Shadow Flame

Chapter 2- Al

"Al", that's what everyone calls me. My true full name is not something I tell people. "Hey Al! Why don't you come work with us, since you just got ditched?" Dan asked. "I'm good" I mutter, and turn to look after the girl I met in middle school. We used to never talk, until we came to high school together. Her friend Em is pretty cute, and if I could I'd go out with her, but as of now my attention is on Aura.

I know now that with Em around I wouldn't be able to talk to her privately. I should have focused on what I was doing, because next thing I know, I had made my flames dance on Em's shirt. My pendant started to cool down against my chest, when I grabbed it. It heats up when I let the fire go free. I silently told the flame to go out, but couldn't help smirking. The shock on Em's face makes us even. I quickly turn and catch Aura looking at me, so I tell her, "Guess next time we'll be partners." It was a stupid thing to say, and I had a feeling she saw what I had done, but that was impossible. She couldn't possibly know. Only my victims and I can see when it happens. I turned and went to the lab table.

The teacher turned on the gas and lit the fire for the experiment. Funny how methane and sparks can make it a blue flame, yet I, with only a thought, can make a fire that burns insanely bright and hot. She tested out samples of chemicals, and they changed the color of the flames. I saw one of the color of blood, one of seaweed, another one of sunset orange. The one that caught my attention was the one that turned to a teal-turquoise color. Very close to the one I can make. Out of nowhere everything around me went dark. I knew what this meant: It's a messenger trying to tell me something. A gray light came from the side of where Aura would be sitting, and pointed at her. It made a hissing sound, and turned blood red. I felt my arms grow very hot, and I look to see some black fog surrounding them, everywhere they touched burning. The feeling was that of being bitten by a poisonous spider or having put my hand in a crater of boiling earth water. I shook the shadows off, and tried to back up, but one grabbed hold of my drakon. It turned ice cold, and its emerald eyes started to go dark, I turned to where the messenger was, trying to understand what the message was, but it was still standing next to Aura. It was now pointing to the pendant, as well as her.

I had thought it meant that she needed to have it but if these shadow ghouls were trying to take it why not keep It on myself? The dark subsided, and I heard Orlando calling me. He was someone I trusted. I had to trust him. He was like me. He could summon animals. Very boring, if looked upon without knowing, but the kid can bring a pack of wolves chasing after you if you tick him off. I learned that the hard way. I won't underestimate him ever again. "Al. I just got orders. You have to keep the drakon protected. The shadow seekers have returned. They are after the drakon. You can't have it on you any longer." He told me. The message was clearly tied to these orders. "I'll give it to Aura to keep it safe..With Em around her, no ghouls should even touch her. It's perfect. They are always together" I thought.

~class finishes~ I hurry to catch Aura before she leaves. I grab her by the shoulders; turn her around to face me. And for a moment I forget what I'm doing... her eyes have a tiny shade of the teal I saw in the fire. It's hardly noticeable. No one would notice it, had they looked at her normally. I snapped out of it and in the box I had placed the drakon in, opened her hand and gave it to her. I warn her, "Don't open it until you are home". I left out that it was a powerful object, and that the shadow seekers, and how my crew and I would be doomed if it was in the wrong hands. I turned and left as quickly as I could. I needed to report to the leader. I needed to know when and how the shadow seekers had come back. As I was walking I could sense someone behind me, so I turn around and grab my follower, by pinning their arms behind their back.

I stopped pressing when I see that it's Em. I let her go. "Why are you here? You're supposed to be with Aura" I asked, kind of worried, because if she wasn't with Aura, then Aura would have no protector... "I heard Orlando saying something about orders, and after class you ran off. I came to find out what the leader had ordered and why you seemed so worried." She told me. Em's been a secret member of the same legion that I'm in, and she's also been Aura's protector without even knowing it. I explain to her about the messenger, the drakon losing the light, and how Orlando's telling me of the order, had tied in to Aura. Somehow she is a bigger piece of the legion than anyone knew. The worse to know had yet to come, we walked side by side, to find the hideout, and every few steps our arms brushed against each other. Anytime it happened I felt a small shock of electricity course through my body.

