Blackbirds

Shadow watched Kaz with a mixture of distrust and fascination, he didn’t understand why someone would do something like this for him. It didn’t make any sense. And to make it a celebration, Shadow couldn’t even remember the last celebration he had been a part of. They didn’t have celebrations, hell Shadow barely knew what day it was in that place, there was almost always snow on the ground, on the rare occasion he saw the outside. He knew that less snow probably meant summer, but otherwise so long as he was not stuck outside he didn’t care. He vaguely remembered there being something important about winter. He shrugged it off and focused on Kaz instead.

Shadow could sympathize, he so far had lucked out on not getting lost. Partially because he hadn’t been anywhere other than where he had already been. Shadow’s eyes widened a little bit. He needed a moment. First Kaz was telling him that there were faeries and now he was telling him people turned things in turtles. And weirder still, Kaz commented on it like this was a normal occurrence. Yet again, Shadow wondered what kind of place he had stumbled into. Shadow was content to listen to Kaz talk, absorbing things about this strange world that were not nearly as strange as they seemed. Maybe one day, he too would find people turning things into animals and not bat an eye. Right now… well, Shadow was glad he was hearing all of this second hand.

It was strange to think that someone like Kaz, someone outgoing and friendly, was lonely. Shade assumed he must have a million friends, Shade was grateful enough to have an ally in this world. Shadow shook his head slightly, his expression neutral of agreement or disagreement. He had never shared a room, he had only had a cot in his small cell and he had only even heard others his age through the noises of cries in the night. None of the adults he knew were not people one would want to confide in. “Will you get a new roommate?” Shadow asked, wondering with a twinge of fear if they would take away his space and make him share it. He was less worried about the shared space and more worried about having someone know how strange he was… how not normal he was.

“Anyone can be a faerie?” Shadow asked curiously, wondering what Kaz really looked like under this guise. It was another form of deception. A part of Shade felt validated for his distrust, despite that Kaz was telling him it wasn’t something he could do. Shadow’s brain felt full to bursting and he dropped his head into his arms and raked his fingers through his near buzzed hair. The shadows snaked up his arms and he wondered how much he really knew about himself. The family he remembered had never done anything like this. Would he learn something about himself that he didn’t want to know? Was that why this power came to him? Was he even human? Shade wanted to curl up and hide, ignore this new world and wait until he just wasted away to nothing.

Shadow shook his head, no. He barely knew any plants or animals. Interesting, he thought filing the information away. Maybe he could get Kaz to get him some… Shadow narrowed his eyes suspiciously, wondering for a moment if part of Kaz’s abilities were mind-reading. Shadow’s breath caught and his whole body froze, his eyes wide as a deer caught in headlights. The shadows grew over him, surrounding him in a dark aura that made the paleness of his skin stand out and the shadows of his eyes seemed to deepen. Could he say no? Was he ready to invite Kaz into his space? Into his cave. Would Kaz bring a light into his space like Daniel’s parents had? And that horrible man? Shadow sank within himself, his eyes staring at Kaz evaluating, trying to see his intentions.

Kaz had invited him when he needed a place to hide. Shadow only looked out for himself, he did know what the proper social response was to this. He didn’t know that it would be polite to invite Kaz to his room. Right then it became important for him to defend the space he had, his sanctuary could not be compromised again. It was the whole reason he was hiding here. Shadow shook his head. “I don’t like people in my room,” Shadow said flatly, the surrounding darkness, deepened. Shadow didn’t want to explain himself. He watched Kaz carefully to see if he was likely to be rebuked by the other boy. His body was still tense and he was ready to let the shadows take him away at any sign of trouble.

