Running from Shadows (In progress)

Running from My Shadow

It's better now. I don't have to hide anymore. The worst part is leaving the people that I love. Leaving you. And I'm going to miss you. But now that I think about it, it is the best decision I have ever made. I can be free now. I love you mom.

I reach for my mother's sleeping face to tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear, but pause, staring at the space my hand should have filled and seeing nothing. Shaking my head, I remember that I'm not really here. I lean down to gently kiss her cheek, knowing that it's probably the last time I'll get to do that, hoping somehow she knows that I'm still alive, and feeling the dreadful guilt that always comes with lying to my mother.

Come on, Caia! Ashley whispers harshly, her voice bypassing my ears and entering directly into my mind. They could be here any second and see you.

Her words break into my focus, disturbing my mother's dreams. I watch her shift and murmer a little in her sleep. On instinct I put a finger to my lips to silently shush my friend, then lower my hand sheepishly when I realize she wouldn't be able to see it.

I'm ready now. I tell her through our mental bond.

A second later I feel a light tug, like being attached to a string that is slowly reeling me through an ocean. I watch as I'm pulled out of my mother's room, through the walls of my house, and across the town to an abandoned warehouse. As I approach my own body a wierd sense of de ja vu hits me and I can't help the thought from entering my mind. She looks a lot like me. Only dead. And then I am tugged back into my body again.

I wake to the feeling of the cold cement pressing into my back and a heavy pressure in my head. I moan, pressing the back of my hand into my forhead as if that will relieve the pressure.

"Don't stand yet," Ashley whispers, her voice tense and strained.

I open one eye and manage to make out her fuzzy form, slouched against the wall, blood running from her nose.

"Are you all right!" I say, completely ignoring her and running over to her side.

A wave of dizziness hits me as my legs give out and I suddenly find myself in a heap on the ground, my head in her lap.

"Ugh," she says with absolutely no hint of emotion.

"Can I get more existential loathing in that 'ugh,'" I tease her, once I know she's alright.

"Ugh," she groans. "You are so bothersome sometimes!"

That was Better. Much better," I grinned, dodging her next blow. Then I hear it, the tapping of feet outside the door. "Shh!" I say, pushing Ashley to the ground.

A knock at the door. A pounding now, louder than my heart beat, which is pretty dang loud right now, by the way.

A muffled voice outside: Should we break it down?

A different voice with a slight cowboy accent: Naw, the old lady'd have a heart attack if she found out it was us.

Voice 1: Does it matter?

Cowboy guy: O'course it does, Phantom. 'Member what the boss-

Phantom: It doesn't matter what the boss said, he also said to be sure she's dead, and I swear the little witch felt her here.

Let's go. Ashley says telepathically. This way.

She leads me through the dark warehouse and it becomes apparent that she is casting a muffling spell to block our sound from the guys outside.

I hear the door burst open behind us, proving that "Phantom" won the argument.

Ashley? I test our telepathic connection.

Yep? I'm on-line.

Ashley, you don't have to come with me. It won't matter to me if you don't, but it will matter, and I mean a LOT, if you die. And if you stay with me, that will most likely be the case. I care about you, and I love you, and I love your company, but I don't want you to die, and esspecially if it's because of me. I should have known my words would be wasted.