The Eighth Day

Chapter 14

He was darkness in a world of darkness.

Shawn Jaffe waited in the shadows near the service entrance. Hours passed. The sun had begun to sear the eastern horizon when an old pickup rolled into view, crunching over gravel and glass. He dropped into a predatory crouch as the vehicle stopped alongside a loading bay, and the engine fell silent but for the clicking of the exhaust manifold as it cooled. The driver pushed the door open.

Shawn tensed and waited.

As the driver eased himself out of the cab with a grunt, Shawn separated himself from the darkness and hurried forward. Something crunched beneath his foot. The driver swiveled to face him, eyes wide with alarm, and turned back to the pickup, perhaps praying he had time to climb back inside, slam and lock the door, start the engine, and stomp on the gas. But the driver had time for none of this.

Shawn palmed the back of the man's head with one hand and cupped his chin with the other, then gave a violent twist. The driver's neck made a sound like celery torn in two. The body crumpled into his arms, and he hauled it backward into the shadows, its heels leaving two shallow furrows through the dirt and the grime.

He changed into the man's clothes, a custodial uniform with gray trousers and a blue shirt, and clipped an ID card to his breast pocket. The picture was his. The name was not. Shawn didn't remember where the ID had come from, and he didn't care. He jogged over to the loading bay and pressed it to a security panel next to the bay door. A buzz sounded, and the lock popped open. He rolled the door up halfway and stooped inside. A green plastic trash bin on wheels stood tucked against a stack of wooden pallets. It squeaked and scraped as he hauled it outside.

Glancing around, Shawn bent and lifted the body under its arms and draped it over the side of the trash bin. Then he grabbed its ankles and swung them over, and the corpse folded itself into a neat pile of naked flesh at the bottom. He covered it with his old clothes and a couple of garbage bags and wheeled it back inside.

He passed through the loading bay and weaved through a series of corridors that led deeper into the building. The flat beat of his footsteps echoed alongside the rattle of the trash bin as he pushed it through the empty hallways, his tuneless whistle serving as a discordant accompaniment.

He stopped in front of a blank door, pressed the ID to another security panel, then pushed the garbage bin inside and closed the door behind him. Darkness swallowed him.

Shawn waited.

Before long, he forgot how he came to be sharing this darkened room with a dead man. In his mind, he'd always been here. His memories faded into oblivion, a canvas wiped clean by the passage of time. Only what was next remained.

He was darkness in a world of darkness, and soon he'd dance again.