X-Marks: Stealing Shadows

Stolen

The traveler's roars began to rise again. Lose a head, they all said.

"You can't!" Richard shouted.

"Occupant Richard Fraley," the officer said and turned, "Are you protesting the rights of termination?"

The tall, faceless man loomed over Richard's drowning frame.

"Valen?" Evee said, and stood on her toes, "What's happening? I can't see."

"Yeah! What's going on up there?" Mat said and knocked on the bottom of the barrel.

The faceless people were cutting through the canopy. They kicked planters to their sides and left dirt and shattered clay along their way.

"No," I said.

It ripped like a needle through my locked lips. Piles of my sprouts were under one of those planters.

Richard stepped cautiously towards the officer.

"Couldn't we just reason here," he said, "We'll get you more. I'll promise my life on it."

"Madelyn," I yelled.

Neither my shouts, the force of the crowd or the crash of planters could wake Madelyn. She continued to rushed to a man with the tired eyes and pale hair like her own.

She had to see his face. Her father.

It hit me harder than any wave of bodies could.

Lose a head the crowd continued chanting. Now the question was whose.

It happened so quick, I didn't see them all.

First, was an elder leaning on a ledge of the canopy. She was barely able to stand. They stole her by her neck.

Next, was small boy hidden behind his mother's leg. He fought, and he cried as his mother lost her grip on him.

They stole her too.

After, there was an older boy. I would often see attending Alger's lessons. I remembered him for his curly blonde hair. He was the only one who would greet me with his cheeky smile. They struck him over the head before they stole him.

There was only one faceless person left in the crowd. He held his gun, the length of his arm, close to his heart and scoured the field with growing speed. He kicked any planter in his way and made a whirl of fear everywhere he moved.

There was only one person above his tide. I watch her sail through the crowd with her head high.

"Madelyn! Madelyn, no!" I continued.

"Valen?" Evee said and shook me at my shoulder, "Are you okay?"

I hadn't noticed my drenched cheeks or how little breath I was keeping.

It didn't matter. Not right now.

"Look, he's back!" Evee said and pointed across the floor.

Buggy was washed far into the crowd. He could barely keep his head above the others. Further behind was a familiar crop of blonde hair. It was Alun. Even with his towering stature, he was swept across the crowd like a leaf in the wind.

"Buggy! Alun!" Evee and I shouted.

Mat stood from the tight space between the outhouse and joined in our shouts. We waved our hands as high as we could until we caught Buggy's attention.

"Over there! Over there!"

We shouted and pointed to Madelyn.

The last faceless man rested his foot on a planter. I knew this broken planter well. It was one of mine from this morning. Sickness washed over my cold skin.

His brick like foot teetered on the edge of the planter. He rocked it back and forth.

"Evee, under there," I whispered and pointed to the planter, "I hid crops under there."

Evee's mouth parted.

"You're not serious, are you?" Matt said.

I shook my head and watched the backs of both their tongues.

"Buggy! Over there! You have to-"

We shouted again and again and knocked our arms against each other as we waved them.

Buggy would not turn. He focused only on Madelyn.

The faceless man pushed the planter so far on its edge dirt spilled onto the concrete. I winched and was unable to look.

When I opened my eyes, Madelyn was a hair length away from the faceless man and with a final bite into my split lip, I knew, she would be stolen too.

The faceless man lunged for Madelyn's peach colored waves and pulled her head back. Her tear streaked eyes winced in pain. Her pain hit my own face in an instant.

He held her there as she clawed at his hand on her scalp before he whipped her like a rag into the jagged edge of the broken planter.

"No!" I cried.

It was all I could.

Madelyn was pulled across the fence of faceless people and into the center of the canopy. Beside her was the man with the tired eyes and pale hair. He was shaken from his slumber. He ran to Madelyn and laid himself beside her.

He was real and he was back for Madelyn.

The other stolen knelt in a line in front of the faceless people. Only the whip of the wind against the canopies bricks was heard as we waited for what was to come

A faceless person with a black mask stood behind the row of the stolen. He pulsed his finger on the gun's trigger aimed at the line. With every pulse, I pressed my aching side to keep my insides from spilling.

We all waited for the sound. The sound before the silence.

This was all just for show, I remembered Buggy said.

Just to make us work harder, Alun had reminded me.

Just for -

There was a loud crack. It split me from under my bones each time I heard it. I closed my eyes, but I couldn't close my ears.

This was sound before the silence, but it was only their silence.

We kept living. We kept hearing.