In Shado

VI

Dear diary, I think I always knew Xanthia was telling the truth about Shado. I mean, you gotta suspect it after you wake up with too many coincidences. Sore feet from walking in a dream, bruises from that time I wasn't paying attention and fell, scraped my knee, and it was still there when I woke. But you can't really believe that stuff, you know? I'm already weird for seeing myself as a purple-haired elf in a fantasy word every night. Finally, we decided to test it. Barrow wasn't sure either, so he and I memorized each other's phone numbers. He called first, and then we both knew. His real name's Adam. I told him I'm Anne. I can't wait to see he and Xan tonight, knowing they're real people. I feel almost giddy.

~

I went to bed early, so I might have to wait a while before Sal shows up. I'm eager. All day, I couldn't stop thinking about everything that's happened. So much has changed in just one day.

I'm walking toward the creek now, passing through the familiar metallic forest. I gaze up at the blank, starless sky. It really is pretty: deep magenta fading to violet. Somehow, it never reflects off of the trees or water.

I have so much to tell him: everything that I read in my mother's journals. They were just like us. Just a trio of lost kids wandering Shado, clueless as to whether or not it was real, why they kept coming back, and why them.

It's some kind of alternate plane. Some place our nonphysical selves drift toward when we're asleep. But even when we're there, we are still connected to the waking world, anchored by our bodies somehow. That's why wounds from Shado appear on our physical bodies. It's why, if you skip dinner, you'll be starving all night in Shado. It's why I can never really rest. It's why the roamers are "cursed." I get it now.

The air is still. The only sounds are the subtle brushing sounds of my feet against the grass.

Rune sits at the water bank with his back to me. I stop. "Hey. You're back."

He turns his head and gets to his feet.

"Hey." He sounds tired. I think back to the broken boy in the hospital bed.

I jog forward. "I found you. And Sal." My gaze meets his for a moment then drifts again. "Like you asked." I used to have effortless conversations with him, and now it's awkward. Now that I know he's a real person.

"So you finally get it."

I nod. The corner of my mouth curves up. "You don't look like a 'Jake.' "

He grins. "What do 'Jakes' look like?"

My smile drops. Bruised, battered. Tubes and machines. Family crying by your bedside.

"There was an accident." I glance at him again. "You and Sal were in a car accident." His clear jade irises almost look like floating discs in the dark surroundings. "You're in a coma."

There's a moment of silence. "I didn't even see the other car."

"It hit on your side."

His face dips down.

The image of his battered self returns. "You'll be fine, Ru. We just gotta keep you safe in Shado." He doesn't respond, so I continue. "How've you been doing so far? Run into a lot of roamers?"

"Nothing I couldn't successfully hide from. Sal's here." He nods behind me. I turn and see him walking over.

"Did you get the picture I sent you?" I ask Sal.

"Yeah. I texted you back not too long ago. Did you get it?"

"Not yet; I just went to bed."

"What did it look like?" Rune asks.

I make the shape with my index fingers.

"An X?" He asks.

"A teepee," I clarify.

"Do you think it's like what dad said?"

"Make a teepee, and they'll come," Sal remembers.

I tell them about my mother's journals.

"What if he meant to make the symbol?" I wonder. "Not a literal teepee, the symbol. We use it to find their haven."

"How do we know that, if we carve this symbol into a tree, someone from the haven will see it?" Sal counters.

"I was thinking of something flashier than a carving."

"No." The creek glitters over quartz rocks behind him.

"Isn't it worth it to try?"

"Yes," Rune says. "Don't you want to see the place—the people—Dad told us stories about?"

"You can't wake up," Sal points out. "We can. You can't get out of it if something goes wrong. Plus, this is our spot. I don't want to draw them here."

"If I don't do it, we're in danger just the same," I say. "The roamers just keep getting bigger in number. And who knows how long it will take Rune to get better?"

Sal faces his brother. "Fine. But you have to agree to start running before Lu lights up."

"I'm not made of tissue paper," Rune argues. "I'm a lot stronger in Shado. I can handle a few roamers. If we're going to attract a crowd, you'll need me to fight them off anyway. If they even come. There's no guarantee any are near us."

He phrased it that way to sway Sal. Sal was always the leader of the group, and we fell into the roles of his subjects without ever thinking about it. But Rune was always good at getting Sal to cave. Like once, when I was twelve, and Rune was thirteen: we found a wall of rock, so big we couldn't even see the top of it, with a cave mouth as big as a skyscraper. Inside, the brown walls were streaked with iridescent skid marks, and big, glass trees twisted together like pipe cleaners and glowed like nightlights. Sal decided the risk of meeting some kind of cave monster outweighed exploring the enchanted forest. Rune, still new to Shado at the time, finagled "ten minutes," which turned into an hour, and ended with us running from the dazed figure that peeled itself from the moss and stumbled after us.

"Fine."

I give Rune a sideways smirk to let him know that I knew what he'd done. He rolls his eyes.

I rub my hands together. "Alright. You guys ready?"

"Just do it." Sal crouches and picks up a fallen branch.

I reach my fingertips upward and columns of light shoot out toward the violet sky. I angle my hands so that the two beams make the same bottom-heavy X my mother drew in her book.

I hold it up for a minute before defusing the light and dropping my hands to my side.

"Do you think that was long enough?" I ask.

"Let's hope," Rune mumbles, looking around.

I scan the gaps between the gray and silver trees.

I've gotten caught before. I was frustrated. Why should I run? It wasn't real. I wasn't going to let myself be afraid of a bad dream. So I stood still and let them come. One bit me from behind, and I woke up screaming with a gushing gash torn into my collarbone. The cops made our neighbors get rid of their dog, and I never let roamers catch me again.

We stand rigid in Shado's windless silence long enough to start to think nothing saw the signal. No such luck. Leaves tinkle like empty cans, drawing attention to the dimly-lit nightmares skulking among trees under a flashlight.

The three of us back toward each other.

"This is a lot," Sal mutters. I count five on my side.

"It's too late to run," Rune says. I swallow. Maybe we didn't think this through.

The first figure sprints forward.

Thanks for reading! The full version if available on the Amazon Kindle Store! There's a clickable in the comments and in my description :) 

https://www.amazon.com/Shado-Book-1-ebook/dp/B073DJZRMJ/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1498669023&sr=1-1&keywords=haley+poluchuck