Of the Shadows

The air is biting, and the wind is cold.

Red knew as soon as he pushed open the doors that this world would be different from the one they were used to. Different from the polished halls, glittery tile, and flickery ceiling lights that they had experienced all their lives. Different from Dr. Roget and the science-men who had subjected them to torture. Different from the feast of fear and blood that they had all three devoured in their murderous plan of escape.

The land stretches on before his eyes. It has no sharp turns or blocking walls. It is free land, and it rolls and rolls into the distance like a sea of waving viridescence. Long, tall appendages with jutting sticks stretch far above his head, farther than he could ever hope to reach. Their outsides are grimy and harsh, and a sweet, sticky liquid drips from their twigs. Him and his brothers have stuck by these long, charred appendages, hoping to stay hidden from the enormity of the world around them.

The sky is dark. Little lights sprinkle and bruise the blackness with dots of vibrant color. He stands and watches them, in the shifting of the small green spokes by his feet, hypnotized by their stature.

Blake is fearful of this outside world. Being such a tiny Shadow, he is ultimately afraid of anything larger than Red, meaning that this entire stretch of land is nothing but a nightmare for him. He sticks by the sides of his brothers and shivers. His claws are bent from having been bitten repeatedly by his own razor teeth.

Christopher, though he knows much more than his two brothers about this endless place, cannot quite understand his own feelings. They are up in the air, he thinks. He isn't sure whether he is as frightened as Blake or as dauntless as Red, or a strange, curious mixture of the two. His amethyst eyes glow in the darkness as he ponders silently, slipping along beside Red.

Red feels like a bottle, he finally decides. Everything he could feel about being out here-- everything he thought he would feel about being free-- is trapped inside of a little bottle (himself, he thinks appropriately) and unable to escape. He doesn't know how to show any of these feelings. And why should he? He sees no reason, none in sight, to let his brothers know how he feels about this misunderstood freedom he now holds, or about all his wonders and thoughts and questions about this outside place. He is a bottle, one with a cork, and he will never show anyone his emotions.

Suddenly he stumbles, and his Shadow body is sent tumbling down a rocky hill and towards what seems to be certain doom. His two brothers come down with him, and all of them land with unceremoniously thumps at the bottom of a prickly green ditch. Thistles latch onto their robes.

Blake attempts to shake a thistle off his arm. "Help! Help! What is this?!"

Christopher, a little dazed, goes to help his younger brother, detaching the determined thistle from his skin. "It's... a spiky thing," he answers unsurely, feeling embarrassed that he does not know the name of something in the outside world.

Red spits. "Everything outside of here is... spiky." He points to the long appendages that stick out of the ground and their earthly, paperish counterparts, along with the thistles and the eau de Nil spokes beneath their feet that seem to blanket every field and mountainside as the crow flies. Most of the natural objects in the outside world are "spiky."

"It's strange," comments Chris, tossing the bramble into a smaller, fluff-shaped appendage nearby.

Blake rubs his delicate arm. "It's uncomfortable."

Red latches onto a rock and heaves himself up onto it, dragging his body out of the ditch. His two brothers follow, staring with wide eyes at the scene that lies before them.

It looks like a hallway. A hallway with no walls. A hallway that has no ceiling lights. A hallway that is purely just a road of gray along the landscape. Two parallel yellow lines run along the middle of the huge, gray... thing.

Red wanders aimlessly into the middle of the thing. He peers down at the yellow markings, laying a hand on them to see if they have any specific feel, sniffing them to make sure they aren't capable of having feelings, listening for the sound of a heartbeat in the ground to be sure that they aren't living things. From what he can sense, the long, brown appendages, their paperish counterparts, and the fluff-shaped appendages that he saw in the forest are all alive, but oddly enough, this... thing... isn't.

He hears something, abruptly. The sound of circular rubber repeatedly spinning along the ground. Red turns his head, not expecting to see two bright lights heading quickly in his direction. Christopher shouts something at him, but he can't hear anything behind the sound of the loud horn bellowing through his ears-- and all of a sudden something collides with his chest.

In an instant, he's gone. Whoosh. His body splits into little shadowy shards, wisps of dark in the wind, and the truck that had slammed into him rolls on into the night, not to be seen.

When he comes to, as his body pieces itself back together, he's lying on the cold ground of the big, gray thing, and his head feels empty. His brothers have both run over to him in absolute terror, and he hears them yelling a certain phrase over and over because of their absolute terror. But he doesn't quite care, and neither does he care about what just happened to him, truthfully, because as he sits up he catches sight of rows and rows and rows of brick buildings, all lined up in straight perfection and spattered with lights strapped to tall, white poles. To get his brothers to shut their mouths, he swiftly (and somewhat gently, because he has no intention of harming them) strikes them both across the cheek, and they fall silent, forgetting the events of a few moments ago.

