Lost in Darkness Page 5

  “Much better, thanks.”

  “Will you be going back to school soon?” Sophie asked.

  “Yup.”

  “Hey, great. I’m so glad you’re okay. I really am.”

  Dana felt embarrassed. It wasn’t like Sophie to apologize for anything. Ethan was having a good effect on Sophie...but in a strange way, Dana missed the old Sophie. This girl seemed like an imposter.

  “You guys don’t have a library over in Farmington?” Dana kidded Ethan.

  “This one’s nicer,” Celeste answered for her brother.

  “We were gonna go get a pizza soon,” Ethan told Dana. “Please join us.”

  “No thanks. Like I say, I have to be getting home. I’m lucky my Mom let me out at all.”

  “Please?” Ethan’s sly smile spread wider. He was turning on the charm.

  “No, really. Some other time.” Dana stood up. Vesta started to take hold of her arm. Dana almost yanked it free, but she saw Ethan frown at his sister. Immediately, she let go of Dana’s sleeve. Vesta grinned at Dana like it was all a big game.

  Dana just wanted to get away from the four of them, suddenly finding the bunch of them annoying. All dressed in black, like some little club. All with those big goofy grins. She felt like she didn’t belong. Sophie had always been the outsider, the misfit, but now Dana felt that the two of them had changed places...Sophie good-natured and friendly, Dana grumpy and bitter.

  “You need a lift home?” Ethan asked.

  “No thanks, I’m all set. I gotta go. See ya.”

  “Nice to see you again, Dana.”

  “Yeah,” Sophie agreed. “Say hi to your folks for me.”

  Dana started away. “I will.” She walked briskly, and didn’t look back. A white streak whooshed past her. A paper airplane. It smacked into a chair, crumpling its nose. Dana glanced back over her shoulder and saw blond-haired Celeste giggling mischievously. Vesta was waving.

  Dana didn’t wave back. She turned out of the main room, descended the marble stairs and circled around to the ramp that took one down into the children’s library.

  The doors to the children’s library were locked for the night, the windows in the doors black. Dana didn’t want to look in there. In her mind she pictured the toys for the younger children, sitting on their shelves in the dark, their eyes open and unblinking. Maybe they were crawling off the shelves to play on the floor, unseen in blackness. Dana cursed herself for letting her imagination get carried away with ideas like that!

  The restrooms were in the corner down here. It was a gloomy, creepy spot, but a private place for her to call her mother quickly and get it over with. She dug around in her overstuffed pocketbook for her cell phone.

  Earlier, Dana hadn’t told her mother about the boy who’d been standing outside their house, gazing up at Dana’s bedroom window. She hadn’t wanted to alarm her mother, afraid that her mother wouldn’t let her go to the library alone. Now, Dana almost wished her mother had never given her permission to come here.

  As Dana took the flat little phone from her pocketbook, it slipped from her fingers to the floor. Muttering a curse, she crouched down to retrieve it. When she stood up, Ethan was standing directly in front of her.

  Dana all but screamed out loud.

  Ethan smiled. “Sorry if I scared you.”

  “Is that all you and your sisters ever say, Ethan?” Dana hissed, no longer trying to hide her irritability.

  His smile faded. “I am sorry, Dana. I’m sorry about Sophie, too.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Ethan reached out and took one of Dana’s hands in his own. He squeezed it softly. “I never forgot you after I saw you in the hospital, Dana. I left you a teddy bear but you were sleeping.”

  “I knew it was from you. Thanks.”

  “I really liked you from the start, but I didn’t know where you lived or anything.”

  “And?”

  “I was kind of hoping we could get together someday. But before I could meet you again I met Sophie, and...well...”

  “I’m happy for the both of you.”

  Ethan squeezed her hand a little more snugly. “I’m happy, too. But I’d be even happier if it was you and me.”

  Dana swallowed hard. She was torn between shock, anger and excitement. The confusion of her emotions overwhelmed her, made her speechless.

  Before she could react to his words, Ethan stepped closer to Dana, cupped her cheek in his other hand, and touched his lips softly to hers.

