Dark Incarnate - Chapter2 Book2

All non erotic so far, lots of plot I feel I'm plodding through but it's important for the story.  Will pick up soon I promise. 

Nargles

     

Kelly didn't notice as she drifted off into her own thoughts.  When she blinked back Billy was gone and the room quiet.  She looked at the canvas with mistrust.  It was set neatly against the stand on the floor.  Had a Nargle done that?  She looked at the light burning behind a shade above her.  Dry husks of dead gnats and moths baked on shade against the light bulbs.  She'd never be able to find a nargle in there.  She was here wasn't she?  Her reality... the idea of being stuck in a trance startled her.

It was a scary thought.  She looked at the canvas again.  It beckoned.  Billy was right, it was really late.  Her eyes felt heavy and the whole day felt like a dream; her imagination gone wild.  Maybe she could sleep now.  She cut the desk light off and started for the door.  Her finger paused on the switch and she looked back.  Looking back felt irresistible. 

The canvas had become a mirror again.  Her pajamma legs stopped just short of her ankles.  They had been shrunk one too many times in the wash.  Billy had probably done all her clothes on high heat...  The gentle joint and Achilles tendon at the back of her smooth pink feet looked tender.  How was she suppose to fight this thing, this perfect evil?  Who was she?  Her hands tugged her pants down to cover her weak looking ankles.  Inadvertently pulling the rim down below her hips and resting just above her mons mound.  The curves of her toned tummy and top of her butt threw tantalizing shadows.     

The canvas rippled and turned white.  A clean white tunnel sitting on the floor that lead to another place.  She stopped, fighting to turn and leave it behind.  Once her mind was off it, it would disappear.  Again the question, had she done it or was something being showed to her?  And by what? 

Kelly stepped back into the room and shut the door.  Billy would go crazy if he saw.  The tunnel was curious, was it her question that created it?  She moved closer but didn't touch the canvas to put it back up.  She knelt by it on the floor.  The perception deepened and the tunnel lead into a larger white room.  It looked clean like a peaceful place in her mind.  Last time she touched the canvas it had scared her, but this was different, she could feel it was safe.  Billy would check on her before he left for school.  She giggled thinking of him finding nothing but the empty canvas, but it wasn't a joking matter.  She got on all fours.  It looked like she could just crawl in and back out if she wanted.  The space was tight if she had to hurry but it was a chance the was about to take.  She didn't raise her hand to touch it.  Somehow, maybe it was the light that spilled from the window into her room, or maybe it was the depth, but she pushed in head first without fear. 

The brightness made her wince as she emerged from the tunnel into the larger space.  It was like her backyard but made of light.  She feared the open space of the yard last night but not this light.  Before standing she looked back into her room.  Her world was on the other side this time.  It was a window between places, and hers looked dark and ominous compared to this place.  Kelly stood eyes wide and full of wonder.  The place was simple yet more than she could imagine.  Safe, clean, anesthetic smell like ionized water. 

Something caught her attention on the floor.  A black circle, like a manhole cover.  A Nargle.  Her comic face on it changed to a smile and excited eyes.  It changed to a black kitten and rolled on the ground begging for a tummy rub.  Kelly's heart swelled and she looked back at the doorway to her room.  It was stable. 

Her easy touch slid behind the kitten ear for a scratch.  The creature erupted in soft purrrrs of appreciation.  Kelly lovingly scooped it into her hands.  She wanted to sit and when she turned her couch was behind her. 

Kelly straightened.  The warm kitten in her hands didn't notice the changed but Kelly worried at the couch.  It was hers, she knew.  It was her couch from her apartment at this very moment, but without Billy and without disturbing her reality.  She looked to the window again only able to see a strip of carpet in her room. 

The kitten stood and pawed at her stomach before pushing his tiny claws into her shirt and started climbing.  Kelly relaxed.  "Whoa little guy."  She smiled and held the kitten to her chest sitting on the couch.  The soft fuzzball climbed her shirt like an obstacle course. 

"Just what are you little guy?"  she asked the question but as the kitten played in her lap she knew the answer.  This wasn't her first time encountering a nargle.  Her breaths got deeper and her eyes closed.  She didn't want to remember.  She had a sense of falling as her minds eye remembered the wolf.  It's look of compassion before bursting into fairy dust.  But before that.  The Bee that attacked Candace, the grub she first drew, all of them.  Those had been twisted nargels, tortured and changed, zombified in cage of poisoned intentions and puppet strings. 

The kitten in her lap started to sleep.  It's tiny chest rose and fell.  It was warm but it felt more alive, more substance than a shape shifting shadow, it was a spirit of it's own.  The couch made shadows in the space and another black kitten came from under the edge.  Another popped up on the arm and started over to her on the back.  In the light with Kelly, Darkness couldn't twist them into his will.  More and more kittens surrounded Kelly who was overcome with joy.  They radiated pure love for her.  They loved her as they loved being in the light.  The nargles were slaves to a purpose, but Kelly was changing that. 

She couldn't believe it there were no less that fifteen kittens on and around her.  She stood up like a kitten Christmas tree.  One jumped and landed skidding on the floor.  Another lost grip of her shirt and started to fall before sinking claws into her pajama pants.  The kitten didn't weigh two pounds but pulled her pants down exposing her clean panties.  They felt Darkness was coming even in this place of light.  They all jumped, scattered, and ran disappearing under the couch. 

Kelly jerked her pants up and stepped closer to the tunnel.  It was quiet and she felt that whatever she was suppose to do here was done.  And she didn't want to overstay her welcome.  She dropped to all fours and hustled back into her room.  The air felt different, stuffier and laden with smells and life.  The canvas had closed and sat blank on the floor once she was out.

"I'll have to try that again!"  but no one was around to hear not even the nargles. 

Sleep never came for Billy.  Blue morning light was filtering in through the curtains.  He lie awake so mindful of his love upstairs and the danger she was in.  What had happened to her was horrible, beyond forgiveness or understanding but somehow he knew it was far from over.  Kelly seemed to know it too but she wasn't afraid.  He didn't understand her.  Jealousy stabbed at his heart when he thought about it.  Why wouldn't she turn from this path; take a safer road?  His alarm would go off soon.  It wasn't actually his alarm but a pink one he borrowed from Kelly's room.  A smile inched across his face as he heard the first sign of her since he left.  He had wanted to go sit outside her studio door all night until she went to bed but knew better.  He was wide awake but stayed quiet and still.

The studio door finally creaked open.  Kelly's catlike grace felt stronger than ever as she moved down the stairs.  She wanted to run and jump over the railing.  She felt lithe and smooth like flowing water.  It could have been the first morning light but she felt incredibly awake and alert.  The note was on the table and Kelly couldn't help but step out onto the back porch.  Billy jumped up worried but relaxed when he saw she was just standing in the morning quiet.

It was out there.  It was in a hiding in a place of pure darkness gathering strength.  The Nargles were dancing in the shadows too, there was so much more to life than she have ever knew.  She had always thought exploration and knowledge came from drawing a bigger map; knowing where the roads went.  Her spatial existence knew no other way.  What she had to understand now wasn't knowing what was on the other side of the mountain but within herself.  Worlds within worlds.  How many dimensions existed in her back yard right now? 

Her mind came to the Darkness again.  It was weak and growing power in her world just as she grew in it's.  There was a relationship between everything, the Darkness, the nargles, her emotions, and the physical world she walked but she didn't understand any of it.  The Nargles, she didn't understand them at all.  They were connected to the Darkness or maybe the Darkness used them like she had.  They had chased her home that night, and drew her to the dumpster behind Country Kitchen.  Did they operate on their own or only through influence?  They were like spirits, but the word felt wrong.  They were... a consciousness, a thing.  She had felt each one different and yet strong enough to distinguish but all the same. 

Most of the small backyard was lit, the sun wasn't over the hilltop yet but it would be shortly.  Billy would find her out here for sure.  Several Nargles were over in the creek bed, they seemed to become more active when she noticed them and even more so as she watched.  Just as she guessed, Billy pushed the sliding glass door open and stepped out.

"Good... Morning?" 

"Why does everything you say have to be a question?" Kelly didn't mean to snap at him but she didn't like being disturbed.

"Sorry, I didn't know whether to say good morning or good night."  He came up beside her and leaned against the rail wondering if she had been looking at something or just starring off into the distance.  "Geeezz, I didn't mean anything."

"Whatever Billy.  Did you get the list off the table?"

"I will."  He wanted to say so much more but didn't have the words.  "I didn't expect to see you up so early; you thinking about coming to school?"  Not knowing what to say was worse than being helpless.  If he was helpless the die was cast, and it wasn't up to him but knowing there may be something he should say or do without knowing what was so much worse. 

"In a few hours I'll have been up for a full day."

