Secrets and Specters

by Raven Snow

  “Where am I sleeping?” Before she left, Ms. Poole had suggested Lady sleep in the same room as Conners. She didn’t like the idea of that and imagined Conners felt much the same.

  Conners scanned his apartment. “Wherever you want, I guess. The sofa is kind of small, but you’re welcome to it if you fit.”

  “Sounds good.” Lady dropped her sleeping bag next to the sofa. “What time do you normally go to bed?”

  “Between nine and ten if I have a choice in the matter.”

  “Seriously?” Lady couldn’t imagine going to bed that early.

  “You can stay up and watch television if you need to. Just keep it down. I don’t want my neighbors coming over and pounding on the door. Personally, I’m a sound sleeper… Or I used to be.” Conners went into the kitchen and faced the fridge. It was covered in magnets, each one holding a different take-out menu. “So, what do you feel like for dinner?”

  They went with the tried and true for dinner. You couldn’t go wrong with pizza. At least Lady didn’t think you could. She had yet to meet a pizza she didn’t like. The pizzeria Conners ordered from was local. The crust was handmade and delicious. The toppings were generous. Lady didn’t get much junk food living with Ms. Poole.

  There was no dining room table — or dining room for that matter — so they ate on the sofa while watching sitcom reruns. “So, have you always lived alone?” Lady asked around a mouthful of pizza.

  Conners waited until he was finished chewing to answer. “I guess. I lived with my mother for a while, if that counts.”

  “It doesn’t,” Lady said, blunt. “When did you move out?”

  “As soon as I was eighteen. You’ve met my mother. You know she’s… a lot.”

  “She is,” Lady agreed with a nod. Al seemed nice enough, but she was definitely overbearing. Lady wasn’t her kid and even she had received a lecture or two from the woman.

  “I’d been saving my money since I was thirteen. Got a proper job at fifteen. By the time I was eighteen, I had the money I saved up and a scholarship. It worked out pretty well.”

  Lady gave a low whistle. “Sounds like you’ve always had it together. I spent money as soon as I made it.” She wasn’t being totally fair to herself. If she didn’t spend her money, her foster parents would probably have taken it. “I didn’t really have a plan when I left home. If Ms. Poole hadn’t taken me in… well… Honestly? I’d probably be homeless.”

  “I didn’t have everything together,” Conners assured Lady. “After I was on the force, I had to move back in with my mother for… Geez, nearly two years, I guess.”

  “Why?” Lady couldn’t help herself. She had to ask. “Did you run out of money?”

  “Sort of.” Conners’ gaze stayed glued on the television. He hadn’t been paying it much mind until now. “I was hurt on the job, and my insurance didn’t cover everything. My mom helped out a lot back then. I know I complain about her, but she’s a good woman.”

  “She is,” Lady agreed with a nod. She watched Conners for a few seconds. He was still watching the television, though his pale eyes looked a little unfocused. He was lost in thought. “What happened?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Your injury.”

  “Oh.” Conners shook his head. “It turned out fine. It ended up getting me the position I have now, so I can’t complain.”

  Lady wasn’t sure she bought that, but she didn’t challenge what he’d said. It wasn’t her place. Fortunately, Lion chose that moment to jump on the sofa and break the tension. “Hey, boy.” Lady offered her cat a morsel of cheese.

  “You’re not supposed to give an animal people food.”

  “A little bit won’t hurt him.”

  “You shouldn’t give him food off your own plate while you’re eating.”

  “Then arrest me, officer.”

  Conners sighed. “I can’t believe Ms. Poole puts up with this.”

  “She was the one who started giving him people food in the first place!”

  ***

  Conners hadn’t been kidding when he said he went to bed at a reasonable hour every night. Lady wasn’t sure what to do with herself when he retired for the evening a little before ten. He told her she could watch television, and she had free run of the apartment, but that didn’t help much. This wasn’t her home. She didn’t feel particularly comfortable stretching out on the sofa.

