The Gathering Darkness (4 page)

He nodded, still smiling.

“How do you like Deadwich?” he asked.

“Deadwich’s alright. I’ve been coming here since I was little. School’s better than I thought it would be.”

A moment of awkward silence passed.

“Well, I’d better get this stuff put away.” By now he had relieved one hand of the paint cans he’d been carrying, setting them on the hallway floor.

He opened a door beside the linen closet, which I hadn’t noticed before. A gust of cold, musty air rushed out, taking my breath away. I peeked in. It was dark. Marcus reached in past my shoulder and flicked on a light. Inside the door I saw a narrow staircase, twisting upward.

An icy pulse of pain shot through my arm, making me grimace.

“Where does that go?” I stared, wide-eyed into the stairwell.

“It goes to the attic. We store our stuff up there.” He bent to one side and began to pick the stuff back up he’d been carrying.

Without thinking I asked, “Do you need any help?”

“Sure, if you want.”

I picked up the two remaining paint cans and followed Marcus into the stairwell that led to the attic of the Ravenwyck. I had a feeling I wasn’t going to like it there.

The stairs creaked loudly under our weight. I cringed at the sound and stayed close behind Marcus. How totally absurd this was—especially after my recent ordeal with Maggie. If Sammy had asked me to follow her up here, I would have told her she was crazy. But as if I couldn’t help myself, here I was, following this enchanting stranger into the attic of my nightmares.

Paint cans scraped against the narrow passage walls, knocking loose paint chips onto the stairs. I gritted my teeth together. I didn’t want to get caught exploring, especially since I was supposed to be working.

The stairwell turned a corner halfway up, leaving the light behind. Our shadows grew long on the wall, taking menacing shapes—a product of my overactive imagination. I wanted to turn back, but something in the back of my mind pushed me forward. I looked away from the shadows and focused on the back of Marcus’ hair, which was half tucked inside his collar.

A moment later, he came to an abrupt stop and opened a narrow door. It opened with a groan, letting another gust of dank air escape—this time colder. He flipped on a switch, which shone much welcome light down the top section of stairs.

“Couldn’t you just leave this stuff in an empty room downstairs?” I was even more nervous now, as I looked into the attic.

“Maggie wants us to keep it up here out of the way.”

At the mere mention of her name, another pulse of pain shot through my arm.

Marcus stood inside the attic looking back at me. I forced my feet to move and joined him under the dangling light bulb.

I sat my paint cans down beside some others and turned to leave, but waited on the top step while Marcus organized some stuff—no way was I going back down there alone. I folded my arms across my stomach to try to keep warm.

Behind Marcus, gloomy daylight filtered through endless grime-coated dormer windows. No light reached the middle of the vast attic. In fact, the space was so expansive I couldn’t see either end.

“Doesn’t it bother you to come up here by yourself?”

“Should it?” His eyes, as always, were serious, but a slight grin adorned his face.

With my bravest look, I said, “Um, I guess not.”

“Do you want to look around?” Out of character, an eyebrow rose in anticipation of my reply.

“No.”

His grin expanded and his eyes softened. “Come on. I’m here.”

How gallant of him. Clearly, there was a hidden meaning in those last two words, even if he hadn’t realized it. I felt protected and compelled to follow him. For the first time he seemed almost normal, in a quiet sort of way. He also smiled a lot more than Sammy had given him credit for. I couldn’t resist his charm. Had he lured me up here? Or had I come of my own free will? I had no idea. Except now, the attic didn’t seem as threatening anymore.

“Alright, if you can find a light switch over there.” I pointed into the darkness.

With a half-grin, he pulled a flashlight out of his back pocket.

We walked out of the circle of light and into the dim, natural light filtering through the dirty windows. In front of us, layers of dust blanketed everything, turning the attic into a landscape of muted gray. At first we walked in silence, side-by-side. The only sounds came from the creaky floorboards and my accelerated heartbeat.

It was difficult to stay in the natural lighting of the dormer windows at times; there was so much junk piled in places.

“Have you been over here before?”

Marcus shook his head. “No, but I’ve always wanted to check it out.”

Funny, he didn’t seem like the check-it-out type, as most boys did. And why hadn’t he and Evan ever checked it out together?

As we walked, we started talking about school and before I’d realized it, we were in the middle—where no light reached, except for the small glow from the flashlight Marcus held.

It was in this shadowy section in the middle of the attic, that I came upon an old trunk. It wasn’t the first one we’d passed, but this one looked different. As the beam from the flashlight passed over it, I saw there was no dust on it.

“Hey, have a look at this,” I said.

Marcus turned and came back to where I had so bravely stopped.

“Look.” I touched the trunk with my fingertips and rubbed them together to see if my eyes were playing tricks on me, but my fingers were dust free.

“Strange,” Marcus said.

“Yeah.”

Feelings of familiarity picked away at my brain. I began to think that we hadn’t ended up in this spot by chance. No, it was a more complex path that led us to this particular chest. Again, Maggie popped into my head, sending a chill under the surface of my skin. I reached over and rubbed my aching arm.

“Why do you think it doesn’t have any dust on it?” I asked as if he would know.

“Maybe it was brought up here recently.”

“Maybe.” I wasn’t completely convinced.

Marcus shone the flashlight on the floor around us. “Weird, though. There aren’t any footprints in the dust except ours.”

