Shadow's Dangers (9 page)

“Wates is watching,” Hayden murmured, as if she feared he would catch her in the act of espionage.

Fortunately, my friend was always there to distract me from my macabre thoughts. I didn’t even take the trouble of looking back. I wasn’t in the mood to play. I’d had enough talk about him, and I wanted everyone to stop saying how I was supposed to love Garreth and how he was supposed to be interested in me. Both allegations were totally false. He couldn’t care less about me and frankly, it was better that way. What would have happened if he was interested in me? A multitude of problems in perspective, I felt it.

And even if he were indeed interested in me, I wasn’t in love. I recognized a certain attraction for him. But there was nothing more than that on my side. I knew nothing of him. How could I fall in love with an almost complete stranger? I couldn’t fall in love with the physical, I needed a personality or character and from this point of view, it was a pretty bad start. This boy was moody and too elusive for me. A little mystery was good but too much, it became suspect.

“Did you hear me?” Hayden whispered, apparently irritated by my non-reaction.

“Yes.”

She looked sternly at me, seeming to say “And you say nothing?” I exhaled slowly.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, concerned after a few seconds of silence.

The question I was dreading. I had to find an answer that didn’t involve having to lie to her. Because if there was someone I loathed to lie to, it was Hayden. I found the pretext.

“Nothing important. Listen, I gotta get something in my locker. I’ll come back in ten minutes. Okay?”

She sighed and I already knew that she understood what I had just done. She seemed disappointed with my behavior but unfortunately, I couldn’t do otherwise. I didn’t want the only person I had left in this world, looking at me like I was insane.

“No problem,” she replied wearily.

I was really sorry to do it. She wouldn’t understand, I knew it. And how could she do otherwise, when I, myself, thought I was crazy?

I grabbed my bag and promptly left. I entered the building, went among the canteen tables without worrying about the people who occupied them, trying to forget the outside world. But the outside world wanted to remind me of him. A hand caught my arm as I walked towards the door leading to the hallway where my locker was. I stopped reluctantly when a voice asked:

“Have you seen Leighton?”

I winced inwardly while turning around to face him. I was determined not to worry about him anymore and of course, he had to speak to me again.
Talk about a damn coincidence!

“Deliah?”

I sighed ostentatiously before answering.

“No. I haven’t seen her for more than an hour.”

Garreth probed me with his eyes, as if trying to find the flaw that would indicate any omission on my part. I avoided meeting his eyes, not wanting to faint in front of everyone and focused on the door that I was longing to go to. Even if it hadn’t happened for a while and, although our eyes already met, each time, these visual exchanges upset my whole being. And it had nothing to do with pleasure or embarrassment. It was a deep malaise that grew in me when he looked me in the eye, giving me the urge to flee, just as it did now. And the worst was that I didn’t know if it was I who was imagining things or if my instinct was right to tell me to fear him.

“You don’t know where she is?” he asked with some insistence.

His interrogation began to annoy me.

“The answer is still no,” I retorted, biting.

I tore myself from the grip of his hand and walked with a firm step towards the door when he called out to me:

“Deliah? Is there a problem?”

His voice was polite and gentle and yet, when I replied, my voice was just the opposite of his own.

“Yes. You.”

A few heads turned in our direction. In truth, I really wasn’t discreet. I observed the imperturbable face of Garreth. There wasn’t even a slight sign of annoyance, anger or irritation. This did nothing to him as he literally poisoned my very existence since I met him and it made me even doubt my sanity.
Damn you! I wish you had never come in this town!
I mused, hoping my eyes reflected my thoughts. Then I spun around and I slipped out the door.

I spent the rest of the day in a complete mental fog, not listening to what I was told, which people quickly got tired of. Even Spencer, who was tenacious when it came to me, finally let go. Lucky for me. I didn’t want to talk today. I just wanted to be left in peace. The glass of my emotions was filled to the brim and soon it would overflow. I wanted to avoid it, at least in public.

