The Gathering Darkness (5 page)

“Well, we’d better get to bed.” Sammy yawned and stretched before getting up and walking to the door.

“Oh, Sammy, is there a nightlight?” I asked sheepishly.

“Yeah, sure. There’s one in the hallway. I’ll get it for you.”

“It’s just that the streetlight shone through my window at home. I sort of got used to it.” I was sure Sammy could see through my excuses. But as long as there was light … .

Sleep didn’t come easy that night. When I closed my eyes, it seemed darker than usual despite the nightlight. A pain began to radiate from the spot in my arm where creepy Maggie had touched me. When I finally did fall asleep, it was fitful. I tossed and turned and finally woke up. At least I thought I was awake, but I couldn’t open my eyes or speak; a clear case of sleep paralysis.

Someone was in the room with me. A shadow passed over my closed lids. There were low whispers, although nothing I could make out. I tried to scream, but couldn’t. My body began to heat up as if it was on fire. The heat made my throat close off. I fought with every fiber to move. The voices stopped abruptly. My eyes flew open. It was dark, profoundly dark. I hauled in a deep breath to alleviate the smothering feeling.

What had happened to the nightlight? My heart thumped louder and faster until I felt it pulse in my ears. Fumbling with the switch, I tried turning the table lamp on—it didn’t work. The power wasn’t off. The display on the alarm clock said twelve o’clock, midnight. Too afraid to even blink, I sank under the covers and stared into the darkness. The only sounds were the loud thumping of my heartbeat, and my own ragged breathing. The room was still.

My arm began to throb again. It was impossible to ignore the pain. I was chilled to the bone and started to shake uncontrollably.

What the hell was happening? Light, I need light. I covered my eyes with my hands and wished for light or a quick death to end this nightmare that was my life now. I felt a tingle in the tips of my fingers, and at the same time, a dim glow seeped between them. Slowly, I lowered my hands from my eyes. The room was aglow in the soft light of the nightlight once more. Momentarily stunned, I lay there and looked around the room. Everything seemed the same as it had before I’d gone to bed. Then a soft voice spread warmth through my body, taking the chill and fear away.

“Claire, I am with you. You’re safe now.”

“What?” I bolted upright. “Who said that? And who’s Claire?” No one answered, but I knew the voice. My heart rate slowed. Perhaps I conjured the voice from my subconscious because it was what I wanted to hear. It didn’t matter; I felt safe.

I lay back down and closed my eyes with Marcus’ words imbedded in my mind. I fell into a semi-conscious state, the realm between awake and asleep, where your subconscious mind takes over rational thinking, but you’re still somewhat aware.

In my mind, a warm glow surrounded me. I saw Marcus bathed by a halo of light. It was very dark behind him, as dark as pitch. But he kept it at bay. I felt safe and fell into a deep sleep.

T
he next morning as I got ready for school, all I could think about was the nightmare. The same one I’d had on my last visit to Deadwich and the visit before that. Except this time it brought me Marcus, and with him came light.

I thought about the name Marcus had called me in the dream, “Claire”, or had he called someone else Claire? Why did that name seem so important? I shook my head to clear it. For a moment, I wondered if I really was losing my sanity.

Because Marcus and Evan weren’t as fast at painting rooms as Sammy and I were at making them up, Maggie gave us the rest of the week off to allow the boys to get a few more rooms painted. School became a welcome distraction from my night terrors, or whatever they were—I had them every night. And just like the first night, I awoke at midnight to the sounds of ghostly whispers and shadows. And every time, a feeling of peacefulness came over me soon after, keeping the shadows and whispers away. Only then was I able to drift off to sleep and dream of Marcus and the light.

I could hardly look at him now without feeling shy about having him in my dreams every night, so I became a recluse where Marcus was concerned. But that didn’t prevent him from coming to me at night.

