Shadow Bound

A Man Dances

I blinked. Damien shook my shoulders, yelling my name. I came back to reality, to see that everything was okay. The forest was still intact, there was no Shadow in sight, and it was just Damien and I.
"What was that? Are you okay?" Damien continued to yell, holding onto my right arm. "Sit down, you're paler than paper."
I shook off his arm, realizing that it was nothing, just my imagination. "I'm fine, sorry." I apologized, and started to continue walking, trying to forget what had just occurred in my mind.
"No, we aren't moving until you tell me what that was. Please, that scared the heck out of me. You just stopped dead center of the road, your body was shaking violently. Your eyes were wider than anyone I'd ever seen. Your face went pale and it didn't look like you were breathing. What the heck was that, Erin?" He asked, his face red with fury. I didn't understand why he was mad at me.
"It was nothing, I just didn't feel good for a second. Please," I urged him to move off of the topic. He shook his head, running his left hand through his hair. That immediately calmed me. I never understood why, but it did.
"That wasn't nothing, I don't care what it was, you're telling me. Now." He pulled me to the side of the road, pointing to the ground, telling me to sit down. I just gawked helplessly at him, crossing my arms. "Really, I'm fine. It's okay. Can we just walk?" I begged, pointing to the road in front of us. He sighed, shaking his head, refusing to look back at me.
"Fine, but next time this happens, I'm not giving in. Next time this happens, you're telling me everything. This is worrying me, I can't have you just fall limp on me. Please,"
"It won't happen again, I swear. Let's just forget about it, okay?"
"No, I won't. But let's keep going."
We walked in complete, disturbing silence. I could see that he was keeping his eye on me, examining my every move, making sure that I wouldn't just fall. I just kept my eyes to the ground, refusing to acknowledge his wonders. He didn't need to worry about me. Truthfully, I didn't even know what had happened. I thought it was real, I thought all of it was real. I thought we were in danger, I thought all of our fun had come to a quick end. It didn't though. I stared at the trees, expecting them to erupt into flames at any second, but as minutes droned by, they remained clean. I peered back every once in a while, expecting to see a Shadow directly behind me, but it was just Damien and I.
We approached a fork in the road. "Which way do we go? Any idea?" Damien wondered, his hands on his waist. I looked between the two, hoping for a sign that indicated which one lead to where. It was a mystery.
"Well," I shrugged. "Are you ready for an adventure? Because I have no clue. There's no sign, there's nothing to tell us if one leads to Vancouver or Timbuktu, sooo," I trailed off. He groaned, leaning back in protest.
"But what if one means more walking?" He complained, I shrugged again.
"Oh well, right? Get your exercise in. It'll be fun. What if we get to a super cool town and meet some super chill people?" I mocked the language that I heard people my age saying. Personally, I was more into actual sentences, not just 'chill' and 'super cool dude', but more of 'kind,' and 'interesting,' but oh well. I wasn't part of them, so I didn't care how their grammar was.
"Well then maybe they can point us to Vancouver, because we really need to get to your friend before the other things do." Oh, right. We were on a strict time limit, but we didn't know how much time we had left. Great.
"Let's go left. That always seems to get me where I need to go," I suggested. He started walking, but turned back to make a smart remark.
"I'm not letting you drive, then. We drive on the right side of the road," He chuckled.
"Ha, ha. Very funny. I know that. I may be out of the loop, but I'm not THAT disconnected,"
"Uh huh, sure." He mocked, "I can just see you getting into a car and driving on the left side, killing everyone in your path. ROOAARR I'M ERIN AND I DON'T CARE WHICH SIDE OF THE ROAD I'M ON, NOW BOW DOWN TO ME," He roared, acting like Godzilla and racing around everywhere.
"I'm not that stupid, I swear. I just like the left side. I'm a lefty, so it works well, I guess. It hasn't failed me yet," I replied, scoffing.
"Fine, fine. I give in, let's go left then. If it takes us to a 'super cool town with super chill people' I'm gonna blame you." He loved mocking me. I hit his shoulder, and bounced in front of him, then stopped abruptly. He didn't anticipate the stop, so he stumbled over me, toppling to the ground. When he landed, we both heard an obvious squish.
"Uhhh, what did you just land in?" I replied, holding in a laugh. I continued walking like nothing ever happened, ignoring him as he groaned getting up. He struggled to get up, looking like a turtle that was laying on his back. By struggling like that, he was only rubbing further into the stuff.
