Episode 10: Rise of the Shadow

Ashton walked out of the bathroom and tossed his wet towel into the hamper in the corner of the room. “That shower felt amazing.” He said as he flopped down on Harvey’s bed.

Harvey’s eyes raked up and down Ash’s nearly naked body. He propped himself up on one elbow to get a better look. “I didn’t realize you took such a beating today. That’s a lot of bruises. Doesn’t your super-charged metabolism give you fast healing?”

“You should have seen me a couple hours ago. I was more bruised than clear skin. I do heal fast, but there was a lot to heal.”

“I’m sorry you got hurt. I wasn’t much help. We really need to get better with our abilities.” Harvey reached out and lightly ran his fingertips over one of Ashton’s bruises. The electricity in Harvey’s body tingled and sparked between his fingers and the bruise on Ash’s chest. Harvey watched in amazement as the bruise lightened and disappeared. He grinned and looked at Ash. “Did you see that? That was awesome!”

“I saw it and felt it! Try another one.”

Harvey’s fingers slowly went up and down Ashton’s body, healing his cuts and bruises. “I wonder if I’m healing you or super-charging your speed healing. Would this work on other people or just you?”

“I don’t know, but I think it’s my healing. I feel that same itchiness. My body is defending itself against your electricity. I think I’m healing the electricity burns, but because there are other injuries, they get healed, too.”

“It makes sense that it only works with you. I’ve always been connected to you. One more cut to go.” Harvey kept staring into Ashton’s eyes as he touched the other boy’s face. He slowly ran his finger over Ash’s cut lip. Then, when the cut was healed, Harvey cupped Ash’s cheek. “Can I ask you a question?”

Ashton pressed his face against Harvey’s hand. “You know you can ask me anything.”

“I… yeah, I know…” Harvey got a look of intense concentration on his face. “Why haven’t we ever… you know… done stuff together?”

Ash raised one eyebrow and smirked. “We do lots of stuff together, Harvs.”

Harvey rolled his eyes. “You know what I’m asking. Why haven’t we ever done… that?”

Ashton sat up and wriggled until he was leaning against the wall at the head of Harvey’s bed. He patted the bed next to him. “Come up here and sit next to me.”

Harvey sat next to Ash. They were close enough that their bare legs were touching. “Is… is it ok that I asked you that? I know we never talk about that subject.”

“It’s more than ok, Harvs. I’ve dreamed of you finally asking me this. To answer your question, we’ve never messed around because I wasn’t sure it was what you wanted. You’ve always been wishy-washy about your sexuality.”

“You mean that you’ve wanted to for a while? How long?”

“The first time I saw you in kindergarten, when we were five years old, I knew we would be best friends forever. I figured the rest out when we were thirteen.” Ash shrugged.

“Four years ago? Wow. How could we be so in sync about everything and yet miss the fact that we both wanted the same thing but were afraid to ask?”

“You wanted to, too? Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I didn’t think you were into me. You dated other people but never showed that kind of interest in me.”

“Do you want to know why none of those relationships went past a first or second date?”

“Sure. I don’t remember you explaining any of that to me before. I assumed you didn’t want to talk about relationships with me.”

“There’s a reason for that. None of those relationships worked because none of those people were you. Every time they tried to get close, I’d push them away. I have absolutely zero interest in getting physical with anyone but you. People bugged me to label my sexuality, so I picked the closest thing to what I am.” Ash shrugged. “I’m not really a pansexual, though. I’m a Harveysexual. You are the only person in the world that I want to be with. This newest thing with our powers fitting together tells me I’ve been right all along. You’re the only one for me. If you’re not ready… if you don’t want me like that… if you…”

Harvey leaned in and kissed Ash. “Shush. I do want you. I think I always have. I was scared you didn’t want the same thing. I was scared I would ruin our perfect friendship. I was even scared of my own sexuality. Dad seemed so disappointed when Logan came out.” Harvey shrugged. “A Harveysexual, huh?” Harvey chuckled. “That’s the sweetest and sexiest thing anyone has ever said or could ever say to me. I’m a hot mess emotionally. Are you sure you want me?”

Ash pushed himself up and straddled Harvey’s lap. He looked down into Harvey’s bright blue eyes and cupped his face with both hands. “You are the only one in the world for me, Harvey Kastala. I want you by my side and in my bed forever.”

“We’re in my bed right now,” Harvey smirked.

Ashton rolled his eyes. “I don’t know why I love you so damn much.”

Harvey blushed and smiled. “I love you, too.”

Ash grinned. “We should probably sleep now. It’s late, and we’re probably in for another long day tomorrow.”

“I have things other than sleep on my mind, but you’re right… as usual.” Harvey pulled Ash down into another kiss. “Goodnight, … boyfriend.”

Ash grinned and rolled off of Harvey to lie beside him. “Goodnight, boyfriend.” Harvey clicked off the light and went to sleep.  

