Mirable Dictu

Chapter Four

Erica stared at Jeremy intently, her head cocked to her right, as if waiting for him to say something. He sighed in frustration that the Lady of Grey had not stayed around to answer the rest of his questions. How was he supposed to find these "shadow" things of which she had spoken? Once he had found them, what was he supposed to do, kill them with the great powers of aura-seeing?

Erica grew impatient as Jeremy stared at the ground, bewildered by the burden placed on his shoulders. She grabbed him at the elbow and jumped up and down.

"Come on! We have to go fight the Shadows," she said, almost whining. Jeremy pulled his arm fiercely out of her grasp.

"How?"

Erica rolled her eyes. "I don't know, silly, you figure it out."

"Oh my good-freakin'-Lord, this is...I mean, I'm not...I mean..." Jeremy crouched on his knees, his hands on his head in frustration. He had no idea what to do.

There’s a difference between forgetting and not wanting to remember, Jeremy. The Lady's voice echoed through his head. He knew that it would help him figure out what to do, he just didn't know how.

"Can you show me what these Shadows look like?" Jeremy asked. Erica shook her head, rocking back and forth on her feet.

"I can take you to one of the smaller resting grounds, though. We just have to be very careful."

"Why?"

"Well, it's not too bad, I guess. See, they easily sense when people are around - alive or dead - and they don't like it. We'd have to keep our distance so that we're out of range," she said.

"What would happen if they did sense us?"

"We probably wouldn't suffer too much. They'd torture us; make us feel like our organs are being ripped out; break our bones; make us feel like we're being burned or frozen to death - but none of it would be bad enough to kill us. You know, the small stuff."

Jeremy desperately searched Erica's eyes for sarcasm, but he didn't find it. He gulped as a shiver ran down his spine. If that was the small stuff, he didn't want to know what they'd do to him if they found out that the Lady of Grey had chosen him to defeat them.

"Okay, let's go!" Erica shouted excitedly.

"Wait-" Jeremy began, but it was too late. Erica had already grabbed a hold of his arm again, and the next thing he knew he was in a dark green forest. He smelled rotting leaves and smoke. His nose also detected a rancid smell he couldn't place.

They crept closer to the grounds and searched for a hint of the Shadows. Hiding behind brush about thirty yards away from the very edge of the grounds, they took in the scene before them.

The first thing Jeremy noticed was a neon green ball of light in the center of the tiny campsite that lit up the majority of it. His eyes then fell upon a Shadow; the stereotypically long, black, hooded robes that hid their faces made Jeremy chuckle, but the humor died away at the deep purple-black aura radiating from them.

Finally, Jeremy discovered the source of the rancid smell. There was a line of people that he guessed were ghosts, just like Erica, were chained to each other and to the ground. Next to them was a pile of something, but Jeremy had to squint to see it properly.

Bodies. It was a pile of broken, bloody bodies, all twisted in ways that bones were not supposed to be twisted in.

"Jeremy, look out!" He heard Erica scream.
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Yeah, I added some gore and set you up for action. =)
Enjoy, and good luck all other writers!