Spinning the plate around my finger absently while drumming on the table with my other hand, I’d achieved maximum annoyance to the other ten people present at the table. Good. That was the goal, supposedly. Though it was mostly in jest. Once two of them gave me a dirty look, I stopped, giving a small shrug to them, the only message I got from the looks was a prevailing question of ‘Why are you like this?’.
I adjusted the plate which had moved to teeter off the edge, correcting and ensuring it wouldn’t fall. I’d broken too many plates this semester, I couldn’t afford to break any more.
I looked up from my minor instance of distraction to the rest of the group, who had gone back to talking amongst themselves at the circular table we’d laid claim to. The large shadows lurking above each member at this point had ceased to phase me. Lounging back in my chair somewhat, I didn’t bother trying to listen in. I preferred to fade into the background somewhat, listen, and maybe throw in a quip if I felt like it. Tuning back into the conversation, I cast my gaze to the person sitting next to me, and current speaker, Paul.
“I feel as if this predicament is your own fault, Larry.”
Paul was a football player, not really apart of the same social circles as the rest of the group. A bigger guy with plenty of muscle, he kept a neutral expression most of the time, with a great poker face. The shadow which loomed above him was large and armored in a metal that resembled bronze, a large axe over it’s back, gaze shrouded behind a helm. It wasn’t a literal shadow, with some color and decoration to it’s form, very few of them lacked that, but it definitely cast one over Paul. It’s name was Atlas, I was pretty sure.
To contrast, Larry, the one he was addressing two seats down, was a very thin boy who switched out his T-Shirt to match whichever band he was listening to that week. I had always figured that he was flexible enough to fold himself in half. His shadow was behind him too, but it didn’t loom much, barely being taller then him, with it’s arms crossed. Human shaped, but actually taking on more of a shadowy form, appearing to simply be an upright patch of darkness with it’s arms crossed, parts of it’s body occasionally shunting to wrong positions with a brief crackle. It’s name was Zephyr, that one I knew for sure.
“Dunno what you’re talking about. Someone’s out to get me” Larry said in reply, gaze on his food, very serious in tone.
“I’m pretty sure at least someone would see or hear if something was scratching on your window late at night.” Rebecca, girlfriend of Paul, sitting across from him, spoke next. She always had bags under her eyes, curly brown hair being suppressed as much as possible with clips and ties. She wore winter clothing, despite it being only September. Her shadow wore a porcelain dress, a veil covering it from the neck down, and high heels on it’s feet. What flesh was visible was almost the same color as the dress, with a silver sheen mixed in. I remembered this one too, named Maeve.
“Yeah, you’re probably just looney. Seems like it runs in the family.” Edward jabbed across the table, getting Larry in the arm, the thinner boy looking angry at that. Edward was…about as average as one could get, in my opinion. A few acne scars offsetting what could have once been a relatively attractive guy, he wore baggy, likely unwashed cloths, and generally had a habit of looking unkempt. His shadow appeared as a amorphous blob of darkness, with a few limbs sticking from it, small and hovering just behind his head. He called it Arthur.
“Can it, Edward.” The girl next to him spoke, putting a hand on his arm with a tightening grip. Diane, a taller girl with a black braid and piercing green eyes. She had a habit of keeping her boyfriend, Edward, on a short leash. I honestly didn’t know much else about her, she kept to herself a lot of the time. Her shadow was a masked figure in a bodysuit, the mask’s face shifting between a variety of animal heads depending on when you looked at it, it’s eye color changing to a variety of iridescent tones along with it, standing about a foot above it’s master. It’s name was Iris.
Edward scoffed, and leaned back, leaving the table in silence for a few moments. I looked around back and forth, to see who would take the initiative. Clearing his throat from a seat three down from me was Mark, the defacto leader of the group. He’d brought them together, way back when, once we’d all realized about our shadows and were positively terrified of each other.
“…moving on from that. Anyone have plans this weekend?” He said in a somewhat hopeful tone. He was the most attractive guy in the group, for sure, blonde hair, muscular but not too muscular, and blue eyes you could almost see your reflection in. His shadow was the most…presentable, a figure in golden metal garb, a sword down it’s back and a general regal appearance. It called itself Orion, and it was the only one that could speak for the others to understand.
