The Shadow Keepers by Marisa Noelle & Marisa Noelle

Author:Marisa Noelle & Marisa Noelle [Noelle, Marisa]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2020-06-02T00:00:00+00:00

SEVENTEEN

THE GIRLS AT the game’s tables turn at the commotion, some of them half crouching, others craning necks to get a look at the wheelchair girl cocooned on the floor. Some glance towards the raised blinds. The windows.

Mouths drop open as they leap from chairs. A series of gasps punctuate the TV show. Then silence.

Marion stands in the middle of it all with her hands on her hips and her frown deepening to Grand Canyon proportions, still looking between the dust on the blinds and the girl huddled on the floor.

The girls watching TV finally notice the change in the room. They flick their eyes from the whimpering girl on the floor to the windows. One screams. Then another. Their eyes widen and fear licks the room with a thick brush. Pretty soon several of the girls are screaming until Marion covers her ears. With my heart pounding and my pulse thundering in my temples, I crouch by the door and watch. And wait. Trying to understand what it all means.

The girls run from one end of the room to the other. Some huddle in a large group, clawing each other for a position at the protected centre. Everyone screams.

Marion and Paul share a look, frowns on both their faces, not understanding, not seeing. How can they not see?

But everyone else does. All the patients.

They all see the shadows.

THEY ALL SEE THE SHADOWS.

What the . . .?

Marion runs from the room, yelling something about getting help. Only Paul and Crash Helmet Annie remain unaffected as she continues to stare at her stark corner of the room. She can’t see them from her position. But if she turns around . . .

Paul looks as frozen as me, his foot still propped in his favourite position on the radiator. But his muscles are taught, reading to launch. We share a look. Exchanging knowing and understanding. We move at the same time. Him down one side of the room and me down the other, grabbing for the blind cords, drawing them closed.

With each blind I draw, the shadows hiss at me. A sibilant sound of primitive menace, a promise that this is not over. All of the blinds slap into place, thunking against the sills, and the shadows disappear. One by one, the girls stop cowering and calm down. They take their seats and engage in their previous activities as though nothing happened. Just like that. As if the shadows appear to them every day. As if the presence of the shadows is normal. All except the wheelchair girl, who is incapable of climbing back into her chair on her own. Paul approaches her and picks her up. He places her back in the wheelchair, smooths her hair from her face and points her towards the TV, away from the windows.

Marion bursts back into the common room with an army of burly orderlies and nurses. They each hold a syringe of tranq in their hands, but they stop short when they realise calm and order has been restored in their absence.

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