Walking Among the Shadows: Awakening: Revised Edition (10 page)

What is this stuff?

I felt a vibration beneath my
feet and then it grew into a thunderous rumble as the ground began to give way
underneath me. The rumble grew into a deafening roar as the ground shifted and
moved. The sudden movement made my heart almost jump out my chest. The earth
started to split and crack open like fine porcelain hitting a hard surface.
Through the cracks I could see a glowing light coming from the core of the
earth. I tried to move but every shift of my weight caused the ground beneath
me to sink and crack even more.

In the dim light I could see
the black ominous substance pouring into the earth through the cracks, invading
the very core of the planet. The light coming from the core slowly started to
extinguish as this black filth began to take over and destroy the planet from
the inside. The final glimmer of warmth was out and the earth trembled
violently as it accepted its fate. This was it!

I wanted to believe it was all
a horrible nightmare and that before I would fall to my death I would wake up
passed out on the club’s VIP-room floor. But lately my life hadn’t been going
in the direction of reality. Everything was out of whack and bizarre. Relying
on this being a nightmare was not a good idea at the moment, so I had to start
thinking on how to get out of this mess or accept my fate. The ground buckled
and I braced myself for the worst. In the darkness I could see a protruding
edge just within reach. An edge I could reach if I dove towards it in a final
attempt to live. The earth beneath me began to moan, seemingly aware of my plan
for a final dive for life and it was voicing its disapproval. If I was going to
do this, now was the time. Leaning forward and swinging my arms, I prepared to
jump towards my only salvation.

One, two, three…

As I jumped the ground
disappeared beneath me into the waiting abyss. I misjudged the distance and
only got enough space for two inches of my fingers to grasp. I yelled at the
pain shooting through my fingers as I tried to support all my weight on such a
small leverage of grip. I was slowly losing my hold. Through the loud roar of a
dying planet I heard footsteps. Footsteps coming closer to the edge I was
desperately hanging from.

“Please, God! Help!” I
screamed.

There was no response, just
footsteps coming closer.

“Who’s there? Can you hear
me?”

No response.

Whoever it was continued
towards the edge. I looked up and above me stood the most beautiful little girl
I’d ever seen. For some strange reason I could see her clearly in the
pitch-blackness. She didn’t glow or possess any kind of radiance. She was
clearly visible as if immune to the darkness around us. She had long, shiny
black hair and the most amazing big brown eyes. Her skin was caramel-brown and
she had a look of sorrow and pain in her eyes. She looked to be about twelve
years old. I took a closer look at her and I could see she was crying, but no
tears fell down her face. Pouring from her eyes was the same black filth that
was consuming everything. Around her it behaved strangely, it seemed to yield
to her, bowing as if it worshipped her as its goddess of destruction. I began
to think that this little girl was the cause of all this destruction. How could
something so innocent and beautiful cause so much destruction?

I started to wonder if she was
there to help me or push me in. Strangely she looked at me like she knew me and
she was in pain looking at my condition.

“Help me, please!”

She seemed oblivious to my
pleads and just stared at me. Then suddenly she broke her gaze and began
weeping uncontrollably.

“I miss you so much,” she
cried. “I’m so sorry for all of this. I just wanted to make you proud.”

“Huh? What are you talking
about? I need your help? Is there anyone else that can help?”

“No,” she answered. “No one
can because you’re already dead!”

Those last four words cut
through my soul like a razor. Her voice suddenly changed from the sweet little
girl’s voice to something dark and evil. Like a song being played backwards
with multiple voices lending a hand in uttering those seven final devastating
words. I lost hold and began falling into the emptiness beneath me. I looked up
at the last moment to see her put her hands over her eyes, screaming while the darkness
that was once worshipping her began consuming her. The agony she felt watching
me fall outweighed the pain of being swallowed whole by the evil that had
become the ruler of our planet. I should have been screaming, but I wasn’t. I
just closed my eyes and accepted my fate. It seemed like I’d been falling
forever and I could hear the earth’s crust being shattered and torn to pieces
by this darkness. If this was the end of the world as we knew it, I couldn’t
escape this fate. No one could.

Then suddenly….silence. I felt
a surface beneath me and I slowly opened my eyes. There was still darkness all
around me but I could clearly see I was in some kind of deep ravine and the
night sky was above me. It was beautiful with the stars gleaming like tiny
diamonds. There was a light coming from the left side of my face and I slowly
turned towards it. The image I saw sent chills through my entire body. I tried
to move but couldn’t; I was restrained by an unseen force. I tried to turn away
from the horrific image, but I couldn’t move my head. Whatever it was that was
holding me captive wanted me to see this disturbing image and it felt like a
hand was pushing my face down preventing me from moving. I couldn’t believe
what I was seeing and tears poured down my face as I was made to endure
watching the nightmare unfold.

What my eyes beheld was an
image that has forever been burned in my memory. I didn’t fully understand what
I was experiencing until much later in life, but by then it was too late. My
eyes were witness to images of my father being tortured by cloaked assailants
in black. One second they weren’t there and then the next they would reappear
slashing and clawing at my father’s flesh. They were more like shadows or a
dark mist that took a similar form as the “Grim Reaper”. They repeatedly
tortured him till he died, then brought him back to life to start over again
with new and brutal ways to murder him. He screamed in agony with every cut,
every broken bone and every torturous extremity they put him through. They were
enjoying it while they toyed with his life inflicting enormous amounts of pain
on an already weak body. The last time I remember seeing my dad alive was of
him smiling at me on his way out to his final mission before he was killed.

That memory was my last
cherished moment with him. A ray of light and a positive memory of my father.
Now, these evil entities had taken that from me and replaced it with this
depraved image. I continued to struggle to break free as anger built inside me,
watching my father’s tormentors carry on with their task.

