"Ow!" I say as I land on the cold, metallic floor. I get shivers from it right away. Maud suddenly lands on his feet right by me. I gasp and retract my hand from his nearby foot.
His orange hair stands straight up as he smiles looking down to me, "The first trip is always the worst." He holds out a hand and helps me up.
"So this is the Shadow compound?" I ask looking around. He nods, "It could use more light."
He laughs, "Well it is underground."
"Really?"
"Yeah, not like you haven't been living underground for the past month or so."
"What do you mean?"
"The Omega compound. It's underground too."
"No, it has an entrance to a huge building."
"It slowly declines," he frowns, "You really think they could fit that much in the little space they own?"
I shrug, "Never really thought about it."
"Come on, let me show you around," I follow Maud through the hallway. It feels different than the Omega's halls, like I'm trespassing.
We encounter our first person. She looks at Maud and frowns. "You." She gets off the wall and storms to us. She has dark green hair with bright green highlights. She's wearing an off the shoulder black shirt and gray jeans.
Maud holds up his hands in defense, "Mia, just give me a second—"
She pushes him and he bumps into me by accident. I move out of his way and Mia backs him up more, "You think you can just ditch me like that?"
"Mia—"
"We were supposed to go prank..." She eyes fall on me and she scoffs, "If you think you can ditch me for another girl, you should get a new brain." She faces me, "Who's this chick anyways?" She takes a step towards me and I cower. She may be small, but I have no doubt she can take me right now.
"That's Zoey," Maud says stepping in between us. I relax a bit.
Mia eyes bug out, "But Spirit said—"
"Spirit didn't try hard enough," Star's voice sounds stern. We look and see him coming around a corner. "Zoey, come with me. I'd like you to meet some people."
I tentatively follow and so does Maud and Mia. The dark hallways are quiet. I can imagine not too many people live here considering how selective this group is. I still expect some sound though, not this dead silence.
"Hey Zoey," Mia calls. I look back and wait for her to continue. "What happened to your face?"
I look forwards again, eyes shooting to the ground, "Oh, I was hit," I respond softly.
"What happened to your sides, then? Were you hit there too?"
Star stops and turns around, "What?"
"Bruises. All over her sides and front," Mia squints, "Wow, an almost ruptured spleen too?"
"Mia," Star says sternly.
She shrugs, "What? Just telling you what I feel."
Star's eyes fall to me, "Not a big deal? You just got a punch?"
I look down and say nothing.
We continue waking and Maud says, "Where are we going?"
"The meeting room."
"Is everyone there already?"
"Should be."
I feel nerves, "Who's everybody?"
"Twenty-three Shadow members." I freeze. Star sighs, "Calm down Zoey, you already know five of them. Including Maud, Mia and I."
"That's only five though!" I harshly whisper, "I can't meet eighteen new people all at once."
"Zoey, they want to meet you," Maud says, "They've been waiting for fifteen years to meet you."
"Maybe I don't want to meet them," I mumble. Maud shifts his footing and I ask, "Is my father in there?"
Star's face falls saying, "No."
Mia follows up saying, "Phillip is though."
Crap, I totally forgot he joined them! "He can't see me like this!" I gesture to my eye.
"He won't speak. Phillip's a very strategical person. He won't make a scene."
"Thought you said it was a family compound. Don't families have fights?"
"This family has its order," Star replies.
We continue walking and we get to a dark blue door and Star sighs, "Ready?"
"No."
He scoffs and turns the handle.
When the door opens I hear chatter right away. Some voices sound familiar while some sound foreign. Once they realize the door is opening, they quiet down. Star steps in and says, "I'm honored to introduce to you all, White Shadow's daughter and inheritor, Zoey Ram."
He moves suddenly and I'm now looking at a group of people. They are all either sitting on the floor or standing with each other. I notice a pattern in their outfits. Black and gray. Maybe a few accents from person to person, but mostly black or gray.
