Shadowless

Outside the snow fell silently and the streetlights illuminated the white blanket that covered the streets. The night was peaceful, quiet, and yet Nyklus could not sleep. He laid in his bed as still as a rock with fear in his heart.
He was not alone in his room.
He felt incredibly hot, his skin was nearly burning. He started to sweat so much that it soaked his clothes along with his sheets. Even though the feeling was unpleasant he still remained silent and unmoving under his blanket because of the immense fear of whatever was in his room.
Small noises in the room made his ribcage tremble and disturbed his weak heart. Every other time he was scared in his life was nothing compared to what he felt now. At this moment he finally understood how characters in horror movies felt. The same characters he laughed at were the ones he sympathized with so greatly in this moment.
Nyklus stared into the nothingness of his room. He did not blink. He tried not to breathe. He tried not to move. His eyes burned and tears started to fall but that still wasn’t enough for him to close his eyes for one second. He believed if he closed his eyes whatever was in his room would surely attack him. Or even worse, he’d fall asleep and never wake up again. He was on the verge of crying, but in his mind he had swore to God that if he made any noise right now he’d make himself go to school in just his underwear the next morning.
He then saw something that made him forget the deal he made with himself and caused him to cry. He was embarrassed and scared. He was too old to be crying like this he thought. What he saw was a tall thin figure walking around his room. Moving things around. Acting like they belonged there. He cried silently, he thought his death was inevitable at this point.
Tonight he was going to die.
At least that’s what he thought.
As Nyklus prayed for his life he saw something else that heightened his fear. A flame danced across his room. It jumped and sparked and was being held. The flame was being held by the tall figure. The tall figure that was now facing Nyklus. The tall figure that was revealed to be a man. Nyklus’s eye widened drastically. His heart dropped to his stomach and his blood ran cold.

“Ah, there you are.” The man said to Nyklus.

The man crouched down and was face to face with him. His breath was cold and his face was grey and sickly looking. His cheekbones protruded from his face in a very unsavory way and his eyes were so sunken in that you could see the shape of his eye sockets. His eyes were full of life unlike the rest of his face. They were light brown and almost glowed, especially under the light of the flame he was holding. The flame that was now a barrier between him and Nyklus.
Nyklus slowly sat up in his bed. He wasn’t sure what he was going to achieve by doing this but he hoped he was just having a bad nightmare or hallucinating. Maybe moving around would break the illusion. Maybe the man wasn’t real. His gaze remained fixated on the pallid face. The man smiled. His teeth were straight and white. His smile was strangely inviting but that didn’t suppress Nyklus’s fear.

“You’re scared, aren’t you?” He said.

Nyklus did not answer, instead his eyes darted from the man to the flame he was holding. This had to be a bad dream. The flame that danced around in the man’s hand did not damage his skin at all. The man did not see bothered by it.

“You’re…..you’re in my room..” Nyklus whispered. It was almost inaudible.
“Why yes, I AM in your room.” The man replied back, this time smiling bigger.

Nyklus gripped onto his sheets and digged his nails into them, nearly ripping holes in them.
The man backed away from Nyklus.
“Well I must be going now,” He started as he headed for the window “But pack your things. I’ll be here tomorrow.”

He left through the window and Nyklus collapsed onto his bed. He passed out on the spot.

The next morning Nyklus could barely move. When he woke up he was relieved in a way. Maybe last night was really just a bad dream. Maybe the man was just some very messed up illusion that was the product of eating junk food before bed. Whatever it was, he was happy that it had not manifested itself into the daytime.
He was less happy about his physical condition. It felt as if an elephant was sitting on his chest and that his lungs had been set on fire. He attempted to move his head around to make sure he was still in his room, but moving his head slightly caused him to feel like his brains would spill out his ears. He decided not to try to move again. He laid still in bed waiting for his mother to come into his room to wake him up for school.
The faint creaking of his door sounded like a fighter jet taking off right next to his bed. Nyklus felt like he would pass out again if he heard any other noises. He felt a weird sensation that wasn’t exactly pain but also wasn’t something he would want to feel again. His whole body felt like static and he didn’t understand why.
His mother stepped into his room quietly ready to wake him up but noticed how sick he looked. In all her years of life she’d never thought she would see a brown person turn pale. She slowly approached her son and placed a gentle hand on his forehead. As soon as his mother’s skin touched his he felt a surge of pain bolt through his body causing him to cry. His mother pulled back her hand quickly, she grunted in pain.

“You’re literally burning up…” She said as she held her own hand.

She left the room quickly to retrieve the house phone and call the doctor. In a matter of minutes a man in a white jacket with a stethoscope around his neck was sitting beside Nyklus’s bedside. Nyklus at this point was unaware of what was going on around him. He dazed in and out of consciousness.

“Can you sit up?” The doctor asked.

Nyklus did not answer, he could not answer. When he attempted to speak it felt like someone was rubbing sandpaper along his esophagus lining. He looked at the doctor and his eyelids fluttered, threatening to close once more. Before the doctor could ask anymore questions Nyklus sat up and started to cough violently. He felt like he was coughing up fire and infact he was. Sparks spewed from his mouth each time he coughed. They flew across the room burning holes in the wall.

“DUCK!” The doctor yelled.