“We have plans this weekend, dumbass-” the girl sitting next to Mark elbowed him, his girlfriend, Kelly. She was the most attractive girl of the group, to match Mark, and they were pretty much your standard movie couple. Blonde as well, wearing skirts and short cut shirts, she and Mark were practically made for each other in appearance. Her shadow, called Artemis, had a bow and arrow, and hunting garb which let the white void of the shadow’s skin be on full display. It was on par with Atlas, in terms of height. I didn’t like looking at it, in all honesty. It looked uncanny.
Mark sighed, looking embarrassed. “Right, how about next weekend?” he said, casting his gaze over the table, getting mostly nods of approval from everyone, including me, not like I had much going on these days.
“Nope, doing stuff next weekend” said a voice from my right, as I looked over to the person sitting there. Dawn, a shorter girl with a button nose and hazel eyes, currently with said eyes glued to the book she’d been reading that week. She wore glasses, which did nothing to hide how disinterested she was in most things. Her shadow was on the smaller side, maybe two feet tall, with wings jutting from it’s back so that it could float behind it’s master. It also had four arms, each small and barely able to do anything. It’s name was Calypso.
“Really? That’s a rarity, from you.” The voice of another girl sitting next to her, named Cynthia. She spoke with something of an accent, though I couldn’t place it, and was the second most annoying group member, besides me. We constantly battled for that title. She was a bit shorter then Kelly, but still tall, with brown hair that reached her lower back, a smirk which always made her look like an asshole, and a constant challenging expression. Cynthia’s shadow took on the shape of a large bird with crimson feathers, standing upright behind her. Like a mix of a hawk and an eagle, but ten times the size and bipedal. It called itself Andromeda apparently, and refused to divulge it’s real name. Or so Cynthia said.
Dawn shot Cynthia a dirty look. The table looked like it was going to fall into silence again, when the final member of our group and one of the more quiet ones, Andrew, looked up and said “…dunno, I should be around…” Andrew was scrawny, short, but ultimately well kempt, his black hair very well tended to. One of the few people without a visible shadow. But he could see them, and insisted he had one, so we all just took his word for it. Solidarity, and all that.
I looked up at my own shadow, and said, through our link “Y’know, you’re welcome to talk more, you know.”
The link made our speech non verbal, thankfully, so everyone around me didn’t think I was crazy. My shadow was about my height, which was to say pretty tall, with a mask which seemed to be carved into the shape of someone sobbing. It wore a white robe which covered it’s skin, and occasionally could be seen carrying a rod with two snakes wound around it. It’s name, I knew by heart. Juno.
“I do not see what to add, David.” It’s voice was level, vaguely feminine, but uncannily so.
“I mean, I feel like you should have more to add. As the ancient specter here to bestow me power alongside eleven other chosen, you don’t have any insights?” I poked fun, a little, though I was mostly digging for information that frustratingly alluded me.
I’d met Juno at the school’s infirmary. I’d just moved in, and proceeded to fall down the stairs, breaking my arm. I was getting tended to and chastised about looking where I was going when I noticed one of the nurses was wearing a white robe and what I’d thought was a theater mask. I called ‘her’ out, and everyone looked at me like I was crazy, and worse, it made a beeline for me. I blacked out, and when I woke up, my arm was fine, the nurses told me I had a bout of mania, and the creature with the mask was following me around everywhere, refusing to answer my questions of what it was and how to get it to leave. Worse yet, I started seeing more of them around campus, just following people. Thankfully, it had turned out…semi-ok.
“What would you prefer?”
“Break the silence once and awhile, yeah?”
“I make an effort to only speak with purpose. I have little purpose now, but to find the twelfth, and unite them with you. “
“Well, we’ve got eleven here, where could one more be hiding? You said they’re centralized around here, right?”
“Correct. All twelve shadows should have found hosts within a reasonable radius of this campus.”
I sighed. It had been waiting over a month at this point, since Mark and Orion had led the charge and united all of the crazies with superpowers together at one table with one group. It’s not like magic was that far fetched anymore, we’d all grown up watching the old footage of seeing a flying woman in tights catch a missile, watching New Orleans get covered by purple smoke, hearing about cities vanishing in Europe, or even seeing a supposed wizard testify before congress. But having shadowy figures no one else could see appear behind you and say that you’d been chosen to receive their gifts? Still weird. But hey, it had it’s benefits.
I’d zoned out again, thinking about possibilities, like the twelfth being the girl of my dreams, when Andrew spoke up again from one end of the table.
“Uh-guys? Look over there!” He said, pointing.
