The Shadows Within

Chapter Two- Taken

All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward. 

~Ellen Glasgow

                                                         ************************

We have been watching her for almost two thirds of the quarter. If it is to happen, it will not happen the way you wanted. I am the best, this you know, and I am telling you it is impossible. I realise how delicate a situation you are in but I must suggest that you question your sources. Judging from our observations, it seems that your informtion is unreliable. It is my belief that she has had some training, however basic. Her patterns are irregular, unpredictable. We are forced to revert to our only other option. Significantly more messy, but much more enjoyable. I will try, however, not to get carried away. I will report back again within two full shadow cycles.

Ever Your Servant,
Lornon.

                                                       ****************************

“ Come Dine With Me?”
“Nope.”
“ Without a Trace?”
“Nah.”
“Criminal Minds?”
“Ooh..which one? “
“"Season 6: JJ comes back, the team tackles a case of human trafficking, blah blah blah"
“ Already seen it. I don’t mind watching it again, though, if you want to?
“ No, it’s fine.”
“ How ‘bout Friends? “
“ Definitely not. I’m pretty sure there’s an age limit on watching that. I think I’ll pass.”
“Ah come on Mam, you know you want to!”

Her stuck out tongue was answer enough. Cáit got up, smiling, to turn off the telly. The usual debate between herself and her mother usually ended like this. The forty year plus age gap tended to mean they liked little of the same T.V shows. Cáit heaved herself off the couch, gathering up the various cups and plates that littered the sitting room floor and dropped them in the kitchen sink. Wandering back into her mother, who was lying on the couch with a book in one hand and a glass of wine in the other, she planted a kiss on her cheek and announced she was going to bed. Ann Casey scraped her curly auburn hair back off her face and dragged it behind her ear with one hand, and reached for her daughter with the other. “ Don’t stay up to late reading”, she scolded, as she gave her a one handed hug. “ I won’t!”, came the usual reply. “ Oh hey, is Seán coming home tomorrow?” Cáit’s older brother was at college in Dublin, studying something vaguely related to archaeology. Their home in rural Carlow was too far away for him to make the journey every weekend, and when he did, he was accompanied by a week’s worth of washing. “ Yeah, tomorrow night, I think.” “ I’ll make sure the washing machine is free so.” “ Night!” She roared as she bounded up the stairs, two at a time. “I love you!”

Sleep came easy that night.

Sometime later, she woke.

They’re open. The curtains. I closed them before I went to sleep. Thats how the shadows are getting in.
The thought scurried across Cáit’s sleep-riddled mind, gone before she even had a chance to process it. She rubbed her eyes and forced herself into wakefulness. Outside her window, the moon floated high over the Carlow countryside. It bathed the familiar, patchwork fields in an otherworldy glow. They were made of solid silver, the rugged landscape becoming an unknown kingdom. But the kingdom was being threatened, by the dark, roiling shadows that wrapped themselves around the moon-WAKE UP! Cáit, your still dreaming.You need to wake up. Wake up, dammit! Why? Why was it so imperative that she wake up? She snapped to. Something was wrong. She could feel it, could smell it in the air. It had forced its way into her subconcious and dragged her from her sleep. Her bare feet hit the floor, the cold jolting her system. “ Mam? “ She shoved her way into Ann’s room, holding her panic firmly at bay. “Mam?” Ann’s bed was empty, the covers tousled. She was being silly, she told herself. Ann was probably downstairs, getting a drink. She was probably just still groggy from sleep. That was it. She would go downstairs, find her mother, get a drink, go back to bed and by the morning, she would have forgotten her dreams of silver and moons and shadows.She plodded down the wooden staircase.

The kitchen was empty. The sitting room was empty. The dining room, the spare room were all empty. Cáit found herself in this big house and it was empty. She was alone. The panic which had before seemed so irrational now erupted. She was outside, that was it. Mam’s outside, checking on something. She’s fine. Everything’s fine. Ann was a worrrier; the ultimate single parent. She would never have left me alone. Cáit fumbled with the lock on the back door before she realised it was open. An agonised moan escaped her lips. Her mam did a rigorous security check every night before bed. Every door, every window in the house was locked, and remained locked. It was just her and her teenage daughter in a big house, in the isolated Irish countryside. They were vulnerable. She had to be cautious. Cáit knew this. Tears were coursing hot and free down her face as she wrenched the door open and flung herself out into the heavy June air.

 She now knew for certain that something was terribly wrong. She screamed her mother’s name into the sticky night air. The sound was ripped from her lungs again and again until she had no air left to scream. She could feel it in her bones, under her skin. She knew something had happened to her mother. She never would have left me. Never. She wouldn’t leave me alone.

Part of her wasn’t surprised when her mobile phone displayed the ‘no coverage’ signal. When the severed wire of the landline came loose in her tremling fingers, Cáit knew. Just as she knew that the sky was blue, the grass was green and that she loved sesame bagels. She didn’t know how she knew, it was just there, an ache deep in her bones.  Her mother hadn’t left her.

 Cáit sank to the floor.

She had been taken.