Shadows and Light Prologue (original)

Mark walked into the old neighborhood, looking around nervously. Mom was gonna kill him if she knew he’d actually skipped the bus to walk through here.

But everyone knew that if you had to do it, go through the Empty Neighborhood, to show you weren’t scared. And he was ten, and not scared. Not like Greg said, but Greg just played video games all night, and talked about all the fun he had. Mom said that Greg needed to get out more and his parents needed to put some limits on him.

Which is why Mark wasn’t allowed to play WOW. 

But he was gonna do something real.

The Empty Neighborhood had been empty for as long as anyone knew. Mark had looked it up on the internet, and the story was that there had been a fire in the orphanage, and after that, nobody had wanted to live there. Then there were other stories about how toxic waste had been found, and the city just bought the neighborhood up.

Mark knew better. Like Judy said. It was because of the ghosts.  Judy lived in one of the apartment buildings where you could see down into the Empty neighborhood, and she said that sometimes there’d be a fog there, or you could see glowing lights at night.

Mom said those were just homeless people and reminded Mark not to be too imaginative, but everyone knew the homeless didn’t live in the Empty Neighborhood. Nobody did.

Mark got his phone ready. Everyone at school wouldn’t believe him unless he had a recording of walking to the old burned out orphanage. Going there on the anniversary of the fire!

The NO TRESSPASSING signs were up, the fence blocking off every road and path, but Mark knew where there was a little gap. Where you could go in. Judy had gone there once, but Judy had just gone in the middle of the day. Not dusk. Not in winter when the sun went down before five. He stopped at the sign, looked around. The sky was already turning red from the sunset, the lights of the LA area cities gleaming in the sky. 

But here there were just old warehouses and empty apartment buildings. Not even the apartments on the other side of the road looked over here. Their windows were dark, because nobody stayed there, or had the drapes drawn.

Nobody would see Mark get in. So he walked to the sign and pulled it on the corner where the bolts had rusted, and there it was, the opening. He scrambled through and moments later, the street was empty.

Inside, Mark pulled out his flashlight. Nobody could see it from the street, and he didn’t want to trip over something.  The bright light flashed out and he could see all the junk on the street. To each side the abandoned apartment buildings closed out the darkening sky, the windows and little inset balconies darker against the stained brick walls.

Some of them had been burned, by homeless people or vandals and Mark saw the soot around those rooms, while one of the apartments, further down was just a burned out wreck.

But that didn’t matter. He knew where the orphanage was. The center of the neighborhood. Mark kept walking. Just down this little street, then the tiny park that was all overgrown, then across the next street, and then it’d be there. He’d take some pictures and go out.

Mark wasn’t gonna go in the orphanage. Not that it was haunted.  No, something might fall on him. So he’d just take a picture out in front of it. That’d be enough.

Mark walked, and the air got a little cooler.

He stopped once, hearing a clanging sound behind him. Mark turned around, and there was only the street, the abandoned buildings, and the lights of the city. And a little bit of mist.

“It was just a cat. I’ll be out in a few minutes,” Mark said. He kept walking.

Just a few minutes.

*****

A few minutes later, and Mark didn’t know where he was. He’d walked to the park in the daylight. It was here! But he’d walked to the end of the street, and there wasn’t the old wrought iron fence. It was a brick wall and above it another abandoned apartment building.

Mark stared. This couldn’t… He turned around and looked and now the fog was rising, cooler than it had been, the coils of mist rising up and seeming to deaden the distant sounds of the city.

Okay, I’m going home.  He took a quick picture of the apartment building. That’d have to be enough. He turned and walked back down the street to the fence where he’d come in.

Something clanged behind him. Another cat. Sure. Had to be. He started walking faster and then came through the fog to…

A brick wall? Mark shook his head. No way. No way. He hadn’t been right here!  More clanging sounds came from behind him. Mark turned and looked back and there were… things behind him. He couldn’t see for certain but they looked like hooded…things in the fog behind him. He took a quick picture with his phone, but then stuck it into his pocket.

“Judy? Are you here? This is a joke, right?”  Mark stepped back and then turned and ran down a little alley.  Being him he heard more clanging. And singing. 

Come with us, play with us, stay with us forever…

He ran, and there was a junction at the end of the alleyway, and the fog was getting worse. Mark turned and ran but even this neighborhood couldn’t be that big!  He turned again, only this alley was tight, you couldn’t even see the sky from the way the buildings. But that didn’t make sense. He’d been here in the day time and there wasn’t any place like this.

He turned down another corner and tripped over an old, rusted tricycle.  Mark staggered to his feet and then the tricycle started moving towards him, like something he couldn’t see was peddling it. He backed off and grabbed his phone again, not caring about the picture. Mom would come and get him…

      NO SIGNAL.

Mark called 911. He’d be in so much trouble but—

      NO SIGNAL.  

“No, no no!” Mark said. The air was getting hot, and there was something, a smell like ham the one time Mom had bunred it.

