Shadow Walkers (2 page)

The man in front of Nick sighs, and for some reason it relaxes the young man. He was surrounded by purple corpse monsters and two strangers having a duel with swords from entirely different cultures, but he felt relaxed. He didn’t know how the day could get any stranger.

“Why are you
here, Isaac?” The purple haired man asks. Nick didn’t know why this Isaac guy showed up to help him out, but he was already feeling grateful towards him for him saving his life.

The man with the longsword- Isaac- shrugs. “We pinpointed your location, and I decided to come here before they could get a team together.”

The other man sneers. “So you came here because of your personal vendetta. How typical of you.”

Isaac points at Nick and sighs. “Well I couldn’t just let you kill one of our own. After all, I’m here to recruit him.”

Nick lets the man’s words sink in, only to become even more confused.
One of our own- recruiting
him? None of it makes sense to Nick, so he just returns his attention to the two men in front of him.

Without warning, Isaac lunges forward, slashing his sword in a downward arc. The other man dodges effortlessly- as if he had every possible attack pattern memorized to the tee. The Creepers start to march towards Isaac surprisingly fast. Nick almost yells out to the man, prepared to tell him to run, but immediately shuts his mouth as soon as the man’s blade stabs the first Creeper through it’s chest. The creature bursts into a thick cloud of purple dust, which slowly fades away into nothingness. Isaac moves swiftly, slashing and jabbing at the other Creepers, clouds of dust appearing and fading away, until he’s only faced with the purple haired man.

“You haven’t lost your determination since our last encounter.” Nick’s attacker says.

Isaac scoffs. “Don’t play me like a chump. Only a rookie could have an issue with fodder like those. And as for you!”

Isaac lunges forward once again, but the purple haired man blocks his blow with ease. He quickly moves backwards, putting distance between him and Isaac. And then he laughs.

“Sorry, I can’t waste much more time playing with you. The last thing I need is a team of Walkers showing up and cornering me.” He he looks at Nick and frowns. “And what a shame too, I was looking forward to killing you. But don’t you go missing me, I’m sure that we’ll meet again in due time.”

“Are you backing out because you feel that you can’t win against me anymore?” Isaac asks with a grin.

The man chuckles. “No, it’s not that. It’s just that soon enough I won’t need to hunt any of you down. A time will come when all Walkers will perish, and then the Void shall stand tall.” He waves Nick goodbye. “See you later, Nicholas. Tell your mother I said hello.”

Isaac lunges forward once again. His longsword almost slices through the man’s head, but he suddenly bursts into a cloud of purple smoke before the blade can make contact. It wasn’t the same effect as the Creepers who were killed only moments ago. If anything, it was similar to the way his sword had appeared from thin air. Except now, he was gone.

Isaac grunts. A black light flashes on the man's crimson blade, and then the entire sword bursts into a cloud of black smoke. It quickly fades away like the man who had just disappeared. He pulls his sleeve back and moves his wrist close to his mouth. He presses a button on his wristwatch and then speaks. “Linda, cancel that team that was preparing to target Valus. He got away… again.”

A voice speaks back to Isaac, but Nick couldn’t make out a single word. Isaac responds to whatever the woman said. “Yeah, I rescued the kid. I’m about to give him the rundown now. See you guys when I get back.”

He drops his arm back to his side and turns to face Nick.

“What’s your name, kid?” Isaac asks as he holds out a hand.

Nick shakes his head, completely ignoring Isaac as he tries to process everything that had just happened. For a second he is convinced that he’s gone crazy- that everything was a hallucination. But Nick knows better than that. As much as he wanted to deny it, Creepers were real. The people he thought were crazy were actually telling the truth the entire time. And Nick was having a hard time trying to understand any of it.

