Into
Darkness

            Caroline leaned
back into Shane's chest and sighed. She felt the soft fur of the lynx underneath
the sweater he wore; it was warm and inviting like laying against a furry
pillow. In no time, her breathing was in sync with his as they lay in the warm
glow of the candles surrounding them. Caroline shifted her head to better
listen to his heartbeat. From where they lay, Caroline could see the moon
through the open window.

            “This is a
very nice date," Shane said.

Caroline couldn't help but laugh. Their
“date" consisted of a late night picnic inside of a room within a rundown
hospital that was abandoned years ago. The walls were encrusted with holes,
filth, and peeling paint, it was impossible to tell what the original color of
the floor was, and she didn't dare look up, knowing that if she saw what was
hanging overhead she would lose her nerve and want to leave. Every time the
wind blew, her nose was filled with a stench she didn't even want to describe. Yet,
beneath the horrible stench was the pleasant aroma of scented candles. The
warmth of Shane's body was enough for her, and they had blankets to last them
through the night.

             “You have a funny idea of romantic," Caroline
said. “And I used to laugh at my friends because their dates took them cheap, fast
food restaurants."

            “It's not
about where you are—it's about the company you keep."

            Caroline
snuggled closer and nodded. The hospital they were in now was the same one she
and Shane were born in. It was also where they first met although they were
very young at the time and had only the vaguest memory of the encounter. Even
though they were a year apart, Shane always said it was destiny especially
since their families hated each other and couldn't even be allowed in the same
room together.

            The
hospital closing wasn't when the feud with their families started, but the
fighting really exploded when it did. People claimed it was because the Haders
were lynxes and the Bachman's were humans. Caroline hated it because it wasn't
true. Her family got along well with anthros. She tried on several occasions to
find the truth behind their families' fighting, but it always led nowhere. Some
people just didn't mix, and their families were a perfect example of that.
Almost perfect anyway.

Despite their families' best
efforts to stay away from one another, their children wound up going to school
together. They became friends, and of course their families did everything they
could to tear them apart. But ironically it brought them closer together. No
matter what her family told her, she couldn't think of any reason to hate Shane
simply because his last name was Hader..

Caroline repositioned herself so
that her head lay in Shane's lap. “Well, I guess that would explain why I'm
sitting in an abandoned building, but having the time of my life."

Shane began stroking her hair.
Every now and again he would hesitate and sigh. Caroline knew something was
bothering him. She could tell in the hesitation of his strokes. Every time he
reached the edge of her hair, he hesitated before lifting his hand and starting
at the top again.

Caroline wasn't much of a romantic;
that was Shane's department. Sure, it got a little annoying at times, but the
lynx could come up with the best date ideas. None of her old boyfriends could
make coming to an abandoned building such a memorable moment. And even she
couldn't deny that dating someone—especially in secret—for eight years was an
accomplishment.

She felt Shane shift slightly
beneath her and squeeze her tighter. “Carol…I…My dad wants us to move."

“I guess that means the time has
come then."

“Yeah, it has."

Caroline reached up and took
Shane's hand. This was the conversation they were dreading for long time now.
It had been eight years since their first official date which hadn't taken
place until they left high school. They knew it was only a matter of time
before the question of their families would come up. They had a choice to make:
either stay with their family and end their relationship, or leave their family
to be with the one they love. Caroline couldn't decide what she wanted to do.
Could she really turn her back on the very people who raised her and were
responsible for the person she was now? Worse, even if she was okay with it,
could she ask Shane to do the same?

Asking their families to put aside
their differences was out of the question. She remembered asking her father
what he would do if she dated someone from the Hader family. He told her if one
of them so much as breathed on her, he would kill them.

The two lay in silence, unmoving.
Caroline ran through their options. Once her family found out who she was
dating, there was good chance they would disown her. It was unlikely Shane's
fate would be any different. They could try to have a long-distance relationship
and sneak away to be together every few months. But how often they could see
each other depended on how far away they would be, and she wasn't sure how she
felt having the bulk of their dates through a computer screen or over the phone.

There was a clanging noise in the
distance that made both of them bolt upright. Shane immediately started blowing
out the candles, plunging them into darkness. Caroline sat in a half-crouched,
half-kneeling position making ready to charge if anyone came through the door. The
light from the moon outside was the only thing they had to see by.

“Were you followed?" Caroline
whispered.

“No, I walked in several circles to
make sure," Shane whispered back. “Might just be a homeless guy trying to find
some shelter."

Either way, it was time to go. They
packed up their things and made ready to leave. Since they were on the first
floor, Shane suggested they leave through the window to avoid running into
anyone in the halls.

