by T R Tells
I snorted. Gosh, Helene really didn’t like trends, or maybe people who overdid it.
Amelia, however, had an attitude of a mother bear, and immediately went into defense mode, like a face down Yu-Gi-Oh card before activating her turn into Attack Mode.
“Okay, Boomer. And maybe you should understand your own generation. Some of us have hobbies, and some of our hobbies get us into good schools. I have to work my ass off to get into Northwestern. My internship at the Tribune and the school’s paper will do that. I don’t have three million people on my vlog and Instagram for nothing. People gravitate toward those things because it makes them happy and who are you to judge them for that?”
Helene looked unimpressed by Amelia’s rundown resume. She looked more like she wanted to slap the piss out of her.
“Who said anything about judging? I can have an opinion, but society apparently doesn’t like that, either.”
The cold brushed against me and made me pull my peacoat closer. All I wanted to do now was to get into a warm building.
“Okay,” I said, interrupting their squabble. I stepped in-between the two to make sure they didn’t start throwing hands. “Look, Amelia, I’m not going to berate you on what you’re doing. I’m already pissed off. I just want to save my boyfriend from his crazy ex.”
This got Amelia’s attention because her eyes lit up, and a smile pulled on her lips.
“That was the girl on Alessander’s Instagram, right? It’s not a story, but I might add that into the article if you have a sit down with me.”
I rolled my eyes. Before I could tell her no, I saw Alexei standing in my field of vision with the silver door unlocked and opened.
“The coast is clear.”
Amelia turned to Alexei and kissed his cheek, leaving a red lipstick mark. “Alexei, you are brilliant, as always.” She turned back to Helene and me. “I suppose you two can come, but don’t get in my way.”
“I was just about to say the same thing,” Helene mumbled. She walked ahead of me with Alexei walking through the doorway first. I was about to walk that way too, but Amelia stood in front of me.
“Uh, Amelia. We should—”
”Your eyes, they're back to normal,” Amelia said. She narrowed her eyes and wrinkled her nose, like she was trying to figure out something.
“...Uh, contacts. You know, just too many people commenting about how ‘weird’ or ‘special’ they are.” I lied. Her lips were pursed together, and her thin brow raised.
My throat tightened. If it was one person who could figure out who I was, it would be Amelia. Fortunately, Helene poked her head back out the doorway.
“Are you two coming?”
We gave one another a look. Amelia turned away first before entering the building.
***
The four of us walked down the long white hallways that must have led to the backstage, Janitor’s quarters, or whatever else the bar had. We could hear pop music and people shouting as we approached.
“See you two!” Amelia called out with a short wave, Alexei following behind her as they entered through another door. “And to think, there are more people like her,” Helene mumbled beside me, shaking her head. I almost didn’t hear her because my thoughts were on Alessander. “Are you ready?” she asked, looking at me with worry.
I nodded. “Yeah, let’s go.”
We opened the doors to the bar and went inside. The deafening sounds of the music would make it impossible to speak. We walked through the dark hallway; our only guides were the purple strobe lights in the air.
Helene stood next to me in the hallway off to the side. There were a plethora of people grinding and dancing on one another, drinking together to the music.
“Come on!” I shouted, knowing that my words would fall on deaf ears, but Helene took the hint and stuck close to me as we slid through the dancing crowd.
Two men dancing together nearly rammed into me, almost knocked me over. Helene pulled me out of the way before I landed on my face.
“Thanks!” I shouted in her ear. We stopped in the middle of the dance floor. “I have no idea where to go!”
Helene scanned the area. I did the same. The stage was a couple of feet in front of us, with a few tables where people could sit to our side, and toward the back was the bar. There was also a second floor that had more tables, another bar, and a VIP section.
“Maybe look on Instagram for something?”
I nodded and pulled out my phone, but someone had bumped into my back and knocked the phone out of my hand. It clambered to the floor, lost in the millions of feet dancing away to a Drake song that started playing. I loved the “The Six God” as much as anyone, but now was not the time!
I bent down on my knees and prayed that it survived the fall. Thankfully, I didn’t get stepped on, and the bright light from my screen had guided me. Only, when I picked it up, it had a large crack going down the middle.
“Shit,” I mumbled. This was the second phone that I had to refurbish, and Mom said next time it would come out of my pocket.
“Hey!” I snapped my head up and saw Helene. Standing next to her was a brunette with a pixie cut and big doe eyes, a broad grin on her face. “You found it?”
I held up my cracked phone to show her the evidence.
Helene gritted her teeth and cringed. She turned to the brunette, who looked apologetic. “This is Griselda, she was the one who bumped into you. She wanted to apologize.”
Griselda leaned toward my ear, and the smell of alcohol hitting me in the face almost made me throw up. “Hey, I’m sorry about that. I really shouldn’t be drinking like this.”
I pulled away and smiled to let her know there were no hard feelings.
Helene leaned toward me now. “I asked her about Alessander, and she said that he went to the VIP section with a girl who had blonde, pink, and blue hair.”
And that was where I was going to be, too.