  Dana closed her eyes. Automatically, she pressed her lips back against his. It was like a taste of heaven itself. For a few moments, she was floating in a dream of perfect bliss.

  But beyond her eyelids, Dana saw two lights glowing. Two purple lights, shining through her eyelids’ thin membranes. As if two burning eyes were staring into hers, straight through her shut lids.

  Dana’s eyes snapped open and she broke away from Ethan, backing into the wall.

  His eyes weren’t glowing purple, after all. He looked a little confused.

  “Don’t you like me, Dana?”

  “I like you, Ethan. But so does Sophie, and she’s my best friend.”

  “But what about us?”

  “We can be friends, Ethan, that’s it.”

  “Let me kiss you again, Dana. I think I can change your mind.”

  “No.”

  “Why not? Afraid that I will?” Again, that sly smile.

  “I have to call my mother now, Ethan.”

  “Let me walk you home.”

  “No! Please go back to Sophie now, okay?”

  Ethan sighed, lowered his head. “All right. But think about it, Dana. Think about how great it would be.”

  “Goodnight, Ethan.”

  Ethan began walking up the ramp. He wiggled his fingers. “Goodnight, beautiful.” Then he turned the corner and was gone.

  Dana called her mother. She tried to sound normal as she reassured her mother that nothing was wrong. She told her mom that she was tired, that was all.

  Dana waited outside on the sidewalk in front of the library. She kept looking over her shoulder nervously, as if afraid Ethan would pop out of the shadows again. He didn’t.

  But when Mrs. Tower came, and Dana was getting into the car, Dana saw Celeste and Vesta looking out of a window at her. Both were grinning, both waving in perfect harmony.

  7

  It wasn’t until ten o’clock in the morning that Dana was finally able to pull herself out of bed. She padded downstairs in bare feet and rumpled pajamas, her eyes half open, and collapsed on the sofa. She watched TV for an hour, now unable to pull herself off the sofa.

  “Ohhh,” she groaned, looking at the clock, “maybe I’m having a relapse.” Dana felt as if she had been sapped of every ounce of her energy. Maybe some food would make her feel stronger, wake her up a bit, but she was too tired to get off the couch. It was strange. She could barely even lift her arm to point the remote control at the set.

  There was a knock at the front door.

  “Oh, great,” Dana moaned. She swung her legs off the sofa and they seemed as heavy as sacks of potatoes. Couch potatoes, she thought. She pushed herself to her feet and scuffed across the carpet to the front door as though she were sleepwalking.

  She unlocked the door, turned the knob and cracked the door open to see who was out on the step.

  She recognized her visitor immediately, and Dana’s groggy eyes snapped open wide. Standing on the front step, smiling at her, was the handsome blond youth who had been staring up at her window yesterday.

  “Hi, Dana,” he said.

  “Who are you? How do you know my name?”

  “You can call me Will. Will Garner. May I come in, Dana? We really need to talk.”

  “I don’t let strangers in—sorry.”

  The boy called Will shuffled his feet, as if he wasn’t sure what to say next. “But we’ve met before, Dana,” he finally said.

  “I saw you staring at my house yesterday.”
>
  “That’s not what I mean. I mean...we met once in a...well, in a dream.”

  Dana was speechless. How could he possibly know about her near death experience? She hadn’t told anyone but her parents about it. Had they told other people? Had this boy somehow found out about it?

  Even if he had heard about it, how could he look exactly like the boy who had tried to coax her into the bright light?

  Dana had to find out these answers. Even though this Will Garner was a stranger to her, she reluctantly opened the door all the way. She swallowed, and told him, “Come in.”

  “Thanks.” Will stepped into the house while Dana closed the door behind him. “Nice place.”

  “Maybe you should come back when my parents are home, Will.”

  Will turned to face her. “They wouldn’t believe what I have to tell you, Dana. I’m going to have a hard enough time convincing you to believe me.”

  “Come on, let’s sit down...I’m feeling really weak today.”

