Shadows in Light

Police stations aren’t fun.

First, you’re there for committing a crime, then there’s all these guns and officers staring at you like you’re a criminal. Granted they might not be wrong in most of the cases, but in mine they were. Technically, I’d done nothing wrong. But with the fact the place was trashed, I was a nobody, and the girls were missing, I had no case in front of me. Keeping my mouth shut was the best option for me and I knew it.

Next up there’s the criminals. Today on Friday there was a mass of drunk people, including a couple of people who absolutely stunk of vomit and booze.

Hey, I think I rode in the same vehicle as one of these guys.

Then there were the more serious criminals. There was one guy who looked utterly wiped out on some form of drugs. A couple of guys had blood over them and were being attended to by medics, although I noted they were still handcuffed.

I was pulled over to the desk, behaving myself as I was, and the desk Sargent looked at me, then at the officer who had brought me in, who uncuffed me.

“What’s this one in for?” He asked

“Breaking and entering. Trespassing. Burglary. Criminal damage.”

The Sargent looked at me for a long moment considering me, before filing out some paperwork between the two of them.

“We’ve got a whole mess going on right now. Put him over in the holding cell for the time being. We’ll deal with him later. Everyone’s on high alert due to the Everett thing.”

I was taken over to an area, where I was thoroughly searched and my bag was passed over, again being searched through. Each item was listed on a piece of paper. My shoes, necklace, and belt were taken off me being placed with the rest of my items, added to the list and I was given it to sign. They even counted my measly amount of cash, noting the individual amount of coins.

More paperwork was filled out between the officers, and I was then taken to a room to get changed into a jump suit and the remainder of my clothing was again added to the list, with more signing by myself.

The officer pulled me over to the holding cell which was a fun large room with a single door to it, some toughed glass windows, and once I was in it, I was able to see the biggest of delights. A toilet. Oh boy, there’s nothing like public urination and pooping! The room had a couple of people in it that ignored me as I walked in.

“They’ll be with you eventually buddy. Behave yourself and keep out of trouble.” the officer said to me before the cell was firmly locked behind me. I shot a glance at it and shuddered a little. Okay, I might have a bit of a problem with being locked in like this.

I looked over the joint occupants of this fine establishment. One was a bulky looking guy who was pacing around, muttering to himself. He paid more attention to the floor than anything else as he walked. I couldn’t hear what he was saying, and I felt I wasn’t sure I wanted to right now.

The second guy was familiar to me. I knew him from somewhere, but I couldn’t place it for several moments. I moved closer to him, looking at him. He had a vacant expression on his face, staring at a mirrored wall that was reflecting himself. His skin looked a little blue to me, but as I watched he took a little breath, and turned his head looking at me. It was the guy from Essence I’d talked to.

He looked so bad right now. His eyes were blood shot to hell and back, and his lips had a light blue tinge to them. His skin had the same slight tinge to it as he looked at me. Well, I say he was looking at me, but he was looking through me, like I wasn’t here. It was creepy. His eyes were moving and looking at something, but it wasn’t me.

“Hey. You okay?” I asked him, moving closer. He blinked several times before he slowly shifted his head looking more at me, and his eyes focused directly on me.

“Can you see it?” he whispered.

“See what?” I looked behind me. There wasn’t anyone or anything behind me.

“The Darkness. It’s coming.” His eyes left me and started looking behind me. Was he seeing Shadow? Or was he just high again? He didn’t look anything close to what he did last time I saw him though. Last time he looked happy.

This time he... well he looked like death was about to visit him.

He shrunk back away from me as I moved towards me, whimpering “No! Don’t come closer. I don’t want the Darkness closer!”

That made me pause and watch him. He was seeing something around me. But why was he seeing it? I weighed the options out for a moment, then moved away from him. He was creeping me out. And I guess I was creeping him out too, but not enough to stop him watching as I moved to a bench and sat down. I ignored him by watching our companion.

He was still pacing the floor, trying to dig a groove into it with his bare feet. His jumpsuit was somehow dirty and heavily stained. He’d managed to tear a couple of holes in it too, as I suspected these were somewhat maintained at least. His hair was cut randomly and stuck up all over the place. He had his arms wrapped around him and was rubbing himself constantly as he walked, like he was too cold. In fairness that happens a lot in Seattle during the Winter. It can get cold here without warning. He never once in the ten minutes or so I kept my attention on him stopped walking or muttering. He was barely stopping to breath as he went on.

