The Neighborhood Watch

Chapter Seventeen - The End of Us

I didn't feel Hannah's hands turning me away, I only felt my own, shaking.

"There is only one left, yes?" Great Aunt Hillary asked, putting her hand on George's shoulder. I nodded numbly. "Good. Because I am an old woman, the oldest one here now, and I don't have much else to give." She put her other hand on Jayce's forehead and smiled. "Don't worry child, you won't do this alone."

Great Aunt Hillary's shadow was a monster in size, crouching beneath the ceiling as it awaited orders. She nodded up at it, and without hesitation, Hillary's shadow rushed for the window.

I turned to look away as the similar sound of bullets and electricity followed, closing my eyes when I heard Great Aunt Hillary collapse.

"That is all of them." My shadow confirmed after a moment. "We must take them now before the staffs are taken up again."

I nodded and so, the remaining Darcy shadows were released upon the Light, a few of them taking up guard of the staves so that no one could use them again. I turned towards the window, looking for where Max and Sabrina had run off to. During the chaos of the staves, they had moved from the roof and now were watching from the safety of the trees, surrounded by Light members.

Rather quickly, our shadows dispatched the Light, tearing through Max's army like playthings.

Enraged, Max broke through his ranks and pointed at the house, shouting something I couldn't hear over the commotion.

"Did he say he's going to release his shadow?" Andrew asked, straining to listen.

Mavis shrugged. "I heard something about a rainbow."

Max's face twitched as his shadow appeared, it stepping out of him unlike how ours appeared behind us. He was even bigger than he was yesterday, at least by a few feet. I couldn't help but think that there would have been a lot more Light today had I not made him so angry last night.

Mika, I found him.

Found what? I frowned and tried to pick my shadow out from the mass of darkness and limbs.

The Great Darcy Shadow. I found him. Hiding in the trees like a coward. Shall I eat him? You killed his host, after all, it is our right.

If I ate his shadow, would that make me angry like him? Would his shadow break me as it had him? No, I realized. Hank Darcy would be a broken man even without a shadow to encourage him. Yes, I told my shadow. Take what is left of him. We'll need it to fight Max's shadow.

Any sense of straining disappeared as my shadow grew, and my focus sharpened as though I'd been given my glasses. I'm proud of you. That was not my shadow's voice. It was barely even my father's. When you were born, you were such a weak little thing. I thought of abandoning you like your brother, but your father wouldn't let me. He was a complicated man, a good canvas for a shadow. I did not expect this son of his to become what he could never be; righteous.

Righteous? Didn't that mean I am a good person? Why would my father's shadow want me to be a good person? Or my father at that?

Someone who thinks they have the right end of things will never question the dirty things they have to do to become clean. Your father always questioned. That's what broke him in the end, aligned him with the wrong side. The wrong side is what got him in trouble, and got him killed by his own son. You and I, however, my father's shadow chuckled, will never end.

I rolled my eyes. Bullshit. And with that, I let my shadow fully consume him, until his consciousness was a bad aftertaste. I am not my father's puppet. I won't be his shadow's either.