Chapter 26
Chapter
Twenty-Six
Franklin
I woke with a start and sat up far too quickly. My head swam. It felt like the roar of the ocean was inside, waves crashing in my brain. Cupping my forehead in my hands, I leaned over and groaned.
“It’ll pass. Take shallow breaths. That helped me.”
My head snapped in the direction of a voice I knew all too well. “Ms. Boone?” My throat was scratchy and ached with those simple words.
“Lydia, dear.” Her smile was soft with an apologetic edge, as if it were her fault we were… Where exactly were we?
I slowly registered Lydia’s hand rubbing circles on my back. Focusing on her touch and taking those small, shallow breaths helped me regain my equilibrium. The nausea rolling in my stomach dissipated as did my swimming head. The crash of waves remained.
“Where are we?”
Lydia went from a crouched position to sitting.
She withdrew her hand, and I immediately missed its soothing presence.
“On the beach.” Lydia pointed toward a window.
“I can see the ocean. Or maybe the Gulf.” She shook her head.
“I’m not really certain.” Elbows propped on her bent knees, Lydia ran a hand through her auburn hair, revealing more gray than I remembered.
“The windows are open, but they’re covered in bars. ”
With my head clearer, I analyzed our situation.
The floor was wooden. The planks were wide and felt old.
The slant of the ceiling made me think we were in an attic—the exposed beams left open and unfinished.
The area was mostly empty. There were a couple of chairs and mattresses lying on the floor.
A walled-off room was in the corner. “And there?” I pointed toward the room.
“Bathroom,” Lydia answered. “Nothing fancy, but it will get the job done.” She gave me another weak smile.
Half a dozen bottles of water lay nearby along with some packaged jerky, peanuts, and other snacks.
Twisting my head, I found two windows, one on either end of the room along the flat walls.
Just like Lydia had said, there were metal bars stretched across them along with screens to keep the bugs out.
Pushing to my feet, my legs only wobbled a little. Lydia’s concerned “careful, Franklin” gave me pause, and I was grateful for the warning when I took my first step and my knees threatened to give out.
“It takes a little longer to be able to walk well.” Lydia stood next to me, placing a steadying hand on my elbow.
“How long have you been here?” I asked while following my ears and walking toward the sound of waves.
“I’m not entirely certain. There’s no clock, and my phone’s gone.
Looking at the dwindling light, I’d guess four hours, maybe more.
I’m not sure if I’ve been here the whole time.
” Lydia huffed. “I’d finished showing the McCorkles a lovely home.
It’s absolutely perfect for them. It has…
Well, I suppose that doesn’t really matter right now.
They left before me. I’d just locked the door and was walking to my car when… ” Lydia shivered.
It was my turn to support her. Wrapping an arm around her shoulders, I said, “Shadows and darkness?”
Lydia nodded and reached for her throat. “God, it was horrible. The blackness swallowed me. It covered my eyes and then my nose and mouth, and I couldn’t… I just couldn’t breathe. And then…I’m not sure. I don’t really remember anything else. Like you, I woke up here.”
We’d made it to the window, and my fingers immediately wrapped around the metal bars.
Lydia was right. Sand and endless miles of water lay before us.
Given the gentle nature of the waves, I was betting on Gulf water, not oceanic.
My fingers tightened on the bars before I gave them a pointless tug. Solid.
“I tried that,” Lydia said. “I might have even screamed and shouted some rather embarrassing things too.”
What I wanted to shout wouldn’t embarrass me in the slightest. “And the other window?” I asked, turning my head toward the other end of the room. That side was darker, the shadows deeper. I was reluctant to head that direction but knew it was necessary.
“Trees,” Lydia answered. “Nothing but vegetation. I tried twisting from side to side to see more, but no matter how hard I tried, that’s all I could see. No roads. No other houses. Nothing. I hate to say it, Franklin, but I get the feeling we’re in the middle of nowhere.”
I started to walk in the other direction when Lydia’s hand shot out, grabbing my wrist and tugging me back. “What’s wrong?” It was a ridiculous question. There were so many things wrong she’d hardly know where to start.
