Shadow's Dangers (39 page)

“Go to it! Now!”

I looked up, searching around for the famous “it” but I found “it” nowhere. Everything was darkness and trees around me.

“Go right ahead! It waits for you!”

I couldn't answer, even if I strongly wished to. Without knowing why, my body was completely weak.

“Get up! Run! They're coming!”

Again this voice that wasn't unknown to me. I tried to get up, but a massive weight seemed to be on my shoulders.

“Hurry, goddammit! Come on!”

As if a burst of energy was shaking my whole being, I sat up awkwardly and began to run. I went straight to where the voice told me to go. The surrounding darkness was blinding and the trees were detectable only when I was at a few paces from them. I didn't bump against something or fall again, this time. I stopped abruptly, seeing something that was definitely not a tree. The only thing I could distinguish of this black beast were its thick horns, like that of a ram--whirling loops like two endless spirals. The horns were in a sort of wide semi-circle behind the head of the animal, the end of them almost touching each other and oddly, they looked to me like reins used for horses, except these were strong and immovable.

“Climb on it!”

I stared at the unknown animal with wide eyes. The voice wanted me to get on...
it
? Something struck me suddenly. Was the voice coming from the animal itself? Even if it seemed crazy, I knew that anything was possible.

“You can trust it,” I heard the voice say, and now recognized it as belonging to Tess.

I actively looked around me, but she was nowhere in sight. I immediately forgot my grandmother when a scream echoed in the vast forest. I had heard the same in the meadow, just before Travis decided to let Garreth and I go. It was neither human nor animal, but I knew I had to flee. This strange beast was my only salvation.

“Go,” the voice of Tess told me, the anxiety perceptible in her tone.

Trusting the judgment of Tess, I ran towards the animal. Once in front of it, hesitation and doubt invaded me. How was I supposed to ride it? As if reading my thoughts, the animal made a sound almost like a laugh before it lay down. I managed to see its white teeth, but I realized that aside from that, everything was black, its eyes, its skin, which wasn't fur--even if it had the body of a big feline--but something that looked smooth and as strong as steel. It was unsettling. Seeing that I wasn't moving, it nodded its head, as if to motion me to climb aboard. Out of my trance, I did so awkwardly and clung to its horns, which had the feel of metal. With a sudden movement, he stood up and spun at breakneck speed through the woods. I had to cling to him with all my strength not to fall backwards. The screams sounded again, getting closer and closer and adrenaline began to saturate my veins. When I heard a different but constant noise, hitting a crescendo, I began to panic completely.

“Faster! Come on!” I cried to the beast to cover the noise produced by those who followed us.

The animal gave it everything it could, but it wasn't fast enough. The new sound was more powerful and reminded me of the noise accompanying an earthquake. I realized that the sound was indeed coming from the ground. Something beneath our feet wanted to capture us by any means, like the unidentified beasts that made terrifying screams were coming for us.

“Faster, I...”

I didn't finish my sentence...the thing that had come out of the ground made us glide into the air. We landed with a crash, me on the ground and the strange creature who tried to save my life against a tree trunk. I looked up and saw only two huge ruby eyes shining in the dark before all became darkness and intense suffering.

I suddenly opened my eyes. In front of me were the off-white paint and the few cracks that lined my ceiling. Sweaty and short of breath, I forced myself to regain my composure. A nightmare. Strange and terrifying yes, but nothing else. I hadn't had dreams that vivid for ages. Usually, even if I had to take the time to realize it, I always ended up understanding that it was a dream. Not this time. The anxiety that I had crept into me didn't want to leave. I had the feeling that this wasn't just a nightmare, but a sign that I still had something to fear.

I remembered why I felt this way. The disappearance of Garreth, followed by Leighton looking for him...yes, I had reasons to be afraid. I slept for an unknown amount of time and maybe they were dead now. I tried to repress this stupid thought when I vaguely heard the phone ring downstairs and I remembered the existence of my cell phone. Maybe Leighton had called and I hadn't heard it. Or maybe she had sent me a message saying she had found Garreth and both would soon come back here. Desperately clinging to this forlorn hope, I hurried to jump out of bed and started to look in my bag. It wasn't there. It had to be in my jacket on the hanger downstairs.