Shadow resisted the urge to groan. He really didn’t want to share his space with someone. The idea that someone may move into his space was near unthinkable. They’ll want to turn on lights and they’ll probably love telling everyone how their crazy roommate never spoke and hid in the closet most of the time. Shadow cocked his head at Kaz. Shadow shook his head. He didn’t know. The only people he’d ever been around had been adults and it had been awful. He loved nothing more than to be dropped into his cot at the end of the day and curl up in the blissful few hours of darkness when no one was poking him with something or asking him to do something with strange sensors attached to him. Here, it was his, he could spend all of his days in blissful darkness if he wished. But he had never lived with someone else, well he supposed once upon a time he did…

Shadow listened to Kaz, he liked listening to Kaz. Not much of what he said made sense but so long as Kaz was talking, Shade didn’t have to talk and that was just fine with him. The knock at the door sent Shadow’s heart into a frenzy. It didn’t matter that Kaz had warned him, Shadow jumped to his feet and shrouded himself in darkness, looking very much like an odd streak of black on the wall. Very inconspicuous. He watched Kaz from the darkness, expecting at any minute to bolt for the open window. He even sidled a little in that direction. How did he know that that wasn’t Daniel’s parents looking for him. Or worse! Them!

Kaz kept the person on the other side well out of view and Shadow’s nerves were almost worse having not been able to see them. How did he know that Kaz wasn’t giving someone a secret signal: ‘he’s in here’. Shade’s heart jumped in his throat and he berated himself to being so foolish. He didn’t know anything about Kaz, he had relaxed too much in Kaz’s calm presence. The door closed and Shadow reappeared and quickly sat again, curled in on himself as he had been before. If Kaz was really an enemy then he had to act like nothing had changed. It was the strategy that had saved him countless times. He watched Kaz with his expressionless eyes and sent a little tendril of shadows along the wall to the door and to the window. The shadow shied away from the window, so Shadow sent it to the closet.

The shadows darkened around him and Shadow drew his legs closer to himself his eyes drifting to his arm where the shadows still wrapped around his number. “Something like that,” he answered and struggled to suppress the memories.

Shadow waited until Kaz had sat back before crossing his legs and reaching forward to retrieve the food. The box was warm! Shadow opened it in his lap and looked at it for a moment until a single minded animalistic instinct took over and he seized it and took a large bite. The flavors exploded like nothing he had ever tasted before. The fact that it had flavor at all was amazing and it was fresh! Shadow couldn’t eat it fast enough. Habits are hard to break and so Shadow wolfed down the sandwich as it at any moment someone would take it away from him. And foolish was the person whose hand got in the way. The flavors were marked but not savored, he didn’t even pause to think if it was poisoned. It didn’t matter. It was fresh and warm and delicious. If this was the last meal he ever ate he wouldn’t be disappointed.

In a matter of minutes Shadow was using his finger to retrieve every crumb left over from the empty box. His belly was full and for a moment a sense of contentment passed over Shade as he leaned back against the wall, his eyes closed as he attempted to preserve this peace. He remembered he wasn’t alone after a moment and opened his eyes. “Thank you, Kaz,” he said and in Shadow’s mind he smiled, but outwardly his face remained a blank mask. "Do you get to eat like this all the time?" He asked, for the first time, hopeful that this scary place had some good things to offer.

OOC: No worries! :D

The silence of eating made sense, why on earth would someone waste time talking when food was there. Like an animal all of Shadow’s instinct told him to eat and pay only attention to Kaz and the potential of him taking the food away. Food for a moment was all that mattered and even if Kaz had tried to ask him a question, even if Shade registered the words he would have ignored them. He was only aware of what was in his immediate vicinity and mostly only aware enough to detect threats. The full belly helped him relax marginally and the shadows waned slightly and he set the box aside, and remained cross legged.

Shadow looked up and watched Kaz with fascination, he ate so slowly. Shade glanced up at the ceiling, following Kaz’s upward pointed finger, squinting at the ceiling trying to figure out what it was that Kaz wanted him to see there. He looked back down at Kaz, wondering if he was going to explain himself. Instead he started talking about the cafeteria. Shadow shivered at the thought, he had ventured there once at night on his exploration and with the amount of chairs there he was not enthusiastic about seeing them all filled. Shadow raised a dark brow. Less packed didn’t imply empty. He nodded his head, but mentally decided to keep sneaking into the kitchens.