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Grace realized her mistake moments before she felt rough hands push her into the mouth of the alley. Distracted within her own thoughts, Grace wandered too close to the docks. This was the wrong part of town to walk through and not pay attention to everything around you. Stupid! Maybe she should have let Erik walk her home after all!

The Newville Docks belonged to Carl Chambers and his band of union thugs. They ran the docks and the surrounding neighborhood as if they were the New York mafia. Grace typically stayed on the north side of State Street. There were just far too many thugs in the area from State Street to River Road. This was a bad part of town even before today’s chaos. Now, here she was, unwittingly walking down State Street towards the docks. Grace cursed herself and all the crazy events that filled her mind and distracted her thoughts. Angels, superheroes, mutants, supervillains, and Erik. Any of those things were enough to distract someone, but Grace should have paid closer attention to where she was until she got safely home.

When they pushed her, Grace hit her head on the brick wall of the hardware store. She wiped the blood from her face and turned to face her attacker. There were two of them. Grace was mildly relieved they were human thugs, not giant hulking mutants that her new friends had fought all day. The two men leered at Grace, blocking her path out of the alley. They towered over her, but Grace stood only five feet one inch and a mere hundred and five pounds. Grace grimaced and said, “I don’t suppose you boys would give a girl a break. I only live on the next street over. I took a bit of a wrong turn.”

The older of the two said, “Your wrong turn is our good fortune. Now, hand over your money and jewelry before we get rough with you.”

Grace noticed the younger man take a step back. His eyes grew wide with fear. The man pointed at the wall behind Grace and grabbed his friend’s arm with his other hand. “Look! Joe, do you see that? What is that? Is that another one of those things from the news?” He was stuttering his words and walking backward towards the mouth of the alley.

The older thug, at first, swatted his friend’s hand away, but then he saw the same thing his friend had. He, too, started to back away. Bewildered by their sudden behavior, Grace began to turn towards the wall but found herself sinking into an inky darkness, and she blacked out.

Neither Gary Roberts nor Joe Daniels found a problem with their evening activities. Their boss, Carl Chambers, expected it of them. Carl ran the docks and the surrounding neighborhoods like his own private mafia. He had guys like Gary and Joe collecting protection money from the local businesses and robbing the unwary pedestrians who wandered into the neighborhood. They hadn’t been able to contact Carl or any of the other union bosses all day. They must be dealing with the damage that Gary and Joe saw at the union hall. Even though they hadn’t been able to find Carl, when they saw this female walk down the street alone, they never hesitated to push her into the alley. This is what Carl expected of them.

Now, they were doing more than hesitating. They may have made the biggest mistake in their mistake-filled lives. Both men were backing out of the alley and staring unbelievingly at the growing shadow on the wall. As the shadow grew, it also filled out. Before their stunned eyes, it separated itself from the wall, and the woman disappeared into the body of the shadow.

When the shadow fully awoke, ancestral memories of all shadows before it flooded its mind. Hunger gnawed at the creature’s belly. Creatures of light associate shadows with evil, and shadows indeed linger around evil creatures. However, shadows are not evil. They devour evil. This shadow immediately sensed the cruel nature of the two men in the alley and hungered for their souls. The shadow glided towards its intended prey as the light drained from the alley.

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Sylvester sat bolt upright on the couch, instantly awake. For a minute, he didn’t know where he was or what woke him up. Then it came back to him. He was at Logan’s house. Sy looked around the dark living room, wondering what had woken him. Then, he felt the waves of power flowing into him. Sy flung the covers off and rushed down the hall toward Logan’s room. He knocked softly. “Logan? Are you awake?” Sy heard low moans behind the door, and the power flow increased. Sylvester hated to burst into the room uninvited, but there was no time to mess around. Sy turned the handle and opened the door.

When Sy entered Logan’s bedroom, he immediately saw that the older teen was still asleep but appeared to be having a nightmare. Sy smelled smoke, then saw it rising from the bed around Logan. Sy rushed to the bed and sat by Logan’s side, and he gently shook him. “Logan, wake up. Come on, you’re overheating again. Please wake up.” Sy pressed his hands against Logan’s bare chest, hoping to absorb as much power as possible.

Logan’s eyes fluttered open, and he groaned. “Wh-what’s going on? Sy? What’re you doing here? What’s that smell?”

Sylvester pulled Logan up and wrapped his arms around Logan’s neck. “Thank God you’re awake! You were scaring me. Look at your bed.”

“What happened? Was I using my power in my sleep?”

“You must have been having a nightmare. I felt it all the way out in the living room. We’re lucky it woke me up.”

“Yeah, now that you say that, I was dreaming about the fight. That’s not good that my power can go off in my sleep. I really need to find a way to control this.”

