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“My name is Nadie Baird. I don’t really care if your read this because I am going to get down to things once and for all. I don’t want to panic you though, I’m strong, you know that. Bardol is gone. No one know what happened, the police that are supposed to look for him aren’t doing anything. The FBI refuses to return my calls. No one cares. Just like you. I’m deeply sorry, but I have to find him. I’m sorry. Please forgive me if you can Mother.”
Nadie Baird a young woman of only seventeen gathered up the niceties for survival. Money, enough to go around the world on foot, and boat; once. Two changes of clothes and enough freeze dried food to envy the military’s stock piles. In fact she had a few army rations from her boot camp left over and grabbed those to. She grabbed a switch blade and put it in her back pocket. A pocket knife went into one of her front pockets. She sighed and left her written note on her bed.
She left her absurdly clean room and grabbed a camel-pack she had put by the door. On her bike she packed her rations and her clothes, and the few day to day grooming items she would need. She pulled the camel-pack on and tested one of the tubes coming out of the top. The cold water flowed nicely as she sucked. Now for the others. The Gatorade one did the same but the last on wasn’t going through.
Nadie paused and pulled the pack off unzipping and checking inside. A small red thing ran up her arms and perched on her shoulder. A little red squirrel, if she noticed it, she didn’t mind the little creature. She quickly fixed the problem with the last camel pack, this one contained water to. The little bit of plastic she used to help water seal it, was blocking the tube. She poked a hole in it and zipped the pack back up.
The squirrel chattered in her ear. “We’re going Chatter.” She told the little creature petting it gently. She threw her camel-back back on and snapped the straps in place. Chatter rushed down her arms and perched on the handle bars as she straddled the bike and pushed off. It was a little hard going with all the weight but as the road went down hill it got easier. Cars passed by mostly without a glance. The cars going in the different direction may or may not have looked at her because of Chatter on the bike.
It was very long before she had left the town on her way to a larger city. The sign said fifty miles to the city. It would be a long day, she peddled absently until the air got cooler. She looked up and cursed her luck. A storm was rolling in and would soon strike. Very quickly she gazed around for shelter. Nadie spotted an old house off to the left, mostly hidden by the forest surrounding it.
Chatter began to run up and down her arms sporadically. She caught the little squirrel, “Stop Chatter.” She told him and released him. He ran up and hid behind her head, covered by a veil of black hair. “Good boy.” She muttered and dismounted her bike to walk it along the deer path to the house. Nadie felt Chatter's little body shaking and shivering as the house loomed over them.
It was at least three stories and looked huge. It could be more expansive but she now only saw the front. There was a huge thunder crack and rain poured down in the bucketful. Nadie ran up the stairs and kicked the door open and rested once she was inside with her bike. Some of the food could perish if it got wet. Chatter still shivered at the back of her neck.
The inside was pitch dark, the house, had no windows at all. Lightning never lit up the place, making sure that there were no windows, at least as much as Nadie could see. The door she kicked in slowly creaked shut, over the sound of the storm she didn’t notice it. It shut with precise precision; her kicking it in seemed to have no effect on it at all. “Hello!” Nadie called in now the complete darkness…Complete darkness…Nadie turned around and stared at the black space were the door was.
But nothing answered. It kind of figured. But a creeping chill crept up her spine and Chatter would not move from his perch. He was shaking and gripping the collar of her shirt almost pathetically. “No one’s here.” She said to herself. Her voice echoed in the emptiness. She grouped around in the dark and propped her bike against the closest wall she could find. From one of the packs she pulled out a flashlight-lamp combo and turned it on.
Chatter squeaked at the sudden flaring of light. The light seemed to form a bubble around her, and everything beyond seemed surreal and false. Nadie rubbed her eyes; it looked like for just a moment blobs of darkness floated past her vision. But at it did not happen again she though it nothing more than the light playing tricks. Or could it be called the dark playing tricks?
She pulled out a military ration and opened it up. This one was for lunch; she crumbled up the dry biscuits for Chatter and fed him. He ate the meal vigorously. The ration was better then nothing and she ate it feeling a creeping sense of being watched the whole time. After she finished the meal she let Chatter drink from her hand and packed the remnants of the meal into her camel-back. It was suitable for storing trash. After drinking Chatter ran back up to his perch and stayed there. A scuffing noise made her heart skip. But Nadie swallowed back the scream that threatened to ring out.
“Hello?” she called out. Still nothing answered, but something seemed to move in the darkness beyond the light. She put her hand on the light switch to the lamp-light and turned it off. Darkness suddenly blacked out everything. The scuffing sound came again this time closer. Nadie did not let her hand move from the light; she prepared to flick it back on. It kept moving and was soon in front of her. Her unaccustomed eyes refused to even blink.