"You didn't sleep at all last night!"  His eyes were wide. 

Kelly softened and cracked a smile, "You finally said something to me that wasn't a question.  Well it was a question but not said like one."  He looked at her confused and she just shook her head and waved the comment off.

"I really think you should go to school today even if you're dead tired; it would be good for you."

"How do you know what I need?"

"I... just know that you've been though... ahh.."  His eyes betrayed his memories.  She was beautiful and strong beside him.  Her hair clean and straight, her face milky and smooth, lips gentle red and healthy.  But Billy saw her as he had seen her days ago when her lips were dehydrated, chapped, and cracked; her face had.. had... and her hair... and her body.... ... It was finally too much and he looked away. 

Kelly let out a heavy sigh, rolled her eyes and walked away.  It was that look, she had seen it on his face so many times.  That look infuriated her.  In Billy's eyes she was reduced to nothing.  Her strength and eyes full of wonder, her hope all of it was taken when he looked at her.  Of all the people she could have been saved by why Billy?  Annoyance rose to anger.  She wanted it gone.  Those memories, what had been done.  She had to separate herself from that weakness to fight.  It was from a different time, a different life.  Kelly knew that was a lie, but it made her feel better. 

She bounded up the stairs two at a time and paused at the top looking at the bathroom door.  Maybe it would be good to go see Candace.  Anyone but Billy.  No one else would know.  There would be questions yes, but Billy was the only one who knew.  Maybe that's why Candace hated him so much.  He helped her once too. 

Candace.  Her name and memory felt sweet now.  So much had happened, seeing Candace again wouldn't be so simple but Kelly longed for what they had once shared.  That feeling of closeness and understanding.  If anyone would be able to understand it would be Candace.  Kelly slipped inside the bathroom and closed the door clicking the door lock.  It was always warmer in the bathroom.  Maybe going to school wouldn't be so bad.  She did feel great despite the lack of sleep.  The thought never occurred to her that Billy might want to use the bathroom.

The first spit of water was ice cold but soon warmed until steam rose from behind the curtain.  Kelly slid her clothes off and stood looking at herself in the mirror.  Nothing had changed.  Nothing she could see anyway, but she felt different, looked at her body in a different way.  Somehow she had never consciously thought of herself as a woman.  A body of purpose.  Climbing in the shower Kelly was aware, too aware of her nakedness and vulnerability.  She was something special.  Not as the superficial person and skill set that Mrs. Francis coveted, or even the womanly wiles that Billy desired, but something more.  A kindness in her spirit a purity, a naive hope that had somehow survived.  That's what the Nargles reacted to.  The water was hot and her skin soaked up the warmth and soothing steam.  Everyone and everything wanted something from her.  To leave her somehow with less when they were done.  But what did she want?  Her small hand ran the slick lump of soap over her breasts, stomach and legs.  It felt safe in the shower again.  She had feared it may never feel the same but even though her back was turned to the drain she felt safe.  Her body yearned beneath her soapy hands.  Soap suds clung to the faint patch of light brown pubic hair at her mons.  Her hand rubbed the soap in.  She wasn't sure how long it had been since her last shower, and though she had only been around the house in PJ's, the feminine odor was strong.  Sensual desire burned, but Kelly only felt a sense of lose.  Her finger dipped between her labia relishing the thousands of nerve endings tingling her brain with slick clean goodness.  The soap mixed with her biological slick and she sunk her finger in.  It wasn't like before, her body was open now.  It was the discovery of what had been done.  Her body clenched on the finger as she flicked it inside feeling the fleshy pressure.  A pumpknot, the muscle of her cervix, her tiny clenched opening was just inside.  She tried to forget, tried not to remember and put it in the back of her mind but it wouldn't.  She thought of how her body had been abused and beaten, how this had been pushed and stretched back as deep as her body would allow.  The equivalent to her body's Fort Knox had been raided. 

Billy's knuckles rapped on the door, "I kinda need to use the bathroom."  To Billy he was being quiet, polite, and patient, but she was used to living alone. 

Kelly breathed an angry sigh though clenched teeth.  She knew he didn't have long before the bus; she was figureing whether to go or not herself.  And for him to bother her again so soon, he must really have to go.  Again the sore feeling; he had seen her naked before.  This time she wasn't... like before and she had a shower curtain, but there was no mystery to it, no reason to say no.  It hurt.  When she had ventured into the bathroom while Billy took a shower there was a tension in the air.  Tension of knowing someone you only knew at school was naked in the same room.  That naive sense of childhood was gone.  "Come on."  She was done and exploring how her body changed wasn't helping her mood.

Billy was modest and turned his back to her while standing above the toilet.  The air was steamy and smelled of fresh fruit.  He fumbled his penis though his open zipper, but nothing happened.  The bus ride would be torture if he didn't go now, his bladder was full.  He was too aware of Kelly.  He swallowed a lump in his throat, he knew he should have just went outside.  He felt like a pet, some sort of guard dog.  Billy was so absorbed in his self loathing that he relaxed and finally began to pee. 

"Are you done yet?  Gezz Louise..." 

"Yeah, sorry.."  He wasn't done but cut the flow short.  It burned, but he would do anything to stay on Kelly's good side.  "So are you coming to school?"  Billy zipped up feeling a drop or two escape after cutting it short. 

"I guess so.  I do wan to ask Mrs. Francis for something.  What time is it?"

"You've got ten minutes."  Billy left the bathroom ecstatic, not only did he not have to worry about her, but maybe she would realize just how crazy she was acting. 

Ten minutes later the bus roared around the bend.  Billy looked back at the apartment nervously.  The bus flashed yellow then red as it pulled up and opened the door.  He was dumbstruck and didn't know what to do.  She had to come back to the real world.  If she didn't come back to school soon the whole charade would come down real fast.  He didn't want to do it and was already numbering the things to leave out, but maybe it was time to bring Candace up to speed.  And he had almost made up his mind to do it when Kelly came bursting out of the apartment.  He felt a little selfish at the thought but at least it wasn't on his shoulders anymore.  Either she would be fine, or an adult would do what needed to be done. 

Billy took the first empty seat.  He didn't see Candace; she had been riding the bus this week.  Usually her dad took her to school and her mother would when he was away, but since Kelly had was hopeing to see her.  Kelly took her seat beside him. 

"Too bad Candace isn't riding today; you need to talk to her."  Billy felt things might go back to normal if things went right today.  He was also glad Kelly didn't have Candace's sense of social image but wasn't sure how to act.  He didn't know who paid attention but coming out of Kelly's house would might draw undue attention and that was the last thing the needed.

"I'm sure I'll see her at school."  Kelly was short and didn't feel like idle chatter.  She looked around the bus and at kids like it was her first time. 

The ride to school was long and quiet between the two.  To Billy and anyone paying attention she looked silly, like the first time a small child sees snow.  Luckily the kids were all self absorbed in their own chatter and gossip. 

They approached the bus lot where they would be let off.  Billy started to feel more and more nervous as he saw the other kids.  Surely someone would notice soon.  Kelly, however; didn't seem bothered at all, she felt just as sure of herself and place as ever.  The bus stopped and the driver pulled the mechanized lever to open the doors.  The day was about to begin.  

Single file the students stepped off the bus and into the madness.  The bell would ring shortly and the hallways were packed with kids trying to savor the last few moments with their friends.  Girls hoping for just a little more gossip about which boys liked who, and boys oblivious gathered with similar ranks to wonder about the girls.  Jocks, Cool Kids, Bad Boys, Goths, and Dorks created strategic huddles to look at their prospective girl counterpart groups.  In the middle of the meyham other students were just trying to get to class.  Rivers of bodies flowed through the small hallways.  An outside intelligence might wonder what sort of hive mind controlled the orderly chaos.  Kelly was in her own world again.  To Billy she looked out of place, one who doesn't belong, but her blank stare and steady determined forward push was very much in sync.  She knew just where to go and how fast.  Billy struggled to keep up.  She would hope two steps ahead around a blind corner at the exact moment to avoid an oncoming torrent of traffic, while he ran right into the middle of hell.  He called after her but she was gone. 

He finally gave up and stopped.  A river of students coming up the hall on one side and another going down.  He was bumped pushed and cursed at but he couldn't figure for the life of him what Kelly was after.  As soon as she stepped off the bus she looked to be following an invisible trail like a hound.  He didn't want to admit it, and it worried him to consider the possibility.  Kelly had been convinced she could see something he couldn't, Nargles...

Kelly rounded the corner to the walkway to nowhere.  The world faded, the students distant.  She was alone and moved unhindered, unaffected.  This was it she was about to have answers.  It was so simple to her why hadn't she investigated this before.  She walked forward and finally out of the flow of kids.  She was in a trance but no one even noticed her as she stepped off the edge of concrete.  This place, the beggining.  Her shoes moved the leaves like heavy snow.  It was out there, she didn't know what but she had never been so sure.  She walked further into the shabby forest and stood in the middle of five small sapling trees, equally spaced, five points.  Her feet spread shoulder length like she was about to lift weights.  She had arrived and looked down.  They had been here before. 