"Look." He points to the organized blocks of red houses, squinting his crimson eyes. "Do you think the humans would live there?"

The many clothed figures roaming the streets answer his question. Tens of hundreds of humans are waddling around on their two unsteady feet, holding bags and bushels and boxes and all sorts of unknown items in their hands. The three Shadows stand by and watch this spectacle, amazed by the oddly organized chaos.

"I... I think so." Christopher walks to the edge of the big, gray thing, and motions to the houses. "I think those are their rooms."

"Or nests?" Blake pipes in, stepping up next to Chris. "Do they call them 'nests'?"

Red follows behind. "I think they're 'houses'. Dr. Roget mentioned something about living in a house."

Their gazes slip to the ground at the mention of Dr. Roget, and, as has become the custom when hearing his name, they stay quiet and bow their heads. Roget had been the only human kind enough to feed their innocence and treat them carefully. He let them dance and sing and do what they liked.

But then the science-men told him to treat them like objects, and he unwillingly subjected Red to the torture of learning how to kill. And Roget was killed by the scientists. And Roget hadn't done anything wrong.

Red balls his hands up into fists. The innocence that him and all his brothers have lost, he wishes to rediscover. He wants to find that innocence again. He wants to see it somewhere, perhaps in a human child, and perhaps now, if he can find one amongst the crowds of people filling the roads.

"Let's go." He begins to make his way down the hill and towards the houses.

"Shouldn't we try to stay hidden?" Christopher asks, to which Red shakes his head. They have no reason to be hidden from the humans. In fact, if they need to, they can blend right in with the passerby and sink into the ground as wispy, black shadows, and no one will ever be able to find them or hurt them. They are completely safe.

Completely...

Red feels a wave of hearbeats and excitement wash over him as he steps into the walking crowd of humans. He looks to his left, making sure that both his brothers are still sticking by him, and ventures into the public, overwhelmed by the many sensations he receives. He doesn't want to breathe in anymore, afraid that he will take in all of the emotions pouring out of these many humans, and he doesn't want to look around anymore, as the lights are blaring into his eyes. With no other choice but to go ahead, he plunges through the many people, holding himself together, until finally the sea of unfamiliar faces breaks and he is left standing in the middle of a street.

Red pulls himself together. Eyes adjusting to the lighting, he takes a tranquil look around at the people, trying to discern which ones are adults, like the science-men, and which ones are children, who are apparently smaller and much easier to recognize.

He takes a glance at Blake. Blake looks enough like a child for him to understand what a child might be like.

Before he can utter a word to his brothers, a small voice perks up from behind him. "Hey!"

His head turns immediately, snappishly. His eyes glare into the night, landing on a small human dressed in a purple robe and a long, violet hat. The human jumps at his instant movement, and he feels a touch of fear on his tongue.

He likes that.

"Uh..." The small human steps hesitantly closer to him. "I like your costume!"

Costume? His eyes quickly glaze over the other small humans walking around him. None of them seem to be dressed in the clothes of the science-men, the white coats and the monotone shirts and the menacing, dark ties. What are they wearing, then? Costumes? He considers how he looks and what he knows about humans, and it turns up in his mind the possibility that this human thinks he is a human wearing a costume.

It's slightly upsetting. He is barely a human. None of these human children remotely compare to his frightening abilities. His mind reels with the thought of how quickly he alone could tear them to bloody bits.

How amazing that would be. His head swims at the idea of how blood-soaked these streets would be, and how much fear would remain of the dead, and how much of a feast he would have to devour--

"Thank you." Christopher turns toward the small, purple-dressed human, bringing Red's imagination back to the present. "What is your... costume?"

Blake, too, turns back. He takes the normal initiative and smiles at the human.

The human grins softly. It pulls at the fabric of its flimsy little robe decorated with yellow stars. "I'm dressed up as a witch!" it says proudly, spreading its arms apart to show off its impressive outfit. "What're you dressed up as?"

Red can see in Christopher's eyes that he has no idea what the words "dressed up" mean when put together, but he tries his best, not wanting to be caught for not being human, and makes up a reasonable response based upon his very, very limited knowledge of human culture. "My brothers and I are dressed up as Shadows."

It's not exactly a lie. They are dressed as Shadows because they are Shadows.