She felt a cold breath of wind on her face and switched the lamp back on. There was a screech and Nadie saw a long white face before screaming and jerking back away from it. Chatter seemed to scream and something cracked at the back of her skull. The lamp flickered and the light dimmed. She couldn’t hear the scuffing noise and didn’t feel Chatter at the back of her neck. Nadie felt like darkness came over her and swallowed her whole. But she just lost consciousness.
Nadie awoke to a furry red face staring at her. Chatter jumped away as soon as she sat up. Her skull felt like it was on fire and her brain felt too small for her skull. She moaned and felt for the back of her head. She winced at a fresh blast of pain as her fingers brushed up against the wound on the back of her skull. The dimmed light from the lamp showed hardly anything but seemed to form a barrier around her. She looked behind her and saw nothing but wall. Her bike was gone.
Chatter rested on her knee looking at her with black beetle eyes. “Ow…my head hurts so much.” She told him. Chatter looked up at her with a concerned glance. “What happened?” she asked the creature knowing full well he could not answer. But Chatter only made his squeaking sounds. Slowly she left herself stand and noticed that she was just barely within the murky limits of the dimmed light.
Her head swam and she fell back down to her feet. Instead she crawled to the light and examined it. A crack ran through the light cover and most likely ran through the lamp and well. She gazed down at the ground as her vision spun around. Dust covered the ground and herself. A small trail of foot prints and a thin line that could only be her bike led off into the darkness. Slowly she compared her size shoe to the other. The other one was larger than hers. Chatter ran up to her shoulder and stared off into the darkness in the direction of the trail.
Nadie held the lamp in her hands and pushed herself up again. Her head spun but she kept her footing. Blobs of liquid like darkness floated just past the light. She wanted to shake her head but was afraid it would make her worse. I must have a concussion. She thought to herself. She took a step and her head spun lightly. But she kept on and followed the trail of the person who stole her bike. The place was empty of furniture but that didn’t surprise her.
The trail led to a set of stairs going downward. Chatter chirped nervously as she slowly lowered her foot to the first step. The step creaked as though any moment it would fall through. Nadie did not hesitate to take the next step and the next. The old rotten boards creaked with her weight. The creaks sounded through and echoed madly on whatever was below and above.
Nadie felt a board bend and froze putting her weight on her other foot. She crouched and extended her foot below the light. Chatter squealed as something tried to grab her foot and jerk it down. But Nadie hardly ever tied her shoes all the way and her shoe was pulled off. Something below growled. Nadie shuddered and very slowly went to the next step. It took all her weight and she nearly leapt to the next step. It seemed to take so long to descend the stairs, but she made it and took off her other shoe and put it at the foot of the stairs. If nothing took it then it was a marker if there was more then one set of stairs.
She looked at the barriers of light to darkness and felt the sense of being watched by a predator. Something with malicious intent seemed to be waiting beyond the darkness. But Nadie didn’t want to hit the switch; she didn’t want to be in the dark. A primal fear was welled up inside her and she kept a tight grip of the handle to the only light in the house.
A voice seemed to ring through her head. She could not understand the words but it seemed to want to draw her out of the light. Nadie almost reached her hand through but Chatter scratched her shoulder and she snapped back. The voice seemed nothing more then a far off memory as she looked down to the trail. The dust was thicker here and it was much easier to follow the trail. It went straight. She propelled herself forward with the thought of having to go back. She didn’t want to go back until she found Bardol.
Something beyond the light sighed. Nadie didn’t feel the fear; she was beginning to get numb to it. The primal fear of the dark was still there lurking within her heart. Her footsteps began to echo as she followed the trail. She came to a doorway and stopped. It looked sealed up with bricks but the trail disappeared behind the bricks. She felt the panic that she would never get out again if she were to go farther but she walked up to in anyway and pushed on the wall of bricks. It fell with such a crashing noise it seemed as though the entire house had came down upon her.
Only when the sound died down did she realize that she had been cringing. Nadie forced herself up and climbed over the bricks. The trail was easy to find as she was in a hall. But as soon as she reached the first door there was a trail leading to the door and out of the door. Almost as if they had went in only to come back out and go somewhere else. She stopped at the door and despite the squeaking protests of Chatter.
She reached out on the fringes of the light and griped the doorknob. When she looked away and turned it she felt something brush up against her skin. Her heart skipped at that feeling but she pushed the door open and gaped. A scene was stretched before her. There was light and two people both women smiled when they turned to her. But something seemed wrong.
