A short story

The Shadow Seekers
by Fiona Gibson


Part One


A cool breeze rustled the treetops against the ashen grey sky. On the bare branches Clare could see the silhouette of a solitary bird. It had the look of an omen, warning her to go home and forget the whole affair. "I'm here now," she told herself, "I've come this far. I have to meet him, at least."

At that moment, a movement behind her caused the bird to take flight, swooping away beyond the trees. She turned to see Aaron striding towards her along the path from the river. She'd been waiting for a while now but hadn't noticed his approach. He must have come over the bridge at the edge of the clearing, she thought. Perhaps he had parked on one of the farm lanes on the other side.

Clare had had the feeling that she shouldn't use the public car park. She had found an old gamekeeper's hut half a mile away and parked behind that. Added to the distance through the trees to find the meeting point, she'd probably walked a good two miles to get here. Although what they were doing wasn't technically wrong, an instinct had told her not to be conspicuous.

As Aaron approached, his features became defined in the harsh winter light. He was tall, taller than her by a few inches, and he looked slim under his winter jacket, though his shoulders were broad. He'd obviously come straight from the office, as he was wearing smart trousers, but he'd changed into walking boots somewhere on the way here. Longish auburn hair framed his face, a sharp widow's peak drew Clare's eye to a strong Roman nose but unruly dark curls protruding below his ears softened the squareness of his jaw. His face coloured as she stepped forward to meet him, his right hand nervously lifting up to tuck an imagined stray hair behind his ear. He put this hand out to Clare when they reached each other. She fumbled awkwardly to remove her glove then shook his outstretched hand.

"It's nice to meet you," he said, more firmly than he had intended, "I mean, to see you face to face at last. I'm glad you came."

"Me too. I mean, it's nice to meet you too." Clare hid her face as she put her glove back on, gently cursing her own nerves. "To be honest, I was just about to leave when you arrived."

"I'm sorry I was late. Someone caught me as I was leaving. I need to be back at two, now, I'm afraid."

"That's okay. Shall we take a walk?" Clare couldn't really have cared less if they walked, stood or sat down, but she needed to give herself time to think.

"Sure," Aaron nodded, "there's a path along the river over here."

They set off walking, taking a few paces to get into a rhythm beside one another. After calming his breath a little, Aaron was the first to speak. "So have you ever met someone like this before?"

"No." Clare paused. It had all been very fast. Sam only signed her up for the site two days ago and Aaron had contacted her yesterday morning. Although they'd spent all day yesterday chatting online, they hadn't even spoken until now and knew virtually nothing about each other. On Saturday morning she'd been sharing her relationship woes with Sam and by Monday afternoon she was meeting a stranger in a wooded area. It was insane! Everything she'd ever been told about women's safety taught her that this was exactly the situation to avoid. "I've always been very cautious about dating. I've always known someone for a long time before starting a relationship. Using a site like... Well like that was all quite new to me... No offence."

Aaron laughed nervously. "It's alright. I've actually never made it this far before either." As Clare looked at him, he continued, "I've had contact with women on the site before, but the only time I arranged to meet someone she didn't show up."

They walked on in silence for a few minutes. Although Clare kept her head down she could feel Aaron beside her looking up at the sky. She got the sense that he was searching for inspiration. Eventually, Aaron broke the ice again. "I guess since you're new to this, you have questions you're keen to ask. Do you want to try one?"

It's true she had lots of questions. They'd talked for hours yesterday about themselves, their likes and dislikes, their childhoods, their families. They'd compared favourite movies and music and they'd even had a few jokes at the expense of each other's tastes. They hadn't talked about dating or relationships, though, and Clare had noticed.

"Yes. Have you used regular dating sites before?"

"Yes."

"Have you always used online dating?"

"No."

"What made you start?"

"I had a few relationships in my early twenties but as I got more serious about my career I didn't have the time or chance to meet people."

Clare took this in quietly, although it wasn't unexpected. She knew the next question was the most important but it was also the hardest to ask. Before she could find the words, Aaron interrupted her thoughts. He spoke calmly, without emphasis or insinuation. "What made you use this site? Why not start with a regular dating app?"

"My friend Sam signed me up. I've just come out of a relationship that ended before it could get going because of... well, overzealous family and friends. I was telling her about the pressure I've been under and that I just need some space if I'm to start seeing anyone else and she suggested this." It was actually easier to ask now. "What about you? Why Shadow Seekers? ... Do you need to keep a low profile or are you hiding?"

Aaron took a deep breath. He'd obviously been waiting for this. They'd been walking for so long now that Clare wasn't sure she could have found her way back alone. She spotted a bench set back in the trees and gestured to him to sit down. He looked across the river for a minute then up to the sky. He raised his right hand to tuck the invisible hair behind his ear then seemed to pause halfway. After another breath he lifted his hand to his forehead and ran his fingers through his thick rusty curls. With a slight gesture he made his resolve to begin whatever he was about to say.

