Shadows in Light

I was standing outside an impressive looking high-rise apartment complex, staring up at it. While they aren’t really my idea of somewhere to live in truth, as I’m not too fond of heights or living up in the sky, they are an impressive showcase of what we can do with simple materials. Taking metal, glass and concrete we can create a beautiful icon to engineering and artistry when done right.

Of course, sometimes they’re not so impressive and end up looking like a monstrosity that get in the way of good views of the sky, but thankfully these days those ones are being removed and replaced with beautiful ones.

This one was a marvel though. And certainly costly, both in location and materials. No doubt the residents spent a fortune living here. The moon was slowly arcing over the sky, and the reflective glass, giving me a good feeling as I watched it. The city was looking beautiful in it too. Everything was peaceful and quiet tonight.

Checking my phone for probably the fiftieth time in the last few minutes showed me the time wasn’t any closer to ten than I thought it should have been. I gave it a few moments thought, before deciding that ten minutes to the hour was probably good enough to head into the reception area.

The doors clunked and unlocked as I got close enough and allowing me to get in without any difficulty. The receptionist had a pretty face, keeping a level of professional politeness on it, yet her voice carried a level of wariness to it as she asked me “Yes sir?”

It then occurred to me that she’d probably been watching me on the cameras for the last twenty-five minutes as I paced and stared up at the building like some weird obsessive stalker.

“Oh, gods I’m sorry. I’m Ryan Vaughan. I have an appoint...” There might have been some hint of red to my face. Only a hint.

She interrupted me “It’s quite okay sir, please head to the elevators and I’ll send you up. Have a nice night sir.” The wariness had disappeared, replaced with a perfectly polite and expertly done smile. She pointed down the marble floored and walled reception area to where the elevators were waiting for me, one of them pinging open as I approached.

The elevator itself had floor buttons in it, but I didn’t need to press any as the doors closed the moment, I was in it, and started to rise almost instantly. It zoomed up through the floor numbers quickly, sending me up to the top of the high-rise building and leaving me with that mildly unsettling compression sensation that happens when you go up a high-rise building quickly enough.

Within thirty seconds the elevator had reached the top floor and sprung open for me, revealing a house-like hallway.

Huh. Wasn’t expecting that.

This was an exceedingly short hallway only about fifteen yards or so long with a set of double doors at the end. There wasn’t much to it in truth. A couple of pictures hung on the wall. Some shelves were high up with some vases and such on them. Oh, and a couple large men with visible guns on their belts were staring at me from a few short feet away. Most hallways don’t tend to have those. At least not hallways I’ve gone down.

I raised my hand in greeting “Hi. I’m Ryan Vaughan. I have an invitation?”

There was a moment’s pause, before they nodded, and I felt safe to step out of the elevator. A mat was on the floor to protect the shiny marble from whatever my feet could bring in. Although I doubt anything shy of acid would damage those floors. Still, good manners and all, I made sure to wipe my feet before I stepped onto the marble.

A mirror was on the right of me when I took another step forward past the mat and out of the corner of my eye that familiar swirling darkness around my mirror self could be seen. One of the guards was looking at it, but he didn’t seem surprised by what was going on there. He merely seemed to take note of it mentally and focus his attention back on me.

They had me empty my bag out onto the table, but as I only carry my wallet, some drinks, and some pens on me, there wasn’t anything that concerned them there. A pat down search of me seemed to satisfy them enough at that point.

One of them escorted me to the door at the other end of the short hallway. Maybe they were worried I’d get lost in it as they left me to traverse this immeasurably distance on my own?

He opened the door, motioning for me to go ahead, and I entered a home bigger than anything I’ve been in before. It was a good twelve feet high and ran from one end of the high-rise to the other. I could see the city out of three different tall to tall, tinted windows.

This giant room had one side set up as a bar, with chairs and tables gathered around it for guests, with a big TV set up. The TV was probably in excess of seventy inches across and had another seating area arranged in front of it. At the other end from the bar was set up a business conference table. All together this place could hold a massive amount of people. It wouldn’t surprise me if this place could have held at least a hundred people without any real trouble.

