Part 11

There was a man outside.

David jumped away from the window and looked around frantically for either a place to hide, or an excuse to be in his parent's bedroom. He cast a quick backward glance at the closed door. The door held his eyes for a moment, then he found himself looking back and forth between the window and the door, waiting for...

...something. Shouldn't something be happening?

But nothing did. His frantic movement hadn't caused enough noise to draw the attention of the man outside. Both door and window remained shut and motionless.

Frowning with unsatisfied curiosity, David crept toward the door-

"No." said the mysterious voice. It wasn't a shout or a scream... but it was unmistakably a command. And also unmistakably coming from the the bedroom window.

David turned around. The man he'd seen had been sitting in an old chair just to the left of the window. There hadn't been enough light or time to see who it was, but David hadn't recognized the shape of his father. So who had it been? And why was he whispering through the window?

"You don't have much time," said the voice, which sounded too young to be a man. "And that door is locked. If you touch it, they'll know you're awake. Then you'll never have a chance to find my name."

David hesitated... mind and body both trying to go in several directions at once.

"Come outside," the voice beckoned.

Wary, but still curious, David approached the window once more. It was low, and he could see out of it easily. The man was still there, seated just outside. Shadows hid his face, but darkness wasn't the only reason David couldn't see who he was. The man was slumped down in the chair... one of the chairs from David's house... with his buttocks perched on the very edge of the seat. His head hung low and turned partially away, with his torso resting against the unsteady back of the chair. It didn't look all that comfortable, but it must have been comfortable ENOUGH.

The man was asleep. His snores weren't loud, but they were clear even through the closed window.

"Come outside," the voice repeated.

At first David thought it was coming from the man... but it wasn't. It was.... lower? David stood on the tips of his toes and aimed his eyes downward. There was an empty mug on the ground beside the man's chair, but the voice wasn't coming from that either.

...although that would have been a neat trick indeed...

"Where are you?" David whispered.

"Outside."

David scowled at the darkness around the sleeping man's chair. There was nothing there, but that was EXACTLY what had spoken. The darkness... the shadows... or the place where shadows WOULD have been if it hadn't been dark outside.

That... was... amazing.

Smiling, David eased the window open. It didn't have a lock. The light squeak of the hinges failed to wake the sleeping man, but David eyed him cautiously.

"He'll wake up..." David whined softly.

"He's sleeping your sleep," said the voice. "And you weren't meant to wake for hours."

"But-"

"Come."

David obeyed, hefting himself up and out of the bedroom. He dropped to the ground a few feet beside the man's chair.