I hurried out of my room and ran into the hallway to go down. When I was about to turn to take the stairs, Annabelle arrived on the floor and we nearly bumped into each other. She stared at me, a look more than annoyed on her face. The phone downstairs began to ring again and Annabelle seemed about to strangle me.

“What a bastard!” she exclaimed before she caught me and dragged me to the stairs. “This is at least the twentieth time your stupid boyfriend has called and that I told him to go to hell! Doesn't he know you have a fucking cell phone?” She shook her head before stopping in front of me, once we got down the stairs. “Go answer and tell him to never call on this phone again or during his next visit here, I'll kill him!”

Annabelle went back upstairs at a furious pace. Without missing a beat, I rushed for the phone before he hung up.

“Garreth?” I said, picking up.

There was silence for a few seconds and I thought Annabelle was wrong, that it wasn't him. But his voice was heard at the other end and it was as if a huge weight disappeared from my shoulders.

“Finally! I thought I would never talk to you! What were you doing, goddammit? Your sister hasn't stopped answering and whenever I asked her where you were or if you were okay, she insulted me! I thought something had happened to you!”

He had never seemed so angry. In view of his concern, I imagined the great ordeal I had made him endure. His silence had upset me and he would have to provide me some explanations, but in the meantime, I was sorry for having inflicted grief on him too.

“I'm sorry, I...”

“There's no time for excuses,” he interrupted me abruptly. “Don't ask questions and do what I tell you, Deliah. You are in danger. I mean, really. We have to go and...”

“What?”

It was foolish. We couldn't go. I was safe in my house, Garreth having assured me that only good
Enimae
could enter through the mysterious protection that had been put around the house.

“I'll explain everything in the car but...”

“No! Leighton and you only have to come here and we'll stay in my house until they leave. Or until your community helps us. We don't need to leave. You said...”

“Goddammit, Deliah! Listen to me! Forget it! They have Leighton and with her, they will catch you! And if they get to you, they will kill your sister too, because they don't want any witnesses!”

I was horrified by his words. They had Leighton. They were coming and they were going to kill me and my sister, too. I had to go away. Fast.

“Okay...” I said, my voice a barely audible whisper.

I still couldn't understand what was happening. I was in a daze.

“Good. I want you to go in your room to put everything you need in a bag. Then, as Leighton explained to you, you'll wait for me in the lobby and you don't open the door until I’m in the protected area. Then, only if I get there, you'll follow me and we'll go together. Got it?”

I remembered the procedure established since Garreth and Leighton were looking for Travis. She told me to trust no one and to never leave the zone of protection as long as the identity of the other person hasn't been proven by his passage into the security perimeter. She added it was in “a large protected rectangle” from my driveway to the rear facade of the house and the trees along each side of it. Her explanations had worried me because I realized that I would have to become suspicious of everything and everyone if I wanted to stay alive from now on. But without her warning, maybe I would have left later with someone pretending to be Garreth, throwing me right into the lion's den without knowing it before it was too late.

“Do you understand, Deliah?” he asked in a tone so unfriendly that I agreed immediately, perturbed.

I was definitely not used to that Garreth and I hoped never to see this facet of his personality again.

“In less than five minutes, I'll be at your home so hang up and go prepare your bag.”

He added almost immediately: “Now, Deliah!”

I hung up the phone and promptly left at full speed upstairs to collect some things. I ran into the hallway and walked into my room. I rushed to my closet and pulled out a large duffel bag that I used for when I went to sleep at Hayden's.
Oh my God, Hayden...
I realized I would probably never see her again. I would never come back and the only memory she would hold of me was how I hurt her.
Damn it! Pull yourself together, Deliah! This isn't the time for that!
Chasing all stray thoughts from my mind, I grabbed some clothes and threw them unceremoniously in my bag. With the necessary packed, I went to take the photos of Tess, my parents, and Hayden from my nightstand and put them in the bag, too. If I ever came back here, I had to have them with me. I tried to suppress the dull ache that took place in my chest at the thought of leaving everything I had ever known, to leave the place where Tess and my parents rested. Even leaving Annabelle behind made me feel sad.

