Chapter 1: The Missing Shadow

"What the hell?!" Walker shouted as he walked into his front yard.

    He had woken up less than an hour ago and could already tell that he had a long day ahead of him. His house was positioned with the front door facing west and every morning he made a mental note about how long his shadow was. It helped him keep track of just how long the days actually were. He could tell it would be a long one alright, but it wasn't because his shadow told him. It was because his shadow wasn't there.

    He lived alone. A secret he kept hidden very well. The only people that know are Sarah, his father, and the school board. So it wasn't like he had anyone to ask. What would I even ask? He thought to himself. Hey! Has anyone seen my shadow?

    He suspected he was still half asleep and started walking anyway. It took him ten minutes to get to school, like always. But in those ten minutes, he usually wakes up if he was still tired at all. Before he entered the building, Walker stopped to take a closer look at the school. Am I still asleep?

   That didn't make much sense though because he stubbed his foot on a rock while walking here and you can't feel real pain from a dream. People were moving past him at first. Then someone had to make it obvious. "Does Walker not have a shadow, or am I still just high from last night?" said Brian, the school junkie.

    Brian always did have a talent for speaking louder then needed. So when everyone had to look around Walkers' feet, Walker had only Brian to thank for that. It wasn't exactly a wake-up call. If it was, Walker would've had to have been asleep.

    Walkers' first hour was his support class, so he never really had anything to do. His teacher never really paid much attention to him because he was already a good student. So most days, Walker was allowed to leave class early. Really early.

    As soon as he entered the room, Mr. Rally marked him present and waved his hand. This was the general symbol for: go do what you want, you're not my problem anymore. With that handwave, Walker left.

    The halls were always empty. They weren't very busy even during passing time. Wellsong High had mastered the art of hallway efficiency. All core classrooms were very close to each other, so people never spent more than sixty seconds getting to their classes.

    Walker wasn't nervous anymore, because the lights indoors rarely cast a shadow, so it was normal not to have one. Sarah will know what to do... she always knows... 

    This thought was only slightly reassuring. Even if Sarah was a genius with physics, Walker doubted she would have the answer to the case of missing light refraction.

    Something was off and not only with his shadow. Walker felt... empty. He still felt emotion, but there was something gone. Something impossible to name. On his way to Sarahs' first hour, Walker started thinking about... something. His brain was running on full steam, but he couldn't tell where his concentration was being directed. He wasn't necessarily distracted, he was, after all, actively thinking about something that his brain just couldn't compute.

    At last, Walker arrived at the science lab. He reached to open the door and almost passed out. One moment he was fine but concentrated on something imperceivable.

The next, on one knee, fighting unconsciousness.

After that...

Where am I?

A dark place. Walker stood, floated, swam, crawled... existed... in a very, very dark place.

You are where you belong

    Just like that, Walker was back at school... sitting in the health office. Sarah was sitting by him, her purple-dyed hair blocking just enough of her vision to make her unaware of his consciousness. Someone in the other room, a woman, probably the school nurse, was on the phone.

    "No sir, there was no one on the cameras... yes, he fell to one knee, then fell forward... well, he did hit his head on the door, but other than that, he's okay from what I can tell... he's asleep in the other room..."

    Walker didn't bother listening to the rest of that conversation. It was his father on the phone, worried sick. However, instead of just simply saying he was okay, Walker reached over and tugged on Sarahs' sleeve. She looked over at him and smiled.

    "Hey beautiful..." she said to him.

    "Hey handsome..." he said to her.

    The smile faded.

    "What happened? Did Brian slip you something? Because I swear to god I told you if you ever-"

    "Relax Sarah! It wasn't drugs, you know I would never fall in with Brians' group. I just..." Walker stopped talking. What was he going to say?

    I just concentrated really hard on absolutely nothing and then blacked out into an abyss I apparently belong in!

    Yeah, that would never be an acceptable excuse.

    "I just got real dizzy is all"

    Sarah didn't look like she was buying it, but let it pass anyway when her phone started buzzing in her pocket. Pulling it out, Walker knew it was her brother by the look on her face. Fear.

    "I have to take this..." she said before leaving the room.

    Walker closed his eyes for a moment. Trying to find that missing piece of his own being. But it was like looking into a mirror, expecting an x-ray. Opening his eyes, Walker looked to the right, at the poster on the wall of a kitten hanging from a tree branch. Then looking to the left, expecting to see a diagram of human lungs.

    He was almost decapitated.

    Someone was standing there, a black jagged knife in their hand. The moment Walker saw them, his head started swimming.

    The person swung the knife, five inches of jagged death and missed only because able was able to slide further down, from a sitting position to a laying down position. The knife buried itself in the wall where Walkers' neck was and he got a good long look at his assailant.

    He was made of smoke with two lightbulb-sized orbs of, well, light, where his eyes should have been. His mouth was constructed of sewing needles.

     And yet... Walker wasn't afraid.

     While he stared into those masses of living light, the missing part of Walker felt whole.