I was about to tell Helene to come on, but I noticed the way Griselda held securely onto Helene’s arm. Either the girl was drunk, but Helene’s red cheeks and wide grin that it was mutual, and I wasn’t going to pull her away to deal with my drama.
“I’ll meet up with you later!” I told her. She looked at me to make sure, and I nodded to her, pushing my way through the rest of the crowd to the second floor.
I climbed up the winding staircase, finally free from the crowds of drunk men and women. Once I reached the top of the stairs, it didn’t take long for me to find the VIP section or Veronica’s arm wrapped around Alessander’s neck, her head lying on his shoulder. She had her ends curled as they sprawled over her shoulders and two large buns in the middle of her head in a Princess Leia kind of style. She wore a fishnet dress that exposed way too much skin, even with her black leather jacket.
My gaze traveled to Alessander, who was busy talking to someone next to him. There was a blank look on his face, as if he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to be doing, but was just going through the motions.
My hands immediately clenched into fists. I didn’t know what to do as I stared at the one person I loved the most next to the cunt who I wanted to die in the fiery pits of hell.
—And then Alessander turned to me, and the anger that boiled in my chest extinguished. He still had a blank look on his face, but I could see the wheels in his head were turning as he tilted his head to the side. My heart surged at the fact that maybe he was trying to remember, and something was coming back to him.
That all faded away when Veronica, too, noticed me, and her lips stretched into a broad grin. I walked over to her, ready to smack that smile right off her face.
“Hira, you’re here. I see you got my message.”
I furrowed my brow, wondering what she was talking about. Then I realized that she’d posted that video on Instagram because she knew that I’d come. It wasn’t just to show people that she would be in Alessander’s life now; she wanted me to know that as well.
“I should beat your ass,” I blurte
d. Veronica puckered her lips, a hand on her chest. “How did you even get in here?”
“Now? Really? You don’t want to get kicked out and let mommy know that you’re at a bar, do you? I have my ways unlike you.”
Jesus, give me the strength I need because I am about to go to jail. Now I was ready to apologize to Nikki, looks like she wasn’t the biggest bitch in the world afterall.
“Leave Alessander alone, you know damn well that if he had a mind of his own, he would never be with you.”
She smirked and shrugged her shoulder. “That may be the case, but I’m doing just fine with Alessander. I’m going to raise him into fame and stardom.”
I stepped closer to her so that there were only a few inches between us. She didn’t seem fazed as she raised her thin brow.
“You need to back-up, Veronica, before you regret it. You’re playing with Alessander’s mind, and sooner or later, he will remember everything.”
“And for now this will work in my favor.” The smile on her face turned to a frown. Her eyes cast a dark look that actually made the hairs on my neck stand on end. “I’ve been waiting for years for this to happen. It’s been promised to me. And now is my chance to start over so our relationship can be how it was supposed to be.”
The demented look in her eyes made me shake my head. She was the definition of crazy.
“So, if you really want to do this, then let’s do this,” she said with a grin. She stood up from the arm of the chair she was sitting on, letting Alessander go. Her glare never wavered from mine. “But I implore you to think long and hard about that decision, because I promise you… I can change the effects to be in my favor.”
I couldn’t make out what she meant by that, but I knew it was a double entendre. And then a thought crossed my mind—Those sensations I felt when I had first seen her, like those times with Helene, confirmed that Veronica was just like me. I wondered if she knew that too, or if she was so psycho that she didn’t care why she killed me or not—as long as I wasn’t in the picture.
From the corner of my eye, I could see purple and blue mist forming in the air. I turned to walk toward the side of the banister to see a man standing in the middle of the dance floor—but he wasn’t alone.
An Umbra Shade was behind him.
“So you can see them too. Well, that is interesting.” Veronica’s voice made me snap my head around to see that she was standing a foot away from the banister and looking at the estranged guy. “It’s a pity that an Awakener like him let his negativity get the best of him.”
I fully turned to her. The word ‘Awakener’ was a new term to me and sounded like someone in an anime awakening their final form.
“I’m sorry, what?”
Veronica had her arms crossed, and she chuckled. “So, you go around fighting, but don’t even know what the hell you’re called?” she sucked her teeth and shrugged. “Okay. I’m sure you also don’t know how to control your own negativity and desires. I wonder what it will be? Failure to bring justice to the world, or losing Alessander?”
She tapped her chin with her finger.
“Well, I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?” I sneered.“And you’ve been spying on me too? You’re sick, and I hope you get whatever you deserve.”
Veronica leaned forward and smiled devilishly. “Believe me, I will.”
I pushed past Veronica, knowing that taking care of the Apathy Victim and his Umbra Shade was more important. I stopped at the staircase to see that Alessander was standing on his feet now. We looked at one another for a moment before I pulled my gaze away and ran down the steps.
I was thankful that I did because I could see the Umbra Shade whispering something into his ear, stretching out its tentacle hands toward the man’s head. Slowly, the man reached into his pocket, and my eyes widened.
“He’s got a gun!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, not knowing if anyone had heard me.
Fortunately, those close by had heard, and the music cut to silence. People started screaming as they tried to run out of the doors.