“Didn’t see them. Didn’t do anything wrong. Made it up, couldn’t be real. Passing by. Just a dream. Ain’t nothing down there” he muttered as I strained to listen. Wow. Guess he had had a bad day too. Almost as bad as mine apparently.

Bet he hadn’t caused the city to go on high alert. Yeah. My nights winning.

I took a glance to the club guy, he’d gone back to staring at himself in the mirror, it was faintly eerie to watch him, so I stopped, and the other guy was either going insane, gone insane, or trying to convince himself he wasn’t insane. I gave up trying to socialize and leaned back against the wall.

I was trying not to over think my situation. I was forgettable, and now in jail. You hear scary stories about people being forgotten about in jail, so how well was I going to fair being as I was? Was I going to have to attempt a jail break? Or going to have to almost die and get shipped to hospital again to get out of this.

I closed my eyes, trying to get a plan, but instead I fell asleep. I didn’t mean to, but I did.

I had a dream I hadn’t had for a while; in fact, I haven’t had this dream since before I died. I dreamt I was looking up at this woman. I honestly didn’t remember that much about her every time I had this dream, but I felt she was so pretty to look at, a young sweet face that giggled down at me, blue eyes twinkling with love, and her face filled with happiness. She stroked my face with her hand murmuring to me. I didn’t have a clue what she was saying, but I didn’t care. It was wonderful to see that face again in my dreams. So relaxing and peaceful. I could stay in this dream forever without any concerns.

The pretty woman was replaced with young looking, but handsome man, who leaned down to kiss my forehead. He was masculine defined to me. He looked strong and powerful, without having any details as dreams often are. It was more of an impression to me. His mouth moved and he spoke to me, but as with the woman I didn’t have a clue what he was saying.

Then they were gone. And I was left alone. Watching the dark above me without any fear.

I don’t know how long I stayed in that dream, but when I woke something was wrong. Our muttering companion had stopped walking and was curled up in a corner emitting faint snoring noise. The guy from the club was still in his seat, staring at the mirror. What the hell had snapped me awake like that? I could hear people moving outside, but there wasn’t anything to cause this feeling.

The air in the cell stopped moving, like someone had sealed us up in a box, and a wave of something went through me, causing me to shudder. The muttering man shuddered too without waking. I looked to our other companion in time to see his head slowly turn at me, his body staying utterly still as he did until his head was almost completely turned around. His face was utterly blue as he did, his lips almost a bright purple.

Then he collapsed to the floor without any warning.

I was to my feet and at him before he had stopped moving on the floor. He wasn’t breathing, and I couldn’t find a pulse.

I’d done some CPR classes when I was younger although it had been years since I had to think about it, so I needed a few moments to remember what to do. They never said how nerve wracking it was to have someone like this in front of you.

I made sure he was laid him flat on his back and straightened his head to get an airway. There wasn’t anything in his mouth, so I gave him a couple of breaths, but there wasn’t any change. I started doing compressions and called out.

No one responded.

Oh, just typical.

I leaned down and gave him some more breaths, but as I did, I felt something in my head.

There was something here.

Not in his airway, but something else. Something that was doing this, something that had caused him to stop breathing. Something that did not belong here. It was one of those weird feelings I was getting used to, so instead of breathing out into his lungs, I breathed in.

What came out wasn’t breath.

Imagine the sight of a woman beaten by her beloved husband, the sound of a child crying abandoned in the middle of nowhere, the smell of week-old rotten meat, the taste of spoiled milk, the sound of nails on a chalkboard. Then throw in that the sense of utter horror that Death himself is stood RIGHT behind you ready to put his hand on your shoulder, the pain of thousands of nightmares filled with pain and suffering.

And that’s getting somewhere close to what came out when I absorbed out him, along with knowledge. This poor guy had been suffering this way for years, perhaps over a decade. And it had been getting worse and worse in recent months. His only escape was when he was at Club Essence. The drugs let him enjoy life, forget what was in his head and heart.

But now I had this horror and destruction rolling around in me, and it struck at me not in a physical sense, and more in a mental sense. My memories of being in that coffin came up again, causing me to cry out. The fear, the loneliness I’d been suffering. And then the real horror in all this came to me.