The first person that comes up to me is an older women. She looks me up and down. She has creases from frowning as well as a furrowed brow. She gently touches my cheek with her hand. Finally she nods, "A mix between White Shadow and Vision. She's beautiful." She turns around to face the group, "Zoey Ram, I see you."
They all stand and repeat her, "Zoey Ram, we see you." It's a bit odd, but I gather a smile to give back to them.
Star leans in to me and says, "It's customary to reply, 'Then I must be here.'"
I look to the older woman in front of me and I say, "You see me, then I must be here."
She gives a wise smile and nods, "Yes you are my dear. Yes you are." She moves away from me and everyone goes back to their conversations. I kinda like the difference they bring. Just looking around and listening, I can feel all the types of personalities in the room. There may only be twenty-three people, but it feels like the Omega compound. So friendly and peaceful.
I start to notice other things. Like the group is majority male, but the women aren't far behind. Out of the twenty three people in front of me, I see thirteen men and ten women. Most have color to their hair. The ones that don't I'm guessing married into the compound.
Maud brings over a purple haired kid, "You remember Spirit right?"
"Hard to forget him," I reply.
Spirit smiles, "Hey about the other day—"
"Stop there, you don't need to continue. I was being too harsh on you for doing what you were told to do. My apologies."
"Let's just call it even and then I can introduce you to my dad." We leave Maud and Spirit leads me to a tall guy, who is probably the only normal hair colored guy that was born into this compound. He turns to us and Spirit says, "Zoey, this is Terra." He smiles and shakes my hand. He's tall, like most of the Shadow's here. I notice his brown shirt match his clean cut hair.
"It's nice to meet the kid everyone's been talking about. I've been hearing a lot of compliments about you."
"I wouldn't call them compliments." More like stories about a freak child.
"I would," he says nodding his head.
A lady, probably his wife, peeks from behind him and says, "He considers reputation a high goal. You my friend, you've met his goal." She wiggles a finger at me.
I don't know wether that's a compliment or a warning. I didn't really want to meet a goal of a reputation. Come to think of it, I barely wanted a reputation in the first place.
Spirit is about to take me to someone else but my brother stops him. "Can I talk to my sister for a bit?"
"Sure," Spirit agrees and Phillip leads me away.
Once we get to the back wall, he looks at me with concern, "What happened?"
"Nothing, just a little fun gone wrong."
"That's a fist mark."
"Is it that recognizable? Gosh."
"Zoey, who hit you?"
"It doesn't matter," I say quickly, "Right now I need you to help me learn about this compound. I don't like being around people I don't know." He reluctantly nods.
We face the people in front of us. They're all mingling and having a good time. They are really close. Phillip points to Mia, "Let's start with her." He takes a breath in, "Her name is Mia, and she's an only child. Her father is Toxic Shadow, the green haired guy over there," Phillip says points at a man standing with Star.
"Does she have an ability?"
"They don't mark abilities here. That's not what they focus on."
"Okay, but what can she do? What would we mark her as?"
"I suppose you can brand her as a healer. She can sense injuries, but I don't have the faintest idea as to how she does it." Phillip eyes me again. I know he wants to ask more questions, but he doesn't seem to try. He points to a young guy with bright red hair, "That's Molten. He's Mia's cousin. His Mom is right there," Phillip points to a woman talking with Toxic. "Jane and Toxic are brother and sister."
"Who were their parents?"
"Black Shadow and Kristina," he points to an older group in the back. Kristina was the lady who evaluated me. She seems to be sitting with straight posture and an expressionless face.
"Is that one whole line of Shadows?" I ask.
Yes. There's three main branches all coming from the first Shadow. The oldest kid was his daughter, May. She married a guy named Fred and had Gray Shadow, who married and had Terra Shadow."
"And from Terra Shadow, came Spirit."
"Yes, the most intelligent in my opinion."
"Who started our line?"
"He was called Smoke Shadow. He had two kids, Shadow Star and our dad, White Shadow."
I frown, "We're a generation behind."
"Yup."
