Hunted by Darkness

Into the Dark

Sarah

It was dark and cool in the room but pleasant, not the freezing sensation biting her flesh the previous day. It was the first thing to come into her mind when she opened her eyes. She hadn’t seen her mother all day after they had come home. Her tea had been ready when she went into the kitchen, and her father sported a welcoming smile. They spoke about the session, and she found it easier to talk to him than to talk to her mother. His expectations seemed to be lower. Or maybe he didn’t wear them on his sleeve.

As soon as she heard the car, she had gone back to her room, though. Her father had brought her a sandwich when she didn’t come down for dinner but didn’t ask any questions. She had expected him to say something about her mother or family, but he didn’t, he just handed her a plate and a glass of water and smiled.

But that was yesterday. Today was a whole different day.

The very second thing that popped into her head was that she was going shopping with her ‘friends’. It was going to be a whole event. They were coming to pick her up early and then go out for lunch, followed by buying a phone and clothes. Her father had even given her his credit card.

She had to admit clothes would be welcome. She had the clothes her mother had brought her when she was in the hospital but nothing else. Well, that wasn’t true. Old Sarah’s wardrobe was full of clothes; it just felt wrong to use them. In some part of her brain, she knew that the clothes she was currently wearing came from the same place, but it was easier to ignore that fact since somebody else took them out of the other room. Like everything else, she felt it belonged to somebody she didn’t know.

Standing in Old Sarah’s bedroom gave her chills. There was nothing in there for her. Not clothes, not books, now even the laptop. Even the space itself.

Those thoughts kept running wild in her mind as she stared at the ceiling. Getting out of bed was proving difficult. What was there to get up for, anyway? A trip to the shopping mall? She didn’t even want to go. A book? TV?

Silent breakfast at the family table didn’t appeal to her either. Sarah didn’t know what she liked to do, what she wanted to be when she grew up. Except that she had grown up already. She was a child in an adult body, not knowing anything about the past and not knowing what to expect from the future, except she was too old to sit and play.

Her stomach growled in protest. Maybe eating was worth getting out of bed for after all, certainly better than indulging in too much introspection.

There was nobody in the kitchen. Sarah called out in the hall, but nobody answered. The house was empty. She wasn’t sure what to do for a second, standing still in the hall, but the feeling passed. Her spirit felt lifted; tension dropped from her shoulders like a heavy coat. She made herself tea and toast. Finding the pan, she decided to cook breakfast. This is what she wanted right now. No matter what Old Sarah had wanted, going to college, maybe be a doctor or a painter, none of that was relevant to her. Right now, all she, New Sarah, wanted was to be alone, to be free. She wanted her own place, even if it was a shoebox, where she could discover what she liked and didn’t like without the expectations of others weighing on her every decision.

She sat at the table imagining she had a job to go to and friends she had made there, people who knew her now and anecdotes she remembered. They would go on break together and laugh at stuff over a cup of coffee and a chocolate bar, and go back to work so they could complain about their boss on their way home. She didn’t even care what kind of job it was.

The key turning in the door broke the spell. Sarah poked her head out and saw her mother walk in, the car parked outside.

‘Good morning, Sarah,’ she said in a chirpy tone.

‘Good morning,’ she looked down at her mug.

‘Are you excited about shopping?’

‘Where is dad?’ she ignored the question.

‘At work, sweetheart.’

‘Without the car?’

It happened again. The world froze, and her mother’s face went blank, her eyes empty, her body slack. This time she even felt a chill run through her body, a painful flashback to what happened in the car. And then it all passed. It went as fast as it had come, so much so that Sarah would have doubted having seen anything if it wasn’t because it wasn’t the first time. Still, the cold didn’t persist.

‘He gets a lift to work from a colleague.’

Sarah froze, then shrugged. It didn’t matter that much after all. It made sense, now they were both in the house all day, if he left the car for them.

‘I’m sure you’re looking forward to your shopping trip,’ she tried again.

‘I guess.’

She wasn’t, not at all, but she still was afraid to disappoint her mother. Even though she didn’t remember this woman as her mother. This woman that had come to the hospital to pick her up and had seemed somebody else, very much like the first day she saw her after she woke up. This woman who insisted with her questions, and only received vague answers and didn’t react with anger or frustration.

She sighed. No, she wasn’t looking forward to today, but going out must be better than pondering at things she didn’t know how to answer.