We all looked where he was pointing. And everyone actually fell silent.
Standing near the salad bar, calmly putting various vegetables into a bowl, was a younger guy in a suit jacket, with black hair, and fancy looking trousers. The well dressed part wasn’t what had caught our attention though. Standing behind him, at attention, was a shadow. We all recognized the signs immediately. A massive one, too. Even taller then Atlas, Orion and Artemis. It seemed to wear some manner of military uniform, but not anything matching a country or place any of us recognized, with a literal blank slate for a face. A large rifle was slung over it’s back, as it stood stock still, as the boy in front of it finally finished putting his bowl together, turned, and began approaching our table at a slow pace. I looked around the table, seeing looks of excitement and nervousness on everyone’s faces.
Damn. Not my dream girl. Oh well.
I got over it, then turned my gaze upward to Juno.
“Speak of the devil and he shall appear, right?” I said to Juno through our link, brevity in my tone.
“Do not refer to one of my siblings as demonic.” It’s voice sounded chiding, like my mother. That soured my mood for almost a full ten seconds.
“‘s just a joke, Juno.” I said with the mental version of a sigh.
“Silence yourself and await the twelfth.”
“Sure, sure” I said, silencing myself and awaiting the twelfth.
He approached our table, bowl in hand and shadow in tow, a small polite smile on his face, as he walked up to the back of the one unoccupied chair, directly next to Mark.
“Mind if I take a seat, you all?”
His voice had a French accent to it, only a slight one, but enough to be recognizable. I decided to take the initiative, sweeping a hand forward in a ‘come here’ sort of gesture.
“Absolutely my friend! Take a seat, let’s talk” I said with a slight smile, friendly, but with plenty of undertone. My grandiose words were definitely out of place, but it was all in good fun.
He nodded with his own smile growing wider. He took the seat, placing his bowl neatly in front of him, fork wedged in the center of it, seemingly holding the salad together in the center. Prissy, but it fit the image I was getting off this guy. His shadow took up position behind him, the other shadows breaking their position to speak in their incomprehensible dark tongue, only able to understand what Juno and Orion were saying, though Juno seemed to stay out of it. Orion was greeting the new shadow, greeting it as a brother of some sort? I soon tuned out, focusing on the newcomer, like the rest it seemed.
“I suppose I should introduce myself, yes?” He said, plucking up his fork and letting the salad unfold in the bowl in a neat formation.
“That’d be appreciated.” Paul said, in what was effectively an elaborate grunt. Atlas shifted slightly behind him, saying something to the new shadow.
The newcomer nodded twice, hesitating and measuring his words before speaking, a smart move, I thought, considering this crowd.
“I’m Enzo Monet. Exchange student, and, as my arrival was apparently cosmically ordained to be interesting, chosen of the specter Evander.”
The shadow behind him gave a brief salute to all of us, before returning to conversing with the other shadows. Dawn was the only one to return the gesture, lazily, before returning to her book.
“Pleasure to meet you, Enzo. I’m Mark. That’s Kelly, Diane, Edward, Rebecca, Paul, Dawn, Larry, Cynthia, Andrew and David.” Our oh so charismatic leader introduced us all in order, and various amounting’s of ‘hi’ or ‘nice to meet you’ arose from the group, with Paul and Dawn being the only two to remain silent through the whole affair. I, for my part, raised my hand in greeting, and said “Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Enzo.” in my best and most annoyingly nice voice.
He nodded and smiled to each of us in turn, even the pair that remained silent, to Paul’s perceived annoyance and Dawn’s ever-present apathy.
“Good to meet you all. Ever since meeting Evander, and hearing of more people like me, I’ve been very intrigued, and it doesn’t seem like I’m in for any kind of disappointment! You all seem quite interesting, I’d love to get to know you better!” His enthusiasm was infectious, at least to me. He spoke like English was his second language, which honestly made me slightly suspicious at his lack of strong accent. I pointed at him, nodding.
“Well, you seem plenty interesting too” I said, grinning “Why don’t you start off the icebreakers. We know what our shadows do, what’s Evander’s deal?”
He paused. As if perplexed.
“Shadows?” He tilted his head.
“It’s what we call the specters, before we really articulated what they were and before they started really divulging much, it didn’t help that we didn’t figure out how the links to speak with them worked till Andrew started hearing a voice in his head. The term stuck from there. We use spirit and specter interchangeably with shadow” Mark explained, looking over to him with an earnest expression, which Enzo returned.