“Until you do, I’m not leaving your side. Move over.”

“Huh?” Logan looked confused.

“Move over.” Sy grinned and motioned with his hand.

Logan slid over closer to the wall. Sy lifted the blankets and slid into Logan’s bed. Sylvester stretched and yawned. “Goodnight, Logan.”

“Goodnight, Sy,” Logan said with a smile as he drifted back to sleep.

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The two men may have been able to escape if they had turned and run. Even with all the weird stories they had heard all day, they couldn’t wrap their heads around the idea of the supernatural. By the time they decided to run, it was too late.

Darkness shrouded the alley as the sun sank below the horizon. The shadow moved incredibly quickly, slamming one of the men into the brick wall on one side of the alley. The man’s head hit the wall with such force that his neck snapped with a sickening crunch. The shadow’s form filled out into a humanoid shape. The shape it took was determined by the host body that it inhabited, but it could alter its size at will. As the shadow moved toward the second man, its body grew. The shadow was now over seven feet tall with heavily muscled limbs that ended in jagged claws. It towered over the man and grabbed him by the throat with one massive claw. The claw dug into the man’s flesh, and the shadow pulled him close. The shadow’s face was featureless except for two bright red glowing eyes. The eyes caught and held the man’s attention.

Gary Roberts went slack within the shadow’s grasp. Staring into the creature’s eyes forced Gary to relive every terrible thing he had done. The shadow hungrily fed on Gary’s evil memories. When the creature finished feeding on Gary’s memories and released him, Gary fell to his knees. His hair turned white, and his face was haggard and drawn. Drool dripped from the side of Gary’s mouth as he sat there, unable to move, staring off into the distance.

The shadow exited the alley, making sure to avoid the bright streetlights. It looked around at its new surroundings. Much had changed since the shadow was last free to roam the Earth. It could smell evil everywhere. That was something the shadow could always depend on. It could always find evil in man’s settlements. There was much work for the shadow this time. The shadow moved off towards the sound of a woman screaming.

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Jayden peeked out from behind a large dumpster when the shadow creature left the alley. He saw that the alley was clear and motioned to Luke and Isabella that it was safe. “Wow. What was that? With all the weird and scary things we’ve seen today, that was the weirdest and scariest.”

“These two guys are dead. We had better get out of here before anyone sees us and we get accused. Carl will want to hear about this right away.” Luke said.

“Don’t touch anything. Try not to even leave footprints.” Izzy said as she carefully stepped out of the alley.

“Can this day get any worse?” Jay asked as he and Luke followed Izzy down the street. The three friends hurried back to the warehouse headquarters of the Zodiac Club.

As the three entered the warehouse, Luke took the lead. He scanned the room and headed straight for Carl Chambers. “Hey, Carl,” Luke said. “We have news. All of it bad.”

Carl’s lip twitched as he looked at the three. His eyes flicked from face to face. “Where’s Capricorn?”

Luke grimaced. “That’s part of the bad news. Virgo and Capricorn tracked some stones to the Portside Restaurant. They met some resistance. The ice guy that Aries fought earlier was there. During their fight, the cops and the army showed up. Virgo escaped, but the army took the ice guy and Capricorn.”

Carl shook his head and growled. “We need to find out if the cops have them or if they were taken to the army base.” The lion scratched his chin. “The army could do us a favor if they scoop up all these would-be heroes, but we can’t let them catch us. We need to rescue Capricorn. Aries will look for his wife, whether I want him to or not. I’ll have Taurus go with him to check out the police precinct on the docks. You three see if you can track whether the soldiers stay in town or out at the base. Leave first thing in the morning.”

Luke nodded. “Uhm… Carl? Err… Leo? There is one more thing.”

Leo grinned. “I ask for us to use the codenames so no one screws up when we’re out there.” He pointed outside. “What other news do you have, Aquarius?”

“That’s understandable. Anyway, two of our enforcers are dead. We saw what killed them, but there wasn’t anything we could do. It was… I don’t even know. A demon? It looked like it was made out of shadows. It happened so quick. The thing smashed one guy against the brick wall, then it sucked the life force out of the other guy. When they were both dead, the shadow left. It was the scariest thing I have ever seen in my life.”

Leo shook his head. “Possibly something else affected by the meteors. It’s too much of a coincidence to be anything else. I’ll pass the word for everyone to be extra careful if they go out after dark.” Carl pointed toward the back of the warehouse. “We partitioned off part of the room and put out cots for anyone who feels unsafe going home. I’ll address all of these things with everyone in the morning. We have a lot to talk about and think about.”

Luke nodded. “I agree.” He looked at Jayden and motioned toward the cots. Jayden nodded in agreement. Luke looked back at Carl. “We’ll stay here for the night. It’s late, and I don’t want to run into that shadow.”

Carl turned and walked back to the warehouse office, and the other three walked toward the back of the warehouse to check out the sleeping arrangements.

