The Shadow Sisters

[E1] Chapter 17 - Various

Marie booted up her laptop and sat it atop her desk. She preferred the big screen over her phone when it came to tasks that required slightly more productivity or focus.

When she opened her messaging app, she saw the long message she'd written to Rosemary about a week ago. It was still the last one in the conversation.

Marie had briefly summed up her time in Willow Town, including all the things she found strange and all the things she missed about her old life.

But there was still no response.

Rosemary was the one who'd originally suggested that they could be like pen pals, that just because Marie was moving away, it didn't mean their friendship had to be over. In fact, she suggested, they could even deepen it, by sending long, intimate messages, like diary entries, as a means to remain in touch.

This was only the second wave of that and already there was radio silence. It didn't bode well for future exchanges.

Perhaps it was perfectly explainable. Perhaps Rosemary was just busy. Perhaps she was just overwhelmed by all the things she wanted to say. Perhaps it was the opposite, that she had so little to say that she was waiting for more things to happen in her own life, so that she could write about them.

Or perhaps, Marie thought glumly, she was just moving on with her life, as people often did when their friends left.

After much contemplation, Marie wrote another message, this one significantly shorter.

'Hey, I just had my first day of school. It wasn't terrible. I'm excited to tell you more about it. I know you've probably got a lot going on right now, but I just wanted you to know that I really miss you.'

Once it was written down though, she could clearly see how needy and desperate it was. When they'd been friends before, such raw honesty had come so easily, but now it felt difficult, like wading through tar.

Marie deleted the message and closed her laptop.

The blue light vanished, encasing her room in total darkness.

If Rosemary really had moved on, then she should probably just let her. Maybe their friendship had never been as close as she had originally thought.

It was still early, only evening, but as Marie lay there on the bed, staring at the ceiling, she felt the desire to just drift off to sleep and forget about the world, as she did most days in this damn cold house.

In the room down the hall, Hannah changed into her pyjamas to protect herself from the chill of the night. Although she liked their new home and it grew on her more each day, she couldn't quite get used to those tiny bursts of air that found their way through the gaps in the boards. Mum said about getting insulation against the draught but she didn't seem hopeful.

Hannah's favourite pyjamas were the ones she was currently wearing, the ones coloured baby blue and decorated all over in white fluffy clouds.

They'd belonged to her Mother for many years until she'd passed them onto Marie. Marie never wore them though. She did not wear any pyjamas, instead preferring either her nightgown or a plain t-shirt and shorts. It was her loss, as the dreamy, soft clothes were passed to Hannah.

She paired them with a set of thick socks that protected her feet not just from the biting cold, but the textures of the ground. Then she stared out her bedroom at Robert's house.

Beneath, in the garden, she heard him talking to her Mother. It was nice to hear Mum speaking to other adults again, when her social circle had only consisted of her two daughters for so long. From the snippets that Hannah had heard from Robert, he seemed like a truly lovely, genuine man.

Hannah was just about to hop into bed, so that she could swaddle herself in a duvet, adding layers upon layers. Usually, within the sanctity of her dark little nook, she liked to browse social media and watch videos. It was either that, or she enjoyed reading fiction from her ereader app. But those plans would have to wait, because just then, she was brought to a standstill.

Outside, perched on the fence between their houses, she saw a raven.

It was quite a large raven too, as big as a house cat. Hannah stared at it, until it cocked its head and stared back at her with those deep, beady black eyes, that shone like fireside marbles.

She couldn't quite describe why it was odd. Certainly, she knew that birds were more intelligent than people gave them credit for, that some species could recognise faces and that they were capable of counting, and possessed other traits, such as curiosity.

But this one seemed like it had positioned itself perfectly to gaze right into her room. It reminded her of that dog back at school. That had been strange too.

Were all animals in Willow Town so odd?

It was like it saw inside her, as if it saw into her thoughts and everything that lay secret within.

But that was ridiculous, wasn't it?

There was a prickle on the back of her neck. She thought about calling out to her Mum and Marie, to bare witness to this large, inquisitive creatures too, to see if they had the same strange feeling. But she had barely opened her mouth before it took to the sky.

As she stared at the empty post, where it'd sat on the fence, mere moments ago, she thought that she really must be going crazy. Maybe Marie was right. Maybe she did read too many books and watch too many movies.

She went to her bed, where she collapsed and stretched out as she listened to electronic pop. She played it as loud as she reasonably could, to drown out Marie's rap music. As she listened to the synth-infused tunes, she grinned at the ceiling, thinking of how much fun she'd have on Friday.

Outside, the rain began as a cold drizzle.

Only a few droplets, here and there, landed on the top of the Shadow Watcher's hooded head. But within the hour, it would begin to pour down, until he was soaked to the bone. He knew that even before the fact, for time was a thin veil which he often glimpsed through.

For now, he stood, about a mile down the winding stretch of road that cut through Meadow View. He crossed the street to realign himself with the rooms where the lights were on, and a car had to swerve to avoid him. It honked its horn loudly and the lady inside glared at him on her way past, mouthing some foul obscenities. Luckily for her, his hood was raised, so she was spared glimpsing the face that lay beneath.

The Shadow Watcher was as undeterred by her as he was by most things in the mortal realm.

He had a mission far bigger than such trivialities.

Intently, he watched the house off in the distance, the one that belonged to the Shadow family. He watched it as he had on most nights since they'd moved in, keeping a careful eye on things, for now.