Christopher Golden - The Shadow Men

Anne and Jennifer did not even pause. Wherever Jenny was, she drew them on.

Time lost meaning, its only evidence the urgency Trix felt. They passed another building in the distance that seemed solid, and then they entered a park whose plants were barely there, and whose small buildings seemed composed of drifting, shifting structures. Trix’s No-Face Man seemed uncomfortable in this place, and her own senses were repulsed by their surroundings. She glanced at Jim and saw that he was equally disturbed.

They did not pause to see what that place was, or why it had such an effect. As they left and entered the nowhere spaces in between, her No-Face Man settled again into the echo he had been. She could never get used to him, but at least this way she felt in control.

“Close,” Jennifer called, her voice robbed of its tone by the mist.

“Very,” Anne agreed. She looked back at Trix without breaking her stride, and with a burst of speed Trix and Jim drew closer to the two women.

And then Trix heard something in the distance. It was a soft, gentle moan, like wind gusting through an empty woodland. It rose and fell, raising a shiver like ice in her soul. Anne and Jennifer paused, and with their heads cocked they reminded Trix so much of Jenny that she let out a sob.

“We’ll save her,” Jim said, and it was ridiculous that he was comforting her.

“I know we will,” she said, because any other outcome was unthinkable.

The moaning grew in volume as they ran on again. Trix felt a tugging inside her, something that set her No-Face Man squirming, an uncomfortable sensation as if suddenly her skin could not contain her body. The tugging came from behind her, and she sent a message she hoped Holly might hear: We’re close, and soon we’ll be back with your mother.

And then they saw the lonely shape in the mists, and Trix’s heart broke. Anne and Jennifer stopped, sending shadowy ripples through the heavy air. Jim slowed, moving past them before coming to a halt. None of them could take in the pain they saw in the woman they loved, or the woman they were a part of.

“We can’t just fucking stand here,” Trix whispered, and in that silent place it seemed that her words might travel forever. She approached Jenny and saw how much had already happened. Naked, writhing, she did not twist and flex as much as the other changed people she had seen but rather seemed to swim in the air, limbs kicking and clawing at the strange misty atmosphere.

“Jenny!” Trix said, grabbing her arms and holding her still. The recognition in Jenny’s eyes was instant and shocking, because it spoke of such pain.

“H… H… H…,” Jenny said, panting.

Trix nodded, angrily wiping a sudden tear from her eye. “Holly’s fine,” she said. “She’s waiting for you.”

“Can you stand, babe?” Jim said. He was beside Trix now, touching his wife’s arms, her shoulders, wiping a slick of gray wetness from her stomach and chest.

“I… I…” Jenny’s eyes rolled, her body shook, and Trix saw shadows flickering from the corners of her mouth and ears, tendrils flowing inward rather than out.

“She’s a long way gone,” Trix said. She turned back to Jennifer and Anne. “Come on. We’re going to have to carry her.”

Jim lifted his wife beneath her arms and held her against him, taking the hug she could not give. Her body rippled and shook from the forces assaulting it, and shadows manifested from nowhere to flow into her. How long until she’s filled up? Trix wondered, and she stood beside Jim and offered help.

Jim turned his wife and held her beneath the arms, stepping back and allowing Trix to grab her beneath the knees. Naked, Jenny was on display to all of them, but it was a wretched nakedness-her skin was pale and slick, and things moved inside her. Anne and Jennifer approached on either side, looking down at another version of themselves. “God help her,” Jennifer whispered.

“Not unless we do,” Trix said. “Come on. You lead the way.”

They started running, and it felt like they were being repulsed by the In-Between and forced back to reality. Holly pulled them on, drawing them back to her. Trix relished the exertion, rushing sidelong with her best friend in the world held in her hands, and another version of this best friend racing beside her, her lover in another world. And everything was suddenly starting to feel fine, when Jenny began seizing so violently that she kicked her legs from Trix’s hands and twisted herself away from Jim’s grasp.

“No!” Jim shouted, and Jenny hit the ground and bounced back up, forced by her flexing limbs, rolling and thrashing like those other tortured Shadow Men they had seen all around.

“Not now!” Trix said. “We’ve found her, we have her, this isn’t fucking fair!” As she became angrier and more desperate, the thing within her grew more agitated, and she sensed it thrusting itself out beyond her body’s extremes.

Jim was staring at her, aghast… and then he came forward and grabbed her shoulders. “We’ve got to get it out of her,” he said, glancing at his hurting wife and turning away again, resting his head on Trix’s shoulder.

She held the back of his head and they hugged, two good friends preparing to help the woman they both loved.

“Sally’s No-Face Men,” Jim said. “One of them could rip the shadows out of her, like back in the library.”

Trix nodded, hope igniting within her. Already her thoughts turned inward, feeling for the shadow creature inside her, wondering if it could feel what she felt, if it could know what they needed. “Yes,” she said. “It’s the only way. If they understand what we want.”

Anne and Jennifer stood by with their hands held out but unable to touch her, unable to help. “Will it work?” Anne asked. “If one of us breaks away from the shadow Sally merged us with, we’ll be just as vulnerable as Jenny.”

“Probably,” Trix agreed, a terrible weight on her heart.

“It has to be me,” Jim said.

“But what if-” Jennifer began.

“We don’t know what if,” Jim said, pulling back. “We don’t know anything!”

“We could just run,” Trix said, but she could already see the folly in that. She hated the idea, and winced when it flashed across her mind… but Jenny might be too far gone already. Running would do them no good. They had to act now.

Jim turned, eyes closing as he tried to separate himself from the No-Face Man Sally had put inside of him, but then Jennifer shouted, a wail of emotion rather than words. It said so much. Her eyes were full of pain and denial and anger, and the way she looked at Anne, it seemed the two of them had come to some instant, silent agreement. No , Jim thought, because he knew some of what that look meant. Part of it was good-bye. “Jennifer,” he warned.

“I didn’t get to have a family,” Jennifer said, anguish pouring out of her. “But she does. It’s the life I wished for. One of us has to have it.”

Jim started toward her, nearly swimming through the strange atmosphere of the In-Between. Jennifer grasped one of Jenny’s waving hands in both of her own, then grimaced and closed her eyes, writhing slowly even as Jenny flipped and thrashed. A gush of darkness flowed from Jennifer’s eyes and ears, forming quickly alongside her, an echo of her following a heartbeat behind.

“Jennifer,” Jim said, but there was nothing else to say. He could object and push her away, try to break her bond with his poor dying wife. Or he could help.

He went to them, reaching out, trying to remember what he’d seen Sally doing less than an hour before and half a world away. And it took only a second’s hesitation before he reached out to the shadow stuff oozing from Jennifer and forming a shape next to her that he recognized so well. He curled his hands in the No-Face Man’s stuff, a cool, slick porridge that seemed to tug at every hair on his hand and arm, smoothing against his skin in a sickly, almost sensuous way. Then he thrust his handful down at Jenny and pressed it against her face.