And despite that, the entire place was perfectly clean. From wall to wall, and floor to ceiling I couldn’t see a single scuff mark, piece of garbage, or speck of dust. Someone was very particular about keeping this place clean.

This place was so opulent that ahead of me there was a large balcony with a jacuzzi and pool almost as large as my own entire home.

Something about this place was warm and inviting to me. I shouldn’t have felt comfortable here, but after a few moments I felt relaxed and calm. This was a friendly place.

The guards lead me over to where a group of people were assembled around the conference table, looking at me as I entered. I gave a quick count and grimaced a little when I counted twelve. I was lucky number thirteen in this room.

Men and women were all looking at me, dressed in perfectly fitting suits, looking every inch the rich businesspersons that fitted perfectly into this place. All of them looked like they were wearing shoes that cost more than my entire outfit, hell I think their shoelaces cost more. I should have spent more money really.

Still, at least they were all looking at me, rather than shooting at me, or throwing fireballs. A step in the right direction. They were looking at me critically though, analyzing me as I walked over to the table where they were gathered.

The man at the head of the table stood and walked over to me, offering a hand in greeting “Ryan Vaughan. Bianca told me you’d be calling. I’m Joseph Ortiz” He gave me a perfect businessman handshake as the other hand slapped my shoulder gently, to give some informality and friendliness to this meeting despite his suit.

And boy was it a fantastic suit. It was perfectly tailored to fit him, showing off a fine athletic build. The hand gripping mine showed a firmness that probably meant he did weightlift. Being this close to him I could smell his cologne, and boy it was it fantastic. It was probably one of those brands that if you must ask the price, you can’t afford it.

He was about equal in height to me but carried himself with a poise that made himself seem taller, more regal. He had short but well-trimmed hair, allowing him to brush and style it, giving him even more of a businessman feel to it, and had a well-trimmed stubble beard that he managed to pull off.

To me however, the most noticeable thing about him, was the expression that he carried on his face. Upon seeing me his whole face was filled with delight, his eyes shined with elation, and his face looked far younger than before. It made me feel relaxed and less concerned by this meeting as I looked at him, making me feel that this was a good meeting to be at and would hold some major benefits for me. I felt myself relax despite the fact I had no clue why I was here, nor who the hell this guy was, despite the fact his name was familiar to me somehow.

He led me over to the table and seated me down at the far end of the table before returning to the head of it, sitting down himself. “Don’t mind the rest of these people. This is just so they know by you sight and you know them if you come to speak to me and I’m busy. I have a Second, but unfortunately, he couldn’t make the meeting with such short notice. So, you’re new to the area?”

I nodded for a moment, a little dreamily, while my gaze was kind of stuck on Joseph as he spoke. I wanted to listen to every syllable this guy said. I could see the rest of them surveying me, all of them staring with barely a blink between them. They weren’t important though. Joseph was.

I realized he’d asked me a question, and answered him properly, feeling a bit of redness come to my face as I did. “Well, I’m not new. I’ve been here a few years now. Maybe... six or seven now? Sorry.”

The room went dead at that point. The air itself felt like it stopped moving, and for a moment I swear the city outside seemed to pause as Joseph’s expression darkened, and a slight frown came to his lips as he cocked his head a tiny bit.

“Excuse me?”

“I’m sorry, but I’ve been here for at least seven years now.”

That relaxed feeling that had come with this meeting disappeared, and fear was slowly creeping over me.

“You’re saying you’ve been here for that length of time and haven’t introduced yourself to me or anyone who speaks on my behalf?” His jaw clenched a little as his face rapidly started towards full on anger. The sense of fear stopped creeping and started taking me towards something resembling a panic attack.

I had to fix this problem and do it now. So, I spoke quickly.

“Sorry. I wasn’t aware I was supposed to. I’m sorry but I don’t even know who you are? Or even why Bianca sent me here? Sorry.” I bit my cheek. I was apologizing too much. I had no idea why.

