Chapter Two: In the Shadows
I never really liked romance movies. They were so unrealistic. The perfect guy doesn’t just show up in your time of need. The hot guy from the supermarket doesn’t keep bumping into you all the time until you finally decide to start dating. The crazy guy from the castle doesn’t just casually walk in to the newspaper office where you happen to work.
Yet there he was. I looked up on impulse, leaving the article I was writing behind for just a moment. At the very same moment that the strange man from the castle opened the door and walked into the office. My eyes widened a little and I quickly returned to writing the article, hoping the man wouldn’t notice me.
“Egan,” I heard the editor of the paper call out. I watched him out of the corner of my eye walk up to the man.
“Kieran,” the man replied.
“What do you want this time?” Kieran – the editor – asked, smiling.
“Do you still have the paper from this time last month?” the man asked.
It was an odd request, but Kieran seemed used to it, heading out back without a word.
I furtively noticed the man look towards me; I turned to my work, pretending I didn’t notice.
“There you go,” Kieran tossed the man a paper. “Aren’t you meant to be working?” He checked his watch.
“Too busy being a genius for that,” the man replied.
“You’re full of it,” Kieran laughed.
“You know it’s true,” the man smiled before walking out.
Kieran shook his head and walked back to his office.
I tried to focus on my work, but was faced with a slight hint of confusion and even more curiosity than the man had left me with at the castle. Questions about him formed in my head, but I knew they would never be answered. I highly doubted I’d ever see the man again. I have never been more wrong.
I finished up my article and handed it to Kieran for editing before leaving the building. The sun was setting, casting an orange glow across the town in which I now lived. It was a small Scottish town which I’d moved to as an escape from my life in Ireland. There were a few shops and a school, but the main part of the town was made up of houses. The newspaper agency was at the end of a line of small shops and a cafe with a park on the other side.
I decided on a walk before I went home. The air was unusually warm for Scotland and I intended to take advantage of it. Instead of my general route through the park to my house, I turned the other direction and walked down the road.
A scream pierced my ears as I approached the graveyard. I shook it off deciding it was teenage boys trying to scare the girls they liked. But as I drew nearer to the entrance, a strange feeling of dread settled over me and I was pulled toward the gate.
The cry, “Egan,” sent my brain spinning. Wasn’t that what Kieran called the strange man earlier?
Barely thinking I ran into the graveyard, following the animal instinct that overruled my mind. I twisted and turned through trees and graves, ducking under an archway leading to a small clearing.
A dark haired man with a scar running above his left eye turned to stare at me with wide eyes. He ignored me. He was clinging to a screaming woman and murmuring. All I heard was, “You’re making it angry…”
The last rays of sunlight shone on the face of a stone angel rising above the graves. At the base of the statue, the man from the castle – Egan – pushed himself up off the ground.
The lady calmed down, but anxiously watched every corner of the graveyard, her eyes darting to and fro. I gasped as Egan was thrown into a stone wall at the other side of the clearing.
Once again acting on instinct, I ran to him, placing a hand behind his head and lifting it up. I felt darkness around me, even though there was still a little sunlight left. A sticky liquid oozed onto my fingers; I realised Egan was bleeding.
“You shouldn’t be here,” the man spluttered. “Get out of here before it comes back.”
“What?” confusion filled my mind again. Did this man ever say anything that made sense?
“Just go.” He groaned.
“I’m not going anywhere. You need help.”
“I’m fine,” he claimed, though the look in his eyes said otherwise.
“Egan,” a voice spoke from behind me. “You know who she is, don’t you?” The scarred man looked at me.
“I don’t care, Samuel.”
Samuel snickered. “Yes you do.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked, looking between the two of them.
The darkness around me got stronger and the man with the scar, Samuel, announced, “It’s back.”
“Get out!” Egan yelled at me.
Darkness swirled around me slowly at first. Unsure of what was happening, I looked to the sky. The sun still shone. I looked back towards Egan for an explanation when I was lifted off the ground. Panicking, I tried to combat the darkness with light.
I focused hard. Imaginary white light filled the air around me and I found myself, much to my relief, back on the ground. The three strangers stared at me.
“What?” I panted, trying to understand what just happened.
“You can shield,” Egan whispered.
“What?”
“Witch,” Samuel spoke softly.
“And she doesn’t even know it,” the woman muttered.
A large bang caused me to jump. The woman looked for a source for the noise but couldn’t seem to find one.
“We have to get out of here,” Samuel said quickly. “It’s too strong.”
