Pouring Shadows (Chapter 10)

I felt relief flood into me as the car finally came to a stop. We made it to the next town safe and alive. It was a small town with rows of houses and beautiful lawns on either side of the streets. The street lamps illuminated a peaceful looking neighborhood. It was quiet here but this was not the silence one would be afraid of. The trees swayed gently with the brisk touch of wind. I watched a small creature crawl up to its branch. A squirrel. I didn’t think I’d ever live to see one. Palace was such a cramped town with tall buildings occupying the spaces. Squirrels wouldn’t be found anywhere near a place as suffocating as that.

Ricky opened the car door and got out. Cheryl and I did the same. I saw her shiver from the corner of my eye as the outside wind caught up with us. I could hear the crickets chirp. It was strange how there was no such sound back in my hometown. The air here was so much fresher that it actually made me forget the current situation I was in.

Ricky smiled contently, seeing the pleasant look on my face, as he gestured towards the house beside us. I noticed the slanting rooftop, wooden walls, a lit up porch. It was something new to me, something I didn’t see every day. I walked up to the porch with everyone and waited as Ricky touched the bell without pressing it. To my surprise, the door opened by itself a second later. He really knew his way around with electricity.

I stopped mid-way with one foot inside the house. The thought kicked me at the back of my head.

‘He’s able to control electricity… Cheryl has a similar power.’

Realization struck me like an arrow, making its way into my brain. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of this before when all the clues were right in front of me. Him taking care of us, treating us like family. That sad look in his eyes every time he looked at Cheryl. The way his face would light up when Cheryl would say or do something silly. The way he enjoyed feeding her and didn’t react much at all when she called him brother.

‘Because he is her brother. The resemblance is all there and yet I couldn’t see that. I guess I was too caught up with my own problems to notice anything.’

I noticed that everyone was waiting for me to move. I shook my head slightly to try to shake off the feeling of instant shock, and walked into the house.

It was warm and cozy inside with carpeted floors and the electrical fireplace which was on. We were in what seemed like a lounge with a flat screen TV on the wall just above the fireplace. The couches were aligned in a square shaped form. Ricky asked us to sit down while he inspected the rooms, taking his grandfather with him.

Now that she was where, according to Ricky, her memories were to trigger, I couldn’t help but notice the look on her face. Her face was blank, but I saw a hint of agitation in her eyes as she looked around the room. Another thing I noticed was that there were paintings hanging on the walls but no pictures or framed photos of the family. It was like the people here had removed them. A few nails were stuck to the wall without a hanging.

Ricky came back just as silently as he’d left.

‘Okay, so they’re all sleeping right now. I’ve taken grandpa to his room. Cheryl, come with me. Dixon, you stay here till I get back.’

I watched the two siblings tiptoe out of the room. He was probably showing her where she would be staying. For some reason I actually felt at ease now that I knew they were related. There was no other reasoning that would have explained Ricky’s feelings toward Cheryl. What I didn’t get was why she had been living away from her family. If Ricky had known she was there then why had he never gone to meet her.

It didn’t feel right. I knew what hell it was to go through life without a family to take care of you. I knew what it was like to be alone. It wasn’t something someone could stand and watch from the shadows like Ricky might have done for Cheryl. The thoughts bombarded into my brain one by one. I didn’t know about her but if someday my parents came to take me back in, to promise to love me like before, I’d probably hate them more. I could never forgive them for what theyput me through.

The nagging only got worse as more unpleasant thoughts entered my mind. I closed my eyes. The images kept circulating within. All I saw in those images one after the other was the pained look in Cheryl’s eyes. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t shake off the feeling that things were going to go wrong. It wasn’t right for Ricky to bring us here of all places. Even if she didn’t remember, she might have still wondered where her parents were and why they weren’t with her like the other kids. She might have wished for them to be there, needed them, hated herself at times, and blamed herself for the loneliness she might have been feeling.

I couldn’t help but feel anger towards Ricky when he suddenly walked into the room again. I tried not to look at him with disgust as he sat down on the couch beside me.I assumed there was something he was willing to share with me. I never expected him to start with something about me.

‘I saw that glow from your pocket earlier in the car. I’ve noticed that you usually have your hands tucked inside your pockets like you’re protecting something.’ He looked at me, ‘Are you?’

‘Why the hell do you care?’ The words just escaped my mouth and I never regretted it. ‘As a brother, you surely haven’t been caring for Cheryl for the past several years. Do you even know what a person has to go through when they have no one at home to go back to? No family?’

‘I know…’ He said in a low and tired voice.

I didn’t care how tired he was, my anger right now wasn’t going to let me stay shut.

‘No, you don’t. If you did, you wouldn’t have let her live her life the way she has.’

‘You know nothing about her.’ He spoke through his teeth.

‘Like you would know better?’

‘Shut up!’

The lights in the room flickered at his voice. Then the entire power of the house went down. Ricky sighed and shifted a little beside me. A few seconds later, the power was back on. It took me by surprise that I didn’t say anything for a minute, until Ricky finally breathed out.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said after the moment of silence. I looked down at my mud stained shoes that I’d never bothered to take off.

‘No, I’m sorry. I might have over-reacted just now.’ I told him, exhaling deeply and feeling the anger drown away. Ricky nodded and opened his mouth to speak.

‘The truth is that if it were up to me, I would never choose for Cheryl to even join an organization where she would sell her powers for money. As a brother, and an ex-night guard, I would have wanted my sister to live a normal happy life, without any fear or danger, but it was never up to me.’

‘You’re an ex-night guard? So what happened?’ I raised my brows.