He looks up at the man who had just saved his life. As far as Nick knew, this guy was on
his
side. The teenage boy picks up his mother’s candy and shakes Isaac’s hand. “Names Nicholas, but… just Nick is fine.” He pauses, and then all of the questions roaming in his head suddenly find a way out. “How did those things appear out of nowhere? Who was that man and why did he want to kill me? And more importantly- who in the world are
you?
”

“Ah, the standard ‘what the hell is going on’ response.” The man grins as he pulls his hand away. He looks to the night sky, as if considering which question to tackle first. After a few moments of silence, he answers.

“My name is Isaac. And just like you, I’m a Shadow Walker.”

Chapter Two

Nick

Nick stares blankly at Isaac, his head cocked in confusion. “What is that supposed to mean?”

Isaac laughs lightly. “You rookies always have that helpless expression on your face.” He looks at Nick as if the young boy were amusing him. “I know you’ve got a lot on your mind, but hold your tongue for now. Instead of playing twenty questions with me, shouldn’t you be getting home to your mommy or something?”

Nick’s heart skips a beat at the mention of his mother. “Yeah, thanks for the help man, but I gotta get going!” He puts the bag of candy in his pocket and then makes a run for it. And for some reason Isaac decides to tag along.

“What are you doing?” Nick asks as the two of them run through the alleyway. Was this guy going to try and kill him next?

“I’m going to your house.” Isaac responds flatly.

“That’s kind of creepy.” Nick fights the urge to push the man over and try to outrun him. The last thing he wanted to do was anger another man with a sword. Especially since the guy had just saved his life.

“Well sorry for being so upfront.” Isaac says. “I need to see your parents. I can’t believe that you’ve never learned about your lineage.”

Nick flinches. “I just live with my mom.” He says as a brief image of his father races through his mind.

Isaac raises an eyebrow and grins. “Listen kid, if I wanted to harm you or your mother I could do it without breaking a sweat. You saw all of the crazy stuff that happened back there, and you want answers. Well I’ll answer everything, but you have to take me to your mother. I don’t need to come inside of your house, but I do need you to get your mom to look at me. If you can do that then I’ll give you all the answers you want. Deal?”

Nick considers the man’s proposition. With one glance at Isaac’s athletic build he realizes that he couldn’t win in a fight. Especially if he were to bring that sword back into the mix. And in the end, he was probably going to follow Nick home regardless of what his answer was. He sighs, realizing that the man wasn’t actually leaving him with any meaningful choice. “Fine. But you stay on the sidewalk. I’ll come out to you after I’m done inside. And don’t you dare try to come in or I’ll call the cops.”

Isaac nods in approval of the deal. The two don’t say another word to each other all the way to Nick’s home street. They run up to his house, and the teenager holds out a hand, telling Isaac to wait.

Isaac grunts, but nods nonetheless. Nick tries to open the front door as quietly as possible, but the squeaking of the old hinges gives him away.

“Nicholas!” His mother yells. Nick braces himself for the storm of anger coming his way as his mother charges out of the kitchen. “Where have you been? I’ve been worried sick about you.”

“I’m sorry mom,” Nick says. “I lost track of time and when I left I just-”

“Nick you aren’t doing drugs are you?” His mother asks as she locks eyes with him.

“What? No! You know me better than that. I was just-”

“Because we can get help if you need it. I’m worried about you Nick, you’ve been acting up lately. And on top of that, your grades in school are-”

“Mom!” Nick places his hands on his mother’s shoulders. She stops rambling and her eyes grow wide. “I’m sorry, I really I am. You can yell at me all you want, but there’s something I need you to do real quick. You see… there’s a man who wants you to see him.”

Nick’s mother smiles and lets a small giggle escape. “Is it a boyfriend?”

Nick rolls his eyes. “No mom! And why does that idea always make you so happy?” He sighs and pulls his hands back to his sides. “This guy saved my life on the way here.”

His mother loses any trace of a smile. “Saved you from what?”

Nick shuffles his feet awkwardly. After all of his years of being a non-believer, he never thought that he would seriously utter the word that was about to come out of his mouth. “Creepers.”

His mother’s eyes are unreadable as she stares at his face. She steps to the side and looks out of the window, with Isaac in perfect view. She sighs and places her hand on her forehead, obviously distressed. “They’ve finally come.”