Lydia’s eyes hardened on a far corner, closer to the other side of the room. “We’re not alone, Franklin.” She said it in a hushed whisper.
“The shadows?” I questioned.
Lydia nodded. “Yes, but not just those. There’s someone on the other side.
I…I think it’s a brownie. I’ve only met one in my life, and that was years ago when Nikodemus and I were together.
I know they’re small, but this one is even smaller, and he doesn’t look healthy.
I thought he was dead at first, but he’s breathing.
I considered waking him but wasn’t sure. ”
I squinted, desperately trying to pierce the shadows with my sight.
“It was brighter earlier, before you showed up. The sun was at a different angle earlier in the day.”
“You were awake when I…” I wasn’t certain how to phrase my arrival.
“I was. It was very disturbing. A large shadow sort of bubbled up from the floor, and when it receded, there you were. A little bit of amnesia when this is all over would be a blessing.”
I squeezed Lydia’s shoulder before heading into the shadows. If Huxley wanted me dead, I wouldn’t be standing upright. If he didn’t want me near whoever was lying on the opposite side of the room, then he’d stop me.
My eyes adjusted the deeper I got into the darkness. There, lying in the corner on a blanket was the small figure Lydia spoke of. She was right; it was a brownie and by the looks of it, a young one. Brownies were small, but this figure was even smaller. Definitely not an adult.
Crouching beside the brownie, I echoed Lydia’s concerns.
The brownie child didn’t look healthy. His cheeks were hollow, his eye sockets too deep and his brown skin appeared sallow.
While the shade of brown differed from brownie to brownie, all of them had shimmering, shiny hair.
This brownie’s hair was dull and looked like it would snap in half at the slightest provocation.
Curled up on his side in the fetal position, the brownie’s hands were folded under his face, and his knees were tucked up close to his chest. His clothes were probably the healthiest part about him. No shoes adorned his feet, but they were covered in a thick pair of socks.
I started to reach out but pulled my hand back as a sliver of light caught on something around his wrist. Leaning in, I could see it was something metal with a type of writing I couldn’t read scribbled across it.
When I looked closer, I could visualize a similar bracelet on his opposite wrist. Glancing down, he had them on his ankles also.
A similar collar was wrapped around his neck.
“What do you think they are?” Lydia asked over my shoulder.
“I can’t say exactly, but I’ve got a general idea.” Anger flared hot and heavy.
“They’re some type of device to hold him captive, aren’t they?”
“That’s my guess.”
The growl erupting from Lydia’s chest reminded me of Phlox. “This is completely unacceptable. He’s a child, isn’t he?”
I nodded. “I believe so.” I wasn’t clear on his age. All I knew was he didn’t appear to be an adult.
“What kind of a monster would do such a thing?” Lydia’s compassion overrode any fear she might have had.
Reaching forward, she pushed the brownie’s hair from his forehead, tucking it behind a pointed ear.
“The poor thing.” She shifted closer, tugging the blanket over the boy’s body. He still didn’t wake.
“You should not touch his bindings.”
I jerked so fast I nearly fell on my ass. Scrambling, I moved closer to Lydia as the shadows coalesced, growing darker and more substantial until there was one being, its height nearly reaching the rafters.
My breathing quickened into short gasps and my heart sped. I reached for Lydia, but she moved to the side, standing and pointing an accusing finger toward the growing darkness. “This is beyond monstrous,” she said while pointing at the child at her feet. “He is only a child.”
A low, sonorous chuckle came from the darkness. “A very powerful child. We find that power very useful. It hides us from prying eyes.”
“We?” I scanned the room. Was it talking about the shadows in general or—
“We are one of the same whole,” it cryptically answered. “I am Shadow.”
Lydia gave me a confused look. I wished I could clarify, but I had no more idea than she did. “Huxley?” I asked.
“I am Shadow,” it repeated. “I am one with Huxley.”
One, but I got the feeling not the same. This part of Huxley identified as an individual. The same, but different. Unfortunately, my forced nap hadn’t equated to mental rejuvenation. My brain and body were still exhausted, and I felt like I was way behind the eight ball.
Scrubbing my tired eyes, I mumbled, “I’m too tired for this shit.”
