Hunted by Darkness

Traces

Sarah

The shower had been a blessing. She had underestimated the value of hot water to get over what had been a terrifying day and night. For the few minutes that it lasted, it helped her forget about the anxiety, gripping her soul with iron claws. Only when she wrapped herself in a towel so dry it scratched her skin did she remember about the thing that had almost killed Gabriel and how it had tried to kill her. Not to mention the escape from her own home. She half expected a knock on the door at any minute and the police showing up to get her back home. Would they do that, though? She was an adult, after all. The idea of leaving that place that had terrified her to the point of insomnia had seemed great at the time, but now, in the light of day, it seemed ridiculous.

Her parents were the only ones who knew her, actually knew her and her past. Telling herself that Gabriel seemed to know her did nothing for her peace of mind. If he had lost his memory, how come he remembered her? Or was that all a lie too? Did he know what had happened to her? How did they even know each other?

And why did she feel safe with him? She was very aware that this had been her first sound sleep in days. When she closed her eyes, in that bed that smelled of leather and musk, the fact that Gabriel was only a few metres away filled her with a sense of calm she didn’t remember feeling before.

She towelled her hair dry, the same questions taking turns in her head, her brain trying to find answers where she knew there was none. Now, sitting at the white table with aluminium edges at a bakery around the corner, she couldn’t decide what to ask first and didn’t know if she dared to hear the answers. Two men in cargo trousers and high visibility vests sat at the next table with takeaway cups of coffee and giant sandwiches, knowing exactly who they were and what their day was going to be about. Meanwhile, she sat with a twisted stomach and unsure of what her next word was going to be.

Gabriel was now ordering them two equally big sandwiches and drinks. He pushed a white ceramic mug towards her and her food when he came back. Both her hands wrapped themselves around the cup and lifted it to her lips, the steam rising between them like a curtain. Gabriel smiled, his grey eyes looking down, before taking a sip of his coffee. She couldn’t help notice how he held the spoon in place with his index finger. Sarah had no clue why that mattered, but it seemed to catch her attention.

‘What do we do now?’ she asked, her eyes still fixed on his large fingers.

Gabriel only shrugged, his square jaw visibly working on his sandwich. She had hoped he would have some sort of plan that would make sense of his actions the previous night.

‘Why did you come to get me from my parent’s house?’

‘I told you, they didn’t recognize me, I thought you were in danger and…’

‘I got that, yeah, but why did you…’ she found it hard to put her thoughts into words, ‘why did you care? After what happened at the pub you could have walked away…’

He shrugged again and took a big bite out of his sandwich.

‘You saved my life,’ he said with his mouth half full. That was reason enough for him but it hardly explained anything.

‘How did we know each other?’

Gabriel froze, as if time had stopped if only for a second, before resuming the chewing and drinking of his breakfast at a slow pace.

‘We were friends.’

‘Alex and Mary said they were my friends too.’

He swallowed the last of his sandwich and wiped his mouth with a napkin before crumpling it in a ball and throwing it on his plate, avoiding her glaring eyes through the whole process

‘Alex wasn’t your friend, he was mine,’ his eyes moved up to meet hers as he threw a used napkin into his now empty plate, ‘Mary was yours. That’s how we met. Alex had a house party with his house-mates in town, and Mary sneaked in with her friends, you included. Alex didn’t want his little sister and her “pesky friends” in his party, mostly because his parents would have gone berserk at the idea of Mary being there. Lots of alcohol, some drugs, I’m not gonna lie. Either way, Alex and I have known each other for years, we’ve been in the same class since P3.’

‘So you think that he is… what? Why didn’t he recognize you?’

Sarah wrapped her arms around her chest. Out of the window, the sun had barely broken over the horizon.

‘I’ve no idea… but that wasn’t Alex, was it? I mean, I’ve never known him to be possessed by… well, whatever that was…’

‘He didn’t recognize you that day on the parking either.’

‘I don’t know, to be honest, I had barely realized it was him before he punched me and then, when I came to, his body was face down, and it was dark… Not in his wildest dreams could Alex, the real Alex, have floored me like that…’

‘So it was you!’

Gabriel didn’t answer, staring at his plate.

‘Well?’

‘Yeah… well, I saw you were in trouble, so…’

Right.

‘What were you doing there?’

Another silence, this time with a sigh.

‘I was hungry…’

That’s right, they were at a fast food.

Sarah looked at him. Gabriel had a good four inches over Alex and the girth of his chest alone would scare off the rowdiest of brawlers. His shoulders were well defined under his jumper, straight, his torso running slimmer to the waist. What could have inspired Alex to try to punch his way out of that situation, looking at that? And yet, he did floor him.

