Mortal Shadows.

[Chadwyck]

(OoC-Invite Only)

Chad had just turned down his street, the street that he'd trudged up and down so many times before. He was a tall silhouette against the setting sun and the seventeen year old student was exhausted, a long boring day at his nothing special school, followed by an unbearably dull session of detention that was his punishment for knocking out some poor misguided fool that made a mockery of him sitting alone at lunch. Of course, this was nothing new, he had always been subject to many cruel jokes and pranks, but today it pushed him over the edge and that was somewhere not easy to get him. His medium length black hair clung to his face, it was pouring not long after he left the school and had just let up not far from where he was. The Sun had broken through the clouds not long ago and Chad had to turn his green eyes that seemed to glow in the bright light toward the ground. His vintage wash jeans and his black T-shirt that sported a band picture of the Clash, were soaking through to his skin, his black leather boats were heavier than usual, he wished he'd have worn his knee length trench coat that was in his closet. He had not but reached the front door when an eerie silence fell, from what he imagined, for miles around. He unlocked the door set down his book bag and plopped down on the couch and still heard not a sound in the clinging silence that hung in the air.

"It's nothing," he said to himself, and then repeated, "Nothing at all, just my imagination...I must be more tired than I thought." He flipped the television on and the static reflected in those glowing green eyes, he changed the channel but nothing happened, the same static, like something was interfering with the signal. He turned off the television and walked over to the window, he swore that it was just his mind playing tricks, maybe his television was just on the fritz, nothing serious. He turned away but quickly turned back, he could've sworn he'd seen something move just then, just out of the corner of his eye. He went outside and looked down the long quiet street and as he looked around the air around him grew chilling, he was even shivering...a shadow had fallen over the street, though nothing was blocking the sun, still sinking lower into the horizon. He felt like something was waiting, watching and he felt the sensation send shivers down his spine. He turned on his heels and ran as quickly as he could to his parents room, he flung the door open, it was empty. He felt hopelessly alone, he grabbed his fathers spare key and ran to the car still parked in the drive way. He had to go somewhere public, somewhere that was never empty, just to feel the presence of other people, just to make sure he was not alone, not really. He had just reached the door and inserted the key, when he felt that same shiver down his spine and hopped into the truck and looked around, the air about him was getting frosty and he wanted the warmth of human company, he drove as fast as he could to the mall just about a mile down the road. The feeling stuck to him and he saw the same shadow fall across the whole of the mall, but at least he could see others, they were all about him walking here and there and he felt their presence, but he also felt the presence of something more ominous in the back of his mind taunting him and then night fell and his feeling of horror became reality...

It started off small but it grow with the darkness of the night, he didn't know what is was exactly...it came like the wind but looked like a shadow. But then suddenly became all to real. A monstrous being 15 feet high stared down at him, he couldn't believe what he was seeing all he knew was that it was nothing good. He cried out, "Help! Help! It's unbelievable! Clear out you idiots get away while you can!" The faces turned and looked at him, bewildered, they thought him insane, they couldn't see what was standing right in front of them and he thought he heard the monstrous thing laugh as it took a giant step toward him. His first, rather, only impulse was to run, to get away, he just had to get away. The shadow beast acted as if it had read his mind and reached down to grab him but he barely managed to avoid capture and he ran, with his greatest speed, away toward the mall, his makeshift sanctuary. The beast reacted to his escape by picking up the nearest vehicle and flinging it toward him, only at this did the other people around the scene begin to panic, running this way and that trying to figure out what had just happened, still unaware of the monster at it's source.

The beast was made of what could only be decribed as solidified black tar, it had no mouth or nose but had two yellow, bloodshot eyes, it's fingers were pointed as though it's hands weren't hands at all but two halves of an extremely large iron maiden that had only five spikes per side. It's body was covered in chains that were made of some sort of glowing violet matter, the chains hung broken around it's waist, up to it's shoulders, circled the neck and ran intertwining around the tree trunk thick arms. Chad had just managed to make in through the door when he felt it's thunderous stomps approaching...

 

[Sem]

Lights flashed and reflected off the shimmering windows of a black Toyota Supra as it raced and weaved around cars down a road. Dusk was upon the inhabitants of the west coast of America. LA unveiled its lights to the sky. Inside this car was human, male, just barely tall enough to see over the steering wheel and the road ahead, even though he was 19. His grey eyes peered out under his black hair, black hair which had purple highlights. He wore an emotionless expression on his brown skinned face, a face that was smooth and no facial hair to speak of.

The car swerved into a parking lot of a mall, a mall that was quickly emptying of people. Wild screams could be heard and the roar of something giant assaulted the ear drums of anyone in the vicinity. A light came from an object hanging around his neck: a pendant, and old pendant. It was made of gold, though the gold was aged and it did not shimmer. It was covered in runic symbols that glowed purple.

