Shadows

Four - The Leaders

'Are you ok?' Leo is holding my shoulders.

'Yeah.'

I think.

'Are you sure?' he asks, concern shadowing his face, 'you're not going to faint or throw up?'

I try to reply but my tongue feels heavy and dry in my mouth.

'You've gone really pale,' he tightens his grip on my shoulders.

'Oh.'

'Please say something like, "I'm fine," or, "yes Leo, I'm ok"?'

I giggle and he smiles. My tongue loosens and I'm able to speak again.

'I'm fine, Leo.'

'Thanks,' he sighs, 'I should've warned you, some newbies faint their first time passing through shadows.'

I ignore his snark and continue to look around, 'where are we and how did we get here?'

'The centre of Little Middle Nature Reserve, roughly. This building is an old rangers' station.'

'Cool.'

'And we shadow jumped here. As I said before, I'll explain later. Now, the leaders are waiting so we need to get going.'

He grabs my wrist and we walk up to the door, carefully stepping over the rotting boards. He goes straight in without hesitation and I go with him. The room is incredibly dark. I suddenly feel very confident as Leo leads me to the back of the room. He leans against the wall the same way Kiki had at the Hang-Out and pushes to reveal a secret door.

He gestures for me to climb down the stairs first and quickly follows me. Metallic clicking sounds chime around us as the door slides back into place. The darkness feels nice and warm on my skin; like it is a part of me, it wants to protect me.

At the bottom of the stairs, I feel Leo jump over the last few steps. He lands beside me with a thump then quickly turns to stand in front of me, blocking my path.

'Before we go any further, I want to ask you some questions, ok?' he asks nervously.

'Ok,' I'm surprised, he doesn't seem like the fearful type.

'Ok, do you usually feel comfortable in the shadows?'

I think about hide-and-seek again.

'Most of the time but, sometimes, it feels like something bad is going to happen. But right now, I feel fine.'

'When you get that feeling, does something bad happen?' he waves around with his non-bandaged hand.

'Occasionally, but when it does, it's not that bad.'

Leo runs his hand down his face and then smiles at me again.

'Is that it?' I ask.

'For now,' he turns away from me, 'let's go.'

It is still very dark but I can see everything as we walk down the narrow hallway. I notice the coloured, wavering patterns on the wall again, though these are even more faded and worn. Only the colour green seems to stand out in the darkness.

As we make our way down the hall a subtle glow slowly grows around us. I can't see any light source though. We soon come to a door where the soft light has found its way between the cracks in the rotting wood. Leo pushes firmly on it and it swings open. I follow him inside.

Bookshelves line the walls of the room, filled with books of all colours and sizes. One set of shelves is covered in multiple folders; their spines embossed with what I'm guessing are peoples' names. The floor is covered in a soft, thick, black carpet. Dimmed lights create halos of deep-orange around the room, nothing in comparison to the bright white light coming from the back of the room.