My Shadow [on hold]

5) Well, crap, Peter Pan

Apparently I wasn't the only one in need of a psychiatrist visit. Although, he did materialise out of out-of-thin-air, so it was probably just me.

"Well, it's been...fun," I lied. "But now, as you've kindly pointed out, I need to leave." I had no intention of staying in this dark alley with a magic stranger guy, that seemingly knew about my life. I began to move, but stopped at the sight of the immobile men.

"Don't worry about them," Magic-boy said. "They'll wake up with terrible headaches and hangovers. The alcohol will probably make them forget everything that happened, or at the very least make everything fuzzy. They won't even know what hit them."

"Is that a pun?"

"Unintentional." He held up his fingers in scout's honour.

I stared at the lifeless figures. "They wanted to...," I trailed off, my voice small. Tears began to brim in my eyes.

He looked conflicted. "I'm really sorry, Em," he said gently. "I wish we could report them—" his jaw clenched, as if it pained him to let them go "—, but there are too many complications. The police will need to know how you singlehandedly rendered them unconscious. And if they tell their story about how I appeared out of nowhere, yes, most people will think they're crazy, but it would get a lot of media attention." — his voice became earnest —"I don't want to risk you becoming a media sensation or, at the worst, you becoming some nut job's science experiment."

His voice was soft, and he showed the signs of genuine concern. I was still in shock from the whole ordeal. My mind, still amazed as to how a simple date could go this badly.

Magic-boy raised his eyebrows and held up his hands in a I-mean-no-harm gesture, slowly taking measured steps to the girl who was losing her sanity. "Come on, let's go," he murmured softly. He put a hand on the top of my back to lead me, but immediately retracted it when I flinched at the contact.

He was right. I took in the two pathetic men with sad eyes, and I realised I had to let them go.

Magic-boy then did something unexpected. He went over to one of the men and kicked him hard in the family jewels. I cringed because, I think I heard a cracking sound, and that was cause for worry. He proceeded to the other motionless form and introduced his foot to the same area, none to kindly.

I stared up at him in confusion.

"Just making sure they can't have kids, and if their lucky that part of their anatomy won't be severely deformed or broken now."

I nodded absentmindedly, my mind cloudy from shock and unfinished thoughts.

"We should go." He shifted on his feet.

I held up my hand to stop him. "How do you know about my life?"

He hesitated. "Like I said, I'm your shadow. Your custos. It's means guardian in Latin."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Over the course of five seconds, have you suddenly become hearing impaired?" He raised his eyebrows.

I glared at him. "Whatever Kuzco," I waved my hand dismissively, "

"Koos-tos," he corrected irritably.

"Why should I believe you?"

"Do random men just suddenly appear in the middle of alleyways, on a daily basis for you?," he challenged. "Fine," he gave up with a puff, "take out your phone again, but this time put the flashlight feature on."