Authors: Ginger Voight
She was running down the main street of Darlington in the dead of night, almost like it was present time.
“Dani!” she tried to scream, but nothing came out. She stopped in the middle of the street and stared off toward the darkened woods. Whispers surrounded her, a jumble of sounds she couldn’t quite make out.
She knew what she had to do, j
ust like the other four times she’d had this exact same dream. She headed toward the forest, propelled by a fierce wind that surrounded her with a deafening roar.
The tree branches ripped at her clothes as she darted through the familiar path. The scenery never changed in her dreams, she could retrace her steps
without even thinking about it.
It was
dark in the bowels of the woods, but she navigated the terrain with ease. She passed the abandoned ranger station and didn’t even bother to stop. So much time had passed she knew where Dani would be.
The clearing
, where Adele had helped kill all the others.
As she stumbled into the barren center of the forest she was shocked to find someone was already there. A figure in a black cloak knelt to the ground, its back to her.
“Dani?” she called, and the strength of her voice surprised even her.
She stopped dead in her tracks as the figure stood to full height and turned to face her. She could not see any details of its face buried deep in the hood of the full length cloak, but the eyes glowed bright yellow
like the sun. It let out a terrifying scream as it lifted from the ground and flew toward her at breakneck speed.
Adele fell back on the ground as it flew so close over her she was sure she was going to disappear inside of it. The material of its cloak slapped against her face just as her head hit the hard ground.
Everything went black.
In what felt like just a heartbeat later, Adele jerked awake with a gasp. She immediately looked for Michael, hoping she hadn’t disturbed him with yet another nightmare. What she found instead were twigs and leaves and rocks along the forest floor.
Adele shot up as she looked around. Was this another dream? Immediately her gaze was pulled back to the center of the clearing where the horrifying creature had been. Adele was surprised to find a smaller figure slumped over
in a tiny ball.
“
Dani,” Adele whispered to herself as she scrambled to her feet and raced over to the lifeless body. Tears sprung from her eyes as she confirmed that it was Dani, and she wasn’t moving.
Adele knelt beside the still girl, who looked so pale in the moonlight. She cradled Dani in her arms, rocking her back and forth, wailing in the most exquisite pain
she’d ever experienced. Every moment that they had shared replayed in her mind in vivid slow motion followed by moments of guilt and regret that they were cut all too short. She immediately began to berate herself that she hadn’t fought hard enough to love her, to keep her safe. In her anguish, she almost missed the small moan that escaped Dani’s lips.
“
Oh my God!” she whispered. “Dani?”
“
Mama,” Dani moaned.
Crying
tears of sweet relief, Adele turned the girl to face her. As she did she noticed a steady stream of blood flowed from her neck. Bending closer Adele saw the source of the problem. Two small holes pumped life-saving liquid from the tiny girl’s body.
Like miniature explosions in her head,
she had visions of blood stained teeth piercing soft human flesh, biting into it and tearing it away. She could almost feel the warm thick liquid pour down her throat, which instantly made her gag.
Adele jumped away from the girl and scooted as far away from the disturbing thoughts as possible.
It was another dream, she told herself as she physically shook her head with her own hands to rid herself of the gruesome images.
It took a
howling wolf to bring her back to her senses. She glanced back at Dani who lay dying in the forest. Adele turned back to collect the girl, figuring even if this was a nightmare, she was going to save a life this time, rather than end it.
Adele was still unsure whether or not it was a dream or reality
by the time she stumbled from the forest onto the Darlington streets. She was dirty and bloody and could barely speak once a security guard spotted her on the sidewalk. Even the ride in the ambulance seemed surreal. Her dream was going in a new direction now, so she didn’t figure she could trust anything she saw, even when Michael charged into the emergency room. She felt outside of her body, making it hard to connect to the physical world despite the police onslaught and the questions by people talking over themselves until the noise was just a dull hum in her ears. She sat in a stark white hospital hallway, holding a cup of coffee with both hands, staring at the steam as if none of it was real.
Because it sure
didn’t feel real.
I
f it wasn’t a dream it had to be just another vivid hallucination, like the coffin in the cemetery, all brought on by her lack of medication.
Michael had given up asking her questions that were met with a vague nod or a slight shake of the head. One look at Dani explained why Adele seemed to be in shock, Michael was just grateful that Dani was brought in alive.
He felt sick to his stomach as he remembered praying over the cold, dead body of Lily Maldonado. Her mother had fainted at the sight of her neck. Her father had crossed himself and left the room, unable to lay his eyes upon his dead daughter again. Isabel stood next to Lily, her hands on her body, doing some sort of foreign chant.
As Michael reached out to touch the wounds, Isabel snatched his hand away.
“Do not touch her,” Isabel hissed. “She’s theirs now.”
“
Whose?” he had asked her, but she left the room with the question hanging in the air.
Seeing the same injury on Dani made his blood run cold. His mind kept trying to go to places it should never have gone. He believed in God. He believed in Satan. He believed in
heaven and hell. Superstition beyond that had no place in what he believed. But despite all that, Michael knew with all certainty that what attacked Dani, what had killed Lily, what Adele had seen, was neither human nor animal... dead or alive.
He sat by Adele and cast a concerned glance her way. She was so pale, much paler than normal. Her hair was wild about her shoulders, a dark curtain of ebony with a striking white strike racing down her scalp. Her violet eyes were open, but she
wasn’t looking outward. What she saw was in that painful theater of her mind. He put his hand on her leg. She didn’t even budge.
