Ethereal: The Light in the Shadow

by Zoe Knights

  “Stupid rain…” she grumbled under her breath, currently hating England and everything that it encompassed.

  “What, Dad’s too busy to come himself now? He has to send his lackeys?”

  Sam’s voice echoed down the small alley behind the pub they’d been in, and Eddie froze.

  “We are not with your father.”

  The voice that spoke was cold and somehow inhuman, echoing in an uncanny sort of way.

  Without pausing to think, Eddie silently moved to the edge of the street, peering around the corner of the alley, the rain still relentlessly pattering the lane with water.

  She saw Sam; he was drenched, but his back was to her as two strange figures were leading him closer to the dim end of the alley, their forms hidden under dark cloaks.

  “Then who the hell are you?” Sam demanded, his tone causing a feeling of foreboding to crawl over Eddie’s skin.

  They veered to the left where the alley took a slight turn before leading to a dead end. One of the cloaked figures turned to look back in Eddie’s direction, and her heart jumped to her throat as she ducked back around the corner and out of sight.

  The face was shrouded by shadow, but something about it shot fear straight through Eddie’s bones and her heart was now pounding in her chest.

  Without pausing to think this through, or going to find help, Eddie instead found herself darting down the alley after Sam, her footsteps masked by the sound of the rain.

  “We come with a message, and seek no reply.”

  Eddie frowned, her back stuck to the wall closest to the turn where Sam had disappeared.

  “Oh really? And who might this message be from, exactly?” Sam retorted dully.

  “When the mark burns, she will find you.”

  “What are you talking about?” Sam demanded lowly. “Who is ‘she’, what mark?”

  But then, there was a scuffling sound, and Eddie’s heart beat frantically when Sam cried, “Don’t touch me!”

  And once again Eddie didn’t think, panic coursed through her and she jumped from the wall and around the corner. “Stop!” she shouted. “Get away from him!”

  But her words were drowned out by the most terrifying growl Eddie had ever heard. The hairs stood up on the back of her neck, a chill trickled down her spine, and she froze.

  Then everything happened so fast, Eddie could barely comprehend what she saw.

  Before her was Sam, whose scared brown eyes had met hers. One cloaked figure grabbed his arm, and there was a flash of silver as it brought a blade to the skin of Sam’s hand.

  He cried out in pain, while the other cloaked figure blocked him from Eddie’s view and the beast that had growled appeared.

  There was a ripple in the shadows. Like disturbed water off a lake. It was surreal and impossible, but from nowhere this monstrous and huge black creature formed from the darkness. Blood red eyes burned from its sockets, while the hair on the ridge of its back stood up like razors, saliva dripping from its jowls.

  Eddie couldn’t move. She couldn’t blink. She just watched in horror as this creature launched at the cloaked figures, but they were just as fast.

  The one on the ground with Sam dropped him, the blade disappearing and Eddie just caught sight of grey, ripped flesh that should have been a human arm. The cloaked forms flew over the ground, around this terrifying beast and before Eddie could breathe, they’d brushed past her and disappeared down out of the alley, a stench of rot and brimstone clinging to Eddie’s nose in their wake.

  “Neeshka leave!” Eddie just heard Sam hiss, and she finally met his gaze once more, catching from the corner of her eye the beast shrinking in size, disappearing into shadow before… it was gone.

  Her knees shook, her head hurt, and Eddie still couldn’t move her feet. She stared at Sam; his hand was bleeding; there was a mark on his palm that looked like it had been seared into his skin.

  She couldn’t break his gaze, and Sam seemed unable to break hers.

  Finally, Eddie swallowed down the fear, swallowed down the panic, and she fell to the ground next to Sam, looking at his bloodstained hand.

  “Are you alright?” she whispered shakily.

  Sam stared at her.

  “Sam?” she looked at him, fear filling her green eyes. “What did they do to you?”

  “What are you doing here?” Sam demanded in a hiss, his eyes boggled and swirling with a mix of emotion.

  “I… I forgot my phone. Then I… I heard them and… what was that?!” Eddie’s voice was close to breaking now as much as she tried to keep it steady. “I… I saw… and there was this beast and- but your hand. What did they do?!”

