I sat on the edge of the roof, feeling the cold chill of the wind on me, as I sat alone. A book I’d been trying to finish ever since Enzo appeared folded on my knee. The only light I’d had was a half functioning lamp atop the building that they used for repairs sometimes. I’d found the breaker switch for it in the basement, and turned it on sometimes when I wanted to come up here and read on my lonesome.
The book I’d been struggling with finishing had been a recommendation from Andrew, a novel written by someone who’d been on ground zero of the first supernatural event in history, back in the 60’s, the nuke catching woman. He’d written an entire mythos surrounding this woman, apparently, and very little of it was anywhere close to accurate. People liked it all the same, and thus it had ended up in my lap. I’d gotten maybe a third of the way through, but had been only reading a few pages every day since Enzo had shown up, despite the fact that I’d been coming up here almost every night since then, with the exception of last night. I’d just ended up unable to do anything but…think. And my own thoughts were not a kind mistress, I’d found. They never had been, but especially now.
I wasn’t exactly anxious, per say, I wasn’t someone who would struggle with paranoia like Larry once had. I just…struggled to keep my head straight. I was trying to come up with plans, but they all ended up falling flat. I wasn’t as much of a schemer as someone like Andrew, and it showed. So I was just left to…stew, I supposed. With my emotions.
I’d heard a distant scream, and it had brought memories of the previous night back into my head. Me and Andrew, having resigned ourselves to not being of use, repositioned after Mark and Kelly caught wind of the fishy lack of Cynthia and their signal to enter the fray, to be able to see the fighting through my binoculars.
We’d watched as Paul, Mark and Kelly fought Enzo and Cynthia. Watched Paul die.
After that, things…wound down. Orion and Artemis together, with a bit of more tactical application of their abilities, managed to drive off Enzo. Cynthia decided to leave once she was actually at risk. It was a win, technically. But two more of our friends were dead. So it just felt empty.
I’d tried to run down and help, after things started to go south. But Andrew had stopped me. I’d just die too.
That line resonated in my head. I’d just die too.
I turned my head over. My shadow, Calypso, was flying around in mantic circles nearby. She was basically just a miniature fairy, less then two feet tall, tiny wings, and mostly humanoid form.
“Cally. Are you keeping watch, or just messing around?”
She stopped dead.
“Is both an answer?” She asked, with a measure of distilled mischief in her tone.
I sighed.
“If you don’t want to merge with Enzo, then I’d suggest keeping watch. Who knows, he could be lurking in any dark corner.”
“If he is, then we’ll show him what for, won’t we?”
“I don’t think we’d get the chance. We aren’t exactly fighters.” I said with trepidation. I didn’t want to hurt the tiny spirit’s feelings.
“I’ll make some wasps! Or a big snake! That’ll show him!”
“Not sure how wasps are supposed to hurt Evander. A big snake might buy us a few seconds for me to jump to my death first, though.” I was almost sarcastic with that one. I’d probably prefer splattering on the pavement then giving Enzo the satisfaction of getting the kill himself.
Though, Calypso did have a point. Our power wasn’t useless in combat. It instilled life, effectively. The inanimate became animate, though in a limited sense. Larger things required large amounts of time, and whatever I animated was under no compulsion to obey me, and would act like a normal creature would. Apparently, according to her, she could create humans, too. I hadn’t tried, because it sounded horrifying.
I already had enough qualms about making animals. The most I’d done was a few bugs, and a bear once, to see if I could. The answer was yes, I could, much to the despair of the unlucky woman who woke up to the creature rooting around in her trash, calling an unprepared animal control to cart it off.
According to Calypso, the ‘spirits’ were just drawn from the surrounding environment, and consolidated into the existing form. I didn’t know how that would apply to people, and honestly, I didn’t want to find out.
Calypso had gone silent, and I looked over to notice she’d landed on my shoulder, looking as pensive as she could with her shadowy face.
“Sorry. I don’t mean to be a downer.” I said, somewhat sympathetic…but still a realist.