"Well that makes it less complicated," I say sarcastically, looking around a room of relatives. When I was little I got used to having that one grandma from John's side that came twice a year, and did nothing but curse and smoke cigarettes in our house. Now I have to memorize names and relations and who's friends with who and who's married with who. "Man, I'm not used to this."
"Don't worry, you'll get it eventually. You always do."
I lean back on the wall and gently hold my torso.
"You going to tell me who hurt you?"
"Only if you tell me why I'm really here."
"Can't you just enjoy a family for once?"
"Phillip, they didn't bother to acknowledge us until I suddenly became useful."
He looks to me, "So you're saying that the interest they have for you is the reason why they've been so good to me? I'm just an aftermath of them trying to get on your good side?"
"I didn't mean it that way, and you know I don't think of you like that," I argue.
"Like what? Just the powerless brother that has managed to be in his little sister's shadow?"
"Phil—"
"You know what, you don't have to trust them, and you can go back to your abusive compound for all I care. But get this straight, I'm here because they actually care about me." Phillip shakes his head and walks away from me. I sigh and try to rub the frustration from my face.
"Stay for a little longer," I look up and see Maud walking towards me. "I know this is probably the last place you want to be, but just stay a little long, please."
"What if my friends start to worry about me?" I argue.
"They won't worry for long. You won't be gone forever," he leans on the wall beside me.
"What my brother said, about you guys seeing him for himself, is that true?"
"I hope so," he glances over to me. "Want to take a walk? I can show you some more of the compound."
"Why not? This is a bit too big of a crowd for me."
Maud and I push off the wall and I follow him out the back door of the room. "Where do you want to go?"
"I have no idea, what are my choices?"
"Well, we have a cafeteria, a few training rooms, sleeping quarters, and an office. Not much I know, but we can have some fun exploring."
"Lets go to the training rooms first," I offer and he smiles.
"Good choice." He turns left and I follow behind him.
"Wait!" We hear someone call us from behind. I turn and see Mia striding over to us. "Where do you think you are taking her? She's the guest of honor."
"The guest of honor doesn't feel very honorable right now, so I just wanted to cheer her up," Maud explains.
"Without me?" Mia asks, as if it was the stupidest idea ever.
"I guess not, come on we are going to show her the training rooms."
We continue down the hallways and I take note of their lack of sound once again. "Why are the hallways so quite?"
"What do you mean?" Mia asks.
"At Omega, the hallways always seem to have some sound. If not footsteps then voices or buzzing of the lights. Even the vents make sound. How come it's so quite in here?"
"I don't know," Maud says. "But now that you say that I know what you mean. Omega is quite louder."
Mia shrugs and we turn one more hallway before we stop at a dark red door. "This is training room one."
Maud opens the door and I follow Mia in. She turns on the lights and I see an archery area to my left as well as an obstacle course to my right. "Whoa," I say under my breath.
"This room is for developing motor skills and hand-eye coordination," Maud explains. He starts to move towards the archery stations, "Want to try?"
"Uh, sure." I walk over and he hands me a bow and quiver. He shows me how to put an arrow in and then I work it out a bit more on my own.
"I bet you she misses the target," Mia says.
Maud smirks, "I bet she gets a bullseyes on her first try."
"Alright calm down," I say. "I probably am going to miss."
I aim the bow and line the arrow with the bullseyes and let go of the string. We watch the arrow fly through the air with precision and it hits accurately at the farther edge of the target.
"Okay, I guess we were both wrong," Mia says. "Try again."
I repeat the actions and we see the arrow hit the lower edge of the target.
"I thought you had like perfect aim," Mia asks me.
"Who said that?"
"I don't know, everyone I guess. You are known to have Vision's eyes, I mean you must be good at aiming."
"I'm not my mother," I say as I reload the bow.
"Never said you were, I'm just saying I thought you were better than that. Vision could hit the target dead on her first try."
"I'm not my mother!" I shout again and let the arrow fly.