“How could it be this strong?” the woman asked.
“Summoning,” Egan breathed. “They’re stronger when they’re summoned.”
“What?” It seemed to be the only word I was saying. Egan reached up and put a finger to my lips, stopping me from speaking.
“How do we take it down, then?” the woman asked.
“The easiest way? Get rid of the connection with whoever summoned it. Then it won’t have the extra strength,” Egan replied.
“Done this before?” the woman asked.
Egan shook his head.
“Move!” the man with the scar cried suddenly, before pulling the woman a few steps back and returning to help Egan move. Just as we cleared the space, a large boulder landed where we would’ve been.
I stared at the rock. “Where did that come from?”
“Not important,” Egan replied. “Let’s go.”
Egan turned to leave.
The woman turned to me. “I’m Mikayla.”
“Ailia,” I replied.
The woman smiled. “Come with us.” We quickly made our way toward the graveyard exit, taking a path rather than the course I took by running through graves and trees. I could feel the tension from the three of them.
I opened my mouth to ask them what happened, but Egan put his hand to my mouth. I took this as a message to be quiet and stayed silent for the rest of the trip.
Once we passed through the graveyard gate and stood on the footpath just outside, Egan told me I was now allowed to talk.
“Okay, what was that?” I asked, searching desperately for an answer in their faces.
“That was something you can forget about,” Egan answered. “Go home. Steer clear of graveyards and castles. Have a nice life.”
“Egan,” Mikayla stared at him. “You can’t leave her like that.”
“I have no choice,” he stated shortly.
“Only because that’s what you choose,” she said.
“Egan, it will happen. I don’t care if you don’t like it, you can’t stop it,” Samuel added.
“I can try.” Egan turned and began to walk off.
Samuel turned to the woman and me. “I’ll see you two in a few minutes,” he said before following Egan.
“Sorry about him.” Mikayla had a gentle voice. “He’s a little bit touchy about this whole thing.”
“Who is he?” I breathed, struggling to understand what he was tal
king about and why I felt so drawn to him.
“Egan?” the woman looked in the direction the men were walking. “He’s just a guy. He’s super smart, slightly cocky and couldn’t cook if his life depended on it. He’s eccentric, but to most people he’s just an ordinary man.”
I turned toward Egan, watching him walk away. “I find it hard to believe he is just a guy.”
“And no,” Mikayla walked after the other two. “Egan doesn’t have a girlfriend.”
I hurried to catch up with her, slightly embarrassed, “I didn’t ask if he had a girlfriend.”
“You didn’t, but you just saw him go flying across a graveyard and the first thing you asked was ‘who is he?’”
“He says some really weird things, that’s all,” I defended.
“You’ve met him before, I take it?”
“Yeah. He gave me some made up speech about strange things and nightmares and told me that I didn’t want to get involved.”
“Oh, that.”
I looked at her.
“Egan has a tendency to scare people away to keep them safe.”
“Why would he do that?”
“Because what he does is dangerous and he doesn’t want other people to get involved. You’re right, you know. Egan has his secrets.”
“What does he do?”
“Ailia, in the graveyard, were you scared?” she asked, completely avoiding my question.
“Not really. Why would I be scared?”
Mikayla smiled. “You ask as many questions as I do.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“Not in this industry,” Mikayla replied with a grin. “But yes, you should’ve been scared.”
I shrugged. “Who’s the other guy, then?”
“Samuel? He’s my partner.”
“Did he get that scar from rocks throwing themselves around a graveyard?”
Mikayla laughed, “Close. It was a letter opener throwing itself around an office.”
I frowned. That was strange, but I decided not to pursue the matter. “You never answered my question.”
“What was that?”
“What does Egan do that’s so dangerous?”
Mikayla sighed, turning a corner and walking down a pathway towards a house. I recognised the area that we were in. It was within walking distance of both my house and the newspaper agency. The house sat on the outskirts of the village near the edge of a forest. “That’s not for me to tell you. That’s something you’ll have to discuss with him.”
I nearly laughed. “I don’t think he really likes discussing things with me.”
Mikayla turned to me. She was standing at the door of the house. “Egan is trying to protect you. It’s what he does. I’ll talk to him. He’ll come around, eventually.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” I muttered, thinking of his reaction when I arrived at the graveyard.
“Trust me, he will.” With that Mikayla opened the door, which was already unlocked, and stepped inside. I was hesitant to follow, but she beckoned me in.
