luck. The area below my neck remained numb, not even chilly from the icy touch of the cold.
The car stopped out of sight, headlights glowing over me. I was finally warm and almost able to get up, but it was too late. Of course. Footsteps crunched towards me. A shadow grew over me and a man leaned down.
CHAPTER 13
AT FIRST, I was sure I was staring at Phillip Rhodes. The high, sleek cheekbones, dark eyes, strong chin. Then my eyes adjusted and I realized with a flush of relief that it was Henry. His expression was cold and flat as his eyes swept over me.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, his voice choked with hurt and anger.
I was shocked back to reality—the sounds were so sharp the slightest shuffle cut into my ears.
I went to move again and realized the paralysis had worn off. I jumped to my feet, too enthralled to answer his question. Flexing my fingers, I marveled at how strong I felt.
The world around me was charged with intensity and hidden light. Every detail stood out with much more clarity, like my pupils had blown up. Electric tingles raced back and forth across my skin. Stretching my legs and arms, I walked around in a circle. Even just walking was pleasurable.
“Ariel, I asked you not to get near here,” Henry said. “You told me you weren’t going to come.”
I turned towards him, remembering he was there. And then he became all I could see. His full, enticing lips, perfect features, the wave of his hair. His shirt was unbuttoned on the top, hard, smooth skin exposed. He filled every speck of my vision.
I rushed to him, wrapping my arms around him and started kissing him passionately. At first he resisted, but then he opened his mouth to invite me in. I started to take off his jacket, desire commanding my motions. I’d never wanted him so entirely before.
I knocked him backward and one of his arms shot back to break his fall. I landed on top of him and moved to kiss his neck. He started laughing softly and even the sound of his laughter sent pleasant tingles into my ear drums.
“If this is your way of defusing my anger, it’s working,” he said, his voice quaking with desire.
My attention rushed away like a bird freed from a cage. Breaking off from him, I jumped to my feet again. Unable to control the urge, I began twirling down the road, yanking out my ponytail and letting my long hair cascade around me. Each step felt graceful and light, like I was floating. I had to stay in motion. I couldn’t stop for a second. I’d never taken drugs in my life but this was probably what the junkies were so addicted to.
My brain was a complete mess, fragments of memories and scraps of emotions tumbling against each other. Colors, shapes, words. The world doubled in my eyes and I was seeing another gate on top of the first one. In the back of my head I knew a crash was coming and it was going to hit me hard. But I couldn’t stop.
Henry stood up again, recovering from my onslaught. He looked lost, buttoning his torn shirt back up. “What is going on with you?”
It was then that I noticed the shadows creeping towards us. I stopped moving and stood still. The shadow figures crawled out of the trees and crossed the road, stalking towards us. The dark, twisting shapes came from all sides, forming a semi-circle. That was enough of a reality check to bring me down to Earth again.
I backed up towards Henry. I knew he wouldn’t be able to see them, but I had to convince him that we were in danger. The shadow creatures crawled menacingly closer. I threw my arm out protectively in front of his chest.
A red flash rushed behind the shadows. It had come out of Dark with me.
I turned towards Henry to explain, but to my surprise, his face was twisting in shock, his eyes lit with horror. “What are those things? Please tell me you see them.”
My heart throbbed painfully with every beat and I could feel blood chugging through the individual veins.
“I can see them. I can’t believe you can. I don’t know exactly what they are.” My voice sounded breathy and higher than usual. “But they’re some kind of demons, best I can tell.”
“How is that possible?” Henry asked, searching my face for answers I didn’t have. “Ghosts aren’t real. This kind of thing can’t happen.”
The shadows closed in and red eyes glowed from their otherwise featureless faces. Henry and I backed up against the fence, the iron bars pressing into our backs.
“It’s happening, whether you believe it or not,” I said firmly. I looked around for a hole. In a minute, there wouldn’t be one, and the shadows would reach us. “C’mon, now!” I grabbed his hand and we ran through a tiny sliver in between the shadows.
&nb
sp; We rushed back to his car, the headlights still sending glowing beams toward the ground. Slamming the doors shut, Henry and I stared out the windshield. The shadows had changed their direction and were shambling towards the car.
