Without a Shadow - Julie Steimle (best books under 200 pages .txt) 📗

out to her. I felt her fingers in mine, but I was only looking at the ground to where my shadow should be. It reappeared almost instantly. I swallowed.

“Wow!” Jane seemed to be short on something eloquent to say. I glanced up at her. She was staring at the place where my shadow should be, halfway laughing. She looked up at my face and said, “Do that again!”

Shrugging, I let go of her hand. We did this several times to see if our mutual silent theory was correct—and it was. My shadow existed only when I was touching someone. Jane took it in stride, laughing as if it was the funniest thing, so immediately I dragged Jane by the arm into the locker room into the bathroom area. There I was, in the mirror, standing next to my friend. I took in a deep breath, somewhat relieved. Then I let go of her hand. At first Jane seemed puzzled—that is, until she saw what happened when I let go of her.

Maybe I was hasty, but I had to have an ally in my distress. When she saw me vanish from the mirror, she turned to see if I was still there. Her eyes were no longer smiling in a laugh. That laugh had frozen into a gape that would not shut, and her eyes widened in fear. I could hear it in her voice as she spoke, as well as the new echoing pounding of her heart in her chest.

“Eve…could it be possible that you are a…” Jane bit her lip and stepped back from me. “…A vampire?”

I blinked dumbly at her. Reaching out, I took a hold of her hand. My reflection returned. “I really don’t know. Except…well, don’t vampires vaporize in sunlight? I just sunburn. And I could have sworn they had shadows. And what about all these little guys I keep seeing? What does that have to do with vampires?”

“What little guys?” Jane murmured, staring at me.

That would be the cue for the imps around her head to flee. But they didn’t appear very smart, and they continued to float around Jane’s head, telling her to call me a monster—or crazy. Since I had no choice, I snatched one and lifted it up for her to see. “These imps.”

Jane yelped and jumped back like Mr. McDillan had, but luckily she kept her senses.

“What is that?” Jane shouted, pointing like I was holding a tarantula in my hands.

I shrugged. “Mr. McDillan called it a bloody vicious imp—but I think we can leave off the adjectives and just call it an imp.”

“Where did it come from?” Jane stepped closer to me to take a better look.

Seeing that she was not so scared now (or faking it real good) I dangled the screaming thing and said, “It was flying around your head.”

Jane ducked, looking around herself.

“No one else can see them but me,” I continued.

My friend stared at me again. She took a step back and then tilted her head to look at me with one eye. “You have been changing recently. Going nocturnal, waking up late…. Maybe you’re going through some kind of strange puberty having to do with your sickness.”

I stared at her. “I’m not that sick.”

She winced, turning away. “I know. Bad explanation. Maybe your parents know what’s going on.”

I shook my head, lowering the creature in my hand and staring at the sinks. “No. My mother freaked this morning when I told her why I was up so late last night.”

“Why was that again?” Jane asked, still keeping her distance.

Chances were, I knew then, that I could lose my best friend. If I lied, I could lose her. If I told the truth, I probably would lose her too. I had to say something, though. I chose the truth.

“Lately, I’ve been feeling that something is coming—something important. I can’t sleep—so I stare at the moon. Usually looking at the moon soothes me so I can sleep. I don’t know why. But last night I just stared at the moon three hours straight.” I paused and glanced at the hesitant expression on her face. “Jane, I don’t know what’s happening to me, but I’m starting to get scared.”

“Starting to?” Jane murmured. She shook her head, “Heavens…Eve, if it were me, I’d be terrified.”

I shrugged. Things never scared me half as much as other people. I found horror flicks stupid and not worth my time. I preferred comedies.

“Halloween is tomorrow,” Jane said under her breath. She looked up at me. “I never believed in witches, ghosts, and all that stuff. But looking at you, I am starting to wonder.”

I moaned. “I just want to finish this day. Jane, look at me. Do you really think I am becoming a monster?”

Jane went silent. Even her imps stared at me with clammed up mouths for a few seconds before calling me a freak. Glancing at her shoes, Jane at last spoke.

“Eve, I think…I think I don’t know what is happening. You aren’t craving blood, right?”

I nodded firmly. “The thought of it disgusts me.”

A small smile escaped her lips. “And you have no wish to hurt anyone, right?”

