The Shadows Of Darkness
an excerpt

Being in this lifeless city brought out all of those childhood fears that I thought I had gotten over. It was like even the shadows were moving, trying to reach out and pull me into their grasp, forever to be lost in their gloom.

As we turned the corner, Aurora pushed me back around it. Henry grabbed me and pushed me against the shadowy wall. He gave me the signal to be quiet and I hastily tried to empty my mind. He glanced around the corner and shuddered. Whatever had spooked Aurora was apparently coming around the corner because she and Henry moved in front of me to shield me from its view. Whatever it was, I was nothing. Aurora put her hand over my eyes and when she took it away, I could see what it was.

Limping away from us was a figure that looked like a man. He wore a long, black trench coat and a strange pointed, black hat, much like what a Ku Klux Klan member would wear. As he limped away, he left a wake of black. I thought it was a shadow, but it lingered and dissipated like a thick fog. When he turned another corner and disappeared, it was a few seconds before we all exhaled the breath that we all were holding without knowing it. Aurora looked at her wrist and indicated that we should follow her. She led us to a building around the corner and we went inside.

After she secured the front door, Henry lit a lamp. The room that we were in looked like what was at one point an antique store. Like all the other places I’d seen, this one was void of any dust and looked as though the owner had just left 5 minutes ago. Aurora led us upstairs to what looked like a living room that was without windows. She repeated what she did to the front door to all of the doors off shooting from this room. There was only one chair in the room and she collapsed in it. Henry sat Indian-style on the floor and I walked around the room looking at its contents.

It looked like an ordinary living room. There was a fire place, and on the mantel there were an abundance of knickknacks whose function I couldn’t figure out. One looked as though it was a delicate egg cup, but upon closer inspection of the item, it appeared to be a music box. On the inside of it, there was a crank.

“What’s this?” I asked.

“That’s a hamony,” said Aurora.

“I haven’t seen one of those in a long time,” said Henry. He stretched out his hand to take it from me, and I handed it to him. “It’s like a music box, only it’s not a box.” He turned the crank and it started playing the most beautiful song I’d ever heard in my life. It was nothing like any other music box I’d ever heard, the music felt like it were coming from inside you.

Once the song ended, I said, “That was beautiful. I’ve never heard anything like that before.” I took it from Henry and put it back on the shelf.