  They moved into the living room. Dana shut off the TV and sat on the couch, tucking her bare feet up under her as if to protect them. Will sat in an armchair across from her.

  “Cute pajamas,” Will observed, smiling

  “Thanks,” Dana said, not smiling, embarrassed to be seen this way. Her hair looked like a family of animals had slept in it last night. “Can we get to the point?”

  “I don’t blame you for not trusting me, Dana, and I know I seem weird to you. Believe me, it’s only gonna get weirder.”

  “Try me,” Dana said. “How do you know that I dreamed about you before? Wait...answer this for me. A little test. Where was I when I dreamed about you?”

  “In the hospital, after your accident.”

  “Did somebody tell you about me? About my accident, and my dream?”

  “No.”

  “I know—you were at the hospital that night, weren’t you? I must have seen you at the hospital and then I dreamed about you. I was delirious from my accident.”

  “You weren’t delirious, Dana, you were knocked out cold. Your dream...it wasn’t really a dream. It was real, Dana. A real place.”

  “Is that right?”

  “Yes. You were in the Passage. You saw me, remember? I was trying to get you to come through the Gate of Light.”

  Dana swallowed again. She couldn’t speak.

  Will continued. “You got scared. You took the wrong path, and got lost. You found the Gate of Darkness by mistake.”

  “I’m going crazy,” Dana muttered out loud. “That’s what’s happening here, right? I’m just imagining you. It’s my head injury. I’m hallucinating.”

  “You aren’t crazy, Dana. You have to trust me. I want to help you.”

  “Help me? Help me do what? Go into the Gate of Light? No thanks, Will. I’d have to die to go there, wouldn’t I? Well, I’m not in the mood to die, thanks.”

  Will smiled at her bitter joke, but his eyes were deadly serious. “No, I’m not here to bring you back to the Gate. I’m sorry, Dana. When I saw you in the Passage I thought it was your time to cross over. It wasn’t...it wasn’t your time. I didn’t mean to confuse you. The mistake was mine. No wonder you got scared and ran away. I’m so sorry.”

  “Are you trying to tell me you’re some kind of...”

  “I’m one of the Immortals, Dana. That’s what we call ourselves.”

  “So you’re like dead, right? A ghost? A spirit? Is that what you’re telling me?”

  Will shifted in his chair restlessly. “Dana, let’s get to the point, like you said. You’re in danger. Great danger.”

  “I’m in danger of losing my mind, that’s what.”

  “I’m serious! You have to listen to me! When you got lost in the Passage, and got close to the Gate of Darkness, some of the spirits that live there caught your scent. They came after you, don’t you remember? We call them the Shadow Beings, Dana. Three of them attacked you. They grabbed onto you. Remember?”

  Dana’s blood was like ice water running through her veins. Gooseflesh rose to her arms and she shuddered, hugging herself tightly. “You’re scaring me, mister.”

  Will leaned forward in his chair. “Good. You should be scared. Dana, when you turned around and ran out of the Passage—when you returned here, to the mortal world—the three Shadow Beings were still holding onto you. I tried to stop you, so I could get them off you first. I grabbed hold of you...but I was too late. You were strong, Dana. You pulled me out of the Passage, here into the mortal world with you.”

  “And what you’re saying is, I brought the three Shadow Beings into the mortal world, too.”

  “Exactly. The only difference is, they wanted to come here, and I didn’t...I was just trying to stop you. I got pulled in by mistake.”

  Dana wagged her head, trying to absorb it all. “And what do these things want in this world, then?”

  “They want to have bodies. They want to live as humans. But there’s only one way they can do that.”

  “How?”

  “By stealing the life from real humans. They stole life from you, Dana. They had their fangs in you, remember? They fed on your soul...your life force. They didn’t take it all, but they took enough to start with. You see, without feeding on human life, the Shadow Beings won’t survive. They won’t die—they aren’t alive, really, so they can’t die—but they’ll sort of fade away if they don’t feed. But the more they feed, the stronger they get. Eventually, they’ll become human.”

  “And then what will they do?”