"I don't know, and honestly, I don't want to know.Let's not do that again," He giggled. I turned around to see him inspecting the substance on the ground. I could see the realization in his eyes as it clicked that he had the unfortunate opportunity to land in dog poop. He screamed as he raced over to a tree, wiping it off on the bark.He looked kind of like a bear scratching his back. I giggled at that thought. I was traveling with Mogly from Jungle Book. I kept walking, keeping my face straight, waiting for when he was right behind me. Then when he least expected it, I did it again, stopping even faster. I could hear a pained gasp, as he fell again. I fell to the ground next to him, laughing my head off. When I caught my breath, he looked at me from the side, mock fury in his eyes, then he joined my laughter. We rolled on the ground, unable to breath, my face numb. When we finally calmed down, we got back up and continued our journey. It looked the same as the previous road: trees, trees, and oh look! More trees. Nothing indicated a town nearby, nothing showed civilization anywhere near here. It was deserted. Abandoned. Lost. In a way, I thought that the road could represent us. We're both lost, abandoned by force.
"So what happens when we find Matt, what do we do?" Damien asked.
"Hopefully, if he's still alive, we can work with him to figure out a way to kill all of the Troubled, so no one has to deal with the stuff that we do on a daily basis. No one has to know about them, because they'd be extinct. We need to find that one guy that keeps killing them randomly. That green flame does something to them. It didn't react the same way that they do when something is just swung at them. It killed them, I saw the depression sink from them, dispersing into the air and disappearing. So if that person knows how to kill them, it'd definitely come in handy. I just need to find the certain chemical that kills them. Plenty of chemicals can make the flame green, but I'll bet it's just a certain chemical."
"Oh, really? That's really cool. We probably should find that person then, because if they don't die from just being swung at, then we'd get tired before they were all gone. It'd be nice to just light them all on fire, it'd save a lot of time," He replied, "What happens when this is all over? Do we just go our separate ways? I don't want to have to leave you, I don't have anywhere else to go."
"You don't have to go anywhere. Stick with me, It'd be a fun trip. We can explore the world! Make our own adventures." I shrugged, not really knowing how else to reply. He was like a brother to me, I didn't want him going anywhere anytime soon. Just thinking about it, I developed the same pit in my stomach that I did when I saw what I thought was my brother's body, I couldn't tell what I was looking at. I just didn't want to go, I wanted to stay there and wait until he woke up, even if that meant waiting forever. My face sunk, and Damien noticed.
"Are you okay, feeling sick again?" He spurt, he was worried. I shook my head, reassuring him.
"I'm good, I just don't want to think of you having to leave. I like you being here, It's nice not being lonely for once." I replied, my voice as quiet as a mouse.
"Hey, I won't leave if you don't want me to. I'm happy to stay. You're pretty cool, and I don't have anywhere else to go. Who knows, though. You might get sick of me and ask me to leave. He chuckled.
"I don't think that will happen, but we'll see. I just want to find Matt for now, at least my mind will be calmer on that part. Most of my life, I've been searching for him, wondering if he's still here and still alive. I hope he's still safe. Now that I know he's alive, and they don't have him, I have new motivation to find him, and I want to get him back more than ever. He was my only friend, I can't lose him to these stupid creatures." I kept quiet, not looking anywhere but at my shoes as we continued down the path. It was strange that everything was so straight, there weren't any turns, nothing to indicate anyone around us.
"I understand that, I would want to find him as well, if I had been searching all my life for my best friend. Trust me," He became quiet also. What was going through his head?
"Did..." I debated whether to approach the subject or to leave it alone. "Did you lose someone close to you?"
He nodded. "Yeah, She left me at one of the worst times. I was almost dead. She just left. I couldn't say anything, I couldn't move. I wasn't even sure if I was alive or not, but she apparently thought I was dead. She left me, and I don't blame her for it, trust me. But since then, I'd been searching for her. That was several years ago, I don't even remember how long ago it was." He explained. He didn't mention her name, what she looked like, if they were related or not, just 'she.'
"I'm sorry. Do you want to search for her once this is over? Have another adventure?" I offered. He politely refused.
"No, let's not. I'm perfectly content." He smiled, though there was clear pain in his eyes. I took my eyes off of him, holding back tears of sympathy. I wish I could help him, but he wouldn't let me in.