The light didn’t seem like light at all and only seemed light the absence of thick darkness. The women’s smiles seemed strange and their eyes from where she stood look black even though both were blond. “Oh do come in!” one said brightly. Chatter squeaked. Even the voice seemed wrong somehow. Nadie didn’t know how these things seemed wrong but they did seem so very wrong.
“Hello.” She replied not moving from the doorway. “Do you live here?” she asked. They didn’t look at anyone besides her. There seemed to be a hunger in their black eyes.
“Of course we live here darling.” Said the other one, there was no difference between them. Not even their voices were different. “Why don’t you come in? Put that silly light down, it’s bright enough in here already.” Nadie narrowed her eyes.
“I’m looking for someone.” Nadie said suddenly. The women finally exchanged a panicked look. “He’s here isn’t he?” one laughed trying to brush off Nadie’s comment.
“Well I don’t know. But why don’t you come in and rest a bit.” One said. Nadie shook her head and grabbed the door knob.
“He wouldn’t stop looking for me.” She said simply and slammed the door shut. Something thudded on the other side, there was a scream behind the door, not of terror or hurt, but of rage. “So I won’t stop looking for him. She followed the trail again to the next door. Chatter squeaked his warnings, but no trail flowed out of this door. She once again felt that brush of something on her hand as she reached out to the fringes of light to grab the door knob and twist it open.
No sound came from the door opening and she peaked inside. Nothing but the trail of dust led into the room. Nadie pulled off her pack and put it in front of the door to keep it open and ran to follow the trail. She tripped and almost made the lamp crash down but saved it by catching it. She had tripped on her bike. A creeping sensation ran over her and Chatter pulled her collar towards the door.
She grabbed her bike pulled it up right and ran back through the door. She caught a glimpse of it slowly shutting and ran through it. Now her camel-pack was gone. But Footsteps were leading away from the door further into the house. Nadie began to follow them. She needed her pack. The feeling of being staked still never left her. She felt her nerves fraying at the feeling but brushed it off. Whatever it was didn’t attack as of yet and it seemed like nothing could touch her in the bubble of light that surrounded her.
Something seemed to whisper her name. She was being drawn forward. The footsteps stopped but she could still feel the constant pulling, she took one step forward a black outline of a door in her vision. She could feel her tight grip on her bike and lamp loosen; a thud snapped her out of it and convulsively she gripped her lifelines. She turned to the door, strangely her stomach growled.
Nadie stopped and wondered how long had she been wandering in the dark? It felt like days, and months, but yet she knew in her mind it could only be hours. Four or more hours, major time lost to getting to the city. But she grabbed the handle of the door and pushed it open. The footsteps went in, but didn’t come out. Her animal ears heard breathing. Rough and deep, almost sounding like it was purposeful. Like a dead man walking among the living, not needing to breathe, yet purposefully breathing out of habit or show.
She felt the gentle tugging again, trying to pull her out of the room. She gazed at her bike and wondered if she should leave it and try to get back to the outside. Out to the sun. But the sun seemed like a distant memory, even if it had only been hours, she felt like she had never seen the sun. The breathing neared her as she waited at the doorway. Whatever it was would have to come to her. No visions of fake light, no complete darkness. This darkness within this room seemed like the normal darkness you would find.
Nadie stepped forward into the room. She didn’t feel that primal fear of the darkness in this place. It was a normal place. Just a dark place with no sun, only darkness. “Bardol?” she called out. The name slipped from her lips. Her twin brother, she felt him here. Here in this normal darkness, waiting, waiting for her. A man’s moan came from the dark. “Bardol!” she yelled out. She dropped her bike, Chatter jumped at the sudden clatter. A long ashen face pierced through the dark on the fringes of the light.
The face no longer seemed human. It looked like a dead man’s face. The eyes glazed over and blue. Pale with no blood pumping through the veins. Nadie stared at the thing before her. Though dead looking, it was him. It was Bardol. “Bardol.” She whispered. Possibly shock tried to rush through her and maybe relief but she was numb to feeling such as that. Only fear could touch her heart to race. Looking into those dead eyes she saw a hunger, a deep feral animal hunger.
“Naaadieeee.” The face moaned out. Her name sounded more like “Na-die.” She remembered briefly when they were children he called her Na-Na and she called him Ba-Ba. “NAAADIEEEE.” He moaned louder. She set the lamp on the ground and took the step to the fringes.
“Bardol, step into the light.” She commanded. He moaned a guttural sounding thing from the pit of his stomach. “Bardol…please.” She stepped away from the thing as it reached toward her. He reached into the light and the light burned him. His flesh smoked and blacked. He jerked it back just as the scent of burning flesh rushed into Nadie’s nostrils. She gagged and fell to the ground.
