Alicia was hurrying along, trying to get home before dark, when she saw him again. S/he always forgot to wear a jacket for a while when the weather started to turn, but any thought of the cold was driven from her mind when she caught sight of his reflection in the shop window, standing behind her. She snapped around, but she didn’t see him. He was never there. He never was.

  She looked back at the window, but now she could only see her own face looking back at her. Wrapping her arms around herself, she hurried on.

  The Shadow Man, she called him, for she only ever caught the barest glimpse. In reflections, in darkness, at the edge of her vision. She never quite caught sight of him, and he was never there when she looked closer, but she wasn’t quite catching sight of him more and more often these days. Nobody else could ever see him at all, but then she almost always almost saw him when she was alone.

  He was a large man who wore a black suit, a black hat, and she thought a long black coat or cloak, but it was hard to be sure of that when she only saw glimpses of him. The lines were indistinct. He never did anything. He just looked at her.

  He probably wasn’t real at all, just something in her own head. That thought didn’t make her feel better, though.

  There was a cat slinking into the shadows between the shops, which paused and looked at her for a moment. She’d noticed that she often noticed a cat, or if not a cat than a smaller wild animal, shortly after she’d almost spotted the Shadow Man.

  Alicia spotted another person, which was something of a relief, even if the woman was standing near the sidewalk blowing cigarette smoke towards her. It was a slim woman in a black dress and heavy black makeup standing near the doorway of some shop that sold crystals and candles and Tarot cards and things of that nature. The woman glanced at Alicia with complete disinterest, her eyes barely resting on her for a moment before scanning past.

  But they did stop on something else, something behind Alicia, and she opened her mouth in mild surprise. “You know you have a tail?” she asked, blowing smoke in that direction, “Or maybe ‘shadow’ would be a better word.”

  Alicia stopped dead. “You can see him?”

  “Yes,” said the woman, her eyes still focused on something past Alicia’s shoulder, “and I know who and what he is. Come inside. He won’t follow you here.” She dropped her cigarette and snuffed it out with her shoe before opening the door behind her.

  Alicia glanced nervously behind her. There was still nothing there. She started to step forward.

  A hand fell heavily on her shoulder and forced her down. She felt something fly over her head. She thought it was a bird, but when she looked up again it looked more like a monkey, scrabbling over the woman’s head and clawing at her face. It hissed, but otherwise worked silently. “You!” the woman snarled, grabbing at the little animal, “Get off!”

  The hand closed on the back of Alicia’s shirt and pulled her back. “Do not go in there, Alicia!” The Shadow Man, but now he was there, and how very there he was. She had known, as much as she’d known anything, that he was large and tall, but now in his imposing presence she saw how true that was. He dwarfed her. He spoke firmly, as though he was an authority figure who expected his commands to be obeyed, but there was an edge of pleading to his voice. And the way he pronounced her name, “a-lee-see-a,” with a fourth syllable carried a sense of familiarity. The only person who said her name that way was her mother.

  The woman in the doorway got a hand around the animal, which Alicia saw was really a squirrel, and hurled it to the sidewalk, where it struck with a dull smacking sound and lay still for a moment. There was barely a scratch on her triumphant face. “Let the girl go, Bant,” she said, holding a hand out to Alicia.

  “It is no coincidence,” said the Shadow Man urgently, “that this woman was waiting for you. She knows who you are Alicia, you cannot trust her.” Alicia looked up at him. He was solid now, clearly visible. And while very solid indeed, he looked much more normal, just a person. But she saw his eyes, which were dark pits of shadow.

  Alicia shouted and twisted away from him, stumbling back as she stared at his face in horror.

  “That’s right, girl,” said the woman, “just step inside here.”

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  The cat (hadn’t it been a squirrel?) coughed blood, then choked out in a ragged voice, “RUN, Alicia! Just run!”

  “It’s safe in here!” the woman insisted. She held out a hand, and Alicia reached out for it almost without thinking.

  “No!” said the Shadow Man, firmly. He stomped a foot, and the shadows in the door frame sprang to life, wending around the woman and pulling her back, holding her in place. He drew back a fist and punched her, the shadows breaking away as the force of the impact knocked her back. The displays of crystals and cards came down around her, like she’d been knocked into a backdrop and torn it down, revealing the empty stage behind it. Alicia blinked as she looked at the empty, dusty shelves. It suddenly struck her that she’d never noticed this shop before, and it didn’t seem to have a name. Why hadn’t she noticed that until the illusion failed?