Billy came bounding around the corner and ran smack into a girl and nearly knocked her over.  He shared an English class with her.  She had just dropped off some late work to Miss. Francis and was running late to her first period class.  She was Billied.  He was apologiznig all over himself when he saw Kelly's figure in the distance.  Kelly was bent over digging with both hands in the woods.  The bell rang.  Five minutes to class.  Further down the walkway the traffic lessened and Billy picked up speed almost running, his love looked possessed.  Billy leapt off the walkway when she stopped suddenly and slowly picked something up. 

Kelly held a black volcanic rock arrowhead.  It made perfect sense to her.  A major piece of the puzzle had been solved.  Her experience wasn't IT's first manifestation.  The tip was melted not chipped or dull, but melted.  Billy took his place beside her trying to understand but not asking.  He knew better than to pry right now.  Kelly scooped another handfull of rich organic dirt and found three more.  All were similarly melted.  Her trance was over, she had been drawn here to learn this.  She knew Billy was probably out of his mind with confusion and handed him one.  He brushed some loose dirt off.  The arrow head was expert.  The definition of Native American handwork. 

Kelly didn't look at him, but hoped he would understand, "Help me." She went back to digging like a desperate dog.  Her fingernails were thick with dirt.

It would make him late for class but he was a dillagent student and was rarely late and could afford it.  Perhaps it was Candaces voice or her constant bitch nagging but he was more worried about what it would look like if He and Kelly both came to class late.  It's what he wanted more than anything on a selfish level, but he knew who he was and wanted better than those rumors for Kelly.  He was unconsciously rubbing the arrowhead in his hand.  The melted tip was ruogh and his he wasn't aware how hard he was rubbing it.  School could wait and he focused.  What the hell could melt volcanic rock after it was chipped into an arrow head... What did the Indians shoot?  Kelly was making a small pile of arrowheads when he began to help.  He didn't say anything.  There was nothing to say. 

The late bell rang and neither of them looked up.  No one would notice them out here anyway.  A large pile had begun to form.  All of them had the same deformity.  The reality of the situation started to sink in for Billy.  If Kelly had just told him he wouldn't have believed.  Just like the Nargles, but this Evil he knew.  He had seen the shadow that fought the sunlight back.  Alot of things were starting to make sense to him.  He had to trust Kelly; why would she put herself in harms way?  The arrowheads were in a circular pattern.  Whatever it was had been surrounded by arrow fire and died here. 

Kelly was counting and putting them in her bookbag, "I have to take these and figure out what happened here."

"So you're not coming to class then?"  Billy breathed a sigh but he understood.  "What if you get caught?"

"By who, the Resource officer?" She couldn't stifle a laugh.  "If they even have a new one yet."  Billy was torn, he wanted to follow her and help but he wasn't sure how much he could help.  As always Kelly gave him the direction he should have been taking all along.  "Just go to class and make an excuse for me."

"But did you want to ask Miss Francis for something?"  He was worried and had to protest, it was in his nauture.  "And what about your Aunt?  I didn't get that list of stuff you wanted."

"This is more important don't worry about it, I'll call her later."

Billy turned and started to head to class and realized he forgot an important questiont, "But where are you gonna go?"

"That place that sells dream catchers; it's run by Cherokee that lived here.  They have to know something about these and if I'm lucky what did this."  She scratched at the melted tip with her fingernail.

"We wont even have to take the bus, we can just walk there after school."

"Whose we?  And I'm not waiting until after school."

"Kelly, NO.  You promised.  Just because we're late for class doesn't mean..."

"Just cover for me again.  This is something I have to do."

"So when are you comeing back?  This week, next?"

"Now's not the time to worry about it; you're late for class!"  Kelly flopped her bag down like a dead fish and started piling the arrowheads in the front pocket.  Billy didn't approve she knew, but then what did he like?

Ignoring his feeble protests she made her way up the bank to the back parking.  The same back parking where she was tricked into the unmarked police cruiser.  That was another time, another life.  The Indian shop wasn't far away.  At the main entrance to the school was the library and not even a half mile later was the two main streets of town.  In the back of her mind was a worry someone might catch her but she felt free.  A butterfly in the wind. 

The road was quiet, one of the few upsides to living in Spencer.  Downtown was split into two streets, High Street and Low Street.  The topography of Spencer was all hills and mountains.  If it hadn't been a mining town the plan would have been different but the two halves on a steep hill.  Only a few shops survived, consignment shops, outlets groceries, a Christian outreach ministry, and a coffee shop.  The rest were antiques and empty shells.  Two of the oldest brick apartment buildings had been mostly torn down, but like everything else the workers just stopped and left.  The empty slots were like rotted teeth on Low street.  Portions of the old brick and mortar walls still stood and a Chimney in the middle but the rest of the rubble had never been removed. 

Kelly had never skipped school before, and though it's technically what she had been doing all week this felt different.  It felt liberating.  The Indian place was at the farthest end of Low Street.  The old brick rubble of the second apartments had spilled out on the side walk.  Being away from school in the open air and clear sky felt liberating compared to the cramped damp school.  She picked up a brick.  This one red brick could symbolize and sum up the town.  It was solid, chaffy dry and the corners had nearly worn off.  Her adventurous spirit was fed by the truancy.  She hopped up ontop of a pile of brick.  It would have been easy to twist an ankle or slip and bust her noggin, but Kelly's catlike grace seemed to be growing.  The lot was bigger than it looked.  Her nose wrinkled in disgust.  Graffiti was sprayed just out of sight on the back wall.  The sun was getting warm, and she had a job to do.  Slipping under the shaded awning of Appalachian Naturals she pushed the glass door open.  A simple bell rang announcing the customers entrance. 

Brian looked up over the counter.  The day was slow, but then every day was slow.  He was short and had to lift his nose high to see from the rocking chair.  Kelly was rather small too, and both thought the store to be abandoned.  The store was originally a "Company" store.  Workers at the mine were given an allowance to shop here to supplement their low wages.  That was ages ago but the glass door was the same and the wind often played tricks on Brian.  Kelly browsed the store silently almost sneezing near the handmade soaps.  A sense of deja'vu hit her, a sense of another life.  This place was heavy laden with history.  Dust and soot in every crack and crevice, age humidity and mold cleaned but never removed.  It wasn't until she notice the back of the chair rocking that she made her way to the counter.  Brian finally looked up when the girl cleared her throat.

"Yes, can I help you?"  He wasn't annoyed, at least he told himself that, but he was used to long quiet mornings and he was reading a good book.

"I was hoping you could tell me a little about these..." Kelly reached for her backpack.  He didn't roll his eyes but the light went right out of them.  This was no cash paying customer.  Kelly dumped a handful of sparkling arrowheads on the glass countertop.  Instantly his brow forrowed and his mood changed. 

He reached for one and picked at the rough melted tip with his thumbnail, "Yes, these are nice but not uncommon for this area.  Where did you find them?"  He told a little white lie, arrowheads were under ever stone, but volcanic rock was rare. 

"I dug them up this morning," she showed her dirty nails.  "There was a bunch of them all together."  More and more were laid out on the counter.  Brian blinked, this was quite a find.  "I was hoping you could tell me about them, I think they killed something." 

"These no doubt killed many things.  Arrows are shot and retrieved, not wasted." 

"No, I mean look at the tips.  And I found them all facing the same way in a circle."

"They are different."  Brian had absolutely no clue what could have cause the deformed tips.  Flint knapping wasn't an exact science and required some luck but what ever malformed the tips happened after they were made.  "Where did you say you found these?  Obsidian isn't really found around here.  The Cherokee used flint and sometimes granite and maybe quartz.  The Cherokee could have made these or maybe the Choctaw.  It's hard to tell." 

"I'm more curious about what melted the tips." 

"That's an interesting question.  Might be some ritual I'm not familiar with like shooting them into a hot fire..."  He knew his words were bullshit but he wanted to be done with the bothersome girl and get back to his book. 

"Well, who would know?"

Brian knew the answer, but didn't want to tell her.  His father would know but he never left home.  The girl was determined and he was started to get curious himself.  With a heavy sigh he knew his day would be ruined, "If anyone would know RedHawk would."

"Aaaand where can I find him?"

"He's my Dad." 

Kelly lit up with excitement, "Can you take me!"

"Can I what?!?"  Something about the girl made him take a small step back.  He had seen his share of tourists who couldn't find their butt with both hand and this girl was different.  Very different.  He struggled to put his finger on it.  She was so sure of herself, so confident and strong willed.  It made him question himself and it wasn't a comfortable feeling.  "Hey aren't you suppose to be in school or something?"

