Caged in Darkness Read online

  I was almost to the door when I began to inch backwards. I wasn’t looking where I stepped and my ankle caught on something near the path, but hidden within the grass. I heard more than felt the crack, and it evicted a strangled cry of alarm. I tried to use my hand to cover my mouth, but the tears began streaming down my face leaving dirt tracks that carved out forking paths. When the pain tore through my ankle, I fell to the ground. I attempted to stand, but each time I put pressure on my right foot, lightning streaked through my nerves and up to my knee.

  As I focused on trying to stand, the porch light came on. The glow shoved away the shadows to reveal a small garden, and the sprinkler that caused my accident. An elderly woman stepped out the door and onto the porch. She hobbled down the stairs and over to where I was cowering. Upon seeing my tear stricken face, and the way I was holding my ankle, she immediately swept into action.

  “Ash, get down here!” She shouted through the open doorway. In a matter of minutes, a boy came stumbling through the doorway with a groggy expression on his face and came to a halt.

  “Whoa, what happened here?” His brows furrowed in confusion, as he peered around the woman’s broad backside.

  “Well, don’t just stand there! The girl is hurt. Help me get her inside.” As the woman said this she pushed upwards from the ground in a pained movement and gently pushed Ash towards me.

  When his arms cradled me against his body, I ceased breathing. My vision turned black, and I began to struggle. I couldn’t concentrate on my surroundings or the rumbling from his chest. I could only see the evil that had invaded my body. I could see it sweeping over my hands to grow against his chest; it climbing towards his face to settle in his eyes and frame them with black. I didn’t want to taint him. I didn’t want to allow my parents darkness to touch anyone else. What had I been thinking? I began to whimper. I knew that what I was seeing was a hallucination, because my parents’ evil overcame all of my senses and this was merely a vision. It was a product of my damaged mind.

  “Quit squirming. You’re making this harder than it needs to be, just calm down a minute.” I stopped struggling. His voice was smooth and melodic, like a song from his soul; it washed down my panic to blanket my hysteria. I calmed.

  He carried me into the house and into a room to place me on a dusty blue couch in the center of a family room. The sofa was hard beneath my small frame, but it was better than the prison I had been kept in for the past nine years. Ash took a small square pillow from a chair nearby and knelt beside the sofa. His hand gently pushed away the fabric of my tattered pants to reveal my swollen ankle. The swelling looked ghastly next to my thin legs. As he did this, Ash’s eyes did not leave mine. He kept my stare; reassuring me that he meant me no harm. He then grasped my foot and slowly lifted it to place the pillow beneath my ankle. I winced in pain at the movement, but began to relax in his company.

  The stout woman had disappeared when Ash brought me to set on the couch, which gave me a moment to examine him. He was slightly older than me. His frame was still small; he hadn’t hit his growth spurt yet. He wore a pair of dark green plaid pajama pants with a white undershirt, and a pair of fuzzy gray slippers. His hair was dark brown with hints of auburn, and was tossed in a million directions. I figured that he must have been sleeping when he was called to help me. His face was beautiful. His features were sharp with high cheekbones, sea foam green eyes and an amused smile. He had perfectly even white teeth.

  Wait, why was he smiling? I looked up into his eyes and saw laughter shining in them. He had been silently standing there, while I visually inspected him. I was mortified. I didn’t know much about interacting with others, but I knew enough to know that it was considered rude to stare.

  “I’m sorry. I’ve never seen a boy before.” My voice was hoarse, which furthered my embarrassment.

  His eyebrows crinkled and his mouth altered into a worried frown. “How is it that you have never seen a…?”

  “Here we go!” The boy didn’t get to finish his sentence, because the woman had pushed her way back into the room. She was holding assorted items from which I could only recognize a few.

  Now that I saw the woman in the light, she wasn’t as old as she had appeared outside. She was hunched over, which must have been what made her seem older, but her face was youthful. She had the same green eyes as the boy, and red hair streaked with gray.

