The barn door swung open with a groan that sounded like a whale dying in the deep, and young Thomas Whitmore stood there, holding the thing that had been sleeping in the hayloft for three days, which was not a cat, nor a dog, nor a rat, nor any beast that the farmers of the Blackwater Valley had ever seen, but a creature of pure, liquid light, a thing that seemed to be made of the moon itself squeezed through a sieve until it became a soft, humming mass that pulsed against his chest like a second heart. He did not know how it had gotten into the loft, nor did he know why it had chosen him, for it had ignored his mother, it had ignored his father, it had ignored the old cat who lived under the porch, and it had only come to him, Thomas, who was the quietest boy in the school and the one who spent the most time sitting by the creek, watching the water carry away the leaves, and it was now late afternoon, the sky turning the color of a bruised plum, and the air smelled of damp earth and the distinct, metallic scent of ozone that always preceded the arrival of Mr. Halloway, the man who owned the land, the man who owned the roads, the man who owned the very air they breathed, and Thomas could feel the presence of the man before he saw him, a heavy, suffocating weight that pressed against the back of his neck, a pressure that made his knees weak and his vision blur, and he tightened his arms around the glowing thing, which was warm, and soft, and began to sing, a low, resonant hum that vibrated in his bones and made the dust motes in the air dance in spirals of gold.

Mr. Halloway was a tall man, so tall that he had to duck to enter the barn, and he wore a suit that was as dark as the night, and his eyes were small and hard and black as river stones, and he did not speak, not at first, but he walked slowly toward Thomas, his shoes crunching on the straw, and the sound was loud in the silence, a relentless, rhythmic crunch that seemed to measure out the seconds of Thomas’s life, and Thomas looked down at the creature in his arms, and he saw that it was looking up at him, and it had no eyes, but it saw, it saw everything, and it saw the fear in Thomas’s heart, and it saw the love, the fierce, obsessive love that Thomas had for his brother, for his sister, for his mother, a love that was so deep it felt like drowning, and the creature pulsed brighter, and Thomas felt a surge of power, a heat that started in his stomach and spread to his fingertips, and he knew, with a certainty that was terrifying, that he could make this man disappear, that he could crush him, that he could turn him into dust, and the thought was seductive, it was sweet, it tasted like honey and blood, and he wanted to do it, he wanted to use the power to make the world right, to make the pain stop, to make the injustice vanish, and he raised his hand, and the light in the creature’s body flared, blindingly bright, and the barn shook, and the hay bales fell over, and Mr. Halloway stopped walking, and he tilted his head, and he smiled, and it was a smile that did not reach his eyes, a smile that was cold and empty, and he said, in a voice that was like dry leaves skittering over pavement, "You don't know what you have, boy, you don't know what that thing is, you think it's magic, you think it's power, but it's just a trap, it's just a piece of yourself, it's the part of you that hates, the part of you that wants to destroy, and if you let it go, if you let it burn, you'll lose yourself, you'll become nothing, you'll become a ghost, a whisper, a memory, and I will be here, I will always be here, because I am the one who feeds on that, I am the one who lives on the darkness, and if you kill me, you will kill the part of you that is human, the part of you that feels, the part of you that loves, and you will be alone, you will be empty, and that is a fate worse than death, that is a fate worse than anything you can imagine, and do you understand, boy, do you understand that you are not the hero, you are the victim, you are the one who is being eaten, and the only way to survive is to give me what I want, to give me the light, to give me the power, and in exchange, I will let you live, I will let your family live, I will let them have a roof over their heads, and food on their tables, and peace in their hearts, and isn't that what you want, isn't that what you really want, to be safe, to be loved, to be protected, or do you want to be a monster, do you want to be the thing that destroys, do you want to be the darkness, or do you want to be the light, and the choice is yours, the choice is always yours, and it is a choice that will define you, not for a moment, but for all eternity, and you must choose, you must choose now, or I will choose for you, and I will choose the darkness, and I will choose the end."

Thomas looked at the creature, and the creature looked at him, and the humming stopped, and the light dimmed, and he felt a coldness, a profound, absolute coldness, that spread through his body, and he looked at Mr. Halloway, and he saw the truth, he saw that the man was not a man, he was a shadow, a hole in the world, a place where nothing grew, a place where nothing lived, and he saw that the creature was not a weapon, it was a mirror, it was the reflection of his own soul, the part of him that was pure, the part of him that was good, the part of him that loved his brother, who was sick, who was dying, who needed him, who needed hope, and he understood, with a sudden, sharp clarity, that Mr. Halloway was lying, that there was no choice, that there was no trade, that the only way to save his brother was to save himself, that the only way to be human was to be brave, and he looked at the light in his hands, and he saw that it was not a gift, it was a burden, it was a responsibility, it was the weight of his own existence, and he knew that he had to let it go, not to Mr. Halloway, not to the darkness, but to the world, to the sky, to the stars, to the place where the light belonged, and he opened his arms, and the creature rose, and it was beautiful, it was terrible, it was everything, and it flew out of the barn, and it flew up, up, up, into the night, and it burst, and it rained, it rained light, it rained fire, it rained hope, and it fell on the town, and it fell on the fields, and it fell on the river, and it fell on the people, and it healed, it healed the sick, it healed the old, it healed the broken, it healed the world, and Mr. Halloway screamed, and he reached for the light, and the light burned him, and he turned to ash, and the ash scattered in the wind, and Thomas stood in the barn, and he was alone, and he was empty, and he was free, and he walked out into the night, and the sky was clear, and the stars were bright, and the air was clean, and he felt the cold, and he felt the pain, and he felt the love, and he knew that he was still there, he knew that he was still human, he knew that he was still himself, and he walked home, and he did not look back, because there was nothing left to look at, only the future, only the path, only the long, long road ahead, and the road was dark, and the road was hard, and the road was lonely, but it was his, it was his to walk, it was his to bear, it was his to choose, and he chose to walk, and he chose to live, and he chose to love, and that was enough, that was all he needed, that was all there was, and the light faded, and the night deepened, and the world turned, and Thomas Whitmore walked on.