The Shaded

Chapter Twenty

CHAPTER TWENTY

There were five engines. For a while, they remained parked. No one emerged from any vehicle.

It was twenty seconds of silence that I recall my heartbeat pounding for every second that passed.

Dolores, the lady from the store, exited her Volkswagen parked in front of the other cars. The others instantly followed as everyone began to emerge from their vehicles.

Dolores stepped forward, her heels crunching onto the scattered leaves of the yard. She removed her sunglasses, and her eyes widened with uneasiness, as if the image of the house greeted her with a sense of undesired reminiscence, along with an unsettling breeze which brushed past her scarf.

Her eyes met me.

I stepped a foot back as she stepped forward. She grinned at me apprehensively. I guess that was the warm welcome.

"It's okay. Is she... inside?" Dolores asked.

I nodded nervously. "Why are you here?"

Dolores looked to me as if I worried her with that response.

"Why... we're here to take you home," she said.

"All of you?"

"Yes."

I noticed all eyes on me... again. These were the exact people from the store.

"Home?" I questioned.

"You know what she is and what she's capable of, at least by now."

I froze. Did I indeed know what she was capable of? What I saw today wasn't nearly comparable to what I once suspected her of. In fact, it had brought me to process what I did see of her today. How she had lifted a woman midair and tossed her into a wall without laying a single finger on her. How she manipulated the tape to wrap around me with her eyes.

"We want to keep you safe!" she continued.

This could've been my chance.

"I'm tired of running," I admitted to her.

"You must be!" She motioned her hand for me to walk into her arms, inviting me into a rescue.

"I don't fully understand any of this, not as much as you might think I do."

She spoke to me with her words and her eyes. It was... eerily captivating.

"Timothy, I was a child. A helpless child. Living in a world of enigmas I couldn't yet understand but wanted to. And I know how it feels to have everything... and then nothing... and to even lose yourself... and then in that, not even recognizing what you lost. This woman wants to hurt you. She is beyond even our understanding."

"Dolores..?" a woman behind one of the cars spoke.

Dolores turned to her. "What?"

"His arms."

Dolores glanced at the markings across my wrists and gasped softly. My arms bewildered her. I knew that expression of her face. It was fear.

"Are we too late?" a man from the crowd behind murmured.

Dolores turned back to me. "It's time to come away from her. Wouldn't you agree?" she asked, her lips quivering slightly.

She gave me a lasting stare, and I was lost in it.

"My things are inside."

"You won't need them," she replied.

"Okay."

"You won't need anything from her ever again."

She reached out her arm for me again, and I couldn't resist the offer. How could I refuse an escape? But I couldn't budge. My feet were glued to the grass under my shoe soles.

"It's alright. Come along," she whispered.

Slowly but surely, I inched my way toward her, neglecting the urge to attentively turn my back to the force that was driving me backward.

"Come on, Timothy. NOW!" Dolores hollered.

I went for it. I broke free of my frozen stance and marched into her arms, only to be separated by a sudden, immense flame that ignited from the short span of grass between us.

The line of fire spread both to the left and right of me, enclosing me and the house into a circle of furious flames that grew taller by the second.

The clan of townsfolk scuttled back into their vehicles, infused with terror. I could slightly see Dolores's face through the glow of the orange inferno.

She stepped back from the flame and held out her hand.

She saw in my eyes that I was desperate for a way out.

Her fingers clenched over the fire, and the flames gradually began to separate, opening a clearing for me to escape. The flames were resistant though, whipping back at her through the air like a couple of rabid dogs.

There was a path, however. A clearing of burnt grass that held just enough space for me to sprint through.

I took off, leaping into the bright blaze, and was smacked by a wrathful squall of the wind which took me all the way back until I clouted into the harsh wood of the front door. I heard a cackle from above as the flames began to collide into each other, devouring the open trail Dolores had granted me with.

We both turned our heads toward the woods as the sounds of men screaming became a distant echo.

Dolores looked back at me.

I saw in her eyes that she wasn't staying.

She removed herself from the fire that trapped me, as she headed back into her car. Even leaving my driveway, I'm not entirely sure she ever broke eye contact with me.

The flames settled down to a gentle simmer, dousing themselves.

I watched the rear of Dolores's vehicle leave the vicinity of my driveway, leaving me alone.

The front door behind me opened a crack on its own; she was inviting me inside.