Rising Shadows

Emily was troubled. Gigi had always loved Percy, toddling over to him and demanding to be picked up. Emily had never seen her frightened of him, but she had seemed utterly terrified when Percy and Scarlett came into the library. Emily had felt her trembling as she clung to Emily's arm. It was still nagging at her as they rode home that evening, even though Percy didn't seem perturbed by it at all. He had dismissed it as Gigi being tired and having an overactive imagination.

But Emily couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. Percy had been acting strangely since they came home after the wedding. She'd see glimmers of it; a dark flash of something in his eyes that she couldn't place or decipher. She studied him now as he sat on the couch in the parlor and read the latest book she had thrust upon him. He seemed exactly as he always did; there was nothing sinister about him.

He looked up as though sensing her eyes on him. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I just like to look at you."

"You can look at me more up close if you'd like." Percy smirked slightly and patted the couch cushion next to him. Emily sat down and brushed his hair out of his face.

"Are you all right?" she asked him softly.

"Of course I am." Percy looked puzzled. "Why do you ask?"

"I'm a wife now, it's my job to worry about you," she said teasingly. Percy rolled his eyes and smiled. He leaned over to give her a light kiss on the lips. When he started to pull back Emily wrapped her arms around his neck and didn't let him go. She drew him into a longer, deeper kiss. His book forgotten, Percy stood and swept her off the couch to carry her up the stairs while she trailed kisses across his jaw. He used his foot to shut the door and then set her on the bed, chuckling quietly when she started undoing the buttons on his shirt. She forgot about her concern from earlier as Percy kissed her again.

.::.::.::.

This nightmare was different. Emily was standing in long hallway, and Percy was at the end of it. She called his name and started walking towards him. She reached the end of the hall and reached out to take Percy's hand. The floor beneath him crumbled, and her fingertips just brushed his before he tumbled into the darkness below. The darkness seemed alive, devouring Percy until she couldn't see any trace of hm. He drowned in the blackness. Emily screamed his name, her voice echoing eerily back at her. The living shadows surged up around her, filling her ears and mouth and lungs until all there was in the world was darkness.

Emily's eyes flew open and she sat up with a gasp, kicking the covers off of herself. Percy was still sound asleep next to her. She lay awake in the dark, afraid to even close her eyes for just a moment because all she could see was Percy being swallowed by the shadows. The dread in her gut was so thick it made her stomach hurt. The other dreams were vivid; almost tangible in their realness. This dream had felt different. It felt like a warning of things to come. Or a threat.

Emily didn't know what was going on, but she knew she would never let anyone take Percy away from her. She had heard Scarlett describe Ben as the air in her lungs before, and she had never really understood it until she fell in love with Percy. Deciding there was no way she was going back to sleep that night, Emily quietly climbed out of bed and pulled on a nightgown and her silk robe before going into her study and pulling out the newspapers about The Dollmaker murders.

She stared at the picture of Millicent Kempwell, feeling at once unnerved and sorrowful. She felt connected to these girls, and she felt a crushing guilt and helplessness that she kept seeing their brutal murders and could do nothing to help them. She didn't understand why the visions were coming to her, of all people. Her vision started to blur a little as she read the newspapers over and over so she finally set them aside with a sigh and pulled her spirit lenses out instead. One of the lenses seemed to be coming loose from the copper frames and Emily slipped them on to make the necessary adjustments.

That's when she noticed the man standing in the corner watching her. For a split second she thought Percy had somehow snuck into the study, but she quickly realized that it wasn't Percy. The man was about as tall as Percy, with shaggy dark hair. But his shoulders weren't as broad and he was watching her with piercing blue eyes.

Emily let out a yelp of surprise to find a stranger in her house, seizing a heavy paper weight off the desk and chucking it at his head. The man jumped, looking a bit startled even though the paper weight had gone right through him to hit the wall with a dull thud.

"Who are you?" she demanded, yanking her robe closed over the thin nightdress she had put on and glowering at him.

"You can actually see me with those silly things on?" He looked stunned and perhaps grudgingly impressed.

"Of course I can see you! What are you doing in my house, and how long have you been lurking over there like a rat, spying on me? It's very rude to just show up unannounced in someone else's home!"

The man squinted at her, still looking completely baffled. "You do...realize that I'm dead, right?"

"Yes I sort of concluded you must be a ghost since you're not corporeal enough to be hit with the paper weight. Unfortunately," she added, still glaring at him. "I don't think being dead really entitles you to disregarding manners and common decency altogether, you know. Anyway, what do you want? I have rather enough ghost problems at the moment."

"I was curious to see the woman who got my brother to get married and settle down."

Emily paused, her annoyance temporarily forgotten. She studied him more closely. "You're Colt," she realized.

"In the flesh. Sort of."

"So you do watch over Percy," she said, feeling strangely pleased at the idea.

"Not always, but I stop in from time to time to see what he's up to. I couldn't believe he was actually getting married. To a London darling, no less. I had to see for myself what the fuss was all about."

Emily folded her arms and pursed her lips. Colt studied her face for a moment.

"I have to hand it to my little brother that he has pretty good taste," he said finally. "And you're certainly...different."

"You're a bit of an ass," Emily replied tersely. He looked startled again, then amused.

"Yeah, definitely different," he repeated.

"How can you communicate with me so well?" Emily asked, her curiosity finally winning out over her aggravation. "I've met another ghost recently and she can't get her message across anywhere near as well as you."

"When you've been dead a long time, you either get better at communing with the living, or you steadily go insane and become more and more incoherent." He shrugged.

"What's the afterlife like? I mean, where are you when you're not looking in on Percy?"

"Somewhere...else," Colt said uncertainly.

"Well, if you can, maybe you should check in on him more often," Emily said slowly. Colt cocked his head.

"Why?"

"I just have a weird feeling that something bad is going to happen to him."

"You really love him."

Emily blushed slightly as she nodded.

"Well, good. Percy needs that, I think. I'll keep an eye on him when I can."

"Um, it was nice to meet you, Colt."

He looked amused again before he disappeared. Emily took off her glasses and returned them to the drawer, her mind feeling muddled. Her latest dream weighed as heavily on her as the murder nightmares did, and she found it difficult to focus at work over the next two weeks. Somehow by the grace of god she successfully finished all her projects by their deadlines. She and Percy finally made it home past midnight, and she sank gratefully onto the couch.

"What a relief it is to have all that over with," she sighed. Percy didn't reply as he shrugged out of his jacket.

"At least now we can finally start planning a honeymoon," Emily went on. "I hadn't even given much thought yet to where we should go. Rome sounds amazing but it does seem a little cliche for a honeymoon destination doesn't it? So maybe we could-"

"Can we not talk about this now?" Percy snapped. Emily quieted, startled and hurt by his tone. Percy had never talked to her like that before. He left the parlor and headed upstairs without another word. She told herself he was just tired from how much they'd been working recently. But she didn't go to bed until long after Percy had fallen asleep, and when she woke late the next morning he wasn't there.

Emily began tidying up around the bedroom, gathering clothes that needed washing. She found Percy's pendant buried in one of the bottom nightstand drawers. She couldn't understand why he would suddenly decide to stop wearing it. Her dream flashed across her mind again as she held it, and this time she couldn't shake the feeling of unease that settled over her.