Chapter 1: The Storm

And moving through a mirror clear

That hangs before her all the year,

Shadows of the world appear…

… But in her web she still delights

To weave the mirror’s magic sights,

For often through the silent nights

A funeral, with plumes and lights

And music, went to Camelot;

Or when the Moon was overhead,

Came two young lovers lately wed.

“I’m half-sick of shadows,” said

The Lady of Shalott.

—“The Lady of Shalott,” Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Jason did not like his little brother. In fact, since Aaron’s birth nine years ago, Jason has done everything in his power to make his little brother’s life complete misery. One of his favorite tactics was to hide behind a darkened corner at night, when an eerie darkness fills the house, and wait for Aaron to walk around the corner and jump out from the shadows making Aaron high-pitched screech. Jason loved doing that, even if doing so usually meant trouble whenever his mother and father came running from whatever they were doing to see what could have made their darling child scream like a banshee.

“Why do you torture your little brother Jason?” His mother always said.

It has been a very long time since he tried scaring his brother, usually waiting until they had the house to themselves. Aaron, having grown more timid, stopped being a “tattle-tell,” fearful of disturbing the peace. A sacred silence had descended upon the house whenever their mother was home, its origin unknown, its presence unacknowledged. Without realizing it, none of them broke that silence except in desperate need.

On one particular night not too long ago, Jason found himself in quite a dilemma.  Earlier in the day Jason’s friends had told him that they were going to the new “slasher” film that night and asked if he could go. 

“Are you kidding? Of course I’m going. I’ll meet you guys in front of the theater at seven.” Jason said as the bus dropped him off at his house.  He couldn’t contain his excitement as he walked through the front door and flung his backpack into his room.  Jason’s Mom noticed this heightened state of energy in her son and decided to talk to him. 

“And how was your day?” Her voice was soft and distant whenever she talked with any of her children, as if speaking any louder was somehow going to adversely affect their development. On most days Jason could find her sitting at the kitchen table, a full cup of cold coffee in front of her, staring out of the window, and this afternoon was no exception. This disturbed Jason most days, but he decided not to let his Mom bring him down, after all, he had more important things to worry about: his burgeoning social life.

“Great Mom! John and Morgan invited me to go to the movies tonight. Can I borrow twenty bucks?” Jason started pulling out his books from his bag.

Without moving her eyes from the window, his mother spoke, “I need you to stay home tonight and watch your brother.”  Her voice was weak, the words almost gone before they even reached Jason’s ears. This was nothing new, his ears had grown accustomed to the near-silent way of his mother’s speaking whenever she was in “one of her moods.”

Despite their lack of weight, his mother’s words incited Jason’s temper. He immediately stopped fidgeting with his books and felt heat rising from beneath his skin.  Of all the times for her to ask me to stay home, he thought.  Why couldn’t she have gone out on one of the many other weekends I had nothing to do? Why this one? Jason couldn’t keep the anger from his voice.

“What!? Why do you have to go out tonight? I actually have plans.” His mother never “went out” in the usually definition of the phrase, but it was the only one that came to Jason’s mind that moment.

“I realize that, but I have to go to the hospital. A very good friend of mine just went into labor and I want to be there when the baby is delivered. You remember Christina, right?”

Perfect timing, Jason thought. Another baby is going to ruin his life, and this one isn’t even related to him. He was furious, and his mother’s soft manner was not helping either.

“Mom, I never get to do anything with my friends. I’m always too busy with homework.”

“You know you could invite them over to watch movies.” She said.

Jason thought about this, but the thought of Greg and Anthony coming over to his house and possibly meeting his family made him uncomfortable, as if their loud and boorish ways might shatter the silences that held the place together. There has to be a way out of this. Jason’s mind ran through many solutions to his problem but many of them were far to outrageous to even execute much less ask his mother. He thought of taking Aaron with him and leaving him in the trunk of the car with a large coke and a bag of Skittles but that would be considered child endangerment, or something. Then it occurred to him.