"Well... yes, but this is more important right now."  A unique thing was happening between the two of them.  Native Americans being much more in touch with the ebb and flow of nature, Brian could sense her will.  Her spirit of determination and truth rumbled like a growing storm on the horizon.  It was nothing new to him.  He'd had enough liars and users who clamed to be shopping when all they wanted was the stores restroom.  He could sense a honest buyer from a mile off.  Those were so rare, and this girl was unlike anything he'd ever encountered.  But what really confused him was her being able to read him.  Kelly sensed him like the spirit of a spooked horse.  Brian was in his own shop with his favorite chair and a good book beside him but he felt ready to run.  If someone else heard the conversation, or saw the two of them drive off together... well he felt spooked and ready to run.  The girl was a fraction of his size yet he felt threatened.  Her spirit was of a rock, and made him feel like a leaf in Autumn.

"I.. don't know what it is you want from me, but..."

"I need to know what did this."  She held out a melted arrowhead like a charm to destroy his resistance.  "I wasn't digging a fort or playing in a sandbox; I was drawn to them.  I walked out into a scrubby forest where nothing grows tall and scooped them up with my hands." 

Brian shook his head.  He struggled with his own reality.  George Orwell wrote about doublethink, and Brian fought his own mind.  As soon as he had seen the strange melted tips his mind raced to stories he had heard as a child, but he stood in front of this child ready to deny it do his last breath. 

Kelly saw the fear in his eyes, "What did these kill?" 

"Honestly I don't know." 

"You know something..."

"When I was small we had stories and legends of the Wendigo.  When the winter is so cold that not even the rabbit will come out, the man beast would come.  He feasts on human flesh but is never full.  Growing stronger and stronger he is never satisfied and will never stop until he is killed.  It is a battle of spirit, only those with stronger love can overcome his hunger and hate."  Brian pulled a tall stool over.  It was reserved for when he was watching careless children in his shop, but he needed to sit down.  Why was he encouraging this girl? 

"And you're father told you these stories?"

"No-no.. noo more that's enough."

"We thought it was a ghost at first, then a spirit, but that's all it was..." Kelly looked away hurt and ashamed, "until recently..."

Brian leaned forward interested.  There were no pictures when he was a child, but his mind formed an image of the legendary creature.  It was larger than the biggest bear, loose skin draped over the skeleton like a raggedy blanket.  It could walk like man or move like a wolf.  "You've seen it?" 

"I've.. felt it and seen it possess a man...  It was horrible.  A nightmare I'll never forget.  But you have to hear me I know it!  Just like the day ends and night will come, or the first cold wind that brings winter.  I know it!"

Brian looked out the plate glass storefront like he might suddenly see a foot of snow.  then back, "It's summertime."

"This thing is old, it came to your people at winter, but your legends have legends about it.  Do you believe the world had no spirits before Indians?"

Brian took a deep breath at the insult, but she did have a point.  "Then what do you need me for?  If you have all the answers!" 

"Because I have to kill it."

"I think you better leave whatever it is alone.  Whether it's bigfoot or a raccoon you need to get back to school.  Where are you parents anyway, do they know you're not in school?"  This little girl had just pushed him too far.  He fumbled around the counter looking for a phonebook and cordless phone.

"They're dead." 

"The words stopped him cold, "I'm sorry I didn't mean to."

Kelly couldn't believe she found someone in town who didn't know her story.  It was refreshing but for the first time she wished to have that bit of fame.  For once it might help. 

"All I want is you're help.  I can't tell you how important it is to me.  Then I'll let you go back to your blissful days of nothing."  Kelly turned to look at the empty store.

"I don't know who you are and I don't think it's right for-"

"Tell me how many times do you dust to make the shop look fresh, once a week?  This place is a Museum.  When was the last time you had a customer?"

Brian's face went blank his days ran together, had it been this week or last?  The City of Spencer gave him the space rent free for historic appeal; the shop had never turned a profit.  He took a deep breath of defeat, "So what do you want?"

"To meet your Dad."

  Next chapter:     Manitou

Dark Incarnate - Chapter1 Book2

Day One  (A flashback two days after the rescue)  

Kelly stared at the blank canvas, but in her mind it was anything but blank.  She and Candace had created a window to IT's realm once before, but this was different.  This was a window through space and time, a porthole to any reality she imagined.  She would never need a brush again.  What good would any earthly tool do?  She with all her prowess could never replicate what she saw, what she created.  The canvas acted as so much more than her minds eye, it was real; another dimension that she controlled.  A place that she willed into reality.  It was impossible, yet as she pictured a winters snow, it fell.  Colors exploded flowering like fireworks in incredible ribbons of silk so beautiful they were emotion.  The implications were beyond anything she could fathom.  Billy would be home from school soon and find her immediately.  She had barely convinced him to leave this morning. 

Before, the paper drawing had been an accident an unwitting window to It's realm.  Only by dumb luck had they locked it out.  A place of pure darkness, a void, a black hole sucking the light and purity from her world and countless others into the gaping maw of oblivion.  It was a singularity in the fabric of reality.  There were so many worlds, so many realities dancing in unison all around.  A place of infinite possibilities at her fingerprints in the canvas.  How could they ever understand?

She slowly stood and walked to the canvas.  It was her world, or one very similar to it, a mirror pulled straight from her memory.  A simple picture of a powerful place.  Fall leaves were heaped up in a pile with a rake lying on the ground and a few silly Halloween leaf bags strewn about.  She closed her eyes and leaned back against the stool.  She couldn't do this to herself.  A dry breeze lifted a strand of hair from her cheek and she smelled the faint spice.  "ITS NOT REAL!"  Kelly heard herself scream as if the sounds hadn't come from her lips.  Her breath began to quiver and tears welled in her clenched eyes.  The air felt cold against her arms as if the blood suddenly drained and her mind reeled at the painful memories.  A hollow howl blew from the canvas, like a kid blowing over an empty bottle.  It shocked her back because it wasn't right something didn't fit.  That sound didn't belong in her memory.  The canvas had changed.  A barren landscape of dead trees stretched for miles from a birds eye view.  A winters wind blew countless trees to life with an eerie howl that spilled into the room.  Had she done this?  What part of her consciousness had the power?  Icy wind kissed her wet cheeks.

Kelly shook it off and the room was warm again and the canvas blank.  So many places existed on the other side but what about this side?  It was a window sure, but looking at the room around her and the warm afternoon sun painted on the floor she couldn't help but wonder what side of the window she was on.  Deja'vu struck her, she had felt this feeling before.  She couldn't place it no matter how hard she tried.  Her mind blotted the memory out, pushed it back to the depths she dared not go.  For a time in that dank cellar she had felt the ability to go back in time, another her, another reality, this one was... faulty.  This wasn't how her life was suppose to go and she couldn't place how she had gotten here or why.  Something was surely wrong.

Kelly looked out the small second floor window to see her Aunt Sandra puff off down the road as Billy started across the parking lot.  Where... where didn't feel right, she was exactly where she was suppose to be she was sure of it, but WHEN that was a better question.  Her sense of purpose and place wasn't a question, but how did this reality branch off from the others.  She wanted to turn and look at the canvas for answers but it didn't feel right.  A gentle smile widened across her cute face thinking of cable TV galaxy crushing paradoxes if she saw herself in the window.  An episode of the Twilight Zone.  There was a another Kelly out there somewhere, she knew it.  A Kelly who still had her parents and the life she always dreamed of.  It was more and more comforting as she thought about it.  The things that had happened to her, no matter how horrible they were, they were only a part of this fractured place and time.  This divergent path.  The perfect person she was had been hurled into this place by that evil thing.  She had never been so sure of anything before in her life.  If she lived or died she would hunt it until her last breath.  How many other broken lives were spread across infinity because of this darkness?  

"Kelly?"  Billy called from the bottom of the stares.  He had been worried sick all day.  He held the banister for support and lugged the duffel bag up. 

She didn't bother to answer, he would come up.  The canvas spurred to life as she looked back at it.  Her Aunt, and the thousands of different paths and simple questions she could have asked about the duffle bag that would have ended disastrously but didn't.  This life was a curious one.  Was it that simple?  The idea of fate was so trite, but she knew what she needed to do, what all of creation begged from her.  The problem was she didn't know if she could deliver without a little help from fate. 

Billy bumped the door with the bag trying to knock but stumbled inside, "Oh.. sorry.  Hey!  Why didn't you answer I was worried?"  His face held a myriad of mixed emotion, chief of which was annoyance.  "Do you know what's in this bag!  Jeez, maybe it looked normal to everyone else but it felt like clear plastic to me.  I just knew someone was going to come up and grab it or ask me what the heck I was doin with it!"  Billy grasped the double zipper and tore into the OD green bag.  Stack of twenties and fifties filled it like soft bricks.  Kelly stayed glued on the canvas without a sound.  "Kelly?   ..." Billy didn't see a thing on the milky white and all too empty surface.  "What.. ah should we...do with it?" He held solid chunks of green cash in each hand.

