Touching Darkness

"Where you're getting is into trouble. Leave. This is my room!"



"So call Mom."



Jessica took a breath and opened her mouth, but all that leaked out was another deadly pause, which was as unstoppable as Beth's growing smile.



"Didn't think so. On a related topic, Jess, I tried to wake you up Sunday morning. But mysteriously, I couldn't open your door."



"Maybe I locked it."



Beth snorted. "Your door doesn't have a lock. I am your little sister - I know these things. I suspect that you jammed this under it." She held up a doorstop, the one Jessica had secured her door with the night they'd spotted the stalker.



"That's mine."



Beth dropped it onto the bed with a smile. "Yes, it is. And when I find out what you're up to, you will be mine."



Jessica glanced at her watch. Six minutes. If the darkling groupies would just burst in now, she could jump into her closet, and in the confusion they would assume that Beth was her and whisk her off to the badlands, where she could annoy the darklings until they were forced to escape into yet another hidden hour or perhaps another dimension entirely. A win-win situation.



"Waiting for someone?" Beth asked.



"Yes... you. To leave."



"Someone who's coming at, oh..." Beth whisked the T-shirt off the bedside clock. "Twelve?"



Jessica just shook her head. Her heart was pounding too hard for her to say anything. Maybe if she stood very still and came back to this exact spot when the hour had ended, Beth wouldn't notice any minuscule changes in her position.



But Beth, it seemed, was noticing everything.



She sat on the bed, eyes sweeping the room. "You're majorly grounded, but there's always dirt on your sneakers in the morning. And rust and grease on your jeans. It's like you go out Dumpster diving every night."



Jessica ground her teeth together. Beth must have been spying on her for weeks, probably since they'd arrived in Bixby. All the time she'd been worrying about her poor, friendless sister having trouble adjusting to the new town, the little sneak had been busy snooping.



It occurred to Jessica that she could really let Beth in for an eyeful. All she had to do was wait until midnight came and when it ended be standing just behind her or in another room entirely, vanishing before Beth's snotty, superior gaze.



Of course, if Beth saw her disappear, she might start talking about it. Mom and Dad wouldn't believe her, but if she told someone at school, the story might eventually get back to the other midnighters. Rex wouldn't be very happy about that.



Even worse, instead of being terrified, Beth would probably decide to start showing up every night at midnight, trying to figure out exactly what was going on.



"Did you think I wouldn't notice how love-happy you are all the time?" Beth continued. "Or were, at least until you got all paranoid Saturday night. And now you're waving that thing around." Beth pointed at the bicycle lock, still in Jessica's hand. "That guy you got busted with, Jonathan - he's been in trouble with the police a bunch, right?"



"Beth, you don't know what you're talking about."



"That's right, I don't. I've never met this guy; he could be a total psycho for all I know." Her eyes fell to the floor. "Jess, I'm worried about you."



Jessica blinked. "You're what?"



"Worried. About. You." Beth pulled her knees up onto the bed and hugged them. The superior smile had faded from her face. "You never got brought home by the cops before, or snuck around, or lied to me."



"Beth, I don't - "



"You lie to me all the time now, Jessica. I can tell." Beth looked straight at her, daring her to disagree. "You weren't like this before we came to this stupid town. I knew all your friends back then."



Jessica swallowed. It seemed so long ago, like another life, but she did remember. Before Mom and Dad had announced the big move to Bixby and the packing and goodbyes had turned Beth into a full-time whiner, the two of them had always talked. Teased and argued mostly, but never lied to each other.



"Beth. I don't mean to keep secrets from you. It's just that..." Jessica's voice caught. Beth's eyes were so full of longing; she needed something to cling to here in Bixby.



It would be so easy to tell her.



Guiltily, Jessica allowed herself to imagine the look of awe on her little sister's face. Beth wouldn't believe it at first, but Jessica could prove it in another two minutes, flitting from one spot to another in the blink of an eye. Beth would have to accept the truth, and Jessica would have an ally when she had to cover things up. There would be one less person in the world to deceive.



"Beth..."



"What?"