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Grace Santos woke up in bed in her apartment the following day, not remembering how she got there. Her last memory was of the shadow on the wall reaching out for her. Grace shuddered at the memory.

Grace got out of bed and turned on the TV while she fixed breakfast. The “Breaking News” report caught her attention immediately. Newville Heights was the scene of four murders last night. Grace recognized two faces as the men who attacked her in the alley last night just before she blacked out.

The news said that one of the men died of a broken neck and the other of a heart attack. Witnesses found an unusual scene when they first found the men. They said the man who died of a heart attack was still sitting upright. They said he appeared to be staring off into space. One witness identified the man as Gary Roberts. The problem was that Gary Roberts was thirty years old and had brown hair, but the body found in the alley looked like a ninety-year-old man with white hair. The facial expression on the man’s face looked like he had been literally scared to death.

The news said that police found two other men only two blocks away. The female survivor of that encounter claimed that the men attacked her, and then “Sombra Demono” rose from the shadows and killed them.

Grace flipped from channel to channel. Last night’s attacks were the lead story on every one. Some had the headline “Shadow Killer Kills Four,” while others said “Sombra Demono: Killer or Guardian?”

Grace sat in shock, watching the broadcasts. Were they talking about her? Had she killed four people last night? Her mind drifted back to the weird things that happened to her and her friends yesterday. She needed answers, starting with her lost memories.

Grace showered and dressed, then picked up her cell phone. She needed to text Erik, Bryson, and Caleb. Grace smiled at the thought of Erik. He was the best thing about the last crazy twenty-four hours.

Grace: Hey, you. Are you awake yet? I’m ready for that coffee date.

Erik: Just got out of the shower. Do you mind if I put clothes on first? (wink emoji)

Grace: If you insist. (eye roll emoji) (laughing emoji)

Erik: Starbucks? Half an hour?

Grace: Sounds good. Something weird happened last night. Would it be ok if I invited                              Bryson to join us?

Erik: You ok? (shocked emoji)

Grace: I’m fine. I’ll explain in person. Do you mind?

Erik: Invite him. I’ll see you soon. (hug emoji)

Grace: See you soon.

Grace: Bryson, text me back as soon as you get this.

Bryson: What’s up?

Grace: More weirdness to add to the list. Can you meet Erik and me at Starbucks?

Bryson: Give me twenty minutes?

Grace: Perfect.

Bryson: (thumbs up emoji)

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Bryson paid for his overpriced, over-flavored specialty coffee and walked toward the corner of the café where his two friends waited. His keen eye picked up on their body language, and he smiled. Bryson noticed every detail of everything around him, and right now, he saw how Erik and Grace’s hands were stretched across the table. Their finger kept touching as they talked. Grace was maintaining eye contact, but Erik kept looking down and blushing. His friends were smiling and laughing, which was refreshing to hear. Bryson slipped into an empty chair at the table. “Why do I instantly feel like the third wheel on a date?” Bryson grinned.

Erik stuttered and stammered. “You’re not. Well, maybe, I don’t know. Thanks for meeting us here. I… uh, we, uh, Grace….”

Grace shook her head and laughed. She reached out and put a comforting hand over Erik’s. “You dear sweet man, let me do the talking.” She looked over at Bryson. “It’s coffee and business, but there may be a date in our future. Anyway, business first. Something odd happened last night, and I thought you’d want to hear about it immediately. Remember that I am positive that I have never come in contact with a meteor rock.”

“Well, that does sound intriguing! What happened?!” Bryson asked, leaning forward.

Grace proceeded to tell her story. She recounted everything she could remember from when she parted ways with Erik until she woke up that morning. Grace then told them about the video clips that she saw on the news, the references to Sombra Demona, and the four deaths. “Two of those men who died are the two men who pushed me into that alley. I remember seeing the shadow on the wall behind me move. After that, I don’t remember anything until I woke up this morning. I don’t remember leaving that alley. I was either there when the men were killed, or I killed them.”

“Are you sure you didn’t pick up any of the meteor pieces at the house last night? Even for just a second? Or maybe something happened at Justyce Labs when you met Obadiah?”

“Not that I can think of. I did go into the crater at the baseball field, but I don’t think I touched anything. So we’ll add it to our list of things to figure out.”

“The list is growing and growing. Have you heard back from Caleb?”

“Yes, but then I told him about Gavin, and he put our meeting on hold. He said he had high-level military contacts. He told me that he would go to the base personally and bring Gavin home.”

“I sure hope he can come through on that. I have my doubts, but if anyone can do it, Caleb Justyce can. Have you heard from Logan? If those guys are all awake, we should head over there so we’re all together and ready to meet Caleb.”

“I’ll text him again now,” Grace said.

Coming Soon – Episode 11: New Day, New Beginnings