She saw Higgins face, his weak pathetic traitor face draped with the shadow of darkness.  It was blood money, she couldn't look at it or bare to touch it, the the painful memory of what it bought was electric and the money a conduit straight to her heart.  Concern was growing on Billy's face, he was about to speak and she didn't want to hear it, "Just go!  leave me alone! and take that damn money with you!"  Her words bit into him like a snake and she felt the power Candace had fallen in love with.  It was mean and a part of her felt bad the instant the words came out, but she didn't want to be in a room with him anymore.  How could he be excited, how could he revel in seeing that bag with what it had done to her.  He left like a dog with it's tail tucked between his legs and she was alone again.  It was; however, a pressing issue. 

The Canvas, her crystal ball whirled to life without her conscious thought, rather it responded to her thoughts.  The Appalachian Mountains flew silently below her birds eye view, it was down there somewhere.  It, Darkness was growing, feeding, becoming stronger.  She had to find it, or maybe wait until it found her to fight it, but how and with what?  She had her little .22 and another of her Dad's she'd hidden, but even Billy knew that wouldn't go very far.  Sure buckshot stopped the possessed sack of meat known as Tom Chambers but that darkened room fought the invading light.  Guns would no doubt be helpful, especially better ones but not the solution she needed.  The canvas caught her attention, it seemed to come alive with some purpose she didn't understand.  It swirled with colors but they darkened and became grey, until with sudden clarity she saw a paper.  The classified ads, where everything from old VHS tapes and Barbie dolls were sold to used firearms.  Billy was sitting at the kitchen table highlighting and dialing numbers into the phone in the surreal picture. 

Kelly was confused; was this showing her the future?  He stood in a parking lot she didn't recognize and an old truck pulled up.  He held the duffle bag in one hand shifting nervously as two portly men stepped out twice his size.  A sense of dread filled her.  She didn't need to see how it would happen, but his twisted and broken body would end in a pool of blood in that parking lot.  She couldn't ask such a thing of Billy!  But what if she went, would her untamed power help?  Was this the future or only what could be?  She edged her stool closer so she was practically in the window.  The scene unfolded the same until she faced swirling black and grey that wouldn't focus.  It was infuriating, she bent her mind on it trying to see, trying to know.  Her hand lifted to touch the window.  Suddenly she stood before the two men.  She didn't see herself; she was there!  She felt the cool late summer breeze and chilling humidity, smelled the raw exhaust from the old truck they left running.  The bags weight was in her hand and she looked down, it was murky, she hadn't got a good look at it before.  Over her shoulder she expected to see a window into her sunlit studio but only saw a small ridge and the familiar train tracks just inside the tree line.  Her head and thoughts felt murky like the bag, what was happening!  Heart racing, she thought of the touch.  It had been so slight.  Would this happen every time?  The murky bag was a comfort it wasn't real not like the world she came from.  Was it a vision?  The men loomed in front of her one on each side of the truck.  One man flipped a latch for the camper cover and dropped the tailgate.  Hear chest heaved but they didn't seem to notice, they played on like a movie.  Was she here, or a spectator?  She wanted to run; the tree line was pretty close but she didn't know where she was.  Billy had died by their hands and it couldn't be much better for her.  She had to focus, get as much out of this as possible, the canvas wouldn't clear it had to mean something!  Their faces were blurred like a dream, somehow she knew them, or knew their spirit.  She felt them like she had felt Tom's signature evil.  One of them waved her over to look into the truck, they had some conscious knowledge of her physical form, or maybe the Kelly in the situation was acting just like her.  She glanced over her shoulder once more at the tracks and stepped closer, she had to oblige to see more of the vision.  The bed was empty, save for an old quilt.  The dusky night was already darkening but storm clouds swept over the scene painting everything in shades of grey.  Her mental embodiment dropped the bag, surely it's what they had killed Billy for, and began backing away.  The black dream faces followed her, but this was more than a dream.  She filled her lungs with air for a blood chilling scream that would bring Billy in the really real world running to save her, but she couldn't make a sound.  She wanted to run when her voice failed and her legs froze in fear.  The figures stood tall and proud now, the familiar evil didn't possess them, it WAS them in this place, this nightmare she couldn't wake from.  One spoke, but no words came out, flies thick as a blanket flooded into the air from it's mouth and bathed her and disappearing just as quickly.  They were words, words of power and fear that dropped her to her knees sobbing and weak as gravity held her a thousand times stronger. 

Billy gently knocked at the door of Kelly's studio and waited for a response.  The freezer was filled with frozen dinners and pizza, and his was downstairs getting cold.  She had been mean to him but that was expected.  The bag was on top of the washer at the moment, he wanted to ask her about it again but getting her to eat was more important.  The knob slowly turned and the door pushed open.  Kelly was sitting on her stool in front of the canvas like a little kid sits in front of the television.  Billy giggled, "Don't sit that close or you'll go blind."  She didn't even look at him, typical.  The small desk had stayed in the room.  It was the only piece of the old lab setup left.  He put the pizza on it and hoped the warm smell would get her attention after he'd gone, it was making his stomach growl well enough.  He turned to pull the door shut as he turned to leave but something about her unblinking stare finally started to creep him out. 

"Kelly? ...  ...  Keeellyyyyy..."  He turned back into the room calling more insistant, "Kelly!"  She didn't move or even blink.  It was way too creepy for him now.  She could ask to be alone all she wanted but this was weird.  Maybe it was writers block for artists?  His hand gently slid close to her back afraid to touch but the instant he brushed her shirt Kelly exploded back from the empty canvas screaming with a gale of wind that nearly knocked him over.  Billy rushed to her side where she grabbed to him like a drowning kitten.  

"What the hell was that!"  Her hair was a mess and covering his face.  He held her trembling body though he was just as frightened.  It had been more than a gust of wind.  A pressurized pop that left his ears ringing.  She slowly looked up at him wondering the same things.  Nothing could have pleased Billy more than to hold her and be there when she needed him. 

"I.. I don't know.  What did you do?  I was lost in a dream or something, and I... couldn't wake up."  Her voice still trembled but the warm sun fed her strength again.  She was back where she belonged.

"I just touched you!  Something knocked you back."  He turned to look around the room still clutching his love.  The stool leaned against the far wall with a small dent in the sheetrock while the canvas and frame were torn and broken.  "I hope this isn't going to happen all the time!"  He chuckled, a nervous reaction but it seemed to lighten the mood.  "You couldn't have been asleep.  When I came in you were right in front of your painting just like I left you."

Kelly pulled away to stand and left Billy on the floor cradling the empty space where she had been.  He was reluctant to move holding her had felt so right.  "I think need to get out for a minute.  Need to clear my head."

"But what the hell just happened!"  The wood frame that held the canvas lay broken and splintered in a heap across the room.  Something had happened Kelly couldn't deny him that but she quickly walked out of the studio without a second glance.  

She wanted time to think.  In her closet was a box of wood to make a new frame, she would have to make another before she could figure any of it out.  The experience was horrifying and the worst part was how she seemed to lose control.  Control, however; was the illusion.  Kelly paused looking at the various woods and tiny hammer.  A box of tacks was lost in the bottom somewhere.  Once she got a new canvas she could try it again.  That place was like a dream, a vortex where past present and futures met.  It would take her an hour or more to build a frame and stretch a new canvas; too bad she couldn't get Billy to do it.  She flopped on the floor and leaned back on her hands with a heavy sigh. 

A flutter of wind through the drapes made shadows dance and play on the floor beside her.  Kelly  snapped her head to the dark movement.  She thought she had seen something, a shadow darker than the rest.  In the corner of her eye the black thing was nothing more than a dot, a fuzzy dot, but it was gone faster than she noticed it.  Maybe she needed sleep.  After what happened sleep was nothing more than exhausted rest.  Now she was seeing black dots in peripheral vision.  More wind kicked the drapes up.  Billy must have opened the windows.  She didn't know how she felt about him being in her room again, but the day was nice outside. 

The hot summer was fading and the breeze wasn't cool yet but still fresh and clean.  The afternoon sun was at the front baking the parking lot.  Kelly went to the window that overlooked the backyard.  The air was cooler and the shady lawn looked inviting.  She hadn't been outside since the incident.  Actually, she had hardly been out of her room or studio.  She saw Billy standing in the hall studying the bizarre explosion from the door.  How could she explain to him what happened.  Did she even know?  He would be on her heels all night with questions.  It was an odd thing, she both loved and loathed him.  His eyes, his knowledge of what she had been through, his overbearing care and insistence was just too much lately.  He made her feel like a little old lady who might fall and break a hip at every step and corner.  It was nice at times but equally annoying.  His words had even begun to change, every sentence ended with a high tone like a question.  Even a statement would be a question, "I'm going downstairs." sounded like, "I'm leaving, are you going to be ok?" and it was driving her bonkers.  Now he would really drive her nuts.