Even with the limited wardrobe available to her, or that she accepted as hers, she still struggled to decide what to wear. It was ridiculous; it didn’t matter. Nobody cared what she was wearing; she tried to tell herself, except that the image of Alex came uninvited into her head. She could almost feel his lips touching hers, and a frisson ran up her body. She was not so naive as to think she had actual feelings for him even though he was good looking, but, for her, it had been her first kiss. He might have hinted at a prior relationship, and it seemed reasonable to think they would have kissed before and maybe more. It was hard to know what Old Sarah would have done or not done. She had wondered about that in hospital and decided it was better to start from scratch, with no assumptions or fears. Well, at least with no assumptions.

The doorbell rang at exactly eleven-thirty, making her jump. She recognised Mary’s voice, her continuous chatter echoing in the high ceiling above the stairs. She looked around as if to grab something and realised she had nothing to carry, no wallet, no handbag. Her father’s credit card was on the bedside table. She stuffed it quickly into her jeans’ pocket before leaving the room. She ignored the feeling of nakedness she had when she walked down the stairs, away from the safety of her room, and met Mary at the door. A smile ear to ear, she greeted her with a hug, but at least it was quick.

‘Right, be careful. Mary, you have my number if anything happens. Otherwise, have fun!’

Her mother waved them out of the door and watched how Sarah stepped into Alex’s VW. Mary sat at the back, and she had the honour of riding at the front. That smile either ran in the family, or they were trying their hardest to make her feel welcome.

‘Is Lucy meeting us there?’

‘No, she couldn’t come. She had work or something,’ Mary said with an overly sad tone. ‘I told her this was important, but that girl has her priorities.’

‘Right.’

Sarah’s stomach knotted in disappointment. She had hoped Lucy would be there; it had been part of the reason why she agreed to do this. There was nothing she could do about it, though. Trying to relax, she sat looking out of the window, biting down the regret and trying to listen to the detailed plan Mary had concocted for the afternoon.

The shopping centre was impressive. It had a lot of the high street shops, but many designer brands too, spread across four floors. The ceiling was a giant glass dome, surrounding the restaurants on the top floor, which is where they went first. Mary and Alex didn’t take her to the first Subway they found but to a nice Italian restaurant which they swore used to be her favourite. They must have thought that would make her feel comfortable. Instead, it made her nervous when reading the menu, as if there was something she was meant to pick, a right answer she was supposed to give. She ended up picking pizza. It seemed to be the safest option.

Mary talked and talked, asking questions but never waiting for an answer. At least not a full one. Alex ignored her sister and ate his food between stares and glances.

‘So we’ll get you a phone once we’re finished with lunch and you can put our numbers on it, and then you can put your parents’ too,’ she rolled her eyes. ‘Then we’ll go for some old fashioned clothes shopping!’

‘Are you sure you don’t mind?’ Sarah asked, looking at Alex. Surely he had better things to do than accompany them from store to store.

‘Of course! I’ve never understood guys who don’t like going shopping with their girls. What’s so bad about seeing them  getting changed?’

Mary hit him in the head, and they both laughed. Even Sarah couldn’t help breaking a smile.

After lunch, they talked about mobile networks and finally picked the one that seemed to have the best coverage. Finding a store wasn’t difficult and picking a phone was even easier, since she didn’t have any expectations. Mary and Alex tried to convince her to get the latest technology, but she didn’t want to spend that much money, considering it wasn’t hers. They seemed a bit disappointed with her choice, but she found herself much happier than she had anticipated. It was a good feeling to have her own phone. She now had the ability to communicate with others privately. It was a small piece of freedom for her, the first step of her grand independence plan. With Internet access, she could look for a job too.

Alex and Mary both sent her text messages, and she saved their numbers almost because she had no choice.

‘Can you give me Lucy’s number?’

‘Sure… oh look, that dress is gorgeous! You would look great in it!’ She ran across to the other side, straight to a shop’s window were a mannequin displayed a flowery black dress. Alex shrugged as he followed her, so she had to do the same. Mary seemed so excited about the dress that Sarah had no other option but to try it on. It was hideous. She hadn’t liked it on the mannequin, and she didn’t like it on her either, but Mary seemed to think otherwise.

‘You should buy it!’ She said, eyes wide with expectation.