“It’s ok. I just…want things to turn out…ok for you, as your shadow.”
“I’m sure it will. Mark and Kelly are strong, and they’ll come up with a plan, I’m sure of it.” I wasn’t sure in that. In fact, I was more sure in their likelihood to fail. Enzo had only ever been driven off, and it had taken peoples lives to do that. Now…there were only four of us left, and two of us were nearly useless.
“I’m sure we’ll be alright, then! I trust Orion and Artemis to get things done. We’ll take down Andromeda and Evander, no problem!”
As always, I wished I shared her confidence. More concretely closing my book, I adjusted my back on my shoulder and stood, pulling my legs away from the edge, and walking for my entrance back into the building. I clearly wasn’t going to get anything done out here, and at least now I had the self consciousness to do it while it wasn’t so damned late.
“Yeah. I’m sure we will be.” I said, as I opened the door to the inside, and walked down the stairs, two stories, before I reached the door to my floor, walking down the empty late night hallways and to my room. Hesitating a moment, before opening it…to find it empty. I breathed a sigh of relief.
My roommate at the very least had the decency to not stay in the same room as me while trying to kill me and my friends.
Cynthia’s stuff was strewn about on her side of the room, which was in stark contrast to my neat and tidy sections. It looked like she’d been through here today, at some point, but I wasn’t sure what she’d done. I assumed the rules still applied to her, and she wouldn’t slit my throat in the middle of the night. If she entered, Calypso had said she’d wake me up, and I trusted her to do that at least. I wasn’t convinced I could beat Cynthia, but I could hopefully do enough to mess her up that she’d think twice and I could make it to the door. Just in case, I slept with an old cheerleading baton within arms reach, with once more, simple hope that a strike from it would daze Cynthia long enough for me to make it to the hallway.
I changed into some more comfortable clothing, and got into bed. Staring at the ceiling for awhile, before eventually feeling sleep take me.
I woke up to a familiar feeling of dread that I’d been feeling all week and my particularly ear shattering alarm. Shaking off the lingering groggy feeling of waking up at the ungodly hour of seven thirty in the morning (as someone who was homeschooled for a long time and was used to getting up at nine…ouch), I swung my legs over and pushed myself out of bed. Calypso was zipping about on the ceiling, seemingly not ever able to run out of energy in any circumstance. I tried my best not to mind her, or snap and get annoyed, as I set about getting ready for the day. Taking a quick shower down the hall, getting dressed, brushing my teeth and packing my bag, I was out the door by seven forty five, walking across campus and over to the cafeteria, for breakfast. After making sure Enzo nor Cynthia were about, I entered and got some food, eating quickly, before exiting the way I came for one more early morning errand: checking my mail. Heading for the room off to the right of the cafeteria, I entered through the front door and passed through the lines of mailboxes until I found mine, number six hundred forty seven, and unlocked it with my code.
Swinging it open, I found no new letters, but a package slip. I frowned. Who had sent me a package? I didn’t have any relatives back home or friends that were on good enough terms with me to send me something, and I hadn’t ordered anything. I walked past the rows again and up to the attendant, a tired senior who’d be retiring from the job by the end of the year. I wordlessly presented the slip, and he nodded, heading into a side room and coming back with a relatively big box. I furrowed my brow, but took it equally wordlessly and headed for the exit. My name and information was written on it, but no return address or other name. If this was from Enzo, and it was a bomb, I was going to be pissed. Though, I assumed Enzo didn’t have the means to get his hands on a bomb, or he would be doing this to Mark and Kelly, not me.
Sighing, I took it in my hands, and headed back to my dorm room in silence.
I’d splayed the contents of the package across my bed the moment I’d gotten inside, and I’d immediately started pacing back and forth once I saw it all.
Two notebooks, a letter, and a loaded gun. Fucking perfect.
I was trying desperately to calm down. Calypso, nearby me like always, was looking between the different things with vested interest, I was just glad she didn’t have enough material power to mess with the gun.