Henry slammed his foot on the gas and spun the car in a circle, shooting off down the road. I lurched towards the dashboard, throwing my hands out. When my balance returned I shakily buckled my seat belt.
“Okay, so you have an explanation, right?” Henry asked, knuckles white on the steering wheel. His face was nearly as pale, voice shaking from fear.
“I do, but you’re going to think it sounds crazy,” I said. “The fact that you see them too must mean they’re stronger. Or that your brain is as messed up as mine.”
“What do we do?”
“The first step is breathing and calming down,” I said, reaching out to touch him on the shoulder. He was so tense that he flinched, so I withdrew my hand.
I felt much more normal, the high feeling going away. But it was replaced with a nasty headache and a feeling like I’d tumbled from the clouds and smashed into the ground.
My shoulders slumped, aching with invisible weight. I felt incredibly tired, like I could easily pass out in the car. Pain throbbed in the palm of my left hand; I opened it and saw a huge red blister. I patted my pockets and felt the hard lump of the necklace in my coat. It was no longer hot, but I didn’t want to touch it directly. It comforted me that I had retrieved what I’d come for.
“What were you doing there, anyway?” I finally asked him. “Not that I’m not grateful….”
“I had a feeling you were going to go back there, despite what you told me. I called and texted your phone like three times, and then I drove past your house. Your car wasn’t there or at Theo’s, so I came out here. Imagine my surprise to find you sprawled out in the road. I thought someone had hit you. I almost called the cops.”
I could hear the anger creeping back into his voice. “I’m sorry, I really am. I didn’t want to deceive you. But I really had to go back there.”
“So, can you explain what the hell is going on?” Henry asked, his voice still raised.
I steadied myself, breathing slowly, trying to gather the pieces of my shattered mind together. I let out one shaky, long breath before I began.
“First off, I know you don’t believe in ghosts. That’s why I’ve never even attempted to tell you anything. But for the past two years, I’ve been seeing a lot of things that can’t be explained away by logic.”
“What kinds of things?” Henry asked in a gritty whisper, staring out the windshield into the night. I saw he was shaking and his hand shot out and fiddled with the heater. I didn’t realize how frozen I was myself until the heat began pouring out.
“There’s the little stuff; sounds when no one is there, or something strange out of the corner of my eye,” I explained. “I’ve had strange dreams about the orphanage that seem real. I’ve seen the ghosts of the girls that were kidnapped and other people. I’ve talked to Jenna several times since her body turned up.”
Once I started spilling my secrets, I couldn’t stop myself. I didn’t look at Henry and he was so silent I thought he might be planning to drop me off somewhere. We drove out of town as I spoke and I watched the landmarks roll past.
“There are these other worlds, like parallel universes almost, that intersect with ours. One is called Limbo and one is Dark, kind of like purgatory and hell, only the latter doesn’t have the usual devils. I think the shadows are coming from Dark, but they’re getting stronger somehow because they’re spilling out into Limbo and here.”
I finally finished speaking, my hands in my lap. I felt exhausted and completely drained by my admissions.
“And aliens communicate through my toothbrush,” I muttered, feeling my cheeks get hot.
“Is it okay if we keep driving?” he asked me.
“As long as you’re not taking me to the psych ward,” I said, finally chancing a peek at him. He looked surprisingly relaxed compared to a few minutes ago.
“Of course not. Are you warm enough?”
I nodded and he turned the heat back down; I saw a sheen of sweat standing out on his forehead.
He turned onto the expressway. Traffic was thin and we were quickly up to speed, heading west.
“Who else knows about the things you’ve told me?”
I bit my lip, which was quickly becoming painfully chapped. “Theo. She’s the only one I felt comfortable telling. I think Alex suspects something, but he’s too wimpy to ask directly about it. He thinks there are monsters living under his bed. For all I know, maybe he’s right.”
He didn’t respond, still staring out of the windshield with his face set in a solemn expression. His nostrils flared as he breathed. I knew he didn’t believe me. How could he? I sounded like a freak to myself, just speaking it out loud.
But he had seen the shadows. The secret world had been dragged into the light and there was no going back.
CHAPTER 14
IT WAS STILL cold-looking and barren outside, despite the snow having stopped. We zoomed past the city, light making the sky and the fog below it glow orange, into a rural area lined with towering pine trees.
