Revenant (The Midnight Society #3) (19 page)

She looked significantly different. She looked domesticated.

“Shadow,” she greeted me.

This was what I was afraid of? My suburbanized sister?

It certainly was strange seeing her like this—hair tied up in a bun, no make-up on, wearing yoga pants and a thick sweater.

“What happened to you?” I asked.

“What do you mean?”

“You look…pedestrian.”

She laughed. “You mean I look like a mother?”

Was that the word I was looking for?

Calisto and motherhood belonged together like cyanide and Kool Aid. The outcome would be horrendous.

“You going to come in, or what?” she asked.

I entered into the home, closing the front entrance door behind me.

I heard the trampling of feet against the bamboo hardwood floors and I was suddenly greeted by a pair of tiny arms wrapped around my left knee.

“Uncle Shadow!” the little angel exclaimed with glee.

Uncle Shadow?
It took me a moment to process what I just heard.

This was my niece? This was Calisto’s kid?

I marveled at the tiny round face staring at me with big beautiful brown eyes, eyes which Calisto shared.

She smiled at me with all the innocence in the world. I couldn’t help but smile back at her.

“Hi sweetheart,” I whispered.

“I missed you!” she said playfully. “Want to play Barbies?”

“Playing with toys? The idea seemed foreign to me. As a child, I never had the opportunity to play. Plastic figures and bouncing balls were replaced with economic books and business papers.

It was a terrible childhood.

“Of course sweetheart,” I replied, “As long as you like.”

“Not too long,” Calisto said with a stern voice. “You still have a room to tidy and a bath to take.”

I looked at Calisto with a dumbfounded look on my face. “How did she happen?” I asked, gesturing towards the delicate girl laughing at the base of my feet.

“Really, Shadow? Do we need the discussion about how babies are made?”

“Stork!” the little one announced proudly. “That’s what daddy told me.”

“Who’s daddy?” I asked.

And that was when the door opened.

In walked Lincoln. He was wearing a wool jacket and blue jeans, nothing fancy like he’d usually wear. He too looked domesticated.

A black laptop backpack dangled from one of his shoulders.

“Daddy!” she cried as she screamed with excitement and lunged at her dad.

He scooped her up and planted a warm kiss on her rosy little cheeks. “Princess!”

“Daddy, I’ve got something amazing to show you,” she announced.

“In a bit,” Lincoln replied. “Uncle Shadow is here. It’d be rude to ignore him.”

“Uncle Shadow can come too.”

Lincoln turned to me and nodded. “Good to see you bud. What brings you to our neck of the woods?”

Everything about this situation was abnormal, yet it simultaneously felt right.

Everything seemed like it was in its place.

He must have sensed my confusion in the brief moment of silence. “Shit, here I am questioning when my best friend comes to visit,” Lincoln smiled as he removed his wool jacket and hung it up on the hook. “Stay for dinner. Let’s catch up.”

Calisto nodded. “I made plenty for everyone. What do you say, bro, stay for dinner?”

“Do I have a choice in the matter?” I asked.

“None whatsoever,” Calisto replied. “Now you boys go while I finish up. The main course will be one you boys will never forget.”

“Now can I show you two something great?” the little girl asked.

“What’s your name, sweetheart?” I inquired.

She giggled. “Uncle Shadow, you’re silly. You know what my name is.”

“Remind me, princess. Uncle Shadow’s brain these days has a mind of its own.”

“It’s Aria!”

I looked at Lincoln, stunned.

Aria.

I was at a loss for words. Of all the names they could have chosen, why Aria? Why would Lincoln choose the name of the woman I loved, especially after he betrayed me in New Orleans with her?

This logic equated to naming your daughter after an ex-girlfriend. It was something you just didn’t do.

“What are you going to show us, Aria?” Lincoln asked.

She pointed outside to the backyard. “It’s out there. Will you both come?”

“Of course we will. Right, Shadow?”

“Yes, of course,” I replied.

There was coldness to the autumn air and I realized I wasn’t dressed properly for the weather in my dream. I shivered and found myself folding my arms across my chest in an attempt to stay warm.

Lincoln and little Aria, on the other hand, didn’t seem to notice.

“I found something here,” she said as she tugged my hand, leading me to this secret treasure of hers.

Tombstones.

Little Aria had found tombstones in her backyard. I read the names etched on each stone slab aloud.

“Reiko Takeshi, Leah Gamble, Cairo West, Beau Huff, Braydon Huff, Isadora Lalonde.” It was the last tombstone that jarred me as I read it. “Aria Valencia.”

“Daddy, am I dead?” Aria asked. “My name’s on the tombstone.”

“No sweetie, of course you’re not. You’re a different Aria. You’re
my
Aria.”

I turned to Lincoln. “How did they die?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Damned if I know. Not sure why you’re surprised by this though. We all know that this is the final destination for anyone who decides to ride with you. Heck, I’m living on borrowed time myself.”

“You’re going to die, daddy?” Aria asked.

“Yes sweetheart. Soon too, probably,” Lincoln replied.

“I don’t want you to die.”

“I’m sorry, Aria, but that’s just the way things have to be. When Uncle Shadow is around, all the people close to him always end up dead.”

Little Aria looked at me with anger on her once playful face. She began punching me in the kneecaps.

“I don’t like you anymore, Uncle Shadow. My daddy’s going to die because of you.”

“Aria, stop hitting my brother.” Calisto’s voice was authoritative, yet filled with affection at the same time. It was a mother’s voice.

“Daddy’s going to die because of Uncle Shadow!” she exclaimed.