After taking a few deep breaths along with several minutes to calm down, I finally started thinking straight again. Looking down at the contents, I decided to tackle the letter first. The outside read: “To Dawn, From Andrew”.
At least that answered the question of who sent this to me. Trying to avoid any sense of fear, I opened up the envelope and letter at large, slowly pulling out the paper within, and began to read what was on it.
“Dear Dawn.
By the time you’re reading this, I’ve been killed by Enzo. My body is cold, and there is nothing you can do to save me. But it’s alright. I planned for this. For some context. I do have a shadow. Their name is Delphi. They can show me the future. I’ve been using their ability since I got it and found out about Enzo to attempt to steer things into ending in his defeat. It’s been difficult. He’s smart. And he’s willing to kill a lot of innocent people if he feels he’s on the backfoot. But, with my plan, I think I should be the last person who has to die. I just need you to listen carefully. Firstly, you need to read through the information in these books. The first is general notes on the supernatural, not entirely necessary but helpful all the same. The second book is about the shadows. Read about what I’ve gathered on Evander and Andromeda, and use it against them. Secondly, you need to grab that gun. The safety is on, the switch near the trigger turns it off. Keep it with you. Thirdly, find Cynthia, and kill her. Do this alone. Don’t tell Mark and Kelly. I know this will be hard. But it has to be done if any of the remaining three of you want to survive.
I’m really sorry for not telling you sooner. You were one of my best friends, and you helped me when I thought no one else would. But this had to be done. For the sake of the many, over the few. Thank you, for following through.
-Andrew”
I had to reread it a few times to make sure I was getting it right. The cold feeling returned, washing over me, making me feel overwhelmed all over again.
Andrew was dead. He’d let it happen.
I sat down in my chair, taking some deep breaths.
He’d been a good friend. I thought he might have liked me, for awhile, and was worried about how to let him down easy, but after awhile it seemed more like he just wanted to talk to someone who even remotely shared his interests, something I was happy to do.
And now I was finding how he was predicting the future and maneuvering things the whole time.
Had he just faked that friendship, for a chance at stopping Enzo?
I tried to get the thought out of my head, but it was hard. I just sat there, lost in thought, for more then a few minutes, before I came to a conclusion, reaching for the second book, the one about shadows.
I’d trust Andrew. Worst come to worst, he’d been using me, and he just wanted to beat Enzo. But if his shadow really could predict the future and line things up like this…I wasn’t going to waste that potential chance. I would do what he asked. I’d…shoot Cynthia, even if the thought turned my stomach. I’d read his book.
I’d follow the plan.
Almost eight hours passed with me barely paying much mind to it. Reading through the notes, one page at a time, then rereading to make sure I understood. I’d finished that task a few hours ago, absorbing the information as thoroughly as I possibly could.
The secondary task I’d done was figuring out a way to lure out Cynthia. I’d waited outside the cafeteria, for her to go inside alone for a late afternoon lunch, then planted a note in her backpack with the help of a brief use of Calypso’s smaller merged form, then retreated after I saw her read it, heart pounding, terrified with the safety still activated gun at my waist band.
The note just read “Meet me on the roof of Franklin at eight, come alone-D”
The Franklin building was tall, relatively isolated in terms of the campus at large, and no one could get help up there in a quick manner. Which meant even if I didn’t immediately kill Cynthia, ideally, the wounds would catch up with her before anyone could help her. Ideally. If I saw Enzo coming too, I’d fall back and do something else another night. But I felt like Cynthia would come alone. She’d…owe that to me. I’d hoped. She’d probably been my closest friend, above even Andrew, before all of this. Sure, she poked fun at me…but she got me, a bit. For a few weeks, I’d even had a crush on her, but I’d quashed my feelings after she’d mentioned having boyfriends before. I didn’t want to confess something and then get ratted out as queer to the entire campus. Not again.
But still. She was nice, funny, smart, and on some level understood me. She was good to have around, until she killed Rebecca and tried to kill the others. The betrayal hit hard.
