About this ebook
Josie Burns and her little sister, Emily, are coping with the loss of their brother Andy, who disappeared from his bed in the middle of the night six years ago. Forced to move to Maine to live with two great aunts after their parents separate, they discover that a shared dream and a mysterious cupboard hidden in the basement hold the key to their brother's whereabouts. A foreign land that exists in a different time and the sinister man who rules it draw the sisters closer to an answer...and to a secret that will change their lives forever.
Amanda Crum
Amanda Crum is the author of The Fireman's Daughter and Ghosts of The Imperial. Her work can be found in publications such as Barren Magazine, Blue Moon Literary and Art Review, and Ghost City Review, as well as in several anthologies. Her first chapbook of horror poetry, The Madness In Our Marrow, made the shortlist for a Bram Stoker Award nomination in 2015. She was also a finalist for the 2019 J.F. Powers Prize In Short Fiction for her short story, “A Shimmer In The Parlor.” She currently lives in a tiny town in Kentucky.
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The Darkened Mirror - Amanda Crum
The Darkened Mirror
Amanda Crum

Riversong Books Logo.pdfAn Imprint of Sulis International Press
Los Angeles | London
THE DARKENED MIRROR
Copyright ©2019 by Amanda Crum. All rights reserved.
Except for brief quotations for reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher.
Email: info@sulisinternational.com.
Subscribe to the newsletter at https://sulisinternational.com/subscribe/
Front cover design by Sulis International Press. Photo by Irene Caramaschi.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019906301
ISBN (print): 978-1-946849-52-6
ISBN (eBook): 978-1-946849-53-3
Published by Riversong Books
An Imprint of Sulis International
Los Angeles | London
www.sulisinternational.com
Part One Now
Chapter One Dreams
Chapter Two Bedford
Chapter Three The Shadow Man
Chapter Four A Confession
Chapter Five Andy
Part Two Before
Chapter Six The Discovery
Chapter Seven Down Below
Chapter Eight The Man Before the Shadow
Chapter Nine Annika
Chapter Ten Poseidon
Part Three Now
Chapter Eleven The Library
Chapter Twelve The Prophecy
Chapter Thirteen Halloween
Chapter Fourteen Secrets, Secrets
Chapter Fifteen The Darkened Mirror
Chapter Sixteen The War
Chapter Seventeen Home Again
Chapter Eighteen Changes
Chapter Nineteen Denouement
Dedicated with much love
to Grandma Robyn,
whose encouragement
helped me find my voice.
Part One
Now
Chapter One
Dreams
Josie Burns was dreaming.
She dreamt of a door. It was small, just big enough for her eight-year-old self to crawl through comfortably. She had seen this door before—many times, in fact, during the hours which claimed her mind in sleep-but had never opened it. It seemed to hold secrets too large for its slender frame.
This time was different. She pulled it open hesitantly, its hinges screaming like a wild animal. On the other side, there was only darkness. The sudden hiss of a match being struck alight made her jump, and she turned to find her brother, Andy, squeezing through the doorway. There was something not quite right about him being there with her, but Josie couldn’t put her finger on it.
Where have you been?
she whispered.
I’ve been here,
he replied. His voice sounded sad. C’mon, let’s go. It’s getting late. The Shadow Man will be mad.
Josie jerked awake, the way one does after having a dream of falling a great distance. After a moment of disorientation, she realized she was safe in her bed and let out a ragged breath.
Someone was in the room with her.
She could sense a presence, lurking just outside her peripheral. She lay perfectly still, trying to suss out the faint but unmistakable sounds of someone breathing or the shuffling of feet. After a moment, when all was quiet, she relaxed a bit. Probably something left from my dream, she thought tiredly. But her eyes still scanned the darkness of her bedroom, roving over the boxes of her belongings that were stacked in every corner. The face of her alarm clock was blank; the electricity had already been shut off then. Her mother had been tying up loose ends all day, getting things ready for the move.
There was no moonlight to speak of. She could see next to nothing, only shadow upon shadow. Her mind recalled Andy’s words in the dream, and she shuddered. Who or what was The Shadow Man
? In the grip of her fear, she did not recognize the grim reality that should have set in after her brother’s appearance in that dream. She did not, after being awoken in the middle of the night, remember that he had gone missing six years ago, when she was eight and he was ten.
Something moved in her closet. Wire hangers clanged together, then suddenly stopped, as though someone had grabbed them. Josie sat up on her elbows in bed, her heart thudding a dull rhythm in her ears.
Who’s in here?
she whispered. The sound of her own voice gave her a boost of confidence: Emily, if that’s you, it’s not funny!
Josie?
A light knock on her bedroom door. Her sister, Emily.
Josie tried to focus her eyes on the black rectangle that was her closet, but it was no use in the dark. There was nothing to see.
The bedroom door opened and Emily stuck her head in, looking sleepy and disheveled. She carried a small flashlight in one hand, which pierced the darkness in a thin, silvery beam.
Who are you talking to in here?
I guess I was talking in my sleep,
Josie said, sitting all the way up in bed. Bring me that flashlight.
