Under Darkness (A Sci-Fi Thriller) (Scott Standalones Book 1) Page 3

  “I’m sorry, we didn’t catch that, Curtis,” the anchorwoman back at the station said, her brow furrowing from her corner of the screen. “Did you say something is chasing you?”

  Before Curtis could reply, the cameraman tripped and fell, and the camera went flying. Bill could have sworn he heard screaming in the background as the camera tumbled down the hill, but then the signal died, and the colored bars of a test pattern appeared. A split second later, the anchorwoman’s troubled face took over the entire screen.

  “We umm... appear to be having some technical difficulties right now, but we’ll be back on the scene in just a minute. While we’re waiting, I’m told that NASA has an update for us, so we’re going to go to the mainland now to speak with—”

  The TV winked off with the lights and utter darkness swept over them.

  * * *

  “Dad...” Beth whimpered.

  “It’s okay,” Bill whispered. “I’m here. Everything is going to be okay.”

  “Shit! Shit! Shit!” Toby said.

  “Shut up,” Bill hissed. “I’m going to go get a flashlight.”

  Beth’s cell phone came out. The screen lit her face blue-white; then a dazzling white light snapped on at the back, and the shadows in the living room retreated. “Here, use mine,” she said, passing the phone to him.

  Bill smiled and nodded, accepting the phone and using it to light the way to the pantry closet where he kept batteries, spare light bulbs, and flashlights below the canned goods.

  Beth and Toby followed closely, whispering urgently. Toby cried out and cursed as he ran into something, and Bill smiled.

  Reaching the pantry closet opposite the kitchen, Bill bent down and retrieved a pair of flashlights from the bottom shelf. Taking one for himself and flicking it on, he handed the other to Toby and passed Beth’s cell phone back to her.

  Three clear white beams lit the hallway, bouncing off walls and floor and lighting each other’s faces.

  “What are we going to do?” Beth asked.

  “We aren’t going to do anything,” Bill said. “You’re staying right here.”

  “Brah, you shouldn’t go anywhere, either.”

  “I have a hotel full of guests in the dark with no water, all terrified out of their minds. The least I can do is pass out flashlights.”

  “You don’t want to be alone out there, man,” Toby said. “Da kine on the TV said something about da kine chasin’ him.”

  Bill frowned. Da kine was local pidgin for whatchamacallit, or basically anything that you couldn’t or didn’t want to name.

  Bill clapped a hand on Toby’s shoulder and squeezed hard. “Don’t worry, Toby, I won’t be alone. You’re coming with me.”

  Chapter 5

  “Don’t go,” Beth said, her heart skipping erratically in her chest. She couldn’t believe this was happening.

  “You’ll be fine,” her dad said, rattling the door chain as he slid it off.

  “Yeah, brah, let’s just hang here and wait for the power to come back. People got their cell phones for flashlights.” Toby nodded to Beth, and she squeezed his hand. She appreciated the effort, but she knew her dad. Once he got an idea in his head...

  His eyes pinched, the crows’ feet around them scrunching up like accordions. Her dad was only forty-three, but he’d managed to add a couple of years over the past eighteen months with the Hawaiian sun.

  “I’d also like to see what happened to the power,” Bill said. “It might just be a surge that tripped the breakers.”

  Beth chewed her lower lip. “We don’t know what’s out there.”

  Bill smiled tightly and shook his head. “I don’t buy that this is aliens.”

  “You gotta wake up, man!” Toby said. This is E-effin-T. Their mothership’s blockin’ the sun, just like in Independent Day.”

  “It’s Mr. Steele or Boss, not man, or brah. And I think you mean Independence Day.”

  “Sure, Boss.”

  Bill’s eyes flashed, but he shook his head. “As for whatever is blocking the sun, it could be an orbital test of some new technology. A low-flying satellite with a solar sail, for example.”

  “You don’t really believe that,” Beth said. “You’re just trying to make me feel better.”

  “We’ll be back soon. Keep the door locked.”