    Walker continued to stare into those glowing eyes, it didn't take long for the creature to pull the knife from the wall. It turned and continued to stare at Walker until the nurse walked in grabbing Walkers' attention for a second, just long enough for the smoky figure to disappear.

    "Ah, I see you're awake, you were out for maybe half-an-hour and given permission to leave your class from your first-hour teacher, I suppose you can finish the day but if you have another episode like that, we will have to send you home for your own safety," the nurse said.

    Walker was still sitting there trying to figure out if what he just saw was in his head or if it was really there. But it all just seemed too real for him to determine exactly what had just happened.

    "Are you okay?" the nurse asked worried.

    "Yeah, I'm fine... I think" Walker responded.

    "Hm... well, in any case, you're free to go," she said motioning for the door.

    Walker hopped off the nurses' bed and walked out the door to see Sarah nowhere in sight. Instead, all of the lights were out, this left Walker to coordinate himself through the darkened halls.

    Why are the lights out? and what's that cold chill running down my spine?

    Walker then turned to see that same smoky figure behind him as he quickly ducked feeling the wind from the blade go past his head. In nearly an instant he was running from this creature, but something was different their eyes were glowing red.

    "Woah, woah can't we just talk this out?!" Walker said trying to reason with the thing. With only a low growl in response. Walker took this as its way of saying: You're dead!

    "Okay then, good talk," Walker said then focused on running. Suddenly a door opened and he was pulled through. "Are you okay?" asked someone Walker didn't really know. He looked like a teacher of some sort, but Walker didn't know him personally.

      "Oh yeah I'm fine, why do you ask?" Walker asked still a little tense.

      "Well you were running, but why?" they asked.

       "I was being ch- I needed to get to class" Walker decided was more believable, but then remembered the distance between classes.

       "Okay but please, next time tell me something more believable, it doesn't take that long to get to classes and I think you know it" 

         Walker then left the room and saw all of the lights were back on, he then made his way over to his second-hour class. Mythology.

    Walker was in class taking notes and heard something weird from his teacher, Mr. Valley.

    "... and so it's said that if a person were to get separated from their shadow, a piece of that persons' soul is lost. Until they can claim it from whosoever has their shadow. This person is usually personified as Death. Those without their shadows are drawn to him and he can track them easily, however, in these same legends there is one being that can truly beat Death. It is the shadowless' mission to find this being before it is too late. Now onto..."

     That legend has to be what's happening to me, but that would mean that I have Death himself trying to kill me.

       Walker still felt empty inside, but at least he knew what he had to do now. If only he could keep his thoughts focused. After class, he made his way over to Mr. Valleys' desk.

        "Hey, Mr. Valley where does that legend about 'The Missing Shadow' come from?" Walker asked trying to get some more answers to his many questions.

         "Oh, Walker I never thought you'd be the one asking me, well the legend takes place in ancient Rome but has since spread to other countries, there are still people proclaiming to have their friend or family members shadows go missing, just before their loved ones die" Mr. Valley explained.

         Great so maybe there is some hope for me after all!  I thought to myself.

         "Though that would also mean that you're going to be easy prey against other creatures in mythology and legend, lucky for us though both that legend and the others are only that, legends," Mr. Valley said trying to disillusion him to the fact that these legends are true.

          Walker then left the class and got a phone call from his father telling him that his shadow just disappeared. Walker was on his way back home when that teacher from earlier stopped him.

         "That thing from earlier isn't going to stop coming for you, tell me what do you think it is?" the teacher asked him.

         It was real! Walker thought to himself then responded with "Death?" not very confidently.

         "Close, but there are different variations, there's the horseman, the Grim Reaper with his sythe, wraiths, but this one, the one chasing you right now is the most dangerous of all it's called a VoidHeart, they're all over this world, but I'm assuming you've heard the legend of 'The Missing Shadow'? well, then you know what to do, find a being known as 'The Shadow'" the man told Walker.

         "Who are you?" Walker asked.

          "My name is Alex Hunt, I just graduated last year so I'm nineteen and I mostly substitute for Mythology and English. Though I also deal in the paranormal so here's my number if you need me because I'm probably the only person that will believe you or anything you say," he said and gave Walker his number and Walker started to walk away.

            He's weird, but I guess he's telling the truth, would I believe myself? I sure didn't this morning, yet there's something else off about him... but what?

    Walker arrived at his fathers' house and started to walk inside but not before stopping to smell the stench of rotting potatoes. He then walked inside to have this horrible stench rush over him. It was putrid and absolutely horrid, then he looked in the kitchen and saw his father dead with four of those VoidHearts looming over him.

     Someone pushed the door open and Walker turned to see Sarahs' face just before she screamed and they all turned to look their way. Walker quickly grabbed her hand and brought both of them outside and started running. Walker pulled out his phone and quickly called Alex.

     "Hey, where are you? I'm still waiting for that pizza" Alex said casually.

      "Alex! This is not the time for pizza, where are you?!" Walker shouted as Alex quickly shot up knocking his chair down and got into his car.

       "Don't worry I'm on the way!"