Shadows in the Dark (12 page)

“You’re exactly
where you need to be.”

“But what about the guy who
‘covers the world in fire’? Where do I find him?” As much as I
hated to ask, I needed to know.

“You already did,
Karen. Didn’t you see that?
Nick
is my brother.”

What? No way.

“Ni... Nick?” She nodded her head,
still smiling. “Then how are you-”

“A few months
ago, Nick found out what he could do. But it costed the lives of me
and our parents. He didn’t mean to, but it happened. Now he sees
the world as nothing after what he did.” She gained a sad look on
her face.

He killed her? He killed his
family? That’s... that’s awful.

“Sadly, I can’t
show myself to him like I am with you. If I do, he’ll lose it.
That’s why I am talking with you. I need you to protect my brother
from something... evil. Something so evil that just talking about
it makes me drown in fear.”

“Protect him? What is there to
protect him from? He can make fire appear out of
nowhere.”

“That hooded man
that’s been following you guys... he’s very important.” She knows
who he is? “He’s been waiting for you guys for years. He waited
until you were the most vulnerable. Which is when you were
confused, when you just found out about your power. But, most
importantly, he waited until you were
together.

“There are things you must know
about him. He can move things with his mind, like you. But it’s
much more powerful. He can flings things like they are ragdolls. He
can throw you so far that you won’t live to remember it.

“He can also get
inside your head. He can make you see anything he wants you to see.
He can make you do anything he wants you to do. This man is very,
very dangerous, Karen.” I stared at her with wide eyes.

“Tomorrow, he
will confront you. All of you. When he does, you
must
be ready for it.
You need to know what to do and when to do it.”

“What does he want?” I
asked.

“He wants to kill
you. All of you. He sees you as the most threatening thing this
world has to offer.” She walked over to me and grabbed my hand,
holding it tight.
“There is something you
must
know for when he confronts you. When you see him,
you need to tell him the truth. The truth about
everything.”

My heart stopped
as she told me the
truth.
Now, I get it. I’m not confused anymore, and I am
not afraid.
Everything has come together.
Everything comes down... to this.

…..

Joshua

I sat on the floor of the woods,
resting against a tree, watching the stars. It was freezing cold,
but I didn’t care. As long as I was away from my family, I was
okay. A few hours ago, a police search was on me, searching the
woods and everything. I hid from them up in a tree, looking down at
them as they searched for me.

It was scary being out here all
alone, it really was. I felt more alone than I ever had in my whole
life. I nearly killed my little sister. She looked at me and
thought she was running for her life when she ran down that
hallway. Once you see that in your lifetime... you never forget it.
My own sister abandoned me. My own family.

Bugs chirped all throughout the
woods, speaking with each other, jumping around. It was annoying,
but peaceful at the same time. It started to relax me, making my
eyes drowsy and droop down heavily. Before I knew it, I was
asleep.

Then, I smelt something burning.
Again.

I jolted up and saw where I was. I
was in the middle of the burnt field again.

I started to freak out, not
wanting to know what I would see. Every other vision I had was
terrifying. Who knows what I could see now?

I looked around, trying to see in
the thick smoke. Further out, I could see a figure crawling this
way. A low moan came from that direction. A moan of
pain.

I stopped breathing, trying to be
silent as possible as the figure appeared, crawling out into view.
It was the hooded man from the vision before.

His body collapsed, sending ash
into the air from underneath him. His hoodie was covered in blood
and ash. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him as he sat there on
ground in pain, blood flowing through his obvious
wounds.

That’s when another figure came
from the smoke, followed by two more. At first I didn’t recognize
them. But it quickly came to me. It was Nick and the other kids
from before.

They stood over the hooded man,
looking down at him as he lay there in defeat. He still moaned, not
even attempting to get up. He looked back up at them, staring in
their eyes as they stared back. I almost wanted to jump in there
and help, but that man was bad. He killed them in the other
vision.

“
You shouldn’t
have done this,” the man said. “I was trying to protect the world
from
you
.” Nick
scoffed at the man.

“
Protect it from what?” The man
started to laugh. “If anybody needs to be stopped, it’s
you.”

The girl stepped up and sighed as
she knelt down, facing the man.
“Things didn’t have to be like this,” she said. “If you listened,
you would understand.” Nick grabbed the girl by the back of her
shirt collar and pulled her back up away from the man.

“Don’t talk to
him like he’s a
person,”
he said. “He tried to kill us for no reason. If
his excuse is that we’re different, than he needs a news
flash.
So is he.
”
The other boy nodded his head in agreement.

“He nearly killed us,” he said.
The man’s muscles stiffened as he shot a look at Nick.

“Look around!”
he yelled. “You did this! You nearly killed you
and
your friends! You’re a monster!”
Nick kicked the man in the ribs, causing him to scream in
pain.

“Shut up!”

The girl pushed Nick back and took
his place. She gave the man a sympathetic look. She looked back at
Nick and then at the other boy and shook her head.

“They just don’t
understand,” she said. “I understand. I understand everything.
After what happened to you, I understand why you looked for someone
to blame.” The man’s muscles stiffened again. “But
we
didn’t cause it.
There’s no one else to blame but you.” She put her hand out in
front of her, facing it towards the man.

