Shadow Town

“Oh...?”

Diana froze entirely, her eyes wide and alert. Her breath had stopped altogether, standing before the thing like a statue, quite the opposite of her heart; it had started pounding hard against her chest before she had even reached the alley. Now it was beating like a drum solo at a rock concert: fast and frantically.

“What do we have here...?”

She had barely heard it speak through the pounding of her heart in her eyes. Suddenly, the horrible realization of something beyond human existing was overwhelmed by the great fear she had to find out what it was going to do to her. It was facing her now, the hungry silver eyes she had imprinted into her brain staring through her motionless body. What kind of creature is as dark as the feathers of a crow?

She didn't want to know.

“Well,” it said, now holding the boy with its right hand while placing its left hand on its chest, as if humbled by her presence. “Oh, where are my manners?” A thin smile curved upward on its face. “I forgot to introduce myself.”

I don't want to know.

Diana instinctively took a step backward, her balled up fists shaking at her sides. She didn't even consider the idea of it having a name; it had never crossed her mind. What was more alerting was its almost human behavior. She was tempted to ask what it was, but temptation quickly left her. It was best to stay quiet─and run far, far away. She prepared herself to make a fast escape and made sure her legs would work by taking another step backwards.

It stepped forward.

“Are you scared...?” it asked. “I won't bite. I only disembowel.”

That was all she needed. Diana's heart gave a violent lurch and she whirled around, fast and wildly, almost falling in the process. Her thoughts revolved around one thing and only one thing: getting far away. They swirled and nibbled at the taste of the probability she would make it out alive. It was not much, she realized as she took her first huge steps out of the alley, but she had to do it. She wanted to live. It was all she needed as she began to ran, not even glancing at the motionless body on the floor.

However, fate was not on her side.

As soon as her eyes caught the sight of the street getting closer, she felt a strong hand grasp her by her shirt, dragging her backwards back into the alley. She let out a frightened, wheezing breath as her feet got dragged across the concrete floor. Tears sprung to her terrified eyes, and one small inhale of oxygen gave her the strength to─scream. She screamed loudly; a scream that echoed uselessly through the empty streets, to be unheard forever.

Her ear-shattering scream was cut off short as she was raised up violently in the air, her feet hanging inches above the floor. Her wide violet eyes stared unblinkingly at the thing holding her up in the air by her shirt collar. She whimpered as it drew her close, her creamy skinned nose inches away from its pointy black one. Her lips parted slightly, trembling as she let out a shaky breath.

“That was rude,” it growled menacingly, its silver eyes glowing in a dangerous inhuman brightness.

Death by God's hands would be more merciful than this.

“Now,” it continued, seeming to have calmed down.

And right before her eyes─it transformed into the shape that started it all: the strange man from the coffee shop. Its dark appearance changed back into its earlier human features; his dark wavy hair that stopped at his neck, his bloodless pale skin, and his silver eyes, that were now back to its normal silver, mocking her cruelly. Diana had gone entirely still, her body rigid under his grasp. The tears that had threatened to escape from her eyes came freely now, falling down her cheeks fast. They wouldn't stop.

The man didn't look disturbed by them at all. Instead, he seemed quite amused with them.

This cannot be happening to me.

She wanted it so badly to be just a sickening nightmare, of which she would wake up in just a few minutes. She'll wake up to the smell of her mother making breakfast, the sound of the door being closed as her father went out to work, the noisy sounds coming from the bathroom as her brother got ready. Just a very scary nightmare was all. Nothing real or anything of the sort; she was just having some trouble at school and under a lot of stress.

“Now, now. No need to cry.”

Diana whimpered pathetically, emotionally breaking down. It wasn't a nightmare. If it was, it was a nightmare come true. The man─the thing─holding her up in the air was real, the agonizing terror inside of her was real, everything was real. She would never be able to wake up from reality. And she was about to die in the hands of this awful creature.

“Just a few hundred broken bones,” he continued mildly, completely unaffected by the weight of her body, “and death.” He laughed, unembarrassed, not in the least hesitant about his words. He was going to kill her, smash her so hard her body would become a bloody rag doll with broken bones.

“You should be happy,” the man told her, smiling cruelly. “Shadow Town is honored to welcome the key's shadow into our home.”

What?

“The key's shadow shouldn't suffer the consequences of its...abomination of a master, now, should it?” he went on, as if Diana understood just what he meant by “the key” and “abomination.” Did he mean her? How could a human being, who just happened to be terrified greatly at the moment, be an abomination? Comparing her to the man himself... It was no contest. After all, she was not the one holding up a young girl, about to put her to her end.

I don't want to die, Diana thought suddenly. The thought had burst at the back of her mind, then it echoed inside of her blank and frightened mind, repeating the words loudly in her ears until the meaning finally sunk inside of her. She didn't want to die. If she were ever to die, she preferred for it to be at a hundred and something years old, her frail bony hand held by her children and grandchildren. She didn't think─or rather, she knew─she did something so horrible, so unforgivable to deserve such a terrible death. For her short life to be ended by the dark hands of this evil....

...yellow eyes in the dark.

“I hope you stay still,” the man said softly. “Fighting and suffering in anguish, to no avail... That wouldn't be how you want to die, would it?”

Diana wasn't looking at the man anymore. Her body had again gone completely rigid, as if made with stone. Her wide eyes were not focused on the thing in front of her now, even though she could still feel the cruel eyes set on her face and its strong hands on her shirt. She was looking behind him, past his dark wavy hair and his amused yet evil smile. It was that thing he had left behind, the thing he had forgotten while he had focused on trapping Diana.

It was the boy.

“Okay, so.” The man's tone brought Diana's eyes back to him, her attention now returning to where it was before: not wanting to die. His tone itself said something was decided. Her death had been delayed too much already. He was prepared to rip, strip, or strangle the life from her fragile human body. Maybe a knife would appear in his hand, or he would just slam her violently and repeatedly against the walls and floors of the alley. Maybe squash her skull under the pressure of his foot? The thoughts were agonizing, imagining her life to be ended at one simple command of action such as a stab or choke. But she couldn't help but to fear so gravely that this was the time. Knowing that you were going to die, and that there was nothing you could to evade the end result was tormenting.

“I see shadows.... On the wall.... Some are short and scary.... Some are tall....”

The lullaby echoed deafeningly inside her head as she closed her eyes, inhaling deeply and holding that final breath in for the final strike that would end her life.

“I see shadows.... Late at night, what a sight!” The grip on her changed suddenly; she could only feel the grasp of only one hand. He was going to do it now. “But whenever there is light, they disappear─!”

“─from my SIGHT!” bellowed another voice.

Diana felt a teeth clattering impact that sent her somehow flying out from the man's grasp; she landed on her side with a painful force. She groaned, her eyes fluttering open. There was a sharp pain and stinging pain above her chest. When she looked down at her torn shirt, she realized the man's sharp fingers had done this: there were four red marks cut into her skin. It made her heart lurch inside her chest to imagine just how close she was to dying.

But then, looking up at the commotion in front of her, it was quickly replaced by a new found fear: the young man that had saved her life was in danger once again.