Shadows of Our Society: (Shadow Purgers Series, Book 1.5)

by N. Phillips

  “Hi, so um, are you in charge of the music?” Ashanti asked once I got over my cold feet and was close enough to hear her voice. This would be our first conversation ever, and I was nervous as hell. Words couldn’t explain it.

  “Y-yeah, wassup?” I replied with a smile, praying my expression didn’t make me appear as some lame. She returned the gesture, however, giving me confidence.

  “Cool, so you can play a song for me? It’s my favorite right now, and I’m tryin’ to loosen up.”

  I was put in a dilemma after she told me the name of the song. I had the track she requested, but it was slower than what I had in rotation tonight, and I didn’t wanna mess up the vibe just to satisfy her.

  I had to come up with something. Quick.

  “Yeah, I got’chu,” I told her. “Lemme see what I can do.”

  “Thank you,” she said back, glancing at the blue headphones that covered my ears before looking back into my dark brown eyes. Man, this moment would’ve been the highlight of my night if it hadn’t put me in a predicament that could piss off the whole party.

  Thinking fast, I grabbed my microphone and said to the crowd, “Aight, we gon’ slow it down for a minute. Grab somebody close and make somethin’ happen.”

  I got a couple of laughs and mocking comments in response, but my words must’ve worked because everyone started to shift their movements with the change in tone and sound once I played the song. The flow wasn’t disrupted, and if anything, I gave some people a better chance at having sex tonight.

  “You wanna dance?” Ashanti asked, grabbing my hand with a gentle touch and gesturing her head to the middle of the room before I could reply. “Come on.”

  We started to dance face to face, and I’d be lying if I said I kept eye contact with her. My sight was on other parts of her body—not because I was admiring her curvy figure, but due to how nervous I became whenever I looked into her light brown eyes. After she smiled and slowly turned her back to me, keeping my composure only got harder.

  Literally.

  She started to grind on me while moving her body to the beat. The only thoughts in my head were, ‘Don’t poke her, don’t poke her.’ ‘Shit, I’m gonna wet my pants.’ I was on another planet when the smell of her coconut shampoo filled my nose with her hand caressing the side of my cheek as she looked at me from the side. Her hips continued to dance along my pelvis in a rhythmic way that boggled my mind because I knew my ass couldn’t dance for shit, but she was in full control with my body in tune with hers.

  It was like we were the only two in the room.

  Just as I reached my high, the volume of the music went low due to the song fading to its conclusion. Because the track wasn’t originally in tonight’s playlist, the jump to the next song didn’t flow well with the transition going from slow and melodramatic, to fast and hardcore. It wasn’t a bother to anyone else though seeing as they were more into their conversations and substance consumption than what was playing.

  “I should get back to the music,” I told Ashanti, walking backwards to my destination. I bumped into someone in the process, but all she did was chuckle and nod before disappearing into the rowdy crowd.

  Tonight was great, maybe even perfect, but twenty minutes later while standing in the living room where my laptop was stationed, I heard a ruckus outside the house. When the voices got closer and more aggressive, I muted the music just before a group of four guys walked inside the home.

  “Where that bitch at?” the one who’s hair was tied in a ponytail yelled. It was the same gang affiliate who CJ was about to fight earlier. Miguel was his name.

  CJ walked out a back room with his shirt off as people started to remove themselves from the scene. He stood a good distance away from the group as I backed into one of the corners of the room, unable to grab my equipment and leave without drawing attention to myself.

  “The fuck y’all want?” CJ questioned. Miguel laughed off his question as the other dudes kept a stern demeanor and eyed CJ up and down.

  “You know what it is,” Miguel replied. “Ain’t nobody here to stop us now. We already dropped some of your boys outside, so if you don’t wanna take this shit out there and be laid out next to’em, we can do this right here after I air this place out.”

  His words were followed with a lift of his shirt, revealing the gun tucked in his ripped jeans. The sight of it not only made more people scurry out of the house but caused my heart to beat fast and froze my body in fear. I couldn’t even think straight, let alone protect my own life if the gun went off.