The words didn't come, of course. She would hate herself if she said them. For years the others had kept the secret from everyone - friends, family, the police who enforced Bixby's merciless curfew. It wasn't convenient, but what else could they do? Rex said that lots of people used to know about midnight, but look what had happened - one day the midnighters had all just disappeared. Secrecy was their only real protection. Her shades were drawn and windows locked right now because someone out there knew.



And there were worse things than the man with the camera. Jessica's imagined vision of the half-thing came into her mind. Midnight wasn't just secret; it was full of horrors. She couldn't dump her nightmares on her little sister - it wasn't fair. The whole idea was stupid and selfish.



Jessica sighed and looked at her watch again. Forty seconds. "Let me show you something."



Beth's eyes widened. "Really?"



Jessica smiled - just one more lie tonight. "Really. Come here."



She opened the door to her closet, pointing into the darkness. All she really had to do was distract Beth for a few seconds; as long as she wasn't looking at Jessica at the stroke of midnight, her little sister shouldn't notice a thing.



Beth stood and crossed the room, a little suspicious now. "No one's in there, right?"



"Yeah, sure. I keep my new psycho boyfriend in the closet. Don't be a wimp. Look." Her watch said twenty-four seconds now.



Beth frowned warily but came. "Turn on a light or something?"



"Sure." She flicked the overhead light on, but Beth only frowned harder, like this was all too easy. "Come on." Jessica took her sister's shoulder and pulled her toward the closet. Fifteen, fourteen...



"What?" Beth stared into the darkness.



"Just look. Let your eyes adjust." Ten. Jessica took her hand from Beth's shoulder, stepped back out of her view. Beth turned to track her movement.



"You better not be pulling some - "



"Look there!" Jessica snapped. This was turning out to be trickier than she'd expected; maneuvering Beth was like herding a cat. And her watch wasn't always perfect to the second. There was only one way to be sure...



"Jess, there's nothing in there but - "



Her little sister squawked as Jessica shoved her into the closet, stumbling against the hanging clothes with a clatter. She swung the door closed behind Beth until it clicked.



"Jess!" came a muffled roar. A solid thump followed, probably a kick.



Jessica leaned her weight against the door, watching the stroke of midnight come and go. That was the problem with quartz watches, Rex always said. They tended to lose a few seconds every day.



"You are so dead! If you don't open this door in five seconds, I'm going to scream."



Five seconds should be fine, Jessica thought.



"One, two, thr - "



The familiar shudder came, a ripple in the wooden solidity of the floor beneath her feet and the door against her shoulder, a simultaneous choking off of little sister and moaning Oklahoma wind. A distortion passed through the room, leaving everything still and flat and lit from within by a soft blue glow.



Jessica sighed. The coming scream was almost certainly unavoidable, and her parents might have already heard the ruckus. But it was Beth who had invaded her room, after all, refusing to leave. In any case, explanations and recriminations were all on the other side of midnight.



She left the closet door closed, unable to imagine a worse sight than a frozen prescream Beth face, deathly pale and furious. Arming herself with Explosiveness and Demonstration and pulling on her sneakers, Jessica unlocked and opened a window, swinging one leg across the sill.



Looking back at the room, she was momentarily proud of herself for resisting the temptation to tell secrets. She had done the adult thing and protected Beth from the truth. Maybe she would even apologize when her little sister emerged from the closet.



"See you in an hour, sweetie," Jessica called, and dropped to the ground outside.



14



12:00 a.m.



ACARICIANDOTE



"There!" Jessica pointed with her free hand, the motion sending the two of them into a slow spin.



Jonathan looked down. "I can't see Rex and Melissa anywhere."



"Me either. Just the car. Kind of hard to miss it."



Jonathan laughed. "Must take some kind of mindcaster voodoo, keeping an old piece of crap like that running."



He tugged her closer, taking her free hand in his. Their drifting rotation slowed as they descended, somehow canceled out by his motion. A flash of annoyance went through Jessica. That equal-and-opposite-reaction thing again. Jonathan understood it automatically, though that particular law of motion always seemed to leave her adrift.



