literature

Shades Chapter 15

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It took me a minute for all this to sink in, not just the fact that this creep was messing with Blair’s head, but that her mom could still be alive. And more importantly, why go to all the trouble just to get to Blair? We sat in silence for a while, watching the sun go down. After all, there wasn’t much else to do.
Eventually I got the nerve to talk to her. I said “So, in spite of everything, this is nice.”
She looked at me, almost hurt and said “What do you mean?”
I shrugged and said “Just you and me and a sunset. It’s, dare I say it, romantic.” She looked away sharply. “What’s the matter?”
She didn’t meet my eyes as she said “It’s nothing.”
I said plainly “Well it must be something, otherwise you wouldn’t be acting so cold.”
She looked angrily at me and said “I’m acting cold to you, is that it?”
I said “Well, yeah. I’ve been trying to be the best teammate I can be, and a good friend too, and all I’ve felt from you is no reciprocation.”
Her tone elevated. She snapped “Well what more could you want? What more could you need?”
I crossed my arms and said “Compassion.” There was a pause then I said “You don’t get it do you? Everything that I’ve done, everything that I’m still doing, I’m doing it for you. I stayed here for you, I put up with Jerome for you, and now you ask what I want?”
She looked at me and said coldly “I never asked you to do any of those things.” There was a longer pause now, then she said “Maybe you should stop trying to be someone you’re not.”
I frowned and felt the same icy edge in my voice as I said “And who is it you think I’m trying to be now, hmm? I’m not trying to be anyone other than me, and if that’s not good enough, then maybe I should stop trying. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to take my own sweet time getting ready for our guest.”
I later wondered if I had gone too far, and that is a simple yes. While I was in the restroom, I heard some gunfire and I ran out into the café. Blair was gone, and there was a commotion in the streets. I saw some people pointing and screaming in the direction that lead back behind the café. I saw a man running away with Blair slung across his back tied up in some sort of cuffs and gaged. I drew my pistols and fired warning shots. The man got the message. He turned around and threw Blair to the ground.
All I could think to say was “Let her go.”
The man said “That’s it? Point some guns at me and make ridiculous demands of me in the middle of a nice shining neighborhood? You, sir, have no class.”
I repeated “Let her go.”
He smirked “Or what?” I shot him in the shoulder.
I said “Catch my drift?”
He shouted “You little brat!” He grabbed Blair by the neck in some mugging hold and held his other hand, palm down, out towards me. “Rage can quicken the stones to life! Let’s see how well you do against my golems!”
The ground between the two of us shook and three sets of arms popped out of the ground. Rocks formed into plate mail and gauntlets. The end result was a strange looking form of armored beast with no face. I was out in the open with no shadows to cushion any blows, except for what was under my shirt. My mind raced furiously as the first one charged. It tried grabbing me around the collar, but I put my arms up parallel to each other to keep from getting crushed. Then I got an idea.
“Oh, please,” the man said, “You can’t be dead yet, you still have to try and save your damsel in distress! You’d better hurry before she’s completely covered in my clay dust. She can’t use her powers covered in clay.”
His golem exploded in a flurry of stones and shadow. All that remained was a mass of ebbing and streaming shadows. I said “Spaces in between your golems makes it easy for me to work my magic.” He grimaced and sent the other two towards me at the same time. I formed the shadows around my body like a rope bandolier and shot up the first one with my gun enough to so smash it to pieces with a fist of solid shadows. The second one thumped me right in the chest and sent me flying back. When I got on my feet again I realized I was under the terrace of some fancy restaurant. I swarmed my body with shadows and stepped out into the open. People awed and stared. My Italian isn’t that good, but I think I heard someone call me a demon at some point.
The man flinched a bit as he said “Who… what are you?”
I said “Same thing you are. I’m just a whole hell of a lot scarier.” I dashed forward with a blade made from the new darkness that surrounded my body and cut his last golem in half. I said “Now if you could stop hiding behind a girl while throwing rocks at me and fight like a man, that would be great.”
He held his hand out again and two more golems popped up, but I slashed them to pieces before they completely took form I leveled my guns at him, so he did the only logical thing: hide behind Blair.
He said “Go ahead. Shoot her! I don’t care, all I need is her alive, and I’m sure you won’t kill her.”