"That means there's one here." He whispered to no one but himself. He got out of the car and opened the trunk, grabbing a long case from it. He closed the trunk and ran towards the mall. His attire was nothing fancy, a plain dark purple t-shirt. A black hoodie sweatshirt was worn over the shirt, grey stripes went up the sleeves and onto the shoulders. On his legs were grey cargo pants that went down to cover up his boots, black boots, which buckled and clinked and clanged as he ran.

As he neared the building he could hear destruction coming from the inside, people scrambled out of the doors, running from something they could not see. He quickly slipped past the people coming out and began sprinting past the store outlets to find the cause of this mess. He stopped by a bench, quickly putting down his case and opening it, revealing a spear. He snatched up the weapon and left the case. The spear glimmered, being made of silver it was able to beautifully reflect any light cast on it. The shaft of the spear had the same kind of runic patters at the medallion did. The spear tip was long, and two shorter but broader spear heads were melded onto the sides, a piece of purple silk was tied to the base of the spearhead.

The man was able to locate the location of what he was chasing, it was in a department store, ravaging everything, and its heavy foot steps made the area shake. It was after a human, a human that could obviously see it. The spear wielding person ran straight up to the creature and began to engage it with his weapon. He nicked the beast on its arm, and it cried out in pain, though muffled, as it mouth seemed to be nonexistent. The creature grunted as it lifted a rack of jeans and threw it. The fighter dove out of the way and was able to force the spear into its other arm. More screams of pain and annoyance as the creature tried to attack its assailant again.

This continued for several minutes, the human attack the beast and evading its attacks, until finally he was able to slide under the behemoth and stabbed its heart with the spear. The runic patterns on the spear erupted into a brilliant violet color as energy surged into the monster's body. The energy finally caused the thing to fly off the spear and into a wall, where it seethed and writhed in unbearable pain, before vaporizing into a cloud of black smoke, and fading away entirely from the world. The victorious spearman sighed heavily, and gazed at the teenager who was being chased by the beast. Terror was the only expression on his pale face.

He slowly walked towards the boy, who in actuality was not much younger than he was. "Come with me." he said, before turning and making his way back to the vehicle, grabbing his weapon case and putting the spear back in as he did. If the boy could see the Skia Thirio, as that is what the beast was called, then that must mean he's a descendant of the Ancients... That in turn would mean many things for the teen, as he would embark on the greatest adventure of his life. This mysterious savior would act as his guide, and companion as they would have to seek out and destroy an ancient evil that has awakened.

 

[Chadwyck]

Chad stood waiting with terror induced beads of sweat dripping down his face, the stomps of the creature were growing closer. He turned and saw the terrified faces around him, of people who couldn't even see the terror that was growing ever closer. The creature smashed it's way through the walls, and Chad found himself running again, toward anyplace that seemed safe. He ran into a nearby department store, and it wasn't long at all before the beast found him again, only now Chad was cornered.

The beast was smashing through the store, grabbing at Chad. He was lucky to still be able to evade the creatures greedy hands attempting to strike him down. The beast grew close and Chad was paralyzed with fear as he found himself staring directly into the creatures eyes. He would have to accept he couldn't do anything to stop it, this was the end, his life was over before he'd even really been able to live. He closed his eyes and braced himself for his imminent demise, when he heard the creature screech in pain. He opened his eyes to see a man, seemingly not much older than himself, attacking the giant beast with a spear made out of silver, and it reflected every bit of light that hit it and it was glowing with purple runes up and down the shaft.

The man had stabbed the beasts arms, so that shrieks of pain and irritation, were erupting from the non existent mouth. The beast was swinging and the man was dodging until finally he plunged the spear deep into the beasts chest and it was flung against the wall and dispersed into black smoke. Chad was awestruck, he was staring at the wall the creature had flown into and kept expecting it to reappear any moment and attack all over again. He was gasping for breath and leaned against a wall that he'd been forced against trying to escape, he closed his eyes and tried to make sense of what he'd just seen. when he opened his eyes again the man was approaching him and he felt an odd mixture of admiration and intimidation from his savior. When the stranger approached him he said no more than to follow him and as quickly as he'd approached he turned away and began to leave.

It took a few moments for it to register that the stranger had given him the command to follow and he picked himself up off the ground and fell into step a few yards behind this stranger who'd appeared from nowhere and saved his life. He was filled with questions and figured that this man would be able to answer them. "Excuse me, but who exactly are you?" The man put the spear back into a case that was laying a ways from the department store. "What is that thing?" He indicated the spear and pointed at it. "Just what exactly is going on? Where did that thing come from and what was it?" He stopped walking and spoke loudly, sort of half yelling, "You have to know because apparently you've fought a one of those before! How many are there?! And what do they want with me?! I was just minding my own business what in the heck did I do to this thing?!" Then a thought came to Chad, and his voice dropped like he didn't have the strength to speak, "How did you know where to find me and how did you do whatever you did to stop it?"