“Daaaknesss.” He moaned. “No, ‘ight.” His eyes became more hunger filled. “Daaakness baaad.” She shut her jaw realizing it was hanging open. She still couldn’t feel the shock of her brother. He was dead, yet not dead. Like a zombie, only her was still there. Inside his mind, inside that dead body. Like he was trapped. Nadie felt her back pocket and pulled out her switch blade. Bardol’s dead eyes watched the movement and he screamed and launched himself into the light.
Nadie didn’t know all that happened, all at once it seemed she found herself bleeding and holding a blade into the heart of the dead creature. It writhed, and then stopped. The stench of burning and rotting flesh blurred her senses. She felt like she could taste the scents, feel them filling into inside her and tainting her insides with death.
Blood dripped down and she realized she wasn’t bleeding. It was all Bardols’. His throat was slit and he must have bled on her from above to get all that blood on her. She could no longer feel her brother here, he was gone. She had killed him, when he was already dead. Her hand let go of the knife, Chatter was jumping up and down on her shoulder. She breathed out a mix of a sigh and gasp. But still she felt no sadness, no grief, only the numbing fear of the darkness. Her hand on its own grabbed the blade and pulled it out from the body.
The blade was coated with coagulated blood, like her. But she felt light, she felt like no darkness could touch her. The feeling was powerful and she grabbed up the lamp and walked out of the room and shut the door behind her with the numb precision of a hit man. She felt death clinging to her lungs but she breathed out and in, with felt like she was breathing in the light from the lamp. Death vanished from her and she saw a small tendril of darkness float by her vision before the light burned it away.
The calling came again and Chatter was trying to get her to turn around. But the new sense of power, of light she could not help to be pulled to the deepest blackness. The kind of darkness in the center of the earth. The voice called to her, and she did not resist it. Nadie felt more like she wasn’t being pulled but she herself was walking to the darkness. The Light dimmed even more. Now it barely covered her. Chatter squealed into her ear.
She stopped and knew something was there, waiting for her to step into the liquid darkness. Waiting for her to go to it. Nadie crouched down and set the lamp on the floor; she grabbed Chatter and set him on it. “Stay here.” She whispered to the little animal. He looked forlornly at her. “I’ll be back. I promise you.” And she felt for a moment like her brother was there, within the squirrel. But it was just a passing feeling and like all other feelings besides fear it dripped off her like drops of water.
Nadie straightened her head brushing against the darkness. It felt like real liquid. With one hand she reached into the darkness and splayed her fingers. A hand enclosed on hers, its fingers between hers and pulled her into the darkness. Nadie breathed in a last breath of light and passed the barrier of light. She felt like she was under water. A thick deep water powerfully cold. Just seconds in the darkness and she was numb to cold as well.
The darkness seemed to press on her, as if trying to find a way into her. She closed her eyes to her own darkness and felt the one with the hand in hers by her. That was when she opened her eyes. She felt the light around her and the darkness stopped. It was as if a thin barrier as thin as paper formed around her, she cast her eyes to the hand expecting burning flesh and saw none.
Another hand came out and gripped her chin. It guided her eyes to a face, a human face. It was human, the dark green eyes weren’t glazed over, and weren’t black. His face was pale and seemed to be the pale of someone whom just hardly ever went into the sun. There was nothing sinister in those eyes. Nothing dark. He was human. He smiled and she watched his lips move to form words. “I’ve been waiting for you Nadie Baird.” He said. His voice was deep and dare she think loving? The kind of voice she imagined her husband to have.
“Me?” she asked. Her voice would have stuttered if she could feel the rolling fear inside her. Mortal fear, not primal fear. His smiled never faded.
“Yes.” He leaned closer to her drawing her closer to him with his grip on her hand. She trailed her hand through the darkness, her light was dimming. Lightning struck inside her head, the darkness was coming FROM him. “Yes.” He said almost as if he knew what she realized. His arm went around her waist. His body felt human and warm, like a body should. It felt wonderful to feel warmth. “You belong here Nadie, you and your brother.” He whispered in her ear. She began to feel the darkness press on her again, from her feet to her knees and it was slowly creeping upwards.
“You killed Bardol.” She said. Her voice was full of the numbed out anger and grief.
“No you killed him.” He pointed to his neck then his heart. “By slitting his throat and stabbing his heart. I did not kill him.” Nadie felt herself shaking, sadness wanted to take her, but the lizard brain kept it away. The darkness was to her breasts now, neck. Nadie took a deep breath before the darkness reached her mouth. She closed her eyes shut and felt the darkness squirm like a worm boring its way through an apple on her eyelids.
 Faustine Liem · Sat Mar 29, 2008 @ 02:52am · 0 Comments |
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