But, I supposed I’d be settling things tonight.
I’d made sure to read up on the shadows, or more rather, the relevant ones. Andromeda’s exact powers were unknown, but she was just called ‘The Ruler’ in title. She seemed to command the environment around her somehow, exactly how Andrew had been unsure. But whatever it was, she couldn’t do it on a whim. She had to setup. She was better as a background annoyance, then a frontline fighter. Evander, meanwhile, was intended to fight from range, but was built to be soldier. Delphi had apparently noted that Evander’s adaption of the rifle was new. The shadows appearance did change with time somewhat, but he was the furthest along, for an unknown reason. Delphi also proposed the possibility that Evander was manipulating Enzo into gathering more power. Which was an honestly scary thought.
It also contained miscellaneous details. Like the potential of the shadows existing prior to all of this, and across different eras, inspiring various myths worldwide. And the idea that the shadows and their hosts were slowly becoming more like one another, leaving the shadows to be amalgams of various people they’d encountered over the centuries.
My gaze had gone to Calypso, when I’d read it. Wondering who she’d been bonding with, if that was the case? Children? It might explain some of her behavior.
Outside of the insightful thought, however, I’d spent most of my time in empty contemplation, trying to parse what was to come. Getting the scenarios in my head, of what I’d have to do. Staring emptily at the gun on my desk, and trying to get through my head that I’d have to use it to kill someone I’d considered a friend in just a few hours. I couldn’t even really consider it, but I still thoroughly planned to do it all the same. For my own sake. And for the sakes of the others.
Eventually, though, the sound of my alarm stirred me from my stupor. I’d set it for 7:30 PM, in case I’d decided to take a nap beforehand, which I couldn’t manage to do. Sitting up straight, I stood, whistling, which got Calypso to fly over to my shoulder. I hesitated a moment, then grabbed the gun from my desk, shoving it into the waistband, before heading for the door, striding out into the hall and out of the building, with the hope that this wouldn’t all be for naught.
I laid in wait on the rooftop for ten minutes, having crossed campus in nineteen minutes. At exactly seven fifty nine, I heard the door to the roof access swing open, the sound of booted footsteps stepping out onto the roof. In the glint of the moonlight, during my brief glance towards it, I could tell it was Cynthia, blonde hair hanging down to her shoulders, leather jacket wrapped around her torso to fend off the chill.
I gripped the handle of the gun, trying to stop my hands from shaking as I turned the safety off. Giving myself a mental countdown. Five. Four. Three. Two. One-
I stood up from my hiding spot, aimed at Cynthia, who was only ten feet away now, looking around curiously before she widened her eyes seeming me and the weapon, without hesitation, I squeezed the trigger.
Bang
The barrel smoked faintly, as I visibly trembled. Cynthia had tried to shield herself with her hands, but lowered them once she realized…she wasn’t shot. Looking over, the shot had impacted a nearby air conditioning vent.
“That-that was a warning shot!” I said, trying to stop my hands from shaking and failing.
Cynthia took a step back, hands raised.
“Send Andromeda away. And sit on the ground.” I said, in as confident of a voice as I could muster.
Cynthia looked to Andromeda, who was hovering nearby, and nodded. The bird spirit with the porcelain elements flew off into the night air.
“Dawn…where’d you get the gun?” Cynthia said, gently.
“None of your damn business! I’m asking the questions here!” I said in a near shout, still pointing the gun at her.
“Alright then, ask” She said, taking a seat on the ground gingerly.
“Why did you betray us! Kill Rebecca?”
She paused.
“Talk!” I shouted, branishing the weapon.
“…Because it’s the path of least bloodshed.”
I didn’t reply to that. Just staring at her, stunned. My expression must have spoken volumes of my lack of understanding, so she spoke again in a follow up.
“Enzo wants all of the spirits. He’ll kill all of us to get them. But they’re a burden that he’s taking. It’s a double edged sword. With all of the shadows, he’ll be powerful, but he’ll have a target on his back. A target being removed from us.” She said her words slowly and calmly.
