Scott Westerfeld - Touching Darkness

Jessica lifted a corner of the shade to peer out, wondering if the movement could be seen from the bushes across the street. Her lights were off, of course, and she’d draped T-shirts across the pulsing eyes of her bedside clock and snoozing computer. The only light in her bedroom crept in beneath the door: the faint glow of the hall night-light.

She couldn’t see anything outside—nothing human, anyway. Just intertwined tree branches, fallen leaves, and a few pools of illumination gathered under porch lights.

Somewhere out there, Melissa was searching, sifting through the few waking minds for one thinking stalking thoughts. If she and Rex were actually in town tonight and not headed off to the edge of the badlands to tangle with monsters. Jonathan had told her the story as he’d driven her home from school—how they’d stumbled onto a house where darklings gave orders to human followers in midnight séances.

Jessica shuddered, trying to imagine the half-thing that made this communication possible, the kidnapped midnighter somehow melded with a darkling.

Jonathan had also passed on Rex’s assurances that Jessica would be safe for a while; something about a stolen domino, which hadn’t been completely convincing. What if the man with the camera already had his orders? What if he had a spare set of dominoes? Didn’t seem like much to bet your life on.

Jessica knew she wouldn’t be out of danger until the blue time came, when she and Jonathan could soar above Bixby to safety. She glanced at her watch: only twelve minutes to go.

A noise crept into the room.

It was the sound of creaking wood. And it was definitely coming from inside the house. Jessica dropped the window shade, turned, and froze.

Along the dim strip of light creeping beneath the door a shadow moved, accompanied by the faintest of complaints from the wooden floorboards.

Mom? Her mouth moved to form the word, but no sound came out. She tightened her lips. If it was her mother, she would knock or say something, wouldn’t she?

Jessica waited motionless for what felt like a solid minute, her heartbeat rising slowly into her throat. The shadow under the door didn’t move. In the darkness Jessica’s vision began to conjure stirrings in the corners of her room. The light under the door seemed to grow in intensity, and the moan of the wind outside kept getting louder.

Were they waiting for midnight? That wouldn’t make any sense if they were normal humans. Unless they planned to attack in the last minutes before the secret hour came, to bundle her up all ready for the darklings. But why? To join her with some darkling body to do their bidding?

Jessica chewed her lip. She couldn’t just stand here.

Slowly she knelt by the bed, sliding out her weapons box. Ignoring the flashlight and lighter, she pulled out Anfractuously, the bicycle lock. Made of heavy steel, it was suitable for both midnight and daylight threats.

She took slow steps toward the door, stood to the side, back against the wall, and raised Anfractuously above her head.

A loud thump filled the room; the bicycle lock had struck the wall behind her.

Jessica froze.

A whisper pierced the door: “Jess?”

“Beth?” She yanked open the door, revealing her tousle-headed sister standing there in pajamas. “You little sneak! What are you doing outside my door?” she hissed.

Beth walked into the room, looking around interestedly. “Well, mostly I was wondering what you were doing here inside your room.”

“Shhh! You’ll wake up Mom and Dad,” Jessica whispered. Beth had spoken in a normal voice.

“So close the door.”

Jessica groaned and glanced at her clock, but the numbers were obscured by the T-shirt she’d draped over it. If her little sister was still here at midnight, things were going to get tricky.

Beth followed her gaze. “Interesting. Is that to hide the light?”

“Shhh!” Jessica hissed again. She relented and closed the door. The last thing she needed was her parents joining them. “What do you want?”

“I want to know what’s going on with you.”

“What do you mean, Beth?”

“Well, the blinds are drawn, the lights are off, you’re dressed, and you’ve got your bike lock in your hand. Going somewhere?”

Jess looked down at Anfractuously. “This was to bash your brains in with, actually.”

Beth smiled sweetly. “Who did you think I was?”

“No one,” Jessica said. Just some retarded serial killer in pajamas. Now why don’t you go back to bed?”

“You need to get your watch fixed,” Beth announced. “It’s wrong every morning.”

Jessica paused, although she knew that pausing was always a bad idea with Beth. It gave her little brain time to think it knew more than it really did. “Yeah, I guess it’s running fast.”

“Yeah, but exactly an hour fast? Every morning?”

“I miss Chicago time,” Jessica said, a trickle of sweat beginning to crawl down her back. Just how much had Beth noticed?

“Nice try. Chicago time and Bixby time are the same.”

Jessica sighed. “Okay, Beth, you win. Every night I fly to New York on my broom to attend wild parties, and in the morning I sometimes forget to set my watch back to Bixby time. Satisfied?”

Beth sat down on the bed, nodding slowly. “Not completely, but at least we’re getting somewhere.”

“Where you’re getting is into trouble. Leave. This is my room!”

“So call Mom.”

Jessica took a breath and opened her mouth, but all that leaked out was another deadly pause, which was as unstoppable as Beth’s growing smile.

“Didn’t think so. On a related topic, Jess, I tried to wake you up Sunday morning. But mysteriously, I couldn’t open your door.”

“Maybe I locked it.”

Beth snorted. “Your door doesn’t have a lock. I am your little sister—I know these things. I suspect that you jammed this under it.” She held up a doorstop, the one Jessica had secured her door with the night they’d spotted the stalker.

“That’s mine.”

Beth dropped it onto the bed with a smile. “Yes, it is. And when I find out what you’re up to, you will be mine.”

Jessica glanced at her watch. Six minutes. If the darkling groupies would just burst in now, she could jump into her closet, and in the confusion they would assume that Beth was her and whisk her off to the badlands, where she could annoy the darklings until they were forced to escape into yet another hidden hour or perhaps another dimension entirely. A win-win situation.

“Waiting for someone?” Beth asked.

“Yes… you. To leave.”

“Someone who’s coming at, oh…” Beth whisked the T-shirt off the bedside clock. “Twelve?”

Jessica just shook her head. Her heart was pounding too hard for her to say anything. Maybe if she stood very still and came back to this exact spot when the hour had ended, Beth wouldn’t notice any minuscule changes in her position.

But Beth, it seemed, was noticing everything.

She sat on the bed, eyes sweeping the room. “You’re majorly grounded, but there’s always dirt on your sneakers in the morning. And rust and grease on your jeans. It’s like you go out Dumpster diving every night.”

Jessica ground her teeth together. Beth must have been spying on her for weeks, probably since they’d arrived in Bixby. All the time she’d been worrying about her poor, friendless sister having trouble adjusting to the new town, the little sneak had been busy snooping.

It occurred to Jessica that she could really let Beth in for an eyeful. All she had to do was wait until midnight came and when it ended be standing just behind her or in another room entirely, vanishing before Beth’s snotty, superior gaze.