  “I’m going to want to know what you were doing stalking around my home in the middle of the night, but that can wait until you’re taken care of.” Her voice was high pitched with a bit of grain to it. She began to feel around my foot and ankle. Her fingers were deft and kind, but they still inflicted minor pains that caused me to flinch.

  What’s your name child?” She looked me directly in the eye; daring me to lie to her.

  “Savannah. Ummm… what’s yours?” I wasn’t sure if that was the appropriate response, but it was something I wanted to know. If I didn’t get a name soon, she was in danger of being given the unflattering nickname “The Hunchback.”

  “Hmmm… My name is Maye Emmons, and this here is my boy Ash.” She lowered her eyes back to my ankle and began to press the swollen area. She made a sound of confirmation, although I didn’t know what she was confirming. She then reached down to grab a bag filled with herbs. When she applied it to my ankle I knew why she had been gone so long; she must have been gathering items and soaking the herbal bag in hot water. The bag was scorching hot, but I didn’t complain. She then proceeded to wrap the ankle with gauze, and followed with a thick padding. She finally finished with a tan cloth bandage to hold it all together.

  “Now, you’re right as rain. You’ll need to take it easy on that foot for a few days, but after that it should be just fine.” She examined me in much the way that I had examined her son a short while ago.

  “Are you going to tell me why you were slinking around my house in the middle of the night, or do I need to assume you are a burglar?”

  “No! I mean, yes I was slinking around your home, but no I’m not a burglar.” I offered a meek smile.

  “Then what are you?” The voice came from the boy, Ash. He was still wearing that confused frown on his face, and I decided I didn’t like it.

  I sighed. I wasn’t sure how to explain. What if they made me leave?

  “My parents used to belong to your coven; Irena and Devon Cross. They’ve been hurting me, and killing people.” Maye drew a sharp intake of breath and with knowing eyes she smoothed my ratted hair away from my eyes.

  “Don’t you worry about this, darling. You’re safe here. I’ll take care of everything.”

  Maye nodded and smoothed back my hair to inspect my face. I wasn’t sure what she was looking for, but she had a pained look on her face. She made a small sigh, and whispered, “I wish I had known; a child. They had a child.”

  Maye pinched the bridge of her nose and looked Ash in the eye. “I’m going to call a meeting with the others. I expect you to take care of this little bird. I don’t want to hear any nonsense about being tired either. If you hadn’t stayed out until well past curfew you would have had more rest.”

  Ash winced. “Sure. Does this mean you’re going to forget that I got home past curfew? I think I should earn some points for good behavior here.”

  Maye turned from the entryway to fix Ash with a stare that could kill, and left. Ash shrugged and turned to me “It doesn’t hurt to ask, right?” He then walked over to the corner of the room and lifted the lid of a woven chest. When he came back he was carrying two quilts. He tucked one around me, and curled up with the second in a nearby chair. When he said he would take care of me, I guess that meant he would stay with me the whole night. After several minutes of listening to his breathing quiet to a soothing rhythm, I fell asleep.

  3: Surrogate

  Third Entry: Safety

  When Maye issued the council meeting, the adults from the surrounding houses gathered in the casting circle. Outsiders from nearby districts drove to Meadow fa
lls and joined the coven to discuss my situation. The adults clustered together in the circle surrounding the altar. The outsiders revealed themselves as representatives of the sister covens. It was decided that my parents were a poison that needed to be eliminated, and the covens would band together to be the antidote.

  That night Maye made certain my parents could never hurt another. She took me in and promised to never allow anyone to harm me. The expression on her face was heart wrenching. Her clothes were scorched, and she had a gash across her right cheek. She moved slowly, not due to physical exhaustion, but rather emotional drain. Her hunchback seemed to be tied to gravity; she was bent over as though a ghostly weight lay on her shoulders.

