X-Marks: Hiding Shadows

Shadows

"Guilty faces, all or you," Abe said and frowned, "Now I've hosted the grimmest of traveler thieves, much worse than the likes of you children. If you're going to be under my home, there can be no secrets, you here?"

We had heard, but I wasn't sure he was ready to.

Ocean was the first to move. She removed her scarf like an unripe peel and revealed just her crown. With nothing left to unwrapped, between the long black curtains of her hair she exposed the black mark on her forehead that cursed all our fates.

Abe lowered himself to the nearest chair as his shaking fingers reached for its armrest.

"Martha, you're testing an old man tonight. You most certainly are," Abe stuttered and sunk deeper into his chair.

***

"Whoa, whoa hold on a second," Evee said, as a spoonful of stew fell from her mouth, "So your wife was a nurse at our center?"

Abe chuckled, "Not yours, I know that for certain by your description."

"So there are other centers?" Ocean asked and continued to eat.

"I suppose so, they must be all over Ally lands," Abe replied.

"You said your wife never wanted to go back. What happened?" I said.

"What didn't happen, is the better question," Abe said and reached for the salt shaker again, "She was trying to get her younger sister back home. But I'm not sure you'd want to hear the rest."

We all stopped our eating, even Mat.

"We haven't kept anything from you," Mat said with a fist on the table, "Now you're gonna keep something from us."

"Ain't keep nothing from you," Abe said and pointed his spoon out from his bowl and leaked broth onto the table.

"As I was saying, the moment I met Martha and heard her night terrors, I couldn't believe my ears."

Abe stood from his chair, "I'd always wonder what the Allies needed children for. Did they do it to keep the travelers in control, a training camp of some sort? Most of us just believed the children were killed there on arrival. None of it made any sense until I met my Martha."

"She came to our traveler camp still in her white dress. It was torn to shreds and soiled with months of mud. Her skin was pale as a bone with not a feather of flesh to cling to her, but still, I had seen a girl more beautiful than my Martha.

"All those years she never stopped looking. She needed to find her sister, she would always tell me."

"What happened to her sister?" I asked.

"Her parents did as many did," Abe said and shook his head slow, "They had to give one of their children to the center to relocate into the Ally camps. She swore she would find her sister someday when she had the chance."

"Did she find her?" Evee said and leaned closer.

"She tried," Abe said and let out a deep breath, "But she couldn't see her."

"See her?" Ocean said.

"You think you children were the only ones who had their heads messed with at that place," Abe said with soft eyes, "They put an implant in Martha the day she passed her test to become a nurse. Did that to all the nurses.

"She said it made anyone she saw look like a shadow."

Shadows. I looked at Ocean whose puzzled eyes trailed the floor. We really were all shadows, just like she had said.

"But why?" Ocean said.

"Martha was told it kept her actions professional," Abe said and continued, "That way none of the nurses would grow any affection for one another and especially towards the children.

"She came all that way to find her sister," Abe said and pressed his lips together, "But she couldn't even see her."

"That's awful," I said and swallowed a lump in my throat.

"It truly was," Abe said and sat back into his chair by the window, "It drove most of the nurses mad. Made them do unthinkable things, Martha said. Made them feel like they weren't even human."

"So I took care of her," Abe said and tangled his fingers together, "Had to once they disabled her implant so she could see again."

"You mean debugged?" Mat said and tilted his head towards Abe.

"I take it you've been through the same?" Abe said and raise his brow.

"I was assigned by chance to care for her. It was weeks before she came to any senses. Always talking of the pain in her skull or the lights that danced in the dark just for her.

"It all weaved with her memories of the center. So, of course, I thought it was crazy talk until it was so many years past that I was sure she was clear of mind.

"All night she talked about those shadow children, the machines they used on their marks. It was the craziest idea of all," Abe said and laughed, "But here you are as if she lead you right to my door to say, 'See Abe you stubborn fool, I told you all along.'"