  Sam breathed for a moment, staring at Eddie like she was mad. “I don’t know,” he said very quietly. “But you need to leave and forget you ever saw anything.”

  Eddie remembered how to glare, her eyes shining as traumatised tears from the event cast a sheen over her gaze. “I came to help you!” she cried furiously. “I…I-”

  “Why do you care?” Sam demanded, moving gruffly to his knees so that he could force himself from the ground. “Why…” he glared down at her, but his eyes betrayed his confusion. He sighed roughly. “You don’t even know me…” he muttered, shaking his head before he grabbed her phone from his pocket and thrust it at her.

  She didn’t take it, and he let it fall onto her knees, then the ground.

  “You need to forget what you saw,” he said when she remained silent, and his voice was low and dangerous. “Get up.”

  Eddie did, slowly, but her eyes were hard, angry and scared. “Who are you?” she whispered, her voice finally breaking.

  Sam just shook his head, grabbing her arm with his blood-free hand and he pulled her toward the street. “You need to get back to school,” he growled lowly.

  Eddie nearly tripped over her own feet, the pavement too slippery to be moving as fast as Sam was making her. “Let me go!” she pulled her arm out of his grip. “Tell me what’s going on!” she demanded, glaring at Sam’s back as he continued toward the street, tugging his sleeve over his hand to hide the blood.

  Eddie’s stomach churned.

  Sam turned back around suddenly, invading Eddie’s personal space, his dark, bulging eyes smouldering. “The bus is just there,” he pointed to where it stood awaiting the return of the students. “Get on it. Go back to school. Forget what you saw.”

  “How can I-”

  “Eden please!” Sam’s voice rose again, but behind the anger, Eddie could hear fear. “This is for your own fucking safety. Okay? Just get out of here!”

  Eddie stared, and Sam backed off. He stumbled back a few paces, before breaking their gaze. “Just go…” he muttered one last time before leaving her there as he walked out into the rain, away from the bus and away from her.

  Wrestling with Washing Machines

  8

  Eddie got on the bus, eventually. She didn’t speak to anyone, her mind in a strange dreamlike state making everyone’s voices sound vague and far away while she had a constant replay of images plaguing her mind.

  And they did not leave her.

  She didn’t tell Quinn. She didn’t want to tell anyone. How could she? Part of her thought she might be crazy.

  Nothing could explain what she had seen. She’d even tried googling it – ‘black beast appearing from shadows.’ ‘Grey flesh on humans.’ ‘Creature that smells like rot and brimstone.’

  Nothing helped. Nothing made sense. She tried to rationalise what she saw, attempting to convince herself that the dog had just been a shadow, a mirage caused by her fright. Yet the image of the terrifying beast was burned into her memory.

  She felt like she was caught in a nightmare. Girl goes to new school, strange things start happening all involving some boy… It was all too surreal. Perhaps the plane had actually crashed, and she was in a coma.

  She hadn’t seen Sam since the event. And two days had passed. Quinn had noticed her distant state and asked her about it a few times for Edd
ie to simply give the answer, ‘I’m fine. Just tired.’

  She had to reply to her brother. He’d emailed to say he would be in London for Christmas. Eddie should feel ecstatic, but her mind was so numb she just couldn’t. So she’d delayed replying until she received several more emails from him sounding concerned.

  Alex,

  Sorry. School’s been hectic. That’s so amazing about Christmas. Given me something to look forward to – I can’t wait.

  Thanks for filling me in on Mum. I know you can handle it. I’m glad all is well.

  The excursion was fine. How’s work? Yeah, I’m finding I’m missing weird things about home. Certain brands of food. Obviously the weather. Also just being a bit out of the loop on how things work here. It’s annoying.

  What time should I book my train?

  Talk to you later

  Eddie

  “Okay,” Eddie said quietly, closing the lid to her laptop and Quinn just shook her head at her from where she sat on her bed.

  “This is a bad idea, Eddie,” she told her. “The matron is unforgiving about after-hour jaunts. Even if it’s for chores.”

