"Get back!" Major Coleman ordered us. His men created a second wall of riot shields. Major Coleman directed us towards the entrance on the left of the gate. I went in last, allowing myself a glimpse of the Shade's elongated scythe arm slicing the line of soldiers through their waists in one swift stroke. The riot shields were useless.
We kept running. I looked back at the entrance, expecting the Shade to follow us through there. There was a sharp, metallic zing! and the gate fell in three parts, clanging against the concrete. Screams erupted. Major Coleman shouted for us to keep moving but it was too late. The Shade got to us.
Got me.
It grabbed me by my neck. It was crushing my throat. I clawed at the arm choking me. But under its soft, jelly-like skin, my fingers dug into its solid, fleshy inside. And it was cold. Freezing, biting cold. I kicked. I pulled. My friends tried their best to make the Shade let go. Leo smashed the searchlight he had on the Shade's arm. The Shade didn't even flinch. Demi was throwing stones at its face. Scarlet's tongue lashed out a string of insults and trash talks. But Caprice thought asking politely was the way to go.
Major Coleman stepped up to the Shade's side, leveled a gun at its head and pulled the trigger. But the Shade stood still, the bullet still lodged in its temple. Then I realize. It's completely still.
I raised a hand. "Guys...stop," I said, croaking out each word. They must have realized something's off too because they stopped. That's when the Shade's face was pulled apart and an empty skull pushed through.
The Shade's grip on my neck prevented me from screaming. But my arms were free. I dug my elbow on its arm repeatedly, frantic to get away but I was forced to watch as the eyes popped out of the empty eye sockets. The eyes rolled down to reveal brown pupils. Fibers of muscles started weaving themselves. It was like looking at an anatomical dummy in class, with the see-through bones and removable organs. But instead of plastic, this one is made of living flesh.
A screeching voice was coming out of the Shade and slowly becoming an unmistakable scream of that of a man. All the hair in my body stood up. This thing must have adapted its vocal cords to match a human's. A pair of ears grew out and brown skin stretches itself covering everything up till I am now looking at the face of a man. The nose had been the last to form.
Strands of shadow from the Shade's original body clung onto the side of the man's face like ligaments to bones. But the worst part is that I recognized this face. The narrow chin, the thick eyebrows, the mole beneath his left eye. There's no mistaking it. I saw him on one of the pictures Major Coleman showed us back at the museum. My friends shrieked and took a few steps back. Major Coleman ran away.
"You..." I croaked. I stopped struggling and focused more on getting the words out. "You're the...cult leader...Daniel...Cruz"
He let go of me. The moment I hit the concrete, arms slid under my armpits and I was whisked up to my feet. "I got you," Darius said. I rubbed my neck, coughing. It was sore. And hopefully, that's all. Soon, rows of soldiers surrounded the Shade, or rather Daniel, who was busy admiring his new body. Their U.V. searchlights on. But at this point, it was no different from a regular one. So they raised their firearms and opened fired.
"So this is my body now," The cult leader, Daniel, said after the barrage. His face was full of holes. But the wounds spat out the bullets and closed themselves up real Wolverine-like. "Not bad. Not bad at all."
"How...you," I said. I found myself moving closer to him. Curiosity and shock had overwritten my fear of dying.
He looked at me. "What year is it?"
"Um...2025."
"Fifty-one years, huh."
"You should be dead. And now you're...the Shade?"
"The Shade?" Daniel said, looking confused. "Oh, is that what you call this body?" He examined his arms again, smiling the entire time. "The Shade, huh? Catchy. I like it."
The soldiers were about to open fire again when I asked them to stop. "Someone's curious," Daniel said, clearly amused. He turned his attention to the soldiers. "Gentlemen, how about—"
The soldiers opened fire again. "Stop that!" Daniel's voice rose above the barrage. In an instant, tendrils shot out of his Shade body, destroying the soldier's weapons but sparing their U.V. lights. "It is very rude to interrupt someone," Daniel said. "Didn't they teach you that in the army?"
He took a step forward. The soldiers, again, pointed their U.V. lights at him to no effect.
"You want to know how I did it?" Daniel said to us.
"Screw that," Leo said, stepping forward as if everything that's happening is completely normal. He looked more angry than scared. "I want to know why the lights don't kill you anymore."
"Do you know where the moon gets its light?" Daniel said.
"It reflects the light from the sun," I said.
"Correct. Now, do you still see the moon?"
I thought that this was a stupid question. Or maybe a question to distract us so he can kill us all the minute we looked up. But if he wanted to kill us, he would have already done so. Then he looked up to the sky. We followed him and saw that something's missing.
"The—the moon's gone..." Indigo said.
It was true. There were stars. Some clouds. But the most obvious thing wasn't there.