I stared out of the window, but I kept snatching glimpses of Henry. My hand ached horribly, but I didn’t want to tell him to pull over. A handful of snow would have felt great about now, though.
“So…?” I asked finally.
“So… I’m trying to process it. I believe you, it’s just hard to think about. If I hadn’t seen them myself….”
I relaxed in my seat. I’d been expecting a condemnation. “You really think I’m telling the truth?”
“If you believe it, then I believe you. You’re smart and I know you’re not crazy.”
“Glad there’s one of us,” I muttered.
“But I think it’s really important from now on that we be absolutely truthful with each other. I know I’m one to talk, but I’ve tried to tell you everything since we got together again. And I hope it can stay that way.” He looked at me seriously, brown eyes darkening to black.
I searched his eyes, saw the truth to his words and smiled. “Okay. I think you’re absolutely right. I’m really sorry that I went there when I told you I wouldn’t.”
“I get it,” he said, sighing. “Part of me has been suspecting a supernatural cause for a while. But I never wanted to allow myself to believe it. It’s all so weird. I usually think of psychics as scam artists. But I definitely saw those shadows back there, that’s undeniable. And my father’s been into some weird occult shit for a while; there are all kinds of funky books in his library. He yelled at me for sneaking in once. I opened a book and it was all in Latin.”
“Pig latin or latin-latin?” I asked, the tiredness and relief of Henry’s trust combining to make me goofy.
“Latin-latin.”
“That’s really interesting that he his own library,” I asked. I wondered what obscure treasures we could get our hands on.
“Yeah, but it’s as guarded as the orphanage.” He thought about it. “Which I guess means you, my dear, could break into it with a feather.”
“Not a feather,” I said, smirking to myself. “Maybe a paperclip.”
He just laughed, his tense shoulders relaxing.
“Have you ever seen anything out of the ordinary? I mean, before tonight?” I asked him.
“Not that I could put my finger on,” Henry said. “But every once in a while, it’s like I sense something else in the room with me. Like… electricity. It’s hard to explain.”
“I know exactly what you mean,” I said, thinking about my own experiences. I wondered if maybe he had some kind of psychic ability that he didn’t realize. But I didn’t want to freak him out further by bringing it up.
He turned on the blinker as he got off on an unfamiliar exit.
“Where are we going?” I asked. The only landmark was a Marathon station sign; otherwise, the area looked completely rural. Acres
of barren winter fields stretched back to rows of evergreens, the snow dusting the ground just enough to cover it. It was already beginning to melt.
“I have no idea. Sometimes I just get on the expressway and ride at night when my parents are sleeping. To calm down. I lie in bed some nights and my thoughts race so fast that I can’t get a hold of them.”
“That sounds peaceful,” I admitted.
“Plus my dad filled my tank,” he said, smirking. “Don’t worry, my phone has GPS; we won’t get too lost.”
“What if I want to get lost?”
“Then I’ll take you anywhere you want to go.”
“And if we get totally stranded in the woods and redneck serial killers attack the car? What then?” I asked, arching one eyebrow.
“I’m prepared for every eventuality. Check the glove compartment,” Henry said, nodding towards it.
Questioning what he meant, I popped the handle on the compartment. Rooting around inside, I found a black leather holster containing a taser. I touched it gingerly, worried about shocking myself.
“Does this thing really work?” I asked.
“Yep. For emergencies only. I keep it in my car all the time. You never know when protection might come in handy. My dad carries his gun, after all.”
I stowed the taser back away and shut the compartment again. I smoothed my hands out on my coat, then frowned. “Crap.”
“What is it?” he asked, glancing towards me. I showed him a tear in my coat by poking my finger through. “That’s no good. Did you catch it on something at the orphanage?”
I thought back, then groaned. “Yeah, I must have. It snagged on the gate. I hope there are no pieces left behind; it’s red, I’m sure he’d notice it in an instant.”
Henry took one hand off of the wheel and rubbed my shoulder. “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it. We’ll go and get your car—you did drive there, didn’t you?” I nodded. “And I’ll clean up what I can.”
“What if Phillip catches you?” I asked.
Luminosity (Gravity Series #3) (The Gravity Series) Page 11