The Shadows

Kya, Elijah and Luka's lives change forever on a field trip in the woods. The shadows are coming... Will they run or will they fight?

Art by Riccardo Vigorelli

---

"I think we're lost."

The little group stopped suddenly, glaring at a boy with a red jacket who was clutching a paper tightly in his fists. Dark trees loomed over them, casting shadows that threatened to engulf the three children.

They shuffled closer to each other, the dry leaves on the floor crunching softly under their sneakers.

A girl with curly dark hair that threatened to escape yellow butterfly clips placed precariously on her head, spoke up.

"You have got to be kidding me. All you had to do was follow a stupid map!" she said, angrily walking over to the pale boy and snatching the green map out of his hands.

"I'm sorry?" the boy answered, voice trembling slightly.

He didn't know why they had chosen him to lead the way. Didn't they know he was useless?He seemed to slump inwardly even more if possible, his hands slipping into his warm, familiar hoodie pockets as his dark blond hair flopped onto his face, hiding brown, scared eyes.

"I thought you were a Boy Scout or something. Aren't you supposed to like, know the forest and stuff?" another boy with chestnut hair said, taking off his blue backpack and sitting down heavily on a grey rock nearby.

The girl continued to look at the map intently, trying to puzzle out what all the little colorful squiggles could possibly mean.

The chestnut haired boy zipped the bag open and took out a water bottle. It was half-way full, and he grinned with satisfaction. He clumsily twisted the cap off but before he could take a sip, it fell out of his hand and onto the leafy ground, water sloshing out in a steady stream.

"Fudgeballs!" the boy yelled, his blue eyes widening with surprise. He winced slightly, reaching down to pick up the bottle with fingers wrapped tightly in bandages. A faint trickle of liquid dripped down his hand onto the floor.

Blood.

"Damn. My scar opened up again." he said, attempting to wrap the bandages tighter. It's hard enough as it is, he thought, without having to bleed all over the place.

"You idiot! That was the last water. What are we supposed to do now, huh, genius?" the girl demanded, shaking the map in the boy's face.

He shook his head.

"I dunno, Ky." He grimaced as a jolt of pain went through his hand.

Kya muttered darkly under her breath, but bent down, and inspected his hand. She carefully unwrapped the bandages and pulled a face. The cut stretched from one side of his palm to the other, glistening with fresh blood.

"You just had to fall right on top of a sharp rock, didn't you?" Kya said.

They both sat in silence, at loss for words, staring at the wound. None of them knew what to do. Suddenly the boy looked up, noticing a familiar slumped figure was gone.

"Crap. Where did Elijah go?" he asked, panic and pain written across his face as he tried to close his hand.

Kya got up quickly, her orange backpack bouncing on her back.

"Elijah!" she yelled.

"Where did that idiot go?" she wondered out loud, panic streaking her voice. What if a wolf had eaten him or something?, she thought.

They both screamed into the depths of the forest, their voices seeming to echo on and on forever.

"ELIJAAAAAAH!"

---

"Hey guys."

The two kids turned together, as Elijah, in his familiar red hoodie, seeming to appear out of nowhere, walked towards them, out of the greenery of the forest. In his hand he held a bunch of bright yellow flowers, roots still dangling from their green stems. Dirt streaked his hands.

"What the heck man?!"

"Where were you?!" Both kids demanded at the same time.

They stopped and looked at each other. Faint smiles appeared on their faces, but soon disappeared.

Kya spoke, alone this time.

"You can't disappear like that, Elijah. We have to stick together. And seriously, flowers?" she said, taking a deep breath.

She sat down on the ground, her orange backpack flopping on the floor, staring at the boy. Elijah looked around uncomfortably, aware of the other kids' stares on him.

He gulped slightly.