“What if you take Aaron with you?” Jason marveled at his own genius as his mother hesitated and thought on his suggestion.

“No.  I don’t think Aaron would like being in a hospital for God knows how long. No, I think leaving him here with you would be best.”

Jason exploded.  “I can’t believe this!  This entire house revolves around that little twerp!  Is there anything this family can do without having to consult with how Aaron’s going to feel?  What about how I feel?  I would like to go to the movies tonight, is that so much to ask!?”

That did it. Jason’s mother dropped her usual softened tone and looked Jason straight in the eyes, surprising him so much that Jason went completely stiff and lost all power of speech.

“I have made my decision and that’s final. I am tired of listening to you whine. There are certain responsibilities that come with being the older sibling and I expect you to carry them out whether you like them or not. Life is full of responsibilities and obligations that might inconvenience us.”

Tears began to fill Jason’s eyes. Something in what his mother said hurt, but he was not sure where the pain came from.

“Here’s twenty dollars to order pizza for you and your brother.  I expect change.” At this she walked away from the table, leaving a dumbfounded, irritated, and hurt Jason standing in the kitchen with half his backpack unpacked.

Jason threw himself onto his bed and screamed into his pillow. Why does she have to do this to me? Why does she have to ruin my life? These were just some of the exclamations that ran through his head as he lay their smothering himself with his pillow. But their were some thoughts he pushed away, thoughts that dealt with the pain he was feeling, pain that was creating two wet spots on his pillow. 

A knock at the door made him look up.  Aaron stood at the door looking at him.

“What are you doing?” He said.

“None of your business. Get out of my room.” Embarrassed and even more irritated, Jason pushed Aaron out of his room and slammed the door in his face.  On the other side of the door Jason could hear the muffled sound of Aaron opening and closing the door to his own room.

As he sat down on his bed, Jason thought of the night he could have had, or all the fun and excitement of watching a movie with his friends. Then he thought of the night was going to have. Only one word could have summed it all up, and Jason whispered it aloud, “Perfect.”

* * *

“All right, I’m leaving now.” Jason’s mother called down the hall. Aaron ran to the entranceway, avoiding the tile in the entryway by jumping from the carpet to the rug lying in the center. He landed into the arms of his mother just as Jason stepped out of his room. The sight was sickening.

“Aaron, are you ever going to get over your fear of these tiles? They are no different than the ones in the kitchen?”  Their mother asked.

“But these tiles are darker than the other ones Mom, I can’t see through them.” Their mother gave him her usual perplexed look and brushed her son’s comment off like normal.

“Jason you know the rules: Aaron goes to bed by nine, you be in bed by ten.”

“But Mom,” Jason and Aaron spoke together in an eerily similar voice; Jason hoped that his mother didn’t catch the similarity between his and Aaron’s reactions.

“That’s the rule. Be good.” She gave each of her boys a kiss on the cheek and quickly departed, shutting the door behind her.

“Pizza, pizza, pizza.” Aaron said jumping up and down excited by the idea of good food and no adult.

“Shut up and settle down while I call in the order.” Jason picked up the phone and ordered two medium pepperoni pizzas, something he knew both he and Aaron would like and finish, one pizza each. If he had to waste his entire evening watching his brother bounce off the walls, he would at least get what he wanted on his pizza.  The girl on the other end of the phone said it would take forty-five minutes to an hour.  Jason wished he had something to drive so he wouldn’t have to wait so long, but he figured that forty-five minutes wasn’t that long of a wait; plus, he would be obligated to take Aaron with him, which was not a pleasant thought.

“Alright, I’m not going to be able to do my homework if you’re bouncing off the walls, so here’s the deal. You pick whatever movie you want to watch and I’ll sit on the couch trying to read Romeo & Juliet, okay?” This really wasn’t a question but Jason found that if given a choice Aaron responded better.

“Okay. . . I want to watch . . .” Jason rolled his eyes as Aaron looked through all of his movies. Making a quick decision was unimaginable in Aaron’s little mind.

