Shades (13 page)

He raised his hands to the sky, palms upward, fingers splayed, and called to the dead. All around them, the shadows moved. The shades came forth, drawn by his summons. The darkness in the cemetery solidified as the shades broke free of their graves and rose through the earth and into the sky. The shadows floated for a second and then soared toward them, screaming.

“Don’t cry, Danny,” Bedrik said. “Your father is here, too, and he can’t wait to be reunited with you.”

A shadow rose from his father’s grave. Danny’s eyes widened.

“Mr. Bedrik,” Danny screamed. “I’m gonna kill you!”

His teacher laughed as if the threat was the funniest thing he’d ever heard. “Oh, Danny, you’re a prize. All of that power and emotion just waiting to be used. I will drink you like a glass of water.”

Gustav’s eyes snapped open, flashing in the darkness.

“You’ll do no such thing.”

“Finished with your spell, old man? It won’t help you. It takes time for the charge to build, and you do not have time. You won’t breach the circle. The dead are coming. In a minute, you’ll belong to me, as will the boy.”

“No, he will not.”

The shades raced towards them. The night grew blacker. The shadows’ density muted the light from the fireflies. A dark shape hovered over Danny.

Son…

Danny gasped. “Dad? Daddy?”

Son…the pain…I can’t…

“Danny,” Gustav shouted. “The salt. Use it.”

The shadow reached out with one hand and tried to force his mouth open. Still unable to move his feet, Danny clawed at it with his hands. His fingers slipped through the darkness. The shade was cold.

“Dad,” he cried out. “Please…”

I’m sorry…son…let me in…

Danny shoved his hand into his pocket and pulled out the salt shaker. She sprinkled some on his father’s shade, and the shadow immediately recoiled.

“Bedrik,” Gustav shouted, “leave him.”

“You are fond of Danny,” Bedrik gloated. “You see yourself as some type of surrogate father to him, don’t you? That’s your weakness, Gustav, and that’s why I lured the boy here. You were so eager to confront me that you never stopped to consider why I’d want your apprentice here, too. So listen up and listen well. Stand down and accept your fate. Allow yourself to be taken over. If you don’t, I’ll kill the boy and his mother, as well. And you know that will be just the beginning of their sufferings.”

The first group of shades reached Gustav and swirled around him. Blue energy flared across his body. The shades fell back. So did Danny’s father.

Gustav grinned. “I did not care why you wanted boy here. I wanted him here, too.”

Bedrik frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“Boy is not my apprentice. Is not even magic. He is just my battery.”

Both Danny and Bedrik stared at him. They both said it at the same time.

“What?”

Gustav’s smile grew wider. He pointed one hand at Bedrik and the other at Danny. Then, sucking in a breath, he uttered a single word. Power flowed from Danny like water from a spigot, crackling in the air as it rushed from his body and into Gustav’s. Danny felt drained. Empty. The surge lanced through the shades and they dissipated, fading away to nothing.

The bolt leaped through the graveyard, zipping from shadow to shadow. It burst through Danny’s father.

Danny…I love…

Danny watched in horror as his father faded away.

With the shades outside the circle defeated, Gustav focused on Bedrik. The power slammed into the invisible barrier. The opposing energies flared, bathing the cemetery with a bright, white light. Danny closed his eyes and saw spots. When he opened them again, a solid stream rocketed from Gustav’s outstretched hand and ripped Bedrik’s shield apart, breaching the circle of protection.

Quickly, Bedrik fell to his knees and uttered a quick spell. The energy flowed over him but did not harm the teacher. Instead, it raced throughout the rest of the circle, disintegrating the shades inside the barrier. Edward T. Rammel didn’t even have time to scream as he was torn from the body of Tony Amiratti Junior. Danny’s mother writhed on the stone slab, untouched by the light.

Danny felt the last of his power drain away. The flow of light sputtered and then stopped. Gustav dropped his arms, panting.

“You son of a bitch,” Danny muttered. “You were just using me all this time? You’re just like every other adult in my life.”

Gustav did not reply. His expression was grim.

Bedrik stood up slowly and brushed the dirt from his pants. “Is that the best you have, old man? You’ve breached my circle, destroyed my shades, but I’m still standing.”