The anger in the room disappeared for a moment and everyone looked to Joseph, who had lost the anger and looked utterly baffled for a moment as he stared at me, before a poker face descended to cover it up, however I could feel the anger returning and rising.

“You’re saying you have no knowledge of me, of what you were supposed to do, and the Laws?” All those faces turned to look at me again, and I shook my head, but they didn’t seem to be pleased with my silence.

“I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about.” That caused them to start looking at each other and quiet whispering to start between them. Sadly, whatever they were saying, I had no idea because I couldn’t speak whatever language they were using. Apparently, Joseph didn’t like either my answer or their whispering because he slapped the table and silence fell once more.

Joseph stared at me for several moments, and the fear built to larger levels before he said with a crisp voice “You expect me to believe you have no tutor and have mastered Shadow? Bianca told me what you did, and that takes some tutoring and skill to do. You’re lying to us somehow.”

A part of me snapped at that point. I might be a lot of things, but I don’t like being called a liar. Hell, no one does, and even more so when you’re telling the truth. I felt the sense of fear rush away, and my own anger flare up faster than any time in my life. I slammed my hands on the table, finding myself rising to my feet,

“I don’t know who the hell you are nor do I care, especially not if you’re going to accuse me of lying. I’ll repeat myself: I have no idea what you’re talking about. I don’t know anything about these Laws you’re talking about. I do not know why I am here. I do not know why Bianca sent me here.”

I was staring straight at Joseph unblinkingly for several seconds when I realized that the people closest to me on the table were shifting backwards away from me. I wondered why they were edging away from me, before I realized I was sensing the same feelings as when the Darkness, or Shadow as everyone was calling it, came to me. Glancing to the side, and I could see the Darkness curling around behind me, almost like it was ready to swarm. This time apparently it was coming to fend off people in suits. Admittedly they had angered me.

I closed my eyes and tried to push it away. Letting things happen when you’re angry is generally a bad idea. I didn’t want to let this Power run rampant with my anger, I’m not sure what would happen, but I was fairly sure it wouldn’t be good. It took me a few seconds to get it under control but once I opened my eyes to look down the table at Joseph, he had a very thoughtful look on his face as he was watching me. Interestingly, he hadn’t moved at all despite the fact half the table had.

“He’s a newborn” one of the table members murmured softly, which caused some nodding from the rest as I sat down again, shaking a little as I did. The people who had been sat near me stayed away from me as I did, apparently not wanting to risk the Darkness again.

Joseph said softly to the table, but still carrying a ton of authority, while looking at me, “Get out.”

No one questioned it, instantly rising, putting their chairs under the table and left without a single word. They walked off behind me, rather than through the doors that lead back to the tiny hallway, probably to other parts of this massive apartment, making me think that Joseph owned this entire level.

I stayed where I was as it was clear he didn’t want me to leave.

“Come on, let’s do this over some alcohol.”

Joseph got up and led me over to where the bar was set up. Getting closer to it I could see there was a mass of alcohol, including many whiskeys and vodkas. Soon a large glass of whiskey was in my hand, which for once I followed up with a cigarette. Sue me, I wanted one. I know they’re bad for you, but I’m already dead. What’s the worst that could happen. What was the worst that could happen? I couldn’t help but stare at the cigarette thinking about that, could the cigarette cause me cancer and kill me?

I was brought out of my thought by Joseph chuckling as he stared me, “Don’t tell me? You’re thinking something like ‘Once upon a time I thought this was going to kill me’ or ’Can this kill me?”

I nodded a little as he lit up an expensive cigar.

“It’s a thought we all have at one point or another in our early days. We’ll look at something wondering if it can kill us. At that point it’s the standard thing a tutor, will say to a newborn. And normally you’d have had one by now to teach you all the Laws and get you started on learning your power. If what you say is true, and I cannot comment either way, you hadn’t had one. I will comment that is rare but does happen every now and then. The first thing you should know is that by laws I could banish you from the area I oversee for not presenting yourself to me.”

