The Shadows- Fire's Hope

by E Kathryn

  Coming out of the elevator, the two of them stepped into an endless hallway. Turning to meet Mark’s crimson eyes and not showing the least bit of fear, the man finally extended a thick burly hand to shake. “My name’s Ian Keller. I’m sure they’ve already mentioned me down there, once or twice.” Keller raised a brow as if to inquire, and Mark tensed, forcing a mostly nonexistent nod. “Now…” he breathed, his voice sounding almost excited, “show me what you can do.”

  Maybe Mark was wrong. Maybe this wasn’t how he was getting out. Maybe this was his initiation. Maybe this moment would determine if he was staying. Maybe it all depended on how he used his power before Keller decided when he was going to leave. With too many options available, Mark’s eyes once again flared to the bright crimson against his will.

  Frantically, he referred to the feeling that caused him to vanish, and once he did, a feeling of relief came over him, comforted and held by the Realm.

  It was becoming easier to handle and control with practice. Hesitantly, he flickered back into visibility like a flame. He met eyes with Keller, trying to express that he had done all he could do. Keller raised an eyebrow, a little disappointed. “You do know all Shadows can do that, right?”

  Mark’s face burned with a mixture of embarrassment and ignorance before he murmured, having been told this by the Shadows, “Yes, sir.” Like a bullet, a thought shot through him, and he used the adrenaline he assumed had caused all this to summon flames in his left hand. They burned harshly on his skin. He couldn’t take the heat for long and he shakily let it off, unable to hold it any longer.

  “Fire…” Keller whispered gently, then placed a hand over Mark’s. “When you create it, you’re sustaining it so securely that it will burn anything, even you. From now on when you create it, keep it in your mind that you don’t want to burn yourself.” Listening intently, Mark felt as if Keller’s instructions were critique-like and meant to help him become better at controlling it.

  Keller eyed him keenly. “Would you like to know where you are?” he asked.

  Mark nodded.

  Keller smiled a bit smugly. “You’re in Culpeper, Virginia, where the Library of Congress used to be. Do you know where I’m talking about?”

  This time, he shook his head.

  Keller invited him to walk down the hallway with him. “The facility is known as the ASH on the inside while on the outside it is the Library. The goal of this facility is to bring the Shadows together, to forward their powers, and prevent them from misusing their powers in the public,” he explained. “I and a few others started this facility twenty years ago. The entire building is surrounded by a machine I designed called the ASI which makes all Shadow activity invisible from the outside, like the Realm. And it keeps all the Shadows inside until the time is right and they know how to use their powers properly.”

  He felt calm speaking to Keller, and his words nearly passed over him meaninglessly. He also felt that while this normal person was touching him, his flames held back as if they didn’t want to burn the man. It was like gratitude was forming inside him as Keller took something out of his pocket.

  He folded Mark’s fingers over the object almost in the same way Sil had shoved the ice ball into his hand, but far more gently. “Lunch is at noon, dinner is at six, from one to four you’ll be free to go outside with the others, and the ASOs will be there if you ever need anything or lose something beyond the barrier. You’ll make a fine part of the ASH, Mark.”

  Like a wooden beam had been sent through his torso, Mark felt as if he couldn’t breathe. “Wait!” he spat like a nasty taste hit his tongue. Keller turned back to him as Mark stood like an awkward broomstick scared upright. “What did I do wrong? Why do I have to stay?”

  Keller frowned. “Because you are a Shadow, and nothing more,” he stated flatly then gestured Mark into the elevator. Mark stumbled back, the soles of his feet feeling weak. Every step was like falling over marbles. So, when he slammed into the far wall, it was as if he had been thrown in violently.

  As the doors closed, Mark leaned against the wall, ignoring the startling shake of the elevator as it moved either up or down, the direction of which he was unsure. Hours before, he had awoken and was dressed in these clothes by people he didn’t know and thrown into this room. Now, here he was again, lost in despair as he felt so utterly helpless against the Shadows consuming him.

