Shadow Morphs

“One last shot of Jäger,” Fred grinned at the bartender, tossing forwards a note to cover it. His teeth shone through even brighter as he glimpsed the deer on the bottle. He leant to his right and nudged Kasey. “Tis my drink, you see.” She dismissed him with an exaggerated smile of acknowledgement, having heard it plenty of times before and knowing he was proud of the creature he could morph.

“Hey, we’re thinking of heading home now,” Taylor said as she cut in between them, putting Evan’s empty beer mug on the counter for the bartender to collect. Fred glared up at her, wishing she had gone to the side so he was closer to Kasey.

“Aw come on dude, don’t kill the party,” Fred said a little too loudly. “Gotta enjoy life while you still can.” He downed his shot as Taylor pondered his words, finding some inspiration in them.

“You’re right, but it’s Friday tomorrow which means we have the responsibility of going to work. Just because you get a later start doesn’t mean we all can stay up for as long as you,” she justified as Evan returned from the bathroom.

“Come on, time to go,” he told his roommate, heaving his left arm upwards in an attempt to get him to budge.

“Yeah, all right. Just cut it out, you’re messing up my hair,” Fred grumbled, running a hand over his fringe spiked with wax to check it was okay. They left the bar and began the walk home, the girls walking in front together while the boys lagged behind. Taylor glanced over her shoulder and noted they were out of earshot so she turned to her friend.

“I have to confess, I’ve noticed something and I don’t think you have,” she said quietly.

“What is it?” Kasey wondered.

“It’s Freddy. Don’t you see the way he acts around you? How he’s always trying to impress you?” Taylor stated and Kasey’s eyes widened.

“Um, I think you’re making that up,” Kasey chuckled anxiously, trying to dismiss it as nothing.

“I’m not!” Taylor exclaimed with a shake of her head. They continued to bicker, Kasey constantly brushing off the comments with a blush. Further back, Evan helped Fred regain his balance after tripping up on yet another piece of cracked pavement.

“As I was sayin’, no more seeing Brett,” Fred said as he resumed walking in a relatively straight line. He knew he was tipsy but he simply enjoyed the ability to easily express his thoughts.

“What are you, my mother?” Evan blinked with disbelief, genuinely surprised the topic had resurfaced after their fight. Usually him walking out meant Fred didn’t mention it again.

“How many times do I have to say it before you listen? He’s bad news,” Fred growled.

“How about you come to one session. I guarantee Brett will be able to give you advice and you will gain so much control,” Evan suggested.

“I already have control. You should have seen what I did at the workshop!” Fred hissed. “I train myself in my own time and have fun. All Brett seems to do is shoot you guys with bloody paintball guns.”

“Do you really think that it is less risky practicing at your workplace? And what about your stunts in the public?” Evan retorted, Fred’s eyes lighting up at the mention of his antics. The power soaked his mind as he pictured the petrified norms’ faces. He didn’t have to constantly be a helpless man ruled by norms who feared his ability. Fred had a gift and he had the right to have fun with it. His eyes wandered to Kasey in front of them, enjoying the way she appeared coy as she giggled with Taylor and how her hair was a perfect light brown waterfall down her back. But she still wasn’t paying him enough attention. Fred craved more

“Y’know what? I’m gonna go have some fun,” Fred mumbled, not caring if Evan heard him or not. He turned the corner and headed away from his friends, causing Evan to stop in his tracks.

“Fred? Freddy! Fred!” Evan called, raising his voice and catching the attention of the girls. They stopped and looked over their shoulders, spotting Evan standing alone and Fred storming off. Once two cars passed, they hurried across the road and followed Evan’s fast pace walk behind Fred. He stormed past other pedestrians until he found a restaurant that was next to an alleyway for his escape route, a streetlamp lighting the damp area well. Fred ducked into the alley, passing rubbish bins and making rats flee, until he reached the edge of the ring of light provided by the lamp. Evan rounded the corner in time to see Fred conjuring his shadow upwards. The smoky shadow swirled around him like a tornado, quickly covering his body and closing his eyes. Evan noticed the norms on the street glancing at him strangely, and he receded from the alley to avoid attracting attention to himself. He didn’t want to pay for Fred’s rash decision.

“What’s going on?” Taylor breathed as her and Kasey almost bumped into Evan’s retreating back.

“Fred has lost his marbles,” Evan muttered, still walking backwards as he kept an eye on the alleyway’s entrance. “We were arguing about Brett again, and he said he wanted to have some fun, so-”

“We have to stop him!” Kasey cried, panicked by the amount of people who were in the restaurant and on the streets. She knew Fred wouldn’t be able to escape their view.

