Vision of Shadows (23 page)

Hunter shrugged. “When you say something, if it’s a lie
, I kind of hear an echo of what it is you said. I’ve been fooled a few times, but it’s rare. I’ve never been wrong when I hear the echo. If I hear it’s a lie, it’s a lie.”

“You told me I lied when we first met,” I said. “About what
? I don’t remember lying. I can’t remember everything I said, but I really don’t remember lying.”

“There were two things,” Hunter explained. “The first was when you talked about just being with Payne when he happened to find Jared. You were lying. I understand why now. That’s why Payne said what he did right
afterward. About you being nothing but kind and compassionate about everything. So, I could hear him say it and know he was telling the truth. I figured maybe the two of you were maybe off making out at the time and, you just didn’t want to mention it.”

“No
,” I said. “Not at that point, at least. What was the second?”

“When I asked you if you thought of yourself as a freak,” Hunter answered. “You said no. You lied.”

I broke eye contact and looked once more out to the lake. Damn, I liked Hunter. But having her as a friend was going to be hard. 

“Well, I grew up where the people I spent the most time with were all dead,” I explained. “You have to admit, that’s pretty freaky.
And I didn’t know there were other people out there that were different. I hadn’t grown up in Spirit. It’s an adjustment talking to people about this, but it’s nice.”

Hunter smiled. “I think you and I are going to be good friends
, Bristol. I hope we will be. I can tell you’re important to Payne. And I can see he’s important to you.”

“He is,” I admitted. “Look, back when I was in the city, I never had any close friends. I mean, I had friends. If I wanted to get together and go see a movie or something, I could. But I was never one to just hang out with others. I was always different
, and I never knew when some spirit might pop out of nowhere. A few people caught me once or twice. They just all assumed I was talking to myself. I guess I’m used to being a loner.”

“I’m sorry,” Hunter said. “That’s sad. Did your parents know about you?”

I started to say no, but then I shrugged. “I’m not sure. When I was six I told them about having a dream where my teacher had a heart attack in front of the class. I didn’t want to go to school that day.”

“But they made you go?” she asked.

“No, they didn’t,” I said. “In fact, they both called in to work themselves. We had ourselves a wonderful family day. We did the zoo, a movie, we ate out. We didn’t get home until late. When we got home, we had an answering machine full of messages from other parents about my teacher dying in front of the class. My parents flipped. My mom called me a…” I hesitated to use the word, “freak. After that, I figured it was better to keep my visions and other abilities to myself.”

“I’m sorry,” Hunter said

“I’m just very…”  I stopped talking midsentence as panic set in. In the distance, I could hear the shadow creatures. I jumped up from where I sat and started to look around.

“Bristol, what’s wrong?” Hunter asked. 

I held up my hand to stop her from talking so I could listen more closely. A chill sliced through me as I realized the shadow creatures were getting closer. I went to the window and looked outside. They were by the lake. Something about the sound made me realize they were really ticked off.

“You remember those shadow things I told you about?” 

“Oh boy,” Hunter jumped up. “Please don’t tell me they’re here. Pretty please. Pretty please with sugar on top.”

Suddenly
, there was a bang. Everything in Hunter’s room shook. Picture frames and little items that lined her shelves crashed to the ground.  When I looked Hunter in the eyes, I could see the terror. 

There was another bang
that sounded like the front door. Whatever it was, it was in the house. I looked over to Hunter, feeling guilty as hell for exposing her to this. “Does this mean we can’t be friends anymore?”

Boom!

“What are we going to do?” Hunter asked.

“I’m gonna call for help,” I announced and got my cellphone. 

“Good,” Hunter said
. “Call your uncle.”

“Right,” I said. “I was going to call Payne, but Uncle Mark would probably be better. Oh hell, I’ll call them both…” I looked at my phone and then cursed. “Or not. No signal! Do you usually get a signal here?”

“All the time,” Hunter answered. “Does paranormal activity normally interfere with cellphone reception?”

“I don’t know?
I’m not a spookologist. We’ve gotta get out of here.”

Hunter looked around a moment and then nodded. “Ok
ay, follow me.” 

We rushed to the door. Hunter peered out first. Seeing nothing, she signaled me forward
, and we proceeded out into the hallway. I started to head back toward the way we came, but Hunter pulled my arm.

“This way,” she
cried, her voice unsteady with terror. 

We tried to move as quickly and quietly down the hallway as possible. Hunter grabbed my hand and led me around a corner. 

I saw the hallway led to the front of the house. We ran for it, taking the turn at top speed. The hallway in front of me was a long one. 

I followed close behind her, this time not bothering to take note of the beautiful paintings and antiques along the way. What I
did notice was how
big
her house was. I don’t think I had ever been in someone’s home and run from one wing to the other. 

