Flame and Shadow by Roni Stinger

Sissy tiptoed to the fridge and flung the door open. Nothing jumped out. She grabbed the pitcher of Kool Aid and slammed the door. Safe! She’d outsmarted the fridge beast once again. She poured Kool-Aid into her metal tumbler, careful not to leave her feet in front of the register so creepy crawlies wouldn’t grab her ankles. Jack and Bobby’s laughs drifted in from the dining room. They sat at the kitchen table with their own tumblers of Kool Aid, eating breakfast. Trix for Bobby. Cocoa Puffs for Jack. Sissy plopped down on the chair at the other end of the table.

“I saw something in the window at the warehouse,” she said, eyes downcast, tracing gold swirls on the Formica tabletop with one finger.

“Shit, you’re always seeing something. Maybe it was one of your shaaadoow Deeemons.” Jack held his hands up, wiggling his fingers.

“Hah, shadow demons,” Bobby said with a half grin, his blonde bangs hanging over one eye.

“A dark figure with long arms and yellow eyes. We shouldn’t keep playing there,” Sissy said, looking at only Bobby.

“You are such a baby.” Jack stood up and pulled a red Bic lighter from his pocket. “This’ll keep your shadow demons away.” He flicked the lighter in her face.

Sissy pulled back.

“Stop it Jack,” Sissy said,

Jack kept flicking, the flame flickering on and off as Jack pushed it towards her.

“Knock it off.” Sissy tried to get out of the chair, but Jack blocked her.

The smell of singed hair filled her nostrils as her hair caught fire.

Jack slapped her head a few times, patting out the flame.

“What the hell, Jack,” Bobby said.

“Mind your own business. Look, it’s fine. You can’t even tell.” Jack put his face inches from Sissy’s. “You’re okay, kiddo. Don’t say anything, and I’ll buy you a candy next time we go to the store.”

“Two candies,” Sissy said, even though she’d never tell, anyway. She kept lots of secrets, truckloads of them.

“Deal.” Jack jutted his hand out for a shake.

Sissy shook it.

“We’ll go check out your shadow demons,” Jack said. “You can stay home and wait for Mommy. We’ve got guy stuff to do, anyway.” Jack motioned to Bobby.

Bobby followed Jack like a little duckling. Sissy hoped the fridge beast would eat them. Well, at least Jack. Bobby wasn’t so bad by himself.

Mom wouldn’t be home for hours and August days were long. Sissy had too many bad thoughts when she was alone. Sometimes she wanted to get rid of her family, and let the monsters kill them all, instead of being so careful not to wake or agitate them.

She walked down the hallway, hurrying past the burbling of sewer rats in the bathroom toilet. Her knuckles rapped against the boys’ bedroom door.

“I wanna go too. I’ll show you where to look,” she said through the crack in the door.

Jack peeked his head through the barely opened door.

“So now you’re not afraid, huh? I don’t know, Bobby. Should we let the little scaredy pants go?”

“Might as well. Mom’ll be mad if we leave her here alone.” Bobby’s voice drifted through the door.

“Yeah, good point,” Jack said as he shut the door.

Sissy waited, watching shadows grow on the hallway walls and ceiling.

“Well, you better come now, if you want to. We’re outta here.” Jack pushed past, heading towards the front door.

“I’ll wait for you,” Bobby said, hanging back.

“If she wants to come along, she needs to keep up. Come on,” Jack said, staring Bobby down.

Bobby mouthed, “come on,” then followed Jack.

A flash of red caught Sissy’s eye. Jack had dropped his lighter. She picked it up and slipped it into her pocket before following them out the door.

The boys walked twenty feet in front of her as she walked atop the curb, one foot in front of the other, avoiding the funnel webs along the sidewalk. Jack told her that if you stepped in one of those webs, a spider would hold your foot tight until the mother of all spiders came to eat you. Sissy never stepped in webs.

Next door, old lady Nell’s chihuahua ran alongside the fence, making the raspy sound of a dog with his vocal cords cut. Nell watched from the window with a furrowed brow. Cutting vocal cords was her specialty. The sun shined off a pair of large steel scissors in her right hand, and who knew what hung from her left. She opened the window.

“You kids better not dawdle. Move along.” She shook the scissors in their direction.

Sissy ran to catch her brothers.

“Are you sure you want to go to the warehouse?” Sissy looked at Bobby.

“Yes, we’re going to the warehouse,” Jack said in a mockingly whiny voice.

“Okay, but I warned you. You never listen to me.” Sissy pouted out her bottom lip.

“Of course not, you dumb baby,” Jack said.

Bobby laughed. Sissy slowed and dropped behind. She wished she didn’t have brothers, or at least only one brother.

