“I rode the bike over some fallen branches, slipped in some mud, and crashed into a tree. I was okay. I got up, wiped my hands on my jeans, and there it was. In the distance, looming beside a tree.”
“What did it look like?” Taylor asked.
“Like it was shrouded in black mist. It reminded me of a hot chocolate outside in the dead of winter.” Trevor’s hand was stretched out, like he was holding a cup. “It was tall, and I wanted to scream, but I couldn’t. I was so scared.” He glanced up to the lights along the edges of the ceiling, and stared at them until Taylor wanted to tell him to stop. Then he blinked again and looked away.
“That’s what I saw too,” she assured him.
Trevor’s shoulders relaxed; he was obviously pleased he wasn’t the only one. “You’re not messing with me, are you? This isn’t some kind of sick game you’re playing, right?”
“No, Trevor, not at all. Did he come for you then?” she asked, anxious to hear more about the creature’s movements. It was imperative that she learn about it. If it was still around, that meant something to her now that she’d read the journal. And she thought maybe she’d be able to stop it.
“It disappeared as quickly as it arrived. One minute it was watching me from fifty yards away, the next the black mist poured away until there was nothing left but empty air. I was so scared. I started to run, only to remember I left my bike. I had to double back, and now it was dark out. It was almost as if an hour had passed instead of five minutes. I got the bike and rode like hell home.” Trevor’s voice was getting louder, his breathing labored, almost as if he was pedaling for his life again in that room right then.
“You’re okay, Trevor. Did you tell anyone?” Taylor asked, trying to distract him.
“My mom would have been pissed if she knew I was out in the woods after dark, so I parked my bike and came in, telling her I just came from my friend’s house. I ran to my room, turned on all my lights, and waited for it to come for me,” Trevor said.
“And did it?”
“No. I didn’t see it again for a month or so. I was sure I’d seen something, and had convinced myself of that. Life went back to normal. Mom was doing well at work, and I started playing on the basketball team at school.
“Then, one night when the snow first started to fall, I was walking home after practice and I went into the back yard. The porch light snapped on, and I saw it through the fence, a black form standing in the field just a few feet from our yard. I ran into the house and looked out my window, but it had vanished.” Trevor coughed, startling Taylor. She felt like she was there with him, looking for the figure out his window.
“It kept happening. My mom didn’t believe me. Months of this. Every few days, sometimes a week between, but there it was. All through the winter, I saw it out in the snow, flickering for a few moments at a time, but by the end of the winter, it was there for longer periods of time,” he said.
Taylor considered this. Maybe it had weakened after the Smiths were gone and its nest was burned. The fact that it appeared in and out of sight would support that theory.
“What changed? What happened that brought you from being scared in your room to here in this place?” Taylor motioned to the space around them.
“It came for me.” Trevor took a deep breath, and Taylor was ready for it. She clenched her jaw and leaned toward the boy. “It was spring…”
Taylor shuddered. It was spring now. She wondered if that was relevant. Maybe it hibernated. But he’d seen it through the winter, and it hadn’t made any moves for him. Was it projecting? That would make sense.
“The snow was melting, and I hadn’t seen it for weeks, maybe a month. I started to wonder if it was me. Mom was worried and began sending me to see a doctor in Gilden once a week. I told him everything, and I think he worried I was being abused. He asked my mom if there were any men in her life, or if I’d said anything about a man on the block, or a teacher that kept me after class. She asked me all of these questions, and I knew why. I yelled at her that no one was doing anything to me, but she didn’t believe me. She doted on me, driving me to and from school. She almost lost her job because she took so much time off to try to help me.
“It stopped for that month, and I thought I was free. Then it came. Mom was stuck at work, and she called, telling me that she’d ordered pizza, and that I had to pay for it when the guy showed up. The doorbell rang, and I opened it, but there was no pizza delivery man. An old woman walked by, and she locked eyes with me before the shadow moved between us. It lifted from the ground, directly before me, and grabbed my arm. I felt its hand push through me. Ice cold. Wet.”
It had clutched Taylor so firmly and solidly, it had burned. This only reiterated her growing suspicions.
“The pizza guy showed up, his headlights burst the shadow into a million black drops, and I ran. I nearly tripped on the woman standing there, and the pizza guy shouted after me,” Trevor said quietly.
“Where did you go?” Taylor asked, picturing the scene in her mind’s eye.
“I don’t know. They found me hours later at the church. You know, the little one off Main. I