As he turned on the bench to face Clare more directly, his gaze moved over her shoulder then his face fell and his eyes widened. For a moment Clare stared at him in confusion, before turning to look at what had caught his eye. She saw a thin, middle-aged woman coming around the path from the bend beyond the trees, wearing a black tracksuit top and carrying a water bottle. She looked like a health fanatic and didn't seem out of place on a woodland walk. But when Clare turned back to ask Aaron what was wrong, the colour had drained from his face, his eyes were wide as if he were a cartoon and his mouth gaped like a fish frozen in a deli counter. She touched his hand gently and he shook himself from his absorption. As the woman came nearer, he just had time to whisper to Clare, "I'm so sorry," before jumping from the bench, grabbing the woman by the shoulders and screaming at her.

It was Clare's turn to watch open-mouthed and she took a full minute for the conversation being shouted between these two figures in front of her to penetrate her consciousness. She vaguely heard Aaron saying that he wasn't in a relationship with the woman and in fact he wasn't in any relationship. The thing that snapped her to attention was the woman gesticulating towards her and yelling, "Who's she then?"

While Aaron began to respond, the woman reached into a fold of her coat and pulled out something which glinted dark against the grey sky and its reflection in the river. In the moment that Clare registered it as a knife, the woman plunged it into Aaron's stomach, stepped back and hissed, "If you want him, you can deal with him, bitch." The woman turned and marched quickly back the way she came.

Clare dove forward to her knees as Aaron crumpled to the ground. She ran one hand through his hair as the other hand searched for the wound. She suddenly realised that the knife was still lodged in his side. "Are you okay?" she asked, foolishly. Aaron nodded. "Try not to move. It's still there. You might be okay if it hasn't done too much damage. Stay still."

She flung her hand into her coat pocket and pulled out her mobile. Transferring her phone to her left hand and grasping her right glove off in one motion, she dialled 999 and waited to ask for an ambulance. It was then she remembered that she had no idea where they were. After saying that she was with someone who'd been stabbed, she began by naming the B-road she'd taken to the car park and the gamekeeper's hut. As the call operator began to question her, she tried to describe the path they'd taken from the clearing and the bridge Aaron had walked from. The ambulance was on its way but the operator was now managing to narrow down the area if she could just say how far they'd gone along that path. Clare couldn't say how long they'd walked for. She knew they'd arranged to meet at noon but she hadn't looked at the time when Aaron arrived. She could only guess. The operator told her that the crew would do their best to find them as quickly as possible when they arrived, but Clare would need to keep Aaron safe and comfortable.

Over the next several minutes, Clare regularly checked Aaron's pulse, put her hand inside his shirt to feel his heart rate and monitored the blood around the knife to make sure it wasn't spreading. But while the operator talked her through these things and quietly kept her calm while they waited, the main thing Clare did was hold Aaron's hand and smooth his hair as he looked up at her. Whether from dizziness or real feeling, Aaron had been staring with soft eyes at her since the moment she landed on her knees beside him.

When the emergency crew arrived after what felt like an hour but was probably only ten minutes, Clare stood up to let them work, but Aaron didn't take his eyes off her. Only when the paramedic began manipulating his head and neck did he move his gaze to the sky. When they finally moved him on to a stretcher and began to wheel him off, one of the paramedics asked Clare if she'd like to be listed as next of kin and go with him to the hospital. She looked over to see what he'd say but he'd obviously passed out with the movement, so she just nodded and followed after them.

No time later, she was sitting in the back of the ambulance holding Aaron's hand in both of hers, when a voice said quietly, "So what did you think of online dating?"

She looked down. Aaron had woken up and was dopily staring at her. She let out a small laugh despite her surroundings. The paramedic in the back with them looked round for a second, so she lowered her head and whispered, "Not bad. Not sure if I'll do it again. But first, you have some explaining to do."

Aaron nodded and closed his eyes. She thought he'd maybe fallen unconscious again, then she heard, "Yeah. I'm fed up with the shadows."


_______________________________________



Thank you for reading my first piece of fiction. I haven't written fiction since leaving school, so this is a strange experience. Your honest feedback is valued, in everything from the story itself to the style or technique to individual sentences or paragraphs. It doesn't claim to be terribly clever writing, it is only a few hours' work, but I hope you've enjoyed it nonetheless.

For the record, the story is a complete work of fiction. It's not based on anyone or anything real, the characters are total figments of my imagination, the events don't resemble real life and the website doesn't exist. Or at least it doesn't exist to my knowledge!


Thanks, as always, for your support.

Peace and love.

FG xx