"I saw that Lukas' hand was bleeding again, so I thought, I could maybe find some healing plants for him, I mean, I found these yellow flowers, they're called Anethum graveolens, they're good for healing wounds and disinfecting and preventing infection and you know, he seems in pain, and I couldn't find them before but here they are, my grandma told me about them, she's a herb lady I guess, you know believes in plant medicine, so she knows her stuff, my mom hates it, but I don't remember anything else she told me, it's kind of boring, but I see now I should have listened..." Elijah's voice trailed off, and he drummed his fingers nervously on his twitching leg.

Kya and Lukas stared at the boy in shock. They had never heard him speak so much in one go.

Elijah gulped anxiously.

"Um, sorry?" he said, worry frowning on his face.

"Yeah, no it's cool man. Just tell us next time, okay?" Lukas finally said, wiping his bloody hand gently on his pants.

"Come here and show us what to do." Kya commanded, her eyes not failing to catch the pain flashing briefly in Lukas' eyes.

Elijah crouched next to Lukas, and together with Kya mashed up the flowers to make a thick paste.

"I'm not really sure if this is okay, or if it's how you do it." the blond-haired boy said, wringing his hands nervously.

"Hey, it's better than nothing." Kya replied, looking down at the mushed flowers.

"Gimme your hand." she told Lukas, and he followed obediently.

She carefully smeared the yellow paste on his wound and wrapped the bandages tightly over it.

"Now that that's solved, what are we going to do?" Kya asked, her deep brown eyes looking at the dimming sun fearfully.

"I have no idea." Lukas answered, running his good hand through his chestnut locks nervously.

Elijah said nothing, and hid his hands in his pockets. He sat down awkwardly, facing Kya and Lukas. His leg began twitching again nervously.

He took a deep breath. Come on, speak, he thought.

"I think I know." he finally said softly, looking up at his classmates.

---

"So wait, you don't know how to read a map, but you can build this?" Lukas asked, staring down at the shelter they had just finished building.

The structure looked like a little house, made up of thick branches they had found that were placed vertically all around a tree trunk, forming a sort of wooden tent.

Elijah grinned but didn't say anything. He went over to help Kya, who was struggling to start a fire.

"Here." he said, and picked up two flints of stone. He quickly rubbed them together and before long a little spark fell on the mound of sticks they had gathered. A fire soon roared, contained by some stones they had placed in a circle.

"Nice. Gosh, this is warm." Kya said as she sat down and placed her hands near the fire. The other two boys joined her and they all stared in silence at the crackling, dancing flames.

After a while, Lukas spoke up.

"How long do you think until someone finds us?" he said, picking at his bandaged uncomfortably.

Elijah's magic paste worked, and the pain and bleeding have stopped, but the bandages still itch so much, Lukas thought.

"I don't know. Honestly, it's kind of weird nobody found us yet. You would think, three kids disappearing during a field trip would get more attention. I mean there hasn't even been like, I don't know, a helicopter yet or anything." Kya answered darkly, hugging her knees close.

And anyway, she thought silently, it's not like anybody would miss me if I was gone.

"It is odd." Elijah added.

He had grown more comfortable around them, but still did not enjoy speaking for too long. He was cutting up some mushrooms he had found and sticking them on long sticks. Lukas picked one up and began roasting it above the fire.

"Sad marshmallows." he said dejectedly.

He hated mushrooms. But I'm so hungry, Lukas thought and his stomach grumbled slightly in agreement.

Soon enough, they were all munching on mushrooms and the last dried fruits from their school lunch. Kya had even found a little stream of water and had filled up their empty water bottle with it. They were attempting to boil it by placing the water bottle near the flame but so far, the bottle had only heated up on the outside.

"I can't believe we weren't allowed to bring our stupid phones. We wouldn't even be stuck here if we had them." Kya declared angrily.

"Yeah. I mean how did we not even meet the class while walking? We weren't that far behind." Lukas answered, swallowing down a mushroom stiffly. The taste had not grown on him.

Elijah said nothing and stared in thought at the ground.

"It's all your fault anyway. How you managed to trip and land right on a rock and cut yourself is beyond me. Clumsy." Kya said, trying to sound light but failing to hide the bitterness she felt.

