Shadow's Dangers (29 page)

I thought I had reached the pinnacle of horror, but it was total and complete when I saw Leighton, a quizzical expression on her face, Travis at her side, mocking me. The tears came to my eyes and I couldn't help myself. I wanted to convince myself by all means that Garreth wasn't my torturer, but the evidence was there: Travis, in the flesh, was in front of me, not holding me firmly, preventing my escape. I was the dumbest girl on Earth! I never imagined Leighton and Garreth could be in cahoots with their psychopath brother. I felt angry at myself when I thought that just the day before, I saw Garreth and I told myself I was lucky to be with someone as good as he and that barely two hours earlier, I sympathized with the pain of Leighton, the same one who called me her “sister” back then.

“Oh, are you crying? Don't. You’ll see, you’ll soon...”

He stopped and turned his head so fast I heard his bones crack. He looked confused and it was now or never to try to escape. I did something I never would have thought myself capable, I dug my fingers into his eyes. He grunted and released me to spread his hands over his face. Using the element of surprise, I began to scamper away like a rabbit. I heard such a furious roar that it sounded like the cry of an animal. He was angry. I quickened my pace to no avail. Suddenly, he grabbed me violently by the hair, which made me cry out in pain. I fought like a beast, but I soon found myself pressed against Garreth's chest while his hand gripped my throat.
I’m going to die. This is the end, this time.
No exit possible, he held me tightly. He was going to kill me. I closed my eyes, not wanting to have my last image be the face of my murderer. The one I had foolishly fallen in love with. Eyes closed, I prayed for my death to be quick. I waited, dreading the fateful moment. But nothing happened, except for a voice, filled with a hardly contained rage.

“Let her go now!”

My eyes opened again and in spite of myself, I managed to turn my head despite his hands around my neck. What I perceived, then, seemed inconceivable. It surpassed all understanding.

“Bastard! You hurt her!”

“Always exaggerating. It’s just a scratch,” replied the other--with the very same voice as the one who spoke a second before!--after having touched a wound that I had on the face, which made me wince.

All this couldn't be true. Yet indeed, I saw two Garreths, one a few inches from me, clutching my throat and another to my right, at a distance of several meters. The tears came again. If I didn't die today, I would surely become crazy for good. The Anchorage psychiatric hospital should be preparing the straitjacket and padded room in the event that I came out of this alive.

“I swear I’ll kill you, Travis.”

The shock made me waver on my already fragile legs. Travis? It was indeed he who held me? Yet, there he was to my left, with Leighton, both watching the scene with amusement. The hands that I had around my neck and threatened to strangle me at any moment were Garreth’s, not his. But another Garreth was also there, watching the scene with a mixture of intense anger and pain. All this was too insane for me. All I knew was that nobody except the Garreth I had come to know in the past months could look at me like the one who was at some distance from me. If it wasn't a role he had played all along with me, of course.

“What do you think, my love? Which of us is the true Garreth? Maybe this is another one of our twisted games before we kill you, huh?” He whispered in my ear with that voice he had only for me.

My gut, my heart, my whole being, was torn, preventing me from discerning the truth. And what if neither was Garreth? And it was actually another trap to prolong this macabre game? Without warning, the man who had his hand around my neck barked what sounded like an order in the
Enimae
language
.
Leighton and Travis began to approach slowly toward the Garreth that didn't hold me, their expression becoming those of predators. The Garreth who wasn't near me conjured a long weapon in his hand, like a sword except that there were two blades embedded in each other, one to the vertical and the other to the horizontal. They had bright letters of all colors, mixed of interlacing lines and symbols like some kind of hieroglyphics, probably the
Enimae
alphabet
.
Our eyes met briefly and I knew then that he was the true Garreth. The one who imprisoned me in his grip was indeed Travis.

“Stop this, Travis. Now. You know very well that I will get rid of them and I’ll get her back. I won't let you give her to them.”

Travis looked upset when he heard the words of his brother.

