~ { Shadow and Beauty } ~

The Bronze Dragon

{Leo}

Mom's workspace was at the very back of the shop. It was kind of creepy at night, because they were the only ones there. Every sound echoed through the dark warehouse, but Leo didn't mind as long as he was with his mom. If he did wander the shop, they could always keep in touch with Morse code taps. Whenever they were ready to leave, they had to walk through the entire shop, through the break room, and out to the parking lot, locking the doors behind them.

   That night after finishing up, they'd just gotten to the break room when his mom realized she didn't have her keys.

   "That's funny." She frowned. "I know I had them. Wait here, mijo. I'll only be a minute." She gave him one more smile—the last one he'd ever get —and she went back into the warehouse.

   She'd only been gone a few heartbeats when the interior door slammed shut. Then the exterior door locked itself.

   "Mom?" Leo's heart pounded. Something heavy crashed inside the warehouse. He ran to the door, but no matter how hard he pulled or kicked, it wouldn't open. "Mom!" Frantically, he tapped a message on the wall: You okay?

   "She can't hear you," a voice said.

   Leo turned and found himself facing a strange woman. At first he thought it was Tía Callida. She was wrapped in black robes, with a veil covering her face.

   "Tía?" he said.

   The woman chuckled, a slow gentle sound, as if she were half asleep. "I am not your guardian. Merely a family resemblance."

   "What—what do you want? Where's my mom?"

   "Ah... loyal to your mother. How nice. But you see, I have children too... and I understand you will fight them someday. When they try to wake me, you will prevent them. I cannot allow that."

   "I don't know you. I don't want to fight anybody."

   She muttered like a sleepwalker in a trance, "A wise choice."

   With a chill, Leo realized the woman was, in fact, asleep. Behind the veil, her eyes were closed. But even stranger: her clothes were not made of cloth. They were made of earth—dry black dirt, churning and shifting around her. Her pale, sleeping face was barely visible behind a curtain of dust, and he had the horrible sense that she'd had just risen from the grave. If the woman was asleep, Leo wanted her to stay that way. He knew that fully awake, she would be even more terrible.

   "I cannot destroy you yet," the woman murmured. "The Fates will not allow it. But they not do protect your mother, and they cannot stop me from breaking your spirit. Remember this night, little hero, when they ask you to oppose me."

   "Leave my mother alone!" Fear rose in his throat as the woman shuffled forward. She moved more like an avalanche than a person, a dark wall of earth shifting toward him.

   "How will you stop me?" she whispered. She walked straight through a table, the particles of her body reassembling on the other side.

   She loomed over Leo, and he knew she would pass right through him, too. He was the only thing between her and his mother. His hands caught fire.

   A sleepy smile spread across the woman's face, as if she'd already won. Leo screamed with desperation. His vision turned red. Flames washed over the earthen woman, the walls, the locked doors. And Leo lost consciousness.

   When he woke, he was in an ambulance.

   The paramedic tried to be kind. She told him the warehouse had burned down. His mother hadn't made it out. The paramedic said she was sorry, but Leo felt hollow. He'd lost control, just like his mother had warned. Her death was his fault.