A large flame flew overhead Nyklus’s mom and the doctor, nearly leaving a hole in the ceiling. He stopped coughing for a few seconds. His throat now had a brutal sharp coldness accompanying it. His coughing started up again but this time chunks of ice, snow, and frost left his mouth. His room almost looked as snowy as outside. His mother and the doctor stood in one corner of the room cradling each other in fear of what was going to happen next. Nyklus collapsed back onto his bed, this time blacking out.
➹

When he awakened Nyklus felt immensely better. His freezing throat and burning lungs seemed like a distant memory. He thought he maybe just imagined those things, a person coughing up fire and ice? That’s something that would never happen; impossible.
Nyklus was satisfied, happy even. He even thought of going to school the next day and telling his friends about the crazy dream he had.
“Can you believe it? It really felt like my throat was on fire!”
He smiled at the thought of it. He turned on his side in bed ready to go sleep. Then he noticed something wrong. Many things wrong.
The nosegrope of the room was pungent. The scent of disinfectant crept into his nostrils and made him wince. He hated the hospital smell.
Beside the hospital bed sat a single chair and above the chair was a T.V that produced a soft glow, making the room look otherworldly. On the other side of the bed was the i.v machine.
Nyklus sat up in the bed and tore the sheets off his body. A cold gust of wind caught any skin that wasn’t covered by the hospital gown and made goosebumps appear all over. He shivered as he took the sheet and wrapped it around himself once more before getting out of bed. He swung his legs over the side of the bed, grabbed the i.v machine for support, and he placed his feet on the frigid linoleum floor. The chilliness of the floor shot through his body and caused him to almost jump out of his skin.
Nyklus’s content mood changed to weariness in a matter of seconds. His head spun and thoughts swirled his mind as he tried to take a few steps towards one of the doors.
Nyklus felt like he was dragging his own body across the room. He could barely walk, instead he shuffled and limped. Holding onto the i.v helped him a little but carrying it’s weight around was a burden.
Nyklus finally made it out of the room into the dimly lit hallway. It was about as wide as a bedroom and seemed to stretch on for miles. Windows that took up the whole wall lined one side of the hall and showed a view of the small town below. Nyklus limped to the window and looked out at all the houses and buildings in the distance. Most of the houses lights started to flicker off, but the lights in the buildings remained as they were. Nyklus started to think about how long he was passed out for. Was it a few hours? A few days? Maybe even a week? He also wondered where his mother was. If she wasn’t still in the hospital with him he’d surely been passed out for more than a day.
The hallway started to feel extremely lonely and barren. The only noise Nyklus heard was the faint beeping coming from other rooms that rang in his ears. He started to limp down the hallway again. He didn’t know exactly where he was going and what he was trying to accomplish but he hoped something would happen soon. His hopes vanished quickly when he heard footsteps approaching him from behind. The dull clicking of heels hit the floor in a uniform pattern. Nyklus stood still and turned around hoping to see another patient or even a doctor.
Nyklus’s heart dropped 8 feet below the earth and his throat felt like it had been replaced with sandpaper. Standing inches away from him was the tall thin man that Nyklus had seen the night before. He stood there with a sly smile on his face. The corners of his mouth seemed to curl up unnaturally and the apples of his cheeks looked like two perfect circles. His long arms were crossed over his narrow chest and his pale bony hands revealed themselves from under his sleeves. He towered over Nyklus so much that if he wanted to get face to face with him he would have to crouch down. The scent of burning matches surrounded the man and Nyklus. Nyklus tried not to look at his amber eyes, they nearly glowed like embers. It was overwhelming to look directly at him. He didn’t look as scary as he did the other night but it was still unsettling for Nyklus to see him 2 nights in a row.
“I’ve been looking all over for you!” The man said enthusiastically to Nyklus. His voice was rough and guttural. Nyklus’s lip quivered and his hands shook as he tried to get his words out.

“Y-you….how..” He croaked. His voice was weak and nearly inaudible. His fear and his pain, that was slowly creeping back onto him, didn’t allow him to speak.

“What’s this you’re wearing?” The man tugged at Nyklus’s hospital gown
“And what happened here?” He poked his sharp fingernail into Nyklus’s chest. Nyklus didn't know what he was referring to. He managed to shake his head ‘no’ as an alternative to ‘I don’t know’. Nyklus felt his own chest which was patched up with gauze and surgical tape.
The man squinted at the area he poked and rubbed his chin in thought.
“Alright, then. We’ll fix that when we get home. We must really get going now.” He reached for Nyklus’s arm. Nyklus stepped back and pulled his arm away.

“What?” He managed to ask.
The man’s face changed drastically. His amber eyes dimmed and his eyebrows furrowed, then turned downward. The curl of his lips disappeared and almost turned into a grimace. He crouched down to Nyklus to get face to face with him. He brought up his arm and placed his hand on Nyklus’s shoulder.

“Look at me.” The man said solemnly. Nyklus scanned his face, the amber eyes and sunken in features didn’t change. He still feared him but didn’t see any remarkable features on his face besides the eyes and the overall creepiness. The man’s eyes trembled as he looked back at Nyklus.
“Don’t you remember me? Don’t you remember the kingdom you came from?” He asked. Nyklus did not answer.
“Don’t you remember your own father?”