The Shades That Prowl

Chapter 1: October '81: Who Was That?

            The car rolled toward the narrow strip of the Kemp Lane Cemetery. The nearest stones lay one hundred feet from the road, a jagged line of broken teeth. I opened my window and let Dut's car breath the night air. The distinct sound of our slow tires was the only sign of life, like a hundred buried voices.

Dut stopped in the road. We hadn't seen a car for miles and none approached. I got out in a wash of light then extinguished it with the closing door. Around to Dut's side, I leaned in the window.

"How long will you be gone?" I asked.

Dutton thought for a moment. "Twenty minutes to Claire's house; twenty minutes back, but I can't just show up, grab her hand, and leave. Say, another twenty minutes to sit around and talk about this and that. An hour. I'll be back in an hour."

"An hour then. I'll see you in an hour." I patted the top of the car. Dutton pulled slowly away. I stood in the road and watched the red, brick-shaped tail lights recede like two eyes backing away.

Completely alone, I turned toward the graveyard. The moon lay in the east, beyond the stones, disappearing in the shadow of a foreboding tree. The graveyard waited. It occurred to me that it was near ten-thirty at night on Halloween and I was alone at the Kemp Lane Graveyard. Being there felt like a bad idea.

"What are you doing, Matt? This is stupid." I looked down the road again. Nothing. "Stick to the plan." I stepped off the road into the coarse grass and made my way toward the tree. The darkness grew around me. Bad things happen in places like this. I passed between stones while the shadows deepened nearer to the great, grey oak. It looked like a giant spider. "Like something that could eat me if it wanted to." The tree stretched and flexed in the breeze. I froze, picturing where its head would be, certain that it turned toward me. It flexed again and turned away.

I walked up to the trunk where the darkness seemed deepest. I circled it looking for a low branch. One seemed to reach out to me and though it was the lowest, I could tell that it hung higher than I could reach. I jumped up a few times trying to look inconspicuous. They were all too high.

"So much for the plan." I looked around for a stone to hide behind. I found one, but that felt like occupying someone else's grave. Anyway, being on the ground would lose so much impact. Dut wanted me to really scare Claire. I looked at the branch dipping above it. I wondered whose grave I was standing on and hoped that they were buried deep. I grabbed the upper edge of the stone, paused for a second, and lunged up. Balancing on the stone, I squatted like a gargoyle, stretching my arms like wings.

I didn't look up, my balance was too tentative. All that I could think about was how ugly it would be to miss the branch and land on the stone. I sprung. The pattern of silhouetted branches and filigree stars reeled. My hands slapped bark and I pulled up, my legs wrapping instinctively. I hung, desperate for deliverance.

After a moment, I shifted my grip and swung to the upper side of the branch and lay there panting. I felt eyes on me and shuddered, a maggot under my skin. I looked below, expecting nothing, but seeing something. My eyes played tricks. Layers of darkness looked like glossy tendrils of shadow spidering stone to stone. I'd lose track of it, but catch it again further around the tree. "Could someone else be here?" I thought. I moved up the branch to change my perspective. The ground beneath was indistinct and the stones were blunted shadows. I looked for the branch-like shadow, but didn't see it.

"Just a trick of the night."

The branch was thick enough that I would be able to take two quick strides before I jumped. I started to relax. But it looked pretty high, like 15 or 20 feet. I edged over on the branch until my shadow merged with the main trunk, arms on branches and I became invisible within the tree's silhouette. I picked up darkness moving again, a spider shadow twisting from the tree's shadows. It moved slowly, like it didn't expect to be seen. It got close to the trunk, stretched against it, reaching up. I stood taller, pressing myself tighter to the trunk.