Nick grabs his mom by the shoulder once again. “Mom, what’s going on? I’m so confused. Do you know that man?”

His mother moves away from the window. She stares at her son, a look of regret shimmering in her bright blue eyes. “Just relax. I’m going to get ready to talk with our visitor. Be a dear and go invite him inside.”

Before Nick could argue back, his mother turns and walks into the kitchen. Nick groans, the tension once again getting to him. He wasn't in any position to argue with his mother, so he unwillingly does as she says and opens the door. Isaac looks at Nick, who beckons the older man to come in. Isaac walks towards Nick’s house and the young man sighs.

What it the world was going on today?

***

Isaac and Nick sit on opposite sides of the kitchen table. Nobody says a word until Nick’s mother brings over three cups and seats herself at the head of the table.

Isaac grabs a cup of tea. “Thank you, Maria Winters.”

“No problem.” Nick’s mother responds. She stretches her hand halfway across the space between them. “You’re a rather young Walker. I’m surprised that you know my name and face.”

Isaac smiles and shakes her hand. “Name’s Isaac. I used to look up to you while you were in the Pit. Even though I was young, I kept myself up to date on everything that you did. You were kind of my motivation to become a captain. Of all the people in this world, I never would have thought that I’d end up running into your son.” He pulls his hand away and glances at Nick. “This is always a hard topic to start with hybrids.”

Nick quietly watches the two of them. It was obvious that there was some type of hidden connection between Isaac and his mother, but the young man was completely out of the loop. No longer able to hide his curiosity or frustration, he turns to his mother and demands answers. “What the hell is going on? Who is this guy?”

Maria takes a sip of her tea and exchanges a quick look with Isaac. She sighs and then locks eyes with her son. “Nick, I’ve been hiding things about myself for your entire life. I never wanted you to find out what you are, but it looks like I couldn’t keep you out of trouble just by keeping you in the dark.” She pauses, and looks away for only a brief second. “Nick, I’m just like this man. I’m a Shadow Walker. And as my son, so are you.”

Nick’s gut drops. He finally accepts the fact that no matter how strange things got, there was always a way to turn it up a notch. But hearing his mother say those weird words-
Shadow Walker
- makes him feel slightly relieved. His mother knew the words before Isaac mentioned them, which meant that whatever they were talking about was no joke.

His mother continues. “Your father was… a human, so you’re considered a hybrid. You’re half human, and half Shadow Walker. This man wanted me to see him to confirm that I was a Walker. I’m sure that you can guess why.”

Nick nods. “Humans can’t see Walkers, right?”

His mother smiles. It’s not the expression of some strange woman whose past has come back to haunt her, but the smile of the mother who raised her son all by herself ever since her husband died. It belonged to the woman who was constantly ready to nag her son to death. This woman was still Nick’s mother- lifetime secret or not.

“That’s the usual case. Though Walkers can choose whether or not they are able to be seen while they’re on earth.” His mother says. “Shadow Walkers come to this world to protect humans from the things that they can’t see or even defend against. Sometimes Walkers stay in the human world, other times they lurk in the shadows. I came to the human world and met your father. We fell in love, and long story short, we had you. I moved from the home of the Walkers before you were born to stay with your father, and I left my life as a Shadow Walker behind me.”

Nick cocks his head. “Wait, why did you just say the
human world
? Are you telling me that those things that attacked me and the Shadow Walkers come from another planet?”

Isaac laughs. “Well, we don’t come from mars or the moon. Think of it more like a separate realm, kind of like heaven and hell. Except we’re not dead. It’s pretty hard to explain to people who have no idea that it exists, so you’ll just have to see it for yourself.”

Nicks eyes widen and a slight grin forms on his face. “You mean I can go there?”

Isaac nods. “Anyone with Walker blood can travel between the two worlds. Though you also have zero experience, so I would have to escort you there.”