Caroline agreed and hopped through
the window first, using the thick blanket they had lain on to avoid cutting
herself on the broken glass on the window sill. She checked the immediate area
around her to make sure no one was around. The area was quiet and the overgrown
weeds surrounding the hospital provided more than enough cover for them if they
stayed low.

“C'mon, Shane, it's clear."

There was no response. Caroline
looked back at the window and noticed there was no sign of Shane.

“Shane?"

She used the light of her phone to
peer through the broken window. The room looked just as desolate and abandoned
as it did when she first entered. Shane's backpack sat in the middle of the
floor.

Caroline chuckled and climbed
through the window. Now wasn't the time for games, but it wouldn't hurt to play
along for just a little bit longer.

It was a game she knew well. At
this point pair of arms would wrap around her body, and Shane would nuzzle and
kiss her neck. She would pretend to struggle for a bit, knowing he would
squeeze her tighter, and then she would give in.

But Shane's touch never came. There
was no sound of anyone anywhere. Caroline's heart began to jog.

“Shane, c'mon, this isn't funny. We
have to go now."

Save for her echo in the empty
room, there was no response. Caroline pulled her pistol from her bag, slung
Shane's bag over her shoulder and delved deeper into the hospital. She hated
that her father had forced gun training on her. He claimed she needed to know
how to protect herself in case someone (namely the Haders) tried to harm her.
Now that she was alone, searching this creepy place for her missing boyfriend,
she was glad he taught her how to fire a gun.

Using the cell's light to guide
her, she searched every room. With each empty room, her palms became sweatier
and her heart beat that much faster. The whole thing reminded her of those
slasher horror movies she loved to watch so much. At some point some psycho
with a knife or a machete would come after her. She pulled back the hammer on
her pistol and raised it to eye level. Let some psycho come after her. They'll
find they picked the wrong victim tonight.

“I swear I'm never watching another
horror movie again," she said under her breath. “And you better be trouble,
Shane because I'm so going to kill you for this."

            A loud
clanging sound behind Caroline caused her to shriek and spin around, holding
both the pistol and the cell phone out in front of her. After sweeping the beam
across the hallway several times, she found a large rat scurrying across the
floor.

            Caroline
sighed and lowered her arms. Suddenly she felt very childish; of course there
was nothing to be afraid of. She and Shane had visited this hospital how many
times over the last few months? If there was really a serial killer hiding out
here, they would've gotten wind of it by now.

            Suddenly a
hand fell on her shoulder. Caroline cried out, spun around, and fired her
pistol. The whole hall lit up briefly as if lightning flashed. The air was
filled with the burning smell of singed fur and gunpowder. Caroline's ears rang
and it felt as if her heart had stopped. She stood there frozen at the horrible
sight before her.

Shane stood before her, thin streams
of blood trickling from the corners of his muzzle, his eyes wide with shock. He
tried to speak, but Caroline's ears still rang from the gunshot and she couldn't
hear his last words before his body crumbled to the floor.

As if time had started moving
again, Caroline dropped her phone and her gun, the sound thundering throughout
the empty hall. The cell phone cracked and its light went out plunging them
into darkness. Even without the light, Caroline found Shane and held him in her
arms. She checked him to see if he was breathing—he wasn't. She searched for a
pulse, but couldn't find one.

            Her mind
began racing with thoughts: What happened? Where did he go? Why didn't he say
anything? Why did he attack her? Did he know that her shooting him was an
accident?

            She had no
answers to any of these questions, and it was too late to ask the one person
who did. She cradled the lifeless corpse of her lover and cried, but strangely
she heard nothing, she felt nothing. She knew the tears streamed down her
cheeks, but she didn't feel them, the cold hardness of the floor she knelt on,
the warmth leaving the body she cradled, or the blood she knew was seeping into
her clothes and skin.

            “What the
hell was that?" a male voice said. Caroline peered into the darkness. She
recognized the owner of the voice as Kyle, her cousin.

            “That was a
gunshot," a female voice, this one belonging Kyle's sister, Mary, answered.

            Caroline fumbled about in the
darkness until she found her pistol. She couldn't risk them finding her. They would
make up a story, say that Shane attacked her. Her father's warning about how
she would need it one day to protect herself from the Haders rung in her ears. She
was never a believer in fate, but now she wondered: Was their families destined
to be mortal enemies?

            She found
that answer didn't matter. All that mattered was that she had made her decision.
Even if it meant leaving her family behind, even if they hated her for it—she
decided she didn't want to live without Shane.

                        Caroline pointed the pistol at her
face and squeezed the trigger. There was a brilliant flash of light and her
world was plunged into darkness.