Rimwick

Demons, Monsters, Beasts, Whatever

"You... you were dead."

"I know, Riley. I'm so sorry."

He strides around the fire and stands in front of me, hands falling at his sides pleadingly.

"We had a funeral," I spit out. I'm angry, hurt, and confused, but anger is easiest for me to handle so I stick with that. "Your mom tried to go out to look for you at night but your dad stopped her. He formed a search party who found blood on the streets by the old clock tower, so they came back. I was at your house when they told your sister that- that you were gone and- It's been four years! You've been alive for four freakin' years and you let us all think you were dead???"

We weren't extremely close, back before Bradley died, but I liked him. I was friends with his little sister, and sometimes Bradley would hang out with us even though he's a year older.

"I'm sorry, Riley! I wanted to come back, but I couldn't- you know what they're like in Rimwick."

"Yummy," sighs a wispy, girlish voice, but I ignore it.

"They're family," I snap.

"Not my family," Bradley says. "There are good people in Rimwick, but they can't accept anything that's different. The people up here are better. They have magic, and they know what it's like. But gosh, Riley..." He puts a calloused hand on my shoulder and stares right into my hazel eyes with his crystal blue ones. "I missed you so much. All of you, I mean."

I blink away tears I didn't know existed and hug him, because I'm mad but I'm also really, really glad he's not dead. Bradley hugs me back, holding so tightly that I think he may never let go.

"I'm sorry," he repeats.

"You should be." I pull back.

Echo interrupts us. "Um, Felix, this is Riley Fey. And Riley, this is Felix King. But apparently you two know each other already, so..." her voice trails off.

Anvil, Fallon, Roman and Echo are staring at us.

"Why Felix?" I ask.

Bradley shrugs sheepishly. "I just like the name. It's a chance to be someone different, you know?"

I nod.

"School's starting soon," Echo says.

"Right," Bradley answers. "Come on, Riley. You'll love this place."

"If she does, she's crazy," someone mutters. We start walking through the forest, further back into the hills. This all feels so surreal. Bradley alive, being outside at night, getting a power and leaving home all in the same hour... I can hardly comprehend it. But it's so, so much better than my real life.

"You're pretty brave," Bradley tells me in a low voice. We're slightly ahead of the others, and his hand has somehow slipped into mine.

"Why?" I ask, startled.

He looks back at me. "I was terrified when I first came here. I mean, we were told our whole lives to stay inside because of Dusk Children. And then actually seeing them scared the stars out of me... you're holding up really well, that's all."

"I haven't actually see one yet. But no one here seems worried."

Bradley stops trudging through the snow and stares at me. "No one here seems worried? Riley, of course they don't. They have nothing to worry ABOUT. Not about Dusk Children, anyway."

"Right, I know." I feel my cheeks start to heat up as words flicker out of my mouth. "They have magic powers. I get it."

"No, you don't understand." The other kids have caught up and are standing in a semicircle behind us. Bradley turns around and looks at them. "You didn't tell her?"

"Tell me what?" My heart quickens its pace. What don't I know about Dusk Children?

"I didn't tell her," Echo says, looking down at her ragged sneakers.

"Why the dawn didn't you?" Fallon snaps. "You should have. Then she'd've run home like the scared little Day Fly she is."

Bradley looks sharply at Fallon. "Don't call her that. She's one of us."

"One of you?" I ask, trying to keep my voice from rising. "Bradley, until ten minutes ago I thought you were dead. Until an hour ago I didn't know it was possible to leave Rimwick WITHOUT dying. I have no idea where we're going or what we're doing, and you'd better tell me or I'm out of here."

Roman the Wolf growls and pushes against my leg. "I mean it!" I tell him.

"We're just going to school," Echo says. "We have a camp up in the woods."

"Who is 'we'?" I need answers, now. Not having them is dangerous.

"We're not bad," Echo pleads. "We haven't hurt you, see?"

"Not yet," replies the lilting voice that seems to come from the thin, cold air.

"Not helpful, Brooke," Anvil says.

"Of course not," says the voice. A smoky shape swirls into existence, forming the vague figure of an ethereal girl. The colorless tips of her fingers, her shoes and dress, and the ends of her loopy ringlets trail off into mist. Her voice is sing-songish and creepy, and it sends chills up my spine. "Hello, Riley," the smoke says. "I'm Brooke, the demon."

"You're what?" I'm fighting hard to keep my voice level, to quench my rising panic. What's going on?

"Riley." Bradley puts his hand on my shoulder and takes a deep breath. "The reason you and I are here, the reason we can't stay in Rimwick, the reason that we don't have to worry about Dusk Children anymore... it's because, well, it's because..."

"I'll tell her," says the girl made out of mist. She addresses me. "It really has taken you a long time to catch on, Dearie. We're Dusk Children."