I opened a mouth to speak but he held up a hand, interrupting me with a hard voice “Ignorance of the Law is not an excuse. That’s harsh but it is a fact. So, the question is: Why should I welcome you to Seattle as a guest, and invite you to stay as long as you wish?”

“As a guest?” It was hard to keep the amusement in my voice considering I’d been living here a few years.

He leveled that gaze at me again and his voice hardened. “Don’t question my decision. I am within my rights to do as I am, and there are Laws that are to be obeyed that you have missed. Suffice it to say the Law I’m talking about boils down to this: Introduce yourself to the local leader. Failure can result in banishment or worse. With that in mind, answer the question.”

I considered it. It was like being asked ‘How are you worthy’. Or one of those rubbish questions they ask during a job interview that just makes you want to vomit all over the place at the sheer pointlessness of them: ‘What are your weaknesses’. Everyone lies to that question and makes up some spiel to please the interviewer. But I knew that wouldn’t work here, so I considered the question carefully.

“I’ve been living here for seven years or so now, in that time I’ve not done anything wrong, not gotten myself into any trouble. I work hard to earn my money and use that to keep myself fed and look after my own place where I live. Erm.” Dammit, I was starting to erm. That meant I was going to do it more and more if I kept going “I’m always open to helping out if my... erm... services... erm... can be used?” I stopped talking and looked to Joseph.

My gaze flickered for a moment, giving the world a purple and blue tinge, then as my eyes settled upon Joseph to see how he looked in this strange view of the world I was greeted with what people might consider a little bit of a horror show.

Joseph was for a moment this happy cheerful fellow. A friendly person you’d be happy to meet anywhere. Then he changed and looked much like I had when I looked in the mirror at Bianca’s. His eyes had gained that full blackness just like mine, and behind him there was a Darkness. But his was only a faint shadow, barely noticeable compared to the mass that was behind me.

Rather than being a pleasant young-looking man, shadows lined his face, and his eyes were more sunken, making him seem older, darker and a lot less pleasant to look at.

Frankly, that wasn’t the worst part of it all, not even close. As I watched him, Joseph seemed to smile at me, or something like that. Instead of something nice and friendly that I saw earlier, this was almost a something a predator would put on. Something that would make someone freeze in fear like a rabbit. His mouth widens and peeled back, revealing his teeth and what looked like blood on them for a moment.

It wasn’t a pleasant face to look upon. This was a predator’s face, someone who is used to being at the top of anything, whether it’s the food chain, or the first pick in sports.

I stared at that face, and the predator looked back at me, then I blinked, and that face was the businessman was looking back at me again. The memory of the face under that would remain with me. Possibly even join my nightmares.

He looked at me, considering as he smoked his cigar. He finished it off before he finally spoke “Very well. I’m going to accept what you say and permit you to stay here as guest for the time being. As you are a Neonate,” He gave me a look, pouring himself a drink “I’ll give the simple version of the Laws here. Introduce yourself to the guy in charge when you go there. If you’re just passing through, you’re fine, but more than a couple of days, start considering looking for someone before you go there. Avoid killing mortals. Be careful with the secret of what you are. Try not to draw attention to yourself. And do not conspire with the Enemy.”

I asked the first and most obvious question that came to me, “What am I?”

There didn’t seem to be any need to pretend anything with him anymore. He clearly was the same, or at least like what I was. He knew what I was, what I could do, and perhaps he could give me some answers. To my surprise he didn’t give me an immediate answer, taking a good couple of minutes to think about it. He looked at me as he thought about it, jaw clenching before he spoke.

“Long ago a war started, there was two sides fighting. At first it was just fought on the field of battle. But then... one side gained a massive advantage, but still the war went on. It became less a war fought on the field of battle and became a war of words. While we did a fine job during the fighting, frankly we missed the change to words.”