  Eddie sighed. She had decided to do her laundry after hours as she desperately needed some time alone – and this was the only good way she could think to get it without straight up lying to her friend. “Well, I never find a free machine during the day. This is so much easier. It will be fine, don’t worry so much,” she told Quinn quickly.

  Eddie picked up her bag of laundry, throwing Quinn a last, forced smile before she ducked out clad in her faded green flannel pyjamas.

  The walk to the laundry room was terrifying. Ghostly silver light from the moon lit the empty halls, wind howling through the castle while rain lapped the stone walls.

  She was glad to finally reach the laundry where the soft tumbling sounds of the dryers and washers brought her peace, their gentle hums louder than the branches brushing up against the stain glass windows in the room.

  Soon, however, her quiet laundry jaunt was not to be as the washing machine she’d decided to use had turned against her. Water was spurting from the taps behind the machine while it beeped incessantly for her to fix it. And fix it she was trying to do, but there was so much pressure behind the taps she was struggling to even turn them off!

  The hose burst.

  Water gushed upward, drenching her hair and down her front.

  “Shit!” she gasped with shock as cold water sank through her pyjamas and right into her skin. Wet hair stuck to her forehead while desperately she tried to plug the hose with her hand.

  With no success, she abandoned her attempts, unplugged the machine from the wall and finally could turn the taps off.

  She stood shivering for several moments in the silence broken only by the steady drip, drip from the burst hose.

  She ripped open the lid of the washing machine and grabbed her clothes, shoving them into a dryer along with her flannel pyjama top, leaving her just in a singlet that was equally drenched.

  She huffed in irritation, turned on the dryer and grasped her shivering arms.

  So much for her peaceful evening. She went to leave, deciding she could return in the morning for her clothes, lest she freeze to death if she waited here now.

  Just as she headed out the silent corridor… she heard a noise.

  She froze on the spot, her nerves still on edge from the event on her excursion. But then, she heard a voice.

  “Neeshka don’t – she’s not an issue. Alright? The midnight spars are going to have to stop if you’re going to keep being like this.”

  Eddie’s heart missed several beats at the sound of Sam’s voice. And that name… Neeshka. She remembered exactly who that belonged to.

  Unable to help herself, desperate for information, Eddie followed Sam’s footsteps.

  But when she peered round the bend ahead from where his voice had come from – there was no one there.

  She stared down the dark hall, the silence instantly eerie. She saw shadows ripple down the end of the corridor and her heart jumped to her throat. Without pausing to think – she launched through the closest door, falling into a supply closet.

  “Argh!” someone cried out.

  Eddie yelped in alarm, falling back out of the tiny room that was already occupied by…

  Simon McLaren.

  The boy stared at her, then there was a bright flash from his phone that he was holding by his chest as it took a photo – the boy’s eyes glued to Eddie’s breasts.

  “What the hell are you doing?!” Eddie demanded with a hiss.

  Simon finally managed to look at her face, but his jaw remained slack. “Gathering evidence,” he threw off loftily. “Did you see it?” he added lowly. “The beast?”

  Eddie stared at him – had he seen Neeshka?

  But then, “Him – I expected…you not so much.”

  Eddie swung round to see Sam leaning against the wall behind them with his arms crossed over his chest.

  The moment she turned, his eyes widened just slightly, flickering briefly below her neckline before he quickly looked away.

  “Why are you soaking wet?!” he added in a rougher tone, seeming unable to look at her at all.

  Eddie stared at him with hard eyes, her heart pounding heavily in her chest. “Rogue washing machine…” she muttered, not looking away from the boy she had not seen since that fateful afternoon.

  “Okay – I don’t care what this is,” Simon pitched in, moving around Eddie with a glare for Sam and buffeting his shoulder roughly as he passed. “I have what I need.”

  He walked off briskly, rounding the corner before stopping in place.

  “Who’s that?!” the voice of the matron sounded down the corridor he was headed, soon to be followed by fast-paced footsteps.

  Eddie panicked, her eyes widening, while Simon also seemed momentarily immobile.