She had stopped eating and was just clutching her knees, staring at the fire. She did not like the dark and the forest and these stupid boys and this whole entire situation. For a second, a worrying second, she had even wished to be home.

"I didn't ask you to help me, did I? You could have at least called the teacher, no?" Lukas answered sharply.

All three children had stopped eating. Elijah stared around nervously as Lukas glared at Kya, who, never intimidated, was glaring right back.

"What was I supposed to do, let you bleed on the ground? The class was already gone by the time I had to stop for you!" Kya replied.

"Oh yeah? Well maybe, we wouldn't have taken so much time if you found those stupid bandages sooner!" Lukas yelled.

The two kids were now glaring at each other with contempt and had stood up to face each other. Kya laughed cruelly.

"Seriously?! They were in your bag, but your dumb ass forgot to check it. None of this is my fault!" She spat out.

"It's not my fault I fell! Since when is tripping a crime, huh?! I didn't know the teachers would just leave us in this godforsaken stupid forest!" Lukas yelled, shaking is fists in anger, as his eyes flashed dangerously.

"It's all your fault! I can't believe I actually stopped to help you! And of course the teachers couldn't care less about us, we're the runts aren't we?! Nobody is going to come looking for us because nobody cares!" Kya screamed out the last word and stomped away from the fire, tears threatening to fall.

Lukas stared at her retreating back in surprise.

"Kya, come on, I'm sorry. Kya!" he called.

He was about to chase after her when he noticed Elijah's strange expression. The boy was staring at the moon and seemed to be murmuring something underneath his breath.

"Elijah? You okay, man?" Lukas asked tentatively, shaking Elijah's shoulder gently.

"Mmmmmmm... The stars are bright tonight. Look at the moon. The moon, look at her. The shadows..." Elijah rocked back and forth slowly, humming a slow chant as a small black wisp of smoke seemed to cover his eyes.

He suddenly looked up at Lukas with smoke filled eyes and grabbed his leg. His face twisted in fear as his eyes darkened, becoming deep black pits that bled black smoke.

"Get off me!" Lukas yelled, trying to shake Elijah off.

Lukas gasped, seeing Elijah's eyes and he screamed silently.

But Elijah just clutched Lukas' leg in despair, his fingernails cutting into Lukas' pants.

"No. No! The shadows are coming! They are coming to end us. They are coming and the world will bleed black and the light of the moon will disappear forever. The shadows! They come!" Elijah fell to the floor with a gasp, his arms twitching slightly as his black eyes stared at something unseen.

"Elijah? Elijah! Crap, crap. Kya!" Lukas cried.

He got to his knees and tried to shake Elijah, who just gasped on the ground in fear.

"Kya?! Kya! Somebody help!" he yelled.

"Lukas!"

Lukas turned around and stared at the depths of the forest where Kya's voice seemed to be coming from. The trees loomed above him, a wall of thorns and shadows.

"Kya! Kya, where are you?!" Lukas screamed.

"Lukas?!" Kya's scared voice cried out from the forest, but soon faded away to nothing.

"Kya?! You okay, hold on!" Lukas called, getting up.

Elijah began twitching again and soon his screams of fear filled the silence of the woods. Lukas clutched his wounded hand and looked around in panic, trying to block out the terrible cries of his friend. Where's Kya?, he thought.

"Snap out of it!" Lukas screamed, but didn't dare touch the twitching boy.

Suddenly, Elijah gasped and his limbs stilled, his screams cutting off abruptly.

He reached up and grabbed Lukas' arm tightly, breathing heavily. He stared at Lukas in confusion, his eyes brightening and blinking out the mist that had possessed them.

"Lukas? I... what?" he murmured in a raspy voice.

"Dude. I... You... You're eyes were... they were black and bleeding and you were just... you were convulsing on the ground and speaking of the shadows and the moon. You okay?" Lukas asked, staring at Elijah carefully.

