Shadowmen

Chapter Three

Present day

I climbed out of bed and was ready to meet Bastion. My arms were sore from my little fight I had with the shadowman yesterday. I wasn’t exactly fit for fighting, but living where I live, you learn to have some street moves and at least a little strength.

I put on a light t-shirt and a pair of shorts. I wanted to be as cool as possible, I’m positive that Bastion will have me moving and fighting, trying to test me to see if I’m good enough to join the ranks.

I went out into the living room to find Hale lying on the couch asleep. When I closed my bedroom door though, he perked his head up at the light sound.

“That’s my boy! Always alert and protecting me.”

Somehow that comment brought my mind back to my mom and how she was always there keeping me fed and watched over. She was wonderful. She walked me to school. She bought me the best food she could afford.  Tears started forming in my eyes at the thought of my mother.

I tried to push the thoughts from my mind. The only emotion that could replace sadness was anger. I felt the fury swell up inside me. I grabbed my bag and told Hale to come with me and within moments I was riding down the brightly lit streets towards the shadowmen headquarters.

When I finally arrived I found the same guy sitting at his desk standing guard in front of the door to the rest of the headquarters.  My emotions changed yet again this morning and now all I felt was nervous.

“Girly, you’re back!” he smiled “and on time, that’s always impressive.” I flet that there was intended sarcasm in that statement, but my nerves forced me to ignore it.

“Well?” I asked trying to keep calm. “Is Bastion here?”

He looked up from his book. His eyes were set on me. “I said he’d be here at Five, and last I checked, it’s five o one.” He pointed behind him towards the door.

I took this signal as  ‘go head, I’m not opening the door for you’. I started to walk forward anticipating what was to come next. This all felt too easy. Shadowmen are supposed to be an elite group with extremely high standards. Why was I able to join so easily?

The man at the door never moved a muscle as I opened the door and walked through, but right as I stepped in I heard a quick movement and the door slammed shut behind me.

The door had a small hole in it and I heard the man’s voice slide through it. “Find Bastion is step one.”

The tiny hold was the closed and for the first time in my life…it was dark.

I proceeded forward without even knowing where I was going. Darkness was like having my eyes closed even though they weren’t.  I tried taking deep breaths to calm myself. 

The hallway was covered in dirt. It was literally as if it was made by digging a hole at an angle down deeper into the earth.  The slope of the hallway was rather steep, but I kept my balance by holding the wall. If I wanted to know where I was I needed to keep track of my position, so I counted my steps

After taking about twenty steps I felt the wall turn, making another hallway. I wanted to test to see if I had any extra options so I reach over to the other side hoping my choices were limited, but I found that I was at fork in the hallway. I could go left, or I could go right.

It didn’t seem to matter, so I followed the right side of the wall, as I had been my entire walk in this dark place. After about forty steps I could hear something. It was feint, but it sounded like movement. Bastion. I thought.

I started to move a little quicker still counting my steps, but my hallway seemed to end.  There were only boxes in this space it seemed to be a storage area.

 I was forced to turn around and walk back up towards another hallway, this time I decided to take the left path hoping to have better luck. I made it forty steps when I heard movement again. This time, movement accompanied the sound. My heart stopped and so did I.  I looked upwards and looking at me was a pair of yellow glowing eyes.

Without thinking I took off down the hall forgetting my steps and just running. I didn’t know where I was going I just continued running uphill hoping to find the door leaving this place. I turned and looked back, but the eyes had vanished. I fell to the floor. This darkness is too much I couldn’t handle this torture.

I looked up and saw the eyes again; this time they were slowly approaching me. Watching me.

I stood up and ran towards it. Not caring if I died trying to take down my enemy.

When I was finally face-to-face with the monster I ran right through it, never making contact with it. The eyes were gone again. Anger swelled inside of me again. I started running down the hall trying to find something. The hall on the left where I had initially seen the eyes was longer than the storage hall, so I continued down it’s path hoping it would lead me to Bastion.

When I reached the end of it I saw something. A single light in the middle of what seemed to be an endless room. I walked forward to the light trying to adjust my eyes to the brightness. When I stood underneath it, I scanned the room again.

Eyes surrounded me. The bright yellow glow illuminated the walls; in every direction I found more of them. It seemed as though there were dozens coating the walls.

I didn’t care; they weren’t able to touch me under the light.

“Try and get me shadows, I dare you” I mocked.

“Help!” another voice shouted. “Is someone there? The tunnels have been overrun, the shadowmen are everywhere!”

I felt my heart drop. I could hear the panic in the man’s voice. I needed to help him, but the eyes remained glued on me, waiting for me to try and save this helpless person.  I started to regret taunting them.

I didn’t know what to do, I could stay here and be safe, or I could risk my life to save the defenseless person. My mind was racing. So much had happened in so little time.

This could be a trap. The shadowmen could be creating the voice to lure me in, or I could be sitting here contemplating whether or not to save someone in actual danger.

            Another scream echoed through the tunnels. That was enough to decide for me. I took off towards the source of the noise abandoning my only source of light, and protection.

            I ran as fast as I could, I saw the eyes move towards me at unnatural speed. I closed my eyes and didn’t back down, I continued running.

            Suddenly I heard clapping. I opened my eyes to find the whole room brightly lit with a man standing on a podium built on the wall in front of me.

            I stopped in my tracks not understanding what was going on.   The eyes were gone and there was no endangered person.

            “Congratulations” the man spoke, “you’ve passed the first step.”

“What?”  I asked.

The man climbed down the ladder leading up to the podium.  His black hair covered his face. He reached up and brushed it out of his face.

“I’m Bastion.”  He said with a smirk.