Shadow's Dangers (17 page)

It was some time before I finally found something and it was only after I typed the name “Leighton Wates.”

“A highway accident killed three people,”
I read aloud.

This was the title of the article’s link I just had clicked on. There was a picture representing the Wates’ parents, smiling and happy, illustrating the article. The image’s caption read:
“The Wates’ couple leaves three children behind: Garreth, Travis, and Leighton Wates.”
Luckily, where the name of Garreth had yielded no result, that of Leighton did since her first name was directly attached to her last name in the sentence accompanying the picture. I began reading the article. It described the circumstances of the road accident in which the driver of a truck--the third victim--and the Wates’ parents found death.

“According to the initial findings of the police, the cause of this tragedy is the advanced state of fatigue of the car’s driver who had taken the wrong way before hitting the truck...This unfortunate and terrible tragedy leaves two families destroyed, including the three young children of John and Melissa Wates...”

I stopped abruptly and went back to a certain part of the sentence I was reading. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

“John and Melissa Wates...” I repeated, plagued by confusion. “They said their father was named Charles.”

Determined to unravel the true from the false, I looked further. After all, it could be a mistake of the journalist. Or maybe Charles was the middle name of their father and he preferred to be called that. There could be many reasons for the inconsistency.

In just a few clicks, everything I thought I knew about the Wates family was wiped out. If you had asked me then who the Wates were, I wouldn’t have known what to say. I slowly realized that these people I had gone around with for months were actually complete strangers. And for good reason, because another article--an obituary--indicated that “Marshall” was John’s middle name and he and his wife hadn't any siblings so the Wates couldn't have an uncle or aunt. In addition to what I read, Travis and Leighton were twins yes, but Garreth should be three years older than them, not just one year as he had indicated, so it was impossible for him to be in high school and in the same class as his brother and sister. Finally, I had found a photo of the three children, illustrating one of the many articles about the death of their parents. Unless the three Wates dyed their blonde hair, it was not them. I suddenly remembered that Garreth had told me his parents were murdered, which wasn’t the case here because it was an accident, caused unintentionally by John Wates. And if the Wate had wanted to start fresh after the tragedy, why would they have waited over eight years to do so? It made no sense. Nothing made sense, anymore.

It was all lies. Their name, age, things Garreth and Leighton had confided in me, everything was lies. Who were these people, really? Why did they come to this godforsaken place in Alaska? Why did they steal the identities of other people? I was afraid to know the answers to these questions because surely, they couldn’t be good.

Tired and disgusted by the pretense I had discovered, I turned off the computer and went to my bed. Anyway, I couldn’t find out more. In my heart, I really didn’t want to. Yet, tomorrow, I’d have to see them and I already feared my reaction when I would face them.

***

“Tell us the story, Dad!” the voice of a little girl cried.

“Again?” a man asked, apparently amused.

“Yes!” two children shouted in unison.

Their voices seemed to echo in the distance. I heard them, but I couldn’t see them in the dark. All I could manage to distinguish were the silhouettes of trees encircling me. What was I doing in this place, especially in the middle of the night and wearing only a light white robe? And this man, what was he doing here too? With children?

An animal howl tore the silence that had fallen since the voices fell silent. I threw glances around me, the adrenaline flowing in my veins. My heart began to pound. Other screams followed, all different from each other. I turned on myself, watching the arrival of one or more of these beasts.

Suddenly, I heard a crack. I had the reflex of looking back to see where it came from, despite the obscurity that prevented to see a meter ahead. In vain, of course, because I could see nothing.

“Tell us! Please, tell us the story!”

Again the youngest sounding of the three voices, the one I heard first.

“Look at the sky, sweethearts,” the male voice pronounced from nowhere.

Although this sentence wasn’t addressed to me, I did as he told the girls. My eyes widened, noticing that the black sky filled with bright stars was suddenly colored by polar lights.