“I see! Well to answer your question, David, I’d ask that you share first. Just to clear the air.” He followed up, his damn smile still going full strength.
That was fine. I could play that game all day. Pretending to be nice was one of my finer skills, as a matter of fact. I was getting warning looks from the others. They clearly didn’t trust this guy, and I didn’t either, but I’d rather bite the bullet and learn. Besides, if he turned out to be a stand up cool guy, I’d like to be known as the first to get on his good side.
I picked up a knife from Paul’s plate, cleaning off the pork bits from the meal he’d been eating with a napkin, then, holding it in one hand, with my other close to the table. Calmly, and cleanly, I sliced my palm open. The pain was immediate, though far from excruciating. No one around saw, thanks to the clustered table we sat at, and none of the others had a particularly strong reaction save for turned up noses. I pulled on my link with Juno, briefly getting it’s attention downwards, pulling it into my body, our two forms overlaying for a moment. I put one hand over the other, then we separated, revealing no injury when Juno withdrew back to it’s conversation.
“This is really just a demonstration. I can do a lot bigger. Like Mark’s broken leg, Cynthia’s concussion, or Edward’s habit of spraining his wrists.” That one got me a glare from Edward. Deserved, maybe but I didn’t care. My title of most annoying would last another day.
Enzo seemed impressed, raising an eyebrow, having a content looking smile on his face.
“Well, you’ve indulged me so I shall return the favor. Evander, kindly demonstrate your abilities.”
The shadow leaned down, as if it was whispering something in Enzo’s ear…planning maybe? Or was this apart of Evander’s skillset?
Enzo pointed past us, down the small stairway required to ascend to our table. He was pointing to a tray on a nearby cart.
“Watch that cart, and it’s contents, if you would?” He asked, and most everyone complied. Dawn and Larry kept their eyes on Enzo. Evander, for it’s part, moved to merge with Enzo, withdrew it’s rifle, pointing it at the cart, and squeezing the trigger. No bullet, but the trays atop the car froze, then lifted into the air slowly, only a few inches. Only noticeable if you were really paying attention, and the bastard probably assumed no one was. Evander then pulled the trigger again, and they slammed back into the cart with a large amount of force, loudly clanging against each other with the sound of metal rubbing against itself. Some of them were even bent in some places. That got the attention of some people down below, who looked over with some measure of curiosity, before collectively shrugging and going back to what they were doing.
Most of the table looked at Enzo as the spirit withdrew in some form of emotion between anger and shock. I was more towards a neutral look myself, trying to display as if I didn’t care, when truly, the display disturbed me just a bit. The willingness to just do stuff like that was…weird. Enzo ignored the glare from the nearby Kelly and Mark, continuing to speak.
“Evander is, to be short, telekinetic. One squeeze of the trigger can lift and configure, two can crush, three can expel. Simple, but effective, and somewhat easily expanded upon if you have the smarts, which I’d like to hope I have.” He cast his gaze throughout the rest of the table, looking expectantly. “Now how about the rest of you? I’d love to know what you can do”
Mark took a deep breath, before saying “-look, I think we’ve got off on the wrong foot here, we try to not use our powers like that, we don’t want to attract an-”
He was cut off by the sound of a distant bell chiming, indicating it was now about 2pm. Mark and Kelly both cursed, standing up with their plates.
“…We’ve got to get to class. We’ll talk about this tomorrow, we meet here at noon.” He said, looking to Enzo again, who nodded, as the rest of the group stood, all generally having a class around this time, or, they simply didn’t want to be a partial group with the new guy. Their shadows stood with them.
Enzo nodded, now the only one seated “Sounds lovely. I’ll see you all then.”
I gave him one final nod, before moving to dispose of my dishes, and head out through a back entrance. Last I saw him, he was still sitting at the table, eating his salad as the rest of us departed. Once I was clear of the building, walking to class on my own, I reentered the link with Juno.
“So, what dya think of the new guy?”
“Evander has changed since I last saw them. Colder. They have also adapted to a modern implement quicker then I would have thought”
“You mean the gun? I thought that was weird, for an ancient spirit”
“Odd. But not impossible. I will take a chance to further examine Enzo next time we see him”
“Thanks, Juno.”