We looked ahead, and stopped. Confusion spread across Damien's face while we focused on the crazy man not 100 meters in front of us. He danced across the road in heavy turns and broken twirls. Damien glanced at me, pointing discreetly at him, as if someone else would see us and potentially scold him because pointing is 'rude.' He didn't seem to notice us, so we moved off to the side before he could. He just danced his heart out. It almost sounded like he was humming his own little tune, but we weren't close enough to tell.
So, we crept closer, listening carefully as he bounded to an unrecognizable tune. His feet were bare, and a scraggly beard was covering his face. He seemed harmless, but I couldn't take any chances. At the same time, I needed to get directions to the nearest town. I slowly approached him, hoping he didn't lash out. He didn't notice us. He just kept twirling around, captured in his own little world.
Damien looked at me, waiting for my approval to speak up. "Hello? Sir? Could you help us?" The man kept bounding rather ungracefully, not showing any sign that he heard him. "Hello?" Damien tip toed closer, anxious. The man's head shook a little bit, like he was trying to come back to reality. He stopped his dance, and stared blankly back at Damien. He didn't make any move to come close, didn't make any attempt at speaking. Just stared, wide eyes glued to Damien's confused face. Damien started backing up, worried that he had done something.
"Sir," I greeted, hoping that it would take the heat off of Damien. "We need to get to the nearest town, could you help us? We've been out here for hours," I tried sounding as pleasant as possible, but it felt so unnatural. I didn't usually talk to people, and most of the time when I did, It wasn't polite conversation. His eyes remained on Damien for a little, then flickered to me, examining my every move. The blood rushed to my face, and my cheeks became hot. I knew I was as red as a tomato. My pale skin allows that to happen a little too easily.
"Wha- What?" He stuttered, his teeth chattering wildly, like it was below freezing, even though it was at least 50 degrees outside.
"Where's the nearest town, can you help us?" He took a minute to process, then nodded violently. He moved in jerks, his limbs didn't seem to work properly. He motioned us to come with him. I hesitated. This guy seemed completely insane.
"Don't worry, I'm fine. I just have this disorder that makes me seem nuts, I'm not actually," He spoke smoothly, and threw an awkward smile our way. Mentally, my jaw dropped to the ground. This man didn't look like he could say one complete word, let alone a full sentence like that. What disorder could cause that? Definitely nothing I've ever seen. Oh well, as long as he wasn't homicidal, I was fine with tagging along with him. I jerked my head a little in his direction at Damien, telling him to follow. Raising an eyebrow, he kept his ground. I shrugged, and slowly caught up with our guide, hoping that Damien would follow behind. I turned back around to see Damien growling in protest, groaning, and racing to catch up.
"I'm Rob, by the way. Why are you guys out here all alone? You don't look older than 19," He asked, revealing crooked and broken teeth.
"I'm Damien, sir. And this is Erin. We're... on a giant hike. We've decided to walk along this road, because it didn't seem like anyone had actually been on it before. We didn't know that it would be this long, and we wanted to see what was at the end of it. There is a town that this connects to, correct?" Damien spoke formally, surprising me. I never knew someone as quirky as him could actually act like a gentleman in front of a stranger.
"Very nice to meet you, Damien. You have amazing manners for a young man your age," He noticed it as well. "Yeah, there's a town that does connect to this road. It's not well known, like you said. This road isn't used very often. Bad luck on it. The town doesn't really have a name, but it's a really nice town. The people there are so kind," This guy just gets more and more astonishing with each sophisticated sentence that escapes his jerking mouth. He seemed so uncomfortable, but at the same time, he seemed content.
"Is there a place for food and rest there?" I joined in the conversation, just wanting to get there, get something to eat, and get out of there as fast as we could. I had no clue how close the shadows were to Matt, and if he was even still there.
"Yes, but there isn't much else besides that, so you're in luck." He replied, shifting his dark green eyes my way. I broke eye contact immediately.
"How far is it?" Damien asked, I could tell he was getting tired. It had been a while since our last break. His legs moved slower, and with a lot less force.
"Only a couple more minutes, then you can sit. These people are real nice, they'll give you a free meal and a free stay at their little hotel there if you tell them your situation. I'll just bring you into the Sheriff's office and let you explain everything."
"No!" I burst out, the authorities can't find us, they'll take us away.
"Don't worry, honey. It'll be alright, he just needs to see you to let you stay. He won't do anything. He doesn't actually have that much authority when it comes down to the whole law part of his job. He's just there to protect the people when it's needed, which it never is. It's a swell town, you'll love it." He explained. I let my breath go, relieving my mind of the idea of running back at a moment's notice.