‘Anyway,’ he cleared his throat, rubbing the back of his neck, ‘I should have noticed there was something strange there…’

A soft warmth flooded her face as she realized she had lingered too long on the shape of his upper body. She looked quickly at her hands and busied herself eating her sandwich. No need to pretend, she was starving. She couldn’t remember the last time she had been this hungry. The more she ate, the more she wanted to eat. Her mouth couldn’t take bigger bites, and she had to force herself to chew, fighting the impulse to swallow the thing whole. Her sandwich was gone much sooner than she would have liked. As she shook off the crumbs off her hands, she felt her stomach grumble. Gabriel stared at her, startled.

‘Do you think I can have another one?’ her voice was barely more than a whisper.

‘Sure,’ he laughed.

He brought more sandwiches for both of them. Two large slices of wholemeal bread slices hugged a breaded chicken steak, with tomatoes, lettuce and mayonnaise. She polished the lot and licked the sauce off her fingers under the amused eye of the boy who had rescued her.

‘So, I guess, if Alex wasn’t my friend, he was not my boyfriend like he said either…’

‘No, definitely not.’

Sarah blushed while feeling slightly affronted by his statement. He had been very quick in his response and very dry. But it wasn’t only his answer that annoyed her.

Her lack of memories made her vulnerable, more than she had ever thought. It had never occurred to her that somebody would make up such a lie. Did her parents know? If they were, indeed, her parents. If Alex not recognizing Gabriel was a sign of his… what? His not being himself? Then her parents were not her parents either, were they? A pounding ache started somewhere at the back of her head.

‘Do you know what happened to me? Why did I lose my memory?’

He shook his head.

‘I don’t… I know I was there, I just don’t remember. We were in this place, not far where they found you, looking for something. That’s all I know.’

She watched him rub his eyes, slouching forward.

‘I’m sorry,’ he added, his eyes fixed somewhere on the floor to his left.

‘Is that why you never came to see me? Because you couldn’t remember what happened?’

Gabriel raised his eyebrows. He seemed to be about to say something, then stopped.

‘I was afraid you wouldn’t remember me,’ he said, after a few seconds.

Her eyebrows frowned almost involuntarily. She wasn’t sure he was telling the truth, yet she didn’t feel she could confront him, considering he was trying to help her, or so he said.

She couldn’t deny it made sense, about the accident. If whatever happened made her lose her memory, it wasn’t strange that he would have lost his. Except that she didn’t remember anything at all.

And why would he be afraid she didn’t remember him? Sure, she didn’t remember anybody. Why take it so personally?

A knot formed in her throat at the thought of the things that were lost, at the part of herself she might never recover.

Her phone vibrated in her pocket. Rose.

‘Did you get home ok?’

She replied briefly and ran through the screens of her phone. In her message list she could see, still unanswered, the texts she had sent to Lucy.

‘What about Lucy?’

‘What about her?’

‘Was she really my friend?’

Gabriel nodded, a frown on his face.

‘She came to visit with Alex and Mary when I got back from the hospital. I’ve messaged her since, but she never replied. Mind me, I’m not even sure this is her current number.’

‘I don’t have her number, but I know where she lives.’

She had more questions, including how did he have that specific piece of information, but also why was he in her therapy group. Had that been coincidence? Right then, however, it felt vital to her to see Lucy. She ignored the fact that she was still hungry and insisted on going there immediately.

*********

Gabriel

Her hands wrapped around his waist were distracting, no matter how lightly they touched him. It had been too long since he had felt her this close. A certain anxiety at the idea of seeing Lucy was also disturbing his ability to drive the bike through early morning traffic. The first commuters were on their way to their jobs while he tried to make it through town to the terraced house Lucy shared with her cousin. His main concern was what Lucy would reveal once they got together. Would she answer all of Sarah’s questions truthfully? It seemed obvious she would, she had no reason to lie, after all. But then that would put him in a bad position, because he hadn’t been truthful, had he? And he wasn’t even sure why he had lied. Sure, it was nothing important. That’s what he kept telling himself, at least.

Everything would be easier if she recovered her memory.

At the same time, Lucy might not say anything at all. She might want to be discreet or maybe she’ll be nice and not want to overwhelm Sarah with too much information. And then, again, she might not notice anything is wrong. Sarah had said she hadn’t replied to her messages in a few weeks. It might be that she has, as she said, the wrong number, or it might be that Lucy had changed the same way Alex had. But this lead to more questions.

