The Gathering Darkness

  I tore my gaze away from his. “No, I’m fine, really. I didn’t hit my head.” I didn’t want to tell him about the vision. He would think I was crazy. “I’m just freaked out that’s all. Now can we get out of here, before it gets any darker?” I acted somewhat annoyed, masking my real feelings. Not even sure of what those were.

  Although this was the worst situation I’d ever been in, Marcus made me feel safe. It was the oddest thing. He brought light to my darkness here and now, just as he had in my bad dreams at night. He comforted me, and I was glad now that he’d been the one who’d found me.

  His arms dropped to his sides. “Can you stand?”

  I nodded and tried to push myself up. After some effort, Marcus helped me. He kept an arm around my waist for support. I let him.

  “Do you think you can climb?”

  “Well I’m not staying down here all night.”

  He reached down and lifted a long piece of wood from the fire and used it like a torch. The small, flickering flame, held high, illuminated the entire bottom of the well. I saw Marcus’ eyes rest on something behind me. I turned to look. He bent and picked the object up, turning it to catch the light.

  “It’s a bone,” he said mesmerized.

  My mouth fell open. It wasn’t a stick that I’d pulled out from under me. It was a piece of a skeleton. Marcus bent forward and dug the point of the bone into the soft layers of earth that made up the floor of the well. It wasn’t long before his curiosity uncovered more parts to the skeleton.

  “Okay, enough,” I said horrified, staggering backwards until my back hit the rocks. The story Sammy had told me about two young lovers being murdered on Skull Island flooded my head. My good leg gave out and my knee buckled. Marcus dropped the bone and caught me before I hit the bottom of the well.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked again.

  “Yeah, I’m sure. Let’s just get out of here.” I twisted out of his grip and limped toward the makeshift ladder.

  I wrapped my fingers around a splintery branch. Marcus’ hand hovered protectively near the small of my back. But before I could reach the next branch, something shiny in the stone wall caught my eye. The flame from the stick glinted off its surface.

  “What’s that?” I asked, pointing to a dark crevice in the wall between some rocks.

  Marcus held the burning stick higher, and at the same time took the necessary steps to get to the object. Forgetting about the skeleton and the growing darkness, I left my perch on the tree and hobbled to the rock wall. Marcus pulled a handful of moss away, letting it fall to the ground. The object he uncovered was metal and ancient looking. A limb from the tree must have scraped some of the moss away from it on its way down, exposing it.

  Marcus pulled the object from the crevice. It dangled from a long chain that had once been silver in color. The pendant was a familiar looking double spiral. Tarnished with age, only a small bit of silver shone through the patina. We both stared at the object, speechless as he turned it over in his palm, wiping away some dirt with his thumb.

  As Marcus rubbed the object, the flame from the end of the stick he held shot up into the air like a blow torch, startling both of us. It flickered wildly, as if trying to tell us something. Our eyes met and then shot back to the pendant. Probably a draft, I tried telling myself—although I hadn’t felt one.

  As I watched Marcus wipe away more dirt with his shirt tail, it dawned on me where I’d seen the ancient symbol before. “I know what this is,” I said pointing to the object in his hand. “I did a history project on Celtic symbols last year in school.”

  Marcus lifted his gaze from the pendant to me.

  “It’s a double spiral. It was used to symbolize the equinox, when day and night are equal … .” My voice trailed off, as what I’d just said sunk in. Day and night … Day and Knight. I truly was losing my mind.

  Marcus was silent, as if considering what I’d just told him, so when he finally spoke, I jumped.

  “Here, you found it. It’s yours now.”

  He dropped the stick onto the dying embers and took a step closer to me. The faint scent of fabric softener from his clothing camouflaged the musty scent of wet earth that surrounded us. He worked, gently placing the chain around my neck, lifting the hair off my shoulders from under it. It felt awkward, as if he gave me a gift, but I didn’t stop him. The chain felt cold against the back of my neck, but when his fingers grazed my skin there, a warm tingly feeling replaced the cold. I felt my face flush and was glad for the darkness.

