Page 79 of Stalked By Shadows
“That the Voodoo stuff?”
“Hoodoo, I think,” Micah said. “I’m not an expert.”
“Any idea what they were trying to do?”
“Open a portal maybe? That sort of seems to always be the Voodoo idea. Open a portal to spirit guides to answer questions, or to the dead to speak with past loved ones, or even demons to learn about the future.”
My heart raced at the idea of demons—put in my head by a childhood growing up in a Southern Baptist Church. “Like fire and brimstone demons?”
“Did you know there really is no such thing as hell in the Bible? Or demons. Just angels. Like the Christian God fucked up with his angels and tried to create humans to replace them, and the two species have been at war ever since,” Micah said. “Lots of books taken out of the Bible by the Catholics who wanted humanity to only believe so much. Most of those removed books are about paranormal stuff including angels who came down to slaughter humans for being created by God.”
“Um… I’d find fighting an angel pretty scary.”
“I think the fear is the point.”
“So they summoned an angel? Or are you saying demons are angels?”
“Yes, and maybe yes? Theory. Philosophy. The point is fear.”
My head spun with the ideas. Too much. And yet, yes it all made me afraid in a way. Of a lot of things. Not the idea of hell, but of something scary out there to kill us for spite? Wasn’t that the concept of humanity? All of our jaded emotions could make humans do things like lie, steal, and murder? “If angels are more fucked up than humans, I think we all really have reason to worry.”
Micah nodded, “Right?”
We stood there in the dark for a minute, the air cool against my skin. I’d forgotten I was still in the kilt, but no one, not even Lukas, had commented. “I don’t see or hear anything.” Still didn’t feel anything odd other than the eerie silence which could have been from standing in the middle of a concrete cemetery on the edge of downtown.
“Let’s look around a little. Jared said they were on their way out when she vanished,” Micah said.
“And she what? Tripped and fell into a giant mausoleum?”
He gave me an irritated stare.
I put my hands up in surrender. “Okay, let’s look.”
“And listen,” Micah said. He led us down a zigzag through the rows, slowly weaving a way through the mostly paved walk, but turning us over the dirt area too. We stopped every couple of feet to listen. I closed my eyes each time, trying to focus on the sounds around us. If there was a girl somehow trapped in a tomb here, would we be able to hear her through all the marble?
In the far corner near the multi-mausoleum thing, Micah stopped since we had a wide view of the area, down several paths, even though it was dark. I closed my eyes, focusing hard to the sounds of the night.
Something faint in the distance made me pop my eyes open and search for it. Was it Lukas? It hadn’t sounded like Lukas, the timbre had been higher, like a woman. “Did you hear that?” I asked Micah.
His gaze was focused in the same direction. “I heard something.”
We headed toward the sound, stopping again after a few feet to see if we heard it again. It was so faint. Not a scream or anything so defined, more a faint moan. We wove our way around and down two other little pathways.
I nearly tripped over my own feet when I saw something move in the distance. “What was that?” I asked Micah pointing in the direction.
A shadow moved. Not our shadows. Was it Lukas? “Did you see that?”
Micah shook his head, frowning. He rubbed his arms like they hurt. “Feel something. My skin is on fire. Did you maybe see Lukas?”
“That was not Lukas we heard unless someone kicked him in the balls.” I heard the faint moan again and decided to race toward the sound. “It’s coming from over there.” I pointed. Someone was hurt. Someone was there and needed help. Instinct pushed me to run faster, despite the uneven ground and rows of scattered stones in my path. The nearly full moon lit enough of the area that I could see where we were going even if it was all darkness and shadow. There were no lights inside the cemetery.
“Sarah?” I called for her. Was she stuck somewhere? After a few days without food or water she’d be pretty weak.
Was she really here? I thought I caught a glimpse of something around the edge of one of the big stone monuments, movement of some kind, not black, but more liquid than I thought a person’s shadow should be. But when I rounded the corner, there was nothing. No shadow, nothing out of place, no Lukas, and no Sarah. I frowned, slowed to a stop and checked the two connecting paths. Nothing.
“Dammit,” I cursed and turned back to find Micah. Only when I found the path I’d run up, he was gone. “Micah?” I called. For a moment I feared he’d gone off to some little corner to search on his own. As I traveled back to where I’d last seen him a feeling of dread built in my chest. He wasn’t there.
“Micah!” I yelled, praying for an answer.