Page 54 of Book of Night
“Now, can either of you tell me what you observed that made you believe your shadow might have been affected by the experience?”
“It moved weirdly,” Posey said. “Not like she was controlling it or anything, but weird.”
He turned to Charlie. “Did you feed it blood?”
“I was cut up that night,” she said. “And then, in the bathroom today I picked off a scab. So I don’t know. Maybe.”
Posey looked betrayed to be hearing this for the first time, but considering that none of this would be happening if she hadn’t betrayed Charlie’s confidence, Charlie refused to feel bad about it.
“Would you be willing to prick your finger now?” Malhar asked. “In front of the camera.”
“Sure.” Charlie picked up the lancet and opened the package. She jabbed the tip into her finger and watched a sudden bead of red appear.
All of them watched in silence. Nothing happened. Finally Charlie licked her finger. “Okay, that didn’t work. Are we done?”
She wasn’t sure how to feel. She didn’t think she’d like to be a gloamist, but it still felt like failing a test.
“Can you try to make it move?” Malhar asked, although he must have known it was useless.
Charlie concentrated. She was at least a little bit ambidextrous, but her brain didn’t feel particularly bifurcated.
“Are you trying?” Posey asked.
Charlie gave her sister a look.
“Okay, last one,” Malhar said. He turned on the lights.
The first sent her shadow towering against the wall to her left.
Then the second came on. That ought to have doubled it, and yet it did nothing at all.
Charlie stared, unwilling to believe what she was seeing. “Is it…?”
Malhar nodded, and when he spoke, his voice was hushed. “You have a quickening shadow. It’s not fully there yet, but a day or two more of feeding it blood and it will be. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one at this stage.”
Charlie stared at her own shadow towering over her, her heart speeding. It was a part of her, she knew, but she couldn’t help being a little afraid of it. “What do I do?”
“You could stop feeding it,” Malhar said. “It would settle.”
She nodded.
“But you wouldn’t do that,” said Posey, as though the option itself was an insult.
Charlie took the neglected third cup and drank some more lukewarm watery coffee.
“Or you could become a gloamist.” Malhar started breaking down the lights with a grin. “Some people are uncomfortable with the idea of quickened shadows. There are even fringe groups that believe we’re being deceived as to their nature.”
Posey snorted. “He’s talking about the people who think the shadows aredemons.”
He nodded. “Or aliens. They think our minds are misinterpreting what our eyes are seeing, because the truth is too horrible for the human mind to comprehend.”
“But Charlie’s not crazy,” Posey said.
Charlie wasn’t too sure about that. “Okay, so whatarequickened shadows?”
“Theoretically?” Malhar cautioned. “You’ve probably heard of darkmatter: the stuff that’s keeping gravity from ripping our galaxy apart. It has to be there, or all the other mathematical calculations fall apart, but no one can prove it. And, well, darkenergyis even more theoretical than that.
“Dark energy was used to explain ghosts, but is better suited to shadows. In some way, you could consider them ghosts of the living. And just like ghosts seem to be echoes of traumatic events, aphotic shadows are said to be formed out of trauma. Some professors here believe that aphotic shadows, like ghosts, reenact memories rather than have true life. Which is bullshit, by the way.”