“Not for long.”

Bedrik laughed. “Oh, Gustav, come on. You’ve no power left. You’ve drained both yourself and the boy. You can’t possibly win. Stand down.”

Gustav wiped sweat from his brow. “Danny was not just a battery. He is also an anchor.”

Bedrik’s smile vanished.

“Edward,” he hollered. “Kill the bitch!”

“No!” Danny struggled against his invisible bonds.

The man standing next to his mother picked up an onyx knife and lowered it to her throat.

“You are too late, Bedrik,” Gustav warned. “This is your end.”

Behind Gustav, the night surged forward, a massive, obsidian sheet that blocked out the tombstones, the trees, even the sky. The darkness had a human face—Martin Bedrik’s. Danny felt a familiar fear. This was what he’d encountered the night he’d left Gustav’s, and at his home. He heard the sounds again, coming from everywhere and nowhere at once. This time, they were much louder, and when the darkness spoke, it was like thunder.

MICHAEL…

“Oh shit.” Bedrik scrambled backward.

“You wanted family reunion, yes?” Gustav stood unmoving as the darkness flowed around him and raced towards the other magician. “Your brother found Danny. He has been anchored to him ever since. Following him around like a lost puppy. Not always able to breach the gulf, but tonight, I give him help. Get enough power from the boy to bring your brother through.”

MICHAEL…YOU LEFT ME THERE…SO COLD…WHY…

“Martin,” Bedrik stammered, “you have to understand. You have to—”

YOU ARE THE BAD TWIN, MICHAEL…

Without another word, Bedrik turned and ran. The darkness raced after him, enveloping him like a shroud. Bedrik shrieked. His face reddened as the black energies wrapped around him. He staggered backwards, trying to pull it off, but the shade seethed and swarmed, coalescing into a maelstrom of shadow intent on only one thing—revenge.

Danny watched in horror, and realized that Gustav was laughing.

Michael Bedrik screamed again as the darkness smothered him. A mouth formed of shadow and lashed out, biting deep into his body and ripping away the flesh. It bit down again and again, devouring him with an insatiable lust, a gluttonous spirit incapable of mercy and vengeful to the last. Bedrik looked at Danny, his eyes begging for help. A moment later, the blackness feasted on his eyes, too.

Danny closed his own eyes, trying to block the images. He couldn’t stop the chewing sounds.

When he opened them again, there was nothing left of Mr. Bedrik, not even his clothes. The swirling black mass shifted again and again, finished with its feast. Danny felt its rage, a cold and bitter furnace of energies.

Gustav stepped forward. “Now you go back to where you came from.”

THE PRISON…

“Nyet. Death is not a prison. You are free. Go to the next place and return here no more.”

Gustav banished Martin Bedrik’s spirit and the shadow vanished. Silence returned to the cemetery. The lightning bugs fell to the ground, dead. Darkness, normal darkness, closed in on them again. Danny took a hesitant step and found that he could move. He ran to his mother and untied her. She was unconscious.

“Will she be okay?”

“Da. She will wake up soon. You should get her home.”

Danny glanced around the battleground. The man with the knife lay at the foot of the crypt.

“Gustav, what just happened here? What was that thing?”

“Martin Bedrik’s spirit has been following you,” Gustav said. “You found each other, yes? It latched on to you. Tried to use your power to come back and get revenge. But it did not know how and neither did you. I helped it tonight. I knew we would need him to help defeat his brother.”

“You used him,” Danny muttered, “just like you used me.”

“Danny—”

“Don’t say another fucking word. I heard what you told Mr. Bedrik. I thought you were my friend. I believed in you. You lied to me. Gave me those presents. Told me I was magic. But I’m not, am I? All this time, all you wanted was my power. You used me. Wanted what I could give you. You’re just like everyone else. Just like Mom stealing my money. I hate you.”

Gustav nodded sadly.

“I wish I’d never met you. Wish I’d never found that stupid body. Wish none of this had ever happened.”

Gustav spoke softly. “You wish to forget?”

“What do you think, you commie asshole? Of course I do. Matt. My Dad…”

Before Danny could react, Gustav reached out and touched his forehead.

“Sleep.”

Danny slumped over, as unconscious as his mother. Gustav caught him as he fell.