Billy glanced down the hall just in time to see Kelly looking at him before she shut her door.  He had given up on trying to understand her, but this mess was something else.  It was his job to clean up no matter.  The tripod survived and lay collapsed on the floor, but the canvas and frame were shredded.  He picked up pieces of confetti.  Kelly had been in here for two days now and hadn't touched a paint brush.  Only staring.  That was fine by him, he was scared to death she might actually paint something!  The frame had splintered and exploded from within.  It had to be more supernatural crap.  Kelly didn't seem to bothered by it, but the way she grabbed him couldn't hide the truth.  Several splinters were sticking out of the wall.  They had been shot like darts into the sheetrock.

Kelly slid into light jeans thankful to have clean laundry again.  The last thing she wanted to do was pull out a tape measure and work on a new frame.  The wind was light and the sun fresh and she had to go outside sometime.  Memories were so fresh and sore but somehow vague.  Fear seemed to cloud the specifics, while comfort kept her from wanting to remember.  Billy knew.  She had to tolerate him now.  He had helped more than she knew, but she just wanted away for now.  The old green smiley T slid off her arms and onto the corner of the bed.  It had been the first thing Billy put on her after that first shower.  Nipples like pencil erasers cut the fresh air blowing from the window.  She hadn't been wearing a bra, and without notice until now. 

How long had it been?  The thought threatened deeper fears, and she left the waters still. 

Handfuls of her underclothes were scattered in front of her dresser still.  At least Billy hadn't touched her private things.  The memories flooded her weakened mind, maybe things would have gone differently.  She stared off for a moment and shook it off grabbing a padded bra that would make her a little more womanly.  She didn't have a plan of where she was going just out of the house.  Her mind felt foggy since the picture.  She needed to clear her head. 

Billy caught a glimpse of her thin figure slipping out of her bedroom as she ran to the backyard.  He jogged down the hall and hopped up on the toilet to look out the exhaust window.  The purple and cream shirt slid across the creek just has he pried it open.  Kelly disappeared around the bend.  Billy's face flushed with rage, didn't she know how dangerous it was out there!  What if something happened... the thought sank to the pit of his stomach. 

Kelly's shoe was half covered in mud.  The weather had been so dry her small creek was nothing but a sticky mud trap.  She felt Billy's thoughts on her but didn't know if he was after her or just chased her escape with his thoughts.  She hit the train tracks running and jumped behind a tree for a minute in case he did try chase her.  Surely she wasn't a prisoner of her own home!  Her chest rose and fell with full breath as quiet as she could.  The jeans felt too tight, and she was aware of her famine figure in the breeze.  Surely she hadn't gained weight.  If anything she should have lost a little.  How long had it been.... ... ...  ?  She shook her head as if to shake some cobwebs loose.  She had just spent a few days in pajammas is all.  The world still felt alien around her.

The wind rustled the trees and set the shady grove alive with dancing shadows.  Kelly felt alert.  Billy wouldn't come, she didn't hear him but somehow she just knew.  The world around her had never felt so fresh and vivid.  She felt like a child playing explorer.  All she lacked was a wooden sword and a ball of yarn so she wouldn't get lost.  With her recent history she really didn't know what to expect though.  She stood and waited a moment longer, lying to herself that it was to be sure Billy wouldn't come.  She hesitated, she had never been down this side of the tracks before.  The train ran through town but the mountains could force a long snaking path.  Her breath shook but her feet were moving forward through the fear.  She didn't have to go too far.  The sun was up ahead and the power of a summers day couldn't be undone.  The tracks cut a swath through the trees and just before she exited into the clearing Kelly saw something from the corner of her eye.  A cat maybe?  It was gone into a ditch out of sight before she even got a good idea.  It didn't matter, she had real things to worry about.  In the sun all her worries and depression warmed away.  The day felt good, hot and dry but the cool autumn wind would be blowing soon enough.  Dry grass and grasshoppers fluttered and waved as she passed, her mind bent on understanding the canvas.  She didn't understand that the window, the illusion of another reality, didn't come from some otherworldly influence; it came by her own.

Candace walked in off the school bus.  She had had a horrible day and with her Dad out of town she had to ride the cheese wagon.  The school bus wasn't so bad but her stomach had been hurting all day.  It was more than her stomach, it was like menstrual cramps but brief and severe.  They came and went like an intense fluttering deep inside.  She didn't want to admit it and tried to ignore it, but today the sensation had doubled her over more than once.  The first undeniable incident was in Art class with Bully.  Kelly was absent and she planned to ask Billy.  When the bell rang she started for him but was reduced to a panting struggle to hold her bag and not draw attention.  The rest of the day had been agonizingly slow and all she could do was question what she had felt. 

It was that Bee, it planted something inside her.  What it did wasn't enough, it hadn't raped her for the fun, it was using her body for all she was worth.  Inside she didn't know if it had laid and egg or some kind of baby bee larva, but something fluttered inside her now like a fish starved for oxygen.  The clues were adding up and the time to let itself be known were growing.  Candace chose to ignore it, but by the bus ride home all she could think about was getting to Kelly.

Just inside the door she collapsed back slamming the heavy door closed as another wave hit.  She had never felt something there, so deep, so internal.  How could she get it out?  The grotesque knowledge of what it was sapped the strength as she slowly sank.  Her only relief that she was home able to cry.  She was finally alone.  The garage was open and empty.  Her Dad was out of town and her mom didn't come home until late on weekdays.  The flutter passed and she released her death grip on the carpet and tried to stand.  Her knees shook like they had been electrocuted.  She was so glad the house was empty.  Candace knew her Dad would take her as soon as he got the next chance.  And she knew what the thing inside would do when he finished.  Everything would come crashing down on top of her.  She had to get it out before he got back. 

The pink book bag slumped by the door while Candace stumbled up the stairs to her room.  All she wanted was to crawl into bed and wait it out.  Buster woke up and came to greet her at the top.  The dog perked up.  He didn't understand the exact stress she was under but he could tell Candace was struggling in a weakened state.  His tail began to wag before he moved near her; he smelled her rare scent overpowering everything she was.  Buster rushed to her side where his warm breath, wet nose, and tickling whiskers brushed her bare legs.  Candace had worn an skirt, as she did on most days, but she hadn't planned on the creatures disturbance.  Her panties were soaked wafting in the open air under the waves of her black skirt.  The bus ride had been extremely torturous, she bundled into a small ball against the seat and tried to ignore the obnoxious kids and driver who hit every bump in the road (and several that weren't even in the road!).  When she stood to leave even her arms were sweaty.  Any kid along the row with an attentive nose could smell her heat as she left. 

Candace hardly noticed any of this, she was in a fever like cold sweat.  Even Buster didn't bother her as he hurried under her feet into the room.  She got closer to her bed and warm covers that would cocoon her in a ball of safety.  The thing inside her went mad again.  It seemed frustrated and angry at her.  She fell onto her knees just short but grabbing the covers.  Buster read the signals and scent of her body and his nose dove under the back of her skirt lapping at the creamy gusset of her panties.  The creature wriggled and kept Candace paralyzed curling further into the floor holding her abdomen, she felt the dog and knew he was taking advantage of her state.  She was on fire, her back arched and stretched itself up while her face rested on the carpet.  Something was overriding her, controlling her body like a puppet or maybe with just the right influences.  Buster's tongue lapped at the swollen and wanting mound at her gusset.  She caught a glimpse of Buster's red lipstick extending from his furry sheath swinging between his legs.  It was too familiar, how could this be happening again?  Her father made her do this the day of the first attack.  She hadn't told anyone, not even Kelly, it had been the dog's semen inside her during the first attack.  And the creature, the seed of evil was in her again trying for an encore. 

She had a saving grace, a lucky comfort that she fought not to pull aside.  Her soaked panties blocked the dog.  His paws wrapped around her hips pulling his hips into position.  His hard pecker and os-bone shoved and prodded her helpless figure but found no purchase.  The thin cotton became transparent and stretched from the addition of his slimy excretions and incessant stabbing.  The dog kept humping the soft swollen mound between her legs just hoping for a lucky hit, he was so close.