If, as he thought, Sarah’s parents had also changed, then why was everybody around her changing and, seemingly, watching her or trying to control her, yet nobody was bothering him. He had been there too. It didn’t escape him that Elsebeth might have the answers to these questions. Not that she would answer them. She had been more than vague in almost every reason behind any of the orders or instructions she had given him. This was yet another reason why he didn’t feel inclined to comply with her demands to bring Sarah in. Her partial willingness to help him had been disappointing, to say the least. Her ability to help was dependent on him bringing Sarah in, and her promises of keeping Sarah safe were not all that reassuring.

And then there was the small problem of her overall behaviour towards him. He couldn’t trust how she would act in front of Sarah. He had even less confidence in his own reaction in her presence. Only thinking about her sent a shiver down his spine. And because he had refused to guarantee he would bring her in, Elsebeth had refused to refer Sarah to whoever it was she was going to refer her, as if she was some weird GP. Her selfish nature, her need to get something in return for everything, had not created any sense of security or trust. No, he would only bring Sarah in as a last resort.

Lucy’s house came into view as they took the last turn. He brought the bike to a halt in front of the house and let Sarah dismount. He had only been in the victorian house once, and he could remember clearly the steam coming out of his mouth as they sat in the living room. It was a fridge-like environment that had only gotten bearable after the ingestion of a few pints and some very hot curry.

They approached the door. Neither Lucy nor her cousin had a car that he knew of, so it was difficult to tell if there was somebody home, but there was a sort of tingle in the air. Sarah seemed to be taking in her surroundings as he stepped up to the door and rang the doorbell. Even outside, he could tell there was something wrong. Sure, people had gone to work already, so the street wouldn’t be busy at this time, but even so, there was an eerie quietness about the house. All the blinds were pulled down, which might only mean they were sleeping late.

Sarah looked over her shoulder over and over again.

‘You ok?’

‘Me?’ she asked as if she was surprised somebody was speaking to her. ‘Yes, sure… it’s just…’

‘I know,’ Gabriel looked at the door as if he could see through it, ‘I can feel it too.’

Sarah nodded. She was shaking.

‘We can leave if you want,’ an offer he made as much for himself as for her.

Whatever it was, it was making him very uncomfortable. He’d rather be anywhere else. He brought his face close to the glass panel and tried to peer through it, a hand covering his eyes against the sun. He could make out the shape of steps, but nothing else. There was no light at all inside.

‘Is it just me or it’s getting stronger?’ she asked, looking through the glass too.

Gabriel wasn’t sure he felt the same as she did, but looked too.

‘No, I…’ she swallowed, ‘I think we need to go in.’

And her last words sounded way more confident, her tone deeper, than any other time he heard her speak.

‘Well, the door is lock…’

Before Gabriel had a chance to do or say anything, Sarah put her fist through the glass.

‘What the hell…!’

She didn’t answer, though. Almost in a trance, she pulled her arm back out, a bit of glass stuck on the back of her hand. With a coldness he was far from feeling himself, she pulled the shard of glass out of her hand and threw it on the floor, drops of blood spattering on the steps. Gabriel’s first thought was to get something to bandage her hand, but he didn’t get a chance to even consider if he had anything on him. More alarming than the blood now running down her fingers was the smell coming out of the house.

Sarah wrapped her hand in her jacket’s sleeve, something that he wished she had done in the first place, and knocked the bits of glass still standing on the frame out of the way before sliding her arm in and opening the door. That’s why you don’t leave the key in the lock, he told himself.

It took everything Gabriel had to walk inside, against the sweet, hot, putrid smell that seemed to be emanating from every surface. Sarah, however, covered her mouth and nose with her arm and walked in without thinking twice. Trying not to retch, he followed her to the left, into the living room. In the darkness, the shadow of a body lied on the floor, legs slightly spread, face down, hands close to the head, the long hair spread over the shoulders and face. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and switched on the torch, unwilling to open the blinds in case anybody walked by. The beam of light revealed brown clots of dried out blood covering the body’s head.

‘That’s Lucy’s cousin,’ he said, his voice harsh.

Sarah didn’t say a word. In the dark, he was unable to see her expression. She turned around, going towards the kitchen. There were no blinds, but soft grey light came through the windows as the sun was on the other side of the house. A body was slumped over the kitchen table. It was clear, as they came into the room, that there were no violent marks on her, at least not on the back of her body. There were, however, blueish marks snaking around her arms and, possibly, her legs too. There was one thick imprint around her neck.

‘Those are like the marks you had when… you know…’ her voice still sounded oddly distant.

He nodded.

The girl had short blond hair, her face pointing towards the back door. Slowly, Sarah made her way around the chairs, and he followed her. He bit down to stop himself from gasping. As he expected by now, it was Lucy lying dead on the table. The eyes were rolled up into the sockets, only the white visible, the mouth open, the lips blackened. Gabriel had often read about dead people who looked just as if they were sleeping. This was far from that. Bile rose up to the back of his throat, and he turned to open the back door, but Sarah grabbed him by the wrist and held it still with unexpected strength.