He sipped his drink, and swirled it around for a moment, “I’m not allowed to, nor would I, give you the names of us or the Enemy which means the answers to the questions you’re asking really. We do have some but sadly thanks to the war of words they have gained an advantage and skewed the perception of mortals and the words themselves. Those original names have evolved and become modern day names that have sadly given mortals an inaccurate idea of us and the Enemy. When we have told neonates that are ignorant of everything the names, it’s ended up with them killing themselves, or doing things that favored the Enemy. Or sometimes plain stupid things, so we have this Law, and have had it for centuries. Which is always obeyed.”

I was looking at him as he spoke, and normally someone saying these things would be nuts to me or telling me a good fairy tale. Or perhaps someone to ignore, but it was one of those times I knew he wasn’t lying to me. We’ve all had those times, admittedly this was about a pretty big thing, but there was something about how he was speaking, or standing. Perhaps all of it. But all of it felt right.

I knew on some level he wasn’t lying to me and I should listen. He downed his drink, putting it down on the bar, and started playing with it for a moment, his finger circling the top of the glass. I looked down at my drink and was surprised to see If empty. He refilled my drink, considering his words once more before continuing.

“What you need to know is this: You are a being capable of a potentially immortal life, able to restore yourself from any injury if given enough time, excluding removal or destruction of the head and utter destruction of the body. Normally we are aware of those who are like us, and when they enter their first death, we are there to make sure they don’t end up waking up underground and having to fight their way to the surface.”

The memory of waking up underground came back to me again, and I shuddered. It’s never going to be something I get over, so I ignored it by lighting a new cigarette. He looked at me and for a moment he had a faint sympathetic expression on his face before he downed his whiskey. It was probably the first real expression on his face during this meeting. He stood there watching me, but I felt uncomfortable returning his gaze, so I ended up watching his finger circle the glass.

He spoke softly for a moment, a true emotion in his voice, “It’s not common even now, but it does still happen. For what it’s worth, I am sorry that happened. I can tell you went through that from your expression.”

He walked across the room to a table, and picked up a box that he unlocked, and spent a couple of seconds flicking through it before he pulled out an envelope. He brought it over to me and pressed it into my chest before I had chance to take it off him. Looking at it I could see that it weirdly had a wax seal on the back, and a printed address on the front. Who uses wax seals these days?

“The address is for you. I’m sure you’ve had a lot of fun being sent to places without any idea of what you’re doing there, but I’m afraid I must continue that tradition. They’re open twenty-four hours a day. Just head over there and give them this sealed envelope. Don’t open it obviously. Go there in the next day or so. No real hurry.”

I hate just blindly following instructions at any time, and didn’t want to even now, but sometimes you must. And, because, and this is the main reason why I was willing to do it, it felt like it was going to benefit me in some way. Sometimes greed is an excellent motivation.

I slipped the envelope into my bag and finished off my drink, drumming my fingers on the glass for a moment before asking the last question that came to mind “Any other advice?”

Joseph didn’t need any time to answer this question, “Two things. One. Be care around the City. There’s a lot of things around here. Two. Trust your instincts. They are there for a reason.”

Fine advice, even if part of it wasn’t something I understand quite yet. Although he probably wasn’t wrong. Joseph led me over to the door after we got up, like a fine host should do, shaking my hand like a businessman should, clapping a hand on my shoulder. This man was someone who I felt sure could melt down the toughest of people and get them to the negotiating table, but to me it all felt fake and dead without any real depth. I could still see that underlying face he was hiding.

“If you need anything, call that number Bianca gave you. It’ll get you in contact with Lee. We might not be able to give you it for free, or do it ourselves, but we can definitely make sure you know the price or the right person to go to.”

Lee was a good name for the man on the phone. It suited him, he needed a short name, to go with his short conversations. Maybe he was called Lee Thud, or Lee Oof

Thanking Joseph for his time, effort, and energy, and departed down the elevator, enjoying that nauseating feeling as the alcohol churned in my stomach while I descended the building.

I wasted no time and exited the building, heading round to a nearby car park where my bike was chained up. I’d got it unchained and ready to go when I looked up to find myself face to face with the barrel of a gun.

Damn. My days aren’t getting any better.