"It's called the New Moon. A phase of the lunar cycle where the moon is positioned in a way that it doesn't reflect sunlight," Daniel explained. "It's not gone. It's still there; our eyes just can't see it."
"Thank you for the unwanted science lecture, professor," I said, my voice returning to normal. "But what does that how to do with anything?"
Daniel laughed. "There is a reason why my body, the Shade, can only appear during the night."
"That's because the sun is your weakness," Indigo said.
"Right again," Daniel said, wearing a proud smile. "Man, I am starting to like you. How about it? Want to join my brotherhood? Of course, girls are welcome, too. We're inclusive like that."
"Explain yourself first," I said.
"Very well, then. Yes, the sun is my weakness. It shuts the link the Primordials have on my soul close. So they cannot channel their energy through me. That's why the Shade cannot appear during daylight, even in the darkest places, like under the bed or inside the closet."
He laughed. "And you're thinking that U.V. lights are the same as sunlight. But you're wrong. It was the moonlight that made your U.V. lights lethal to me."
He walked toward us. The soldiers drew their sidearm and raised it at Daniel's face, "Get back!" one of them said, which was, of course, an empty threat. Some stood in front of us, as if that would make a difference.
"The moon reflects sunlight back to us here, greatly weakening my constitution that a poor imitation of the sun's ray, such as your U.V. lights, is enough to deconstruct my body. But now that the moon is dark, this"—he snatched a searchlight from one of the soldiers and holds it up—"can no longer harm me." he said, crushing the searchlight in his hand.
Now that the Shade has a voice and a face, and wants to toy with us, to brag about his newfound powers, I found myself less scared. Because now I know that he wouldn't kill us outright, and there's some comfort knowing that. Personally, I want some explanation of what we're seeing right now. Even though they know that they cannot do anything, the soldiers didn't abandon us.
"Is it just me, or the dude actually made a lot of sense?" Leo asked.
"But he's crazy," Cana said to Leo. She turned to Daniel. "Excuse me, you're crazy, you drink blood, you're not supposed to make sense."
Something landed on Daniel's feet. A small green canister. Gray smoke filled up the place, obscuring us from his vision. They must have received orders through their earpiece because the soldiers immediately put up a wall of riot shield in front of us, pushing us back before an explosion occurred where Daniel was standing. A succession of fireballs erupted. My ears were ringing. We may be safe from shrapnel but each explosion boomed inside my chest. And it was hot, like standing in front of an open oven. On our left, Major Coleman and his men, equipped with grenade launchers that looked like huge revolvers, were bombarding Daniel with explosive rounds.
The soldiers got us inside the building and dragged us inside a bare room with stackable plastic seats spread out, white walls and no windows. They must have thought we were safe here. But we all knew it was wasted effort. The U.V. lights were our only defense. And now it's gone.
"Maybe they can kill him," Demi said when the soldiers left us. "His head is human. Without a head, he can't kill us, right?"
No one answered. Outside, the explosions were still going on.
"We have to get out of here. Split up. Buy time till morning," Cato said. "It's our only chance."
"Your guardian doesn't know when he's beat," It was Daniel's voice. We whipped towards the direction of his voice. At the corner of the room, Daniel was standing. His face was whole, no burns, no pieces of shrapnel. "When do you think they'll realize?"
"Why are you doing this?" Caprice asked. "You've already won."
"Oh but I haven't..." Daniel said, walking up to us. "Not yet. Not until I have full control. New moon or not."
"And for that, you need our blood?" I asked. "What does our blood have to do with anything?"
"You zodiac borns are like battery cells for the Celestials' power," Daniel said. "The light within you, in your blood, in your flesh, no matter how strong, lies dormant. By consuming you, I can tap into the celestial energies inside. In its dormant state, it wouldn't harm me. In fact, by merely exposing it to the void energies in my body, I can corrupt it, transform it into void energies and use it to strengthen power, hence, my control. My body is that of the Void so it should work."
"So that's why you destroyed the other two safe houses so you can keep us all in one place to perform the ritual again," Cato said.
"Although I love the chase," Daniel leader said. "It will be a while before the next new moon so I'm kind of on a tight schedule here."
"So sunlight is still fatal to you?" I asked.
Daniel smirked. "Wouldn't you want to know?" He raised his hand and every shadow in the room darkened with the same hue of the Shade, as if gaining mass, becoming solid. Then the shadows crawled all over the walls, the door, the ceiling. "So we won't be disturbed." Daniel said.
It is impossible to miss someone, especially him, inside this room. We didn't notice him because he simply wasn't here. If his body is still the Shade, that he can just materialize at any location at will, then there's no running from him. Cato's plan wouldn't work.
All we can do is to discourage him from going on with his plan.