Born of Shadow - Book 1 (complete)

Chapter 22

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“We followed them for two more days. That’s when we found the corpses. I couldn’t identify them by their faces since the birds and desert sun had gotten to them first. But I recognized the clothes on them, what was left anyway. It was the three men we’d been traveling with. But here’s the strange thing about their bodies. They were colorless.”

 “Aren’t most corpses pale?” Liam asked.

 Samuel handed them a stack of photographs which they passed around.

“I didn’t say pale, I said colorless. Have you ever seen dead tissue? After the death chill, the body bloats and starts to discolor, turning green, then purple, then black. Here, look at these pictures. See how the bodies are clear, almost as if the outer layer was plastic? You can see the bones and organs inside. They are drained and colorless too. It is almost as if something had sucked the life out of them.”

Kami’s arm hairs stood on end, and she felt chill bumps forming. She looked at the pictures and had to look away.

“Just like the earwigs,” Yasmin whispered. 

“Here’s the even crazier part,” Samuel continued in a hushed voice. “They were odorless. Those bodies should have been stinking to high heaven by that point. But they weren’t. They weren’t even bloated. It was as if they weren’t decomposing. I wondered, if their faces hadn’t been chewed off, if their features, their lips and eyes, would have been drained too.”

“Ewww,” Yasmin shuddered. 

“Disgusting, eh?” Samuel winked. “So getting back to my story, we followed the trail for a few more days and then it vanished. Nothing.” 

“What happened to the women? And the other men?” Haji asked.

Samuel shrugged.

“Who knows? We never found them, or their bodies. They’re dead I presume.”

“And the black shadow things?” Kami prompted.

“We never encountered one on that particular excursion, only saw the flickers. But a few months later, we saw our first creature, a serpent. I could hear its scaly body slithering near my sleeping bag, could see its shadowy form. It left me alone. I don’t know why. As you can guess, we don’t sleep out in the open anymore. That's why we built this place—to protect ourselves.

“Since then we’ve seen several of them, all different, some in recognizable shapes, some not. We call them shadow creatures, but we don’t know for sure what they are, or how they’re made, or what they’re capable of doing. Christopher has this hare-brained idea to...” But here his voice faltered. Kami looked over at Chris and noticed his reaction. He was shaking his head, as if to say, don’t you dare say it. 

“Are these creatures powerful enough to take a whole village?” Yasmin asked.

“I considered it, but if it were the creatures, why wouldn’t they just leave behind the bodies?” Samuel said. “We think someone or something is creating the creatures.”

“Chris said the policemen at the blockade were not what they seem,” Liam said. “What does he mean by that?”

Chris and Samuel exchanged uncomfortable glances.

“Your call,” Samuel said. “You don’t have to tell them.”

Chris squirmed in his seat. 

“Fine,” he sighed. “It’s not something I like to talk about much. Makes me feel like a freak. I have the Sight.” 

He said it like a person might say he has diabetes, or cancer. As if he carried a disease. The others stared at him blankly, and he clearly felt compelled to go on. 

“Um, it’s a condition. It showed up when I was eight. I can tell when people are infected. Marked,” he said. He crossed his arms and rubbed his shoulder.

“Infected with what?” Kami asked.

Chris hesitated again.

“Evil,” he finally answered. “I see the shadows in people. I guess another term for it would be possessed, but I don’t really like that word as much because of the ways that movies show it. You know, people babbling, shaking, and acting crazy. This type of possession is different. You would never know the person was possessed unless you had the ability to see it. Well, sometimes they seem a little stoned.”

“So that policeman was possessed?” Yasmin asked. 

“I know it sounds crazy,” Chris started, but Liam interrupted him.

“What do you see?” he asked.

“Nothing at first. They look normal to me too. But there’s a moment where there’s a quicksilver flash, and it’s like I see inside them. Not blood vessels and organs. I see straight to the skull, like an x-ray. I see the shadow. It’s there; then it’s gone. The first time it happened, I was buying a bag of Doritos at a gas station. The cashier’s face flashed and I nearly wet my pants.”

“How do you know this flash means they’re possessed?” Yasmin pressed.

Samuel and Chris exchanged another meaningful glance. Chris’s face went rigid, his hands white from gripping his pants. Sweat dripped from his brow. He was afraid.

“He knows,” Samuel said. “Trust me, he knows in a way no one should ever have to know. How many of them were there?”

“Most of them had the mark,” Chris swallowed hard, each word forced. “A few of them were regular guys. My guess is they won’t remain that way for long.”

“Probably not,” Samuel murmured. “This does complicate things considerably. For the longest time I’ve tried to believe there was no connection, but it’s becoming harder and harder to believe that.”

“What connection?” Yasmin asked. 

“I need some fresh air,” Chris said, stumbling in his eagerness to leave. He lifted the flap and left the tent.

“That’s enough discussion about that for today,” Samuel said firmly.

Kami glanced at Liam. His brow was furrowed. His eyes caught hers. 

“Fresh air sounds nice,” Liam said. “Anyone care to join me?” 

Yasmin shook her head.

“I want to talk to Samuel some more,” she said, although Kami had the feeling “interrogate” might be a better fit than “talk”. 

“Haji?”

 “The car was making a strange rattling sound. I better make sure it's okay,” he replied. 

The air was stale in the tent, stuffy, and oppressive. It would be nice to get away from it for a bit and try to wrap her mind around all this, but it would be awkward to be around Liam after their little fight. Liam glanced around the room searching for anyone, anyone but Kami. After a deeply uncomfortable pause, he finally acknowledged her.

“Kami?” he extended the invitation reluctantly.

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So what do we all think of Chris? Are Liam and Kami going to make up? I'd love to know your thoughts!

This chapter dedication goes out to my brother, Adam. He's been a quiet follower of this story, but I appreciate his comments and suggestions on Facebook. Thanks bro! Also a big thanks to all my other readers who prefer not to comment but have been reading and voting all along. Thanks - I appreciate you!