She considered it if only not to disappoint her. The idea of that smile vanishing from her face squeezed her chest to the point of being painful, a feeling she had become familiar with since she left the hospital. Her face was the very picture of anticipation, the same face she had seen a thousand times since her accident. A face full of hope that she couldn’t bear to disappoint. She turned towards the till where a young girl was enthralled with a strand of her own hair. She would buy this dress and never wear it, but she would save herself the sight of another face she had become accustomed to, the sad, empty one. She had done a lot to avoid seeing that face. It felt as if all she had done was trying to avoid disappointing people. That thought gave her pause, and she froze only a meter away from the counter.

Hadn’t it been the mirror where she had seen that face more often?

‘You know…’ she turned on her heels, ‘I don’t think I like it that much after all. I wouldn’t have anywhere to wear it.’

If Mary was disappointed, she didn’t show it or it didn’t last long. She just shrugged and pulled her to another rack of clothes to her left. Relieved, she put the dress back and this time concentrated on finding something she did like.

This she enjoyed. It wasn’t as bad as she had expected, once they focused on clothes, the experience became much more pleasant. The thought of this shopping trip had made her nervous but at no point had she expected she would like any of it. The afternoon flew by, and the sun started to disappear under the edge of the glass dome.

‘Mary!’ Somebody called as they were leaving.

They all turned. A boy their age was jogging towards them. Mary and Alex watched him blankly, as if they didn’t recognise him. By the time he joined the group, they were both smiling though. Sarah panicked for a second in case this was somebody who knew her and would expect her to know who he was, but he paid no attention to her.

‘Hi Matt,’ Mary greeted him.

Matt started asking Mary questions and telling her about his day and weekend.

‘I haven’t seen you in weeks!’ Matt said.

She sensed he might be interested in her friend and took a few steps back, turning her attention to the rest of the shops and the few people still roaming the darkening space. With only a handful of shoppers left, the building seemed empty and cold. The buzz of visitors was what gave life to the place, and now that it was gone there was a sense of barrenness that she couldn’t shake. A chill ran up her back, bringing bad memories. She rubbed her arms, trying to shake that feeling. It didn’t work. A shadow moved to her left; she only saw it out of the corner of her eye. When she faced it, it was only a darkening corner of the building. Another shadow grew to her right, again. She turned, light subsiding, darkness pressing down on her with the rage of a hurricane. Her breath was coming out in forced gasps, her heart beating like a drum, her throat closed tight. She couldn’t see anybody anymore, just the shadows, with hungry, putrid breaths burning her skin. Lost, she didn’t know where she was going, but she couldn’t run. She stumbled around in the dimness, its power drowning her. Her feet fought with each other, and her shoulder hit something hart, pain bursting. Her hand touched a wall. A hot wall. She leaned against it. A ray of sunshine, the last of the day, was magnified by the glass ceiling. She closed her eyes, letting its warmth penetrate her skin, her flesh and bones. Then she heard her name, and opened her eyes, afraid to find the shadows leaning over her, but it was just Alex.

‘Are you ok?’ he asked, his voice urgent.

‘Yes… sorry,’ she passed a shaking hand over her forehead, wiping drops of cold sweat.

‘You stumbled and… well, it was weird,’ Mary said.

‘I… I just became very dizzy,’ it was the only excuse that came to mind.

‘Right, come on, we’ll take you home.’

Sitting in the car was almost a relief. Mary chatted and chatted for a while, which made it unnecessary for Sarah to try to carry the conversation, she could do it on her own. As they drove, though, Mary became quieter and quieter, until she didn’t talk anymore.

‘She fell asleep,’ Alex smirked looking through the rear-view mirror.

‘I didn’t realise we had come so far,’ they had been driving for a good thirty minutes now. Nerves must have distracted her, earlier, and she hadn’t paid attention to where they were going, but there was Longbridge’s tower, to her right. There was something familiar at least.

‘Yeah. There is another shopping centre much closer to your house but Mary wanted to bring you to the “big” one,’ he then looked out the window. Lights were coming in from a fast-food restaurant. ‘Here, I’m starving. Do you mind if we stop here for a minute?’

Sarah nodded. After all the trouble they had gone through to take her out, she was not going to deprive him from food.

‘Do you want anything?’

‘No, I’m ok, thanks.’