  “Whatever they want. But it won’t be good. They’re pure evil, Dana. They thrive on suffering and despair, and hate and sorrow.” Will shook his head grimly. “Dana, in order to become fully human, a Shadow Being has to rob all the life force from a real human. In other words, they have to kill someone. It might be you, or it might be someone else, but that is what will happen if we don’t find them and stop them.”

  “Stop them how?”

  Will rose from his chair and began to pace the room. “I’m not sure. I’ve never had to fight them before. In the Passage, I could have destroyed them by dragging them into the Gate of Light. But here, in the mortal world...I don’t know. But we have to find a way.”

  “And where do we look for these vampire things?”

  “They may be close to you, because they know you, and you were their first victim. Or they may have hopped onto a bus and gone to Canada, for all I know.”

  “Hopped a bus? You mean, they look human?”

  “They do now, I’ll bet. Like I said, they stole enough life force from you to give them strength, and by feeding on your thoughts and your mind, they learned how to think and act and talk like human beings.”

  “The things I saw...or, at least, that I sensed...weren’t human at all.”

  “Exactly. That was their true form. They can still return to that form, if they want. They’re shape shifters.”

  “So make up your mind...are these things vampires or werewolves?”

  “They’re like both. Only worse.”

  “And what about you, Will? You didn’t answer my question, before. Are you like a ghost or an angel?”

  “I’m like both, I guess.” He smiled.

  Dana got up from the sofa and timidly took a few steps closer to her visitor. She hesitated, then reached out and touched his arm. He felt as solid as she did. “If you’re a hallucination, you’re a pretty good one.”

  “I’m real, Dana, I told you.”

  “You don’t expect me to believe all this crap.”

  “You saw it all in the Passage. Me. The Shadow Beings. You felt their fangs and claws in your spirit. You know you did.”

  “Even if all this was true, how can I help you?”

  “I don’t know. But I need your help. We have to get them back into the Passage. And...I have to get back in the Passage, too. I have to get back home soon.”

  “Why?”

  “Because, in a way I’m like the Shadow Beings. If my energy runs dry, I
’ll sort of fade away, too. The only way I can recharge myself is if I feed on human life force like they do. But I won’t do that. I’m not a predator like they are.”

  “Oh man, I don’t believe this.” Dana walked back to the couch, dropped onto it. She still felt totally sapped of strength. Almost as if...almost as if something evil and hungry had stolen her energy from her. Could it be possible? Could it be that something had fed on her soul last night while she’d been asleep? Dana shuddered again. Even if she wasn’t crazy, and this boy was real, he was going to drive her crazy with his wild stories!

  “I don’t know how to convince you I’m telling the truth, Dana.”

  “Walk through a wall. Fly. Do something supernatural.”

  “I can’t. I used all the energy I had to make myself a human body when I followed you into this world. I have no power left. I’m getting weaker every day, too. We have to find the Shadow Beings before I pass away.”

  “You don’t even have a plan!”

  “Maybe we can come up with one together.”

  “How? How? Look, Will Garner or whoever you are, I don’t know how you found out about my dream...maybe I talk in my sleep and you heard me at the hospital, or something...but this is all too much for me to accept.”

  “I need your help, Dana. And you need mine. There are three of those things. Three people will end up dying. That might mean you, your mother and your father.”

  Dana threw up her hands. “That’s it, that’s enough. I can’t take anymore of your creepy weirdness! You’re trying to freak me out, that’s all.” She pointed at the door. “You’d better leave now, Will.”

  “You’re making a terrible mistake.”

  “I’ll call 911, I swear it.”

  Will sighed, and walked to the door slowly. “I can’t force you to help me. I guess I’ll have to keep looking for them myself, like I have been doing. Maybe I can do it alone. Believe me, Dana, I didn’t want to have to approach you, but I thought we could have more success together.”

  Dana followed him to the door and opened it for him. “Well, I wish you the best of luck, Mr. Vampire Hunter.”

  In the door’s threshold, Will faced Dana one last time. His handsome features were grave. “Be careful, Dana. Just be very careful.”