“He is not listening to me at all. You would be better off trying to talk him out of it,” Evan said, but Kasey was already moving past him. She reached the alley and stared down it, seeing Fred’s shadow already hiding his body from the norms and still expanding in all directions.

“Freddy, please listen to me,” Kasey told him through the shadow link as she stared on. Fred smiled, glad that she was here to see his performance. His shadow picked up on his feelings for her and used it to extend itself upwards. Antlers begun to branch out from the shadow and Kasey gulped. “Fred, this is going too far. Stop and we’ll go scare some norms in a quieter place in town, I promise.” Fred heard her desperation and interpreted it as care for him, which only made his desire to impress her greater. If he could pull this stunt off without being captured, Kasey would have no choice but to be spellbound and finally give in to his charm.

“I’m just enjoying my powers. No one will get hurt,” Fred replied to her as his shadow finally started to take its form. The shadow darkened and solidified into the majestic elk who held its head high and its chest out with pride. A passer-by walked behind Kasey and glanced down the alley to see what she was gawking at.

“Oh my… Miss, run! Get out of here!” the man advised as he darted away as fast as he could. He sped past Evan and Taylor, pulling out his cell phone and rapidly dialling.

“That’s it. You’re busted. Someone’s just called the shadow hotline,” Taylor informed Fred and Kasey. Her words didn’t register in Fred’s mind as he walked his elk forwards, its hooves thumping next to his own feet as they headed towards the norms. Kasey remained still, her eyes fixated on the beast’s own pair, knowing her good friend was still inside there somewhere.

“Please don’t,” she pleaded, making him hesitate.

“I’m not afraid, Kasey. We can’t help it that this is the way our lives are, so we may as well have fun and do whatever we want,” Fred told her. “We don’t need some stranger telling us to bottle everything up and hide from the world.”

“This is the wrong way to go about being accepted,” Kasey said softly, sensing his pain and relating to it. Fred shook his head, feeling as though she didn’t understand him completely. He pulled his gaze away from her and strode forwards, revealing himself to the norms on the streets. Kasey stepped aside and gasped, tears welling in her eyes as the fear began to sink in. Taylor’s stomach twisted into knots the second she saw the antlers exiting the alleyway and she clenched her fists tightly.

“He can’t…” she whispered.

“What do we do?” Evan asked her, not taking his eyes off the elk. Taylor didn’t know and remained quiet. She had low hopes if Kasey couldn’t prevent him from acting unwisely. Fred turned his head, the elk swinging its antlers around to take in the sight of the terrified norms. Most of the ones on the street had frozen with fear, while the restaurant had become full with people shoving each other aside as they screamed and headed for the rear exit. A few had remained at the front, gazing out of the window in wonder at the prancing elk. Fred strutted back and forth, occasionally getting too close for comfort to a norm and startling them. His shadow’s antlers crashed into walls without him noticing, and bricks began to crash to the ground. Every frightened expression he saw made him cockier, as well as the prolonged silence. No sirens meant the government wasn’t on their way, so Fred carried on enjoying himself, feeling Kasey’s eyes on him the whole time. A black van whizzed past Taylor and she caught a glimpse of the white letters on the door reading SMCP. Her face locked with horror as the vehicle screeched to a stop not far from Kasey.

“Fred! Run!” Taylor screamed inside his mind. Fred was confused and surprised at her sudden remark and turned around quickly to her direction. The shadow’s antlers caught a power line and tore it off the pole. Sparks flew around the shadow elk as the government officials left their van, another vehicle pulling up behind Fred. Kasey backed away slowly, unable to take her eyes off the nightmare unfolding before her.

“No!” Fred yelled, the elk creating a high-pitched wail to mask his voice. Together they shook the power line free from the antlers and faced the intimidating men covered in armour and wielding guns. They spread out, a few ushering civilians further away for their safety. Sofia exited the second van, her heart jolting at the sheer size of the elk she could see. Every single detail appeared so real, from the worn hooves to the hair on its body. She grabbed the megaphone and held it up.

“Shadow Morph, you are surrounded by the Shadow Morph Containment Unit! Disperse your shadow!” Sofia ordered. Fred glanced over his shoulder and realised the woman wasn’t lying. He turned back to look at the alleyway he had morphed in and saw there the armed men had blocked that exit too. Fred’s desperation to be noticed by Kasey disappeared as he spotted her heartbroken expression in the distance.

“Guys, get out of here,” Fred told his friends sorrowfully.

“Freddy… No…” Kasey begged, hoping there was still some way he could get out of the mess he had created.