Another rumbling chuckle consumed the darkness. “We are clever.”
A different type of unease slithered through me. “What does that mean?” I struggled to my feet, standing beside Lydia.
“It was amusing, playing with you, Detective O’Hare.” There was far too much malicious pleasure dripping through those words.
“What did you do?” I had an awful feeling I already knew.
“It was simple enough. We are everywhere and nowhere. We see the things others want to keep hidden. We are the darkness they hide within. They were easy to dispatch. They were even easier to move into place.”
“Franklin, what’s it talking about?” Lydia almost succeeded in keeping the fear from her voice.
I was afraid to answer. The guilt surrounding all those deaths threatening to swamp me. “You killed them. All of them. Just to get to me.” The horror nearly paralyzed me.
“What deaths?” Lydia asked, a frantic note now present.
I couldn’t answer her. All I could do was numbly stand there, attempting to use this new information as the glue to piece the puzzle together.
“Twelve deaths. Twelve people murdered that should still be alive. And all for what? Just to keep me occupied. To…” Exhaust me.
To keep me away from Boone. To keep my mind too busy to focus on what I should have concentrated on.
Lydia sucked in a harsh breath. “Twelve people?”
“Guilt is a strange emotion, one we do not understand. You did not kill those humans.”
“No. But all the same, they died because of me.”
“They would have perished anyway. The women at least. We simply killed them before their human murderers had a chance. They died with far less pain than they would have if their human assailants had been given more time. We knew their plans. We took great pleasure dispatching the others.” That pleasure resonated through their voice.
“And then you moved the bodies to Mississippi, practically to my back door.”
“We are shadow and darkness. It is nothing to move through that darkness.”
I may not understand how, but the description Lydia had given of my appearance in this godforsaken room was proof enough for me. “And the flesh? You removed it. How and why?”
“We must eat.”
Dear God, I thought I was going to be sick. “You…ate them? There were no teeth marks on the bones, no indication they’d been fed on.”
“It ate people?” Lydia sounded as aghast as I felt.
“Teeth are unnecessary, Detective O’Hare. We are shadow.”
“I have no idea what that means.” Not in this context and probably a lot of others.
“Explaining would not clarify the act. Feeding was a pleasurable necessity. It removed much of the evidence and made your job more challenging.”
“Keeping me preoccupied longer.”
More laughter. “We are very clever.”
I hated how much I agreed. “Very clever.” And very deadly. “So, now you have Boone’s momma and me. What do you plan to do with us?”
“That depends on the necromancer.”
Of course it did. This was all about Boone. Lydia and I were just… “Collateral. Leverage.”
“Oh, hell no.” Lydia’s hands fisted, and her body vibrated. “I will not allow you to use me against my son.”
“You say this as if you have a choice.” Lydia’s mouth opened, but before she could utter another word, Shadow said, “You have been warned regarding the restraints on the brownie. Touching them would not be wise. I doubt a human would survive the backlash, and we need you alive. For now.”
The shadows dissipated, relaxing and filling the corners of the room.
I had no idea if they were still watching.
Regardless, the main entity was gone. I was left reeling.
All those people… Shadow didn’t know those women would have been killed.
Maybe their murderers would have been caught beforehand.
Maybe they could have gotten away. Maybe…
There were a lot of damn maybes and not enough answers.
“We need to get out of here, Franklin. I will not be the reason my son is forced to do something nefarious, something he wouldn’t otherwise do. Do you hear me?”
Oh, I heard Lydia Boone. I heard her loud and clear.
I wanted to tell Lydia that Erasmus wasn’t alone, that he had Phlox and Leon.
More than that, he had Aurelia. She’d been the one to inform me Lydia was missing.
I didn’t know if she truly went to Boone or not when I asked, but I had a niggling feeling she did.
I wasn’t sure if that would equate to more help or not.
I wanted to say all that and more, but we had to assume Huxley was listening in. “We’ll figure it out,” I said. I just wished I had a clue how we were going to do that.
A scraping sound drew my attention to the floor. Large, dull brown eyes stared up at me. It looked like our brownie companion was finally awake.