I focused on what mattered at that moment, in other words, find a way to leave with that big bag without Annabelle noticing it and asking me questions. Not that she was particularly interested in my actions, but I could count on her to get interested in me when I didn't need her attention. It was more than obvious she would never leave me alone if she saw me waiting in the hall with this bag. Garreth and I couldn't risk her to make a scene and try to stop me at the time of departure. I had to find something. My life and those of people I loved were at stake. I calmed down and went to take a look at the window to see if Garreth was already there. I stopped once before the glass, the solution appearing to me like a miracle. I opened the window and dropped the bag outside with infinite care. No sound of breaking glass was heard, which might mean that none of my frames had been damaged. I left without addressing a glance to these so familiar walls, this room that I knew by heart and had always been my refuge. If I looked at my room one last time, I knew I was going to fall apart.

I went down the stairs and once I was in the entryway, I quickly put on a coat. At the last moment, I thought of something and went in the hallway leading to the kitchen, so that if Annabelle came down, I could hear her and hide in time and she wouldn't know I was there. It felt like an eternity passed before the engine of the Mustang eventually sounded.

“What nerve! He dares show up here!” I heard my sister say upstairs.

I didn't wait a second longer, casting a glance out the window to make sure he was in the security perimeter and, realizing that indeed he was, I rushed outside. I went to get my bag and ran to the car before entering it quickly. No sooner was I inside that Garreth turned around the car and drove away. Annabelle might have thought that this sudden departure was strange. She would probably go to my room and when she saw I wasn't there, I wondered what her reaction would be. Would she see my stuff missing? Would she call Police Chief Collins to tell him I had run away? Or would she try to contact Hayden to find out where I was? I briefly thought about how Hayden would react if my sister called her and asked questions about me. I pulled myself together. There were much more important things than Hayden or Annabelle’s reactions at that moment.

“How...” I swallowed hard. “How did they get Leighton? Is she... Do you know if she's hurt?” I asked Garreth, daring a glance in his direction.

His eyes were glued to the windshield and not once did he turn to me, even when he answered.

“I don't know and that’s the answer to both questions.”

His voice betrayed no emotion. I was used to the mask of impassivity he wore in the worst of times, but this time was different. However he did his best to hide it, I could feel his hatred. I had expected worry, anxiety, frustration...anything but hate. Suddenly something struck me. I stared at him, frowning.

“How do you know they have Leighton if you don't know how they got her?”

In the blink of an eye, the anger in him was such that his face hardened and the muscles in his jaw twitched. Why did he react this way? It was only normal for me to ask about Leighton. She was my friend!

“What's going on? What are you not telling me?” I insisted when I realized he wouldn't answer me.

The car zigzagged sharply on the road before Garreth regained control of it. A moment later, with his free hand, he pinched the bridge of his nose as if he were about to explode. I assumed his reactions were on account of Leighton’s capture because he undoubtedly felt guilty about it.

“Where are we going?” I asked, hoping not to rub him the wrong way again.

It was more than obvious that Garreth had a lot of things to deal with and many thoughts were rumbling in his head. I understood. It was the same for me. However, I needed answers because, like his, my life was falling apart.

“I don't know,” he announced in an almost cautious tone without diverting his attention from the road. “But we'll know soon.”

“It's the community who will tell us where to go to be safe?”

To this question, Garreth finally gave me a glance. It was quick and while I was expecting to read tenderness or compassion in his eyes, I saw only surprise.

“That's about right...”

He said nothing more and I decided not to push him longer to have answers. Minutes passed in heavy silence. I kept my eyes fixed on the outside, trying not to think too much but failing miserably. I wondered if Leighton was okay, if she had been injured or if she was dead by now. I was afraid it was the last option since Garreth said they would make use of her to get to me. I assumed they had planned to get me to leave the security perimeter around my house, threatening to kill her if I didn't do it. I wondered if I would have done it or if I would have let her die. I didn't know but I liked to think I would have done the necessary thing to save her. However, for the moment, no one could help her. When they found out that she was no longer of any use to them, they probably wouldn't hesitate to kill her...if they hadn’t already. Tears came to my eyes and my throat tightened at the thought. However, I forced myself to suppress my urge to cry because Garreth didn't need to be burdened further. And well, the community would intervene and save her in time, right? I tried to convince myself of it, wanting more than anything to be optimistic about Leighton’s fate.