Evan, on the other hand, hardly left my side during recess and lunch. He made me laugh a lot, and he was growing on me. Now I understood why all the other girls had crushes on him. They couldn’t help themselves. Yes, he was obnoxious, but in a charming sort of way.

By the end of my first week at Deadwich High, I knew everyone in my class and then some. I also came to realize that Sammy and her group of friends, which now included me, were the popular girls in school—not a bad position to be in.

On Friday, the lunchroom buzzed about the upcoming long weekend and the party on Skull Island, the one thing that put a damper on my day. What if I had a nightmare out there? I tried not to think about it, but it was impossible to ignore, since that was all anyone within a three-table radius babbled about.

Evan had taken up the habit of sitting next to me during lunch the past couple of days, leaving Marcus and their friends at another table. I couldn’t decide if I was comfortable with it or not. We were definitely getting closer, and I wasn’t sure if it was what I wanted. For one thing, I didn’t want to fall into the Evan-trap as every girl had before me, and for another, I was interested in someone else. But it was happening between us so effortlessly, and I didn’t know how to stop it without hurting Evan’s feelings and making a fool of myself.

“So, City Girl, are you ready for a night in the country you won’t forget?”

Evan’s arm pressed against mine. I wanted to pull away.

“Oh yeah, am I ever.”

Evan didn’t seem to pick up on the nip of sarcasm in my tone.

“A night with no restrictions,” he said.

That statement alarmed me. I twisted my neck to face him. “None?!”

Everyone thought I was being funny and laughed, including Evan. I really had no idea what he’d meant by “no restrictions,” but laughed to blend in and hoped I hadn’t sounded too nervous.

“We’ll show you how to party Deadwich-style.” He laughed out loud, nudging my arm with his elbow as he did.

Megan, who had made it perfectly clear throughout the week that we weren’t friends, snickered. At least there would be a bunch of us together, unless everyone paired off and went their separate ways. I wasn’t sure how these country all-nighters worked.

As the party babble continued, I risked a quick glance across the cafeteria to where Marcus sat, and as always he caught me looking at him, or was it me who had caught him looking at me? My cheeks warmed and I lowered my eyes, but in the wrong direction. They landed on Megan. Jealousy flashed in her glacial blue eyes.

She flicked her gaze to Marcus then back to me. I was overwhelmed by the feeling of her hatred; it radiated at me. She got up and tossed her blonde waves over her shoulder, then took herself and her too-tight jeans over to Marcus’ table. She pulled up a chair beside him and managed to get a smile on his face in no time. I watched, oblivious to the others at my table, whose constant chatter became a dull hum in the back of my head along with the rest of the cafeteria commotion.

She leaned into his chair seductively, resting her elbow on its back. Whatever she said, she had the attention of the whole table, but after a short time, Marcus seemed to grow bored. As if we were the only two people in the cafeteria, his eyes found mine again. The breath caught in my throat. He’d caught me looking at him again, and for a brief moment, I was unable to turn away.

A sudden pressure to the back of my neck brought me back to reality. The lunch-room chatter grew louder as if someone had pulled plugs from my ears. Marcus got up and walked away from Megan and out of the cafeteria, leaving the laughter at his table behind.

With his exit, came the realization that Evan’s arm lay across my shoulders. Had Marcus noticed? Is that why he’d left?
Don’t be ridiculous, Brooke
, I told myself.
Why would Marcus care about you
? Very much aware of everyone’s eyes on me now, I wanted to crawl under the table. How could I get out of this situation with Evan before it got too serious?

“City Girl?” His hand gripped my far shoulder. He shook me.

“Huh? What?”

“Where was your head just now?”

“Oh, somewhere a million miles away, I guess.”

There were some chuckles. I forced myself to look at him and smile. From this too-close position, I saw how his blue eyes lit up under the cafeteria lighting, like they had in the sunlight. One sparkly, blue eye was half-hidden behind the tendrils of blond hair that hung over his face. Normally, I wouldn’t have been able to resist the cuteness, but it was his handsome and mysterious brother who enchanted me, not cute, irresistible-to-every-other-girl-but-me Evan.