  “But—”

  Bill opened the door to a darkened hallway and dragged Toby out with him. Their flashlights bobbed on the opposite wall. Beth felt warm, humid air swirl in, driven by a whistling breeze from exterior openings at the near and far ends of the hall.

  Beth clutched the door handle and began to ease the door shut. Her father flashed a reassuring grin and nodded. Toby looked much less sure of himself, his flashlight sweeping in broad arcs as he checked the walls and floor for monsters.

  “Lock the door,” Bill whispered.

  Beth closed it with a click and flicked the deadbolt on; then she slid the brass chain back into place and quickly spun around to make sure nothing crept up behind her. Of course, nothing was there, but that didn’t stop her palms from sweating or her heart from thundering in her chest.

  “Come on, Beth, get yourself together,” she whispered. “You’re safe here. You’re on the third floor, and there’s no way in besides the front door.”

  Creeping back to the living room couch, Beth swept her phone light around in jittery arcs. Shadows danced in the kitchen as the beam shone over the bar counter beside the kitchen table. Something could easily hide behind the counter. The darkened hall to the bedrooms was another source of anxiety. Her dad’s bedroom had its own balcony. Was the sliding door locked? She doubted it. Why bother when they were three floors up? Beth swept her phone into line with the blackout curtains drawn across the living room balcony. Her dad had shut the blinds, but had he also locked the doors? She couldn’t remember; she’d been focused on the TV at the time. The TV anchor’s bemused voice echoed through Beth’s head—did you say something is chasing you?

  Beth hurried up to the living room balcony on shaking legs, reached blindly past the curtains, and yanked the locking lever down. She felt the mechanism hook into place, and then tested the door, trying to slide it open. It moved a centimeter before catching on the lock and holding fast.

  A shaky sigh escaped her lips, and Beth turned around. The hallway yawned before her, its contents unknown, impossible to see from this angle. The kitchen and all its shadows lay to one side, perfect for an ambush if something were waiting for her there. She froze, her heart pounding and breathing reduced to shallow gasps. She wanted to crawl into her bed and hide.

  “Enough,” Beth whispered to herself. “You’re sixteen, not six.”

  Emboldened by her declaration, she took long strides toward the hall. At the opening, she shone her phone light down to the end. Shadows scurried away like cockroaches. Her dad’s door lay open at the end, pale moonlight pooling on the tiles. The eclipse made Beth feel like she’d jumped into a time machine and somehow skipped the whole afternoon. Whatever was blocking the sun it had left the moon free to shine, even though it was only—Beth checked the time on her phone—two thirty in the afternoon. Wasn’t the Moon only supposed to come up at night? Maybe she should have paid more attention in science class.

  Beside her dad’s door, the folding louvered doors that concealed the washer and dryer stack were folded in the middle and slightly ajar.

  Adrenaline sparked in Beth’s fingertips. Remembering that her fears were childish and had no actual basis, she smiled and shook her head, striding confidently down the hall. She shone her light into the kitchen as she went by, but saw nothing hiding behind the kitchen counter. Next up was the bathroom, and likewise, nothing was hiding behind the sliding glass door of the shower. She didn’t even bother to open the door to her room and check inside. Her pace slowed only when she reached the end of the hall. She grabbed the handle of the louvered doors and planted her foot against them while scanning her father’s room. His bed was made and gleaming with
moonlight. The sliding glass doors to his balcony were cracked open. A gentle breeze whistled through the gap, almost inaudible over the drumbeat of her heart. Beth’s guts clenched. Her dad must have accidentally left the doors ajar. Eyes flicking to the louvered doors she was holding, Beth gave them a quick shove.

  But the doors bounced back. She blinked in terror, acid dread bubbling up and stabbing like a hot knife in her chest. Something blocked the door.

  Beth tried again, harder this time. The door almost folded straight, but then it sprang back and scrolled halfway open.

  Beth screamed and stumbled away, tripping over her own feet. She fell hard, instinctively throwing up the hand holding her phone up to shield her face, while her other went back to cushion her fall.

