Echos In The Catacombs

Chapter 40: The Puppet Master Of Shadows

Lizzie's P.O.V

I was wrong.

I was so very wrong.

We didn't just had the two obstacles of finding Avanstein and the man who saved our lives.

Oh no, no, no.

There were more of them.

More guards.

I have come to believe that whoever is sending these guards after us seems to have an endless supply.

I told the others to flee. To run as fast as their legs could carry them.

I'm not exactly sure how my side effect works. I'll figure it out. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

I looked around for my shadow to see if it had sprung to life.

I was right.

There it was, leaning against a wall with it's signature sly grin slapped across it's face.

"Are you just going to stand there and taunt me or are you actually going to help?" I asked as I folded my arms across my chest.

It took a mocking bow then stood up straight and gestured to its left.

"You know where they are?"

It nodded.

"Do you know how the whole puppet thing works?"

It pointed at me, then tapped it's temple a few times.

"Think it?"

It shook it's head.

It pointed at me again then moved it's right arm in a robotic sort of way. Then it pointed to itself and did the same movement.

"The shadows mimic my movement?"

It snapped it's fingers and pointed at me with finger guns.

"How long until they get here?"

It held up three fingers.

Two.

One.

It pointed just as they rounded the corner.

My shadow walked away from the wall and came to stand by me.

"I'm not going to die am I?" 

It shook it's head.

"Your lack of words is not what I would call reassuring."

It only gave me a small, apologetic shrug in response.

"How do I make their shadows appear?" I tried to keep my voice down as much as I possibly could.

It snapped it's fingers with it's right hand.

"How many are there?"

It held up 10 fingers. Then it made an 'x' with it's index fingers. Then held up five fingers.

"Fifty."

It gave me a thumbs up.

When the guards actually came close to me, they stopped.

They didn't try to attack me. They didn't open fire.

They just........ stared.

They all tilted their head to one side, a confused expression written across each and every one of their faces.

But it wasn't me they were looking at. I could clearly see that they were looking to the left of me. They were looking at my shadow.

"What the bloody hell is that thing?" One asked.

"That, is an excellent question sir. One I cannot provide and exact answer to. But I have reason to believe that it is my shadow, or is an exact somewhat solid shadowy replica of me."

"Your shadow?" Another spoke up.

"Indeed. The only proof of this I have is if it takes fives steps to it's left..."

My shadow did so.

"...You can see that I have no shadow on the ground."

"What sort of witchcraft is this?"

"Not witchcraft. Science."

I snapped my fingers on my right hand and several more shadows appeared. 

Well, I say 'appeared' it's actually more like they stepped out of the guards body's.

And there they were, 50 exact shadowy clones of the guards. Guns, armor and all.

"What the hell have you done?!" One yelled.

"Given you the chance to see your faces before you perish at the hands of none other than moi."

I held out my left hand to the side.

I'm not sure why I did this, I guess I was expecting my shadow to hand me some sort of sharp object.

To my surprise, it did.

I handed me a glass shard.

I simply held the shard up to my own neck and gave the guards a simple little smile.

A smile that would forever be burned into their memories even through death.

They were panicking now as they watched their shadow's follow my movements.

It  must have been agonizingly painful to watch me drag the glass shard slowly across my neck.

Nothing happened for a couple of seconds.

A white line slowly started to appear on the necks of the shadows, including my own.

Then the guards necks just split in a clean horizontal line.

All I have to say is that there was a lot of blood.

So much so that the ground stained a deep shade of crimson almost instantly.

Their shadows lingered for a moment before disappearing.

The guards body's ungracefully collapsed to the floor.

Some were still twitching here and there.

"That was much easier than I thought it was going to be."

My shadow looked at me and nodded as if to say 'Well what did you expect?'

"Then again if they mimic my movements, one fatal injury is enough to take down an entire team..."

I heard clapping.

"Oh don't mock me. I'm still in the learning phase."

My shadow shrugged one final time before disappearing.
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Hope you enjoyed Chapter 40 of Echos In The Catacombs
Chapter 41 should be out soon

Catch You Later~