 

[Sem]

As the mysterious man continued walking he was assaulted by a horde of questions from the teen, but it was to be expected, he was attacked by something you'd only see in movie's after all, but nonetheless.

"You like to ask questions, don't you?" he asked the teen. "It can't be helped, not your fault." He walked for a bit more in silence, making it out into the parking lot. "My name is Soren and I am a person much like you. That thing is called a Skia Thirio, its a creature from the Realm of Darkness, remnants of ancient times. You are one of the few people in existence that can actually see one, which is why it attacked you, because you are a menace to them." Soren paused again, still walking.

"I have fought these before, quite a few actually, as to how many exist... nobody knows. As to how I found it, and you. The medallion around my neck, its actually a map... It glows whenever one is about to enter this world, and continues glowing until the beast is defeated. It can only be injured by a certain weapon, a Blessed Weapon. That is what my spear is." he lifted case up a bit. He turned to face the teen, looking up a bit, do to being the shorter of the two. "Now you'll have to come with me, because I'll need your help to defeat these things, something that should have been done millenniums ago... Also because being caught here when the police and rescue workers come would be bad for us."

Soren opened up the trunk of the car, putting his weapon inside and then shutting it. He climbed into the driver's, "Get in." Soren said. As soon as the teen was in the car he sped away from the scene. "First things first, you need a weapon, and you need to learn how to use it."

 

[Chadwyck]

Chad grew abruptly silent at the first words out of the strangers mouth, he had been asking a lot of questions. He was about to apologize when the stranger spoke again.

Soren. So his saviors name was Soren, a little bit unusual but he felt a little bit more confident knowing his name. But he didn't stop there he was actually answering Chad's questions, Chad was glad that Soren knew what was going on, simply because he'd longed to find out what exactly was happening and why. Soren had said they were called Skia Thirio, He thought that it sounded familiar, but he hadn't the time to figure out why exactly. "So these...Skia Thirio? They attacked me just because I can see them?" Chad raised hand and wiped his brow, "Well, that's great, I don't even know how I can see them, what makes me so special?" Soren led Chad to an incredibly nice car out in the parking lot. Soren had found him because of a map, and he was in his debt because of it. As Soren put his spear back into the trunk of the car, he told Chad to get in. And Chad could here the sirens of approaching emergency vehicles rushing to the scene. As soon as he'd climbed into the seat, Soren sped off.

"So we're the only ones who can see them? But why do you need my help to stop these things, you seemed to handle yourself pretty well back there." He looked over at Soren with a sort of admiration. He owed his life to Soren and he knew that he had to do something about these Skia Thirio, If people were getting hurt because of him then he had to fight to protect them. And if what Soren said was true then these things had been around for thousands of years.

"Well, you said I needed a weapon, so you got another one of those Blessed Weapons lying around?" He could guess the answer, but he didn't think it'd hurt to ask. After all, with every bad thing that'd happened to him today, he might be overdue for some good news. He leaned back in the seat, he hadn't even thought about how tired he was, up until now he had too much adrenaline coursing through him. He was lying back to fall asleep when he sat up quickly. "Oh my God, what about my parents?" He turned to Soren, "They won't even know where I've gone, they weren't there after I got home. Soren those things wouldn't go after them would they?" He stared intently waiting for an answer, he was anxious to here the answer though, he didn't want more bad news.

"So where're we off to first then?"

 

[Sem]

Soren was silent as he drove, only speaking to answer the boy. "I wouldn't ask about your parents, if you haven't seen them today like you normally would... then you never will again... Sorry... As for where we're going, that's up to you. We need to find you a weapon, and since I don't simply have another 'lying around', we'll have to find you one." Soren took his right hand off the wheel and tossed the teen his medallion. "Hold it in your hands, and tell me when it starts to glow."

And then more silence, that kind of uneasy, weird silence that was always shared by two strangers. "And while we're waiting for that, mind telling me your name?"

 

[Chadwyck]

The news about his parents shocked Chad, especially the fact that Soren said it so blatantly. Chad turned his head away and looked out the window at the passing scenery, the same things that he and his parents drove past so many times. Like so many other things he hadn't realized how much he loved them until they were gone, and he didn't even get to say it to them before they'd gone. He was so lost in his own that's that he'd nearly been smacked upside the head by the medallion that Soren passed at him, he took it and stared intently waiting for the faintest glow to emit from the runes carved upon the face of the medallion, grateful for something to take his mind off of things.

