The Light In The Shawdows

Prologue (Just a Dream)

It's been seven years since he went missing. Tying up my shoelaces and fixing up the final touches to my outfit for school. I sighed staring down at the picture of us. Me and my brother. His arms hung over my shoulder as I rolled my eyes. Behind us was the pool we always loved to go to. Me in my purple bikini and him in his blue swim trunks with a star at the corner of the left side. He'd always been there for me, my big brother. His smiles never failed to lift the gloomy clouds right out of sight. But then seven years ago he just left. Without a trace. 30 kids had gone missing that day.

It wasn't like no one searched. We all did. Me and my parents. The whole town. The entire world seemed to be enraptured by these changing tides. But no one found them. Not even when the federal government got involved. They said it was classified or so they told my parents. I was about 8 at the time. Minding my own business as I cried and mourned for a brother I would never get to see again.

Still, I learned no one wanted to see a gloomy sad depressed teenager. You get bullied for that stuff. So instead I plastered on my best smile. My parents did too.

"Sweetheart! You forgot your lunch!"  My mother bellowed from the kitchen door as I turned meeting her jet-black irises. Just like my own. Now my hair on the other hand I inherited from my father. We both wore the same ash-blond brown hair. Not quite blond, not quite brown, and not quite white. Not quite anything. One thing me and my parents all shared though was our forced smiles. I knew we all felt it, the grief that still lingered in the air. I looked over at the loose-hanging family picture frame all happy families had. Our parents stood behind us as we sat in those greyish wood chairs. We used to be happy. We were happy when we took this.

Shaking off those thoughts I scrambled to catch the school bus. I'll tell Dad to fix the frame when I get back. I was already late. Quickly grabbing the brown paper bag containing, without a doubt, a ham and cheese sandwich and an apple.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away! Plus, who likes PB&J sandwiches? I don't. Not that there's a problem it's no. I don't mind the PB it's the J that deters me.

"Thanks, Mom!" I said back before rushing out the door. But not before I turned back to the solo picture of my elder brother. Every day without a doubt I prayed for him to return to us. Wherever he may be I know that he's still alive. I could sense it.

Closing my eyes I prayed. I was by no means religious but I still prayed. Maybe because that was the only thing left that I could do. As I stepped out closing the door behind me I frowned up at the sky.

What the...

It was dark. Like pitch black no stars dark. No moon hung from the sky. No lights shown in the streets. And as I frowned I turned back watching as the red door to my white picket-fenced house yawned farther and farther away. Blinking I thought my eyes had been playing tricks on me. Maybe it was still night? But no then my mother wouldn't have been awake. Why was the door getting farther and farther and farther?

Reaching outwards I tried to catch the silver door knob of my home. But it was like a carrot being dangled out in front of me as I chased and chased it. Panic slowly sank in as I realized I might never be able to get back home. Dropping my lunch on the ground. Tossing my school bag off to lessen the weight pulling me down, because gravity.

I sprinted with all my might. Stretching as far as I can I tried to reach the knob but as soon as the bare touch of my fingers brushed the knob it flew even farther away.

No. No! NO! Please! Please don't go! Don't leave me here!

With a cry, I sprang up from my small cot in the underground bunkers. My makeshift mattress, which was really just one of those bulky blue gym mats they lined the walls with, was stained with my fear-induced sweat. Taking deep breaths I closed my eyes trying to hold back the tears from streaming down my eyes. How I wished that dream was true. Because getting to see my mother would have been the best gift anyone could have gotten me. I used to think it was a new iPhone or maybe some new kicks. But I was wrong.

4 weeks ago, the sky turned dark. The creatures of the night literally sprung out from the Shadows. They killed everyone who didn't have the gift and even some who did. By which I mean when the skies became empty of all lights; stars, the moon, shoot stars, or really meteors, some were gifted with abilities. Those who were were able to see in the dark without the need for light. Which believe me I was startled when I suddenly saw the sky turn black and it wasn't like this happened suddenly either. It was like the blue was slowly being swallowed whole. The white puffy clouds were replaced with sharp edges rocks. That despite gravity they floated in place.

Most of the adults were killed off first. The gifts seem to only happen more with ages 25 and younger. Older generations like 30-55 had a slightly higher chance. But if you were older than that you might as well try and win the lottery. Ages 55 and above had less than a 1% chance of obtaining the gift.

That's not to say having a gift was a guaranteed survival either.

One, if you got the gift you could see. Two you got an additional skill to help you survive the creature of the night. Because there was no killing these things. It was impossible. I should know I watched someone try and they paid for it dearly.

I watched unable to do anything as monsters with mouths as sharp as razors, skin as hollow as bone, and a nose like it had been sawed off came crawling out of the ground. Its grotesque arms bending, lifting its long jagged body from the floor, walls, air. Some were shaped like humans. And I say shaped because one look at their backs and faces, and you knew they couldn't possibly be human. They looked like other things too but like the more monstrous versions of animals. They were actually the harder ones to kill.

I couldn't do anything back then frozen in fear as I watched my teacher. And he wasn't like a regular old guy he actually seemed to work out a little. At least he didn't have a gut belly like our principal did. But he didn't have the gift. He didn't see it coming. It was silent. Despite its sharp-edged limps it made no sound and moved as quickly as a Japanese bullet train.

I stared rooted to the ground like my shoes had been nailed down to the concrete as Mr.Robinson, I know such a cliche name, got eaten. And it wasn't clean no. His head was chewed off first. And I do mean chewed off. The creature seemed to almost savor the man's head before swallowing. Like it was testing the flavor. Bile filled my throat as I stared at the blood erupting from my teacher's body. Before the thing went in for seconds, then thirds, forths, and finally fifths. It ribbed Mr. Robinson's arms and legs off like he was a chicken wing waiting to be devoured. Once it was done it turned its head to me. Cocking it as if it was amused. And here I was thinking if I didn't make a sound it wouldn't notice me. Which was why I swallowed back the acid. I couldn't even taste the burning sensation as it traveled back down my esophagus.

I still couldn't move as it lunged towards me its talons like an eagle as it aimed for its next dinner.