Kelly tried to think about what happened in her studio as she walked along the tracks.  Somehow she knew looking back into the canvas was the only way.  The possibilities of answering all her questions was tempting, but so was the fear of getting lost.  Her mind wandered in a mist of questions until she came to the same place over and over.  The past.  She wanted to meddle in it.  She had prodded the future but what about the past, what about understanding her life?  She felt guilty in a way, and selfish in another.  The railroad ties were too close together to for each step but to far for two at a time, so she tried to balance on the beam.  She should be trying to find way to kill the Darkness.  It was her purpose now, she was sure of it.  Find it, learn it's weakness, and destroy it, send it back to the abyss.  On a moral level it was so simple though she had no starting point, no point of reference.  The past however was full of questions, not to mention she wanted to change the past.  Go back, find a way to take another path. 

The tracks rounded another bend and came to an old trestle over a river.  The steel had turned green with mold and age, like everything else in Spencer.  Over her shoulder was the way back, this would make a good stopping point.  The day was beautiful yet dreadfully hot in the sun.  Despite her long sleeve blouse, Kelly chose push on further see what was on the other side.  She knew Railroad tracks ran behind Chestnut Ridge, these had to lead there eventually.  Not that she wanted to go, but the idea intrigued her.

The bridge was creepy old and half a football field long.  If any Trains still ran she would have turned back immediately.  There was no exit and no floor, only the open air and railroad ties.  She giggled at the minor risk.  Her mind went to the sense of flying into oblivion on volcanic glass, like waking the moment before death in nightmare only Darkness had kept her asleep.  The water below flowed quick and clean with a rocky riverbank.  Kelly stepped out on a single beam of steel lightheartedly waving her arms for balance.  A month before she would have been scared out of her mind, but when you've faced death and survived, life seems all the more beautiful.  The challenge made her heart race with excitement and playful joy.  She didn't stop until the far side where she jumped off lightheartedly.

Another half mile up a clearing came into view on the left side of the tracks, same as her house.  Kelly would learn the tracks stuck to the north side of town.  A clearing of concrete and asphalt, then a dumpster and a business, The Country Kitchen.  Her time hadn't been wasted at all.  The country Kitchen was just outside of town and while the road went winding for miles the train tracks must lay as the crow flies.  It was less than an hour to get here, so main street Spencer was only a short walk away. 

A shadow caught her attention again.  Another stray cat?  It was over by the dumpsters.  She was a victim of circumstance growing up and her parents never let her have a pet.  Maybe it was because she felt alone in a crowded room, or she just needed a friend who wasn't Billy or Candace.  A pet cat might be nice.  It had been a small creature and quick, maybe even a kitten.  Over the ditch and into the parking lot she gently called, hoping to see a kitten perk up begging for a meal.  The restaurant smelled of fried steak and gravy.  The pavement near the dumpster was darkened with grease.  She wanted to take the stray cat home and away from this dirty place.  Her compassion came from a place she didn't understand. 

Kelly was smooth and quiet as a breeze sneaking up behind the building when a back door burst open.  Sounds of a busy Kitchen filtered out, pots and pans, people yelling, and the ding of diners bell, "Order Up!"  She jumped behind the dumpster and slid down as a balding man in a cooks apron grumbled over and tossed an armload of trash in.  She nearly jumped as a bottle broke just on the other side of her head.  The man pulled his sagging pants up and headed back inside closing the noisy door.  The scene was quiet again. 

She stuck her head out and caught another sight of the kitten, surely it was a kitten.  The little black ball of fuzz disappeared on the other side just as she saw it.  Kelly was too aware of the grit grinding under her sneakers, there was no way she could sneak up on the creature but she wanted to try.  Around the next corner she didn't catch a glimpse, and inside the dumpster was nothing but busted trash bags and horrid humid rot.  Kelly's long neck stretched hoping that maybe the kitten was inside but she saw something else instead.  Tiny white fly larva spread in a blind search across the metal confines of the dumpster. 

Kelly's heart jumped into her throat drumming so loud in her ears the world muffled, so fast that her vision began to blur and she felt faint.  The fear of falling unconscious here and now threatened to push her over the edge.   There it was, right in front of her.  How had she been led here, or was it coincidence or fate?  The idea of fate scared her because it meant she had no free will. 

She stumbled back, the sky was darkening into dusk and she had an hours walk back home.  Without a word, trying to leave unnoticed, she calmly headed back to the tracks.  Something was watching her and she couldn't stop herself looking back.  Shadows seemed to swirl under the dumpster like a litter of kittens just out of sight.  Her pace quickened once she reached the tracks.  Her better judgement told her not to run, predators always pursue running prey.  She didn't want to think like that, but her irrational mind wouldn't stop as she kept glancing back.  With big awkward steps she made good time back to the trestle.  She was out of breath and paused, darkness was growing around her.  The wind made the shadows dance more and more showing the underside of tree leaves like a storm was blowing in. 

Her feet stepped onto the rail at the bridge.  She had come across here less than an hour ago but now she felt like a drunkard.  Over her shoulder the distant tree trunks were swirling with the fuzzy black spots.  Woolly caterpillars, kittens, and full grown cats massed inside the tree line.  Was it just the dark?  Did her mind make this up?  She looked down at the tracks.  Her deep breath called up new courage and her arms went up to balance, it would be too easy to trip and miss a step on the mossy steel beam.  She had to focus on the path forward and not look back or down.   

Halfway across she didn't look back but down.  The riverbed swarmed with black things and they looked to race her for the other side.  Kelly called upon a calmness she only knew from facing personal obliteration and took flawless smooth steps until she reached the far side where she jumped off the side and ran as fast as she could back home.

The apartments light came into view and before she crossed the creek she stopped to catch her breath.  Every light in her unit was on, at least Billy could be trusted, he was sitting in the living room waiting for her with both doors unlocked.  Behind, only the moonlight danced on the ground.  The wind had blown any clouds away.  It didn't make any sense.  She ran, but from what?  She had always been able to feel evil before whether it was Tom Chambers or the Darkness itself, but this time she felt nothing.  Maybe it was an illusion, a visual manifestation of her fears.  No more real than shadows...  Is this what she could expect every time she got the creeps?

Home looked safe and inviting.  The back door slowly slid open and Kelly slipped in knowing Billy would be furious.  His head popped up over the couch to see her.  "Candace called for you.  Like a hundred times!"

Kelly's voice was soft and cracked through her dry throat before she cleared it, "I wanted to get out of the house."

"She's gonna stick bamboo shoots under my fingernails if you don't tell her something." 

"Candace is a big girl, she'll be fine." 

"She could torture me and I'd have nothing to say ya know!  How about letting me on what you're doing!"  She knew he meant the incident from upstairs.  "Not to mention what you're thinking.  You need to stop and think, what if something happened?"

Kelly was taken aback, suddenly she wasn't sure about anything.  It was out there.  The Darkness persisted but she couldn't tell where.  Everything was blurry.  She was suddenly struck with the urge to ask Billy what he knew.  Some answers and clues would be nice.  "I'll consider that.  I think I'm going to be fine.  Just give me some time."  She was having to relearn how to navigate the world all over again. 

"Hey, are you gonna call Candace back?  And where the heck did you go?"

"Just out, and I think I'll go to school tomorrow, so... I guess I'll see her there."

"Easy for you to say..." 

"I'll be in the shower."  Kelly walked up the stairs without a bit of gratitude or even a good night.  Her shower was quick, they had been faster and faster since she always kept one eye on the drain. 

In her room she pulled soft clean cotton up her legs to cover her nakedness and realized the window was still open.  She stared into the dark searching for those shadows again.  Maybe they were out there and maybe not, it was too hard to see a shadow in the pitch black.  It didn't matter, she didn't feel any evil, only neutral like her clean canvas has been.  Neutral held infinite possibilities.  The more she looked at the bleak quiet of the night Kelly wanted to look into another canvas and paint with her mind.  Stretching a new canvas would be such a pain.  She wanted a really big one.  Even if she had the wood to make one, she'd have to ask Billy for help and that wasn't gonna happen tonight. 

One of Billy's habits she had adopted was sleeping with a light on.  He had done it for her at first and the comfort grew on her.  A soft night light at a power outlet would have worked best but a lamp with a dim forty watt bulb worked too.  She pulled the covers up and stared at the ceiling.  Her walk burnt some energy but quieting her mind was another issue.  What if she had a canvas in front of her now what would it show, what could she see?  

Her eyes half lidded and restless began to close as she saw another shadow.  Only for an instant and near her closet.  It was maddening!  She threw the covers back and jumped out of bed to look.  Her light switched on and any darkness retreated to her closet.  The wicker doors hinged to fan open or closed.  Tiny specks of light painted the box of framing supplies.  Kelly gently pulled the door to one side.  Nothing but a stack of clothes and her box. 

Billy would be downstairs absorbed into the TV or asleep in front of it.  What if she tried to look at one of these black dots in a canvas?  Something about them didn't feel right, but also not wrong.  The only way to find out if it was real or her imagination was to look into the canvas again.  Billy would be against it.  She would have to be sure he didn't hear.  The boards were pre cut but the tacks would be hard to sneak.  All she could think to do was wait on Billy to fall asleep and sneak back outside. 