I've heard of knowing you're in love when you feel the shock, but with Em I wouldn't be able to tell. She is the one who can actually mess with electricity; generate it through her own body when she wants. She has a good grace; I wish I'd gotten that instead. How cool it would be to end up like Zeus from Greek mythology, and just shoot lightning out of the skies?! Well, once someone discovers their grace, they get tracked down by the trackers, and given a test. Then they are interned into the legion. It's a very hard 2 weeks to go through. They test your strength, agility, persuasion skills, energy, trust, loyalty and of course, being able to control your grace. If one is found who passes everything (which all graced do), but are not able to control their grace, they are put on 'probatio', and they are given instructions on what to do to learn to control it. Doesn't seem bad right? Until they tell you that you can't return home or to your normal life until it's controlled. Horrible memories haunt all of the members of the legion, but the things we do, shove those memories into a place where they won't awaken, unless ordered to.

Without realizing that I wasn't watching where we were going, I stopped in my tracks, and looking around, I saw that there was no one following us. It was Standard procedure. We walked into an old abandoned apartment building; everything was dusty, with multiple spider webs surrounding the once fluorescent lights. Every knob knocked off, the windows forever open. If we were to go into any one of these rooms, (as I had done before, as an order), all we would find would be burnt furniture, ashes still floating around, and in most rooms, multiple corpses in the bathtubs. My orders had been to check to see if there were any survivors.

Others weren't willing to take the corpses out, because there is a saying that "Once a person is killed, their souls remain with the bodies in the form of ghosts or ghouls". So all we could do was move all the corpses in each room to the tubs so no intruders would take them. This is a perfect place for a hideout, since nobody comes here they think it's haunted, and it is. Em and I have to be cautious, as everyone else is, to not encounter any ghouls. We go all the way to the end of the row of doors, where there's an elevator. I take my arm; make a flame appear on my wrist. After a few seconds, a design starts to show up embedded in my skin, turning reddish purple. I put the fire out and let my wrist scrape the elevator button. The elevator hadn't worked in years. At least it didn't work before the Drakta came along. Now it works, only with the symbol of the Drakta that gets carved into the skin with a light torch. Not light like fire light; Real pure light. It burns; the good thing is that it's only done during the initiation ceremony.

The elevator doors crack open. It seems to be crying out in excruciating pain as it opens up with loud creaks. At last it opens up; and inside the stench is repugnant. It stinks of burning flesh, bathed in rotten fish stew, with a side of gorgonzola mixed into it. I had to stop myself from emptying my stomach unto the floor, as I pressed the last button, the top floor, and we started ascending. No elevator music played, which I was thankful for, but this was so old that every time we passed a floor, the elevator shook like an earthquake. During one of those elevator-quakes, Em lost her balance and toppled over to where I was holding on. In order to catch her, and prevent the fall, I let go and caught her in midair. The down side is that I fell backwards, slid down, and ended up with her on top of me. She smiled and I could see a small spark in her blue eyes. I smiled back. We were still on the elevator floor when the doors creaked open, and a couple of guys yelled at us to "stop fooling around". "The boss wants to see you", pointing at me, one said. I got up as quick as I could, cleaned myself off, and entered the Drakta headquarter.

It's on the roof of this building; max capacity would be maybe 50 people, with breathing space. It looks exactly the same as the last time I was here which was maybe 2 weeks ago. There's a lot of wires hooked up to a computer over in a corner, sitting on a desk next to a wide television, which they use to keep up with the current news. There's normal furniture spread around the room, most of which were occupied by members of the Drakta. A door leads to where the guns, blades, and masks are. In a low, deep voice, the boss says, "Al. sit. Where's the drakon?"