S.H.A.D.E. [{ Completed }]✔ (#Wattys2018)

Down With Benson

22.

My eyes do open.

I am in the back of the Impala, leaning on Beige. I am too groggy to move, and besides, I can't see out of my left eye, and the injuries I sustained from the Demons flare up full force once I am conscious, so any motion is out of the question, if I can help it.

Beige notices I am awake. "Hey, Ebony. Back from the land of the dead, I see?" he teases. What a time to tease.

"Did... is everyone safe?"

"Everyone but old Benson!" I hear Alabaster hoot from the driver's seat. "Fucker had no clue what hit him! Violet and Fuisha pulled the fire alarms and destroyed the breaker to the Hotel. The rich folk all started stampeeding all over the place like a herd of damn cows when it was lights out. While everyone was running around with their heads cut off, Beige and I totally massacred the rest of security, and Benson, we grabbed him right off the shitter, pants down and everything." He barks his laughter, and I am worried he'll crash the car if he keeps it up. "And you know what I said to him? Beige, tell em what I said!"

Beige rolls his eyes. "It wasn't even that good."

"Fine, I'll tell it. I said, 'so it looks like we all shit the same after all'. Isn't that on some intense philosophical shit?"

"A real Aristotle," Violet whispers sarcastically to herself, and I notice for the first time that she is on my other side. She looks a little haggard, but her expression is guarded as always.

"So," I ask, "what happened to Benson?"

"Silver and Rouge took him back to Reg's front," Beige explains. "He's got a long night ahead of him."

I try to nod my understanding, but my head throbs at the movement, so I just grunt in response.

"Got yourself a shiner there," Fuisha says from the passenger's seat, twisting around to look at me. Her expression has changed. She is regarding me with respect.

"It'll heal," I murmur.

"You were sensational, Eb," Al hits the steering wheel, riled up with energy I wish I possessed. "You took out six floors by yourself. That's, like, a whole new record. You really sliced em and diced em back there!"

I wince at his choice of words, thinking of the feeling of sinking the knife into that Demoness. "I was awful," I practically whisper.

"Hey, all the best rock stars pass out in their own vomit," Fuisha consoles, except I find this anything but consoling since it has nothing to do with the fact that I am now and forever an official murderer.

"Of Demons. There are worst things."

Yes. Copper thinks that every time his Shade dies, it's he who has killed them.

Does he know I know this? Am I supposed to be able to transcend my place as a Shade, to Sync with him so completely?

It feels stronger now than before. I can feel him there, no doubt about it now, no trick of the mind. He is with me. Does he feel the same?

This is a curious feeling, and I'm scared to comment on it. I get Copper now more than I did before, but I also know that his interests lie with keeping Sofia and his family safe from both S.H.A.D.E and the Necro Proxy.

My aims are different. I want to get Gold's attention so that he will grant me permission to have my old life back.

We are different, but we are the same. We have to be the best.

"How did we do?"

He's surprised I have asked this.

"Fine. You generated a lot of talk with the Primaries. I didn't tell you before going in, but most Blacks would have died in that mission. It was a suicide one."