  Lady felt a little better once she had her sleeping bag set up. Conners had grabbed her some sheets and pillows from the linen closet. The sheets remained neatly folded on the coffee table. She bundled up in the sleeping bag instead, watching television from inside it.

  The volume was low and the lights were off. Lady rubbed at her eyes with the back of her hands. She was getting sleepy out of boredom.

  Even Lion fell asleep earlier than usual. Lady might have gotten up and turned off the television, but Lion was curled up on her feet, twitching occasionally like he was in the middle of a dream. It felt cruel to wake him.

  Eventually, Lady did fall asleep. It happened slowly, and she felt it coming on. Drowsiness came over her like a fog, making her eyelids droop and flutter. She was falling into bouts of micro sleep, catching only pieces of the sitcom rerun she was watching.

  When Lady did fall asleep, she dreamed. It was one of the calm dreams she liked. She was stretched out on a mossy river bank. There was a cool breeze, and Lion was a comforting weight on her chest. His orange tail swished lazily from side to side. She scratched him between the ears. For a long time, they remained like that, relaxing in silence.

  “So, what do you think about all this?” Lady asked finally. In her dreams, Lion could talk. He was usually full of good advice.

  “About?” asked Lion, eyes still shut, tail still flicking like a metronome.

  “About Conners.” Lady thought that should be obvious. “Do you think there’s really something wrong? Something we can help with?”

  “I don’t know yet.”

  “That there’s something wrong?”

  “That there something we can help with.”

  The comfortable calm that had fallen over Lady dissipated. She sat up, dumping Lion from her chest. He grumbled and curled up at her side instead. Lady looked down at him. “So something is wrong.”

  “That’s why you came in the first place, isn’t it?”

  “Is it something supernatural, though? Is it something only someone like Ms. Poole can fix or is it just your run of the mill bad dreams?”

  Lion opened one eye. He regarded Lady sleepily. “I don’t know.” He must have sensed that his answer wasn’t good enough. “I don’t like the feel of this place.”

  “Because the apartment sucks or something else?”

  Again, Lion showed some reluctance before answering. “Something else.”

  “What?” Lady asked, but Lion didn’t have an answer for her. He closed his eyes and curled up into a tighter ball. “You’re such a cat.” She stood and began to walk. It was an odd thing, feeling restless in a dream. Not that her talk with Lion was on her mind for long.

  Dreams were a place largely without time. Lady wasn’t sure how long she walked along the river bank. She stopped occasionally to skip rocks or to wave to a humanoid shape on the opposite bank. Sometimes they waved back.

  Lady had nearly forgotten about her talk with Lion completely when the scene changed. The river bank crumbled away. The edges of the scene curled up like someone had held a match to them. Lady was left in an empty void. She looked around, afraid to move her feet lest she start falling. There was no longer any ground. She seemed to be suspended in air. “Lion.”

  “Right here,” said Lion. He appeared suddenly at Lady’s feet.

  “What’s going on?” asked Lady.

  Lion hunched down. His fur bristled and his tail swayed angrily. “Something’s here.”

  “Something’s here?” Lady looked around again. She didn’t see anyone or anything. “Where?”

  “You should probably wake up
now.” Lion vanished immediately after saying the words, leaving Lady alone in the void. Her heart pounded and she wheeled around, anxiety filling her chest.

  ***

  Lady awoke gasping. Her arm stung. It took her a moment to realize that Lion had bitten her. He hadn’t done it hard, but there were little impressions of teeth on her forearm.

  Lady’s anxiety faded, as did her most vivid memories of the dream. She sat up, ready to ask Lion what the big idea was when a sensation hit her. It was like the dream Lion had said. She wasn’t alone. She wasn’t sure how she knew. She just did. It was a vague feeling, something oppressive. She knew something was there like you sometimes instinctively knew someone was watching you.