Alex parked the car and ran into the restaurant. Mary, meanwhile, didn’t bat an eye and kept sleeping, her breathing soft and even. Sarah stepped out of the car and paced around for a minute, stretching her legs. She leaned against the passenger door and waited for him to come back. It was the first opportunity she had had to think back on what had happened in the shopping centre. But what had happened? It made her question her sanity. If she added that to what was happening at home, the strange feelings about her parents, the cold... She recognised the pressure around her chest. It was fear, and she had lived with it ever since she woke up. What she wasn’t sure is if she was afraid these things were real, or if she was terrified they weren’t, and she was simply going crazy.

A big, red motorbike growled past her and parked at the far corner, under the halo of a street lamp. The guy now dismounting the machine was huge, she thought.

‘That’s a nice bike,’ Alex said, reappearing at her side.

‘I suppose,’ she shrugged.

The man on the bike removed his helmet, revealing a mass of hair that gleamed red under the streetlight. He reminded her of that boy in the street, but he wasn’t that big, was he? Like him, this guy was too far to appreciate his features. He walked inside the restaurant, and Sarah returned her attention to her supposed friend.

Alex had pulled a burger out of the paper bag and proceeded to unwrap it. He talked as he ate; she wasn’t sure what about, but she nodded along, tired. Her bed was calling her. It was getting cold. She was distracted, but she didn’t know what with. Her mind was empty, she wasn’t thinking of anything in particular, yet she couldn’t seem to concentrate enough to even listen to what Alex was saying. His hands clapping caught her attention. He was shaking the crumbs off, and they fell on the floor like snow. One of his arms made a wide arch above their heads, and his left hand went to land on her left shoulder, his arm wrapping itself around her. A chill ran through her spine. His voice still droned on, a monotonous pile of nothingness. Her mind stayed with the feeling of his arm around her body. There was no warmth in that embrace, not even when he slowly turned her towards him and pulled her against his body. He smiled at her, and she could not take her eyes away from his gaze. The blue was lost. In the night, they were dark, obscured by the absence of anything to reflect. His mouth curved as it approached, grimaced almost, and his lips pressed against hers, cold and lifeless. Their touch lit a spark in her, but not of passion. Disgust woke her up as if she had been in a dream. She tried to shrug him off, but he persisted, his arms unyielding. His hold was so firm she could not even move her arms. He was too strong. There was no give, she was paralysed, as if tied up. His mouth remained against hers, immobile. She would have screamed when she saw his eyes were wide open, digging into her skull, but her mouth was sewn shut by the pressure of his. Surely he must be feeling the drumming of her heart. He might be confusing it with excitement, but it was panic, despair to run away from this, from his arms, from him. Her chest contracted, unable to breath, and tears fell from her eyes, rolling down to the ground.

A hard pull startled her, his arms ripped away from her, and she stumbled back a few steps. At first, it was only a large shadow, but it soon defined its edges. It was the large guy in bike leathers, standing like a wall between Alex and her. Alex looked tiny next to him, insignificant even. If the guys said anything, she didn’t hear it. A moment later, though, that tower of a man tumbled to the side, falling like a centenary tree, crashing on the ground and not standing up. Her eyes darted from the stranger to Alex, his face frozen in a wide-eyed grin.

And then even he fell to the ground, heavy like chainmail. All that was left was thick, crawling darkness. Cold stabbed her flesh a thousand times, pain paralysing her now. She bit down, unable to scream as the obscenity of shadows advanced in her direction, one heavy step after another. With empty slits for eyes, it lowered a large head to face her. Her heart began a countdown. She was going to die, and that certainty overwhelmed her.

The condensed nothingness touched her with a tongue of dirty smoke, burning her like ice, peeling the skin off her face. This must be what it felt like to be frozen. Every toe, every fingertip was dead. She could feel the cells in her legs going black and useless, blood in her veins turning brown and clotted. Soon the liquids of her body would leave her, rolling down her eyes like tears of rot, and she would be sure she was dead. She couldn’t even tremble. Still, her heart beat steady. Fast, but strong. As she concentrated on its reverberations, hectic music in her ears, she felt its warmth. She could see it, radiating, tendrils reaching out to adjacent organs. She imagined the tendrils of heat pushing forward, down her arms and legs.

