The young Walkers all grab onto their captain’s arm, and Nick can’t help but smile. For the first time since coming to the Pit, he felt as if this really was somewhere that he belonged. Not just a place where he should be, but a place where he could actually be happy. And Nick was finally starting to see Allison and Hector as true friends. The thought of making real friends here in his second life made Nick happy. Because maybe- just maybe- it would help him keep his mind off of his mother.
Chapter Eleven
Nick
“Now I’m pretty jealous of you.” Hector says as he stares at Nick’s frosty hands. Nick grins and summons three orbs of ice. They felt the same as just summoning regular orbs of shadow energy, only more condensed. It was now the fourth day of training, and the fifth day since Nick had arrived in the Pit. In such a short time he could already control his first Chain without wearing the training bracelet. And he no longer needed to focus on his mother in order for him to summon his energy.
“Yeah, but invisibility is still pretty sweet.” Nick says. Though Nick envied Hector’s abilities, he was also grateful to have something that was more offensive. After a few hours of training, he was already able to control what he froze with his energy and what stayed untouched. Controlling the energy was as simple as just willing it to do something. If he wanted to create a block of ice, then all he had to do was imagine his energy creating a block of ice.
The two boys train with their respective abilities, learning to completely control their powers without their bracelets. Nick finds himself wondering how strong his mother was for her to pass on such strength to him. Both him and Hector managed to beat a record set by a Council member. He now understood why the Council wanted to keep such a close eye on his team.
After about another hour or so into training, Allison shrieks. Isaac lets out a yelp of his own, and Nick looks over to see what the two of them were up to. Nothing seems out of the ordinary, until Nick notices that Allison’s weapon has been replaced with a spear. It was the same light blue color as the sword she was holding earlier in their training.
“What happened?” Hector asks as he and Nick walk over to the other two Walkers.
Allison smiles and raises her spear over her head. She lowers it, then it disappears in a puff of black smoke. Then, she’s holding an axe. And once that puffs away she’s holding the same sword that Nick was familiar with. Allison looks at Nick and grins. “I finally broke my first Chain. I can’t believe that it took me longer than you two- no offense- but I did it.”
“So all three of you broke the previous record held by Marcus.” Isaac says. He lets out a small chuckle and claps for his subordinates. “Well, the Council is going to throw a fit when they find out everybody on this team broke their first Chain in just a week’s time.”
Nick cocks his head. “But it only took Allison three days. I got mine in two days, and Hector got his in seven minutes.”
“Well, maybe I left this out before,” Isaac says. “But I broke my first Chain in one week’s time. I don’t care about fancy titles or making impressions on people, so I let Allison’s father just claim the record for himself. It’s one of the reasons he despises me.”
Nick’s jaw drops for a brief moment. “Isaac, are you really as strong as all of the current Council members?”
The captain shrugs. “That’s not important. What matters is that I’m your captain, and a pretty strong one too. And believe me when I say that I’m not trying to flatter you guys, but I wholeheartedly believe that we’re going to be the strongest team since the Guard’s founders.”
“I don’t know if I’d go that far…” Nick says. He wasn’t one to deny compliments, but he refused to believe that a rookie like him could really become that strong.
Isaac grins smugly. “You’ll all see in time how much potential you three have. Now listen up, we’re going to move on to the final part of training- and this is a lot easier than breaking the first Chain. Something that one of you has already mastered.”
Nick and Hector look at Allison. She grins and scratches her neck awkwardly. Nick turns to his Captain with wide eyes “Shadow jumping?” He asks frantically. The captain nods and Nick lets out a victorious yelp. “Yes! I’ve been looking forward to this ever since I came here. So uh… how do we do that exactly?”
Isaac points down at the ground- though Nick knows that he’s really pointing out the shadow. “When you use your powers, you manifest your shadow energy and create something with it. Nick, you can freely create ice. Hector, your energy covers your body and hides you as if it were a veil. Allison, you’re able to change your weapon into anything you desire- when dueler’s usually only have one weapon. Well, shadow jumping is just using your shadow energy to enter the Shadow Realm. Allison, you want to explain it better?”