“You are welcome, David”
About five hours later, I was walking back to the dorms, after three more classes. Only one of which was interesting. We’d all decided to transfer into the barely filled ‘Study of the Supernatural’ class taught by Professor Lanigan, because we’d hoped to get some kind of light on what we had. However, after one question session led by Mark, Lanigan didn’t seem to know anything about the shadows, which, while unfortunate, led to an entertaining experience of ole Lanigan going on about Lunara (Or Lunarialaia if you were a pretentious asshole) as the main example of public facing supernaturals and her activities around the globe while ten dark spirits floated in his classroom. The rest of my classes were boring stuff I’d needed for credits.
On my walk home, I’d put on a cassette and headphones, which were uncomfortably on my head without fail, but I needed the drone of music to relax anyways. I’d removed them about halfway there, looking up to Juno floating behind me. The mental link was inaudible, but it was still akin to speech in the way that too much sound could drown it out.
“You had a good day?” I asked, mostly in jest. Trying to goad a response with tone alone, even if I knew it wouldn’t work.
“Your instructors are incredibly boring. I have learned to ignore them.” Was that…irritation in it’s voice? Amazing.
I grinned “Maybe you and I are more alike then I thought, Juno.”
“Perhaps. Though, I must say, I do not try to hurt others like you do.” It said so bluntly, but it still hurt somewhat.
Juno cut themselves off, bypassing our link to immediately form up around me, and jump aside, just as a projectile slammed into our leg, breaking it and pulverizing it. We landed on our ass nearby, Juno’s abilities quickly going towards fixing it. I looked through the dark, using the shadows somewhat enhanced senses. I saw a figure on a roof, with a rifle.
“Shit!” My and Juno’s combined resonating voice said as we sprung to our feet, breaking into a run
“We will die on open ground” Juno said, as another projectile struck the ground near us “Move for enclosed space. We can only hope to win at close range”
“What the fuck is even happening?” I replied, rapidly
“I do not know what Evander and Enzo are doing, but we must live if we wish to find out” Juno retorted.
That made enough sense, I ran for cover, diving into a small ramped off area, with a door I knew wasn’t locked. Throwing it open, I moved in to the carpeted hallways and shut office door lined area, after shutting the door behind me, tuning into Juno’s senses and trying to see if I found anything.
Nothing, for ten agonizing seconds. I called out, using our voice.
“Enzo, cut the shit and come out, I dunno what you’re trying to pull, but-”
I was cut off by the ceiling starting to shake. He was bringing the area down! Our eyes widened, and I put our arms up, catching the largest section of debris as it fell, holding it above our head as a shield against the rest. Tossing it aside, I moved to free us, just as a smaller section of ceiling came down across the hall, descending being Enzo and Evander, merged. Rifle raised, and squeezing the trigger twice. I felt our arm crush, bones contorted in ways they absolutely should not be in an instant, an insurmountable force interposing itself on us. Cursing, I activated our heal, and freed myself from the rubble charging low towards the pair, who thankfully missed their second shot, not used to moving targets, likely. We surged forward with power strides, grabbing the rifle and twisting it upwards, throwing a blow straight at the pair’s center of mass, only for them to catch it, forcing us into a deadlock, strength matched, but their primary weapon and source of power restrained.
“What the hell are you doing!” We asked again, enraged.
He had no response, and we held the deadlock for a few seconds. Long seconds wasted. Something large hit me in the back, as we staggered forward onto the ground. Looking up, I saw their finger on the trigger. Shit. How hadn’t we seen that?
We hit the ground, moving to heal as fast as possible, but it was far too late, the rifle was free of our grasp. I held up an arm to interpose, and it was blown clean off, crushed and pinned to the opposite wall. We tried to desperately regenerate, I knew it was possible for Juno to do so, but we didn’t have enough time. We threw ourselves forward with our one remaining arm and legs poised, attempting anything to stagger, throw off their aim, ANYTHING.
But it was for naught. A shot connected with our center chest, shattering it, ribs no doubt in pieces, lungs collapsed, I could barely breath…as Juno separated from me, able to take no more, unable to keep powering us.
“David, no, Evander, do-“
Juno’s desperate cries were cut off by the eerie sound of both Evander and Enzo speaking in tandem, the first time they’d done so, and I was barely conscious to register it. A sickly sweet mix of the known and unknown.
“Welcome back to the fold, Juno.”
They looked directly down at me, face unable to be seen, pointing the rifle directly against the forehead I could barely feel, and squeezed the trigger twice, to the sound of a shrieking which faded into nothing along with me.
Kindling And Miscellany 