Page 85 of Possessed By Shadows

But I wasn’t ready yet. Not steady enough to face a monster. Soon.

The sensations crawled over me and I felt them a bit like hands, or fingertips, brushing over my face, running through my hair.

Finally feeling steady enough, I opened my eyes. Finding a child there wasn’t a surprise, but I startled a little. It wasn’t the black-eyed kid I was used to. This was a girl, probably preteen, Black as her hair was done up in braids close to her head and those hair ties with the little balls on them I’d seen on a lot of girls in school when I’d been a kid.

“Hi,” I said to her.

She stared at me. Her eyes weren’t black like the other creepy stuff I saw. Though in general she wasn’t as solid as the girl on the street had been. “You shouldn’t stay,” she said in a whisper without moving her lips.

“I’m looking for my brother. Can you help?”

“Not here,” she said.

I swallowed back a groan. Of course, I knew he wasn’t here. I let out another breath, forcing myself to stay put.

The girl vanished. A Latino boy appeared a few seconds later across the room. His gaze was curious, but he didn’t approach. He looked only a little older than the girl had been. He vanished just as quickly as he had appeared. Strange.

“Hello?” I called again. “Can any of you speak to me?”

Flickers. Some nothing more than that. How many fucking ghosts were in this house? And why kids?

“Can any of you speak to me? I can hear you. See you.”

More flickers, in and out. I had to admit it felt a little like tugs on me. A drain of energy perhaps? Maybe I should have brought batteries or something else for them to drain? Dumb of me to not think ahead.

Then the flickers stopped, and I was left in the darkness. I sat there a while with no movement. Even reached down to turn on the flashlight again. Except it didn’t turn on. I guess they had drained that battery. There were more in my backpack, but I didn’t reach for them. I breathed, counting silently, the tension still heavy in the room and shadows looking like smoke around me.

“My name is Alex. Lukas is my brother. He was a cop. He’s missing. Does anyone know where I can find him?”

Gone.

He wasn’t dead. I’d feel that, right? Wasn’t that what the world led us to believe? That if my twin was gone, ripped from this world, I’d know?

He’s coming.I heard the faint whisper.

“Who?”

It was the strangest feeling of anticipation. Like sitting at a theater and waiting for the show to start, or watching a movie and knowing there was a jump scene coming. I had to force myself to keep my eyes open. Not that I could see anything. No light, and the room in those weird shadows felt a lot like being blind.

Coming. Coming. He’s here.

Who? I wondered for a half second before a face appeared before me, mouth gaping in a scream not all that unlike the one I’d seen in the desert. I reacted by screaming back at it. Not in fear, but more of a resilient battle scream, like I was mimicking it. It reached for me.

“Give me back my brother, you piece of shit!” I screamed at it. This distorted man-like thing didn’t look at all like the passing spirits I’d seen. Not even like the black-eyed child. Was this what demons looked like?

It crashed into me. A wall of smoke and cold, filling my lungs and dragging me down into the darkness. I floundered for a minute, trying to cling to my resolve, and sanity. But I must have needed more practice because it flung me into a pit of nothingness, and I lost all sense of self.