Shadows in the Dark (8 page)

Then the sickening sound of her
neck snapping echoed throughout the field and her body flinched,
but stopped right after. Her body went limp, and she fell to the
ground. The figure stepped out from the fog. He wore a hoodie,
covering his face. The man pushed his hand out in front of him. The
body of the girl went flying and disappeared in the fog.

“Oh, Nick,” the man said. “You
could’ve stopped this. This didn’t have to happen.” He started
walking over to Nick, but Nick didn’t react. He didn’t even move.
The man kept walking until he got right at Nick’s feet. He reached
down and grabbed Nick by the hair and lifted him up to his knees.
Nick slowly looked up at him, weak and angry.

“This... this had to happen. No…
no matter how much we didn’t want it to,” Nick said. The man let go
of Nick’s hair. Nick looked down at the ground, as if he had given
up.

The man pulled a
pistol out from his pocket. Nick looked at it and gave a weak
smile.
“You can’t kill me with that.”
“What? I can’t simply shoot you in the skull and kill you? You may
be able to create fire out of thin-air, Nick. But you are
not
invincible.” The man
rested the barrel of the gun on Nick’s forehead. Nick’s smile faded
quickly, but he seemed to accept it. He just gave
up.

“You can kill me. But, I know,
people will stop you. People will see what you are." Nick started
to tremble. The man laughed more.

“The people are too afraid to come
for me! They just won't accept what their world is coming to. You'd
really leave it up to them to stop me?"

Nick smirked and butted the barrel
of the gun with his forehead.

“You betcha.”

The crack of the gun made my heart
jolt as it sent a bullet into Nick’s head. Nick fell to the ground,
lifeless and limp. Ash was sent into the air as his body
landed.

I stared in awe. I had really just
seen that. The man put the gun back in his pocket and stared at
Nick for a few seconds. Then, he looked back. At me.

“You know, Joshua,” he said.
“People like me can tell when you’re here.” He laughed as he walked
in my direction. "Don't worry. I won't have to introduce myself to
you. Fact is... we've already met."

Before I could even think of
something, the man lifted his hand towards me and a huge force
pushed me back. Before I knew it, I was flying back in the endless
fog of ash. I landed on the ground with a huge thud. But I was now
back on my bedroom floor. I jolted up in fear, feeling the sweat
drip down my face. I was back to my life. But I knew it wouldn’t be
that long until it all happened again.

…
..

Nick

The boy who had broke into my
place not too long ago sat across from me on the bed, looking at me
with utter fascination. He didn’t say anything, he just stared like
a schoolgirl.

“How can you do that?” he asked,
still googly eyed. I eyed at him.

“
Stop changing the subject,” I
snapped. “What the hell are you doing breaking in here?”

He kind of looked around and back
at the window. A long, low sigh seeped through his lips as he
looked back at me.

“
If I told you, you wouldn’t
believe me.” He started clicking his teeth together, looking at me
nervously. I scoffed.

“
Kid, I just made fire disappear in
front of your eyes. Anything you tell me, it’s very unlikely I
won’t believe you.” The kid sat up and ran his fingers through his
hair.

“
Well,” he started, “it all started
last night. It was a football game and halftime had just started.
The cheerleaders ran out into the field and started to-”

“
How the hell does this have to do
with anything? I’m asking why you broke into my motel room. I
didn’t ask about your stupid football game.”

“
If you just give me a-”

I grabbed his shirt collar and
created fire in the palm of my hand, shoving it very close to his
face. He stared at it, instantly becoming scared.

“
You better tell me in the next
twenty seconds, or I’m gonna burn your face off. Now, start
talking.” I threw him away from me, making him fall onto the
bed.

“
Umm...” he stuttered. “I don’t
really... I don’t know where to start.”

“
Start with the
question I’ve asked you before.
Why are
you here?”
The fire in my hand grew bigger
and hotter. The kid started to back away from it.

“
This kid... he was pissing me off.
So I.... I somehow shot electricity from my hand. It hit him. My
friends saw. They... they flipped out. I ran away. I didn’t go
home. I came here, needing... needing a place to stay.” He didn’t
take his eyes off of the flame. I closed my hand, making it
disappear.

“
Hmm. Interesting. Are there others
like you?” I asked. The kid quickly shook his head, staring at my
hands as if there were flames in them.

“
Not that I know of...” he said.
“Hell. I only found out about it today.” I studied him.

“
Can you control it?” I asked. He
nodded his head.

“
Kind of. I literally just learned
how to maybe ten minutes ago.” I started to run my fingers through
my hair. I needed him to prove it. That’s the only way I could kind
of trust him.

“
I need you to prove it.” He shot a
looked at me.

“
Prove it? You can shoot fire from
your hands. I can shoot electricity. Why do I need to prove it?” He
stood back up, but tried to stay away from me a little.

“
I don’t ‘shoot
it from my hands’,” I said. “I can create it.” I lifted my hands
towards the wall and made a small circle of fire spread across it.
The kid yelped, backing away from it. I quickly made it vanish,
leaving a burn mark on the wall. “There’s a
difference
, kid.”

“
Look. I’m
asking you with as much passion as I can. You and I, we’re the same
in a way. So,
please
, can I stay here? I’ll even sleep in the bathtub.” The kid
gave me a sympathy filled look. “I know I don’t know you, and this
is asking a lot. But it’s just for tonight.”

I thought about it, and was about
to answer. But then I saw the red and blue lights flashing through
the window. They were here.