“Well, yes. Of course,” Calisto said. “That’s just common sense, like how the sky is blue. Now come inside and wash up. It’s dinner time.”

Aria turned around, looked at me and then scowled before running into Calisto’s arms for comfort.

“Don’t mind her,” Lincoln said. “She’s just a child. She doesn’t understand yet.”

“I don’t even understand,” I said.

Lincoln laughed. “There are some things in life that are impossible to understand and impossible to quantify. Your selfish human nature is one of those things.”

I watched as Lincoln followed his daughter into the house and rejoined his family, leaving me outside in the cold alone.

I stared at the tombstones once more. There was truth in his words. I had seen so much death in so little time. Perhaps that was just the beginning.

The cold punched through my skin and seeped into my veins. I decided to go inside to see what was for dinner.

The dining room table was set neatly with white china plates and polished silver cutlery. Lincoln, the man of the house, sat at one end of the table while I was placed at the other end. Calisto and little Aria sat opposite each other in the center.

“I’m starving honey,” Lincoln said.

“That’s great. I think I’ve really outdone myself this time with this dinner.”

She gestured towards the large, silver domed cloche that covered the serving plate. “Shadow, would you like to do the honors?”

I eyed her suspiciously. “I suppose,” I said as I rose from my seat and reached for the ornamental handle on the cloche. The silver felt like ice against the palm of my hands.

Why was everything so damned cold here?

“Bon appetite,” Calisto added as I lifted open the cover. Resting at the center of the serving plate was a single .33 caliber chamber revolver.

“What the hell is this?” I asked.

My twisted sister smiled at me. “It’s the only way out,” she replied.

Little Aria covered her eyes and started to scream.

“And now you’ve gone and frightened Aria,” Calisto added.

I looked at Lincoln hopelessly. “What’s the meaning of this, Linc?”

He shrugged. “You gotta ask the boss,” he replied. “I tend to stay out of these things. You know that saying, happy wife, happy life? What makes the wife happy is if I sit down and shut the fuck up.”

Calisto laughed. “I trained my husband well. As for you, Shadow, this is the point where you’ll need to make a decision. You need to decide whether you want to stay here with us—your family—or if you want to get out of here and rejoin those people who you think are your friends. You’re new fucking Midnight Society.” She licked her lips. “They’re not your friends, Shadow. They’re imposters, all of them. They’re not family.”

That was when little Aria stopped screaming. “We’re your family though, isn’t that right, Uncle Shadow?”

“You guys aren’t my family?” I said it more as a question than a statement. I was unsure of myself. My mind felt like a dixie fried jumbled mess of nonsense that seemed impossible to sort out.

“I want to leave this place,” I stated with my head, as opposed to my heart. “This place just isn’t right.”

Being in this house with my sister, my best friend, and my niece did seem right. It felt like home.

But I couldn’t stay. I knew that much was true.

“If you want to go, you can go,” Calisto said. “However, the only way out is by the way of the gun. You need to shoot me in front of my family. I’m the part of your mind that no longer has place here.”

“You heard the woman,” Lincoln nodded. “Kill her. However you’ll be scarring my precious little girl for life.”

“Mommy, I don’t want you to die,” Aria pleaded. “Uncle Shadow, why are you doing this? She’s your sister and my mommy. Don’t kill her!”

I was at a loss for words.

None of this was real. Just what the fuck had Calisto put in my head? An imaginary family?

“I put nothing in your head, brother. It’s been there all along. This is what you ultimately want.” She knew exactly what I was thinking.

Of course she did. She was like a cancer that was growing inside of me. 

I shook my head. “No. You’re a fucking murderer. You need to be stopped,” I stated.

“If that’s what you believe, shoot me then. Only then can you wake up.”

I took the gun and held it in my hands.

“Come on, what are you waiting for? Do it.”

Even in my mind, my sister was twisted as ever.

“You can’t go any further down the rabbit hole than this, Shadow,” she continued. “Shoot me.”

“But mommy, I want you to live,” Aria pleaded.

“Now, now, Aria. We know that just can’t happen. Wherever Shadow goes, death will always follow,” Lincoln said.

This was all wrong. None of this made any sense to me. Something wasn’t right.

Calisto sighed. “So you’re not going to shoot me then? If not, sit down and I’ll serve us our real supper.”

I looked long and hard at my sister and then at the gun in my hands. This was the choice she had given me.

“Who are you?” I demanded.

She seemed puzzled. “I’m your sister,” Calisto replied. “You suddenly lose your mind, Shadow?”

“Yes, I have,” I replied. “I believe you when you say you’re Calisto—you’re a piece of her that’s left behind, rotting away inside my head.”

She laughed. “You make it seem so unpleasant. Stop yapping and fucking shoot me then.”

I shook my head. “No, that’s not the way out, either. You’ve been lying to me for years. If you’re Calisto, then what you’re telling me is a lie. What happens if I shoot you?”

“You get to leave,” she replied. “Now do it you pussy.”

I shook my head once more. “I’ve learned not to trust your lies. Who are you really? What happens if I shoot you?”

Calisto frowned. “Smart boy,” she finally said as she pinched a flap of skin underneath her chin, and began peeling back the layers.

The person she turned into was me.

A clone. A doppleganger. Me.

“Are you surprised?” he asked.

I didn’t respond.

“You shouldn’t be. There’s a bond between twins, you know. In reality, Calisto and I—you—function as a single organism. Your lives will forever be intertwined together. One can’t live without the other because you are both one and the same entity, divided into two.”

“You’re wrong,” I said. “I’m nothing like Calisto. The only thing we share is a last name.”