Allison shrugs and locks eyes with Nick. “The Shadow Realm is what we call the space in which we travel once we jump into a shadow. When we shadow jump, we’re obviously not moving through the actual shadow. Instead, the shadow acts as a gateway to the Shadow Realm, which is the road that stems from all the other gateways. To shadow jump, you manifest your energy and envision it as if it were a key. Then you use it to unlock a shadow, so that you may enter the Shadow Realm.”
Nick scratches his head. “Woah, it seemed a lot less confusing without the explanation. How the heck do you know where each individual ‘gateway’ is when you’re in the Shadow Realm? How come you don’t just get lost in the darkness?”
Isaac speaks once again. “Once you go to the Shadow Realm, you don’t transverse by walking- as I’m sure you’ve noticed in all the times I’ve jumped with you. You see, to shadow jump somewhere, you need to know where you are going. The Shadow Realm automatically takes you to where you wish to be by moving you extremely fast through its space. To jump, you first picture where you want to be, then imagine yourself slipping into the shadow. Once inside, the Shadow Realm reacts to your thoughts and takes you to your desired destination. To put it simply, shadow jumping is just manifesting your energy for super fast transportation.”
Nick nods. “So it’s kind of like a freeway- except once you get on it only guides you to one specific exit. I just picture where I want to be, go into the shadow, and then I’m just transported the rest of the way.”
“You’ve got it.” Isaac says. “Now everybody join hands. Nick is going to give it a try.” Isaac says. The four of them join hands and look at Nick. Isaac closes his eyes, appearing hard in thought. “Take us to my house, Nick.”
“Woah, wait- It’s not like I have every single shadow in the house memorized.” Nick says throwing his hands up in protest. The last thing he wanted to do was to get lost in the Shadow Realm because he couldn’t think of a single shadow to point out. The more he thought about it, the more ridiculous the idea of memorizing shadows seemed. How could the Walkers seriously rely on that kind of method?
Allison rolls her eyes and sneers at Nick. “It’s not like that doofus. Shadow jumping reads your mind’s desire and takes you to the shadow closest to where you want to pop out at. Even if you can’t think of a specific shadow, you’ll still pop out where you want to be.”
“Oh.” Nick says. He stares at the shadow under his feet and puts his hand back on top of the others. He wonders if his teammates find amusement in his ignorance to the new world around him.
His captain speaks as Nick starts channeling his energy. “Now, just use your energy as if it were a key to the locked shadow at our feet. Then once you do that-”
Without warning, the four of them are suddenly surrounded by darkness. Nick panics slightly, shocked at how quickly shadow jumping activated. He looks at his teammates, their bodies the only thing visible in the Shadow Realm. Isaac smiles and gives a nod of approval. Nick feels delighted that he was able to pull it off so easily.
As they fly through the Shadow Realm, Nick sees a flickering green light. Though it’s faint and only lasts for a moment, so he quickly forgets about it. They only travel
in the realm for a few short seconds before the four of them emerge in Isaac’s living room. Nick feels his heartbeat pick up in a sudden rush of adrenaline.
“That was awesome!” He shouts to the ceiling.
“Good job Nick.” Isaac says with a grin. “Now let’s practice that for a while, just to make sure you’ve got the hang of things.”
Nick nods and waits for the man to give him directions. For about ten minutes, Isaac tells Nick to go to random places that he’s been to in the Pit- the training center, the Guard’s headquarters, random stores that they’ve been to to by Nick new clothes. He manages to pull off each jump successfully, and was astonished at how easy it was to just travel somewhere through a shadow on the ground. He really wished he knew how to shadow jump when he was still on earth- it would have saved a ton in gas money.
Eventually, Hector takes over. He takes the group all around the pit, choosing his own spots that he’s familiar with. Allison does it a couple times too, just to reassure everybody that she knows how to do it. When everybody is done with their third round of shadow jumps, Isaac takes them all back to the training center room that they’ve been working in for the past four days.