  It’s just Conners, Lady told herself. She woke up in a new place. These feelings weren’t uncommon. Everyone panicked a little when they woke up somewhere unfamiliar. She had done it herself after moving into the inn.

  Besides, the scene she had woken up to was a little eerie. The television was still on and the channel’s scheduled programming had ended, leaving the large flat screen showing nothing but snowy static. The living room was cast in a pale blue glow, making it look like something out of a horror movie.

  The walls were thin, Lady reminded herself, piling on more ways to explain away her nerves. It probably wasn’t just Conner. She had that feeling of not being alone because she wasn’t. There were people all around her.

  A creaking sound came from the bedroom. Lady looked toward the closed door that opened up to where Conners was. She swallowed the saliva accumulating in her mouth. That was a normal sound, right? Conners was getting out of bed to go to the bathroom or something.

  Except several long seconds proceeded to pass without Conners opening the door… So the apartment was settling. So what? The front door to the apartment was closed. She could see the latch and chain were still in place. It was locked. There wasn’t an intruder. If there was, they’d locked the door behind them. That felt unlikely.

  “Lion?” Lady asked quietly, looking to her cat. His ears were back. He hissed and vanished behind the loveseat in a flurry of orange fur. “Great.”

  If Lady really was in a horror movie, she was about to make the worst decision she could possibly make. She lowered her bare feet to the carpet and stood. The air all around her felt cold now that she was no longer enveloped in her sleeping bag. It gave her chills that, paired with her anxiety, made her feel light-headed.

  Lady pressed on, stopping outside the bedroom door. It felt weird to open it without Conners’ permission. What if he slept naked? He was a handsome guy with plenty of muscles. She wouldn’t mind seeing him naked, but that was beside the point. “Conners?” she tried, not expecting an answer. When he didn’t say anything, she repeated his name a little louder. “Conners?”

  There was still no answer. Ms. Poole had sent her here to keep tabs on unusual goings on. Conners knew that. It would be wrong not to open the door. Lady drew in a deep breath and held it as she turned the knob.

  The bedroom was dark. Opening the door let in some of the pale light from the television, but Lady still had to give her eyes a few seconds to adjust. She could make out the shape of a full-sized bed in a corner and a chest of drawers against one wall. There was a large window with ruffled curtains and silhouetted against it… Lady felt more light-headed than ever. There was someone standing at the foot of the bed. She couldn’t make out any of his features. She could see only that he was imposing. His broad shoulders were hunched as he looked over the bed.

  Lady glanced back toward the sofa. Her phone was on the coffee table. She needed to call the police. She looked back to the bed and her heart leapt when she saw the shadowy figure’s head turned toward her. “Sta- Stay right there,” Lady managed, her voice quivering. “I already called the cops.” That was a lie and one that sounded unconvincing at that.

  Lady took a step back toward the coffee table. Moving was a mistake. When she moved, the shadowy figure moved as well. It was a lot faster than she was. In less than the span of a breath, it was upon her. Lady was knocked off her feet. Her back hit the carpeted floor with a crash. The air was knocked from her lungs. She struggled for another breath but couldn’t seem to manage it. The shadowy figure was on her, its knees digging into her chest. She couldn’t breathe!

  Lady flung out her arms, desperate to fight off her attacker. Except hitting him didn’t do any good. Her arms passed right through the shadow. And it was very much still a shadow. Even this close up, Lady couldn’t see any distinguishing features. It was a mass of black obscuring her vision. Eyesight blurring, Lady mustered the last of her energy and struck out as hard as she could.

  Her fist connected with something solid. The shape vanished, leaving Lady gasping on the carpet. She put a hand to her throat as she lay there, sucking in air.

  “Jesus!” Conners exclaimed. “Ow!”

  Lady propped herself up with one elbow. Her head was still spinning, but she could still make out Conners. He had one hand over his right eye. He was looking down at her, eyebrows knitted together in concern. Was he the one she had hit?

  “Why?!” he demanded moments before a neighbor pounded on the far wall. “Why?” he asked, quieter this time.