Her irritation passed quickly, though. The moment felt too good to stay angry - falling like this, her head resting against his chest. She closed her eyes, sensing when they were about to land from the tightening of his muscles. Their legs intertwined for a moment as the ground caught them, knees bending and bodies pressing against each other for support.



They jumped again, Jessica following Jonathan's lead, keeping both of his hands in hers. She opened her eyes: the leap had been just high enough to clear the house between their last landing and the parked Ford.



As they reached the peak, he said, "You seem better tonight."



"Better than what?"



"This afternoon."



"Oh, that." There'd been a lot to digest, what with Darkling Manor and the half-being and something convoluted about Dess thinking that Rex and Melissa were... touching. "It's just been a long week, that's all."



"It's Monday night, Jess."



"My point exactly. But yeah, I am better now." Things were always better with Jonathan in the secret hour. "Anyway, it's officially partly Tuesday."



They landed in the street near the car, Jonathan's clothes billowing a little as they corkscrewed down to a dead halt.



"Hey! I just realized... you're wearing a jacket!" She stepped back to look at him in surprise, normal weight settling across her.



Jonathan shrugged. "In case I have to walk home. You know, if we find the stalker or something and I wind up following him."



She smiled, looking into his eyes. Every night he was here, ready to protect her. Taking his hand once more, weightlessness rose in her like laughter.



"Jonathan, you don't have to walk home. If you ever get stranded here in town again..." She turned half away. "It's crazy to freeze to death. Just knock on my window next time."



"Your parents would freak."



"They won't know you're there."



He laughed. "So you'll hide me in your closet all night?" Jessica's smile faded and she let out a groan. "Actually, my closet's kind of... busy right now. Long story." She dropped his hand and sighed. With Beth acting the way she was, Jessica was about as likely to get away with hiding Jonathan in her room as she would Melissa's car.



The rusting Ford looked even more broken-down than usual tonight. One of the hubcaps was missing. "Where are they, anyway?"



"They probably haven't gone too far." He glanced at his watch. "Not in eleven minutes. Your closet's busy?"



She sighed again. "You don't have a little sister, do you?"



"No. But what's that - ?"



"Hey!" Rex's voice called to them from across the street. He and Melissa emerged from behind a row of bushes, their black clothes almost invisible in the deep blues of midnight.



Jessica's eyes widened. The two were holding hands, swinging them like ten-year-olds on a playdate. Melissa was wearing gloves, of course, but the sight of the mindcaster in casual contact with another human being was shocking. And she was actually smiling.



Jessica dared a quick glance at Jonathan.



"Ix-nay on the inking-thay," he said softly, then called, "Find something?"



Rex shook his head. "Not a whiff. We've been driving around here since just after ten."



"Nothing on the air but TV drones and wet dreams," Melissa said.



"Oh," Jessica murmured. "Thanks for sharing."



Melissa giggled. Which was also a new and scary development.



"Looks like my grand theft domino has things on hold for the moment," Rex said.



Jessica frowned. Leave it to Rex to be convinced the threat was over because he had his hands on the flamebringer domino. It figured. That was the way he saw the world: control the symbols, control everything.



"I wouldn't be so sure," Jonathan said. "All we really know is that they're not hanging around tonight. And anyway, midnight's not the natural time for them to pull something. If they really wanted to hurt one of us, wouldn't they do it in the middle of the day?"



"True." A thoughtful look crossed Rex's face. "And with Jessica, they're probably expecting her to come to them. An invitation to a party, maybe."



Jessica frowned. "What are you talking about?"



Rex looked at Jonathan. "You haven't told her?"



Jonathan looked down sheepishly. "Oh, Dess mentioned that to you guys?"



"Of course she did. Right away."



"Mentioned what?" Jessica cried.



Jonathan's dark eyes widened as he turned toward her. "Well, there was a lot of stuff to get through in one car ride. I was dumping so much on you already. Once I got you away from school, I figured you'd be safe until I told you tonight."



"Told me what? Safe from what?"



"Well, Dess and I found out who owns Darkling Manor. There was a gas bill in the mailbox." He swallowed. "It was addressed to Ernesto Grayfoot."



Jessica blinked, dizziness welling up in her. "It must be a coincidence."