  Fighting the tears forming in his crimson eyes, Mark sank to the floor as he had the first time. They’re going to eat me alive in here. There was so much fear in his mind, he could barely move. His thoughts flashed with the many faces of the Shadows in that room, Sil’s especially. If he didn’t figure out how things worked, that guy was going to kill him.

  I can’t be afraid, he thought, there can’t be any more fear. The elevator jerked a bit as it came to a stop. Glancing down at the object Keller had placed into his hand, a thin sheet of metal reading:

  MARK HALO #016

  Room 13-15

  Shadow Fire

  “No more fear,” Mark whispered as the door opened.

  IV

  A SAFE HAVEN

  The elevator door opened, displaying the room of Shadows, no difference at all, they were even still standing about in the same places, though more cryptically. Mark stood wearily of his own accord and stepped into the room before anyone came to him. Upon exiting, the elevator door closed automatically, and he stared forward at the Shadows, hugging his arm.

  Emilie appeared before him abruptly, upside down and in the air, but far less unexpected. Nothing could faze Mark. He felt numb. Emilie encroached on him, drawing uncomfortably close to his face whilst reaching to touch his hand.

  Without speaking, she took the sheet of metal and read it silently. “Shadow Fire,” she whispered breathily. Elation filled her voice, and with a wide grin she turned to the other Shadows to declare, “He is the Shadow Fire.”

  Kip smiled at the words as Emilie slipped the chained metal pendent around his neck. The younger boy placed his hand on Mark’s shoulder. “Our powers are the same. That’s what I couldn’t say before.” As he spoke, Kip’s eyes flared.

  Mark tensed. Staring at the floor, he held himself up, and despite his resolve, he was still insecure. “This is insane.”

  Kip half-shrugged. “I’ll try to help you get used to it.”

  Ocie stepped between them. “Are you ready, Mark?” she asked, also placing a hand on Mark’s shoulder, opposite Kip.

  Looking up curiously, Mark fretted. “Ready for what?” Their hands on him made him feel restrained, surrounded, and easily manipulated. He dug his heels into the floor, desperate to hold his ground and achieve some kind of confidence.

  Ocie looked toward the skylight. Into the Realm of the Shadows, her voice resonated in his mind. His knees trembled, and his heart raced. He was hardly aware of what the Realm truly was, other than a dark world he entered when he turned invisible.

  His eyes blank, mindlessly gazing at the white walls, Mark couldn’t focus on the Shadows coming closer. Then simultaneously, they vanished from sight. But when Mark paid attention, he could see dark shadows scattered across the floor where they stood.

  His head whipped back to Ocie. He found she had vanished too and the same with Kip, but their hands were still on his shoulders. Ethereal and heavy, Mark felt as if he were being touched by spirits, and he shuddered until Emilie appeared again. With a cryptic voice, she whispered, “Come with me.”

  Mark stared at her ghostly hand. His own arm was made of lead, impossible to raise, but with incredible effort, he lifted his arm, then hesitated, drawing back. His heart clenched, every nervous thought turning a pit in his stomach.

  With his eyes closed, his fingertips made contact with her soft palm. Instantly and with brute strength, she grabbed his wrist and yanked him headlong into the Realm.

  Mark wobbled, his balance wavering as he no longer felt his feet on the ground and gravity’s control on his body vanished. A rush of black flooded all arou
nd him like a dark ocean wave had submerged him in the Shadow Realm.

  Shocked, Mark spun around, turning weightlessly and looking down, his feet floated above miles and lightyears of nothingness. He flailed, but he couldn’t stumble, and it was impossible for him to fall.

  Nothing about the muscles in his body, or his determination, held any power here. The only semblance of control he could feel in this dark world came from a pulsating, glowing, fiery red orb beset upon his chest.

  His eyes dashed about the sight of his own form in the Realm, and all he saw was a glowing body of fire. He was completely engulfed in a burning deep red conflagration.

  Getting a feel for it, Mark focused on the fifteen Shadows around him and how, instantly, he could feel everything about them. Each was identified by a glowing orb on their hearts, burning through a shell of vaguely human incorporeal beings.