The little human pulls strands of extensive brown hair out of its face. "That's cool." It begins to walk past them, motioning a hand to invite them toward it. "Wanna follow me around? I'm goin' Trick-or-Treating!"

Christopher excitedly drinks in the new information. None of them have heard the words "trick-or-treating" before, but they will not pass up the chance to follow around this little human. Red can already see the reflection of innocence in its two blue eyes. All three of them eagerly follow the human back into the crowd, slowly becoming less afraid of the large atmosphere.

The only problem that Red finds is that none of them know what to say. How can they talk to this human child who seems to know everything about Trick-or-Treating when they know nothing about it? They cannot reveal that they aren't humans, otherwise they could cause more chaos than there already is. They have to find some words to say.

The human child takes the chance of silence and begins to chatter away. "I have some friends who are out Trick-or-Treating, too. Halloween's my favorite holiday, and so I invited 'em all out here, and I think we should find 'em soon. Oh, and my mom bought me this costume just yesterday, because we forgot to go to the store earlier and get one, and so we had to rush in at the last minute to find a witch costume that was available... And I live on this street, too, just down the block. Oh, and where did you get your costumes from?"

Red is at a loss for words, though not necessarily because of the question. He realizes that this human child's on-and-on blabbering is what he used to do. It's what his brothers used to do. It is innocence, right before his very eyes. And he can't seem to look away from it.

Blake speaks up for the group of three, having kept enough of his own innocence to not be distracted by seeing it. "We made them," he says. To his brothers, his voice is entirely a lie, but to the human child whose innocence knows no bounds, his voice drips with the truth.

"Oh, that's so cool!" The human smiles broadly at them, showing off two uneven rows of white teeth. "I'd never be able to make my own costume. I'll probably always have to buy mine..."

It gasps. "Hey! There're my friends!" A group of other humans-- male, Red realizes, as they have similar looks to the science-men-- are headed toward them. The little female child runs ahead, ecstatically greeting her two young friends. All three of them exchange a strange embrace that Red has never seen before.

He takes a glance down at Christopher. "How long can we continue to pretend?" he whispers.

Chris intakes a lungful of air, unsure. Spitting it all out in one long breath, he admits, "I don't know. Do you think we'd be safe if we stopped pretending?"

They look around. The adult humans, the parents of the small, innocent children, are patrolling the surrounding area like turrets on the lookout. He could destroy them all with the help of his brothers, but would he like to? Does he want to? He wants to spend time with this innocence before it fizzles away-- that is what he wants to do.

He realizes that he has no one to control him. Not anymore. He is free to do as he pleases.

"It doesn't matter," Red answers softly, shifting beneath his black robe. "If there comes a point when we have no other choice, we may stop, but otherwise... I want to follow them around."

His brothers both nod. They step up next to the female human child as she cheerfully greets her two friends. "These are my friends," she states, pointing to the boys respectively. "His name is Sven, and his name is Aaron."

The boy named Sven gives Red a fearful look, and Red does his absolute best to keep from wickedly smiling in return. Innocence mixed with fear makes for a rather delightful taste of emotions, but he knows for sure that humans cannot taste or smell fear, and even if they could, he doubts they would enjoy it-- and he doubts even less that they would show others if they did.

"Hi." The boy named Aaron is completely unafraid. Just as small as Blake, he seems fascinated by the apparel of the Shadows, and he immediately comes over to try and feel their costumes. Red awkwardly stands still, unsure if this is what humans do, and slightly concerned that this tiny child may just discover his secret.

But no. Aaron's hand grazes over his robe and then flinches away in happiness. He seems so oddly joyous.

Red blinks. Innocence. That's innocence.

Chris takes up the torch when none of the other Shadows decide to speak. "What is your name?" He looks intently at the female child.

She grins proudly. "My name's Lucy! And you?"

"Christopher."

Blake joins the conversation. "And I'm Blake!"

Chris points to his older brother. "And this is our oldest brother, Red."

Sven's eyes widen, just a tad bit. Fear still emanates from within him, but now strangely mixed with awe. "Your name is really Red?"

Red's head nods before he can think of a vocal response. His throat, however nonphysical it may be, feels dry.

"Wow." Both of the human boys emit gasps of wonder. The name Red must be a coveted moniker amongst humankind.

"Come on!" Lucy pulls Chris's hand forward. "You can come Trick-or-Treating with us!" Noticing that none of them are holding a bag, she adds, "I can give you some candy if you want."

Candy? Red feels his brothers thinking the same collective thought. What's candy?