"I... I don't know. It's like I was possessed or something. I remember... shadows? I... Where's Kya?" Elijah asked, peering over Lukas' shoulder, attempting to change the conversation.

"She just disappeared. When she stormed off you started screaming and twitching on the ground and I don't know, I heard her voice coming from around there." Lukas said, helping Elijah up.

The two boys stood up and looked at each other uncomfortably, their faces illuminated by the last flames of their fire. It soon died out, leaving behind glowing ashes. A silent understanding passed between them.

"So, should we go look for Kya?" Lukas asked.

"Yeah, I guess." Elijah answered, his eyes still slightly unfocused. He shook his head, trying to clear the black fog that twirled around inside him.

"You sure you-" Lukas began but soon fell silent.

Everything went dark. It was as if a giant hand had blocked out the moon and the stars, absorbing all the colors that had defined the world. It was as if black ink, the blackest you could find, had streamed down onto the world and enveloped it in a smothering blanket of darkness. It was the same darkness that kids are scared of, the kind that makes them curl up in their parent's bed to fend off the dark evil.

"Elijah?" Lukas whispered into the blackness, his voice seeming to come from nowhere.

He tried waving his hand in front of his face, to no avail. Lukas had gone blind.

"Yeah?" Elijah answered.

"What the hell? Where are you?" Lukas asked, stumbling around as he attempted to locate Elijah's body-less voice.

"Stay still. Hold on." Elijah replied, moving his hands carefully around him.

His hand soon bumped into what he assumed was Luka's squishy face.

"Ow! That was my face!" Lukas murmured angrily.

"Wait, let me just..." Elijah said.

They moved around clumsily but eventually, after many curses, Elijah managed to grab Luka's arm.

"You better not let go." Lukas answered.

Eljah said nothing. His eyes were slowly adjusting to the darkness and he could see the dark forms of the trees around them. Something seemed to be moving in the trees and Elijah gasped softly as he saw it approach them.

"I... I think something's coming." Elijah said quietly, clutching Lukas's arm tightly as he dragged him backwards.

"What? How do you even see anything?! Blast it!" Lukas swore, as he stumbled on a stone and stubbed his toe.

"Sshhhhhhhh." Elijah whispered, slowly walking backwards, Lukas in tow.

"What the hell, man?! Just-" Lukas began.

"Hello." A deep voice said, coming from the shadows behind them.

Lukas screamed. The two boys turned suddenly, blindly swerving to see who had just spoken.

"Who the hell are you?!" Lukas yelled, his arm reaching into the darkness but falling back as his fingers passed through cold air. Elijah clutched Lukas's arm tightly, never letting go, his breaths turning heavy.

"Ah. Right." The voice said.

Suddenly, a light flickered on.

Lukas and Elijah shielded their eyes but it didn't take them long to get use to the light. They blinked quickly and Lukas screamed again, terror etched across his face.

A man stood there, but no ordinary man. He seemed to be made of swirling lines of dense, black fog. His face and clothes had no sharp definitions, it all seemed blurred slightly, giving him the appearance of a menacing shadow. He was tall and imposing and his eyes, dark orbs that glittered with death, seemed to look into the very depths of your soul. He was a monster, a being that should only exist in the darkness of nightmares.

The thing smiled, flashing ink black teeth under the light of a floating lamp, held up by intricately woven shadows.

But that was not what had made Lukas scream and Elijah stand petrified in fear. In his hand the man clutched a sharp, silver knife with a black hilt. And in his other hand, with the knife pointing at her throat, stood Kya.

She stared at the two boys fearfully, a black shadow covering her mouth and revealing only two scared eyes. Her wrists throbbed behind her back, where the man clutched them tightly, and she dared not move as the point of the knife bit into the soft skin of her neck. A faint dribble of blood already streamed down her throat.

"Kya!" Lukas cried.

He tried to surge forward, but Elijah held him back, his eyes never leaving those of the man. His skin prickled uneasily and a cold breeze made him shiver.