  “Get her out of here, Bant!” shouted the cat.

  The Shadow Man tried to grab her. “You have to come with me, Alicia.”

  But Alicia had found her pocketknife by then. As his hand closed over her arm (those hands were so large!), she stabbed the knife into his arm. He yelled and released her, and she turned to run. The squirrel bounded after her, but she kicked at it and it veered off.

  Alicia ran around a corner and stood next to a building, one she recognized, the candy shop. She looked and did not see the crystal shop at all. She didn’t see the Shadow Man. He wasn’t chasing her. She leaned against the wall and closed her eyes. She felt tears coming. What was happening to her? Was this whole thing in her head? Should she call someone? What would she say if she did?

  Alicia opened her eyes. He was there. The Shadow Man was there, impossibly, in the space between her and the wall. She tried to scream, but his powerful arms closed around her and pulled her against his chest. She couldn’t see, she could barely breathe. The darkness pressed in on her, on her eyes and then on the rest of her. The darkness squeezed the breath out of her and threatened to force the life out, too.

  And then the pressure stopped, and light returned. The Shadow Man shoved Alicia back, and the sudden glare of light from a bare bulb almost blinded her again. She bumped into something and fell back, into a chair. A fairly comfortable armchair. The Shadow Man was breathing heavily. She saw that he was visibly bleeding from his left arm where she’d stabbed him. Grunting, he waved an arm at her. Ropes bound her suddenly to the chair—no, shadows, streaks of shadow that somehow held her tight. She looked around. They were inside, in a room. She had no idea how they’d gotten there.

  The Shadow Man pulled off his overcoat and threw it aside, and then the same with his suit jacket. He unbuttoned his white dress shirt and pulled the left sleeve off, exposing the stab wound in his arm. He closed his other hand over it and squeezed. Shadows stretched from his fingertips and enveloped his arm. When he released it, the cut wasn’t gone, but it looked like it had been healing for at least a few days. The blood smearing the wound was gone. He pulled his shirt back on, wisps of shadow dispelling the blood from it as well (though the hole was still there). As he buttoned it, a squirrel bounded into the room from the open doorway and hopped up on to the Shadow Man’s shoulder. He looked at the little animal, which was also breathing hard and still looked rough and bloodied. “Hang on, O,” he said. He placed a palm on its belly, and shadows extended from his fingertips again, spreading over the animal. When they went away, the squirrel looked a little better.

  The Shadow Man and the squirrel both looked down at Alicia. She had no idea if she could break or slip these bonds, but it seemed pointless to try while he was standing right in front of her, looking down at her. If she escaped right now, he’d just grab her again, and then he’d know she could get out. So, she just returned their looks with a defiant glare.

  Then the squirrel spoke. “Are you hurt, Alicia?” She pronounced her name the same way.

  “Huh?”

  “Are you injured?” asked the Shadow Man, “My magic isn’t well suited to healing, but it’s better than nothing. Did the witch hurt you?”

  “No. You’re the one who attacked me.”

  “No, I—y’know what, fine. Did I hurt you?”

  “I’ll live.”

  The Shadow Man looked at her for a long moment, then with a slight shrug he extracted a shiny, black rectangular object from his pants pocket. He and the squirrel both stared at it for a moment while he squeezed it. The screen lit up.

  Alicia blinked. She had so expected something strange that she had completely failed to recognize a perfectly ordinary cell phone.

  “Doc,” said the Shadow Man into the phone, “You were right. They tried to grab your girl. No, they sent the witch, actually. Yeah, she’s safe with me. I’ve got her, uh, tied up in my basement. Because she stabbed me! Did you know she had Sight? Because if you knew that and didn’t tell me, I’da done this whole thing differently. She saw me, Doc! She knew I was following her, and she was afraid of me. That’s what the witch used to get to her in the first place, said that she would protect her from me. I know, right?

  “Anyway,” he clicked the phone over to speakerphone and held it up, “tell your girl I’m friendly and I can let her up.”

  The display said “Dr. Graham.” That was easy enough to fake, but it really was Alicia’s mother’s voice that spoke. “Alicia, I’m sorry, this is my fault. Please listen to Mr. Bant and Ophelia. They work for me. They’ve been watching you because I asked them to keep you safe. I knew something like this would happen. I didn’t expect you to notice them! That changes things. Mr. Bant, we’re moving up the timeline. Keep Alicia with you until I get there. Three days.” The call ended.

  “Your mother is so dramatic,” said the squirrel as the shadowy bindings holding Alicia to the chair melted away.