  And that’s what happened: the gun went off. Without warning or chance for CJ to respond, Miguel grabbed his gun and pulled the trigger. The sound of the weapon being fired sent my mind to familiar territory—a pit of torment and confusion. I began to hyperventilate in desperate need of escape.

  Why did this have to happen? Why couldn’t I move? Why did I lose my will to survive because of a forgotten memory? I didn’t wanna die. Not there. Not ever.

  Not when I still had a chance to live.

  In a last-ditch effort to reclaim myself, I reached into my pocket and took out my cell phone to hit play on a song. In doing so, the shackles of despair that chained my thoughts were broken. My mind was freed, but something else was released in the process. Something very, very unexplainable.

  A surge of energy shot through my body, taking over me like a machine and controlling my functions. I couldn’t hear what Miguel and his gang of thugs were saying due to the high volume of the music through my headphones, but their faces told a clearer story than words ever could. They were perplexed as to why the hell I was still standing there after the gunshot.

  When one of them approached with hostile intent, the sight of what had baffled me earlier came into view: dark shrouds. They surrounded not only the guy ready to beat my ass, but Miguel and the two others behind him.

  The guy in my face threw a punch, which my body reacted to by dodging and countering with a hard strike from my own fist. I didn’t understand what was happening, but the same action occurred once the other two thugs walked up to me and tried to swing.

  I knocked their asses out.

  What’s more is that my movements were in sync with the beat of the song playing, and I could feel my body vibrating at a high frequency despite having no power over it. This moment was unbelievably satisfying, but I started to panic from not being in control and unable to hear my surroundings.

  Turn it off, I thought to myself. Turn it off. Turn it off.

  Somehow, someway, my cell phone reacted to my mental plea and shut off the music. I regained control, and everything would’ve been okay had Miguel not pointed the gun in my direction. His puzzled expression gave me the chilling sense that he wanted me dead on the spot.

  I was going to die.

  That’s if Ashanti didn’t whack Miguel upside the head with a bottle of alcohol. He dropped to the floor as she rushed toward me and started to check my shirt. What for, I had no idea at the time.

  “Are you alright?” she asked, holding the left side of her head with an agonized look on her face.

  “Y-yeah. Are you?”

  “I’m good, just hurry home,” she demanded, backing away before running out of the house.

  My mind was blown from what had transpired. I stood in the middle of the living room, distressed and confused. It reminded me of my nightmares, only this wasn’t a dream.

  This was real, and so were the demons.

  CHAPTER 3

  I woke up in my room the next morning after my mom came in and told me Tory was outside. He had called me last night to check if I was still alive and informed me that CJ didn’t get shot. I then explained everything that happened with me and the gang.

  He didn’t believe any of it of course, and who could blame him? It was something straight out of a comic book.

  I threw on a T-shirt and some shorts just as he walked into my room with a doubtful expression. “I can’t see it,” he said, shaking his hea
d. “Ain’t no way in the world you KO’d a whole squad. Absolutely not.”

  “I told you what happened, aight? I can’t make you believe me, but it really did happen.”

  “Bro, you don’t even have the reflexes to get through the first boss in Dark Souls, and you expect me to believe you was in there weavin’ blows and droppin’ dudes like John Wick? You trippin’.”

  Whenever Tory had his mind made up, it was always hard to convince him otherwise. The only way to do that was proof, so I had an idea that would reveal the truth to him and maybe give me some answers as well.

  “Let’s ask Ashanti.”

  He replied with a surprised look on his face. “Well damn, maybe you ain’t cappin’, ‘cause I’ve tried to get you to talk to her for days now, but you pussy out every time.”

  “Whatever, man.” I waved him off. “Forget all that. Let’s go ask her what’s up.”

  I put on the first pair of sneakers closest to me and tried to walk out my room, but Tory stopped me.

  “I can’t let you do this,” he said, standing in my way.