'It's not exactly a common name, Jess," Jonathan said. "And this is an awfully small town."



"You don't know that they're related," she insisted, her voice hollow in her ears. Constanza was her only normal friend in town... She couldn't be one of the darkling groupies.



"I only found one Grayfoot in the Bixby phone book," Rex said. "It's the number for Ernesto out at Darkling Manor. But the place is empty. Constanza's dad must be unlisted."



"So maybe Ernesto's from out of town!" Jessica cried. "From the other side of the country!"



"Or maybe he's Constanza's older brother."



"She doesn't have one." Jessica paused, suddenly unsure. When she'd spent the night at Constanza's house, she hadn't met any siblings, but a much older brother who lived somewhere else might not have been mentioned. And it surely was just a coincidence that she'd run into Jessica in the parking lot and then offered her a ride home...



"Jess." Jonathan took her hand, but she pulled away. "We're not saying that Constanza's one of them. Just that you should ask her about her family. Find out what you can."



"We need to find Ernesto," Rex said. "Melissa needs another crack at that woman we saw at Darkling Manor. She has some kind of plans in her head, about something being constructed out in the desert."



Jonathan spoke softly. "Just tell Constanza you're doing a report or something."



"I've seen the name going back generations, even before the oil boom," Rex said. "If you say you're working on local history, it'll make sense to her."



"But it won't make sense to me," Jessica cried. "I don't want to use her. Constanza's my only friend..."



There was an awkward moment's silence.



"I mean, besides you guys," she added lamely.



Rex and Jonathan just looked at her. She tried to make her mouth work, to come up with something that would change what she'd said.



"We're your only friends, Jessica."



The three of them stared at Melissa, unable to believe that she'd really said the words. Even Rex was struck speechless.



"We're the only ones who know how the real world is," Melissa continued. "I mean, Rex and I barely made it out of Las Colonias. When you first got here, almost getting killed was a nightly thing." She snorted, a measure of her usual contempt returning. "You think Constanza Grayfoot's ever faced anything like that? Ever had a darkling come after her?" She turned away. "So we understand you like nobody else. We're your friends."



Jessica's eyes fell to the street, where windblown leaves hovered a few inches above the asphalt. "I didn't mean you guys weren't my friends," she said softly.



"Don't sweat it," Melissa said. "Rex and I will look into this. Maybe follow her around after school lets out, do some mind reading."



"Sure," Rex added. "No problem."



"Thanks," Jessica said. "And yeah, I'll talk to her."



"I wish you'd told me this afternoon."



Jonathan didn't respond.



"It's just that I might not have been such a bitch in front of them if I'd already had time to think about it," she explained.



"I'm sorry," he said flatly. "For the tenth time."



Jessica sighed. The way she felt, she wouldn't have minded another ten. Not that it was his fault totally. Anyone who managed to look like a selfish, immature bitch diva next to Melissa had to take some of the credit herself.



They sat together on the gravel roof of the Bixby Shop Mart, surrounded by the black shapes of exhaust vents and industrial air conditioners.



"I just don't know what to do," Jonathan said, finally breaking the silence.



"About what?"



"About you. For you, I mean." He picked up a rock and threw it out over the empty parking lot. After it left his hand, it slowed gradually, as if falling through an invisible foam in the air. The rock finally came to a halt, joining the floating galaxy of gravel he had tossed out across the asphalt plain. Jonathan was different than the rest of them when it came to gravity. Something about time and space warping... something about physics.



She sighed again. "I still don't understand."



Jonathan threw another rock. "I mean, it was one thing when it was darklings. I could help you with that. I could fly you away. But this time the bad guys come from Flatland."



"Come from where?"



He frowned. "I thought you had Sanchez for trig. He makes all his advanced classes read this book, Flatland."



"Oh, wait," she said. "Dess showed it to me. Flatland's this two-dimensional world, right? Where everyone's a triangle or a square, and this three-D sphere guy shows up." She threw a rock of her own, which soared through the others and crashed to the ground, skittering across the parking lot. "It failed to improve my understanding of trigonometry."



"That's the one," Jonathan said. "So when I'm in normal gravity and I can't fly, can't jump, can't see the angles..."