“Evan! Get Kasey out of here! Please!” Fred demanded with a raised voice. The men were creeping up on him from all angles; it was only a matter of time now. He couldn’t have his friends watch him fall.

“We will all miss you, man,” Evan told his roommate as he strode forwards and grabbed Kasey’s arm. Fred watched on and nodded his thanks. His shadow was sensing his nervousness and was feeding off it. Fred’s need to escape began to dominate the elk’s mind and it snorted and stomped its hooves.

“Shadow Morph, this is your last chance! Surrender now or we will use force!” Sofia said, knowing she wasn’t getting anywhere. She placed the megaphone inside the van and loaded her gun into its holster. Then Sofia picked up her Taser gun and held it in front of her. Her steel-capped boots thudded against the ground as she took her position at the front of her team, approaching the monster from behind. Fred stepped backwards, the elk mimicking his movements, as he felt increasingly anxious from being cornered. He gritted his teeth as he looked out of the corner of his eye, spotting the two men who were rushing forwards.

“Oh no you don’t,” he muttered to himself, the elk shadow making a soft noise. Fred kicked out his right leg and the elk’s own back leg followed, sending an enlarged hoof crashing into the pair. The men went flying; one smashed through a shop window while the other hit the brick wall of the building.

“Be careful, team,” Sofia said, the message relaying through the earpieces of her squad. She knew this shadow beast was one of the largest she had ever seen, which made her automatically assume it would be the strongest she had encountered. If no one got close enough to use a Taser soon, they would have no choice but to fire. Fred turned his attention back to the norms in front of him, the elk begging him to charge and wipe them all out. He grinned at the thought and took a short step backwards for preparation, lowering his head and aligning his antlers. The government officials’ faces fell grim as Fred stomped a hoof to the ground to enhance the spectacular performance his elk was giving.

“This is for you Kasey,” Fred said. His shadow elk gave a roar of determination, once again sucking power from Fred’s thoughts. Sofia had become aware of Fred’s intentions and she rushed forwards as the elk clomped its hoof on the road, leaving behind a dent. She ran between the elk’s back legs and pulled the trigger on her Taser. From experimental data, she knew the Shadow Morphs stood approximately in the middle of their shadow creature, and she was hoping the results weren’t wrong. The two prongs latched onto something invisible to her and the electrical impulse was firing down the wires. Fred felt the probes stab into his back and the electric shocks immediately broke the connection to his shadow. The elk disintegrated swiftly, falling to the road in a flurry of black smoke, Sofia watching on and smiling once the beast lost its colour and diminished. His muscles ceased functioning and Fred fell to his knees, then to the ground. As the shadow returned to a normal state beneath Fred, Sofia was able to see him.

“Hurry! Now!” she shouted. Another team member ran forwards and thrust a needle into Fred’s thigh, injecting its contents immediately. Fred felt the Taser cease shocking him, but before he could summon his shadow in an attempt to fight back, his conscience started slipping. Despite trying to hold onto the image of the boot in front of his face, Fred passed out. When his eyes fluttered shut, Sofia signalled for the van to drive up closer. The men on her team lugged Fred’s body into the back of the vehicle and secured him to the stretcher. “All right, let’s move out.” On Sofia’s order, the squad efficiently packed into their vehicles. Any flashing cameras or reporters wanting interviews were ignored, and they drove away before the paramedics arrived to check for injured civilians.

Kasey hugged her waist as she finally managed to turn away from the scene. Her head remained bowed on the walk home and her hair fell forwards to hide her sombre expression. Evan had initially walked alone, running his hand through his messy hair repeatedly as he tried to figure out what he should do next. After they had walked a block, he noticed the tears streaming down Taylor’s face and he put his arm across her shoulders. She wept silently until they reached the closest home, which was Evan’s. Once inside, Taylor felt safe enough to begin bawling. At last she had witnessed the brutal capture of a Shadow Morph with her own eyes, but she had never wanted it to be her friend that was taken.

After sitting in silence for a while, Kasey stood and went to Fred’s room. She looked around at the t-shirts strewn across the floor, the dresser with little car models atop it, and the bedside table with a picture of their group smiling wildly at a bar. Kasey sat on his bed, picking up the frame and staring at Fred’s cheery grin, his hazel eyes shining with joy. A tear trickled down her cheek as she immediately began to miss his presence. Even though he had always been a troublemaker, she had loved the laughs and the feeling she got when she felt as though she had protected him from yet another danger. But this time she had been unsuccessful. Kasey set the photo down, afraid her trembling hands might drop and break the frame, then fell face first into Fred’s pillow. While inhaling his scent and realising she never had a chance to reply to his feelings, her tears began to flow.