Shade reached out and took the small piece of paper and examined it. There was a name and a set of numbers. He amused himself briefly that the note stuck to his finger. Shadow nodded, indicating he comprehended, but he didn’t commit any further than that. He supposed he could figure that out, maybe he could get them to leave the food at the door and accept money from under the door. It would be worth it, Shadow thought, to eat that again. He scanned the name and the number. Their number, Kaz had called it. Shadow’s eyes focused on the number, counting and considering. He subtly lifted his arm, the shadows had drifted off of his numbers and he counted those. Wrong number of digits again. He shifted his arm back. He knew what his numbers meant, but what was he supposed to do with the number for the place? Did it have something to do with the computer?

A shrug was all he could answer. “I knew this,” he said and by way of explanation he lifted his hand. The shadows danced around his fingers, swirling into random patterns. “They said it is not magic,” he added, letting the shadows disperse. He dropped his hand back into his lap, he looked up at Kaz and considered something. The talking was becoming easier. He toyed with the piece of paper in his hands and watched it, hoping its meaning would come out to him. “Um…Kaz?” he started his voice softening, “What does this mean?” He held out the paper and pointed to the set of numbers Kaz had written there.

Shadow stiffened and the shadows around him grew. Absently his body language changed. The slight relaxation was gone and Shadow tucked his legs toward his chest. The calm outer layer of Shade’s demeanor remained, and whatever light had come to his eyes, from the feeling of being well fed and in the company of someone kind, vanished. Shadow regarded Kaz now as if he didn’t see him, and in many ways Shadow didn’t. His mind was desperately trying to smother the painful memories. No, they said it wasn’t magic. A curse, a poison, a taint. They had called it many things, it had been Shadow’s survival instincts that had discovered it’s uses and its safety. Things were safe in the dark.

The silence grew between them and Shadow looked at the empty container of food and pretended he suddenly had become hard of hearing. His heart pounded in his chest tightened with fear, expecting Kaz to jump from his chair and strike him for not answering. He closed his eyes briefly. I’m not there. I’m not there. It’s safe here. Safe. He told himself fiercely, but the feeling didn’t go away.

“Oh,” Shade answered softly, now his head ducked in shame. Of course it was. He closed his hands around his arms and clenched them tightly, his fingertips growing white with the pressure he was forcing on his arms. Of course it was a phone number. He’d seen those before, he’d just forgotten. And once Kaz pointed it out, it was so embarrassingly obvious, it made Shadow want to hide. He didn’t have a phone, they’d given him a strange rectangle shaped box they called a phone, but Shade didn’t know what to do with it, so it sat on his desk a dark and useless piece of plastics. It’s mysteries never revealed. They might have told him they were giving him a computer for all it made sense to him. But then he didn’t really pay much attention to phones in the snippets of his childhood he could remember.

Shadow looked up at Kaz numbly, worried about the tone of Kaz’s voice. It didn’t bode well and Shadow shifted, the darkness already swirling its way around his arms. Shadow’s expressions were well controlled, but even he couldn’t conceal the fear and panic that flashed across his face. A second later the shadows surged around him and in the next breath Shadow was panting, on his feet, looking at Kaz through a veil of gray, they were no longer completely in the same plane. Safe and invisible in this odd shadowed in-between place, his panicked breath rattled from his lungs and fogged in the chill and before he knew what he was doing he bolted for the door. Panic and fear dominated his mind and pushed all reasonable thoughts out of the way. He passed through the shadows and was luckily able to make use of a passing person’s shadow to make his escape.

He staggered into the real world, appearing suddenly, eliciting a shriek from the someone whose shadow he had stolen. He didn’t stop, he ran back to the safe place. Back to his lair. It was a mistake to leave it! He couldn’t get the sound of Kaz’s voice out of his head, judging. He was just the freak who didn’t even know what a stupid phone number was. The blackness welcomed him like a hug and he fell into its embrace. He never wanted to leave it.