  Nothing separated him from them. As if he had known them all their lives, he could feel the essence of their hearts and every thought which traveled through their minds. They were all alit with their Shadows glowing brightly like stars in this endless night, the light to this wavering dark world.

  One of the Shadows came near him, and all he could make out was a woman made of water. As if unrestricted by the gravity-free vacuum of deep space, the water wavered and bounced about in droplets which clung to one another on contact.

  It took effort to perceptively feel out to her and acknowledge her presence was Ocie. Her hair trailed around her as heavenly blue waters, calm and crystal clear except for a light at her heart and her eyes. She was stronger than he was, far more powerful, and honed in her Shadow.

  What do you think? Her voice came to him sweetly, fluid and moving like the water. This is the Shadow Realm, Ocie said with a kinder love and deepness in spirit than any human relationship. Mark didn’t hear her voice; he felt it, moving all around him, in and through him, more personally and intimately than a love song.

  He was completely unable to grasp that other people, beings of such incredible power, knew and could feel into, enter in, and move through, that secret place he had hidden himself in when he quieted his soul.

  In his heart, he had always known about this place. He had seen it when he slept and closed his eyes. This was the place he saw when he lost himself in video games, the empowered state he could feel when he focused his mind. This was the place he only imagined, his safe place, his hovel, and it comforted him to know he was not alone.

  Mark realized the Shadows around him could feel him and know his heart as he could feel theirs. They sensed his anxiety and reached out to him. The Shadows knew how precious this secret place was to him.

  Above him stretched a million miles of black and empty space, and beneath glittered thousands of colorful stars. Like an endless field of jewels, each shined with different intensities and called out to him with their own voices.

  However, on all sides of him, forward and behind, on this level place, he was surrounded by wavering, unstable white pillars forming the walls of the ASH, the beds across the room and every bookshelf. He could even see the elevator, a cold, closed door, and above it, the hallway where he and Keller had been.

  He could vaguely make out the outline of the huge building, but more so, he felt the presence of a tree, an unremarkable thing, but it was the fact that he knew it was there that amazed him. Invisible to his human eyes, he could feel its physical structure.

  There were three planes of existence in this Realm, the endless, blackness of space above, the physical muted form of the real world, and the star field far below. This is incredible, he thought, gasping in awe, but unable to feel any real breath escaping his lungs. The Shadows’ glow brightened, and he tensed, recognizing they could hear his thoughts.

  Looking at them, but unable to focus on a single entity, Mark leaned closer, weightless but able to control his location and see intangible objects to avoid them. Where is this? Outer space?

  A voice chuckled uncomfortably close to him, and just by looking at her visage, a dull golden glow and a rush of summer air, he knew it was Emilie. Of course not. This place connects all of us to each other, mentally, and on a more… psychological level. A wavering body of water, closed in on his fiery form, nearing enough he could feel stray droplets of water evaporating in his flames.

  Mark realized it was Ocie.

  The purpose of this place is to bring unity among the Shadows, to create a like-mindedness that protects us and keeps our hearts pure.

  So, we can’t hurt each other? Mark wondered, enthralled.

  Ocie shook her head, tendrils of water-like hair swirled about her.

  Mark sulked, a little grief entering his psyche now that he could feel the Shadows near him. They invaded the quiet secrecy of the place he used to see in his dreams. Mark feared he could never feel alone again. He liked the solitude, and he wasn’t sure how he felt about others in here with him.

  From within his fiery form, Mark looked around. Feeling dizzy with no clear direction in this world, he grimaced, sinking lower in the airless void like falling to the floor. I… I want to be alone… he whispered to them through his mind, unused to sharing his mind’s secret voice to speak to another person. They complied. Elise nodded and shooed out the others before leaving as well.

  As soon as he felt he was completely alone, Mark looked around him, turning in circles. All to be seen for miles was the endless night and vast welcome lonesomeness of the Shadow Realm.

  Closing his bright eyes, Mark breathed a sigh of complete release. Seeing the Realm for real for the first time, not feeling like he was crazy, Mark accepted this and let it into himself. This world was a sweet salvation, and despite how it felt—a little invaded upon—Mark let himself sink deeper.