As quiet as mice, they travel behind the three human children, drinking in their actions and their overwhelming innocence. Red wonders if this kind of mutual innocence is what the dying man had told him about, begging with his last words. If he would spend his last few seconds of life pleading for the Shadows not to kill every last human, then that must mean that human children have not done anything significantly wrong. And they have not experienced life yet. And they have not been through everything that every human must go through-- suffering-- that makes them lose their innocence.

The children begin to comment on the costumes of every other passing human. Fake blood is drawn on almost every shirt and tie, Red notices, and his mouth waters at the sight of it. The humans wear assorted masks, ears, tails, skirts, dresses, pants, shorts, hats, and every other clothing item that Red cannot name to dress up as a number of things to which he can only guess. None of them look like science-men, thankfully, as he fears that he may become enraged if he sees a man dressed in the same white coat and black tie that he has come to know as evil. He does not wish to hurt the innocence that walks in front of him. It's too... fragile.

Just like the children. Only by taking a passing glance at the construction of their small bodies, he knows how fragile they are. If he bent the arms of the science-men as if they were made of paper, how much easier would it be to accidentally break a whole child into bony shatters?

He shudders to think of it. Innocence is fragile. It mustn't be harmed.

The human children stop at every house and saunter up to every doorway in sight, repeating the phrase "Trick-or-Treat!" until their throats go dry and their mouths are stuffed with golden candies. They invite the three brothers up to each and every doorway, but Red is too afraid of stepping into the light and being seen for miles around, and he refuses every time. The children innocently assume that he is just shy, and they obliviously continue on with their ritual.

Christopher whispers to Red once they come to the end of a long lane of houses. "What do you think Halloween is, Red?" The children have constantly talked about it.

Red inhales softly. "It might be a 'holiday'."

"A holiday? What is a holiday?"

"Dr. Roget used to speak of holidays constantly." Red thinks back to before. "He used to say that he wanted to be home for his holiday, but he could never find the time to be."

"I see. Is it a sort of celebration?"

"I suppose." Red motions to the people milling around them. "They are all so happy. And the children are going about and collecting 'candy'. What else could this Halloween be?"

Sven turns to look at the three of them. His eyes slowly widen to the size of saucers. All of the brothers sense an abrupt spike of terror from him, and he steps back, mouth dropping open into a horrified gasp.

"Lucy!" Sven grabs Lucy's wrist and drags her away from the three Shadows. Red is aware of a sudden self-consciousness coming from within him, and he finds that his hands, still blood-covered, claws extended, are hanging at his sides. Humans aren't frightened by blood... are they?

Lucy shrieks, though not loudly enough to be heard. "What is it? What happened?" She swings her head around, searching for something that could be considered dangerous.

Sven points a shaky finger at Red and his brothers. "They... Red, and... They're bloody!"

Red sees Lucy eyes take a quick scan over his body, and she doesn't seem alarmed at the sight of his crimson-covered hands. Not at first.

"It's just a costume," she laughs, pushing Sven away from her side. "It's not real."

"No." Sven takes timid steps over to Red, and the Shadow has an inkling to flinch away. "It's not fake, Lucy. Look." Sven hesitantly reaches towards Red's hand to feel it, and upon discovering how the dried blood of dead men flakes away at his touch, jerks back in terror.

"It's not fake! It's real!"

Red swallows a lump in his throat. Aware of the state of his bloody hands, he hides them inconspicuously inside his coat. His brothers both do the same, a similar look in their eyes.

All of the human children are speechless. They have no words to say, none to even think, as they stare at the "costumes" of their Shadow companions.

"But..." Lucy nervously bites her nails, and Red is reminded of the habit that used to belong to Blake. "But... how could it be real?" She tip-toes away from Red, taking young Aaron's hand in hers. "B-- How's it real?"

Christopher shivers in the cold, biting wind of the night. The surrounding mill of humans becomes nothing but a dull background noise. Red knows that adrenaline is rushing to his head. Whenever his younger brother is overwhelmed by any sort of thing, his mind becomes clouded with thousands of thoughts, and he finds it difficult to sort through those thoughts and find an answer to the question he has just been asked.

He realizes what Chris is about to say. But he cannot stop him in time.

"It... is real." Christopher's voice is strained and heavy, unusual for someone with a tone as light as his. "It is."

Lucy stares in shock. "But... why is it?"

The violet-eyed Shadow swallows back the barrage of complicated words and complex sentences he could say. He tries, with all his might, to say something simple, something understandable to a human child. "We aren't wearing costumes," he says quietly. "We're not humans... not like you."

Aaron hides behind Lucy's back, his knuckles burning white from holding onto her hand so tightly. Lucy squints her eyes, not knowing whether to be alarmed or curious, and Sven looks at Red with the most fear anyone has ever given him.