  “Do what?”

  “As your best friend and future Best Man, I can’t let you talk to the love of your life for the first time lookin’ like this.”

  He gestured his hand up and down at my clothes, leading me to examine my stained and wrinkled attire. He had a point: I looked a hot mess.

  “Aight, aight. I’mma hop in the shower and throw on somethin’ different. Stay here; I’mma show you it was all real.”

  He laughed. “Yeah, okay.”

  After about twenty, maybe thirty minutes of freshening up, I looked in the mirror mounted on my closet door and applied moisture to my sponge curls. It was time to head over to Ashanti’s place after that. She had to have known something about last night because the way she ran off felt too suspicious to me.

  With my headphones around my neck, I looked into the hanging mirror on my closet door one last time before Tory and I left out of the house and walked over to Ashanti’s apartment unit. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous. I mean, yeah, we danced last night, but going over to her place felt more personal—even if I wasn’t going inside.

  I approached the front door, sensing Tory’s cheesy smile behind me. He was loving every second of this.

  “Go ahead, bro. This a special moment,” he teased. I turned and shot him a dirty look. He wasn’t any kind of support.

  With a deep breath, I knocked on the door. Confidence had nothing to do with it, I assure you. My action came solely from the eagerness to learn more about what was happening.

  Oh, and to prove to Tory that I was right. Can’t forget about that.

  A woman soon opened the door wearing a scarf and a sundress. Her eyes swayed back and forth between me and Tory before asking, “Are you two here to see my daughter?”

  I cleared my throat before answering. “Ye—”

  “Yes, Ma’am,” Tory interrupted. He ogled Ashanti’s mom as she turned around and walked inside the house with the front door open. “Damn, you see all that ass, Z?”

  I didn’t say anything back. I was too captivated by the girl who stepped out of the back room and walked up to us.

  “Um, hi?” Ashanti said, confused. “You two were at the party last night, right?”

  “Yeah,” I replied. “So, I was wondering if you knew anything about…you know…what happened with those guys…and how I—”

  “What my boy tryin to say is,” Tory jumped in yet again, “Do you know anything about him havin’ superpowers?”

  Her expression went blank before her brows furrowed and her eyes started to dance. “I’m sorry, but I do not know what you two are talking about.”

  B.S.

  Not only was I baffled and somewhat annoyed by her clueless act, but Tory’s grin further raised my frustrations. “I knew ya ass was cappin’,” he laughed out.

  “You don’t remember hittin’ that guy in the head with a bottle?” I questioned her. “Or before that when I punched those dudes? They had these dark shrouds around them, and—”

  “I said I don’t know what you’re talkin’ ‘bout. Maybe you were wasted or somethin’.”

  Unbelievable.

  In one last-ditch effort, I blurted out something in desperation as she turned to walk back inside. “What about the man who was in your house yesterday?” She stopped in her tracks. “A shroud was surrounding him, too. You’re tellin’ me you don’t know anything about that.”

  Without looking to face me, she uttered the words, “Wait here,” in a low voice before walking inside the house. I turned to Tory, who’s smile had faded away.

  “This is all so confusing,” he complained. “What’s the deal? Someone gimme the truth.”

  “I already did.”

  He sighed with a shrug just as Ashanti stepped back out with her cell phone in hand. “Mom, I’m gonna go get the rest of the groceries for dinner tomorrow,” she called out into the house before closing the front door and locking it. She then looked at me and said, “I’m calling a cab to the supercenter. I was being secretive to avoid gettin’ you more involved, but since you obviously know what’s up, hop in with me and we’ll talk about it on the way there.”

  “Hold up,” Tory began, “you’re tellin’ me all this crazy shit is real? Like, seriously, this isn’t some weak joke? This shroud and superpower stuff is legit?”

  She locked eyes with him and confirmed the ultimate speculation. “Yes. Demons exist, and they’re controlling everyone around us.”