‘What happened was that, as a night guard, my parents had no idea I had powers of any sort. I was careful about not telling them. When Cheryl was born, she was such a beautiful little girl, that we all fell in love with her at first glance. She was growing up normally in this very house. Not too long after her birth, I was secretly invited to join the night-force.

‘The man offered a lot of money to my parents, promised to give me the best education possible, made up an excuse about being selected for the best school in Palace, your hometown. My parents were happy to send me off. That was the last time I saw Cheryl. She was only five. My grandparents travelled with me to the new town and raised me to become who I am right now.

‘What I was, no one knew. Cheryl was growing up without me. She was six when she shocked the fish in the bowl which died instantly. She’s not what she appears to be. She may seem weak to you but trust me, her powers are a lot stronger than mine. My parents found out about them eventually and started contacting people. Apparently, all this happened out of my knowledge.

‘A lady came to them and offered help. She described the consequences of letting a child like that run wild. She offered about a double amount of the money the night force had offered for me. She even talked my parents into signing a contract which clearly stated that for the safety of the town and its people, the child would, from that day, belong to her.

‘If only I’d been there for her, she wouldn’t have had to leave. My parents kept this from me and my grandparents until one day, when I was probably about your age, they came to visit. Not being able to keep it from us any longer, they spilled the truth. They told me that the lady had promised to let them see Cheryl whenever they wished but they hadn’t heard from her since.’

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. This was far worse than I’d imagined Cheryl’s past to be like.

‘They’d searched all over town, informed the police, tried everything but never found her again. My grandma couldn’t bare the shocking news and died of a heart attack. Grandpa lost his reason to live and he’s been like this ever since. I had to quit the night force because I needed to take care of him but I did everything I could from that day, to try to find my sister.

‘And then you came into the shop the other day with her. I just knew it was her, those eyes. They haven’t changed since she was born. I saw the way you looked at her, you probably didn’t know it by then but you cared for her. You have no idea how much I wished I were there in your place doing the same.’

For a while there I didn’t think I had it in me to say anything. I had no idea things had been that bad; not just for Cheryl, but for the entire family. Since I was taking my time to sink in the information, Ricky snapped me out of my thoughts with yet another unexpected question.

‘Why’s your pocket glowing?’ he asked.

I felt my heart skip a beat, upon looking down, I could see the faint glow of the shard through my partly torn pocket. It didn’t feel as hot as last time; in fact, it wasn’t hot at all.

‘I…’ I slipped a hand through the pocket and came up with the metal case that was partly open. A faint golden light was peeking from within.

‘What’s in it?’

I studied Ricky’s face for a second before handing it over to him.

‘Why don’t you see for yourself?’

He took the small metal case that had previously belonged to my cell phone. He opened it to reveal the small shard that seemed to be radiating the faint glow. I saw the look of confusion being replaced by awe.

‘What on Earth is that?’ The whispered words seemed to be intended towards himself than me. I answered anyway.

‘I found that a few days ago. It seems to glow every now and then. Sometimes it even heats up.’

‘You mean in the car it was…’

I nodded, ‘It was too hot for me to hold on to. It’s the reason for this nasty hole in my pocket.’ I stuck a hand inside and let my index finger peek through that hole. Ricky nodded as he understood but he still wore the slightly confused look.

‘I wish I knew more about it.’ I added before he could ask anything related to that. He handed the shard back to me.

Ricky slumped back into the couch with a heavy sigh. We sat like that in silence, dwelling on our own thoughts from within.

‘So am I supposed to sleep here… or…?’ I asked, breaking the few seconds of silence that had formed.

‘Oh, no of course not. There’s plenty of room in the house for everyone. Just walk straight towards the end of the hallway, the last room is reserved for you.’

‘What about you?’ I asked in an unsure manner.

‘I think I’ll just sit here for a while… you know, think things through.’

I nodded quickly. I understood how he might be feeling right now. Maybe he felt afraid, just like I did, about what would happen when Cheryl finally learned the truth. I left the lounge and entered the hallway that was lit dimly by the bulbs that were fixed in small circular caves inside the ceiling. They were fixed at maximum intervals so the hallway was faintly lit.

As I walked, I thought I saw a shadow move from the corner of my eye. There was no way a shadow user like me would overlook a shadow that didn’t belong in a place. I kept walking at a normal pace with my head turned to one side just enough so that I could watch my back. Something dark moved quickly. I felt my shoulders stiffen instinctively. There was no doubt about it, a shadow was following me. I just had to figure out whose shadow it was.

I fastened my pace. The hallway seemed to go on for a while. I wasn’t sure how far I’d have to walk till I got to my room. I noticed the rest of the hallway in front of me was no longer illuminated by any means of electricity. The only light that ever so faintly touched the path ahead was from the windows aligned with the walls on my left.

As I marched into the shadows, I felt goose bumps rise up my arms. A slight tiptoe caught my ears. It was closer than I thought. There was no way I would let anyone pull a sneak attack on me. I pretended not to notice but slowed my pace while keeping my ears on alert for further sound. There it was, very faint, so low that I might have never noticed if I hadn’t slowed my pace down.

I felt the person’s shadow overlap mine. I could always feel other shadow’s when they made contact with mine. Just one more step, I thought as my feet automatically came to a halt. My heart thumped in my ears, blood pounded inside me. I felt the person’s shadowy arm reach for me when my instincts took over.

Without a warning, I spun around, grabbed the arm, pulled it around and pinned the person to the wall beside me. The person gasped as her back hit the wall. My eyes widened slightly as they met her dark ones. However I didn’t let go of her shoulders just yet. Something was wrong.

‘Cheryl… what are you doing sneaking up on me like that?’ My voice came out in a soft whisper.