  The dark fumes of physical objects that could not take form embraced him, and he traveled through them until he came upon the colorful stars and gazed into them. No human could ever look down on the stars like this, not even through water.

  And in that instant, he realized they were Shadows. He could feel them. Their presence was strong, pervading the whole area, and Mark didn’t feel alone. He felt held and gently lifted. They whispered to him, Shadows speaking from far beyond him, it’s not time for you to come to us.

  V

  SILVERSTONARELLENA’S HATRED

  The Realm wasn’t just a daydream, it was a real place, and he wasn’t the only one there.

  Mark stretched out, feeling stiff but surprised to feel cool sheets beneath him and the dim light of day touching his face. A smile washed over him. He refused to open his eyes for a long time, but when he did, he was still in the ASH.

  Frowning bitterly, Mark was greeted by Kip who must’ve sensed the moment he left the Realm. Groaning, Mark looked around at the others, not seeing anyone near him but Kip. On the bed where he sat, he counted the three walls and six beds where the boys slept and noted the room divider was all that separated the girls from the boys. “What happened?” Mark’s voice came breathlessly.

  Kip chuckled, playful and childish. “When you came out of the Realm, you were asleep,” he mused which made Mark very uncomfortable, “right there on the floor, so we moved you to a bed, and you slept for, like, two hours,” he explained, checking the time with a bleary gaze up at the skylight.

  His eyes narrowing, Mark eyed him skeptically. “Wait… how did you do that?”

  Kip laughed again. He had a high voice and a somewhat girly laugh, but Mark figured no one had ever told him otherwise. “I can tell time based on the position of the sun really accurately. My eyes also change color based on the time of day. I sort of have a connection to the sun,” he admitted sheepishly.

  At this point, Mark kept his mouth shut even though what Kip said sounded ridiculous. “Hold on!” Kip said suddenly, scampering to his bed to fetch a box from under the flimsy metal frame. He rushed it to his new friend and presented it. However, like an idiot, Mark stared at it confused. No way was this incredibly sheltered kid he’d just met offerin
g him a gift.

  Kip glanced nervously from Mark to the box. “This is for you,” he insisted. Kip stared at him as if he thought Mark had never been given a gift before.

  Mark smirked. Kip was incredibly sheltered. Hastily, Kip ripped off the top and made Mark look inside at the pair of black and red rollerblades.

  “What for?” Mark asked, eyeing the skates as Kip urged him to put them on.

  Kip only smiled wider. “So, you can skate with me, of course!” he beamed, placing the skates in Mark’s lap.

  Mark hesitated, dumbstruck at the sight of the pair of inline skates, but as he looked closer at the boots, his eyes flared a little brighter with the fierce red he couldn’t dampen. The black and red looked cool, and they looked brand new. Years ago, Mark had gotten really into roller hockey, but his interest faded with the introduction of video games into his life. Mark realized he’d gotten so addicted to gaming, he’d forgotten how good real adrenaline felt, and maybe if he’d learn how to use that adrenaline outside of yelling at a computer screen, he wouldn’t have found out he was a Shadow in the first place.

  Kip was already wearing a similar pair, which were worn and well loved. “All right,” he said finally, offering a smile which made Kip leap with joy and skid on the hard floor.

  Mark knelt to tighten the roller blades securely, nervous from previous experience that loose skates meant twisted ankles. He might have been only slightly enthusiastic about joining Kip in something fun, but his curiosity compelled him to move.

  It was easy to balance on roller blades, and even easier to get moving. Again, Mark studied Kip. He seemed childish but intelligent, eager and possibly carefree, powerful but innocent. It was a beautiful combination.

  Mark trailed Kip, and other boys followed suit into the center of the common room where Mark had first arrived, and they skated in a circle, forming a rink by only their unity. The Shadows made their twists and turns around the room, some finding the coordination to go backwards. Their rhythm was perfect, and only varied around turns. Every motion streamlined and uniform.