Into the Nothing

Shadow’s muscles quivered and he watched her carefully, the more he thought about it the more he became convinced that she was one of the people from the school here to punish him for going outside. His resolve faltered, nothing good ever came from resisting. Only lights and bruises and hunger. So when she back up Shadow dropped his hand and the shadows dissipated, returning to the mass collecting behind him, hovering around him like a dark mist. His arms fell to his side and he expected at any moment to be seized and taken somewhere. His eyes barely lifted from his shoes when she spoke, but the change in her tone surprised him. Not harsh and accusing anymore, but gentle.

He said nothing in acceptance of her apology, his mind was drawn back to his conversation with Kaz… could it be called that? He hadn’t really believed Kaz’s claim about faeries and monsters, but now faced with this woman, he was either officially dead or Kaz had been telling the truth. He narrowed his eyes at her, he shifted nervously when she sat. What was her game here? To chase him down and do what? What was her purpose? “They told me I could be outside,” Shadow blurted urgently, desperate to avoid any punishment. He didn’t know, would she be more lenient since it was an accident? Instinct told him it was foolish to believe such a thing. Ignorance usually didn't fly so well as an excuse.

In many ways, Shadow wished she would just do something, he hated the anticipation of knowing he’d done something wrong, but not knowing what the consequences were going to be. “Am I in trouble?” Shadow asked in a small voice, barely audible over the swish of the breeze through the trees.

Shadow blinked, the only indication that he was surprised. Her sudden speech sounded frantic to his ears and Shadow was having too much trouble keeping up with her to make sense of what she was trying to tell him. He swallowed and wondered if that was why she was scared of him. He supposed the dark was scary for some people. No everyone was as comfortable in the dark as he was, in fact if the sun never came up that was alright with Shade. Shadow looked around for her monster, wondering if this was a trick so he could sneak up on Shade. Was it even a he? How was he to know, it certainly didn’t look human. Not to mention Chloe herself was terrifying.

“What are you?” He asked his voice quivering. It baffled him that she thought he could hurt her, or would… but then, Shade considered he was doing the same thing to her. He supposed that’s what he got for skulking around in the dark. “I…I’m sorry I scared you, too,” he finally said, but something nagged at the back of his mind. If she was afraid of him, thinking he was out here to hurt her… well, what if there was actually something out here that deserved to be feared. His eyes narrowed and he scanned the surrounding area, his eyes missing nothing. He had no issues seeing in the dark. Suddenly, Shadow felt a chill and the sounds of the wind in the trees sounded menacing. Perhaps, he should just stay inside anyways.

Shadow eyed her skeptically. First, she was chasing after him for coming after her and now she was telling him he had done nothing wrong. He was so confused, he just wanted to disappear. He nearly choked on his own tongue when she admitted she was a demon. Shadow barely heard another word she said after it, his mind homing in on ‘more powerful demon angry at me’. His whole body was frozen in place. He just wanted to go for a walk because he could, what kind of hornet’s nest did he walk into? His mind was reeling from this new information. He took a step back and lucky for him the tree was close enough that when he did swoon, he fell gracelessly against the trunk and not on the ground. And luckily the blow against the tree was painfull and startling enough to knock him out of it.

“Just a demon,” he echoed flatly, mostly to himself than to Chloe. Shade relaxed slightly when she backed away, though he maintained a guarded wariness, he’d seen how fast she could move and he was not about to be caught unaware. At least out here the darkness was everywhere and he could disappear easily and if worst came to worst slip into the dark realm and run back to his room before any lights could stop him. Shadow watched her, a part of him wanted to believe her, after all Kaz was a faerie, supposedly. Shadow hesitated, people could be bad. One just needed to look at Shadow and know that people could be very bad indeed. From the little Shadow did know, demons were always the villains. “Like… good people or bad people?”

Shadow glanced back and forth between Chloe and her monster, ill at ease that he couldn’t keep and eye on either of them at the same time. “What is that?” Shadow whispered, trying hard not to be overheard by the hulking monster. What if it wanted revenge, Shadow had hit it maybe it wanted to get back at him. Shade’s stomach flipped with fear, he had no idea what that thing was capable of.

Shadow inclined his head slightly, everyone liked to think they were good people. Hell, the people who did unspeakable things to him probably didn’t think that they were bad people. Shade blinked, he knew only a few of the next words she said. He supposed that those were good things and so he followed along without understanding. It didn’t seem like he was meant to respond and so he just listened. He was starting to wonder if he was actually in some odd dream especially when the creature pulled out some odd looking horn. At least he thought that was what it was.

Ozzy. Shadow glanced at Chloe completely lost. It seemed like such an odd name. Granted, Shadow was very odd, but Shadow didn’t consider that. It was his normal and no one had ever said anything about it being odd. “Avant-garde?” He asked, trying not to focus too much that he was talking to a demon with a horned beast as a bodyguard. To presumably protect her from the demon who she had made angry. Shadow was grateful now for the tree as he was not sure he would have been able to stand on his own otherwise. He had thought the world had been swept out from under him, but no. The world had disappeared from beneath him then risen up and crashed over him like a wave leaving him dazed and confused about which way was up.

The air around Shadow seemed to darken and Shadow lowered himself down the trunk and sat.
Demons, faeries, what next? Maybe these dark powers came from somewhere else. Maybe that was why his parents didn’t want him. They always said he was sub-human. A freak. No one wanted him. What if… what if they were right? Shadow looked up at Chloe. “Am I human?”

Glancing at Ozzy, Shade tried and failed to imagine the creature making any kind of music. Shadow’s eyes dropped from her face for a moment to look at his knees then his arm where hidden by his sleeve was his identity. If he wasn’t human, what was he? What kind of monster was he? Something so horrible that his family left him for dead and no angel would save. It would make so much sense. A thought like that should give him some sort of peace, a sad peace, but with that came understanding. Honestly, he wasn’t sure what would be worse, learning that he wasn’t human or learning that he was. Either way, he had been tossed into the shadows by all he knew and the shadows had welcomed him and made him their own. They were Shadow’s only friends and only comfort for so long.

Shadow shook his head slightly, he didn’t care if it mattered to other people, but it mattered to him. It was his identity, his worldview. For a long time Shadow was silent contemplating the question of whether he wanted to know. Finally, he looked up at Chloe, not at all reassured. The only thing that mattered right now was trying to figure out why. Why had his parent’s left him? Why was he subject to being an experiment? Why him? Why? Why? Why? Shadow fell into an odd state then, one where fear took a backseat for a moment to this overwhelming information. Kaz had told him there were other creatures here, but he hadn’t really believed him. Kaz looked human after all.

“Wh… is this real?” He finally asked. It made logical sense. They had finally killed him and he was in Hell. That’s why there was a demon here. But he supposed his sense of Hell was mistaken, maybe it wasn’t so bad, it had its ups and downs, but no worse than the world above. Maybe that was what Hell really was. Not some fiery place of doom, but a place just like earth. Wasn’t that what Heaven was, a place of peace. So maybe Hell was just a place of continued trials of Earth.