But of course, when it wasn’t one Wates who came to meet me, it was another. Leighton, who was in a very bad mood, waited for me in the parking lot. I walked in her direction.

“So... The crisis is over?” she asked in a hollow voice.

I couldn’t guess by her tone if she was angry or just a little compassionate. I didn’t know why but something told me that the second option was very unlikely. Clearly, she had met up with her brother and whatever he said to her put her this way. Maybe I succeeded to spoil his existence a little bit. I swore inwardly. Wishing harm to people wasn’t in my nature. This Garreth was even able to change who I was. At that very moment, I hated him for that.

“I think the crisis has not even started yet,” I declared finally convinced that, indeed, everything that happened to me in that moment was only the beginning of something even worse.

I had no idea what she saw in me but my friend approached me cautiously, before putting her hands on my shoulders. Her smile was intended to be compassionate, but her eyes, they remained inscrutable.

“If something is bothering you,” she affirmed in a soft voice, “you can tell me.”

Her voice was like a haunting melody that I couldn’t help but listen to. It was a sensation as unpleasant as irresistible.

“I know, but I don’t want to.”

Judging by the breath she uttered, she didn’t like my answer. Her eyes were still expressionless.

“Keeping everything inside you will do more harm than anything else. You should let go of all these negative feelings.”

Her voice had real persuasive powers. I felt myself about to falter. The hesitation didn’t last long.

“I have nightmares,” I blurted out suddenly.

Why did I say that rather than anything else, I didn’t know.

“Excuse me?”

Frowning, she seemed not to understand what I’d said. At the same time, I wasn’t very understandable.

“I have dreams... about my parents. About their death.”

She opened her mouth then closed it, without making a sound. She didn’t know what to say. Her eyes let out a glimmer of deep concern, which I didn’t understand, before returning expressionless. I briefly wondered how she did it. I went on with my revelations.

“My parents died in a car accident when I was a child and I’ve been dreaming of their death lately. A different version of the one they told me.”

I lowered my head so she couldn’t see my eyes slowly filling with tears. Why did speaking of this always make me so emotional? It had been years, I should have moved on. Even if they were my parents, I hadn’t really known them. Yet talking about them still made me feel bad.

“It’s been a long time? I mean...those dreams you had, it’s been a long time?” Leighton asked me, looking serious as ever.

I wondered about the reason behind her sudden change in behavior. Okay, she was worried about me, as a friend would be, but right now she seemed really too concerned. It wasn’t normal. I still replied, feeling the need to let it all out.

“I think it started around the time of the death of my grandmother.”

In the blink of an eye, Leighton turned around, fixing something in her gaze that was far away in the forest. Frowning, I checked what had attracted her attention. Nothing. If she saw something there, I didn’t. Why did I feel that my confidence had thrown confusion in her mind?
I would have done better to keep quiet,
I thought.

“I... I’ll have to go,” she said with an uncertainty that was so not like her. “See you tomorrow.”

She didn’t give me the time to answer as she had already fled. I looked away until she disappeared in the opposite corner. There was no doubt that I said something wrong. But what about my confidences had disturbed her? I promised myself to investigate it the next day.

***

Unfortunately, there was no tomorrow. I waited for their car, like every morning, but it didn’t come. I arrived late to school and there I saw with a strange displeasure that their seats were unoccupied. They didn’t come to class for the day and I wondered all along why. But that wasn’t the end of the world if they weren’t there one day. They would come back sooner or later.

It was what I thought at that time...

But they didn’t reappear the next day. Or any other day that week. On the eighth day of their desertion, I asked around if anyone had seen them or their uncle or aunt in town. Upon learning that nobody had, I finally dared to ring their bell. Nobody answered. And there was no car in front of the house, no light or sound from inside. It was as if Leighton, Garreth and Travis, along with their family, had been brutally eradicated from the face of the Earth and all trace of their leaving was taken with them.

They were gone. They wouldn’t return. Ever.