“But what has to be done, has to
be done.” She closed her eyes. “I’m sorry, Joshua.”

What?

Her hand started to shake, and the
man’s breath stopped. He stopped moving and laid there on the
ground. The girl shivered and inhaled, trying to hold back a sob.
Nick and the other boy patted her on the shoulder, and they turned,
walking away.

The girl stayed there for a
second, looking down at the body of the hooded man. She looked
back, then back down at the body. Kneeling down, she grabbed the
hood of the man and pulled it down. That’s when I saw his face. He
seemed older, maybe around twenty to twenty-five. Then, I realized
something. He was awfully familiar.

He was me.

My heart stopped as the girl
vanished in the thick smoke. This can’t be true. The more I stared
at the body on the ground, the more things I noticed that resembled
me. The hair. The eyes. The nose. The mouth. Everything. Just…
older.

My legs gave out from under me and
I fell to the floor. I started to panic, crying and trying not to
look at the body. Trying not to look at my dead body.

It all came to
me. That hooded man wasn’t the evil one. He was trying to stop that
bad vision I had about Nick and his friends killing everybody. That
hooded man wasn’t the bad guy here. That hooded guy was
me.

I shouldn’t be
trying to find Nick for
help.
I need to find him and
stop
him. If I don’t, those things
will happen. The world will perish because of freaks like Nick and
his friends. But I will not let that happen. I will be that one
freak that saves everybody. Nick isn’t here to help me. I’ve
already realized what I need to do.

I need to kill Nick.

…
..

Luke

We all woke up at about the same
time. Karen seemed a little nervous, but I didn’t bother asking her
about it. Nick seemed the same, mad about sleeping in the woods and
all. Other than that, everything was normal. Well, as normal is it
could be.

“
How much longer until we get
there?” Karen asked as she slowly stood up. She wiped dirt from her
shirt, letting it fall back down to the ground.

“
About two and a half hours. Maybe
even more,” I said. She groaned and leaned against a tree, waiting
for Luke to fully get up.

“
It’s not as bad as you think it
is,” Nick said. He staggered up, still half asleep. “After the
first hour, you get used to it. After that, you don’t really pay
attention to it.” Karen sighed as she walked forward and looked up
into the sky.

“
What time is it?” she asked. I
pulled out my phone and checked the time.

“
It’s seven in the morning,” I said
as I put his phone back in my pocket. “We better start heading out
if we want to get there soon.” I turned and started walking the
opposite direction, hearing Nick and Karen start to follow. We
walked in silence for a while, not attempting to say a single word
to each other.

“
Hey, Luke,” Nick said. I stopped
and turned around.

“
Yeah?”

“
We never really planned,” he said.
“What are we going to do if we find this guy?” I smiled at
him.

“
Do what we did last time,” I said.
“We fight him.” Nick stared into my eyes and smiled. But this smile
was different. This was an evil smile. He reached into his pocket
and pulled out a pistol, gripping it hard.

“
How can you fight him,” he
started, “if you don’t have your partner?” He rested the barrel of
the gun on his temple.

“
What the hell are you-”

The shot of the gun echoed
throughout the trees as he pulled the trigger, sending a bullet
through his skull and killing him. The blood spewed from the other
side as his body fell to the ground. I gasped and staggered back,
feeling my heart racing.

Karen started laughing
hysterically, staring at me. What the hell was going on?

All of a sudden, her neck snapped
and she fell to the ground, lifeless. Her eyes went blank. Both
Karen’s body and Luke’s body melted into the dirt, oozing and
disappearing into the ground. I gagged and bent over,
puking.

Before I could straighten up, I
was flung backwards and rammed into a tree, not being able to move.
I squirmed around, but I was being held there tighter than
ever.

The trees around me burst into
flames, flooding the woods with a glow of fiery red and orange. I
started to scream, crying for help and struggling to get free from
whatever was keeping me against the tree.

About ten feet away, a man stepped
out from behind a burning tree, laughing and watching me. It was
the hooded man.

“
You bastard!” I yelled. “Let me
go!” He only started to laugh some more, enjoying me struggle to be
set free.

“
Relax, Luke,”
he said. “Don’t worry, this isn’t real. I’m in your head.
Now,
wake up
.”
The trees around me stopped burning all together. “I’m watching
you.”

I jolted up from the ground,
screaming louder than ever. Then, I realized I was back on the
dirt, having Nick and Karen there with me, asleep. They both
quickly woke up and stared at me.

“
What’s wrong?” Karen asked. Nick
stared at me confused.

“
He’s here!” I yelled, standing at
looking around. “He’s here, watching us!” I searched the distance,
but only saw trees. He could be anywhere, watching us as much as he
wanted to.

“
Relax, Luke,” Karen said. “No one
is here but us.”

All of a sudden, Nick went flying
from the ground and rammed into a tree, having the air knocked
right out of him. Karen yelped and scurried up to her feet, looking
around. I jumped up, frantically searching for any sign of movement
in the distance. Nick didn’t move. He only groaned on the ground,
motionless.