The man was lost in the chaos of the frantic crowd. I bit my lip, Crap. Pulling up my hood, I pushed past people running wildly throughout the Paper Doll and away from the black-coated gunman. I didn’t know how I would stop him in a packed room like this; my bow was useless, as was my whip.
Once I had eyes on him, I charged for the man, maneuvering through the sea of bodies, and rammed into him like Roman Reigns with the Spear.
Both of us toppled to the floor, and the Umbra Shade turned to shriek at me on impact. I could see the shadowy masses of Shrouds slowly starting to form around the room. There were still people in the crowd, and because they couldn’t see it, I’d need to lead the Umbra Shade away from me so it wouldn’t harm anyone.
The Apathy Victim beneath me struck my jaw with their elbow. I fell backward, tasting blood. I touched my lip to see red, but when I looked up, the guy had his gun back in his hand, and it was pointed at me.
My heart leapt into my throat. I hadn’t seen the end of a gun since Alessander was shot.
“HIRA!”
My mind had been solely on the weapon in my face, but a familiar voice pulled me back to reality.
Alessander called my name.
I looked up at the second floor and saw him staring down at me with fear in his eyes, as if he recognized me. I couldn’t be sure if something had triggered a memory, but all I wanted to do was burst into tears and run to him.
Get out… of our… way… The Umbra Shade hissed into my mind. I turned my head to the man holding the gun, the dark veins on his neck inching upwards. The gunman’s finger closed around the trigger and smoke escaped from the barrel as the sound of the gunshot rang through my ears.
I didn’t have any time to move out of the way. The bullet would hit me, and I wasn’t sure if I would survive, but by some stroke of luck, a set of stage lights dropped down from the ceiling, and the bullet landed square into its metal side.
The large bulbs shattered to the ground, and I stared at the broken set, looking directly at the area the bullet had jammed itself into.
No way, that’s… impossible.
The sound of multiple clicks made me look up to see the man was still trying to shoot me. Nothing was coming out.
Veronica shouted at the top of her lungs from the second floor, “Oops, my bad.” She was smiling and casually laying her arms on the banister as if she couldn’t have killed me or anyone else. “You better hurry up and do what you need to do if you don’t want anyone getting killed.”
I pursed my lips together, hating her uncaring attitude, as if people’s lives weren’t at stake. I looked at Alessander one more time. There was a knowing look in his eyes, but I couldn’t decipher any more, even if I wanted to. I needed to protect people, and that included Alessander.
“Hey!” I shouted, rising to my feet. I manifested a weapon in my hand, and it turned into a crowbar. Damn it. I didn’t want to harm the guy, so I hit him in the chest with it. It would leave him with a bruise, but he would live.
The Umbra Shade flinched at the blow, but it recovered quickly and shrieked at me.
Good, let’s play tag.
I ran out of the bar, the Umbra Shade close behind.
***
The Umbra Shade and the Apathy Victim followed me out of the bar, down the alleyway, and through the Uptown city streets. I had to make sure to avoid speeding cars as I dashed across the street, all of which honked furiously at me. I raised my hand and offered a quick apology, but I kept running.
The Umbra Shade was trekking behind me, and the Apathy Victim trailing close , walking in a lethargic state.
I continued to run down the busy street corners, getting further and further from the bright lights of entertainment and into dark, secluded streets. I wasn’t worried about getting robbed, but no one could see the creature. Therefore, everyone was at risk until it was eliminated.
Sounds of the city faded as I turned onto a dim street. It wa
s a dead-end. I was cornered, but at least we were away from people.
The Umbra Shade crept around the corner, mouth wide, revealing its razor-sharp fangs.
“Well, if you wanna be like that, then come at me creep!” I taunted the creature, summoning my chain whip.
I whipped it out toward the Apathy Victim and grabbed his leg, where he fell to the ground.
The Umbra Shade’s temper got the best of it, and it summoned three Shrouds, but I was ready for them. Except, I didn’t expect for it to be a ploy. In a blur, the Umbra Shade grabbed my throat in its lanky hands.
My back slammed against the brick wall and I gasped, my eyes wide. The grip on my whip released, and tried to free myself from its long, gangly fingers, but its hold was far too tight.
It leaned toward me, and its stitched lips stretched apart to reveal its fanged mouth. Disgusted, I pulled my face away from it, but the creature continued to edge forward until I could feel its hot breath on my cheek.
And then it started to speak, actual words. Not words in my head, but like a human speaking in a full-length sentence.
“Human, you have intervened far too much. Do you even know what you are doing? We were made to do as we were told. Feed on anxiety and negativity, eradicate the evil in humanity.”
“You can talk.” Was my only response as the shock finished registering.
I didn’t like this, nor understand what the heck it was talking about when it said it was made to feed; as if someone purposefully created these things.
“You have no power to stop us, human. The Great One will rise again.”
The Great One?
Rain pelted my face, and continued to slowly pour.
I didn’t have any clue about the creation of the Shades, or even this Great One. It almost seemed like there was more here than what I first thought.
“Hey!”
An object was thrown directly at the Umbra Shade’s head. It shrieked, turning around to see who had thrown it. I looked over its shoulder, and my heart dropped.
Alessander.
“Leave her alone.”
