Blocked
© Joshua Scribner
A scream brought Alicia from sleep, but she kept her eyes closed.
“It was just a dream,” she whispered. “It was just a dream.”
The bed did not move, so she knew Troy had not heard the scream and awoken.
“He didn't hear it, because it wasn't real.”
She brought up the memory of the amusement park they'd visited last week, going down the waterslide in a double tube, eating waffle cones by the fish pond. She felt the cool excitement and knew things would be fine.
She opened her eyes and then gasped when she saw a shadow standing in the doorway. She hoped it would just disappear. It did not. Instead, it left her view by moving in a very human fashion into the hall.
She thought that her gasp should have woken Troy.
“Don't try to wake him up,” she whispered to herself.
Why had she not taken her cell phone to bed? She was becoming too careless, too confident, and now the man she had fallen in love with might have paid the price.
“He's fine. He's just sleeping.”
He was sleeping very quietly, though, and when they'd slept at her house, he'd always snored.
“He's just more comfortable here, in his house, with his kids safely nearby, so he's sleeping much deeper. That's all.”
His kids. She had to move.
She found the impetus to get up and walk across the floor. She moved into the hall to find one of the bedroom doors open. She peeped inside the room of his oldest daughter. The shadow was there. She closed her eyes and brought up a childhood memory, her father pushing her on the tire swing, her mother laughing nearby. She felt the cool excitement in her stomach, allowed this positive emotion to flow out, allowed it to leave her body, where she continued to expand it. She opened her eyes. The shadow should have been gone, but it was not.
She considered entering the room, trying to help the girl in some physical way, but knew better. She moved down the hall. She saw the next door was open, the door into to the room of his youngest daughter. Inside, another shadow danced and waved for her to come in.
“You're powerless,” she said, but heard the weakness of her voice and doubted herself.
She closed her eyes and saw the day her niece was born, felt the baby's warmth in her arms, felt it grip her finger. The cool excitement formed, and she spread it outside of her, through the walls of the house, and beyond. She then brought it back. It should have been magnified, but it was not.
She opened her eyes and moved through the dining area and into the kitchen, where she found her cell phone on the counter. She hit two buttons and placed the phone to her ear.
Liza answered on the fourth ring.
“What wrong, Alicia?” she asked in a concerned voice.
“There's darkness here, and I don't understand it.”
“Have you used positive energy?”
“Of course.”
Have you expanded it outward?
“Yes.”
“And it did not cause the darkness to leave?”
“No.”
“Did you try bringing it back after expanding it?”
“Yes, but it wasn't magnified.”
There were a few seconds of silence and then Liza asked, “Have you confirmed anything? I mean, have you actually checked anybody's condition?”
She had resisted checking Troy and then resisted checking the two girls. “No.”
“Good, you've learned it's nearly impossible to bring back the dead if you have confirmed them dead.”
As if on cue, a shadow floated into the dining room. It waved for her to come.
“This man you've been seeing. It's your first night at his home, correct?”
“Yes. We wanted to wait until his kids got to know me better.”
“There were no ominous feelings, nothing foreboding that you associated with him?”
“No, none just before I met him, none with him, and none when I first entered his home.”
The shadow was moving closer, and Alicia was backing into a corner.
“Were you asleep when the darkness came?”
“Yes.”
“Do you remember your dreams?”
“Yes. They were only good memories, and then I heard the scream.”
Another shadow had joined the other, and both were pointing for her to return to the hall.
“Are you sure there's nothing negative you can remember?”
“No! Just fix this!”
Her phone beeped, and she immediately regretted yelling at Liza. She heard whimpering.
“No! Please don't!”
She realized it was coming from one of the girls' rooms. She couldn't see the shadows now, but she knew they were there. Though she knew better, she couldn't resist the urge to move toward the frightened child. She wished the child's father would wake up; she so hoped he could wake up. She was about to turn into the room, when a shaking stopped her in her tracks. At first, she thought she had somehow been electrocuted, but then she realized it was the phone in her hand vibrating.
She answered it, still standing in the hall.
“Hello.”
“Hello, Alicia. I've located the source of the problem. You're positive vibes couldn't be propagated into the sky because of negativity outside. The good spirits can't see you right now.”
“Okay.”
Her phone beeped.
“Please help me, Daddy!”
She backed away from the room and the helpless child. She moved into the living room and located the light switch. She turned on the outside light and opened the front door. She stepped out onto the porch and gasped at what she saw.
What she saw wasn't so terrible, but she hadn't expected them to be there and to be staring at her. She went back inside. She could still hear the little girl crying.
She went into the kitchen, where she opened the pantry and found what she needed. She returned to the porch and slung slices of bread onto the front yard. The birds, a mixture of crows, jays, finches, and various others, all came to the ground to accept the gift.
She closed her eyes and remembered when Troy had first kissed her. She expanded the good emotions from her body and into the sky. She brought them back and felt the rapturous emotions caused by magnification. She opened her eyes and walked back inside.
The hall light came on, and she heard rapid steps. By the time she made it to the little girl's bedroom, she saw that light had been turned on too. The little girl was in her father's arms.
Troy looked at Alicia and smiled. “Just a nightmare.”
“Oh no,” she said, trying to act sympathetic, when she was actually relieved.
He smirked. “Look, honey. We're safe now. Alicia's got her lucky phone. It doesn't really work, but it'll keep us safe.”
She didn't mind him teasing her about something he was clueless to. She did have a question, though.
“I noticed the empty birdfeeders outside. Where do you keep the seed?”
Joshua Scribner is the author of the novels The Coma Lights and Nescata . He has published over thirty short stories. Up to date information on his work can be found at joshuascribner.com.