“There is a place very, very far from here, where thousands of colors constantly dance in the sky, as if the Northern Lights lit it up. Trees, land and houses seem made of ice. Everything is magic there and everyone lives peacefully and happily ever after.”

“Can we go, Daddy? Say yes! Please, say yes!”

“Oh yes, say yes! Please, please, please!”

In the distance, the two voices mingled, the girls obviously excited to discover this place straight out of a fairy tale. In my memory, something seemed to wake up, as if this story, or rather this place was not unknown to me.

“Unfortunately, we can’t go there,” said the man in an almost melancholy tone. “This is not a place for humans. Only Eni--”

I jumped when a bestial cry sounded, preventing me to hear the rest of his sentence. I looked around, searching for the origin of the noise that was too close for my liking.

“Wow...” I whispered in awe.

It was a surprise to see something else than what I was looking for. Suddenly, the forest and the ground were covered with a thick layer of smooth ice. The various colors illuminating the sky reflected on the land and trees, giving a magical appearance to the landscape. But even if such a place couldn’t exist in reality, all this felt real for me. Familiar even.

“Daddy!”

Yelling, this time from a human, resonated in the frozen forest. The sound of animal howls followed, before huge black beasts and crows similar in all aspects to those who haunted my nights passed in a bang next to me, barreling toward something in the distance.

Oh God...The father and his daughters!
I knew it was all in my head, but driven by an insane need to help them, I began to run in the same direction as the animals. I didn’t know why I was suddenly desperate to help these people, even though I didn’t have a clue as to who they were. Unfortunately, I couldn’t reach them and I never knew what happened to them because someone caught me by the arm to stop my race. I turned around and found myself in front of Garreth. My eyes widened. What was he doing there?

“Trust me, Lila.”

His words were a mere whisper full of despair. I didn’t understand why he said this to me, why he was asking me to trust him. Then I realized suddenly.
Lila?
Since when did he call me Lila? Nobody had ever called me that. However, all the information that I had learned on his account and that of his family came to mind suddenly. Resentment rose in me.

“How could I trust a liar? Because that’s what you are, a liar, isn’t it, Garreth? And don’t call me Lila. You have no right to call me that.”

Someone laughed behind me. I spun around. Travis was there and it was he who was laughing, haughty and sarcastic as ever. With a time delay, I noticed we were back in the forest, except that it was no longer dark night, but the clear of day. All this made no sense. Even less when taking into account the presence of the Grumpy in my dream.

“Trust me, Deliah,” Garreth almost begged me, forcing me to look at him again. “You have to. Trust me, I beg you.”

He seemed so sincere I had a hard time not believing that indeed, I could have faith in him.
When he told you about the death of his parents, too, he seemed to speak the truth. And in the end, it was all a lie,
I reminded myself bitterly.

“Deliah...” Garreth called me in a silky voice.

Except he couldn’t have said it since he was still facing me and his mouth hadn’t uttered a word.

Slowly, my heart pounding in my chest, I turned.

Garreth was there as well. My eyes went back and forth between the two Garreths while confusion settled in me. They were exactly the same, apart from the fact that one seemed anxious, when the other looked mocking, with something unsettling in his eyes.

“Trust me, Deliah,” the worried Garreth repeated, his voice like a whisper carried by the wind.

As if by magic, the one who just spoke disappeared. Only the distressful Garreth remained. I had forgotten how Garreth could be scary when he wanted to be.

“Trust me, Deliah,” that Garreth said, looking scornful, a wicked smile playing on his lips.

Without warning, he rushed at me, his hands closing around my neck like handcuffs. He began to tighten his grip and soon, oxygen was gone. I struggled like mad, punching him in the face and scratching him, but nothing made him let go. Black spots danced before my eyes. If I couldn’t escape him soon, I would fall unconscious. Or worse, I would die.

As a last resort, I threw the most powerful knee shot possible at him, just between his legs. Hurt, he let me go and I fell hard to the ground.

Shocked and short of breath, I began to gulp in the air. It took me a moment to realize that I was back in my room, the horrible nightmare finally over.