Her little sister did as she was told and then plopped down on the bed, wrapping the quilt around her bare legs. The house was drafty at the best of times, but with no heat, it was downright cold. It was only the first week of October, and already the forecasters were calling for snow, a rarity in Kentucky which Josie dreaded, although she wouldn’t be around to see it. Tomorrow they would be almost a thousand miles away in Maine, starting their lives over.
Josie walked toward the closet with slow, deliberate steps, partly in fear of what she would find and partly out of necessity. Her belongings were packed neatly in boxes from the moving company, but there were several of them, too many to really fit in her small bedroom. They were stacked on top of each other haphazardly, some leaning in precarious positions, and if she wasn’t careful, she would send them flying.
What are you doing?
Emily asked with genuine curiosity.
I just want to make sure I haven’t left anything in my closet,
Josie said softly, pointing the flashlight straight ahead of her. We’ll be in a hurry in the morning, and I don’t want to forget anything.
"It is the morning, Emily pointed out with a jaw-cracking yawn.
I’m only up because I had to go to the bathroom. It’s freezing in there, by the way. If you have to go, put on some socks."
Mhmm,
Josie said. She was six inches from the closet now, and all was silent. Taking a deep breath, she yanked the door open. It was empty save for several wire hangers, which were moving slowly back and forth as though caught in a slight breeze.
She let out a shaky sigh and closed the door, clicking off the flashlight. Her eyes were better adjusted to the darkness now, and she moved back to her bed, crawling over Emily and snuggling under the blanket.
Hmph, a nye thin?
Emily mumbled, already half asleep. Josie translated that into Find anything?
and whispered soothing words to get her sister back into the land of dream. Having found nothing, and with the warmth of the quilt and the comfort of her little sister’s presence, Josie felt the tension ease from her body. The noise in the closet had probably been her imagination or just one of the many drafts of air that floated through the old house all the time. She closed her eyes, feeling satisfied enough with that explanation.
In light of the night’s events, the dream was all but forgotten.
∞
Josie opened her eyes to find the sun had come up, throwing its weak light over the bare limbs of trees and the dead lawn. Emily, who had always been an early riser, was gone; presumably back to her own room to get dressed for the day. She’d left a warm spot in the bed, though, and Josie rolled over into it, loathe to get up. It was so warm there beneath the heavy quilt and the room was freezing.
Her dream came back to her and she frowned, trying to remember it in detail. There had been a door, she recalled, a tiny door to a tiny cupboard. There had been things inside, but she couldn’t quite see them in her mind’s eye. And something else, something perplexing…
Andy. Her brother, missing now for six years, had been there with her. She hadn’t dreamed of him in a long time. The memory of it made her heartache, and she felt a solid lump form in her throat, the salty kind that always brought tears. It was the sneakiness of grief that made it so terrible, she thought. You could go about your life like always, fill it with school and friends and music, and then one day the thing you thought was gone would roar into full, pulsing vitality. It was always there, sleeping beneath the surface; a great hibernating bear.
Emily came bouncing in, full of pep despite the interruptions in her sleep, and sat on the end of the bed. Josie burrowed further beneath the blanket in protest. At ten years old, her sister was definitely a morning person, and Josie was way on the other end of the spectrum.
Mom says to get up because the movers will be here in thirty minutes—
Ugh.
—and she said I can keep Ham in the car with me as long as he stays in the carrier.
Double ugh.
What did Hamilton ever do to you?
Josie sighed. He’s kept me awake almost every night since you’ve had him because I can hear him running in his wheel. It squeaks, and it’s super annoying.
He has to run; otherwise he’ll get fat and out of shape,
Emily replied, rolling her eyes. Hamsters need lots of exercise. I read about it at school.
But that’s perfect,
Josie grinned. A fat hamster named Ham, how cute is that?
"You’re in a mood, Emily said in a perfect imitation of their mother.
How long did it take you to get back to sleep last night?"
Too long. Do I hear the Bishop Brothers somewhere?
Mom let me download their new album! She said it’s a moving away gift. She has something for you, too.
That piqued Josie’s interest enough to earn a peek from beneath the quilt. What is it?
But Emily was already gone, dancing down the hallway back to her room and the Bishop Brothers, whose voices suddenly became unbearably loud through the thin wall.
Just because I’m awake, that doesn’t mean you can blast it as loud as you want!
Josie shouted, banging on the wall above her bed.
Get over it, turd breath!
Emily called good-naturedly.
Emily Marie Burns!
their mom shouted up the stairs. I heard that!
Then, a moment later to Josie, Get up, kiddo. Time to face the day. If you want your gift, you have to walk downstairs for it.
Josie shuffled from her room. Gift or no gift, the day had several things working against it: cold wooden floors were just the beginning. Several hours from now she would be an official resident of Maine, living in a house with two old women she hadn’t seen in years. Everything she knew would be gone or different. Her friends, her school, even this crappy, drafty old house. She would miss it all madly.
Don’t frown so much, you’ll get premature wrinkles,
Josie’s mom said as she trudged into the kitchen. You want to be the only freshman with crow’s feet?
"Why not? They do it on TV all the time. I’m pretty sure half the people on