“Sometime this century, Aaron”

“I pick this one.” Aaron pulled out his favorite movie, the picture on the DVD was missing and the black case opened far easier than it was supposed to, which lead to all the scratches on the disk. Jason wondered how the DVD player still played the poor thing.

“You’ve already watched this movie this week. Pick something else.”

“But I want to watch this one.” Aaron whined.

Jason didn’t feel like arguing. “Fine, go put it in.”

Aaron ran to the DVD player and placed the disk in the tray.  He ran to his room, jumping from carpet-to-rug-to-carpet as he went through the entryway and returned with his blanket, jumping onto the couch with enough force to bounce him in the air a couple of times. Jason also went to his room to retrieve his book, but instead of grabbing his copy of Romeo & Juliet (a play he detested not because of the story but because Romeo was such a “whine-bag”) he grabbed a worn, tattered book from his bookshelf. The cover read Adventures of Alice in Wonderland. Jason didn’t know why he liked this book so much and was a little ashamed to admit it to his friends, after all it’s a book about a teenage girl; admitting such a fact would be beyond embarrassing.

Jason returned to the living room, sat himself on the couch, and opened the book to his favorite section, Through the Looking Glass; it’s scarier than the first half of the story, exactly the reason why Jason liked it. It scared him. Jason looked up at the television and noticed that the movie hadn’t started yet. The disk was still working its way through the previews.

“Why are you watching the previews? You do know that you can go straight to the movie by pressing Menu don’t you?”

“I like the previews.” Aaron answered.

“But you’ve seen them already.”

“You’ve already read that book a million times but that doesn’t stop you.” Jason couldn’t respond and so returned to his book. Aaron returned to his movie, a smug smile on his face.

* * *

Forty-five minutes later both of them were completely engrossed in their entertainments when a flash of lightning cut through the darkened living room followed by a roll of thunder that shook the house and was followed by darkness. The only sound they could hear was the falling of rain, a very hard rain driven by a ferocious wind. Aaron responded by screaming.

“Aaron, stop it. It’s okay. It’s only a thunderstorm.” Aaron did not stop screaming. Jason stood up and felt his way to the kitchen, hoping to find the flashlight before Aaron gave himself a heart attack. The thought did cross his mind that such an event wouldn’t be such a bad thing, but the sound of Aaron’s screams was enough to quicken his pace.  He found the flashlight and turned it on, pointing its beam directly at Aaron so he could see the light. Aaron stopped screaming as soon as the light hit his tear-streaked face. Jason almost felt sorry for the little monster.

“There, are you happy now?” Aaron nodded. Jason returned to the living room and sat back on the couch, keeping the light as close to Aaron as possible for fear of instigating another fit.

“So what do we do now?” Aaron asked, his voice shaking.

“We wait. I’m sure the electricity will be back on soon.”

“How soon?”

“I don’t know. I don’t work for the power company.” Jason said rolling his eyes.

“I don’t like the dark.” Aaron retreated further beneath his blanket.

“I know, but I think now is the perfect time for you to get over your fear.” Jason turned off the flashlight.

“Turn it on!  Turn it on!” Aaron shrilled.

Jason started laughing a low sinister laugh as he turned on the flashlight directly beneath his chin and screamed, “Boo!”

“Stop it!  It’s not funny!” Aaron threw one of his toys in a line drive straight for Jason’s face, making contact with a loud crack. 

Jason stopped laughing and launched off the couch straight for his brother. Aaron knew what would happen the moment the toy flew from his hand and sprinted to his room—of course, avoiding the tiles in the entryway as he ran.

Jason moved as fast as he could but slammed into the door of Aaron’s room. He tried the doorknob but found that it was locked.

“You open this door right now!”

“No!” Aaron replied.

“I’m going to kick your butt if you don’t open this door by the time I count to three. One. . .two. . . three.” Jason kicked the door but was only rewarded with a stinging pain that shot up his leg.  He realized that force wasn’t the answer and decided to try a different tactic.

“Fine then, stay in there for all I care. Either way, I still have the only flashlight and your scared of the dark, remember?” Jason waited but no answer came from the other side of the door.

