The Shadow Creature

Chapter 22 - Catatonic

"I hope you're happy to hear that you're the reason he's dead."

Flashbacks of the previous months were flashing before William's eyes. He wore the same blank expression on his face as he relived through them all. In reality, William sat in the middle of a dark and lonely room, looking into the void.

In another room, Cindy stood in front of the computer. The screen showed the footage of Devin's friend with the cure. William's partner appeared and knocked the scientist out. She then took the cure and looked up at the camera.

The security footage stopped there, the last thing being shown was her face. Cindy rewinded the footage and didn't find anything else. She then ran her face through a program that helps with facial recognition. The results came up empty. Cindy sighed and looked down.

"Any luck?", Ivan asked, walking into the room. "Nope, not even a high tech program that Derek hacked into could tell us who she is", Cindy said, turning around. "So what? Is she a ghost?", Ivan joked. Cindy furrowed her brows.

"Like that's a stretch", he said. "Fair point", she said. "Has William snapped out of it yet?" "No, he's been like that for hours and we can't figure out why", Ivan explained. "I'm sure he would love to hear about what we found out", Cindy said, turning back to the computer.

The security footage popped up again. Ivan looked at her face and somehow recognized it. "That's who stole the cure?", he asked, walking toward the computer. "Yeah why?", Cindy questioned. "Because she looks familiar", he muttered.

"Wait, you remember our old childhood friend, Ivy?", Ivan brought up. "In other words, your ex", Cindy added. "Yeah, yeah, but doesn't she remind you of her?", he pointed out. "Not that much, but why are bringing her up?", she asked.

"When me and William went back into our old memories, everything was there for a reason, nothing was on accident. I just remembered that I saw Ivy in there", Ivan explained. "What does that have to do with her?", Cindy raised a brow.

"I know this might sound crazy, but what if Ivy is the person working with our bad guy?", Ivan theorized. Cindy shot him a confused face. 

"Come on, we've seen crazier. What, we've seen a toxic fog roll in, we had white beams shot into us, William died and came back to life with mind powers-". "I get it, alright? But even if that is Ivy, how could we tell?", Cindy questioned.

"Look up the recent records on Ivy, let's see if she's still around", Ivan suggested. Cindy turned back to the computer and ran Ivy's name through the program. Her records came up and they started skimming through them.

"Cyberstalking, totally isn't creepy", Cindy said with a sarcastic tone. "There, no one has heard of her since the beginning of 8th grade, they even filed a missing kid report", Ivan stated. "8th grade, after we left to go back to William's school", she added.

"Something definitely happened to her after we left", Ivan said. "So the person that could be working with our bad guy could be our old friend?", Cindy questioned. "The friend of your enemy is your friend".

Back in the creature's lab, a flash of light appeared. The creature and the girl exited. The creature then transformed back into human form and walked toward the device. "What happened? I thought I was supposed to attack", the girl said.

"Plans changed", it answered. "If they decode that message, they could kill you before you can-". "Let them decode the message", it interrupted. "Let them try and stop me", it turned to face her. "Little do they know that every step they take will only bring my plan into action".

"How can you be so sure?", she questioned. It scoffed and a smile appeared on it's face. "Because I know them, I know their fears and their strengths, I've been watching them for years, so I know exactly what they'll do", it explained.