Nick puts his head in between his hands and props his elbows on the table. Things haven’t returned to normal yet, but he was starting to regain his sanity. Even if it didn’t seem logical, Nick was above trying to deny the things he’s seen with his very own eyes. There was something else out there besides regular human beings, and Nick was finally getting a glimpse into the mysterious worlds surrounding him.

His mother speaks in the kind voice that he’s used to. “Nick I know that you’re confused, maybe even scared, but you can relax. This man is trustworthy. And I’m sorry for keeping this hidden all this time. But now things are different. The Void have their eyes on you now.”

Nick raises his eyebrows, but Isaac answers the question already forming in the boy’s head before he even has the time to move his lips.

“
Void
is the correct term to call that race of monsters you saw today. ‘Creepers’ is just a slang term created by humans, who have been hunted by the Void for as long as history dates back. Us Shadow Walkers and the Void are mortal enemies. And since they finally spotted your presence, they’ll be coming after you more than ever now.”

“Well,” Nick starts, “My mom can just kick their butts like you did to that man.”

Maria laughs, but it’s hollow. “That’s not really possible Nick.”

“Why not?” He asks with curious eyes.

The silence hangs in the air for a few seconds, but Isaac takes it upon himself to break it.

“When a pureblood Shadow Walker like your mother has a child with a human, they lose their powers. Or rather, all of their Walker powers goes to their children. The pure Walker then becomes powerless. They still retain the ability to see the Void and other Walkers, which is how your mother can still see me right now. But their lack of power makes them closer to humans than Walkers.”

“So mom,” Nick says looking at Maria, “You’re a target now too?”

“Not exactly.” She answers. “The Void might try to attack me, but they typically like killing Walkers. It’s uncommon for them to seek out humans over Walkers, so I’m pretty much at the same risk I always was.”

“But now that they know about me they’re more likely come after both of us! What if you get hurt because of me?” Nick doesn’t mean to, but he slams his fist on the table. Isaac and Maria exchange glances, and the older man sighs.

“That’s why I’m here, Nick. When we become aware of a new Shadow Walker, we recruit them. You have Walker blood, which means you also have Walker powers. If you come with me, you can see for yourself what Shadow Walkers are all about. All your questions will be answered, and all of your doubt will go away. I know it’s hard to take in right now, but once you see for yourself, it’ll all make sense.”

Nick suddenly felt tingles all over his body. “You mean I can get a sword like you and that purple haired dude?”

Isaac grins sheepishly. “Maybe. We won’t know how your powers will develop until you do some tests. But I can assure you that you’ll get some awesome abilities.” He looks at Maria. “And don’t worry, if you train hard enough, you’ll even be able to protect your mother from the Void.”

In all of his confusion and fear, there was one thing that Nick was sure of. If his mother would be in danger because of him, he couldn’t pass up an opportunity to protect her. There wasn’t any way he was going to lose both of his parents. He felt at ease, almost as if things were finally returning to normal. There was no denying the events that happened right before him, or the seriousness in his own mother’s eyes. This was real. Shadow Walkers, the Void, and another realm beyond earth- it all seemed so far fetched, and yet he couldn’t deny any of it. And as much as he wanted to close his eyes and push everything away, he knew that doing so could cost him and his mother their lives.

He sighs and stands up. “I don’t know what exactly Shadow Walkers or the Void are, but I do know that I want to find out.” He looks at his mother. “I want to go to this other world.”

His mother stands up and hugs him. “I knew that you would. You’re too stubborn to say no.”

Isaac stands up as well, and smiles at Nick and his mother. “Well then, shall we get going then? You don’t need to get anxious about leaving home. Before you know it, you’ll be back here telling your mother all about your upcoming experiences. And we can get you new clothes and other materials once we get there, so no need to pack.”

Nick looks at his mother, savoring her presence before he hugs her goodbye.

“Follow me then.” Isaac says as he moves away from the table. Nick walks over and stops right next to the man. Isaac firmly grabs Nick by the shoulder. “This should do fine.”