“Dad!” I screamed. “Dad!
Daaad!”

Then everything stopped, as
his tormentors turned to me staring and hissing.

“He is a danger!” they
exclaimed in unison.

Their voices sounding like air
brakes struggling to halt a semi-truck out of control. Their many voices seemed
to speak in unison but in different tones. The sound was terrifying.

“He must be destroyed before
it’s too late.” “Yes,” they agreed. “Destroy the boy.”

“Dad?”

My father looked at me and
managed a smile through the extreme pain he was feeling before saying, “Aiden,
don’t save me. Let me go. It’s better this way.”

Before I could try to make
sense of my dad’s request, the cloaked shadows began to screech like chalk
dragged across a blackboard. The sonic pulse of their screams was so powerful I
could feel my ears bleeding. Suddenly they began flying towards me at an
alarming speed. They were more menacing than I thought, possessing five-inch
fangs and talons; I could only imagine the horrors they were about to inflict
on me. I tried to break free but I couldn’t move. I could only watch as they
drew close to tear me to pieces.

“Dad!”

“Aiden!” I heard my father
yell as I closed my eyes, waiting for the torture to begin. Then I heard
screams, but they didn’t come from me, the shadow figures, or my dad. They
sounded like little girls; frightened little girls. I reluctantly opened my
eyes to find myself standing in the darkness on a staircase in a strange house.
I quickly tried to  get my bearings.

Where am I now?

I looked at the top of the
stairs and saw the glow of a light suddenly illuminate the hallway and the
staircase. The girls were still screaming and I heard a clicking sound, a sound
all too familiar to me, having lived in a house with two military men with a
fondness for fire arms.

It was the sound of a gun,
safety off, and ready to bring the pain. I heard footsteps coming towards the
top of the stairs from the right. I had to get out of there fast! As I sprinted
down the stairs I noticed numerous pictures along the wall. In my panic to get
out of the path of whatever firearm that was going to appear at the top of the
staircase, I knocked one of the pictures down. It fell right in front of me and
the image within the frame almost made my heart stop. There she was; beautiful,
flawless, and smiling back at me. It was Jasmine.

I was in her house! WTF?!

How could I get from downtown
Chicago to Jasmine’s house without a car or even remembering how I got here?
How
did
I get in here? At the bottom of the stairs I could see what
appeared to be the front door. I sprinted towards it as fast as I could. God, I
hope the lock on this door doesn’t need a key. Unable to stop because of my
forward momentum I slammed into the front door and, what do you know, staring
back at me was a lock that needed a key! The gunman was at the top of the
stairs now and had a clear aim at me. I quickly shifted my weight and direction
to the right before I heard the loud boom of the gun go off. The top half of
the door immediately shattered. From the damage the shot caused I knew it had
to be a double-barreled shotgun.

Whoever was wielding the
weapon meant business and wasn’t looking to injure, they were shooting to kill.
He was aiming for my head and nothing else. More screaming now from upstairs at
the sound of the shotgun going off. I ran towards what appeared to be the
dining room. Behind me I could hear my pursuer reaching the bottom of the
stairs and preparing for another go at my skull. I looked to the right and saw
a window, with no security bars, and the glass seemed thin enough.

As I ran on the far side of
the dining room I saw another picture of Jasmine on the wall, smiling back at
me as if to say, “You’re dead now!” Through the reflection of the glass on the
picture I could see the gunman aiming and readying himself for the kill shot.

Oh shit! I shifted my body
quickly to the left before another boom went off as the bullets shattered
Jasmine’s picture.

Ha! Smile now, bitch.

I ran as fast as I could
towards the window. I could hear my pursuer’s footsteps as he tried to catch up
with me before I escaped. Wow, he was fast—too fast. He cleared the entire area
on foot in less than five seconds. Who are these people?

I jumped towards the window
and stretched my arms in front of me and closed my eyes, bracing for the impact
of my body going through the glass. The sound of the breaking glass filled the
air and I could hear my pursuer swearing as I dove out the window. I quickly
rolled as I hit the ground and, without missing a step, was on my feet running
away from Jasmine’s house as fast as my weary and drunk legs could carry me.
After running for about twenty minutes I decided to stop and rest for a minute.
I glanced at my watch; it was 2:20 a.m. Where was my car? Where was Tony? That
nightmare seemed so real and vivid. How did I get all the way out here this
fast? By foot would have taken at least eight hours. The last time I glanced at
my watch at the club it was 1:35 a.m., and I knew I was on that couch with the
waitress for at least thirty minutes, so how did I get here that fast without a
car? My head was killing me, and I reeked of liquor. I could only imagine my
mom’s reaction once I got home, smelling like a walking bottle of vodka.

I needed to keep moving
because I was sure they called the police and I didn’t know if they got a good
look at me. And with me being out this late by myself would definitely put me
on the prime suspect list with the Deerfield PD. I started heading home but
making sure I took short cuts to avoid the busy streets and roaming squad cars.
I looked for my cell, finding it in my pocket, and tried calling Tony. No
answer. Where was he? I knew he had to notice my absence. I was totally
confused and the confusion enhanced my fear. What was I planning on doing in
Jasmine’s house? What would have happened if I hadn’t yelled out waking
everyone up? I then understood my impulses towards Jasmine were getting beyond
my control and I might need to do something or speak to someone besides Tony
before I did something terrible.

I was about two miles from my
house now and I was beginning to relax. I heard a car coming so I moved quickly
towards some bushes alongside the street because if it was the cops I was done
for and my life would be ruined. Breaking and entering among other felony
charges would soon follow. I ducked behind the bushes out of sight from the
street. The car slowly pulled in front of the bushes I was hiding behind.