Wherein I learn about the Dark.
“Of course it came for you,” the old man said. He said it so matter-of-factly when I asked, like I was stupid to ask. He didn’t even turn to look at me as he continued his preparations. “You’ve been marked. He sends his hounds after you.”
“So it was a dog!” I said, obvious relief in my voice.
He paused and turned to look at me with a smile. “No,” he said, shaking his head.
We sat outside the house. He had built a fire pit in the dirt and sands outside. Now he was placing objects and scratching out a circle. He had placed various pouches and sacks on the ground. He had allowed me outside of the room that had been my prison, but I had to come with him. So far he had asked me to do nothing more than carry firewood out to the fire pit. I was glad to at least have clothes. He found a white T-shirt and jeans. They were not the old man’s size, and clearly not Emily’s. It left an unanswered question in my head of whose they were.
From outside, I saw the house more clearly. It was really more of a wooden cabin than a house. It was built with obvious planks, unpainted and weathered by the elements. A wooden, railed deck wrapped around the entire house. I sat on the stairs of the deck while I watched him work.
“What was it then?” I pushed.
“I did not lay eyes upon it. A minion, probably.”
“A minion? What are we dealing with, a supervillain? I expect you to die, Mr. Bond!”
“I would not make jokes when you are the one it seeks,” he said grimly.
“But you kept it away last night, right? What was that singing anyway? Native American?”
He gave a short derisive laugh. “The Native Americans once used these songs, but do not any longer. These songs are older than them. These songs were whispered on the wind for centuries before they came to this continent.”
“Then who sung them?” I asked. “There wasn’t anyone here before that. Even Mormon Jesus came later.”
He gave me a knowing look and a hint of a smile but said nothing.
“Regardless of where they come from and your historical inaccuracies,” I said, “you do know the songs, so you could keep this hound or whatever away tonight, right?”
“I could, but I won’t,” he said, going on with his preparations. He was grinding something with his mortar and pestle again.
“What? Why not?” I said. I looked up at the sky. It was so hard to see the sun here. I could see light and clouds, but never the sun. It was afternoon though, and getting quite close to evening.
“I want it to come. It will come for you. That’s why you’re useful.”
“Whoa, wait a second. You want to see it, that’s great. You can have a goddamn tea party with it, have a goddamn bromance pride parade through the center of Happytown. But I want nothing to do with it. I want to places that include the traits of ‘safe’ and ‘inside.’”
“You will do what I say,” he said forcefully, his dark eyes fiery. I had to look away when he stared at me like that. “You fell upon my doorstep dead like a dog. I nursed you back to health and expelled venom from your veins. Until your debt is paid you are mine to do with as I please.”
“Do with?” In my mind I remembered Emily and how she was supposed to be confined to his room. “Wait a minute. I’m open minded, but I don’t really get into that sort of thing… I mean, some do, and that’s totally cool, but for me….”
“You will go into the Dark tonight.”
“The dark? Like you want to shut off all the lights? I’ve never needed a night light, but being in complete darkness in someplace I don’t know is a little unnerving…”
“The Dark is a place, you babbling fool. A place of power close to our own. It is just beyond the edges of what we see in the night, beyond the shadows. It is a place of spirits and power.”
“So it’s like a parallel universe?”
“No, the Dark is the Dark. In some areas it looks like our world, like a muddied reflection. The Dark will reflect the secrets, the lies, the within. In other places, the Dark reflects the hidden insides of people rather than places. Sometimes the Dark has nothing to do with our world at all.”
“What the fuck am I going there for?” I asked.
“To meet the hound, of course.”
“WHAT?”
“I need to pinpoint the location of his master. If his hound comes here, I have ways of tracing him back to his master.”
“So I am bait?” I asked. This was getting worse all the time.
“You are bait,” he said, without any mirth or sarcasm. He pointed the hand-shaped bruise on my arm. “They will come for you tonight either way. In the Dark, you will meet on equal footing.”
“You want me to kill this thing? I’ve punched some hobos, but this is way out of my league.”
He laughed. “Far out of your league indeed. You would die if you tried to fight.”
“Then what? Are you sitting here waiting for me to say, ‘Oh sure, let me go get gutted while Megistus does what he needs. That’s the type of debt-payer I am!’”
“No, you fool. I will be protecting you. It will know you are there, but it won’t be able to see you. You need only enter the Dark and remain their undetected. It will come for you, but when it does not see you, it will leave. That is all I need.”
“That’s it? Really?” I said with relief. “That’s not so bad. It just seems like there should be some sort of a catch.”
There was a catch.
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