Mikayla led me past a couch in the ugliest shade of green I had ever seen and through an archway to what appeared to be a dining room. The kitchen was separated from the dining room by a large bench with a couple of bar stools. The man with the scar, Samuel, waved at us. He was leaning against a wall, while Egan sat in a dining chair. A medic behind Egan was stitching the wound on the back of his head.
“Ailia, this is Samuel,” she gestured towards the scarred man, who waved again, “and Sean.” Mikayla indicated the medic. “You know Egan already.”
Egan watched me, but didn’t say a word.
“I called Sean about Egan’s head.” Samuel explained.
“Egan tends to get himself hurt a lot,” Mikayla explained. “We keep Sean on call for whenever we need a medic. It’s easier than calling an ambulance each time. There are too many questions we’d have to answer.”
“Yep,” Sean agreed. “I’m the guy who knows them well enough to understand Egan’s obsession with harming himself through his strange experiments.”
I frowned in confusion. What did he mean by experiments?
“You’re done,” Sean said, placing his equipment in a bag. “Try not to hurt yourself next time, alright?”
Egan shrugged. “I can’t help it.”
“Well, perhaps you should try using that genius brain of yours to stop beating yourself up.”
“It’s all in the name of science,” Egan grinned.
“Yeah, yeah.” Sean walked out the door.
“What’s she doing here?” Egan asked Mikayla almost immediately.
“Egan,” Mikayla sighed. “You can’t continuously push her away.”
“I can and I will.” Egan leant back in the chair and crossed his arms.
“Egan, I asked her,” Mikayla spoke firmly. “At the graveyard, she wasn’t scared.”
Egan leant forward, “Really?”
I nodded.
“Well, that explains why you’re trying to get yourself killed.”
“Egan,” Mikayla spoke his name firmly.
Egan stood, ignoring Mikayla. “Do you know the difference between bravery and stupidity?” he asked me.
I shook my head, backing into the wall as Egan walked towards me. He was close. The hairs on my neck stood on end. I felt his breath on my cheek.
“Stupidity is bravery without fear,” he kept his voice low, sending shivers down my spine. He moved to whisper in my ear. “Are you scared, Ailia?”
“No,” I answered, despite the hammering in my heart.
“You should be.”
“Come on,” Mikayla pulled Egan away from me, breaking the trance Egan seemed to put me in. “Be nice, Egan,” she instructed.
Mikayla had an unusual beauty about her. Outside in the dark she seemed like a normal woman, but under the lights I noticed her deep set eyes. The colour was a soft grey but it was contradicted by the wisdom and toughness hidden inside. Her hair was a strange mix of brown, blonde and grey which would never work for anyone else, but suited her perfectly.
“I don’t see why we should treat her differently from anyone else,” Egan mumbled, walking into the kitchen and opening the fridge.
“You know perfectly well why,” Mikayla replied.
“She’ll be better off without us, Mikayla. She’s safer while she doesn’t know.” Egan took a carton of orange juice out of the fridge and poured himself a glass.
“You can’t change it Egan,” Samuel stepped forward. “Whether you tell her or not, she will find out. You can talk to her and help her through it, or let her find her own way. Which one seems more dangerous to you?”
Egan placed his hands on the bench and looked down. His eyes flicked up to me and for an instant I lost myself in a sea of green. I quickly shook my head to pull myself out of the stupor.
“I’ll tell her,” Egan murmured. “But that’s it. That’s all!” Egan was firm.
Mikayla grinned.
“Don’t look so smug,” Egan muttered, placing the juice back in the fridge.
Mikayla looked to Samuel. “Time to go?”
Samuel nodded.
“Egan,” Mikayla turned back to him. “Don’t be too harsh.”
“Not telling her would be easier,” Egan replied.
Mikayla shook her head. “Just be nice. No trying to scare her off anymore, okay?”
Egan sighed. “I promise I will not try to scare her into running away, even though that’s what’s best for her.”
“Good.” Mikayla took Samuel’s hand and led him out the door, sending me a smile as they left.
Egan gazed at me for a moment. I felt like shrivelling up into a ball, but stood my ground. My eyes flicked over Egan; broad shoulders, black hair, strong set jaw, green eyes. There was something about those eyes. It was as though there was a whole world inside them. A world of dark secrets which, in that moment, I really wanted to get thrown into. No matter how dangerous he claimed it was.
/> “Sit,” Egan instructed, gesturing towards the table.
I sat, unsure of what was happening or what I was about to hear. Egan sat opposite me. He seemed to be deep in thought, as though he was unsure of how he was meant to go about the discussion. I got the feeling that he never wanted this talk to happen, but there was no way of avoiding it.