  Maye closed the distance between us and encircled my shoulders to hug me. To others it would look as though she were comforting me, but she was the one who needed comfort. I would have preferred not to be touched, but I forced myself not to stiffen at the contact. This was the woman who had saved me. How could I deny her one moment of human comfort?

  Part of me wanted to ask what had been done. Were my parents dead? Was it a quick death? Would they ever be able to hurt me again? It was difficult to imagine a life free of their constant abuse. I suffered the eternal fear that even if they were dead, they would find ways to inflict pain on me and those near me. Was it possible to wage war from the afterlife? I craved answers to these questions, but I couldn’t bear to ask Maye. I knew she was hurting and my questions would bring her more pain.

  Maye became my surrogate mother, as she had already been for Ash. His parents died in a car crash when he was four. Maye, as his Aunt and closest relative, became his legal guardian. She was the only family he remembered. I wish it was that way for me. What I would give to slip into blissful ignorance. Unfortunately, my parents were a nightmare that was repeatedly inflicted on me in daylight and in sleep.

  When I first came to live with Maye, I felt guilty that she and Ash needed to suffer my presence in their lives. They had a simple routine that they followed, and I barred their usual routine with my presence. Theirs was a beautiful home that I infected. They no longer had peaceful nights. The echoes of my childhood screamed through the hollowed essence of their home. They often came down to breakfast with false cheerfulness that was ruined by the ashen circles beneath their eyes. My nightmares plagued my dreams, and their wakefulness.

  My bedroom was upstairs with a large bay window, and a bathroom that connected mine and Ash’s room. Maye originally gave me the guest room on the ground floor, but without any windows and only a single escape route, I panicked. Maye understood the unusual situation and switched rooms with me, for which I was grateful.

  I quickly learned to lock both doors when using the facilities to avoid uncomfortable interruptions. My first week in my new bedroom, I casually walked into the bathroom as Ash was drying off from the shower. Rather than have that happen again, we both opted to be cautious. I knew the bathroom acted as a tunnel for the sounds that came from my room at night. My nightmares, which were in fact memories… must have affected him. To hear that pain, and only have a bathroom as a barrier between him and my taint must have been exhausting.

  I became a ghost, misting through their home, while avoiding as much interaction as possible. Occasionally, they would notice an item that had been moved, or leftovers that were eaten, but those were the only clues to my presence. I often envisioned a medium coming to their home to banish my existence, or a priest to exorcise my demons. I wanted to keep my interruptions to a minimum.

  It wasn’t until my sixth month there that they became fed up with my avoidance issues. I slithered into the kitchen for some food. It was around midnight, and my new family was waiting for me. The kitchen was abnormally large with oak cabinets and a long counter that divided the kitchen from a dining room. This was not to be confused with the larger dining room, whose doors were always closed.

  Maye was sitting at a table in the room beside the kitchen. It was a circular structure with one leg shorter than the others. The table wobbled whenever something touched the top of it, but was stable enough to eat at.

  Ash leaned against the counter, while popping grapes into his mouth and looking amused at my obvious confusion. I couldn’t understand why they were waiting in the kitchen. It was late, and I knew from experience that this time of night was the safest to leave my room.

  I paused next to the counter on the opposite side from Ash. It helped to have a barrier between us. “Why are you both up so late? Do you want me to come back later?”

  Maye snorted, and swiveled in her chair to face me. “Dear, this is an intervention. Do you know what that is?” Her voice was a bit hoarse with a tint of annoyance.

  I knew what an intervention was. My parents had limited my education, but since coming to live with Maye I had been sucking up as much knowledge, as my mind could handle. I spent every day closeted within my room reading any book I could get my hands on, which made me grateful that my mother had originally employed a nanny who taught me the basics.

  “Yes, I know what an intervention is…” My voice trailed off and I looked at Ash for a clue to what was going on and he shrugged. “I just don’t understand why you think I need one.”