  We got the cab and walked inside the supercenter, which had sections for anything you could imagine. On our way there, Ashanti had told me and Tory that she too can see the shrouds, but only when something bad was about to happen.

  Oh, and that she can rewind time. Apparently.

  “So, Z got shot and died, and you went back in time to save him?” Tory asked Ashanti as I helped her pull out a shopping cart from the rows of them stuck together. “That’s the most unbelievable thing I’ve ever heard anyone say. Like, you’re for real claiming to be a time traveler right now.”

  “Time traveler is a stretch when you can only go back three seconds. Not to mention the crazy migraine on the left side of my head afterwards. Doing it more than once in a short period of time is a no-no. My head would probably explode.”

  Ashanti pushed the cart toward the food isles as me and Tory followed beside her. Various dumbfounded expressions took turns morphing his face while she explained what happened last night.

  “When that guy fired the gun at CJ, I was tempted to hit the rewind button then and there to try to get everyone out the house before those thugs walked in, but I wouldn’t have had enough time. Thank God the bullet didn’t hit anyone, but I hid behind the couch in case somethin’ else happened that needed to be reversed.” She looked at me and continued. “That’s when you stepped up and took most of them out before you got shot in the head.”

  “And that’s when you used your superpower…” My voice trailed off as I came to the realization that she truly saved my life, and it only made my feelings for her grow even more.

  I believed every word she said.

  Tory on the other hand couldn’t have been more out of the moment. He paced around with exaggerated gestures of astonishment and disbelief. “I can’t do this. I’mma go check out the electronics section and see if any games are on sale. I need to get back to reality, ‘cause this, what we talkin’ ‘bout, ain’t reality. I’m gone.”

  Ashanti smiled as he departed our view. “Since when are video games reality?”

  “To him, they’re everything,” I responded.

  We walked further back in the supercenter where the frozen foods were stocked. My courage to speak dwindled now that Tory wasn’t around, but the urge to get to know her better couldn’t be contained.

  “So, what made you and your mom move up here?”

  She chuckled while putting two packs of chicken wings in the cart. “How ‘bout you answer a qu
estion of mine first, and then I’ll answer yours.”

  Uh-oh.

  “How and when did you see the bald man goin’ into my house?”

  Damn. I knew that would be it.

  “Aight, so you see…I was passing by, right? And then I saw you…and then I saw him…and…” She repeatedly said ‘uh-huh’ as I tried to come up with something on the spot. Clearly there was no point in lying. “Okay, so I was lookin’ out the window yesterday and saw both of you talkin’. That’s all.”

  “That sounds about right. Why didn’t you just say that?” she questioned with a smile. “Unless you were spying on me.”

  Laughing, I jumped to defend myself. “Wait, how? The guy was parked outside your house before you even came out.”

  Amused, she laughed as well while pushing the cart into another isle and picking up more things. “I’m just messin’ with you. As for your question, honestly, there were a lot of things that led to me and my mom movin’ here. Being followed was one of them.”

  The topic caused the disappearance of her upbeat and poised demeanor. Going on about it seemed like a bad idea, but she continued with the subject.

  “It started when me and my mom were walking home late from my cousin’s house. Ironically enough, we were talkin’ ‘bout how badly we needed a car. But anyways, we passed by a bad street thinkin’ everything would be cool and all when someone snatched my mom’s purse from her and ran off. We chased after the person, but things only got worse from there.”

  Seeing the sadness in her eyes, I interrupted and said, “You don’t need to keep goin’. Let’s talk about somethin’ else.”

  She shook her head and placed a can of yams in the cart. “So, we cornered the person, right? A young dude, maybe in his early twenties? Didn’t get a good look at his face, but he attacked us and ended up killin’ my mom. I remember cryin’, just beggin’ for her life back and for that moment to have never happened. A few seconds later, I found myself in this weird, déjà vu position where my mom hadn’t gotten hit yet, so I pulled her away before the guy struck her. It might sound like I acted fast and rational, but boy let me tell you, you have no idea how scary and confusing it all was.”