“Like hell! Why does the target matter if we’re dead!”
She sighed.
“…Do you know what happened to the others, when Evander killed them?”
“Or when you killed them.” I retorted, bitterly.
“…or when I killed them. They stayed intertwined with their shadows. Their spirits are inside of Evander and Andromeda. And they’ll stay there, until given a host, or until they’re released. Me and Enzo made a plan, once I realized what he was doing. He’s a real prick, but I think you knew that. But he’s a reasonable prick. I agreed to help him, and he agreed to his own end. Once he’s won, which he will, he’ll use all the shadows powers, and bring us all back. Whole, just without any shadows. He gets what he wants, we get to live. It’s the best scenario, for all of us.”
Her words hit me. But like with several other things today, I took more then a few seconds to process it. The gun was slowly lowered.
“…The shadows can do that?” I asked, voice small.
“Yes. Specifically, four of them are needed for it. Juno, Orion, Andromeda…and Calypso.” She says, staring right at me, looking in my eyes. “Mostly the last two, though. Do you know what Andromeda does?” She said, knowing full well I didn’t.
“…No. Outside of commanding the environment a bit. I don’t even know her real name.”
“Yeah. She’s a right bitch when it comes to her name. But Andromeda is the ruler, among the shadows. She commands the world itself. More specifically, the energy from it which most objects, organisms, and all in between contains. Not totally sure how it works, but I can tug on these wells of energy, and make them do things. Now. From what I understand, Calypso turns the inanimate animate. Converting existing energy into more useful vessels. See how well they could do combined, especially when it came to something like per say…human resurrection?”
I dropped the gun, my hands were shaking too much. It clattered to the ground. I started to feel something wet on my head and shoulders. It was starting to rain.
Cynthia stood, with that. Walking towards me.
“…I admired you, Dawn. Still do, in fact…I like you a lot. I mostly did this deal with Enzo for you, because you, out of all of them, deserved to get killed the least. The rest of them? I don’t want them to die…but I know you best.”
My heart was beating fast. Everything I’d been told rushing through my head. She’d done this for me? Was this a trick? No…it couldn’t be. It made sense. Cynthia wasn’t cold enough to betray us for nothing, or for something like power…
“…I…don’t…know wha-what to say-” I stammered violently.
“I do.” Cynthia said, wrapping me in a hug. Squeezing me tight. “…I’m sorry, for everything. But this is all going to be alright. Because I love you, Dawn. In the gross, get society to hate me, way.” I could almost feel her smiling.
Holy shit.
She was like me.
Holy shit.
My entire body felt numb, but in a better way, as rain started to fall around us with more heavy beats.
“…I thought-you had boyfriends-” I stammered, as she held me close.
She laughed a little “Yeah, so? Doesn’t mean I can’t like you too.”
That felt good. I smiled again, probably looking like an idiot. Her grip around me got tighter.
“I have a lot of things I want to say…” Cynthia said, trailing off. “But for now…I just need you to hold still for me. This will all be done soon. I’ll see you again soon. I promise.” She gripped me even tighter, before I could realize what was going on, and I felt a crushing feeling to my back. Like I’d been hit by a car, but magnified a hundred times over.
I couldn’t breath. Much less speak. I wanted to fall, but Cynthia’s grip on me was too strong.
“…I’m sorry if this hurts. Evander isn’t gentle. But it beats being ripped open by Andromeda…”
Her voice was fading in and out, I could barely hear her, much less parse…this.
“I’ll see you soon. Dawn. I promise.” Her words weren’t soothing. But I had at the very least some feeling of…comfort, in all of it. I was too delirious by now to really figure out why that was, unfortunately.
Another impact. I couldn’t hold on any more. With Cynthia’s arms around me, and a feeling of safety mixed with a feeling of pure and unmitigated dread, I lost any sense of anything, into darkness.
Kindling And Miscellany 