Page 25 of When Darkness Calls

“Don’t say that, man. We have done so much good for this town.”

“Have we though? Honestly? It’s just getting worse. And we’re no closer to figuring out where it’s fucking coming from,” he shouts, arm sweeping across the desk. Dozens of papers fly across the room, fluttering gently to the ground, some landing in the blood on the floor, painting grim images of the true reality that is East End and Shadow Grove.

“We’re closer than we were a year ago, Cay. Something will come up soon.”

He nods, but it’s not genuine. I can see he’s not as strong as he is fronting. The weight of all of this is riding on him hard.

“What about this guy that showed up tonight? A little coincidental don’t you think?” I rub the back of my neck. “I mean, not even a hundred yards from where we’re doing a shake down, some dude in a ski mask tries to hurt your sister?”

Cade raises his head slowly. The crease between his brows furrows again. “I—You’re not exactly wrong, but we knew there would be some sketchy people there tonight. It could be completely separate incidents.”

I just shrug. “Maybe. It shouldn’t matter though. We got who Jerry was meeting. We will hopefully know who he has been in contact with for his trades. That’s not a dead end. But…” I trail off clasping my hands behind my head, “What about the attacker? We can’t just let it go, Cay. I have a bad feeling about it.”

In the dim, grimy warehouse, late in the night, in late August, I remind my best friend why we do this. Why do we go out in the dark, find bad people, and try to get answers to a mystery that’s nearing six years old? I remind him of the promise he made to his mom. The promise we all made to each other and the innocent people of this town. East End is dying. No one seems to care but us.

“I-…I’m worried she might have been—I don’t know—like…marked or something? Like tagged? If that’s a thing? The way they were talking with each other…I don’t feel like this is over.”

“Grays,” Cade starts, taking a deep breath as he stands. “Keep an eye on Dani for a while. Until we can figure out what the hell that was, I want eyes on her at pretty much every opportunity, okay?”

“Okay.”

I’m glad he asked too. The next morning, we all got a text.

Cade

Two girls. One dead. Signs of rape. One missing. Witness reports ski masks.

Starting today, Grayson.

Dani won’t be leaving my sight. After all, it’s hard to hide from the shadows.

eight

Dani

Abreeze falls across the quiet stillness of campus. It’s seven-thirty in the morning, and frankly I’m surprised I’m even here at this time, but I couldn’t sleep. I haven’t been able to sleep at all since Saturday night. Each time I close my eyes I can feel that man’s hands on me. And then I can feel more hands. And more. The nightmares have combined two of the worst nights of my life and multiplied them by a thousand. The smell of their breath, the disgusting feeling of knowing what they were about to do to me.

I couldn’t sleep, so instead of getting here at a reasonable time for my ten o’clock seminar, I got out of bed at five, got ready, and had Cade drop me off at school on his way to the gym. Yet I have done nothing for the past hour but stare blankly across the plaza.

There’s a tree on the far side of the open area, near the science hall that has begun changing color. The deep green it was at the beginning of last week has brightened into a sickly green as the yellow begins to show through. Pretty soon it will be a vibrant orange, a rusty red, and brown, if the leaves can last that long on the branches. They usually die too soon. But isn’t that just the shit of it all?

Everything dies too fucking soon. A girl was found murdered this weekend. Just a few blocks from the Founder’s Fest. I remember her. She was a year or two behind me in high school. We were all in the film club; me, Liz, Issac, and this girl. This poor girl didn’t make it to her eighteenth birthday. Or my mom, who didn’t make it to mine.

It’s just not fair how things work out in the end.

My headphones are on, music playing softly in my ears, when there’s a tap on my shoulder. I’m not going to sit here and act like I was some badass and that it completely unfazed me, because honestly, I almost shit myself.

A startled scream rips from my throat as I rip off my headphones and whip around with my textbook in hand ready to beat the shit out of whoever touched me, when I see who it is. I don’t drop the textbook, though my fear is replaced with annoyance.

“Seriously, Issac?” I turn back to my homework, grabbing my headphones that are now on the ground. Irritation creeps up my spine, and funnily enough, so does that icy cold chill. My hackles raise. Peering over my shoulder I look around, but I don’t see anyone.

“Shit sorry, Dee. I didn’t mean to scare you. What’re you doing here? I thought your first class was at ten?” Issac says flopping down at the table across from me, unwrapping the breakfast burrito in his hand and taking a comically large bite.

“Oh, uh…guess I just figured I could get some more work done here than sitting around waiting to leave later, ya know?”

His head bobs absently, mumbling between bites, the food slurring the words. “Makesh shenshe.”

We sit in a somewhat comfortable silence as he eats, and I pretend to do homework. The words of the article I was assigned blurring together as the cold phantom hands begin to grip me tighter.