Whatever this was it was alive in some sense. It knew it had been pulled out and taken from its home, where it wanted to belong. Where it wanted to go back to.

It didn’t want to be in me.

And was talking to me. Chattering in my head. Whispering through my mind.

I could hear it was telling me that this feeling wasn’t mine, I didn’t have to suffer it. It didn’t want me; it wanted a mortal. I could give it away, give it back to where it came. Or the other one. That would be fine too.

Let this end. It could pull up all the worse memories I’d suffered in my life. Even the ones I’d thought I’d forgotten. But it didn’t want to. It just wanted to go, and if I just gave in, it would.

Just let it go.

I’m probably supposed to be manly and say I suffered in silence, aren’t I? Not a sound came from me. Well, I couldn’t stay quiet, and I was crying. I could feel so much pain in this Thing. It was pure horror to suffer it, and I can’t deny it was tempting to give it up. Let it go to escape this. But it wasn’t right to do it.

Neither of them deserved it. Wasn’t the point of having power to use it for something? Saving people from fates worse than death.

This counted. This mattered.

“No. You’re going nowhere! I bind at thee” I screamed. I don’t know why I said it, nor if I said it out loud, it didn’t matter.

The Thing fought and struggled in my head, more than it had before. It was trying to get away, dredging up memories from my childhood. The orphan home, my father dying, barely surviving with my mother, my death, and everything in between. But I hung on, trying to at least chant at it, but probably only managing to babble like a lunatic.

Then it emitted a scream that felt like it hurt every nerve in my body, my body going rigid in pain, I probably screamed again. I don’t know.

But when it ended, it was gone. It felt like it crumbled into nothingness in my head, whatever held it together collapsed.

I gasped out, opening my eyes. I could see a mass of pure white leaving my mouth, crackling as it floated away, slowly fading away like a cloud of smoke on the air.

I lay back on the floor panting. That was as exhausting as taking on Eli.

I needed a vacation.

I took a few moments before I rolled over to look at the guy. He’d lost that blueness to his face, and was breathing, although in shallow breaths. He still needed medical help. I looked over and the muttering guy was looking at me with wide eyes.

“Go, get me help, will you?” I croaked at him.

He nodded without another word as I checked the guy’s pulse.

Muttering man was more successful than I was, and a minute later we’d been herded into a corner and the guy was being checked out. Muttering guy looked at me with wide eyes as I leaned against the wall.

“You saved his life!” he loud whispered, which caused the officer guarding us to look at me with a raised set of eyebrows.

I merely shrugged tiredly “Seemed like the right thing to do.” I said, watching as a gurney was wheeled in and our companion was loaded up. Our guardian officer moved away to talk to one of the other ones as they started to leave, and I looked at the muttering guy.

“What did you see?” I whispered at him.

“Light!” he whispered back “Ain’t going to say shit. Don’t you worry. Get locked up. Again. If I say nuffin. Didn’t see nuffin, don’t you worry. Saved his life. All that matters.”

I relaxed a little, guy had been locked up, so it didn’t matter in theory. The guardian officer came over and pointed at me.

“You come out.”

I nodded and got up off the wall, following him. They felt saving lives was a good mark as they didn’t bother cuffing me as I followed him, or he’d forgotten that part. Whichever it was didn’t matter, I wasn’t going to cause any issues in a police station.

I wasn’t up for it right now anyways.

We got back to the Desk Sargent who looked down at me, and after a few minutes of searching managed to find my discarded file. I wanted to go home so I tried something.

“Look, Officer Vance knows me. Is he in?” I asked

The Sargent thought about it for a moment then shook his head “No Vance is off for a few days.”

Damn that was one avenue closed then, time to think up another one. Wait a minute.

“I’m being charged for breaking and entering right?” I asked the Sargent, to which he nodded. “Okay so if I can get the occupants to confirm they gave me a key and can vouch for me they charge will be dropped?”

The Sargent blinked for a moment looking at the file, “Says here the place was trashed and you were found in it.”

“That’s right, but I didn’t do it, nor did I break in. So, I’ve committed no crime. I need to call them up though.”

The Sargent thought about it for a moment “You want to use a phone to call them up then?” He asked me, getting a frantic nod from me.

“Please. No offense here, but I’m not fond of jail cells, especially when I haven’t done anything wrong. Faster I can be out of here would be best for me. I have issues with enclosed spaces.”