At the end of the hallway were two sets of stairs, one heading up and the other heading down. There was a small area dividing the two, with a little window and a vase. The vase suddenly exploded.

“Not good,” I screamed, skidding to a halt. The rug under my feet went with me, and I crashed into a small bust that shattered on the ground. “Oops. Sorry, my bad.”

Hunter pulled me to my feet. “I always hated that thing. Go back this way,” she said. 

Instead of heading straight back down the hallway, Hunter opened one of the many doors we had passed along the way. Inside was a walk-in linen closet. Toward the back of the room were other supplies and an elevator. 

“Here, give me a hand
,” I said. 

The shelves
the linen was stacked on were movable. Between the two of us, we pushed them in front of the doors. Half of the linen fell off in the process, but hopefully it bought us some time.

We went into the elevator and hit the down button.
Inside, we held on to each other. I could feel Hunter tremble with fear. Or maybe that was me?

T
he elevator car began to move.
Slowly.
I rolled my eyes in frustration. “This has got to be the slowest moving elevator in the entire world.”

I could feel Hunter’s fear mixing with my own as she
slumped against the wall. “I haven’t used this thing since I was little. Now I remember why.”

“My grandfather could take the stairs faster than this thing
,” I yelled. “Where does this take us?”

“Basement.”

“Basement?” I repeated. “Is that a good idea?” 

There was another explosion from above. “There goes the linen door
,” Hunter yelled. “At least we know where he is. It will take him a few minutes to circle around.”

“Unless he, she or it decides to blow up the elevator while we’re on it!”

Both Hunter and I looked up at the same time. The elevator came to a halt, and as soon as the doors opened we both jumped out. We were now in a room where the laundry was done. There were two doors; both looked like doors from a restaurant. They swung both ways, and it didn’t look like there was any way to block them. We started to move away when there was a
boom,
and the elevator doors bent outward. Hunter and I jumped back and screamed.

“Do you have any idea what it is that’s after us?” Hunter asked. ”What are these shadow things?”

“I don’t know,” I told her. “All I see are these shadows that talk in real creepy voices and say stuff about wanting me dead. They keep referring to someone named McKnight.”

“How do you know
it’s a McKnight trying to kill us?” Hunter asked, offended. “It could just as easily be a Blackburn.”

I just stared at her, stunned. “Does that really matter right now? I just told you what they said
. It could be Donald Duck with a bazooka trying to take us out for all I know.”

“I’m sorry
,” Hunter cried. “What do we do?”

“Wait,” I said
. “They’re not after you, just me. Find a place to hide. I’ll make a run for it.”

“No way
,” Hunter countered. She shook her head stubbornly. “We’re in this together.”

“Hunter,” I said
. “They’re not after you, just me.”

“I don’t care
,” Hunter answered. “I’m not leaving you on your own. Besides, in the movies, the psycho always gets them after they split up.”

“Fine, so which way?” I pointed to the two doors. “Where do these go?”

“That one,” Hunter pointed to the one in front of us, “leads to the kitchen.”

“Well, I could use a snack,” I said. “What about that one?” I pointed to the one behind me.

“I’m not sure,” Hunter said. “I think the cellar.”

“You’re
not
sure
?”

“It’s a big house!”

“Okay, never mind,” I said. “I think I know what to do. Listen.”

Within a few seconds, we had moved what we could in front of the doors that led to the kitchen. It wasn’t going to hold off whoever or whatever was coming for more than a few seconds, but it was going to make a lot of noise when they did come after us. I flipped
the lights out before moving.

“Let’s go,” I said.

It seemed like forever, although I’m quite sure it was really less than a full minute, before something appeared at the door that led to the kitchen. The door pushed but didn’t open due to what Hunter and I had put in front of it. My heart leaped into my throat. I knew what came next.

The explosion was quick and impressive. Everything Hunter and I had piled in front of the doors was blown away. The door itself swung open
and then back again. It continued to do this for a few moments, as if expressing its admiration of the blast that had occurred. 

A figure appeared in the doorway. This was no shadow creature.
A flesh and blood human walked through. Whoever it was strode toward the other doors. 

They stopped when they heard Hunter in the corner of the room. She had dropped something that rattled to the floor and rolled away. The person
slowly moved toward her. 

I jumped out and smashed a large glass pitcher over his head. The glass shattered and clattered to the ground. A moment later
, our attacker fell to his knees. He wobbled there a moment before falling flat to the floor. 

“Did it work?” Hunter asked. “Did you get him?”

“Yeah, I did,” I answered. I looked down at our fallen assailant and realized there was something familiar about him. He was young. A teenager. I was having a hard time making out the face in the dark. “Hit the lights. I think I know this guy.”