“OK,” He says as he yawns and stretches out his arms, “Looks like you’ve all got a hang of it. I’m honestly surprised that we’ve completed our training so fast, but at the same time I don’t really feel that shocked when I look at you three. You’re all going to be very powerful Walkers in your own rights.”
“I didn’t think that training would be over so quickly.” Allison says. “I guess it’s time I tell my father that I’m an official member of the Guard now.”
Isaac holds his hands up defensively. “Hold on now, just give me five more minutes to talk to you guys.” Nick sees that the captain’s eyes are distant. He doesn’t look at any of them in particular when he speaks. “Now that you learned how to shadow jump, you should know some rules about it and shadow energy in general. This is the last time you’ll have to hear me explain how anything works, because this is the last day of training.”
“Yeah, Nick, listen up. Rookies like you should get a book to study so we don’t have to sit through all these explanations of stuff we already learned in school.” Hector says playfully.
Nick grins as he pushes the boy’s shoulder. “I wouldn’t really call myself a rookie anymore. I broke a record.”
Hector huffs. “Well technically you broke a previous record. I’m the one with the high score at the-”
“The first thing you should know about shadow jumping,” Isaac says, cutting the two boys off, “Is that while in the Pit, shadow energy is all around you, constantly being absorbed by your body whenever you need it. As a result, you can fight for much longer and you can shadow jump as much as you want while you’re here.”
“What about on earth?”Nick asks.
Isaac locks eyes with the boy, looking down on him like a mom ready to chastise her child. “I’m getting to that. While on earth, shadow energy doesn’t form during the daytime. The only way to restore your energy is to stand in dark areas or in the shadows themselves. And also, if you run out of shadow energy, you die. Simple as that. Luckily, your first Chain itself can’t deplete all of your energy. But as for shadow jumping, you don’t have as much freedom.”
Nick looks down at his feet. He thinks about what could possibly go wrong when shadow jumping. It barely took anything out of him to shadow jump for ten minutes straight. Was it really that much different on earth?
“Shadow jumping is a lot easier here in the Pit, Nick.” Allison says. He looks at her with wide eyes, wondering if she just read his mind. “Walkers can only jump to earth once a day. And after the initial jump, there is a thirty minute period where you can’t jump any more. Shadow jumping uses a lot more energy on earth, so naturally you shouldn’t shadow jump everywhere. If you do, then you’ll have a lot less energy left to use for fighting.”
“And,” Isaac adds, “While you may be able to jump to earth only once a day, you can go back to the Pit whenever you want after that initial thirty minute period of it being disabled is over. Of course, you should only do so in an emergency, or after a mission has finished, since you won’t be able to go back to earth for 24 hours.”
Nick nods, trying to take all of the knowledge in smoothly. After he runs all of the information through his head a couple times, he nods and looks up at his captain. “Got it.”
Isaac grins and claps his hands. “Good. Then I’ve told all of you everything you need to know. The rest you’ll just have to learn by getting experience on the field. I’m going to go report how everything has went to the Council.”
“And I’ll go talk to my father now.” Allison says loathingly. “Talk to you guys later.”
Allison jumps through a shadow before Nick can even give her a wave goodbye. He really wished that the girl wasn’t so secluded from the rest of the group. He had known her for only five days, but he could tell that she wasn’t a people person. If anything, the only person she truly cared about seeing was her father.
“Well, I guess I’ll just go home and take a nap as usual.” Hector says. Nick catches a hint of gloom in his voice, and he’s curious as to why his friend seemed so down all of a sudden.
Before he can ask him what was wrong, Isaac smacks his lips. “No way. You and me need to talk to the Council again- just to clear up everything that happened yesterday. You’re lucky that you didn’t get in more serious trouble, Hector. And just because training is over, don’t think that I’m going to start cutting you some slack. You’re going to be under close watch for a while.”