  We were close enough now to kiss. Too shy to look into his eyes, I stared at the hollow in his neck, the spot where his T-shirt formed a vee. One of Marcus’ hands still held the pendant while his other smoothed the hair over my shoulder. I barely breathed as he slipped his hand out from underneath, letting the cold metal fall to my skin. The moment the double spiral touched me, a shimmer of energy like a mild electrical current shot through me, jolting me slightly. A gasp flew from me at the same time as my hand flew to the pendant. The cold metal turned warm against my skin—unnaturally warm.

  The soft pressure from the hand on my shoulder turned into a tense grip. “What’s happening?” I could tell by the look on Marcus’ face, that he’d registered the shock on mine the moment the metal had touched my skin. “Take it off.”

  I couldn’t bring myself to remove it. I shook my head. “No.” I felt as if the pendant had wanted me to find it, and I wasn’t giving it up so easily. Almost defiantly, I looked into the dark eyes that stared back at me. “I’m keeping it.” My hand gripped around it protectively. Marcus let go of my shoulder. I glanced at the dark hole where the pendant had come from before grabbing the tree limbs and climbing out.

  It wasn’t an easy climb. Some of the limbs were slippery with moss and rotting bark, but after some effort on my part, my head emerged from the hole, only to find more darkness.

  Relief came nonetheless. I pulled on roots and rocks, and clawed at the dirt until I was on my hands and knees on solid ground. I collapsed face first into the musty-smelling, but soft, moss-covered earth, panting.

  Seconds later Marcus emerged behind me. I rolled out of the way and onto my back. He crawled to my side and stared down at me. My chest heaved as did his.

  “Thanks for rescuing me,” I said in between pants. “I could have been down there all night.”

  Marcus stared at the pendant in silence, ignoring my words. He seemed mesmerized by it. Then his gaze lifted to mine. “Come on. Let’s get away from this place.”

  I didn’t like the tone of his voice. “Away from this place” implied a lot more than simply, out of here did. He sounded spooked, which made me even more spooked. I didn’t want to be anywhere near this tomb in the pitch darkness, which would be soon.

  Chapter Eight

  Marcus stood, pulling me up with him. I looked down at myself, brushing away dirt and other bits of forest floor off my clothes. While I examined the rip in the knee of my jeans, I felt a hand brush lightly against the side of my face. I straightened. Marcus’ fingers were in my hair. He pulled his hand away, and in it was a dried leaf. Instinctively, I lifted my hands to my hair and began to pull my fingers through the tangles.

  “Crap, I must look like … .” I struggled for the right word without sounding vulgar, “like … .”

  “Like someone who’d gotten lost in the woods and had fallen into a hole and then climbed their way out?”

  “Yeah.” I let out a quick embarrassed laugh. “Like that.”

  Marcus grinned.

  “I can’t ever remember being so dirty.”

  “Because Boston’s so clean?” he teased.

  “Immaculate.” It was me who grinned now. “Well there was one time last month, when a car drove by and splashed my new boots with dirty puddle water and … .”

  As I babbled away nervously, a breeze blew somewhere up above, rustling the leaves in the tree tops, reminding me of the situation I was in. My mood grew serious again. “Did you bring t
he extra newspaper you didn’t use? You never know if we might need it again.” I laughed at the irony.

  “Yeah,” he said patting his shirt pocket.

  An awkward moment passed as I balanced on one foot, wondering how I was going to put pressure on the injured one to walk.

  As if Marcus had read my mind, he said, “You won’t be able to walk on that ankle.” He turned his back to me and crouched. “Here, get on.”

  I climbed onto his back, and for a second didn’t know what to do with my arms. But when he reached down and grabbed my legs, being careful with my injured one, I wrapped my arms around him, clasping my hands together at the front. I felt my heart beat against his back and wondered if he could feel it—how embarrassing.

  As we bounced along through the forest, dark wisps of his hair tickled my face, but I didn’t complain. Marcus smelled good, too. Not perfumed or fruity, but fresh like the outdoors. Like laundry hung outside on a cool day, lightly scented with smoke from the campfire we’d left behind on the beach. I found myself savoring every moment of my piggy-back ride.