  Something dark leapt down from the top shelf and landed at her feet with an airy whup. She screamed as she kicked the creature away, but it kept coming at her. Scrambling backward, she aimed her phone at it to get a good look— it was just a pillow.

  Beth laughed until her breath came in halting gasps. “Some monster you are.” Pushing off the floor, a sharp pain erupted in her wrist, and then another from her tailbone. Beth winced and let out a shuddery breath. She picked up the pillow and stuffed it into the top shelf above the dryer. Now the louvered doors closed and clicked into place. Shining her phone light back into her dad’s room, she headed for the open doors to his balcony. Hairs prickled along the nape of her neck as she realized that she hadn’t checked her dad’s en suite bathroom.

  But she forced her fears down, remembering the pillow scare. At the balcony, Beth hesitated with her sweaty palm greasing the cool metal handle of the sliding glass door.

  Not knowing what was out there only amplified her fears. Steeling herself, she yanked the door open and stepped out into the warm, steamy air. The smell of salty ocean mingled with fresh vegetation and fragrant flowers. At the open end of the U-shaped Koa Kai complex, the dark, rippled ocean shone with a narrow river of silver from the still-rising moon. A wide band of stars sparkled along the horizon, up to an invisible barrier at about forty-five degrees. The sky was pure black above that.

  Waves whispered to shore amidst the distant, muffled roar of machinery. Probably the generators from the Marriott next door. Beth couldn’t see any lights over the moonlit rooftops of adjacent buildings in the Koa Kai, but she suspected they’d find the Marriott basking in its own lights if they wandered over there.

  Her eyes dipped down to see the courtyard below cloaked in oily shadows. The pool formed a black stain. Only the faintest glimmer of moonlight sparkled on its surface. Beth shone her light down, but the beam dispersed long before it illuminated anything. She turned her ear to the ground and listened—

  The breeze rustled palm fronds, generators droned from the Marriott, and waves swished across wet sand.

  Her dad was right. Aliens weren’t invading. She began to feel stupid for being so scared. On the water she was fearless, she would tackle any wave, no matter how high—just like she’d tackled Toby’s friend, Matt, and smashed his nose on the pavement. It wasn’t like her to be afraid.

  Beth turned and walked back through the sliding doors. As she slid them shut, a new sound slithered in—a splash.

  Fresh terror electrified Beth’s veins. That sound had come from the pool. Surely none of the guests had gone out for a swim in utter darkness, with the sky falling all around them. But what else could it be? A stray dog? A bird?

  Beth slid the door open another foot and popped her head out. More splashing... followed by voices. A man and a woman.

  Beth let out her breath in a rush, then shut and locked the door with a snort. “It takes all kinds of crazy to make a world,” she muttered as she drew the curtains across the glass. Somehow knowing there were people out there in the pool made her feel better. If aliens hadn’t gotten them, they definitely wouldn’t get her. But somehow this didn’t seem like an extraterrestrial threat anymore. Her dad’s explanation of some new technology seemed a lot more likely—some kind of solar shield from an experimental satellite.

  Except that didn’t explain the meteors.

  Beth swept the divergent thought aside with a frown as she headed back to the living room to wait for her dad and Toby. There had to be a reasonable explanation for all of this. Just as she was flopping into the couch, a woman’s muffled scream yanked Beth’s eyes to the curtained balcony.

  Chapter 6

  “Shhh, someone’s going to hear us!” Melanie said.

  Paul ran one hand down her naked backside, the other up her front, straying briefly between her legs, then up to cup her bare breasts. “Let them hear. They’re all hiding in their rooms,” he said, pressing her back against the edge of the pool.

  “Maybe we should be, too,” Melanie replied, sounding suddenly scared and sober. After the sun had magically disappeared and the meteors began raining down, they’d emptied the mini bar together. Dutch courage. Paul now had enough of it coursing through his veins to make him feel invincible. The resort lost power halfway through their binge, leaving them to grope each other in the dark, something they would have been doing with or without the mysterious eclipse and blackout—what else were honeymoons for?

  Then in their drunken state, they’d stripped off their remaining clothes and dashed out the doors of their ground floor garden suite to the pool.