  “What?” Lady sat up the rest of the way and looked around, head whipping back and forth wildly as she looked for her attacker. “Where did he go?”

  “Where did who go?” asked Conners. He went to the nearest lamp and turned it on.

  Lady squinted against the light. “There was… There was a man on top of me.”

  “What?” Conners asked, sounding exhausted. “I wasn’t on top of you. I was—”

  “No,” Lady interrupted. “It wasn’t you… At least, I don’t think it was you. You weren’t pinning me down just now, were you?”

  “Why would I—” Conners began, looking positively baffled. “I wasn’t pinning you down. I might have though. You were thrashing around on the floor. I thought you were having a stroke. I was trying to help when you…” He trailed off and motioned to his eye. Now that he had lowered his hand from it, Lady could see that it was red. She’d gotten him good. It would probably turn purple before the night was over. That would be fun to explain to people.

  “You didn’t see a man?” Lady threw one last look around the apartment.

  “A man?” Conners composed himself and scanned their surroundings. “What happened?”

  “I woke up and Lion was freaking out and I heard a noise in your room, so I went to check and there was this guy standing there. He was at the foot of your bed and—”

  “Hold up. Take a breath and slow down, why don’t you? Come on.” Conners offered Lady his hand.

  Lady let Conners help her to her feet and guide her to the loveseat. He went to the kitchen, returning with a glass of water for her and a frozen bag of peas for himself. “You have a mean right hook.”

  “God,” Lady groaned, taking the water and getting a better look at Conners’ swelling eye. “I’m so sorry. I was here to help. Giving you a black eye is, like, the opposite of helping.”

  Conners sat down on the edge of his coffee table, like he was too nervous to get close to Lady after everything that had just happened. “It’ll be fun to explain at work tomorrow, that’s for sure,” he said, pressing the bag over his eye. He cringed when the cold touched his skin. “Tell me what happened again.”

  Lady took a deep breath, attempting to compose herself before she explained this time. “Okay, so, I guess it started when I was asleep. I got this weird feeling that woke me up.” Lady paused as Lion jumped onto the sofa. He was skittish and seemed wary, but he settled in her lap all the same. “I heard a noise, so I went to check it out and there was this… this, um…”

  “A shadow person?” Conners finished for her. “Like the one I described?”

  Lady swallowed and nodded. “I guess so. He didn’t have any features or anything. He was shaped like a… a big man, but he was just this mass of black.”

  C
onners nodded, suddenly looking a little pale in the lamplight. “That’s what I’ve been seeing. Of course, I told you that earlier.”

  “Are you suggesting I imagined it? Seriously?”

  Conners shrugged. “It’s not out of the question, is it? Maybe you were having some kind of night terror. I used to get those when I was a kid. You keep seeing stuff from your nightmares for a little while after waking up. That’s what I figured this was when it first started. I’m still not convinced it isn’t.”

  “You were convinced enough that you asked for help from Ms. Poole.”

  “Because my mother insisted.”

  “So you didn’t see anything at all after waking up?”

  Conners shook his head. “Like I said, I woke up to you making a racket. After that, I only saw you thrashing around on the floor. It was a little scarier than seeing a shadow guy at the end of my bed. I’ll give you that. I thought I needed to call an ambulance.”

  “You might have, had that gone on for much longer.” Absently, Lady touched her throat. She could still feel the ghost of all that pressure on her chest, still remember what it was like to not be able to breathe. “What about you?”

  “What about me?”

  “Before you woke up,” Lady prompted. “Were you having any dreams that you remember?”

  Conners lowered the bag of peas from his eye. His brow knitted as he considered her question. “I…” he began, deep in thought. “I guess I was dreaming something. It’s hard to remember.”

  “Do you know what the dream was about?”

  “I guess it was the same nightmare I’ve been having.” Conners paused again, thinking more on it. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure that was it. It started the same way my nightmare normally does anyway.”