  Maye lifted her frame from the chair and crossed to the counter. She stopped at the end and acted as a physical bond between Ash and myself.

  “Child, you are part of this family now. You cannot keep hiding in your room; it’s unhealthy. This has gone on long enough and it needs to stop. Are you unhappy here? Have we done something to make you feel unwelcome?” Her hand reached across the counter and folded itself across my own; I yanked mine away.

  “No! Oh, God no. You’re the best. You and Ash are the kindest people I have ever known. If it wasn’t for you, I’d still be living in a physical portrait of hell. I love being here. Please believe that!” I felt guilty that they didn’t know how grateful I was. I made a mental note to make a greater effort to include myself. I had no idea how to do be part of a family.

  Ash shifted his feet and looked at Maye, and he nodded. “Savannah, we don’t want you to leave. We want you to start hanging with us. I mean, we are a family. Normal families eat together, they watch TV, and… I don’t know… they get sick of each other and argue. You only come out at night, and whenever you see us you agree with everything we say. It’s kind of weird.” He wrinkled his nose, and continued. “ It’s not that we want you to start doing something you are uncomfortable with, but ummm… maybe stop acting like a crazy person who is afraid of people. We don’t bite. I promise.” He snickered. “At least I don’t. I can’t make any promises about Maye.” He cocked an amused grin at Maye, and grabbed another grape.

  Maye sighed, while shaking her head. “I do not bite. I just nibble a bit.” She then glared directly into my eyes. “Child, we want you to be happy. I already suggested you have counseling with a member from our sister coven that specializes in psychiatry, but you refused. If you can’t find natural paths to help heal, I am going to insist on her treating you. What happened to you before is horrifying, but you have a chance here to live a normal life. You can have friends, find a hobby, go to school and even learn magic.”

  At my blank expression, she continued. “What you are or where you came from is not important. It is who you are and the choices you make, that determine who you will become. If you can look inward and be satisfied, the opinions of others should melt away."

  I knew I would never be someone who is comfortable enough with other people to develop friendships, and I wasn’t sure that anything interested me enough to become a hobby. However, the last two options made me pause. I had never been to school. School was for normal kids, with normal lives and normal problems. I wanted that. Magic on the other hand was at the opposite end of the spectrum from normal, but in this town… abnormal was the new normal.

  I looked across the counter at Ash and then at the end of the counter to see Maye. They both fixated an expecting look on me. I wanted those thin
gs; I just didn’t believe that I was capable of them. I had spent the past nine years bound in a prison of eternal darkness. My parents had torn through my innocence and left me with a tar-like substance that was corrupting what was left of me. I could feel it at night; slithering and curling around my soul as it slowly devoured me.

  4: Gothic

  Fourth Entry: My Ghost

  The day I first came to Meadow Falls is little more than a dream, though that little girl plagues me every day. I still hear her crying out, and my skull fractures as pain is inflicted on her. She remained frozen in an eternal chamber of torture, and I did not know how to help her escape. Though, I would never escape her. She would follow me around for the rest of my life; a ghost waiting in the wings for me to acknowledge her. Her soft trailing fingers would continue to attempt a connection that I refused to allow; that I couldn’t allow if I wanted to survive. That ghostly girl was weak and insecure, while I needed to be strong and confident.

  Current Day

  15 years, 11 months, and 14 days old

  When I slammed my locker door shut, my friend Isabella was leaning against the lockers with an irritated expression on her face. Isabella, or as she preferred to be called, “Izzy,” was a recent edition to mine and Willow’s antisocial group. Izzy transferred to Meadow High her freshman year, and immediately took to us. It wasn’t that surprising since Izzy was peculiar. She used to live in New York City, which was more accepting of eccentric personalities. At first, we barely tolerated her. Willow and I were completely happy with our duo and didn’t need to make it into a trio. However, after Izzy invited herself to our homes and conveniently showed up when we were out, we decided to accept the inevitable.