A tiny troll with flame red hair peeked out from between the lattice of Mr. Kemmish’s wraparound porch. Sissy kept her eye on the little menace and kicked dirt from the gutter onto her feet and legs so the troll wouldn’t recognize her as a tasty meal. Bobby had told her about the trolls years ago, but he’d never actually seen one. No one else saw any of the creatures she did.

Skipping along the curb, she caught up to her brothers.

The last house before the warehouse was the Wilsons. Their Dobie snarled and growled, lunging on his thick steel chain. One of these times, he’d break his chain and shake one of the kids around like their poodle used to shake around an old sock. After the poodle ate Sissy’s favorite socks, the sewer rats took care of him.

“You can’t get us, you dumb old dog,” Jack taunted.

“Stop it, Jack,” Sissy said.

The dobie was mean and scary, but who could blame him, being stuck on that chain all the time. Besides, she hoped one day he would teach Jack a lesson.

“Let’s go to the lot and build a fort. It’ll give us a place to hide when the shadow demons come.” Sissy walked beside her brothers, watching for webs.

“We’re going to the warehouse whether you like it or not.” Jack pinched her arm.

“A new fort would be cool. Some damn idiots tore down the last one,” Bobby said, kicking his feet on the sidewalk.

“Look, if you two chickenshits don’t want to go, fine. Good luck at the lot on your own.” Jack cut across the field toward the warehouse.

Bobby hung back.

“It’s okay. We can build a fort later.” Bobby put his arm around Sissy’s shoulders.

“There’s something there, Bobby. Jack…”

“What about Jack?” He had turned back without them noticing.

“Nothing. Never mind.” Sissy started to walk away.

Jack grabbed her upper arm, squeezing and nearly yanking her off her feet.

“Listen, you will do whatever I say, or you’ll be sorry. I’m the boss, get it?” His lip curled at the corner, showing his teeth. Flecks of spit hit her face.

“Maybe you’ll be sorry, Jack.” Sissy jerked away and ran towards the warehouse.

She imagined the Dobie ripping Jack’s throat out. The trolls eating him alive, one tiny bite at a time. A lovely vision, with all Jack’s screaming and bleeding.

As she approached the warehouse, loose plastic flapped in the breeze from the broken upstairs window. She kicked open the piece of plywood that pretended to be a door and walked inside, stepping over piles of trash.

The metal stairs creaked as she ran up them. Crossing the assembly room, she stepped over the boards that used to block the break room and ducked between the opening in the two by sixes. Crouching beside the door, she watched for Jack through the gap in the boards.

The room filled with movement. A pile of candy wrappers and old newspapers gathered against the wall.

The shadow demons took form and grew. Spindly arms and legs, like spiders. Hands with long curved fingers. Their legs grew into the boards like seaweed growing at the bottom of a lake. Their mouths hung open, showing rows and rows of teeth. She didn’t move. In the shadows, she and the demons were one. She smiled.

Bobby came up the stairs first, but Jack appeared and pushed him back.

“Wait downstairs, I’ll find her. I know where she hides.” Jack walked towards the break room.

What Jack said was true. Sissy always hid in the break room. Only this time, she wasn’t all alone, cringing in the back of the long dark cupboard under the boarded-up window.

Jack stepped through the boards. Sissy didn’t move. The shadow demons grew larger and larger until they curved along the ceiling and hung above Jack’s head. He opened the cupboard and crawled inside to find her.

Sissy lit the old newspapers with Jack’s lighter. They ignited instantly, traveling up the tinder dry wall. She squeezed back through the opening and pulled a couple of loose boards across. Smoke and flames filled the room as she peered through the crack.

Jack climbed out of the cupboard, looking around in confusion. A long demon arm plucked him up by his head. More arms joined, pulling at his limbs. Demon mouths searched for flesh. The flames licked at his skin.

“Run, Bobby!” Sissy yelled.

Bobby hesitated as the stairway filled with smoke, until Jack’s high-pitched, gurgling screams echoed through the hall. Flames lapped out of the break room doorway. Bobby ran with Sissy close behind.

By the time they reached the street, the fire engulfed the warehouse and sirens blared in the distance. Sissy grabbed Bobby’s hand tight. His eyes wide with fear, he didn’t resist. They ran all the way home through all the spider webs and past the trolls.

Sissy’s fears died in the warehouse with Jack. Bobby had better be nice because she knew where the shadow demons lived and how to find them.

Roni Stinger

Roni Stinger lives in the Pacific Northwest, USA with her partner and two cats. When not writing strange and dark things, she is often wandering the forests, beaches, and streets in search of shiny objects and creative sparks. Her work has appeared in various magazines and anthologies. Her debut novella, “Fuzzy”, is book 34 in the Rewind or Die series from Unnerving Books. You can find her at www.ronistinger.com and on Twitter @roni_stinger.