know, but he turned back toward the center of the room, ran his fingers through his hair and began to pace.
“These people,” he said. “Tell me about them.”
To the best of my ability, I described in intimate detail the scene that had terrorized me in the garage. Derek’s expression grew darker and darker the longer I talked. When I reached my conclusion, starring Derek as my rescuer, a black thundercloud had settled over his face.
“What does it mean?”
“That’s why he wanted me to find you,” Derek said absently, speaking more to himself than to me.
“Who?” He resumed his pacing, as if I hadn’t spoken. “Who, Derek?” Still he ignored me. I got up from the couch and stepped in front of him. “Who?”
“Who what?”
“Who wanted you to find me?”
“Fahl.”
Dread curled its icy fingers around my stomach. I could remember the smell of him, Fahl, and the way he made me feel, as if he’d just left the room. It was etched permanently onto my mind. “What does he want with me?”
“That’s the million dollar question.”
It took a few seconds for what he’d said to sink in. When it did, it brought anger with it. “Then why did you do it? Why did you lead him to me? What if he wants to kill me or something?”
“He doesn’t want to kill you, Carson. Anyway, I had no choice.”
“There’s always a choice,” I spat, remembering another of the many wisdoms my father had drilled into my head.
“Not always.”
“And why is that?”
“It’s a long story,” Derek said dismissively, walking around me to continue pacing.
You should be glad that I gave you this assignment rather than keeping you…with me, I remembered Fahl saying to Derek.
“What? Do you- do you work for him?”
“I guess you could say that,” he said distractedly, still pacing, deep in thought. “I needed him to do something for me and this is what he wanted in return.”
The pacing was driving me crazy. “Derek! Stop!”
“What, Carson?” His temper flared as quickly as mine had. “I’m trying to think,” he growled.
“Well, I need some answers. I’m kind of freaking out here.”
“I don’t have many answers for you. Not right now at least. There’s a lot I don’t know either, okay?” His patience had obviously come to an end.
We stared each other down, neither of us ready to budge an inch. After several minutes, I realized that I wanted, needed, more answers and we were getting nowhere fast this way. So, grudgingly, I tamped down my anger as deep as it would go and I began again.
“Alright, look. Let’s start over,” I suggested agreeably. “Would you please tell me about this man and this place? Maybe knowing more about all this will help me make sense of what I’ve seen, of what’s happening to me.”
Derek glared at me, but I could see his temper fading as he considered my proposition. After a put-upon sigh, he said, “Alright. What do you want to know?”
“Who’s Fahl?”
“I don’t really know,” he said. I puffed up instantly, certain he was just being difficult. Seeing my reaction, he merely raised one dark brow then continued, in no hurry to assuage my curiosity. “I don’t know if anyone does. He’s a very powerful man over there, maybe the most powerful. I mean every hell has a devil, right?”
“Over where?”
“Carson,” he began, his tone laced with frustration. “Do you know how hard this is to explain?” I said nothing. Running his fingers through his hair again, another gesture of frustration, he continued. I was grateful he was at least willing to try. “I call it the Darkness. I think different people call it different things, have for thousands of years—Purgatory, Limbo, the Chasm, Misery, a parallel universe. Whatever you call it, it’s the place that’s all around what we can see and touch in this world. It hovers in the dark, always just outside human reach and perception. But it’s real.” He paused. “And it’s evil,” he said grimly.
“How do you get there?”
“I was called, summoned, just like I think you might be one day. There’s no other way. At least not that I’ve found,” he answered then paused. “Yet,” he added emphatically.
“Called? By whom?”
“Fahl.”
“To do what?”
“To make good on your deal.”
“What deal?”
“I told you before, people make different deals, have for…forever I guess.”
“But I told you I didn’t make any deals. What does he want with me?”
“And I told you that maybe you didn’t make a deal, but somebody did. Probably one of your parents. Not just anyone can