Where Shadows Lurk (A Poor Example of My Writing Ability)

Darker than Night

    For the duration of what I can only guess to be weeks, I was not aloud to leave the warehouse. She would provide for me the food I would eat, the water I would drink, and the clothes I would wear. I didn't even realize that she was stockholming me.

    By the time I was aloud out of the warehouse I didn't even think about running away. The quiet rooms and stirring shadows became normal to me and the noises I used to hear are like calming music now.

    Standing outside with a full moon hanging over head, she said she was going to train me. She said I was unstable and didn't know how to handle my powers the way she wanted me to. That she could use me much easier if I knew what I could do. She had me training relentlessly.

    First thing she ever had me do, is fight her. I couldn't do it of course, because I came to view her as a source of protection. It was hard for me to fight her, but she didn't go easy on me. She would summon creature after creature to attack and slash at me, leaving cuts no deeper than paper cuts. However, the pain was equivalent to a million needles lashing at one spot.

    So, I fought back. My movements were fluid, like I was water and not a living thing. My whole body moved when I would conjure things from the night or wrap a blade around my arm to fight back against things she summoned. Eventually, I broke through her assaults. I lunged at her pinning her to the ground and stopping my blade engulfed hand inches from her neck. She started to laugh, my blood dripping from the many open wounds onto her.

    "That was not bad!" She laughed as her eyes glowed an eerie green and I flew back a few yards feeling drained all of a sudden.

    "T-thanks?" I said, unsure how to respond.

    She walked over to me, standing above me and holding out her hand to help me up, "Come on now my pet, we have more to do!" She cooed and I took her hand using her to lift myself.

    After that, we continued training. She would teach me some of her tricks and powers and in return I would have to master them, or I wouldn't get any food. She had me physically training as well. All the time I had spent doing nothing I had lost some weight but most of it was weight lost in muscle. She made me carry large rocks on my shoulders at all times and during all training. Sometimes she even had me try and climb the warehouse building . I never did get very far up but the climbing helped with my upper body strength.

    We developed a daily schedule. She would wake me up very, very early in the morning well before the sun rose so that there was plenty of darkness for us to use and we would fight each other with everything we had. I developed many scars and she too had scars of her own from me. However, I dared not to cause her mortal harm.

    After fighting, she would grab the stones connected by a metal rod and put them on my shoulders. She would declare, so that I understood clearly each day, that if I ever did choose to take them off of my shoulders that I would not eat for the rest of that day. I never did take them off.

    With the rocks over my shoulders she would move onto teaching me some of her skills and tricks. I would master them faster each day and eventually there was nothing more for her to teach me so during this time, she would just fight me with the rocks over my shoulders.

    Afterword, I would eat. Nothing large. She never did have much food at one time (I got the feeling she probably stole it from places). It was, however, enough. I would eat and then she would bring water and dump it into a crater in the warehouse where she would leave me to wash off with some soap.

    Then, she would give me time to do as I wished. There was never really anything to do around the warehouse and I usually spent the time trying to climb higher and higher up the side of the building.

    The days were the same for weeks and weeks. Eat, train, eat, climb, sleep, repeat. That was what my life consisted of for the longest time. I became used to it and never again had it occurred to me that there was anything wrong with her. She seemed normal. But then again, I had seemed normal to me. I thought after a while that I was perfectly sane. That staying with her was what I was supposed to do. I was meant to stay here and train with her because she needed to use me, and that was logical to me.

    This, of course, all changed. It was weeks into training, I had already been able to reach the top of the warehouse by climbing it and Shade had gone off somewhere to do whatever it is she did. I was bored. I sat in the middle of the room in the warehouse I knew all too well.

    That was when the cage shattered. I heard a noise, and from the corner of my eye, I saw her. When she saw me, her eyes widened. It was Neya. She had come to find me

    Unfortunately, when the cage shatters, so too do the shackles. I had no more control and she came by and ruined everything I had put up around me. To block out the truth, I had forgotten everything and let Shade rebuild my world. Neya showed up and ruined it.

    She takes a few steps toward me "J-Jordan?" She asks, reaching a hand out to me.

    I stand slowly and stare blankly at her, "I'm sorry" I whisper, my eyes beginning to glow I let myself glide into my fighting stance.

    "What are you doing?" She asks again, her voice shaky.

    She was scared, and I fed on it. But even still, "I'm sorry," I whispered again.