Roman Piccoli parted the throng of police already in the hospital corridor,
which included Lieutenant Nelson. Roman conferred with them silently, and Michael watched as everyone indicated back towards Adele. Roman would nod as he ingested the information, and Michael’s gut wrenched as he watched Roman approach. He sprang to his feet.
“
How is she?”
“
She’s alive,” Roman answered. “Thanks to Adele.”
Adele
didn’t even raise her eyes at her name. She was lost in her own little world.
Roman turned back to Michael.
“She was with you most of the night?”
Michael instantly knew he meant Adele. What a sick bastard, Michael thought to himself. What could he possibly be suggesting?
“Of course she was,” Michael retorted hotly. “She loves that little girl.”
“
Of course,” Roman replied. He knew that better than anyone. But he also knew why they couldn’t be together more than anyone, and he had tough questions that demanded some answers. “Do you know what time she set out on her own to find Dani?”
Michael gulped. No, he
didn’t remember. He remembered falling asleep in her arms and then waking to the strident ring of the phone, letting him know that Adele and Dani had been picked up in the middle of town, where Adele was discovered carrying Dani’s bloody body to safety. He had avoided asking himself the questions he knew that Roman was going to ask. How did Adele know just where to go? Why hadn’t she taken Michael with her? What exactly had she seen? Or worse, done?
“
No,” Michael stated flatly. Roman just nodded, as if that one piece of information solved the riddle for him.
“
Tell me what attacked Dani,” Michael asked as Roman turned to Adele. “Those were teeth marks. Just like Lily. Have they all had those wounds?”
Roman met
Michael’s heartbroken stare. “I am not at liberty to say,” he finally admitted, and Michael lunged at him, an entire night's worth of worry and panic and now anger consuming him. He grabbed Roman up by the collar and thrust him against the wall.
The officers present charged the scene, pulling Michael back off of the Commissioner.
“Stop hiding the truth!” Michael yelled. “What’s hunting our kids?”
“It’s not
human,” Adele murmured. Everyone looked her direction. She had barely spoken a word since she was picked up, so no one expected her to drop such a bombshell.
“I've got it,” Roman told the officers
, but they were reluctant to leave. “It's okay,” he assured them. With backward glances they walked back to their position in the corridor.
Roman sat next to Adele. She still stared into the steam rising from the plastic cup
in her hands, still stained red by Dani’s blood. “You saw the attacker?” he asked softly.
She nodded, her face white as a sheet. Both Michael and Roman watched her expression change from curiosity to terror as she relived the moment.
“He was tall,” she told them in a hypnotic whisper. “Wore a black cloak. With a hood. I couldn’t even see his face.”
Roman dissected the information. “You never saw his face?” he probed, and she shook her head. “How do you know it was a man?”
A tear trekked down her face. “I know,” she said softly. Her voice cracked as she forced herself to go on. “He was kneeling over her, his back to me. Then I called for her and he turned around. All I could see were his eyes. They were yellow. Glowing. On fire.”
Michael rushed to her side as she let out an anguished sob.
“He let out this horrible yell and then flew towards me. I fell to the ground and blacked out. When I woke up, he was gone.”
Roman’s
mouth set in a hard line. It was clear he didn’t believe her. She was hysterical. In shock. That was all.
Dr. Ashcroft pushed through the crowd and rushed to Adele.
“Adele,” he said as he knelt down in front of her. “I came as soon as I heard. I’m here now. It’s okay.”
She shook her head, still
racked with sobs.
A nurse followed behind, a syringe on her tray.
“It’s going to be okay,” Dr. Ashcroft murmured. Michael took the coffee from her hands and Dr. Ashcroft lifted her sleeve. “It’s going to be all better in just a moment.” He shot a sideways glance to Michael. “When was the last time she took her meds?”
Michael shook his head, helpless.
“I’ll call her mother.”
“
Tell her I want to admit her overnight.”
“
No!” shrieked Adele, suddenly wrenched back in the land of the present. “I want to go home! Please let me go home! I’ll take the pills. I promise”
“
Adele, listen to me. You’re having hallucinations again…”
She fought like a tiger against his grip.
“I am not seeing things!” she cried. She turned to Michael. “You believe me, don’t you, Mikey?” she asked, her eyes pleading as she used the pet name from their youth.
He
didn’t know what to say. His heart broke apart seeing her in this state. “Adele,” he started but she wouldn’t let him finish his thought.
“
You said they were bite marks! You saw them yourself! You know I’m not crazy. Tell them I’m not crazy!”
He felt like he could cry right along with her. He sat at her side and wrapped his arms around her. She clung to him for dear life.
“Tell them I’m not crazy,” she repeated, as she sobbed into his chest.
Dr. Ashcroft seized the opportunity and administered the shot. She
didn’t even feel it as she cried uncontrollably in Michael’s arms. He rocked her back and forth as she kept saying, “I’m not crazy,” until she finally drifted off into blissful nothingness.
Roman tried his best to avoid Jim once back at the station. The shrewd Lieutenant would certainly be asking the same questions Roman had pondered... wondering why Adele had gone off on her own to find Dani, how she knew exactly where to find her, then coming up with a ludicrous and laughable suspect when pressed on who exactly had attacked the young girl. The only problem was Jim Nelson did not know Adele. Roman did.
Or at least he thought he did.
And the Adele he knew would never hurt a child, especially Dani. Roman remembered all too well how involved Adele became in the case to prosecute Danielle's mother. He’d watched the way Adele, always known for her cold, impersonal demeanor, warmed up to the tiny girl with a tragic past.