It connects dead center, and the impact of the shot makes both the arrow and the target board crack.
Silence seems to invade the room from the hallway. I look over to my cousins, thinking they are going to be either mad or frightened, but instead I see amazement. "Told you she could hit the bullseye."
"That didn't even look like you put power into the shot, but clearly you did," Mia says. She laughs, "Damn, that's a good arm you got there."
"That wasn't her arm," someone says from the door. We all look over as see Spirit walking in, "You shot that arrow with your emotion, not your power."
"What's that mean?" Maud asks.
I look at him as he walks up to us. "You followed us?"
"Hard not to. These two are pretty loud," he says gesturing to Maud and Mia.
"Hey!" Maud shouts.
"See."
I laugh and set the bow back where Maud got it from. "Any reason why you followed us?"
"Star told me too. He says it's about time that you should go back."
I nod and set the quiver down as well. "Funny, I don't really want to leave now."
"He's in the hallway where you came in from, if you want I can show you the way."
"Yes please. I'm afraid I'll lose myself in here." I turn to Maud and Mia and say, "It was nice meet you guys. Hopefully I'll get a chance to hang out again in the later future. Oh, and sorry about the target."
Mia nods, "It was nice meeting you too."
"Don't worry about the target, I'm sure Terra can fix it," Maud assures.
I smile and wave goodbye to them as I follow Spirit out of the room. Once I'm sure we are alone I ask, "You're pretty smart, aren't you?"
"Smart has many definitions, you need to be a bit more specific."
"What's going on around here?"
"The Shadow Compound wanted to finally meet a member they haven't had the chance to before."
"No," I stop him, "You all have had plenty of chances. Why now?"
"We didn't, actually. When your mother was left with you two, she decided she didn't want us involved in your lives."
"Really?"
"She felt like you and your brother were still too young to understand who you really were. Plus she felt the pressure of living up to being the children of White Shadow would be too much."
"You guys had ten years after that to reach out, why didn't you?"
"We wanted to respect your mothers wishes."
"Exactly," I say. "If you really wanted to do that, then why are you pushing for the support of my brother and me? Why now?"
He looks around and sighs, "Zoey, you consider me a smart individual, and I consider you the same way." He looks up and we meet eyes, "So heed my warning. There's a storm coming, and right now everyone is grasping desperately for anything and everything they can in hopes that they'll come out alive. You should be doing the same."
"Ah Zoey, there you are," Star says from behind me.
Spirit waves to Star, "I see now that Star is here, you won't need me as an escort. I wish you a safe return home, Zoey Ram."
"That was very kind of you Spirit. Alright Zoey, we have to go before X realizing you've been gone for this long."
I nod to him and start to follow Star but I stop. I turn to Spirit and say, "I see you."
Spirit meets my eyes and nods, "Then I must be here." I don't know why that's their saying, but even I know it holds weight.
I wave goodbye to him and move to Star. I follow him into the hallway we came from, but I want to say something first. I don't usually call people out, but I'm feeling daring today. "You didn't come and bring me here because my family wanted to meet me. You brought my to test and see if I was really my father's heir." The portal, the hair, the interaction with the other Shadows, and the evaluation from the Kristina lady. All done to test if I have my father's ability or not.
"You can understand that though, right?"
"Understand that I was a mystery case that needed to be solved?"
"Your father was a strong man, but he had no responsibility. That's the only thing I was worried you might have inherited. I just thought all the hype about you having our ability was a lie, but now I know it's not."
I look at him, "What is the ability?"
He smiles, "We get that question from our younger members. We can't tell you the secret to your ability, because the secret is told through how you learn to use it."
"That hardly makes sense."
"Sleep on it, maybe it'll help." He takes the familiar orange glowing sphere and placing it to the ground, opening up the portal.
I step forward and say, "Thanks Star. I'm actually glad I kinda came."
"That's what Uncles are for," he says with a little sly smirk. "Hope to see you again Zoey." I wave one last time and walk through the portal.