I kept a dead pan look on my face and said “Are you so sure about that? Did you hear anything from our previous conversation?” Blair’s eyes drifted away from mine with what looked like regret.
The guy said “Well then, if you don’t care why not just let me have her, hmm?”
I shook my head and said “Nuh-uh, that won’t work either. She keeps saying to give up and stop pretending. First couple of things about me; one, I don’t give up, and two, I’m already me, so she has to deal with it.” I fired a shot from my left hand gun and it went through Blair’s shoulder and into the other guy’s chest. I dashed forward and jump kicked the guy in the chest then landed next to Blair who was trying to stop the bleeding with her hands cuffed. I broke the cuffs and took out the gag and she slapped me.
She shouted “You could have killed me, asshole!”
I said “Ah, yes, but I didn’t. Even if I wanted to, you promised to kill me, remember? And besides I just thought to myself ‘what would Blair do?’ Well, you’re alive, so shut up and cut me some slack.” I patched up her wound with some shadows then stood up to face the man in front of me. I said “I don’t believe we have been formerly introduced. My name is Connor Heartwell.”
He stood up and said “Greg LaMone. It’s been made obvious that you can control shadows, yes?” With the rage lust out of the way, I got a good look at him: Blond hair, red hipster scarf, brown jacket, (even though it was warm out) and a white shirt tucked into jeans.
I said “If it’s obvious then why are you asking?”
He shouted “Whatever!” and charged, scooping up stones and forming them into a sword. He swung first, but I formed a knife and blocked, aimed my gun at him. I fired but he dodged and swung again. This sword play continued for about two minutes until he summoned a golem to grab my feet. I fell over and he stood over me in supposed triumph, but a gun shot in the distance sent him scurrying back. I looked over to see Linus standing behind Blair with a gun aimed at Greg.
“Linus!” I called. He shot the rocks off my leg. I wrapped some shadows around my ankle so it wouldn’t get in the way.
He asked “You okay?”
I said “Depends on how you mean.”
He glanced back towards Blair and said “You wanna talk about it?”
I said “Yeah, sure, after the mission.”
We were ready to charge Greg, but we were interrupted. The Puppet Master jumped in front of Greg and said “Mr. LaMone, you should retreat.”
He protested “But I can take them! And what about the girl?”
The Puppet Master said “You are of no use to me dead. And the girl will come to us in time, so for the time being we should retreat. I don’t need any more bodies.”
Linus charged ahead shouting “I won’t let you get away!” but Greg punched the ground sending a shock wave that launched us all back. When the dust settled, the two were gone, and there were only the three of us in the street.
I said “Linus, call Rachel. We’re gonna need a portal home. And tell them to prep the med bay.” Five minutes later there was a portal in our room. We had checked out and there was only Blair and I in the room. She was about to walk through, but she started to collapse. I caught her and carried her through. We made it to the med bay and I sat her on a table. I got a first aid kit and she took off her shirt where blood was clearly seen dripping down her chest.
As I started to clean up the wound she said “You know I can do this myself.”
I kept working without making eye contact and said “I know. I just don’t care, so shut up and hand me the friken gauze.” I patched up her arm and asked “Can you stand?” She nodded. “Good. Then you can walk yourself to bed. I’m tired, I’ll see you in the morning.” On my way to my room I met Richard.
He said “Oh, hey man. You make it back successful?”
I said “Hardly.” He looked at the blood on my hands. He pointed and looked concerned so I said “It’s not mine, I forgot to wash after cleaning up your sister. It was kinda my fault. She was in the med bay last I saw her.” He quickened his pace and found her sitting right where I left her. I went to the bathroom to wash up before heading to bed. I passed Blair’s room and I heard her arguing with her brother about something.
Richard came out of her room furious. I followed him and the only thing he said to me was “Blair’s an idiot.”
I said “Well, at least you can still tell her that.” And I walked into my room without another word.
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FloweringChaos's avatar
*looks at date submitted.*
*looks at current date.*
:eager:


XD Seriously, I love this series.  I'm surprised it doesn't have more attention than it does.  You portray characters so freaking well that, even though you say "he said, she said, I said" a lot, it's easy to look past.  And, coming from me, that really means something, because it's usually difficult for me to continue reading something that seems repetitive.
Or maybe because of how you tell the story and portray the characters, it doesn't seem repetitive?
All I know is that, this series is amazing, and I freaking love it.  ^^  Thanks for being awesome.  ;)