A Shade That Prowls

            The murmur of the tires, like buried voices, ceased as Timo's car rolled to a stop at Caine Cemetery. The broken-tooth line of stones lay a hundred feet off. Light washed me as I got out.

"How long to get Claire?"

Timo thought for a moment. "I'll be back in an hour, Matt"

"An hour." I patted the top of his car. He pulled forward and the tail lights receded.

Alone, I turned to the waiting graveyard. The moon lay in the east disappearing in the shadow of a foreboding tree.

What are you doing, Matt?

The shadows deepened between stones and around me as I made my way to the tree. The gray oak looked like a giant spider. It flexed in the breeze, the sound of snapping ropes. I circled it, looking for a low branch. They were all too high.

So much for the plan.

Hiding behind a stone felt like occupying someone else's grave. But being on the ground would lose impact. Timo wanted me to really scare Claire. A branch dipped above me. I grabbed the upper edge of the stone, wondering whose grave it was, and lunged up. Balancing, I squatted like a gargoyle. My balance was too tentative, so I sprung. The silhouetted branches and filigree stars reeled. My hands slapped bark and I pulled myself up.

After a moment, I shifted my grip and swung to the upper side of the branch and lay there panting. I felt eyes on me. I looked below, expecting nothing, but seeing something. Layers of darkness looked like glossy tendrils of shadow spidering stone to stone. I'd lose track of it, but catch it again further around the tree.

Could someone else be here?

I moved, to change perspectives, but the ground remained indistinct and the stones swayed blunted shadows.

Trick of the shadows.

The branch was thick enough that I'd be able to take two strides before leaping. But it looked high. I edged over on the branch until my shadow merged with the main trunk, arms on branches and I became invisible within the tree's silhouette. I picked up darkness moving again, a spider shadow twisting from the tree's shadows, moving slowly, like it didn't expect to be seen. It flattened to the trunk, stretched up. I pressed myself tighter to the trunk.

The shadows and branches stilled. I remembered why I was there and waited like a puppet on a string. Stars rolled.

"Twenty more minutes and they'll be here."

Darkness moved below. Needle-like shadows stretched up the trunk while the world remained timeless. I held my breath. The shadows on the trunk remained still, but I couldn't tell what threw them.

Was someone already here?

Time ticked. I thought less about scaring Claire, and more about getting away from the graveyard. Something small moved at the base of a branch, a mouse.

"No."

Tips of slender shadows licked around branches, reached higher. I knew they were shadows, but I didn't want them touching me. They sought me. I climbed to a higher branch.

Timo dropped me off hours before. The world had gone dark. Halloween was over and I was in a tree.

Was this Timo's plan? Maneuver me here and leave me?

The shadows receded and the palpable form of a crouching man emerged behind a tombstone.

"Hey," I called. "Looks like we're both forgotten."