The Sargent pointed to a phone and I walked over, picking it up and thought about Dave’s number for a moment before I dialed it. I hoped to everyone above I could he would pick it up.

The phone rang for so long I was sure he wasn’t going to pick up. If he didn’t, I was going to be absolutely screwed. I was about to hang up when someone picked up, but the line was silent.

“Dave? Hello? It’s me Ryan” I started hoping Dave hadn’t pranked me now. The line stayed quiet for a good twenty seconds before there was a sound.

“Ryan?” came Dave’s voice. Oh, thank you! I was never so happy to hear a man’s voice as I was right now.

“Dave! I need help.”

“Ryan, why are you calling me from Seattle Police Station?” he asked me politely with a sharp edge to it “I’m not going to be able to help you know?”

“It’s not you I need, it’s the girls. Are they still there?”

“Oh, yes they’re still here don’t worry. Why do you need them?”

“I went to their place earlier; it was utterly trashed. Someone must have seen me going in or something, because soon enough police were there, and I was under arrest. I’ve been stuck at the police station for,” I looked up at the wall, getting the time. It was after six am, wow, time flies when you’re in a jail cell apparently. I’d been forgotten or left for the night. “Maybe five hours now?”

“Huh, you’re a lucky guy apparently. Normally you’d be in a big load of trouble, okay, I’ll put them on. Give me a few minutes though.”

The phone line went quiet as Dave left, and my guardian officer came over looking at me holding the phone “How’s it going.”

“Guy they’re staying with has just gone to get them. Needs a few minutes.”

The officer nodded a little, then wandered back to the Sargent. I waited impatiently with bated breath for one of the girls to come on. It took a few minutes before there was noise, but soon I had Rachel on the line.

“Ryan!? Are you okay? Dave said you were in jail. Was this to do with going to our place? Oh, I am sorry I didn’t mean to get you in trouble I didn’t! What do you need to get this sorted out? We’ll get you out I promise!” She chattered at me without a breath, and a very loud voice. It took me another moment to realize she had a memory of me in all this.

“Yes, it was to do with your place.”

“I am sorry, what station are you being held at?” I got the station name and number of them, and she hung up after promising to sort this out. The guard officer came back “Getting sorted?”

“The homeowners are calling in for me now.”

“Hmmm, they might want to hold you. You have no identification; we’ll see what the prosecutor says.”

Waiting on someone to save you is a nightmare. An utter nightmare, more so when you’re in a police station. All the officers are watching you with that suspicious police stare, it’s creepy and faintly concerning. Especially when they’re armed and you’re not.

But I waited. And waited. And waited some more.

Soon enough the desk Sargent’s phone rang, and he looked up at me, frowning for a moment and looked through paperwork, guess he hadn’t been paying attention and forgotten me. Ho hum. Still the paperwork helped him remember and I heard him mumble into the phone, talking to someone. Soon enough though the phone went down, and he waved me over.

“Looks like everything has been sorted. No charges are being filed.”

The Sargent looked at me as I gave a tried to not look too relieved all this was being sorted out “And there’s nothing on record for you, so you’re free to go.” He looked down at his paperwork meaning to get back to it.

“Hey. I had bag and clothes when I came in?”

He looked up at me. then pointed down to where I’d been stripped off “Go over there, they’ll sort you out. Give them your name.”

I nodded to him and headed back over to get my stuff back. The officer in charge of it was kind enough to leave my paperwork on the table with my clothing, so I just took that with me as I was left to go get changed out of the prison clothing.

Once fully dressed and having made sure all my stuff was there including my phone, I headed back to the desk Sargent. He ignored me until I coughed to catch his attention

“My apologies for all of this, I never wanted to cause so many issues for you and your fellow officers.”

“It’s not a problem sir. Is there anything else you need?”

“Do you know where the bus stops are around here?”

He drummed his pen on the table thinking about that, looking at the walls in thought. I took advantage of his distraction, and the fact he wasn’t paying attention to me naturally and snatched my paperwork. It worked perfectly, no one yelled nor shouted as I slide it into my bag in time for the Sargent to look at me and give me directions.

I got outside and the sun was shining down at me. I groaned in faint pleasure at seeing it and feeling it on my skin. It might have only been a winter sun, but it was still glorious to see again. Then Seattle decided to spit rain on my head. Good thing I like this City isn’t it?