  “Don’t want detention?” Sam was suddenly at her ear.

  She wished she didn’t shiver at his breath that tickled her neck. “Of course not!” Eddie hissed back.

  “Then run…” and Sam was off, sprinting in the opposite direction.

  Eddie hesitated for one moment, her eyes looking from Simon, then after Sam. Simon had this look that said ‘don’t you dare’… but then, mere seconds after Sam, Eddie ran – the shouts from the matron echoing behind her.

  Corridor after corridor they went until finally, Sam came halting to a stop, gasping for breath, as did Eddie, her heart thumping loudly in her ears with adrenaline.

  Part of her wanted to laugh, but another part really, really didn’t.

  “I didn’t think you’d follow me…” Sam sounded mildly amused, despite the situation.

  Eddie looked at Sam, her breath catching up to her now. She frowned slightly, ignoring his words. She didn’t hesitate. “Sam, I need an explanation…” she said quietly. “I feel like I’m going insane.”

  Sam held her gaze, his expression guarded, but there was guilt touching his brow. However, his eyes flickered down her shivering form, lingering momentarily on her chest again and he was suddenly shrugging off his elegant, knit coat with a rough sigh.

  “Put this on,” he muttered, thrusting it at her. “You’re freezing.”

  Eddie did not take it – glaring from jacket to him. “Thank you, but I’m fine,” she said stiffly. “I’d rather words than-”

  “Eden – you are literally shivering on the spot,” Sam cut in irritably.

  “Then you should hurry up and start talking before you are to blame for my hypothermia!”

  Sam muttered something under his breath, rolling his eyes to the ceiling before turning his dark gaze on her. He gave her a wry look. “Eden,” he said her name again, this time with a condescending tone. “Have you ever heard of a wet T-shirt competition?”

  Eddie frowned at him, then a look of realisation hit her, and her cheeks shone like rubies. She looked down at herself before grasping the coat from his hands and clutching it to her chest in em
barrassment. “Well stop looking!” she squeaked in mortification.

  Sam rolled his eyes with a heavy sigh. “That’s half the reason I gave you my jacket!” he said in exasperation. “A lesser man would have said nothing and continued to ogle you.”

  Eddie was grumbling furiously, pulling the coat on quickly and buttoning it up. “Don’t lesser man bullshit me…” she was mumbling. “You do a decent thing to be decent, not to get congratulated over it! And what do you mean ‘continue’?”

  Eddie turned to frown at him, and Sam just gave her a very patronising look while a smile prodded the corner of his lips. “I’m not going to lie and say it didn’t distract my… better judgment for a moment,” he told her simply.

  Eddie grit her teeth furiously. “Great,” she said in thick sarcasm. “Well if you’re done being disgusting and inappropriate,” she continued. “We need to talk,” her gaze turned serious from angry. “Please,” she added in a softer tone. “I… I can’t keep going thinking I might have lost my mind.”

  Sam’s smirk instantly vanished, his brow pinching. He looked at her for a long moment, absently biting the inside of his lip. “Look I…” he paused, sighing roughly. “I can’t tell you anything…” he muttered dully.

  Eddie closed her eyes for a moment, breathing in her instant surge of anger, for that never seemed to help. She opened them again, and her eyes fell to his right hand, remembering the wound. He closed his fist quickly, but it was too late; Eddie had seen.

  The wound was gone. She grabbed his hand, trying to pry it open in disbelief, but Sam held it firmly closed. “It’s gone,” Eddie stated blankly, turning her sharp eyes on Sam. “I already saw it.”

  Sam sighed lowly, relaxing his hand and Eddie took the chance to inspect it closer. There wasn’t even a scratch or a bruise or a blemish, no sign of any abrasion whatsoever. Slowly she dropped his hand, looking back up at him.

  “How?” she breathed, her eyes begging him to explain. “Please… tell me what happened in that alley?”

  Sam bit his tongue, staring back. “I… don’t know,” he said, his voice hesitant.

  Eddie frowned, feeling the anger trickling back. “Yes you do,” she muttered lowly.