The Lightning Thief

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

His unconsciousness did not last long. When he woke, Ygraine sat beside him, rubbing her head on his arm. His head hurt so much he could not hear her concerned meowing first. But, slowly, he came to his senses and tried to sit up. Immediately the room began to spin before his eyes, but he could just make out a pale light shining from his desk. Then he had to lay back again. Ignatius stared at the ceiling, which reflected the light coming from the desk, took a deep breath and slowly turned his head.

A dark mist floated over the now empty bowl. It was glowing strangely- and: the Shadows did not slide around objects or walls, but floated right in the air, like a cloud! Again, the feeling of triumph floated through Ignatius' body. His own Shadows, bowing at his will! Up to now, the only person who could completely control every Shadow was the Shadowsmith. But now, he was in the business! And these Shadows, containing his blood, would obey only him and noone else.

It took a moment for Ignatius to realise that someone was scratching at the door's lock, trying to open the door. He listened more carefully.

"Please, please... open", a quiet voice said. Ignatius realised it was Catie.

He tried to sit up again- what if she came in and saw the Shadows?- and the room began to spin a second time. He then tried to crawl over to the desk, with the slight idea of covering the Shadows with a blanket or something, but his head hurt so much he nearly lost conscience again. But as he lay on the ground, breathing hard, the solution came to him: He just had to tell the Shadows to hide! They were his to command.

"Shadows! I command you to-" "We will not obey you", a dark, deep voice whispered from the cloud of Shadows before Ignatius had even finished his sentence. "We have no master. You of all men should know, for you created us. We bow to no man's will."

Horrified, Ignatius slowly moved away from the desk. Catie was still trying to open the door. The Shadows moved through the air toward him- and then, they attacked, fast as lightning.

Ignatius closed his eyes and tried to imagine the death that was coming.

Before the Shadows reached him, he heard an angry meowing and Ygraine attacked. She tried to hold the Shadows off with her claws, but faster than she could react, the Shadows flowed into her mouth, her nostrils, her yellow eyes- and when they left her again, only a second later, the cat's body was frozen and stiff, as if she had lain dead for hours in cold snow. Her dead body cast no shadow on the floor.

Then they went for him. Ignatius did not even have time to scream. The Shadows were everywhere, in his veins there was no blood but Shadows, in his lungs there was no air but Shadows, they were as cold as ice and as hot as fire in the same moment.

Ignatius felt the Shadows try to make his heart stop beating, his blood freeze and his body cold and stiff like Ygraine's- but they could not.

The more they weakened him, the more they were weakened.

Finally, Ignatius heard the Shadows' voice right next to his ear: "We can not kill you. But we can destroy you. And we can kill everyone else in this town and you will watch."

A sharp pain in his left hand let him cry out. A part of the Shadows would stay behind, and show him the death of every single one of their victims. He could sense it.

Then they left him. Ignatius watched them float through the open window and disappear outside into the evening.

He looked at his left hand and saw a small wound. Around it, his veins had become dark as if his blood was suddenly black, not red.

Then, he heard screaming.

When Catie finally managed to kick the door open, she found Ignatius lying unconscious on the floor. Blood had run all over his face from a small wound on his forehead, and another wound on his left hand was unnaturally black. Next to him lay the dead cat. Both of them cast no shadow.

Rumours run fast. Shadows kill faster.

The next morning Ignatius stood on a street corner and watched the townspeople carry their dead loved ones onto the market place. But noone had suspected him yet or even found out what the mysterious killing force was without dying afterwards.

It had been a night full of nightmares and hallucinations for Ignatius. He had seen every single person the Shadows had killed, right before his eyes, as if he had killed them himself. Catie had done miracles, though: Only hours after the Shadows had attacked him, Ignatius was on his feet again, not casting a shadow and swaying a little, but able to walk.

As soon as the sun had risen, the screaming had stopped. It was replaced by crying and mourning. The people bid farewell.

Ignatius turned and went back to his flat. He did not want to see it anymore.

He had told Catie to stay in the flat and not to open any windows or doors, so the Shadows could not come in. But since he had not witnessed any deaths since sunrise, he believed them to only kill at night.

Ignatius had a plan. He could not stop the Shadows. He had no experience with things like that, so he would ask the Shadowsmith.

The only problem was: Nobody knew where he lived. There were rumours that he lived in a shag in the mountains, but there was noone who could tell exactly - simply because noone had ever been to his place and come back. He was not even sure if the current Shadowsmith was a man or a woman.

Nevertheless, Ignatius was sure he had to go there to find a solution for his problem. He did not care much for the townspeople, but if they died- who would buy his jewellery?

That was what he thought when he opened the doors of his shop to gather his things and, to his surprise, found a beautiful woman inside.