The silence grew uneasy, the air was thick with the awkwardness between them, Chad jumped a little when Soren had suddenly spoke. "Oh, yeah...Sorry I'd forgotten, my name's Chad." In the confusion and sudden meeting between the two of them Chad hadn't even thought to tell Soren his own name, even after demanding Soren tell his. He returned to his appointed job of waiting for any indication of the strange light that he'd seen earlier when Soren had rescued him. The fact that these creatures had attacked his parents had kindled a burning inside him, the anger that the Skia Thirio had killed his parents was growing inside him as the initial shock of the news was shrinking and the urge to avenge his parents was breaking through, he'd help kill every single one of these things if he had to, he wouldn't rest until there were no more of these things left. He would slaughter them all to keep them from the world and to make sure that no one else would get hurt.

Thoughts of his parents last moments were filling his mind, had they been able to see the horror that was the cause of their deaths or, like everyone else, were they blind to the fact that the monstrous creatures were right in front of them. He could only picture them afraid, waiting for their demise, whispering amongst themselves as they hid in some corner somewhere, and then, the creature found them and his father would try to defend his mother and...He forced his thoughts to stop there.

As he was thinking about his parents his memories of the past came flying into his minds eye and he was reliving all of the best times with his parents. Then he remembered, "Skia Thirio..." He whispered, then he continued, "I remember, my father would tell me stories of them when I was little, he described them exactly as I saw that one tonight...He said that the story of the Skia Thirio was past down from my family for as long as he could remember, the story was thousands of years old. I always thought that it was just like any other bedtime story, but as I got older, he stopped telling me the story, I'd nearly forgotten it."

He looked to Soren, "These Skia Thirio have been around for millennium's, right? My father spoke of a sword that belonged to one of my oldest ancestors, but it was lost, it hasn't been seen for hundreds of years. Could it be one of these Blessed Weapons? The story goes that it had the power to repel the "shadows" and after seeing what I've seen today, I'm guessing that the "shadows" from the story can only be the Skia Thirio. It's only a story, but it might be worth a look, and if the medallion starts to glow then we know it's there." He looked at Soren waiting for a response, he hoped that the stream of information he had just blurted out was of any use at all, but he figured that Soren would know if the information was in the least bit credible.

 

[Sem]

"Ha! Your family did a good job of keeping their legacy it seems." Soren said as he stopped at a stop sign. "There is indeed a Blessed Weapon in the form of a sword on this earth, so your little bedtime story wasn't just a story it seems, huh?" He continued driving. Perhaps guiding Chad wouldn't be so hard, but who could say. Looking for this weapon could be more than they bargained for, and it will certainly be guarded.

Once we got the sword, he would need lot's of practice with wielding it properly, and fighting ability. But he'd make a great hero, if trained right. It all fell on Soren to teach him everything, and the other descendants of the Ancients needed to be found, where they were no one knew. Soren sighed, breaking the silence. No one ever said it'd be easy, he was 16 when he first found out about everything, he learned so much in the three years after that. His parents were killed too, by these creatures. It was his grandmother who taught him everything. Everything but how to wield a spear, that came with a good teacher, and practice.

There was a bump on the road, stirring things in the car. "Whoops, sorry there. Been a bit quiet." Soren apologized. "Well met, Chad. Now tell me, what does our little trinket say?"

 

[Chadwyck]

His family's legacy? Chad couldn't believe that his family, that he'd never really thought to be anything more than average, had a legacy that also involved these creatures. The Skia Thirio were more involved with his life than he'd known and he hadn't even known that they were real until an hour ago. He tried to think why his parents had stopped telling him stories about the Skia Thirio and this sword that Soren had confirmed was real, but everytime he thought he remembered why his parents had stopped telling him stories, the memory would slip away or it would only be his mind making him believe that it was a real memory.

Things were now silent in the car, giving Chad time to think. If his family had known these were real, why hadn't they told him that this might happen? Why weren't they better prepared? Why did they have to go and get themselves killed? The only logical answer Chad could think of was that they didn't know, but if they really had been apart of that story they'd told him for so many years, how was it possible that they didn't have anything to protect themselves with at all? He decided that if his parents weren't prepared to finish what his family started, he would be, he wouldn't let himself be left defenseless, he would fight and at least he had someone to teach him how. Chad knew virtually nothing about Soren, all he knew was that he felt like he could trust him, not only because he saved his life, but because he seemed to know what Chad was going through. A few questions came to mind, but Chad lost them as the car hit a bump in the road.

Chad had nearly forgotten all about the pendant he'd supposed to have been watching, he'd been turning it over in his hands, absent minded, while he spoke to Soren of the stories he'd heard and while his mind wandered through the barrage of thoughts and memories that he waded through in the silence. "Oh, right, the medallion." He looked down at the medallion and noticed a faint glow emanating from the runes, "It's glowing, but it's only faint, not like when you were fighting the Skia Thirio at the mall." Chad handed the medallion back to Soren.