“Okay, suit yourself.” Jason walked away crossing the entryway into the living room when he had another bright idea. He bent down and removed the rug covering the dark tiles. Jason knew that Aaron would be terrified to walk across those tiles and would then beg Jason to come rescue him. He threw the rug across the living room, returned to the couch, turned off the flashlight, and waited.

The thunderstorm raged outside. Flashes of lightning cut through the curtains, thunder roared. Jason smiled; he knew Aaron wouldn’t be able to remain in his room forever. The only thing required of him was patience; after all, he was the older, more mature child in the house.

After what seemed an hour of waiting, Jason heard a stifled cry in the darkness and turned on his flashlight. The beam of light sliced through the dark and found Aaron standing on the threshold between the hallway and the entranceway with a terrified look on his face.

“Jason, where’s the rug?” Jason could tell that Aaron had been crying, but this only excited him more.

“Just walk across the tile, Aaron. What are you afraid of?” 

“I can’t Jason. Please, I’m scared.”

“Of what? What could you possibly be scared of?”

“I don’t like these tiles. They’re dark.” Aaron’s voice became shakier, his breath uneven.

“Just because they’re dark? Are you kidding? Grow up Aaron. There’s nothing to be scared of, just walk across the tile and we can both sit here and wait for the pizza to arrive.”  Jason was ecstatic; he had the upper hand and was enjoying this new power.

“I can’t Jason. She scares me.” Aaron was crying.

“Who?” This caught Jason completely off guard, maybe he didn’t here his brother right.

“The old woman in the tile. She scares me.” The rain pounded harder.

“What are you talking about? There’s no woman living in the tile. Don’t tell me you’re still scared of the boogeyman?” Jason couldn’t believe it; his brother was terrified of some fantasy woman who lived in their tile floor. This was priceless.

“She is. . .n’t the boog. . . eyman. . .  he doe. . . sn’t exist.”  Aaron was crying so hard he was having trouble catching his breath.

“Just walk across the tile. She doesn’t exist either.”

“Liar.”

“I’m not lying, I swear. The old woman in the tile does not exist. She’s like the boogeyman, a figment of your imagination.”

“Swear?” Aaron’s breathing was a little better.

“I swear. Now come on, the pizza will be here any minute.”

Aaron placed his foot onto the black tile and held his breath. After a second of standing half-on-half-off the tile, Aaron became a little more relaxed.

“That’s it. Now take your other foot off the carpet and place it on the tile.” Aaron complied. “It’s not as bad as you thought, is it?”

Aaron shook his head and a smile crept onto his face. Jason returned his brother’s smile and felt a sudden rush of pride for Aaron’s bravery, saving a little for himself for being the one to coach him out of his fear. Jason held the light on his brother as he stood there; Aaron started to laugh, the kind of laugh that only comes from overcoming a terrifying situation.

Jason turned, the shaft of light veered away from Aaron’s small frame, and then Jason stopped. The air felt different. He swung the light back, and the moment the beam of light illuminated the entryway, Jason finally felt fear.

Aaron had vanished.

Jason sat there shocked; his brother was there one moment and gone the next. It only took a second before Jason reached the entryway, but he felt like he was running in slow motion. He kept hoping to find his brother standing in the hallway laughing at him. He didn’t. He stopped just as the carpet ended and the tile began. Jason’s breath stopped as he looked down at the tile beneath him and saw no tile, no reflected glow of light; instead, there was an endless black well filled with darkness. 

He fell to his hands and knees and yelled, “Aaron! Can you hear me!?” A faint scream, muffled and distorted, was the only reply he received. Jason placed his flashlight on the carpet next to him and put his hand where the tile should’ve been, still clinging to the hope that Aaron was playing a trick on him, and if so he was in for a serious beating. But there was no tile and instead of finding an empty space his hand felt something cool and wet, like water except thicker, a kind of syrup. Jason removed his hand and stood up. He held his breath as he stepped onto the black liquid, closed his eyes, and fell into a drowning darkness.