Ghosts of Eden by Keith Deininger

sleep when there came a light tapping at his door. He opened his eyes and sat up. The door clicked open and a crack of bluish light seeped into his room; it opened slowly, as if from a subtle breath. Someone stood in the light, her face obscured by the dark. “Garty?” His heart froze: for some reason he was scared, his body trembling. For a moment, he was blinded and the girl standing in the doorway was a pure-white silhouette, like a visiting apparition, stepping toward him. Then, his eyes adjusted to the brightness and he saw Kayla coming forward to talk to him.
    “Kayla? Is everything alright?”
    Kayla stood just inside the room, wringing her hands. “Can I come in?”
    “Yeah. Sure.”
    Kayla pulled the door closed behind her, leapt across the room, and threw herself into Garty’s arms.
    “Alright, alright. It’s okay,” Garty said, sounding as if he were talking to an overly rambunctious dog, but not meaning to. “You’ve been pretty lonely here, huh?”
    Kayla nodded against his shoulder. “Yeah.”
    “Well, I’m here now and it looks like we’re related somehow, so you don’t have to worry.”
    “You mean like brother and sister?”
    “Well—I don’t know about that. But if we have the same uncle, that’s something.”
    Kayla lifted herself and shuffled awkwardly to the side so she was sitting next to Garty on the bed, facing the same direction. “Is it okay if I sleep here tonight?”
    “I guess so. Did you have a bad dream or something?” He turned and Kayla’s eyes were red and watery, her lip beginning to curl.
    “At first I thought they’d go away, now that I was here,” she said, “but they’ve only gotten worse. Every night. I don’t know what to do. My parents are dead. I don’t have anybody… I’m scared.”
    Garty held her again and let her cry. He didn’t say anything for a while; he didn’t know what to say. Then, when her tears had subsided a little, “It’s okay. I have bad dreams too.”
    She looked at him, her face red, her eyes bleary but serious. “You do?” she managed.
    Garty looked away. “I guess I do. Yeah. These past couple of weeks have been insane.” Maybe he had more in common with this girl than he thought, Garty thought to himself, but didn’t say.
    “It’s okay?” Kayla asked.
    “What?”
    “That I stay here tonight?”
    “Yeah, sure. Of course. You take that side and I’ll take this one,” Garty said, indicating the bed. “We better get some sleep and in the morning you can tell me all about yourself and everything you know about this crazy uncle of ours. How does that sound?” He gave Kayla what he hoped was a genuine smile.
    Kayla nodded. “Okay.”
    They got into bed and Garty pulled the blankets up so only their heads were visible and reached to turn out the light.
    “Wait,” Kayla said, then bit her lip. “Is it okay if we leave it on?”
    “Alright,” Garty said, and turned on his side and closed his eyes. Almost immediately, he began to drift on the border of sleep—he was very tired.
    “Garty?” Kayla whispered.
    “Huh.”
    “Have you looked in your closet yet?”
    “Wha?”
    “I looked in mine. It’s strange. It was empty except for a toy-box in the back. It was filled with masks.”
    Garty stirred. Something was wrong, but he was too tired to move.
    “Do you think that’s important?”
    Garty slipped into sleep.

 
     
     
    THREE
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    When light from the rising sun began to fill the room, Kayla slid out of bed and snuck out of the room and down the stairs, leaving Garty to sleep.
    I thought you were a ghost , Garty had said to her. She shivered.
    She crossed to the kitchen. She wanted to get something normal to eat, something small—a bowl of cereal or a slice of toast—before Cassie went to all the trouble to make some big extravagant breakfast of bacon and waffles. In one cabinet she found a box of Cheerios. She opened the box and began to eat the cereal dry. She thought she’d