Evan continued with whatever he’d been saying while my head had been a million miles away. “I said, I have to leave school early today. I guess you’ll have to take the bus home, and I know how much you’re going to hate that.” More giggles from the girls. Evan’s grin widened.

“Oh, really?” I pouted. I truly was disappointed. No way did I want to take the bus home. I sighed.

“Well, I guess I’ll survive. If everyone else can take the bus, then I suppose I can, too.”

I glanced over at Megan, who was now sitting beside Marcus’ empty chair. Her arms were folded in front of her, and her gaze was narrowed on me.

Throughout the rest of our conversation, Evan left his arm casually draped across my shoulders. It felt awkward.

When the bell rang, signaling lunch was over, Evan stood and said, “I’ll see you tonight.”

I was relieved when the pressure left my shoulders. “Okay, see you then.” I tried to smile as non-flirtatiously as I could.

I watched Evan swagger out of the cafeteria, then blinked and turned back to the now silent girls at my table. Everyone stared at me. Hot blood rushed to the surface of my cheeks again.

“What?”

“Well, well, well,” Robyn said, grinning widely. “I hope you have better luck with him then the rest of us had.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth she seemed to regret it. An awkward moment passed as she scrambled for new words. “What I meant was … well … um … I really hope it lasts.” Her pretty brown eyes were sincere.

Out of all of Sammy’s friends, Robyn was the nicest and the prettiest. I was jealous of her long, dark hair, which hung down her back in an abundance of loose ringlets, and her olive complexion, which made her look exotic—forever tanned.

The afternoon flew by; no doubt because I knew I had to take the school bus home.

“You’re a country girl now,” Sammy said with a huge grin as we walked from our last class to the parking lot, where a fleet of bright yellow buses awaited us.

“Yeah, whatever.” I rolled my eyes and followed.

I watched my step as I got on and kept my head down, following Sammy up the aisle. The inside smelled like cheap vinyl and diesel, with a hint of bubble gum. Without warning, Sammy pulled off to the side, one row from the back. I planned to follow, but she sat her butt down in an aisle seat. When I lifted my head, I saw why. Robyn occupied the other half of that seat. The only other empty seat was behind her. My eyes went to that one empty seat. My breath caught and I hesitated. I shot a glare at Sammy, who looked up at me so innocently; I could almost see the halo around her head. I had no choice but to sit in the last seat—next to Marcus.

He stiffened as I sat next to him. I crossed my legs and sat at a bit of an angle, facing the aisle, trying not to let any part of me touch any part of him.

“Hi,” I said shyly.

“Hi,” he answered just as shyly.

Giggles floated back to me from the seat in front of us. I wanted to reach out and smack both their heads. It was almost as if they’d planned it like this, but that was impossible.

Sammy looked back with a huge grin on her face that spoke louder than words. I glared back at her. She knew she was in trouble. She gave me a look of mock-fear, then turned to face the front, giggling with Robyn.

I slouched slightly in the seat, folding my arms across my stomach. The bus pulled away from its parking spot sluggishly.

A few minutes into the ride I became aware of something, a feeling in the small space between Marcus and me. I tuned out the mundane chatter drifting throughout the bus and concentrated to make sure it was really there and not my imagination. The more I focused my attention on the space, the stronger I felt it. It was like a magnetic force, trying to pull our bodies closer together. The energy from the field shimmered all the way down the right side of my body. My arm felt heavy folded in front of me and wanted to drop to my leg, as my desire worked to overtake my will. I wondered if Marcus felt it too.

Then Marcus did something that made my heart flutter. He turned his head in my direction. I swallowed and was forced out of courtesy to return his gaze. His dark eyes held a spark I’d never seen there before, and a rare hint of a smile touched his mouth. Just that hint was enough to make any girl melt, and if I continued to look at him, I would surely be reduced to a pathetic puddle on the bus floor.