“You will fall again, Danny, and the next time, I will not be able to catch you.” His voice choked with emotion. “I wish that I could, but I cannot. Even I am not that powerful, yes? If I could, I would fix it. I would move Hook Mountain for you. You are like son to me. But this will not happen.”

He loaded the boy and his mother into the police car and drove them home. They did not wake as he tucked them into their beds. He collected the presents he’d given to Danny from the boy’s room, and sobbed when he flipped through Danny’s Book of Shadows.

After regaining his composure, Gustav removed all traces of himself from the house. Tomorrow, Danny and his mother would wake up with no memories of what had happened. Bedrik’s death—as well as the deaths of Matt, Amiratti, and many others—would become just another statistic, the violent cost of living in Brackard’s Point. In time, Danny would mend his friendship with Chuck, Ronnie, and Jeremy—whose secret name was Jammer. Gustav knew this, even if the boy did not. They would become friends again, better than ever. Danny’s mother would not drink. She would get a better job and pay attention to her son. None of them would remember any of what had happened. Danny would forget all about magic.

And Danny would be happy for the rest of his brief life.

Gustav returned to the police car and drove into the night. He was tired, but there was still much to do before he went to sleep. He had to take care of the car once and for all. Tomorrow, he would begin hunting down the rest of the renegade shades, the ones Bedrik had placed inside the local government, fire and police departments, churches, and elsewhere. With their master destroyed, the shades were free to act on their own, living the lives they’d stolen. He couldn’t allow the charade to continue. The dead should stay dead.

More people would vanish under mysterious circumstances over the coming days. Then, when he was finished, Brackard’s Point would return to normal—whatever that may be.

He turned on the radio. Music filled the car, and Gustav sang along, his voice full of pain and regret.

“If you could read my mind, what a tale my thoughts would tell…”

Tears slid down his whiskered face.

He’d lied to the boy. Danny was indeed magic. He had the gift. The ability. Magic was a part of Danny and in time, he’d have learned it all over again, with or without Gustav’s help. But Danny would not have that time. The old man’s heart broke. He wept as he drove, and the heavens cried along with him.

Magic had a price.

Magic was knowledge and power and sometimes sacrifice.

Gustav had knowledge of Danny’s fate.

He did not have the power to stop it.

And that was the heaviest sacrifice of all.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

GEOFF COOPER WAS BORN IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE PROPHECY. WHEN THIS LAMENTABLE DAY TRANSPIRED IS UNCLEAR. THE CURRENT HYPOTHESIS PLACES THE EVENT SOMETIME BETWEEN THE RISE OF THE BABYLON AND THE FALL OF KABUL. COOP’S SHORT STORIES HAVE APPEARED IN MANY ANTHOLOGIES AND A MAGAZINE OR TWO. CEMETERY DANCE PUBLICATIONS PUBLISHED HIS NOVELLA,
RETRIBUTION, INC
, AND WAS ONE OF THE PREVIOUSLY MENTIONED MAGAZINES. HE HAS BEEN A MECHANIC, A SECURITY GUARD, A FIREFIGHTER, A FIREARMS INSTRUCTOR, A DRIVER OF CARS OF QUESTIONABLE LEGALITY, AND A PROVIDER OF THINGS FOR THOSE WITH MORE MONEY THAN SENSE. CURRENTLY, HE HOLDS THE TITLE OF DUCK. YEAH, AS IN ‘QUACK’. DON’T ASK: IT’S BEYOND YOUR COMPREHENSION. HE’S GOT MORE OPINIONS THAN THE BIBLE HAS BEGATS. WHISKY TANGO FOXTROT, OVER…

Brian Keene
lives in the backwoods of Pennsylvania, and writes books for a living. Trust us; it’s not nearly as glamorous as it sounds. Just like magic, there’s always a price. His previous titles include
Ghoul, Dead Sea, The Rising, City of the Dead, The Conqueror Worms, Fear of Gravity, Terminal,
and many more. Several of his books and stories have been adapted for comics, and several more are slated for film and video games. He probably owes you an email or a phone call, and promises to get around to it one of these days. He would like to take this moment to stop being a smart-ass and sincerely thank you for your patience. Visit him online at www.briankeene.com