I nodded again, trying my hardest to show her that I wouldn’t even step on a cockroach if I could (though to be quite frank, cockroaches are pretty gross). “You know I hate violence.”

Jane gained strength from that. “I do.”

She reached out and put her arm around my shoulder. “Then what are we worried about? Ignore those budgies flying around. No one else can see them anyway, right?”

I nodded in the affirmative.

“Fantastic.” She smiled at me. “Now all you have to do is avoid standing in front of a mirror without touching anyone.”

“The same with shadows,” I murmured.

She grinned. “Very few people will notice that you don’t have a shadow. The reflection thing is freakier—especially with how sharp your teeth have been looking lately.”

I froze. “What did you say?”

Jane paused and blinked at me. “What? Haven’t you noticed? Your teeth. Your canines look like fangs. I didn’t want to mention it because—”

But I fainted again. Jane revived me and set me on a toilet with my head between my legs. It was one thing to lose a shadow, another to lose a reflection, to see imps and all that—but growing fangs was proof enough that I was becoming something truly horrific.

I asked Jane to take me back to the nurse’s, but when we got there we discovered that the nurse was out. The sign on her door said she had gone home due to illness. I had to go to sixth period instead.

 

Mrs. O’Flannery rattled on, swinging her frilly skirt from side to side as she demonstrated how to make an angel food cake for our next baking project in cooking class—plenty of distraction from listening to imps telling Carl to set fire to his handouts on the gas stove, or to the screeching imp telling Jill to steal a few pieces of the baker’s chocolate. I tried to crack my eggs into the bowl, catching in the corner of my eye the flames of the paper and the hysterical scrambling as my teacher used the fire extinguisher to put it out. The sound of Jill choking as silently as possible as she gagged on the very bitter dark chocolate chunk she had caught in her throat sent giggles of success through the little demons. I just whipped those eggs and continued on, hoping and praying that I’d be able to finish school without any more blow-ups.

Seventh period was boring Math. Enough said.

 

A Walk Home and Conversation

 

I walked home with Jane, slightly leaning onto her shoulder and then her arm for security so that no one would see that I didn’t have a shadow. I tried not to open my mouth too big so no one would see my canine teeth had grown long and pointy. Jane provided all the conversation anyway, chatting about our planned costumes for tomorrow.

“So…I think we can make the costumes tonight.” She gazed at my attempt to pay attention and smiled. “If you ask your mom if you can spend the night, we can finish them up before tomorrow. What do you think?”

“My mom won’t go for it,” I said, speaking at last. “I told you she doesn’t like me wearing anything creepy. We can’t go as a witch and a black cat. Last year I was Snow White.”

Jane huffed. “Oh, really, Eve. I think it is about time you dressed how you wanted. We’re in high school now. Most girls dress up in something out of a Playboy catalog. Your mom should be happy you want to be fully dressed.”

I couldn’t help snickering. Having a name like Eve often made me the recipient of several off-color remarks, especially when it came to Halloween costumes. “All the same, Jane, do you actually think we can convince my mother to let me be a black cat? I might as well go as a vampire—”

But I stopped. Jane’s arm stiffened, and I heard her heart jump up a pace.

“Don’t say that,” Jane whispered.

I realized she was right, and I gave up. We parted at her home, and as I walked the rest of the way to my house, I tried to think of the nest way ask if I could stay over at my friend’s.

A Discussion About Costumes

 

“Completely out of the question. It’s a school night!” My mother’s voice had not toned down from this morning. She was eyeing me and shaking her head.

“But Jane and I were going to dress up as a pair this year.” I had to at least try to win this fight. However, now that I could see and hear the imps at my mother’s ear, I could hear all that was being suggested to her: “Ground her.” “Send her to her room.” “Slap her.” “She’s being so spoiled, tell her.”

My mother was never cruel to me. She had always spoken kindly. Even now she waved aside all the remarks and spoke as calmly as a loving mother filled with frustration could. “Eve, I am concerned about you. I spoke with your father, and he feels that maybe you should stay in on Halloween this year.”

“Stay in on Halloween?” I blinked at her, not believing what I had just heard.

Her imps shouted more rude remarks, also calling me a freak, a monster, and (wouldn’t you believe it) a vampire. I had learned something about imps that day. They always pry at a person at their weakest