Free Darkness & Shadows by Andrew E. Kaufman Page A

money working at an off-campus convenience store and bought her a necklace—amethyst and aquamarine, their birthstones, set in sterling silver—and put it in a special box with a red ribbon. To set the mood, he placed white candles throughout her room, lighting them when he knew she’d be on her way back from class. He wanted the timing to be perfect.
    Patrick heard footsteps coming down the hall and rushed into her favorite chair. Nervously clenching the box in his hand, he imagined her look of surprise when she walked into the room and saw what he’d done.
    The knob turned. Patrick stood.
    Marybeth backed into the room, struggling with an armful of books as she pulled the door closed. She turned, and immediatelyeverything dropped from her hands onto the floor. Her mouth opened slightly, and her vision locked on the candles.
    “Happy anniversary, baby!” Patrick said with a big smile, walking toward her, holding out the box.
    Marybeth didn’t speak or move, her expression frozen, tears welling. Then something changed: her eyes turned cold and dark, and her lips began to tremble, and Patrick knew it wasn’t joy he was seeing—it was something else.
    “Baby, what’s wrong?” he said.
    She didn’t answer. She was still staring at the candles, trapped in a daze.
    “Marybeth?”
    She swung her head toward him. Her hands began to shake, and in a slurred voice he barely recognized, she mumbled, “And death and hell were put into the Sea of Fire. This is the second death…”
    Patrick angled his head away slightly, holding his troubled gaze on her. “What?”
    Her expression changed again, as if seeing Patrick there for the first time, and through a high-pitched shriek, she yelled,
“The Sea of Fire is hellfire!
”
    Patrick was speechless.
    Marybeth let out the most piercing scream he’d ever heard. She threw her arms out hard, knocking him in the face. The box dropped from his hand as he stumbled back. She ran from the room and down the hall. Patrick went after her. By the time he reached the stairwell, he could already hear her outside in the courtyard, screaming,
“Burning, burning, burning!
”
    He found her standing on the ledge of the fountain, her eyes filled with a kind of terror Patrick was sure he’d never before seen.
“I’m burning!
” she shouted, frantically pulling off her clothes and throwing them into the water.
“I’m burning! Help me!
” Patrick tried to pull her from the fountain’s rim, but she elbowed him hardin the chest, sending him down onto his back. Then she hurled herself into the water.
    Patrick lay on the grass in horrified silence, his chest aching with both physical and heartfelt pain as Marybeth thrashed her naked body wildly in the pool of water through panicked sobs, moaning like some tortured animal.
    After a while, she settled into a dull, disconnected state, still in the water, wet hair clinging to her face. With knees drawn to her chest, arms wrapped tightly around them, she rocked herself, staring off into some faraway place. Patrick stepped into the water and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder; he could feel her whole body trembling as she gazed up at him in injured silence.
    After getting Marybeth back in her room and into bed, Patrick headed to his dorm.
    And wrote the word
tangled
over 150 times.
    The next day when he saw her, Marybeth acted as if nothing had happened. She wore the necklace he’d left on her dresser and gave no explanation for her outburst, but he knew what was wrong—he just didn’t know why or where it came from. Patrick later looked up the words she’d spoken, hoping for some kind of explanation. The phrase was a verse from the Bible in Basic English: Revelation 20:14.
    It meant the incorrigible would be thrown to the fire and burned.
    Patrick stared out at the water, shaking his head, once more remembering the despair he felt that night. Back then it seemed like a cruel fluke that she’d died in a fire. Now it felt like something