Forlot - Books 1-3 {Completed}

Chapter Twenty-Nine

My mouth dropped open. "You do not know? How do you not know?!" I proclaimed.

The shadow girl looked at me, and then back at the invisible paths. "I...forgot," she confessed.

"Forgot? How did you forget?!"

"I have bad memory! I forget things easily!"

"You told me earlier that you are a tour guide!" I was getting to the point of frustration.

She hurried over to me and placed her hands on my shoulders. "Calm down, Nigel. I will figure out which path is safe to take. Also, I am not a tour guide anymore. Now that you are here, my position has changed for the better. I am your shadow helper."

I took several deep breaths. I wanted to believe her. I wanted to hold on to every word that came out of her shadowy mouth. But it was hard to do, considering the situation that we were in.

"How...how can I be calm?" I choked out. "There is a chance - a very good chance - that I could end up dying."

"Not to worry," she reassured me. "I may have forgotten, however, I have a trick up my sleeve."

"Huh? How can you have a trick up your sleeve? You do not have a sleeve. At least, I do not see that you are wearing a shirt with sleeves."

Karla sighed. "It is an expression. It is not to be taken literally."

"Expression?"

She sighed again. "Comedy gold." She walked to the three paths. "And this is why we keep breaking the fourth wall."

Karla stopped in front of the paths and shifted her head from left to right, examining the paths. She then raised her head towards the blackness that was hanging over us and did something that I just could not believe.

"Ah!"

"What are you doing?!" I wondered. She did not answer and kept screaming, and I had to cover my ears.

I thought that I was going to go deaf! Her screaming was so loud!

When she was finished, she looked at me. "That was my call," she finally answered.

"Your call? You are not Terzini!"

"Nigel, stop making references to famous movies! You are bound to tick someone off!"

"Then you stop pretending to be a human who was raised by apes!"

"I will keep pretending if I wish! In reality, I am an orphan!"

I became surprised by her exclamation and immediately shut up.

Things went from silly to serious.

I could not say or do anything but stare intently at her, and she did the same right back at me.

Silence filled the area. Not a single sound.

We soon heard some noises, sounding like voices, and Karla turned, her back facing me, and pointed to the middle of the darkness.

"The middle path," she said, breaking the silence between us. "The middle path will lead us to the Shadowy City."

"Okay" was all that I said, and we made our way down the path.

Karla did not attempt to take my hand this time. She was a couple inches away and ahead of me. She hunched over, her head tilting to the dark floor and her arms hanging loosely against both of her sides. I could tell that she was not happy.

My face saddened, feeling sorry for her. "I am sorry that I upset you," I apologized.

"You do not need to apologize," the shadow girl said softly. "It is my fault. I mentioned it. I should not have let my anger get the best of me."

"I started it."

"You had no clue that I was an orphan."

"Yeah, but—" I began, but she interrupted.

"Let us drop this topic. Please? It bothers me. Besides, it will be a distraction for our real mission."

I slowly nodded. "Of course."

I was not going to argue with her. She did not like talking about it, and I understood.

I do not like talking about my mom, just like she does not like to discuss about her being an orphan. I was curious, wanting to learn why she was an orphan, but that was none of my business. Her business, not mine, and I wanted to be respectful.

"Here we are!" Karla exclaimed. "Welcome to the Shadowy City!"

I looked at my surroundings. Nothing seemed different in my eyes. Just the same empty blackness.

Except...something was moving.

No. There were lots of things moving by themselves!

I squinted and gasped as I came to a sudden realization.

The things were not really things.

They were people.

And they were heading in my direction.