“Are you religious?” Egan asked. I shook my head, wondering what religion had to do with anything.
“Believe in ghosts?”
I shook my head again.
“Believe in anything that you can’t see?”
Once again, I shook my head.
I was never one to indulge in beliefs of the supernatural. I was too busy dealing with everyday life, hoping to survive and get through school or work. If there was a God, I didn’t understand why He’d put me through the life I lived. Beliefs were never high on my priority list.
Egan smiled sadly, “It’s a shame that I have to tell you then. You’re one of the few that are too sceptical to let yourself get hurt.”
I looked up at him. Questions formed in my mind, but I felt it would be better to stay silent.
“This is going to sound completely insane,” Egan warned.
I smiled. Almost everything Egan ever said so far sounded insane, what’s one more thing?
“Go on,” I encouraged.
Egan took a deep breath, “I’m a demon hunter.”
It took a moment for his words to sink in. When they finally did, all I could think to say was, “Huh?”
Egan kept his voice even. “The monsters you feared as a child are real. My job is to remove them. I banish them before people like you find out.”
“You’re telling me that monsters are real and you hunt demons?” I scoffed.
His words didn’t make any sense. I was on the verge of walking out of his house and contacting a mental hospital, but once again my instincts told me to stay with him.
“Any form of evil monster is a demon. Any mythological beast – dragons, goblins, serpents – they all count. We can’t see any of them. They’re confined to the astral plane. The problem is that they are powerful enough to interact with us. Each monster has the potential to cause harm.”
I sat across from Egan with my mouth open and no idea what to say.
“When you were at the graveyard, you saw the boulder come out of nowhere, right? And you’ve got to admit that I hit that wall pretty hard.”
Egan was right. Those were two occurrences I couldn’t explain. I thought back into my past. When I was young, my brother taught me that monsters didn’t exist. That the weird things that happened around me where just my imagination. What if he was wrong?
“I hate telling people this. I especially didn’t want to tell you, but the supernatural exists. I’m just one guy who’s out to stop it. So knowing that, can you understand why you shouldn’t be anywhere near me?”
My mind refused to move to Egan’s way of thinking, “How can they be real?”
“I don’t know, exactly. But they are. You can’t deny the things you’ve seen.”
A shiver ran through me and I quickly looked away from Egan. Surely there was some way of explaining these things. Demons didn’t exist. They couldn’t.
“Are you okay?” Egan asked quietly. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed him watching me intently.
“Yeah, just...”
“It brings you back to the days of your childhood when there was a monster living in your closet or under your bed. You could feel it, you knew it was there, but nobody else believed you. They taught you the ways of the world; that there’s no such thing as monsters. You came to believe it. You grew up and the monsters went away, but now you know the truth and you’re wondering what happens if the monsters come back.”
It seemed weird to me, but what Egan said was exactly what I was feeling. He put it into words what I couldn’t.
“I’ve been there,” he said. Egan stood and walked over to me. He sat on the table so he was closer to me. “Every hunter has. We’re the ones who find out the truth. We’re the ones who try to do something about it. If the monsters do come back, we’re the ones who will be there to protect you if we can. What’s best for you now is to forget this conversation ever happened and go on with life.”
I stared at Egan, trying to understand what he was saying but, once again, failing. “I just don’t understand.”
“Good,” Egan said. “You’re better off that way. There’s a reason that humanity began to laugh at legends of monsters. We do what is best for our survival. The easiest way to protect ourselves from demons is to not believe in them at all.”
“Then why tell me that they’re real?”
“I didn’t want to. You should hear some of the arguments that Mikayla and I have been having.”
“She thinks I should know,” I assumed.
“And Samuel does too. You’d have to be stupid to go against Samuel.”
“But why tell me if it’s safer for me not to know?”
“That’s the thing,” Egan ran a hand through his hair. “Not believing in demons works for almost everyone, but for some reason, Samuel thinks that you’ll be safer if you do know.”
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know,” Egan admitted.
The silence surrounding us was oddly comforting. The air here wasn’t dark or cold as it was outside or at the graveyard. It was soft and warm, it felt safe. Yet there was something inside me which didn’t fit with my surroundings. There were warning bells ringing inside my head. If those who didn’t believe were the safest, yet Egan had to tell me to keep me safe, what did that make me?
“Ailia,” Egan whispered. “Are you scared now?”
I breathed out slowly. “Yes.”