He doesn't like that.

Sven pushes Christopher back, placing both hands on his chest and shoving him away. "If you're not human, then get out of here! Get away from us! Y-- you've got bloody hands, a-- and you k--"

"Sven!" Lucy yells at him, running over and digging something out of the pocket of his ninja costume. It's in a strange, half-circle shape, and a small hole sticks out of the bottom. "You need your inhaler, Sven."

Inhaler? Red peers at the human boy. What is that?

Sven angrily pushes the strange object away. "I don't need it. I-- I'm fine."

Lucy does not try any more. She looks ashamed, oddly.

None of the three Shadow brothers move from their position. Sven shouts at them again, advancing to try and push Red away. He seems to be protective of his small group of friends, and his little brother, but Red hardly cares about that. He's a human, a frail thing. And his bones can break in half a second.

"Stop." Firmly, Red puts a hand on Sven's, giving him a warning growl. "Don't."

Sven's face contorts with fear, but he refuses to back down. Instead of following Red's advice, he simply pushes harder; obviously, the Shadow, sturdy as he is, does not move. "Get away from us!"

Blake takes hold of Red's other hand. "Red, don't hurt--"

"Shut up." Red kicks his brother in the chest, sending him staggering. Frustration against the phony tactics of the human race bubbles within his chest, and he abruptly shoves Sven away from him, down to his sidewalk. The human's head hits the ground with a reverberating thump, and his eyes dilate for several seconds.

"Sven!" Lucy's shriek does not go unnoticed by the passerby, who stop to look. Red, realizing the mistake he may have just made, grabs Lucy's wrist (perhaps too tight, Red-- they're flimsy things), pulling her away from the crowd. At this, she shrieks even louder, struggling to remove herself from his grip.

He sees her start to cry. What is that? What are those? Shiny droplets dribble down her cheeks, and she pointlessly kicks at him and yells.

Innocence. It's so frail.

"Red, stop it!" The same words come from all around him. Both his brothers are yelling at him, and so are all the humans-- especially Aaron, who is now pulling at Lucy's opposite wrist in order to free her from Red's grip.

But there's no point.

Red wants to smile. It seems fitting, on this holiday of Halloween.

Look at how powerless they are.

He readies himself to silence Lucy, using whatever means possible to do so, when all of a sudden something collides with his back, and it sends the three of them tumbling. Lucy finds her bearings and stands up quickly. Immediately, she reaches down and takes Aaron's hand, and they both run into the crowd in fear.

Red's mouth curls upward into a snarl. He has no time to form a coherent thought, or say any specific word, or think about his next action; the frustration that he has for humanity and his purpose of killing it all crashes over him, and, unaware of who is exactly he is harming or what he is doing or how he is crushing the innocence of a human child, he extends his claws and slashes them through the air. They come in contact with something, and instantly they tear the cloth and skin to pieces.

Blood splatters into his face. Adrenaline rushes to his head. The world spins.

"Red!" Christopher crashes into his side, and he stumbles. "Red, no! Red... Red, no!"

Blake is pulling at his arm, dragging him into the darkness of an alley. He fights back, throwing off his younger brother, only to turn his head and see what sort of damage he has caused.

Sven, the boy human child, is staggering, falling to the ground. He's crying. Blood is seeping from his chest, dripping to the ground, staining the concrete crimson. The girl human child is screaming, voice achingly raw, and running to him. Aaron is shaking with sobs. The humans in the crowd are sprinting to help. The world is revolving at an agonizingly slow rate.

Red, what have you done?

That's not his voice, nor his brothers'. He shuts his mouth in fear.

Look at what you've done.

His gaze is fixated on the scene he has caused.

Look at how you've destroyed innocence.

His breathing quickens. All of a sudden, he wants to explode in tears.

Look at how the human boy is dying.

His reeling mind is brought back into reality when Lucy points a finger his way and shouts. "It was him! He did it! He hurt Sven!"

Humans. Humans are coming his way. Running. Their eyes glitter with hatred. Horrified, he grabs his brothers' arms and disappears into the shadows.

What have you caused, Red?

Even in the darkness, he can still hear Sven's cries.

What have you done, Red?

His insides recoil in despair and disgust.

I was made to kill, wasn't I? But the children...

The words of the dying man echo through his head.

I should never have touched innocence.

The Shadows make their escape from the horrid Halloween, their feet silently shuffling along in the grass. No matter how far they travel, they still hear Sven's shaking sobs in their heads. No matter where they go.

Look at how you've ruined innocence, Red.

He will never harm a human child again.