6

The Black Dog and the Crow

I slowly woke up at the stroke of eleven. I should have woken up earlier to prepare for my math test, which was scheduled for next week, but I wasn't inclined to ruin a wonderful morning. I hadn’t had a nightmare. In fact, I hadn’t had one for thirteen days. Needless to say, I felt like I was in heaven. I got out of bed, pulled on a sweater over my pajama top and went down to the sitting room. I turned on the TV to serve as background noise, before going into the kitchen. It felt good to have the house to myself. Usually, Anna was always there to encroach on my living space and annoy me, but recently she had started dating someone. I didn’t know who it was but I already blessed the man who practically monopolized all of my sister’s free time. The more she was with him, the less she was near me.

With my toast in hand, I went to sit on the couch. I literally slumped in it while eating my breakfast in peace. It was the first time in a long time. I looked at the screen where images of animals that had absolutely nothing to do with Alaska paraded. The commentator spoke of anomalous phenomena, maybe a consequence of global warming that was altering the behavior and habits of wildlife.

I changed the channel, wanting something lighter than news speaking of humanity leading the Earth to its destruction. Unfortunately, I quickly gave up finding something of interest. Bored, I decided to get some fresh air. I got up, picked a nice warm blanket, went on the porch and placed it down on the old wooden bench that was there. As I sat on the ancient seat, I realized how much this place harbored memories of a life that seemed trivial at the time but so nice and peaceful when I thought of it now. Back at that time, there was no secret, no problem, no suffering in my existence.

The memories began to flood me. I saw this familiar scene of my childhood, as if it took place at this very moment. Tess, sitting on the bench, a cookbook in hand, with her face marked by wrinkles, proof that she had smiled repeatedly during her existence. Her old glasses with brown chipped frames falling on her nose. Her white hair perpetually escaping from her bun. She was watching us from her seat while I played outside with Hayden and Jeremiah, a childhood friend who had now moved away. Then, when we were tired of our games, she took us to the kitchen to feed us cookies and hot chocolate.

It seemed light years ago now. It looked like another life, one that had nothing to do with the person I had become. I forced myself to relegate the ghosts of the past to a corner of my mind, where they would be staying. Therefore, I tried to enjoy the good air to clear my head. The moment of respite didn’t last long because I saw a shape on the other side of the road, not far from the field opposite the house. The bark that followed assured me that the form was indeed a dog. A black dog. I stood up and walked over to the railing while watching the animal more closely. It looked like a pet and not a wild animal. However, it wasn’t like any dogs belonging to the people of Mensen.

Time passed. He remained motionless, as if waiting for me to come to him. Telling myself that maybe the animal acted like this because it was hurt, I descended the four steps of the porch and walked slowly toward it, cautious not to frighten it. As I approached, I felt an uncontrollable urge to move forward.

Back away! Right now! Back home!
I blinked and stopped. I had the strange feeling that my body had escaped my control, for a few moments. This voice that resonated in my mind was that of Tess! I tried to get over the shock. It was totally incomprehensible. The dog growled fiercely on the other side of the road when it realized that I no longer moved. I returned gradually to reality, leaving my kind of trance and watched the beast, stunned. How could I want to get close to this animal? Rage emanated from its attitude. And suddenly, a crow landed on its back. The two animals looked at me. I felt goosebumps settle down my arms. All this was not normal. Never before in my life have I seen a dog that does not run after a bird when it had one near. Let alone one that let a crow land on it without flinching.

Here we go again...The bizarre events were back...
A wave of adrenaline surged through me and I stepped back, without taking my eyes from them even for a second. A concert of cawing and barking accompanied my flight. Suddenly, the crow flew away and began to circle around the dog while it moved slowly towards me, head down and fangs exposed. Panic overwhelmed me. I turned and ran at full speed toward the house. The intensity of the barking augmented while the crow chirped even more. I redoubled my efforts and sprinted to the entrance. I went in and closed the door before locking myself away. Outside, the barking and cawing continued.