Shadows We Can't See

Chapter 3

Jorden looks up at a sky of purple and grey, a cool air sliding off the surface of his skin. He looks down to see odd and indistinguishable formation of clouds, he's falling. He turns his body around and throws his arm out as if surrendering himself to the fall, he passes through the clouds and lands face first on a surface. He gets to his knees and looks around him to see a giant room of glass, he stands up and sees various and deep cracks in these walls. He walks to examine them, but a black substance creeps out of them like a deadly tar or paint. As the room fills with this substance, a maniacal laugh is heard as Jorden struggles to find breath until he is swallowed whole.

Jorden jerks and opens his eyes. His vision is blurry, but the shapes of people along with beeping noises tells him that he is in the hospital. He regains his sight to see his sister along with a doctor standing over him, but he looks over his sisters arm to see somebody walks out of the door like a shadow that disappeared. The doctor with a greasy beard and a sweaty face walks to his right side and leans over him awkwardly.

"Hello, do you know who you are?" Jorden nods his head, "what state?"

"New Jersey" Jorden says groggily

"Year?" The doctor says automatically

"Two thousand-seventeen"

"Good, looks like there's no concussion or anything serious. You had a slight brain aneurism that lead to a stroke. You arrived at the hospital in time so there were no long lasting injuries, but I would like to run some tests just to make sure everything is in order" The doctor walks to the door and tips his hat respectfully toward Jorden's sister before leaving. She gets up and walks towards his bed side.

"I can't leave you alone can I?" She exclaims with a chuckle, "You've been out for two days you know, the school called like a 'bigellion' times for you"

"Two days huh? It only felt like a couple of hours." He says looking up at the ceiling. The room is neat with a small television to the right of him and a remote control to his left, a small vase of fake flowers is boringly displayed on a small table to the front of the room. "Could you do me a favor? I'm kinda thirsty, could you grab me some water?"

"Sure, no problem" she says getting up, walking out of the room. He turns to his left to peer out the window. As he looks up at the bright blue sky, he sees a figure behind him in his reflection. He quickly jerks his head and looks behind him, but nothing is there. He takes a deep breath and shrugs it off.

A few hours later, Jorden walks out with his sister, gauges are wrapped around his head making his hair look like a mushroom. A lady sitting by the entrence behind the desk wearing white gowns and lazy makeup asks, "Are you miss Caitlin?"

"Yes" she says grabbing a pen.

"Sign here please" she says handing her a clipboard. Caitlin signs it and they walk out, the sky has now turned into a cool blue-green and the air has a crisp and cool tone to it.

"Jorden" a voice exclaims behind him. Jorden quickly turns behind him, but nothing is there.

"Everything ok? Caitlin asks confused.

"Yeah, I just thought I heard something" he says looking around him then following his sister to the car.

They drive back to their house, Jorden looks out the passenger window as all the scenery goes by him unnoticed. Jorden looks at the pavement to see a man in a trench coat and hat, the man seems to be looking directly at him with a gleam in his eye, but his facial features are yet to be seen. The car drives by and Jorden looks behind him, but the man is gone.

Once in the house, Caitlin slumps on the couch, "I'm gonna lay down for a lil, don't go out for a while give it like 2 or 3 days" she says falling asleep. As Jorden walks upstairs the snores of his sister are heard and he chuckles a little bit at the noise. He walks inside his room and goes to the mirror by his bed and unwraps the gauges to find a scar by hairline. He sighs and looks back up at the mirror to see a figure behind him, he turns around sharply and starts walking straight to examine the figure he had just saw. As he walks, something laugh behind him and he turns again to see a dark figure standing before him. Startlingly, Jorden falls backwards and starts to scoot backwards trying to understand what he is seeing. The black figure has what appears to be a coat on along with a hat. The coat is made of a cloth that is not yet known to man and is as black and deep as a black hole that swallows planets whole.

"Wh..who are you!" Jorden exclaims sharply.

"Just call me Lucifer" the voice says taking off the coat and hat as they disappear into thin air, "and I've been waiting a very long time to meet you Jorden" Lucifer smiles grimly closing the gap that Jorden had made.