“They'll continue to chase her until she's dead because they fear her. Protecting her is useless. One day they will win and she will die, it’s inevitable. So better let them have her now and bargain with them to save our lives.”

He spoke of me as if I was someone they should all be afraid of. It was absurd!

“Even though I know that you exist, I don't know what my parents knew about how to kill your people! You have...”

“You don't get it?” Travis asked me, tightening his grip to the point that I began to really run out of air. “They don't care what you know exactly or not, silly! It has nothing to do with...”

“Stop it!” Garreth interrupted, his features hard like never before.

The two brothers exchanged a long look. All I wanted was for Garreth to intervene before I ended up strangled to death.

“If you let her go in the next ten seconds, I’ll let you live. Otherwise, I'll come for her and I’ll cut your throat on the way.”

A shiver of fear shook me. If Travis didn't let me go right now, it would get bloody. Whatever was about to happen, I wasn’t sure it would end well for me.

“Because you care so much for this girl who has complicated our lives and will eventually destroy them, come get her, my dear brother,” Travis snapped coldly.

He motioned to Leighton and Travis--his doppelganger--to move and take Garreth away from me. I was lost. While Garreth wanted to kill him, Travis was trying to make him go away as if... as if he were trying to protect him. But why? It didn't make any sense.

I didn't have the time to dwell on the issue. Garreth conjured a knife in his hand, the blade features similar to those of the other weapon with writing of all colors and threw himself at Leighton. I let out a cry of horror as the knife went right through her skin, where her heart was. A moment later, Leighton dematerialized in a sort of colorful smoking explosion that scattered in the air before my terrorized eyes. Garreth didn't miss a beat and took care of Travis’s doppelganger who struggled with him, his moves worthy of that of a highly trained fighter. Garreth skillfully dodged all of them and, eventually, he tripped the doppelganger causing him to fall to the ground on his back. Without hesitation, Garreth then plunged the blades of his sort of sword into the chest of the double, which soon disintegrated.

He was heading in our direction when we all heard a cry that was not human nor was it really animal. Travis glanced toward the forest and Garreth took the opportunity to draw closer to us. This was my last chance to get rid of Travis. I sent him a headbutt. I suffered more than him but it had the merit to make him release me. I ran straight to Garreth who took me in his arms and I knew at that moment that I was safe and sound. I thought Travis would be angry because of my flight, however, when I looked at him, the expression on his face, still that of Garreth, was torn.

“Go,” he finally told his brother, looking totally defeated. “Go with her.”

“I’ll let you live for today, but I’ll find you,” Garreth swore with an icy, yet assured tone. “I will find you and kill you for what you did and wanted to do to her.”

Travis said nothing. No more words were exchanged. Garreth made his weapon disappear, picked me up in his arms and ran away. When I took one last look at Travis to be sure he was not trying to trap and attack us from behind, I noted he had his own appearance again and he was watching us go. It wasn't the most disturbing to me, though. What was, instead, was the body of a stranger covered in blood, lying on the ground, who wasn't there one second before.

14

Enimae

My eyelids fluttered for several seconds before they acclimated to the darkness of the place. My gaze lingered on the glass in front of me. It was night. Masses moving. No. I was moving. I paid attention to the sound and then, I understood that I was in a car. My brain still clouded from sleep, I turned my head, looking for more answers. What I saw made me scream while my body reacted violently by sticking as much as possible against the car door, wishing to escape the person who was by my side. My instinctive reaction over, I stared at him, dazed. For what absurd reason did I want to escape Garreth? As if I had received a violent slap, I realized why. I forced all my being to calm down, even if it was panic on board. I tried to determine if this was the real Garreth or if this was Travis, who had his appearance. He stared at me with an unfathomable expression, which wasn't helping me to establish his identity. His clothes were those of the real Garreth, his brother wearing other clothes and a jacket. But Travis was so twisted that he could very well have taken care of Garreth and put his clothes on to fool me again. I quickly realized the absurdity of my thoughts. If it had been Travis, he wouldn't have continued his game because I knew now. While my heart slowed its frantic pace and I was trying to remember everything that had happened tonight, a sigh of relief was heard. I didn't know if it was mine or Garreth's.