"Now, you have ten seconds to explain why you dared defile sacred grounds and why I shouldn't kill your weak friend over here." The man said, grinning as he gently pressed the knife on Kya's throat, drawing more blood. She winced silently, pain flashing clearly in her eyes.

"I..." Elijah started but was interrupted by his hothead classmate.

"What even? You're crazy, ten seconds? Who the hell even are you?! Let Kya go!" Lukas said impulsively, his fear turning slowly into anger.

"One." The man counted, staring Lukas down with obvious contempt.

"Two." He said, moving the knife lightly along Kya's throat.

"Okay! Okay!" Lukas answered, panicked.

"We were on a field trip and we got lost. I'm Lukas, this is Elijah and that's Kya, please don't kill us, I swear we didn't even know these were sacred grounds, we didn't mean any harm, please don't kill us." Lukas stammered.

He gasped as a black shadow curled out from the man and pushed Lukas down onto his knees. It quickly wrapped around his throat, and Luka's eyes bulged.

"Pathetic." The man said, and pressed the knife into Kya's throat.

Elijah stared in horror as Kya's breathing quickened, the man's knife dancing across her throat. Lukas groaned on the floor, the thick dark shadow choking him slowly. Elijah was frozen with fear and his skin pricked uneasily as the man grinned at him, obvious joy on his features.

The man opened his mouth to say something when-

"Oh, Morren, why do you even play these games?" A voice suddenly said.

Out of the surrounding darkness, another shadow being emerged. A woman, Elijah thought, seeing the long, curling hair and flowing dress. She seemed to float above the ground, her black covered feet never really touching the ground as she moved to stand beside the man, Morren.

"Yes, Morren, just kill them. These games of yours waste time." A second man appeared, more bulky than the first. He waved his hand arrogantly at the three kids, his long black tailcoat melting into the shadows.

"Fine, fine. You all just want to ruin the fun." Morren answered.

By then, ten shadow beings had surrounded the little group and Elijah felt cold sweat drop down his brow. He looked down and saw Lukas gasping silently in fear, his hands desperately clutching the shadow that surrounded his neck. Kya stared at Elijah, her eyes wide. Run, her eyes seemed to say.

But Elijah shook his head. These things, shadows, whatever they were would only kill them faster. He tightened his fists as his skin prickled again, flooded by a cold, uneasy breeze. A strange feeling was overcoming his body, coldness surging up from his stomach. Elijah gasped at the cold power burning in him, stepping forward to recover his balance.

It happened in the blink of an eye.

The shadow man, Morren, pointed his knife right at Kya's heart and was about to stab her when Elijah screamed. His body erupted in cold, black flames and he stared at Morren, who in shock had let go of his knife. The other shadows stepped back, disbelief coloring their faces.

"No." Elijah said and thrust his hands forward.

Black fire exploded from them, burning Morren and the other shadows as it touched them. They screamed in pain, and the shadows around them broke apart quickly at the touch of fire. Elijah's eyes flickered from brown to black and with an ear-piercing scream, he pointed his hands to his sides and black flames flared around him in a circle, burning through the forest and the shadows.

Elijah brought his hands to his sides with a shaky breath and the black fire stopped suddenly and burned backwards till they reached the boy. His body seemed to suck them back in, and the flames disappeared into Elijah, not one spark left in the forest.

The shadows were gone, burned away by the flames. Kya and Lukas, unharmed by his strange fire, stood in shock, staring at Elijah.

He fell to the ground, gasping softly. His weak arms were barely able to support him and he felt dizzy with fatigue. He was so, so tired. Elijah closed his eyes but reopened them stubbornly, fighting off his sudden exhaustion.

"Oh, crap, oh crap. Elijah?!" Lukas yelled, turning him over so Elijah faced the moon.

The moon, Elijah thought. Look, the moon is back he tried to say. But his mouth wouldn't open and his vision blurred as he blinked slowly.

The world went dark, and the last thing Elijah heard was the soft, distant cries of his friends as they echoed around him.

"Elijaaaaaahhh..."