‘Don’t touch anything.’ Her voice was clear and quiet.

He frowned and watched her turn around and, still with her hand in her sleeve, pull open a few drawers before finding a towel, which he threw at him and then grabbed another one for herself.

‘Use that if you need to touch anything.’

‘Where you a criminal mastermind in a previous life?’

‘Who knows,’ she shrugged. ‘It’s more likely that I watched too many “Murder, She Wrote” while I was in the hospital.’

She sighed, looking around.

‘I’m going upstairs.’

There were only two rooms in the house, and it was easy to figure out which one was Lucy’s. One of the walls was covered in pictures and magazine cut-outs stuck with blue-tack. Lucy had had a strange love of the printed photo when most people settled for looking at them on their phones or posting them on social media.

With a wrapped hand, Sarah switched on the light. Dust had started to settle over every surface, bed included.

They inspected the pictures, recognizing her image on many of them, as well as Mary’s. One or two even had Alex on it, but Sarah wasn’t on any of those, he was glad to see. It was an empty sort of happiness since he knew Alex had never had any interest in her.

There was the one picture, though, which caught his eye just as it caught Sarah’s. His own red hair was the main highlight. In it, he was bending down to match the girls’ height, one arm around Sarah’s shoulders and the other around Lucy’s. All three smiled, there was a mild rain and their hair was damp, their clothes stained with dark, uneven polka-dots. Sarah pulled the picture off the wall and pushed it into her pocket.

There wasn’t much more to look at. There was no laptop, no diaries that they could find. On the bedside table, though, was a mobile phone, plugged to the charger. He pushed the button; it was password protected. Some people might be able to bypass that, but he was not one of those.

‘What are you doing?’

Sarah pulled out her own phone and dialled the number. Lucy’s phone started ringing. She rang off and turned on her own torch before opening the wardrobe and putting some of Lucy’s clothes in a travel bag she had found in the corner.

‘Are you stealing her clothes?’ he couldn’t keep the shock off his voice.

‘She’s not going to need them, is she?’ she didn’t look at him, quickly pulling clothes out of the cupboard. After a minute she stopped, zipping the bag close slowly.

‘I just… don’t have any clothes of my own, you know… they’re all home,’ she said barely looking at him.

‘That’s ok,’ a knot caught in his throat. There was a terrible sadness to her situation that he had not considered before. He had to expect she would behave differently. In her situation, she couldn’t be the carefree girl he had once fallen in love with. Not all the time, anyway.

If those, as he thought, were not her real parents, and Alex and Mary were not themselves, while Lucy was dead, Gabriel was all she had. He remembered she had mentioned an aunt a couple of times, but he had no idea how to contact her and, even if he did, there was no telling if they hadn’t gotten to her too. ‘Let’s call the police, and we’ll explain everything.’

‘I don’t think that’s a good idea,’ she said still with that strange calm. ‘Explain everything, I mean. Call the police, that’s fine, but we should get out of here, my parents or, well, whoever, might have reported me missing.’

‘You’re an adult,’ Gabriel frowned, ‘they can’t make you go home if you don’t want to.’

‘Right,’ she shouldered the bag. ‘Still, I’d rather not have to explain breaking in. Let’s call anonymously. Please.’

For the first time since they had entered the house she looked at him. Her eyes were strangely dark in the indirect light of his phone’s torch. There was no telling what she was feeling, deep under their surface.

‘OK, but first let’s wrap your hand in something. You don’t want to go down the street with your hand pissing blood.’

Sarah pulled her hand out of her sleeve while Gabriel shone the light right onto it. To both their surprises, the skin was as smooth and neat as it had ever been, albeit with blood caked over it.

‘That’s just insane,’ he whispered, unable to find any other words.

Sarah snapped her hand away, taking a few steps back, and reached behind her neck, her fingers spasmodically twirling a curl of hair. Somehow, that small gesture helped him relax. He had seen her do that so many times.

‘Don’t worry, ok?’ he took his phone out and made the call as Sarah receded in the darkness.

Five minutes later, they were outside, back on the road, driving away from Lucy’s deserted street. Sarah’s hands were grabbing tighter around his waist. Two or three miles away, he felt her pounding with a fist on his back. He pulled over. Sarah jumped off as soon as she was able too but didn’t walk far, her knees giving in. She threw the helmet to the side and bending forward, emptied the content of her stomach onto the pavement, hands shaking, tears rolling down her cheeks. As he held the hair of his face, he found himself comforted by the fact that she was still human.