As the last shred of light vanished, she willed her body back to life. When her hands started shaking, she knew she might have a chance. One step back, not even half an inch, but she did move. The frigid darkness pressed against her body, scolding her skin, adhering to it like leeches, but she took another step, a bit bigger. And a bigger one, and another. They came faster, longer. Then she could turn, and she could walk away. First, she walked. The more she walked, the warmer she felt, a fire burning away the ice in her flesh. Her steps became strides, and in strides she started running. She ran with no direction, darkness still attached to her, parasitic. She ran harder and faster, but it was still with her, still encroached into her body.

Was there anywhere she could run? She couldn’t see anything. She ran in a nightmare of nothingness. There was no sky, no ground. Everything felt solid, and not there at the same time. She was running in a bubble of hollow death, tears rolling down her cheeks.

Or was it a tunnel? Was that a light in front of her? She ran even faster, her hands reaching out to the promising star.

It wasn’t a nightmare. As she ran, the light came closer, brighter, blinding and white and hot. A gnarled human hand reached out for her and pulled her around, and its warmth reassured her. It was a small, slumped figure that was between her and the mass. The terrifying void that she had been in looked like a mass of black, thick smoke now. The closer it came, the brighter the light became, its rays piercing the creature’s body like swords. It bled, black sludge dripping to the floor, rotting away and disappearing into the ground with a silent shriek that made ripples in the air and her insides scream.

All signs of the thing were gone now. The world was back. The streetlights shone orange next to her, a tongue of greenery to her left. Her knees gave in, relieved to find solid ground under them. The same knotted hand closed around her shoulder in a firm but caring gesture.

‘Are you ok, pet?’ asked the old woman.

Gabriel

He opened his eyes. The sky swirled, stars unable to keep still, and warm pain throbbing at the back of his head. His fingers came back stained with blood. It was surprisingly hard to sit up, too, but he managed, careful not to go too fast, his head still uneasy.

The parking was quiet, nothing moved, not even that guy he had pulled away from Sarah. He was pasty white, his eyes staring at the sky, blank. He barely recognised him at first. But after a few seconds, he found himself staring at his highschool best friend. It was shock that distracted him; otherwise, there was no chance Alex would have connected a punch to his face like that.

But now, the body of his old friend lied on the floor, and seemed dead. Or was he ill?

Questions stumbled into his mind. What had happened? He looked inside the car, a girl slept in there or at least looked like she was sleeping. He couldn’t see her face. Should he wake her up? Where was Sarah?

Gabriel called out her name but got nothing in return except for two guys popping out of the restaurant to check who was screaming. Staying around suddenly seemed like a bad idea. He ran back to his bike and put his helmet on, biting down the pain. The machine roared under his body, speeding out of the parking and onto the road.

As his head cleared, the severity of the situation increased his level of panic. He didn’t remember having even the chance to throw a punch. If Alex was dead, it hadn’t been him who killed him. But who did? And more importantly, had this person hurt Sarah?

Finding her became the voice of his heart drumming in his chest. He drove around, unsure of where he was going, looking out for her small figure, the mane of black hair, the crystal blue eyes. But he drove and drove for hours, farther and farther, and couldn’t find her. She was nowhere to be seen. If she was hurt… yet another time he hadn’t been able to save her.

He’ll have to check the hospitals. Again.

Nothing there either. He visited all the hospitals with A&Es in Longbridge, and there was no sign of her. That could be both a good sign and a bad sign. On the one hand, it meant she wasn’t severely hurt. On the other, it might mean she was dead somewhere nobody could find her yet. There was no way to know. All he could do was drive around.

It was dawn; he was tired. Exhausted, actually. And dizzy. The sun warmed him up as he drove his bike down the ramp of his building’s underground parking.

            He didn’t dial the number until he was inside his flat. The tone changed on the other end of the line, as he threw his helmet on the sofa.

            ‘Good Morning, Vogel Enterprises.’

            ‘Elsebeth Vogel, please,’ he said, almost in a grunt, his fingers pinching the bridge of his nose.

            ‘One moment.’

            How can anybody be that chirpy so early in the morning?

            ‘Elsebeth Vogel’s office,’ another equally joyful voice, male, this time, came through.

            ‘John, put me through.’

            He could hear his scoff from his flat.

            ‘Good morning, Gabriel. Hold the line; I’ll see if she wants you.’

            ‘Asshat,’ he thought to himself.

            The hold music was something classical he had heard a million times but couldn’t name.

            At last, somebody picked up in the other end, and he cringed when he heard the voice.

            ‘Hello, darling,’ she sounded like honey dripping down his fingers.