“Deliah, you okay?” a voice full of anguish inquired as I became aware of the hand on my shoulder, so close--too close!--to my neck.

I jumped up and quickly walked away from him, leaving the covers of my bed in haste to find myself standing on the other side of it, the latter being a barrier between us. The adrenaline swept through my veins, saturating my mind and I could hardly think straight. I was scared as I never had been before.

“What...what did you do to me?” I cried, halfway between incomprehension and horror.

Was I dreaming? Or did Garreth actually tried to strangle me? I had no answer to these questions and it only increased the feelings that were already jostling around in me.

“I don’t know what you think happened, but it was only a dream. A nightmare.”

“Maybe...” I admitted with difficulty.

I stared at him, my hands pressed against my throat. I still felt his fingers tighten around my neck. It seemed so real. I tried to make out his expression in the darkness, to know whether it was just a figment of my imagination or if it really happened. But it was impossible to see because of the lack of light penetrating my room. Despite myself, I couldn’t help but feel even more afraid because I could see nothing of him and the darkness has always tended to make me fear what might be there.

“Oh my!” I exclaimed, my hand suddenly covering my mouth, terrified because of the realization I had just had.

By a simple reflex of self-preservation, I ran towards the door, trying to escape this place and the boy who perhaps tried to kill me in my sleep. In a flash, Garreth was beside me, pinning me against the door panel, one hand held gently, but firmly over my mouth to shut me up as I tried in vain to shout for Annabelle.

“I know you might have a thousand questions about my presence here but I beg you, you must stay quiet. Your sister could wake up and it would be extremely difficult to explain the situation if she were here. Especially because I doubt she’d give me time to explain myself before she insisted I leave or calls the police.”

Gradually, I stopped trying to remove myself from his grip when I finally saw his face. His frightened eyes, not at the thought of my sister’s arrival, but at the thought I might fear him. I finally calmed down for good. He wouldn’t cause me any harm--or not again--frankly, I wasn't decided on the matter yet. I wanted to hear what he had to say. I wanted to know what really happened. But above all, I wanted him to explain his presence here, unbeknownst to me, in the middle of the night.

“You’re not going cry out? And you’re not going to run away, either?”

I shook my head negatively. Letting out an overwhelmed sigh, he released me and put some distance between us. I saw him pass a hand nervously through his hair.

“Why are you here?” I whispered, my mind a complete mess of rambling thoughts.

He sighed again and tried to get close to me. The memory and the feel of his hands strangling me returned and in spite of myself, I stepped back until my back touched the door again. He stopped moving instantly, his fists clenched. He looked frustrated as possible by my reaction. So, emerald dove in the heart of the storm. I was totally turned upside down. His eyes were leaking so many feelings, so many things he never said out loud to me. I meant something to him. That was a certainty now. In other circumstances, I would probably be overjoyed. Not there. Not now. Not after everything that had happened, after all the things I had recently discovered about his family, I had no trust. Or at least, I was plagued by doubt. I wanted to trust him, I wanted it more than anything, but I was unable to at that moment.

“I’m here to protect you,” he said finally as I strained my eyes in surprise and bewilderment. “I know it’s hard to believe, but I swear it’s the truth.”

I wanted to cling to the sincerity reflecting in his pupils. The concern was the memory of the grip of his hands trying to choke me. It was still too fresh in my mind for me to believe him that easily.

“You tried to strangle me,” I blurted in a low voice, without realizing it.

It was his turn to look at me with bulging eyes and to retreat.

“What?”

“You...you’re here in my room for I don’t know how long and you weren’t invited in. When I opened my eyes, my breath raging, you were above me, your hands just a few inches from my neck...”

My speech was confused and even if I had felt fingers around my throat, I had to admit that a large part of me couldn’t believe what I was saying. He couldn’t have done that. Not him.

“It was a nightmare, Deliah,” he said gently. “I did nothing to you. I will never do anything to you.”