Nick looks between the two in shock. Did something go on with Hector that Nick didn’t know about yet? Whatever it was, it was obviously a big deal if the Council was involved. If anything, Nick figured it was just them talking more about the Invert half of Hector. While sitting there wondering what Hector’s deal was, an idea pops into Nick’s mind.
“Hey Isaac, now that training is over I can finally go see my mom again, right? That was the rule after all.”
Isaac bites his lip and looks down at the ground. “I don’t know Nick. I know that you can shadow jump, but still…”
Nick smiles. “I’ll be fine. Worst case scenario, I just freeze some Void. Right?”
Isaac closes his eyes and rubs the bridge of his nose. He sighs, obviously defeated. “All right, fine. The rules say that you’re allowed to go, so who am I to keep you here? Just don’t blame me if the Void tear you to shreds.”
Nick looks at Hector, who shrugs. Unsure of how to take his captain’s warning, he just responds with a simple thank you. Isaac and Hector leave and Nick is left in a room all by himself. He smiles as he walks towards a shadow on the ground.
With his mind full of nothing but rules and facts for the past four days, Nick can only think of relaxing at home once again as he jumps through the shadow, his old room pictured clearly in his mind.
Chapter Twelve
Nick
The young Walker begins to panic the moment he emerges from the shadows.
As he stares at the neat space around him, he was sure that he had somehow messed up while shadow jumping. The room around him didn’t look familiar at all. It wasn’t until he saw the picture of his family that he realized he made it to the right place. His mother must have cleaned the place up, because it was an entirely different habitat than the mess Nick had left behind. He walks over to study the picture sitting atop his dresser.
He inherited his dad’s green eyes and his mom’s black hair. The girls at school loved it, but Nick always wished that he had his father’s dirty blonde hair and his mother’s blue eyes. Though after his father died, he became grateful that he had inherited anything at all from the man. At least with his father’s eyes, whenever he looked in a mirror he could pretend that he was staring at his dad.
Nick takes the photo out of it’s frame and stuffs it into his pocket- he needed something to remind him of his parents while he
was in the Pit. He takes a few more seconds to appreciate the room his mother cleaned up for him, then heads for the stairs. The house is dark save for some of the light that peeks through the curtains. He checks his mother’s room, only to find it vacant. He begins to worry that something might have happened. But then he hears her laugh. He heads towards the source of the laughter, eager to surprise his mother.
He round the corner to the kitchen, a smile on his face. “Mom I’m back! I wanted surprise… oh.” He stops once he notices the man at the far end of the table. With his suit on and his hair slicked with gel, Nick barely recognized Jeffrey- the owner of the Sweet Stop. His mother looks at him with shock, then confusion, followed by happiness, and then for some reason- anger.
“Nicholas!” She screams as she gets up from the table. Her high heels click across the ground as she makes her way towards Nick. He looks back and forth between the two adults, unsure of what’s going on. His mother stops and gives him the typical ‘I’m ashamed’ look. She turns to Jeffrey and sighs. “Hey Jeff… I’m so sorry, but can we pick up some other time? This boy here is in for the talk of his life.”
Jeffrey nods and steps away from the kitchen table. He coughs and looks at Nick with a passive expression. “Nick, shame on you for disobeying your mother. I’ll think twice before giving you free candy again. I’ll see you tomorrow Maria.”
“Ok.” Nick’s mother says with a slight smile plastered across her face. Jeffrey leaves the room, heading for the front door. The roar of an engine comes from outside after he exits the house, and Nick’s mother doesn’t speak until it fades away into the distance.
She looks at Nick with playful eyes and smiles. “Oh Nick, it’s good to see you again.”
Nick eyes his mother suspiciously before studying the scene before him. Roses in a vase, a candle lit dinner, the dress his mother was wearing- it all starts to click in Nick’s head. He thinks about Jeffrey, reminiscing all the times he teased Nick about getting his mother’s number, and shakes his head. “What were you doing with him?” Nick asks with spite.
Shadow Walkers Page 11