Come with us, play with us, burn with us…

Mark was crying now, and he’d never come here again, but he had to get out. He kept running and behind him there were things he didn’t dare look at, but there was nothing in front of him but darkness, and the fog was…

There was a light in it?  The street. Mark could run for the street, and he’d be out and even if Mom grounded him forever he’d be safe—he pelted out of the strange, tight passageway, falling down, skinning his knees and hands, phone skittering away from him…

And in front of him was the orphanage, not burned out, not dark, but blazing with light, looking like it was brand new, and around it the streets were lit up and there were stalls and people… But something looped around his leg and started pulling him back into the alley—

“HELP!” Mark cried out.

And suddenly there was a girl wearing some old-fashioned cheerleader’s outfit, holding her hand out, a bright blow coming from it. “He’s not for you.” She said, and seconds later, the fog was gone.

“Oh…Please, I wanna go home—“

“Hey, it’s okay,” the girl said. She looked like she was about as old as big sis. “You’re fine. You’re okay.” She paused.”How’d you get here?”

Mark told her. She rolled her eyes.

“Really? People are still doing truth or dare? Not a wise thing. Especially not on the anniversaries of great tragedies. Sometimes the walls can be a little…thin.”

“Thin?”

“Not all dead rest easy, Mark. Some are kind, some are angry and some… some are hungry.”

“Am I dead?”

“No! You’re a kid!” she said, and laughed. “Don’t worry about what I said. Let’s get some food.”

They walked up to a stall where someone was making hot dogs.

“What do I pay?”

“Nothing.” She said. “Just a little meal. No obligation, either.”

Mark thought that sounded strange. “But how did… I knew how to get here, and everything was—“

“Shhh… Eat your hotdog.”

Mark did, and it was… really good along with some coke.

“Can I get a picture?” Mark said. “I mean… you help and—“

“Sure! You’ll have to take it…”

“I can set it on delay!” Mark said and propped the camera up against a wall and the girl and he stood in time for the flash. Mark blinked. She looked… transparent for a second.

“Who are all these people?” Mark asked, as someone in a pink leotard thing went skating by.

“People who have nowhere else to go. Can’t go up, can’t go down, not until their work is done,” the girl said.

“Oh, you rhymed!”

“So I did.” She smiled at him. “But it’s time to go back. Mark… I don’t think you should come back here after dark. Some people… aren’t nice and I think you’re gonna be in big enough trouble as it is.”

“But I can go back and just say I’m late…” Mark yawned and the girl made a funny gesture.

“You’re gonna be a little more late then that….” she said. And Mark yawned again, and suddenly was just so tired as the laughter and fun around him seemed to fade out, the girl carrying him, which was weird because he wasn’t big, but she wasn’t that big either and big sis couldn’t carry him…

*****

Someone was shaking him. Mark opened his eyes. The sun was up, and… He shot up, looking at the two cops looking down at him. “You okay?”

“I—“ It’s tomorrow! I’m in so much trouble—Above them, a helicopter whirred overhead and he heard a bellowing voice. “MARK LANGSFORD IS TEN YEARS OF AGE, WITH BROWN HAIR, WEARING A WHITE t-SHIRT AND JEANS, IF YOU SEE HIM, CONTACT THE LAPD…”

“You can call off the search, we found him… good Samaritan nowhere in sight.” One officer said. “Hey kid, did you see who called on your phone?”  Mark blinked, looking down at his phone. “I… I don’t know. I was in there-you know, to show that I wasn’t scare—“ Mark fell silent.

“Kid that isn’t safe,” One officer said. “Lots of stuff that can fall and kill you, and it’s an environmental hazard for a reason. City’s gonna have to come back and fix the fence. They should know a chainlink fence isn’t gonna do it…”

“Are Mom and Dad…”

“Yeah, they’re terrified. Don’t worry, we’ll get you to them right away.”

Mark wasn’t worried about that. What would Mom and Dad say when they got over being terrified?

But there was nothing to do, so he went with officers.

*****

Later, Mark sat in his bedroom, waiting for Mom and Dad to decide how long his grounding would last. Dad was holding out for the next century, and Mom wanted to the heat death of the universe.

He looked at his phone. There were pictures there. Walls, alleys. One picture of nothing but fog…

And the last picture. Mark looking at the camera holding a hotdog with… the girl. Only she did look…

A little transparent.  Mark rolled over and went to the computer. Mom and Dad would probably ground him from using it, but he… did a search of cheerleader uniforms.

And a few moments later, he found the answer and stared.

1952 McConnel Prep Academy Cheerleader uniform. There was a picture of the team. Black and white.

And in center front, was the team captain.

The girl who had eaten a hotdog with him.

Can’t go up, can’t go down, not until their work is done.

Mark swallowed and turned the computer off. He’d find out more later. Or maybe he’d just forget about it and take his grounding.

End prologue.