  “How long did it take you to find me?” I wondered out loud.

  “About an hour, but I walked really fast … ran at times.”

  “You were running through the woods to find me?”

  “Ah, yeah, well I only had a couple hours before dark, and when I didn’t find you right away I hurried.”

  After his unwilling confession, which hinted to me that he did have some sort of feelings for me, neither of us spoke for some time.

  As I bounced along, clinging to Marcus like he was my life preserver, the sky darkened completely.

  “How close are we?” I asked.

  “Not close enough. I can’t see that well anymore.” He stopped. I could tell by the way his shoulders heaved up and down that he needed a rest. I slid off him, landing on my good foot.

  Marcus raked his eyes over the area.

  “Don’t you have a cell phone?” I asked with despairing hope.

  He shook his head. “I left it on the boat.”

  “Well that was smart,” I mumbled under my breath.

  “I’m going to yell out to see if anyone can hear me.”

  With his hands cupped around his mouth, Marcus yelled at the top of his lungs, but the only reply was his echo and a distant caw.

  “It’s no use,” I said. The yelling just made me jumpy.

  “I’ll make a fire. We’ll have to stay here until morning.” He gave me an apologetic look that I could barely see.

  “Great,” I mumbled and then looked around the ground for anything useful. “What can I do?”

  “Tear some loose bark from that tree.” He pointed at a white birch.

  The tree was maybe a dozen feet away. As apprehensive as I was about leaving his side, I didn’t want him to know it. So, keeping him in my sight, I hobbled over to the tree and ripped off an armful of loose bark. He had the leftover newspaper shredded into bits, and a small pile of sticks arranged in a pyramidal formation by the time I returned. A bundle of fallen sticks lay on the ground beside him. He built us a sufficient campfire of our very own, and although it was only a dim glow, he brought light to me once more.

  However, the prevailing gloom hovered near the fringes of the light, waiting to quell the last ember and plunge us into darkness once again.

  With Marcus’ help, I lowered myself into a sitting position on a patch of dry moss. He sat down beside me and stared into the flames. Except for the crackling of burning sticks, the forest was quiet. So when I spoke, it was very low, so as not to disturb the forest.

  “What did the others do when you left to find me?”

  He hesitated, and an amused grin spread across his face. “I don’t think anyone noticed me leaving.”

  “They must have noticed by now?” I was annoyed at his casualness of the situation.

  “By now, they’re probably thinking we’ve run off together. I mean, that would be the obvious assumption, wouldn’t it?” An eyebrow rose in anticipation of my reply as he continued to stare into the flames.

  “Oh. I hadn’t thought of that.” He was probably right. What would everyone think of me? What would Evan think?

  “You’ve ruined my brother’s night by getting lost, you know. I’ll never hear the end of it.” He chuckled quietly.

  “This sucks.” Or does it? I asked myself.

  His expression darkened. “What, you’re not having fun?”

  “Not funny.” I stared gloomily into the flames, feeling their warmth kiss the front of my body.

  Marcus stirred the fire and then tossed on the last of the dried sticks and a big fallen log he’d found nearby. Cinders soared into the night sky, casting a brighter glow upon us—swelling our circle of light—pushing back the darkness somewhat. I sneaked a glance at him out of the corner of my eye. This impenetrable country boy was perfectly content out here in the wild. He must really like me to have run through the woods to find me, I thought to myself.

  “How’s your ankle?” he asked suddenly.

  Crap! He caught me looking at him again. Embarrassed, I quickly turned my face away. “I think it’s swollen, and it stings, but it’s no worse.”

  Out of the corner of my eye I saw him nod. I was also aware of the fact that he was looking at me again.

  A sudden gust of wind swept over us, blowing across the flames, causing them to lick at the ground. I shivered and wrapped my arms around myself despite the warmth of the fire.

  “Here.” Marcus took off his over-washed flannel shirt and handed it to me.

  “But you’ll be cold.”

  “I’ll be fine,” he assured me.