“You understood,” Garreth stated in a neutral tone.

“What about Travis? Is he... dead? Or you left him alive? Leighton, it wasn't her, was it? The corpse next to Travis when we left, to whom did it belong? I...Everything is a little confused in my head.”

His face closed. He tried to calm down but I felt his anger. Worse, he was in an unprecedented state of rage.

“A corpse? There was no corpse, Deliah. Regarding Leighton, it was just a creation of Travis. And Travis is still alive,” he reluctantly let go--he obviously would have preferred it to be otherwise. “He should be where we left him, waiting for the traitors. With a little luck, for once, they will be useful for something and kill him because he didn't have you to give them as they might have agreed.”

I was sure I saw a dead man but maybe it was just the shock of the evening that had sparked my imagination. I rethought his words. Normally, I would have said something but tonight, I was lost. Until then, I had never found murder, for any reason, a tolerable act. But here, now, I was torn. I didn't want the death of Travis, even if that psychopath wanted to kill me but if it happened, I wouldn't cry or complain, that was for sure. I couldn't help telling myself that if Travis died, it was better if it was these
Enimae
who dealt with him instead of his brother. I was convinced that Garreth could do things I didn't even want to think about when either he or someone who mattered to him was attacked, which was my case, even though I had doubts in this damn prairie.

I realized that Garreth’s eyes were fixed on me. I read all the anxiety he felt about me and he still felt right now.

“How do you feel? He didn’t hurt you too badly, did he? Do you have any other injuries?”

I shook my head. He examined my wound, one I didn't remember having until he touched it, his fingertips as soft as a caress of a gentle breeze. Where his brother was brutal, he was tender and cautious, feeling only a vague tingling. The memory of my kiss with Travis came back to me suddenly and caused a feeling of disgust for my own person. The suddenness of the kiss should have put a flea in my ear. Instead, I experienced mistrust for Garreth's feelings while I had every indication that it was an impostor. I should have realized from the beginning. In the reverse situation, Garreth would certainly have quickly seen through the deception.

“I'm stupid,” I confided to him, ashamed for being so blind.

“Excuse me?”

“I hadn't noticed before...I...”

I couldn't go further because even if I wanted to tell him about the kiss and all the other elements that should have opened my eyes, I was unable to do so.

“You’re not stupid, Deliah. You don't know the things Travis is capable of. He's deceitful and cunning. He spied us and analyzed in detail how I acted with you. He had planned everything so that the deception lasted until the moment he wanted to reveal himself to you.”

He looked at the biggest of my wounds, the one on my cheek. He looked both angry and disgusted.

“If those who seek you don’t kill him tonight, I’ll do it myself. I swear it. He will pay for what he inflicted on you.”

I remained silent for a moment, startled by this new side of Garreth despite myself. I knew he would never hurt me, it wasn't what worried me. But the idea that it wasn't empty words he spoke was terrible for me. Certainly, their world was different and Garreth could perhaps live with this death on his conscience, whether justified or not. On my part, I couldn't be with him and meet his eyes knowing that he had killed his brother because of
me.

“I don't want you to do it,” I eventually confided to him in a small voice. “I don't...”

“What?” he interrupted me, shocked. “Deliah, I know you’re a good person. Probably the best person I ever met in this world but it must...”

“No,” I cut him off, “you don't understand. I know you have different rules in your world. I also know he won't stop on his own. But I don't want you to kill him. You told me one day that he was to be brought to your community to be judged. If he's still alive after tonight, I want you to leave it to your people to decide his fate. I don't want you to take the initiative to kill him and it turns against you.”

Pensive, he said nothing. I silenced the other reasons that pushed me to say this. Garreth eventually acquiesced, to my great relief.

“I want to know,” I declared after a moment of silence during which I had gathered the strength to let those words out.

It took him a few seconds to grasp the meaning of my sentence. He clenched his jaw and didn't answer.