Kelly's bedroom door creaked open, a bad start.  She crouched down in her teddy pajamas and slid to the railing.  A crazy cartoon exploded from the TV and splashed colors across his face.  He was laying along the couch with the covers pulled up.  Assumed asleep.  She grabbed the supplies and slid down the stairs on the balls of her feet.  The carpet helped and she didn't make a sound.  She felt sneaky, like Catwoman on a heist.  Her calves, hamstrings, and quads stretched searching for another big step.  Her muscles felt lean and strong.  She was aware of herself in a way she never had been before. Moving in ways she'd never done before she found the power of confidence.  And she found it sexy.   The sliding door made her cringe but Billy was dead to the world. 

Outside felt different.  A cool breeze reminded that summer was still here but nearing an end. The yard felt different at night.  The creek further away, and the fence more confining compared to the open sky and dark hills.  Coming through the living room she didn't want to make any noise, but out here she felt she may disturb the night.  She went to work wanting to finish quickly.  Huge flood lights lit the yard up her only weapon against the black.  Her hands flew, she had done this so many times before.  Each hit of the little hammer snapped the darkness awake and reported back just how open the yard was.  Her little corner of light in the ocean of night. 

Kelly felt the dots, the black things, felt their neutral again.  A presence only.  The presence of infinite possibility.  She knew that Darkness could affect it.  Infect the pure night with it's evil.  But Darkness was only one side of the coin.

She finished stretching the canvas quickly and made it to her studio without Billy ever moving.  Stretching was the hardest part.  She had made the biggest frame with what she had, and it would do for now.  Billy had cleaned up the studio while she was on her walkabout.  Her stool and tripod were in the middle of the room waiting.  The canvas completed the picture as she took her seat in front. 

The instant Kelly got in her comfortable and familiar pose the canvas turned to smooth placid water showing her reflection.  She looked tired, too serious, and determined.  Her thoughts probed the vision, wondering if it responded to her and her alone.  The water rippled and her face became unclear.  Her thoughts went to the walk outside and she saw herself walking down the tracks, but from hundreds of feet above.  She saw the scene as the crow flies.  Slowly zooming in, her figure crossed the river with a silly confidence she only now realized.  It was more than a memory because she saw something she didn't before.  Kelly watched herself close on the dumpster.  She had felt the black thing there for sure, just around the corner.  Her figure went to the left and her viewing window to the right.  Her canvas like a porthole in a submarine.  

The balding man came out right on time cussing about some, "Dumbass teenager," and lugged the trash in.  He held an empty soda bottle winding up like a pitcher to throw it in.  The door shut and Kelly leaned forward from her stool.  She blinked, That was new.  It had certainly happened but not from her point of view. 

A fluid black paper flew into view.  It was like oil but flat as latex.  The spots she had seen were real!  Her picture froze when she recognized it.  It was a thing not meant to be seen.  A two dimensional shadow always just out of sight.  Like a secret exit from a stage when the lights go out.  It rippled and flowed like the wind, like seaweed on the canvas.  It was nothing, the essence of nothing, infinite possibility incarnate.  

She couldn't help but smile, she couldn't believe she actually caught it.  The thing didn't have any features but she could feel it.  Feel it's surprise.  She broke out in giggles, her mind drew comic eyes on it bulging out at her in amazement.  Regaining composure she looked back worried the scene would have changed, but a little mouth dropped open; the creature was in awe of her.  Her awareness gave it expression.  

Kelly's body still sat on the stool squirming and looking at the empty canvas like an excited school girl, but the canvas was blank in her reality.  She was learning to explore the ethereal, her mind pushed and probed the possibilities.

"Well hi there," She softly said not to herself but to the creature.  That neutral feeling was in it, but it was a curious being, like a wild kitten.  The little face she'd painted on it raised a cautious eyebrow, like a puppy that had been beaten yet never loses hope in humanity.  "It's ok, come-on."  Her words didn't matter, Kelly communicated to it with her heart, and it purred back.  The thing was never allowed to express itself more-less encouraged.  

Kelly popped back awake, suddenly aware the canvas was bare in front of her, she was back in her world.  A tiny ink dot blotched the center of the canvas.  But she hadn't touched it.  She looked closer and the ink was thick like oil and still wet. A smile crept across her lips, it was spreading.  First only a thick pen dot, then a dime, now a quarter.  It pulsed and forced itself wider like it was fighting to exist.  It was a shadow in the light, a fuzzy void you weren't suppose to see, but it fought the light and spread onto the canvas at Kelly's urge. 

She rushed to the desk and turned on a soft lamp before flipping the big light off.  Instantly the shadow burst like a balloon and covered the canvas front, side and presumably back too. 

"A shadow within shadows..." Kelly slowly approached with an outstretched hand.  What evil she had felt in Tom, she felt good in this.  Her fingers gently touched it.  The shadow was a solid thing that had taken the form of her canvas.  It wobbled and rippled like black water changing to flow into the air lifted on a micro breeze.  Kelly reached up to cradle it.  It didn't like what she was doing, it was afraid but it had to obey.

Kelly felt it's fear, it's uncertainty.  It was a slave to a fearful master.  Kelly had mastered them too but she was different.  It was a sad thing longing for the light, the pureness Kelly offered, but it knew only darkness.  The comical eyes darted back and forth worried like a feral kitten fighting it's nature to run.  Kelly heard Billy turn the knob.  It vanished from her arm when she turned to look. 

Billy pushed the door open and flipped the light switch on.  "Kelly why are you still up?"  His face tired and annoyed.

Kelly realized what she must look like to.  His eyes judged her sanity.  Her arms were up cradling an invisible baby at her neck.  How could she show him?  "I think I've found something!" 

"It's four o' clock in the morning and your posing in the dark?  What have you found?  I'm just dying to know..." His eyes were flat and totally unexcited.

Kelly pouted her lip a little hurt.  "Come here and I'll show you."  She waved him over, "Cut the light off first."  Her looked at her like she was crazy but did as she asked.

The room got quiet and Kelly wrapped her arm around his neck to pull him down pointing with the other.  Her desk lamp was still on and she pointed right at the edge of light.  "Look close, see if you can see them."  Kelly focused and where the line of shadow was clear on the desk they were tiny and moved like ants, she could hardly see those.  Over on the wall where the lamplight was weakest near the total dark there's a shadow!  Billy leaned forward not sure how to feel about being hugged so close and followed her pointing finger.  He didn't see a damn thing.

"What the heck are you talking about?"

Kelly took a step back and looked at his eyes in the dim light.  It was a last ditch effort but it seemed appropriate at the time.  "Nargles.  I think I've found Nargles."

Billy blinked lazily and took a deep breath.  "What the hell is a Nargle?"  He didn't want to think about the fact that she might really be crazy and hoped it was some elaborate joke. 

"Well not exactly like from the movie but they're in the shadows and I think I can show you."  Billy blinked a few more times, clearly not entertained.  "Ok they're like shadows, and they are a thing like me or you.  Only instead of being three dimensional like us, they're a two dimensional shadow.. thing... a Nargle."  Kelly smiled at him at with her discovery dismissing his doubters face. 

Billy cocked his head to the side and stood back up straight.  He didn't know what to do.  Maybe if she went to school she would come back to normal, or let someone else find out she's gone crazy, he didn't want to touch the subject with a ten foot pole.  "Are you going to school in the morning?"  His annoyance showing through his tone. 

Not knowing what to make of it Kelly dropped her smile, it didn't feel that late to her but she would be dead if she went.  "Maybe I did stay up a little late."

"Too late?  your dancing in a dark room taking about imaginary creatures!"

Kelly rolled her eyes, "How did you find me anyway, what were you doing up?"

Billy looked down with his signature way.  He knew how angry she'd been about her clothes, and he didn't want her to be mad at him about checking on her from time to time.  "I was just using the bathroom and noticed your bedroom light was on.  I thought it was strange this late and checked."

"You just opened my door in the middle of the night?"

"Nooo, it's was halfway open, go look!  and you weren't in there so I came to check in here."

Had she left her light and door open?  She couldn't be sure, but more importantly she lead Billy away from his questions.  "Fine, well I guess I'll sleep in and miss one more day.  But I want you to do something."  His eyes said no but his silence betrayed he would do anything for her.  "I'm going to have my aunt pick you up from the school and take you to get some supplies.  I'll leave a list.  Some of them you might have to ask Mrs. Francis for..."  Kelly trailed off mumbling about how to know which Mrs. Francis might need to supply and which would be at the store. 

Billy didn't say a word and turned to leave.  All he wanted was to snatch a few hours sleep before morning.