I heard Hunter fumbling around in the dark.
“Don’t tell me some loon from the city followed you up here.”

The lights clicked on
, and I looked down and gasped. “I don’t think so.”

“Oh my God
,” Hunter yelled. “Archer!” She sat next to Archer and pulled him in her arms. Archer looked stunned but was still moving.

“One of your cousins, right?” I asked.

Hunter nodded. “Bristol, Archer can be a bit full of himself, but he’s not a bad guy. He wouldn’t try and kill us.”

I wasn’t sure what to say. I didn’t want to end my friendship with Hunter just as it had be
gun, but to me it seemed clear Archer was trying to kill us.

I was about to say something to Hunter when the sounds of the shadows creatures started again. They didn’t seem close. In fact, I
got the impression they were outside. I shivered, feeling something cold pass me by. 

Archer moaned and began to stir.   

“What happened?” His eyes were glassy as he looked around. “Hunter, is that you? Where are we?”

Hunter looked up at me for an instant before her eyes went back to her cousin. “You’re ok
ay, Archer. You were hit over the head, but you’re going to be okay.”

I pulled out my cellphone.

“Who are you calling?” Hunter asked. “Your uncle?”

I looked at Hunter, her eyes pleading. “No, I’m calling Payne. There’s more than meets the eye here.”

Hunter looked stunned for a moment, but she nodded and tended to her cousin. Archer insisted on being helped up. We managed to get him to the front living room and onto the couch. He was still so stunned that I don’t think he realized who I was. 

Even lying there on the couch with his head bleeding, Archer McKnight was a picture to behold. Hunter held Archer’s head in her lap, urging him to keep still. How many girls in school would love to trade places with her right now? Helping to nurse back the tall, muscular, brown
-haired teen with the green eyes and the adorable face? Well, they could have him. I still remembered the way he tripped poor Ian the first day I’d been at Spirit High. That alone was enough to sour my feelings for him.

I looked around. The front door was smashed through.
Several paintings had fallen off the walls that might be able to be salvaged. There were also several antiques that didn’t look like they’d be so lucky.

A car pulled up, and Hunter and I exchanged glances before Payne c
ame running through the splintered doorframe. He rushed to me and pulled me into an embrace.

“Bristol, are you
all right?” Payne asked.

“Yeah.
” I nodded. “Just dandy.”

“Hunter?” Payne asked. 

“Ducky,” she answered. “Is Grandpa with you? Oh, there he is.”

I unburied my head from Payne’s chest and turned so I could see Varick McKnight enter the room. He was dressed in black slacks and shirt. His frame filled the opening of the doorway and radiated power. Even the surviving paintings seemed intimidated by him. His sharp, blue eyes scanned the room and found us. He quickly crossed the room, his moustache leading the way.

I couldn’t help but notice that Varick passed what must have been hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of damage and destruction to his home and never even blinked an eye. His focus was completely and utterly on his three grandchildren. And me.

This was scarier than the attack.

“What’s happened here?” he asked.

“Grandpa,” Hunter said
. “I invited Bristol over. We were in my room when someone or something came through that door. The two of us ran. I remembered the elevator in the linen room so we took that down to the lower level. We got off just in time…”

“In time?” Varick interrupted. “In time for what?”

Hunter and I exchanged glances. 

“Before whatever it was that was after us blew the hell out of the elevator,” Hunter answered. “Bristol got the idea to lay a trap. We blocked the doors to the kitchen from our side
and then hid. We figured when whoever it was came through, we could make it look like we went the other way. Well someone did come through. I let them spot me, and then Bristol brained them with a glass pitcher.”

“And how did Archer get injured
?” Varick asked.

Hunter and I looked at each other. We were very aware of everyone staring at us. Payne still h
eld me; Varick stood with his hands on his hips. Even Archer looked rapt at attention. Hunter’s eyes drifted down to Archer, her hand caressing his head.

“Archer was the one I w
hacked,” I answered. “The doors blew open, he came in, and I clobbered him upside his head.”

There was a moment of silence as what I said was absorbed. Then everyone started to talk at once.

“I didn’t,” Archer yelled. “I wouldn’t.”

“Archer, I’m going to rip your arms out
,” Payne threatened. “You could have killed Bristol and Hunter.”

“We don’t know what happened yet,” Hunter said
. “But I can’t believe Archer would have tried to hurt me.”

“Enough
,” Varick commanded. It was amazing to see how everyone automatically zipped it.

“Young lady,” Varick said, “you come into my home and disaster follows. I do not know what happened, but you’ve admitted to assaulting my grandson. You may want to keep that in mind when your uncle arrives.”

“Grandpa,” Payne said. “Don’t threaten Bristol. It’s not her fault that Archer attacked her.”