My bad feeling was justified.

He shone the light over the trunk. Two wide leather straps, fastened by an old padlock, held it shut. My fingers traced over a spiral pattern carved into the wood. Marcus reached for the lock and pulled on it.

The instant Marcus’ hand grazed the wood, whisper soft tingles touched the tips of my fingers. I pulled my hand away. Marcus let go of the lock at the same time. The tingles diminished. Maybe they’d never been there. I tried reading the expression on Marcus’ face, but it was impassive.

“Let’s get out of here,” I said with a sense of urgency. I’d had enough weirdness for one day.

“Yeah. Evan will be wondering where I am by now, anyway.”

It didn’t take us as long to get back to the dangling light. I put myself in front this time. I was terrified of leaving a dark room, and there was something comforting about Marcus being between me and the darkness. I was halfway down the steps when I heard him close the attic door.

“Well that was interesting,” I said once back in the hallway.

“You seemed spooked. I shouldn’t have taken you up there.”

“No, I’m glad I went.” I tried to mask the lie with a smile.

“There you are!” Sammy stood in a doorway up the hall with her hands on her hips. “Where were you?” Her eyes drifted suspiciously from me to Marcus.

“Ah, I was just checking out the attic with Marcus,” I said sheepishly, feeling as if I had just gotten caught doing something naughty.

She took a step closer to us. “After what had happened earlier, I was worried. I thought you might have skipped work and gone home.”

I glared at Sammy and then laughed to cover up my embarrassment, but thankfully Marcus didn’t ask any questions. A few minutes later, Evan found the three of us standing in the hallway. Marcus didn’t offer him an explanation for his disappearance, and Evan didn’t ask for one.

“Well, I made up the last room, so we can take off now,” Sammy said, still eyeing me suspiciously.

“We’ll walk out with you,” Evan offered.

M
aggie was nowhere in sight as we headed down the grand staircase, across the foyer, and out the front door. But her presence lingered everywhere.

The sky had darkened, and I was grateful for the company. As usual, Evan talked incessantly. He was in the middle of an animated description of the last party they’d all been to, when my cell phone rang. I got a small thrill when I saw Luke’s name in the display window. I lingered back so the others wouldn’t hear my conversation.

“Hi, Luke.”

“Hey. How was school? Any dead witches?”

It was a joke that my friends in Boston would tease me about whenever I’d visited Deadwich in the past. They never realized how literally I took it.

I laughed grimly. “It was okay. How did it go there?”

“Your name was on the list for Mr. Moore’s class. That’s who me and Courtney got.”

A puddle formed on the edge of my eyelids. It would have been the first year Luke and I would have been in the same class. I longed to be in that class with him and Courtney.

“Brooke? Say something.”

“That would have been cool.” I wiped away the tear that fell down my cheek.

“I’m sorry about the other night. If I hadn’t taken that beer outside—”

“No, it’s not your fault. My parents had it planned all summer.”

“You coming, Brooke?” Sammy shouted back to me. They had reached the end of the street. I hadn’t realized I had come to a stop in a dark area until she’d spoken.

“Yeah, I’ll be right there.” I yelled back.

“Are you with someone?” Luke asked.

“Sammy and I are just walking home from work.” No need to mention the fact that we were also with two cute guys.

“Oh. Well, I guess I’d better get going. I’ll see you sometime.” The sadness in Luke’s tone made my throat ache when I swallowed.

“I really miss you, Luke,” I blurted before hitting ‘end’. I almost wished he hadn’t called. I wiped my eyes with the backs of my hands then rushed to catch up to the others.

Before turning the corner, I glanced back at the Ravenwyck. The roof peeks were still visible. I shuddered and turned away. The brothers left us soon after. Evan had been reluctant to go. “The night’s still early,” he’d said. Sammy seemed reluctant to go home as well, but I used the tired excuse, first day at a new job and all. I really didn’t want to hang around the darkening streets.

When we got back to Sammy’s house, she helped me organize my new room. Every once in a while I found my eyes drawn to the bedroom window and the view of the Ravenwyck. How lucky for me. I put my stuff away in the closet, brushed my teeth, and then crashed beside Sammy on my bed. She was watching music videos on the little TV that sat on the dresser.

I tried to focus my mind on the TV and not the Inn and the events that had transpired there earlier, but my mind didn’t cooperate. The music video gradually became a dull hum in the background, until it disappeared altogether. Absentmindedly, I rubbed my thumb back and forth over my fingers. It hadn’t been something I’d imagined. The tingling, no matter how faint, had been there.

I snapped myself out of it. Music flooded the room once more. I sat up cross-legged. “Sammy, you’re going to think I’m crazy, but I really think Maggie is um … psycho.”

“Oh, come on, Brooke. I admit, maybe she’s a little strange, but she’s really old. No one knows how old, even.”

“That woman is more than strange.” I lowered my voice to a whisper. “I think she’s evil.”

Sammy rolled her eyes at me. “Brooke, I’ve been working there all summer. She’s really sweet … honest.”

I threw my head back against the pillow in frustration and let out a deep breath.

“Just give it a couple more days. Once you get used to working there, you’ll see how sweet she is. The Inn’s always freaked you out. You’ll get over it.”

Then how do you explain the pain in my arm where she’d touched me and the numb tingly sensation in my fingers where I’d touched the trunk?
I wanted to scream to her.