Shadow Color (NEW VERSION)

Chapter 4

Macaria opened her eyes; she was standing in the middle of an open grassy field filled with different color glowing flowers. Along the sides of the field were rows of trees and in the distance were mountains. The sky was dark and was filled with millions of bright twinkling stars. She began looking around feeling confused, wasn't she in a dark alley in the city? How did she end up here?

In the distance, she could see a figure standing under a large tree. As she began walking through the tall grass and flowers, small orbs of lights began to fill the air where she had walked. The lights reminded her of fireflies. As she approached the figure and noticed they were turned away from her.

"Macaria!" a female voice called. The voice sounded familiar but couldn't recall whose voice it was. She "Macaria!" the voice called again; this time it sounded like it was coming from behind. She looked over her shoulder to see if anyone was there, there was no one. She concluded that she was hearing things and looked back to where the figure was standing, they were gone.

"Macaria! Wake up!" the voice sounded closer. Where was the voice coming from? Who was calling her? Why couldn't she remember whose voice it was?

Macaria opened her eyes a bit, the light above her was so bright, she shut her eyes tightly. Her body hurt all over and she felt exhausted. She could hear voices, but they sounded far away and muffled.

"I know you're awake, open your eyes," said a familiar male voice. Again, she opened her eyes a little, but shut them again due to the bright light just above her.

"You're an idiot," said a female voice. The light above her went dim. Once more, she opened her eyes, this time she could fully open them without being blinded by the light. She then slowly sat up and began looking around, she was in the coffee shop with Natsuki and Simon kneeling on each side of her with worried looks on their faces.

"What happened? How did I get here? I thought I left," Macaria began sounding sleepy. She was lying on some cushions that were placed on the floor near the corner of the store by a booth. The store was empty, making her, Natsuki, and Simon the only people in the store.

"You did leave," Natsuki began, "I offered to walk you home and you said you were fine. You then texted me a bit later and said you were getting a few things from the store. Simon found you unconscious in an alley on the other side of Anecaster."

"After I found you, I used your phone to call Natsuki and we brought you here so I could heal you. It's faster than going to a hospital. Do you remember anything, anything at all?"

Macaria was silent, she didn't remember much. The only thing she remembered was lying to Natsuki about where she was going and then being dragged to the other side of the city by Renley and then somehow using magic. She explained everything she could remember to Natsuki and Simon who listened carefully.

Once she had finished her story, a confused look appeared on Natsuki's face, "Let's start from the beginning. You saw an unknown with fox ears and a tail? There are no unknowns like that. Are you sure they weren't a cosplayer or something of the sort?"

Simon remained silent. Natsuki turned to him and shot him a look, "What? No comment?"

He put his hands up and shot her the same in return, "I'm thinking. I've heard of something like this before, just give me a moment to think where I've heard it. I can see why you and Klein started fighting earlier."

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that," Natsuki said in a sour tone. "But what about those people you said were chasing her, do you remember what they look like?"

Macaria shook her head, "They were covered in black. One of them had shadow like abilities while the other had ice. I'm not sure about the other one."

Simon removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes while Natsuki pulled out her phone to check the time. "Tired already? It's only half past three in the morning. Aren't you normally here by this time doing prep work or something?" Natsuki asked.