  As I reached for the shirt, I allowed myself a few seconds glance at the muscled arm that held it out to me. That’s when my eyes rested on something unexpected. The breath caught in my throat, and my eyes grew wide. I stretched my neck out toward his arm to get a closer look. When Marcus turned his head toward me, I saw my shock mirrored on his face.

  Shyness aside, I reached over and shoved his T-shirt sleeve up. A tattoo of double spirals encircled his biceps. “Why didn’t you tell me?” My voice was higher pitched than usual.

  He shrugged. “It’s just a tattoo, no big deal.”

  “No big deal?! It’s the exact same symbol as the pendant we just found!”

  “I figured if I told you, you’d freak out, like you’re doing now.”

  “Freak … of course I’m freaking out.”

  “Brooke, it’s just a coincidence.”

  “No way. This is too weird to be just a coincidence.”

  He looked down at my hand where it covered his view of the tattoo. Aware for the first time that I was touching him, I pulled it back, but the sleeve stayed bunched up around his shoulder.

  Instinctively I grabbed my new Celtic relic and held it up in a way so that I could see both, his tattoo and it, in my vision at the same time. As if we needed it, the light from the fire intensified. It gleamed off the shiny bits of metal peeking through the burnished surface of the pendant, casting a warm glow over the black ink around Marcus’ arm, and it brought a spark of warmth to his eyes, which were looking intensely into mine.

  With a fever spreading over my skin and a yearning pull in my gut, I jerked my gaze back to the object in my hand. Each double spiral in the tattoo was equal in size to the pendant.

  “So, what do you think it means?” he asked, the serious edge in his voice betraying his casualness of the situation. “Day and night, huh?” There was a nervous ring to the short laugh that came after his last remark.

  “Or,” I pointed to me then to him, “Day and Knight?”

  Wordless, he nodded.

  All this time, he had to have been pondering what I’d told him about the symbol. I dropped the pendant to my chest and looked back at the tattoo. It looked slightly raised, as if it were still healing. My eyes narrowed in suspicion. “When did you get it?”

  “Last Sunday.”

  “The day I came to Dead
wich,” I said.

  He nodded.

  I shivered again and remembered I still held the shirt. Grateful, I slipped my bare arms into the warm sleeves. I wrapped my arms around my legs and lay my chin down on my knees and drank in the masculine, but fresh scent of Marcus. As I stared into the dying fire, I considered all that had happened in the hours since I’d gotten lost. Then I yawned.

  “Why don’t you get some sleep? I’ll keep the fire going,” Marcus suggested.

  “I am really tired,” I confessed before yawning again. “But, I don’t know if I’ll be able to sleep out here.”

  The truth was, this double spiral thing had me totally freaked out. It was somehow significant, and so was falling into the well to find it. And despite what Marcus wanted me to believe, I had a feeling he was just as freaked out as I was. It was no coincidence that our last names matched the symbol’s meaning. I yawned again. It couldn’t be.

  I looked over at him. “Um, you can’t just sit there all night. Why don’t you lie down too?” I was grateful the fire had died down, because I felt my face flush with my sudden boldness.

  “If it’ll make you feel better,” he said casually and then, to my surprise, he shuffled closer to me.

  He lay down behind me and put his hand on my shoulder as if to guide me down. How perfect. My heart raced wildly. He wasn’t just going to lie down anywhere; he was going to lie down beside me. The side of my face came to rest against the musty-smelling moss. Marcus kept his body just far enough behind me so I couldn’t really feel him.

  We can do better than this.

  I sat back up, took Marcus’ shirt off and positioned it over us, then lay back down. His body had shifted, and this time, my head landed on his arm. From the initial surprise, I stiffened, but after a few breaths, I allowed my body to relax into his. With just our T-shirts between us, I could faintly feel his heart beat against my back. I smiled to myself. That’s better.

  I laid my hand across his arm, next to my cheek, and was rewarded by the comforting feeling of his other arm draping across my waist. He snuggled in a little closer still. My light was with me, and I felt warm and safe in the dark forest.