Hidden Enemy by Melissa McShane

Author:Melissa McShane
Language: eng
Format: epub

The world lies open

Defenseless against enemies

You are all that’s left

And, at the bottom, the skull-faced red flower.

I breathed deeply, trying to banish the fear that filled me when I read the poems. Malcolm gently took the paper from me and scanned it, his eyes intent as if the poems were a riddle he could unravel. “This makes me think of the barrier, this second one, the lines about the world being defenseless against its enemies. That’s the first evidence we’ve had that he knows who you are, as opposed to the imaginary woman he’s conjured up.”

“I don’t know if that makes me feel better,” I said. “I mean, it was scary when I thought he believed I was someone else and might do crazy things based on that belief, but if he knows I had something to do with the barrier, he might know more things about me. Things he could use against me.”

“The rest of this poetry suggests that’s not true. You weren’t torn from him, for one.” Malcolm folded the paper and tucked it back into the envelope. “Why did you think Eternity came into our house to deliver this? Wasn’t it with the mail?”

“No, and look, there’s no stamp or postmark. He must have teleported it again.”

“Call Cassie,” Malcolm said, “and find out how he managed it. We’ll need to take steps to prevent him sending anything else here, like a—something dangerous.”

“You can say ‘bomb,’ Malcolm. I’m done freaking out.” I put my arms around him and let him hold me. “I want to know how to keep him from entering our house himself.”

But Cassie, when I finally reached her, reassured me that was impossible. “Humans can’t be fooled into believing they’re anywhere but where they are,” she said. “To teleport a living thing, we have to make connections between two identical places and then step between them. So Eternity would have to come into your house the regular way and perform a complicated ritual to give himself a location he could then step across to, and that’s not possible without your knowing.”

“That makes me feel better,” I said.

“You said you were unnaturally afraid,” Cassie continued. “How, exactly?”

I thought about that for a few seconds. “Like I was facing a terrible, unknown threat. Something I couldn’t see to fight. It felt a little like the fear I feel sometimes in a nightmare, where everything I see is terrifying, but when I wake up and remember those things, the fear seems ridiculous.”

“I don’t know any magic that would do that, but I can ask around. For now, you might not want to go anywhere alone. Those poems all sound like somebody moving closer to a meeting.”

“I won’t. Thanks again.”

I disconnected and drummed my fingers on the steering wheel. We were stopped at a red light, and the kids were arguing in the back seats, but it was the kind of low-key disagreement that didn’t require parental intervention, so I let it go.

My mind returned to the latest haikus, though the rational part of me said I was stupid to keep dwelling on them.

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