  Paul trailed kisses down his wife’s throat and pressed himself more insistently against her.

  “Paul...”

  “Mmmmm,” he mumbled while nipping at her earlobe.

  “Let’s go back inside. I thought I heard something in the bushes.”

  He stopped and humored her by scanning their surroundings. The pool shimmered with a narrow band of moonlight peeking through the fronds of a palm tree, but everything else was too black to see. The horizon was a dark screen against soaring black trunks of palm trees and the sheer black walls of the surrounding buildings. Crickets hummed, and some kind of machinery roared faintly; the pool sloshed with echoes of their movements, but Paul didn’t hear any bushes rustling.

  “It’s just your imagination, Mel.”

  “What if it isn’t? What if aliens are blocking the sun with a spaceship and those meteors were landing craft?”

  Paul snorted. “This is some freaky shit, that’s for sure, but it’s not ET. Hundred to one we’re dealing with some super-secret Russian satellite—or maybe Chinese. Remember when they said they’d put that artificial moon in the sky? Everyone thought they were crazy, and then they did it. And then it crashed.” Paul chuckled darkly.

  “Shhhh!” Melanie urged.

  “There’s nothing out here.” As he said that, he snaked a hand around under the water and pinched his wife’s butt.

  She jumped and screamed in terror. Then, realizing it was him, she splashed water in his face. “That’s not funny, Paul!” She began wading away from him, heading for the nearest gleaming silver ladder.

  “Hey, where are you going?”

  “Back to our room.”

  “Mel, come on! I was just screwing around.”

  “Well, now you’re going to have to do that by yourself. You can join me when you’re ready to apologize.” Melanie yanked herself halfway out of the pool, and Paul got a tantalizing look at her naked backside in the moonlight. A split second later she went streaking back to their suite.

  With his alcohol-numbed brain too slow to react immediately, Paul stared blankly after his wife’s vanishing form until he heard the glass door to their room slide shut behind her. Frustrated by her sudden departure, Paul decided to stay in the pool for a while. Let her worry.

  Flipping over, he floated up on his back and began swimming leisurely to the other side. There weren’t any stars above, which he thought was strange—or maybe not so strange; whatever had blocked the sun was obviously blocking them too.

  A lone meteor fell flaming from the sky, heading inland to the mountains in the center of the island. The shower was over.

  Paul�
�s knuckles grazed the edge of the pool, and he grabbed it to stop himself before his head could collide with the wall. Maybe the backstroke wasn’t such a good idea.

  He flipped over to grab the edge of the pool with both hands, and floated there, eyes peeking over the rim to the distant sheen of the ocean. He listened to the gentle waves from his own movements lapping at the side of the pool and glugging in and out of the pool skimmer’s trap door. A gentle breeze clattered through the palm trees, crickets sang, and the ocean rumbled with a suddenly larger set of waves—probably echoes from the meteor that had landed in the water earlier.

  The water grew calm now that Paul had stopped moving, the air became still, and then even the crickets fell silent.

  Feeling suddenly exposed, Paul shivered and turned around. Maybe it was time to go back inside. He didn’t want Mel to worry too much.

  Before he could push off the wall and swim to the other side, something broke the still water with a muted splash. The other side of the pool was too dark to see except for moonlit ripples marching out to greet Paul. Behind their leading edge, bigger ripples curved in a bow wave around a partially submerged body as it swam toward him.

  Paul smiled slowly. Melanie had come back to scare him—tit for tat. Good. Maybe after she got even, they could get back to enjoying their honeymoon.

  “I see you,” he said. “You’re not going to get me like that, Mel. You’ve got to have the element of surprise.”

  The bow wave disappeared as Mel stopped swimming—or swam down deeper to avoid detection. He cast about, groping blindly under the water to catch her before she could catch him.

  The waves of her approach reached him without her, rocking him gently against the wall. Long seconds passed, and the rippled surface of the pool grew still once more. Doubt furrowed Paul’s brow, scratching through the patina of his drunken bravado. “Okay, you got me, Mel. You can come up for air now.”