I walked over to the window and
peeked through. Cops stood in the parking lot, talking to people. I
didn’t have to be smart to know what they were asking. I saw one of
them pull out a picture and show it to someone. A picture of
me.

“
We gotta go!” I said, making the
kid jump.

“
What?” he asked, walking towards
the window. “Why? What’s wrong?” I walked over to him, grabbed his
shirt, and lead him to the back of the room into the bathroom. I
threw him in there, not even caring about his confusion.

“Crawl out of
the bathroom window. I’ll meet you out there.
Don’t be seen by anybody.
” I slammed
the door shut and turned towards the front door. Then, I
waited.

I heard footsteps getting closer
to the door. They were coming for me. But I was ready. First came
the knock. Then came the voice.

“Nick? We know you’re in there. We
don’t want to barge in there. But we will if we have to.” I didn’t
respond. I only slowly lifted my hand at the door.

“On the count of three, we’re
kicking down this door! One! Two! Thre-”

The door caught flame in matter of
milliseconds. I heard the cops yelp and back away from the burning
door. They smashed the window, but a wall of fire replaced the
glass. That’s when they started shooting. Bullets whizzed passed
me, hitting the wall. I turned around and went into the bathroom,
noticing that the kid had done what I said.

I slipped through the window,
landing softly on the grass. The kid was sitting in front of me,
looking terrified and confused, but stayed where he was.

“
What the hell’s
going on?” he hissed. Bullets were still being shot behind us. They
thought I was still in there. Perfect.
“Long story, kid. And you may not even live to hear it.” I walked
passed him, letting him get up and follow me. He didn’t ask
anything after that. He just looked back and listened to the firing
of bullets.
We hid in the trees, walking in the shadows. We did that until we
were about a mile away from the motel. Then we started walking in
the streets. I was surprised the kid hadn’t said anything for this
long.
“Well,” I said, “it seems like we’re gonna have to get used to each
other. What’s your name, kid?”
“It’s Luke. And don’t call me kid. From what I see, we’re the same
age.” I laughed. Fire spread over my whole arm and stopped at my
shoulder. Luke stopped and stared at it.
“You apparently just learned how to use your power. From my point
of view,
you’re
the kid.” I turned to him and put the fire out. “So,
Luke
, how’s about you
show me that power of yours now?” Luke looked into my eyes
disappointed. He knew I hadn’t forgot.

“
I don’t know where to do it at or
what to shoot at.” He looked around, stalling. I looked around with
him.

“
Well, you could
shoot up in the sky, but that’d be too noticeable from far away.” I
looked at a tree. “You could shoot at that tree, but I don’t know
how to put out fires I didn’t create.” I looked around some more,
and found nothing. Then I got an idea.
“Do you have to
shoot
it?” I asked. Luke thought for a moment.
“I never thought about that.” He looked at his hands and studied
them. “I mean, I guess I could try. Let’s just hope it doesn’t
explode in my face.” He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. His
muscles relaxed and shoulders slouched down.
A sudden, blue glow started to rise up from his forearm, as if it
was riding in his bloodstream. Small, electrical bolts followed the
glow, then it made a pattern. Glow, bolt, glow, bolt, and so on.
Then, a small ball of electricity started to form in the palm of
his hands, slowly growing in size.
“Woah...” I said. Luke opened his eyes, and lost all focus.
“Holy...
look at this!
” His muscles tensed and the flow of glow and spark in his
arm started to speed up. The ball of electricity shot from his hand
and went high up into the sky.
“Umm...” I said as the ball disappeared. But it didn’t stay
unnoticed. All of a sudden, a gigantic explosion of electricity
shot out in the darkness of the sky. It made the stars seem to
disappear. Luke fell to the ground in shock, staring up at the big,
blue explosion. I stood there, watching it as it evaporated in the
sky.

“
That... was amazing.” I heard
Luke say. He started laughing hysterically, jumping up and down.
Then faint sirens started to come from the distance.
“Yeah,” I said, sort of smiling with amazement. “But it was also
noticeable.” Luke and I disappeared in the trees, but I didn’t care
about the cops. I wasn’t alone anymore.

After the longest time of being
scared and lonely, I had someone with me. Someone who was like me.
I found someone else. Someone else... that was special.

…
..

Karen

I stood at the street light, looking at my house
as it sat there in the dark. Even down the street, I could see my
room’s window, along with my parent’s. That house held my life. It
held all of my memories. They may not be good, but a memory is a
memory, and a memory stays with you forever.
I watched it for one last second, then turned around, planning to
never see it again. That may have just been a dream, but leaving
felt so right. So unbelievably right. I wasn’t meant for that
house. I wasn’t meant for this world. Leaving would lead me to a
better world. To a better life. No matter what that life is, it’s
bound to be better than this one.
The sound of the asphalt crunching under my feet took my mind
somewhere else. It kind of took my mind off of things. As I walked
in the dark of night alone, the crunch soothed me in a weird way.
Everything around me seemed to just become unnoticeable. But I
liked it. I let it happen.
I had no clue where I was going, or where I’d end up. But walking
in the night, all alone, leaving to anywhere was one of the best
feelings that I’ve ever felt in my whole, lonely life. I felt...
alive again.
I stopped at a streetlight that was about a mile or so from my
house. I didn’t see a car pass me on the way there. I didn’t notice
it at the time. I just sat there at the streetlight, looking into
the bulb that lit up the streets. In it I saw life. In it I saw an
answer. The light would lead the way.