Chapter 1

So it begins

Shadows, pushed to the corners of everyone’s eyes. The only time someone truly sees a shadow is when they seek one out. I suppose in that way, I myself am a shadow. I used to be at the center of attention, a fact I loathed even as a child. As of now, in my life after years of hard work, I have established myself as a shadow.  With a name like Hariyama Stevens to go with my pointed eyes and fiery red hair, its a miracle I have hidden away.  For some, this life would be hellish but to me this is the only way to live.  But that was years ago, now I have everything set. Now no one talks to me or really mentions me, and if they do, I have a pre-loaded answer from whatever most people were into.

“What’s your favorite movie?”

“Frigide”

“What’s your favorite TV show?”

“The Shuffling Dead.”

And so the generic list continues. As for today, it is my favorite day of the year. It’s the winter solstice, the night comes early and no one is happy about it and on a Monday on top of that. I absolutely love Mondays and nights because no one really wants to talk then, which means I have less to deal with. As the dismissal bell for my shabby Brooklyn college ticked down to the last few moments left until I got to be blissfully alone, I could feel the spastic tingling of excitement boil up from within me. As the dismissal bell shot through the school like a victory cry, I leapt  from my seat and sprinted out of the school as fast as I could.  I loved being the first one out, gone before anyone else could even know I was there. At least this would have been the case, if not for someone who I had never seen before who stood up unexpectedly from the street side and blocked the sidewalk. I had too much speed, I couldn’t stop. I felt my body slam into him with a mighty thud, followed by a gasp of surprise and then the sharp piercing sound of shattering glass. In hopes of not provoking anything I stood up and gave a hurried apology but that’s when he looked at me.  His eyes were bloodshot, almost like an enraged cougar and suddenly I didn’t think it was a snow globe that had broken on the ground. He wore a grey hoodie with jeans and a white t-shirt. A little strap of dark hair hugged his outer most jaw.

“L-look I’m sorry, I’ll pay you back for that” I squeaked out in desperation. He didn’t seem to care though, for whatever reason this meth head had gotten a bad case of bloodlust but I wasn't going to be a victim. As soon as I saw the knife being pulled from his boot, I tried to run but he grabbed me and slashed at my arm. As soon as the blade made contact with my skin, a blindingly bright light erupted from my arm illuminating the darkening street corner. I didn’t care about that right now though, I didn’t have time to. Using his momentary blindness, I pushed him off me and bolted for the only place I knew was safe...home.  However, when I turned I saw a curious sight, across the street in a darkened alleyway there was a silhouette of a man. He would have been completely unnoticeable if it weren’t for his eyes. His eyes glowed like small planets in the darkness, one blue and the other a bright red. Regardless of this figure, I needed to get away from the meth head.  I had hoped I would lose him but no such luck, I could hear his enraged breathes follow me down the lonely side street. I needed to get rid of him. Thinking fast, I turned and threw my backpack into what I had hoped would be his face. It landed at his feet..but it worked all the same as the bag tripped him causing him to fall forward onto the pavement. While he was unable to see I ran into a side alley and jumped into a dumpster, lifting the lid only enough to see him in case I needed to start running again. But instead of seeing him storm off in search of me or just give up and go home, he just stood there shouting into the sky incomprehensibly. As I watched him scream I saw a familiar thing behind him in the darkness, a glowing pair of lights, one blue, one red. The orbs of light got slowly larger as the shadow slowly became illuminated by the street light that now began to flicker. The figure stopped moving just shy of being anything more than a silhouette to me. I could see just enough of him to see that he was raising his hand up into some sort of snapping motion. I stared at him waiting for something to happen. Almost as if he had heard my silent curiosity, the enraged meth head turned to face the silhouette, yelled and began to make a movement. However, before the meth head could take more than a half step, a snap of fingers rang out as the lights suddenly turned off leaving me with nothing to see. The lights came back on in an instant and when they did, the shadow still stood but the other man, the meth head, was gone. All that was left was my lone backpack under the street light. I then made the realization, the impossible realization of what had happened in the dark. My body froze for a moment as my disbelief sent chills up my spine so severe it was as if death itself was whispering cool words into my ear. Without another thought about it, I leapt out of the dumpster and ran home faster than anyone has ever ran ever. At least three land speed records were broken or at least I hoped that was how fast I was running. Of course with me running as fast as I was, I made it home in no time at all. I dashed up my apartment stairs, ran into my apartment, into my room and locked the door. I dove under the covers of my safe, oh so safe bed and tried to grab ahold of myself. He must of just run away, left his knife there and then the shadowy man must have thrown some ash at him to distract him or something..yea that must be it. I lied to myself for hours and well into the night. Just  as I was about to fall into a blissful,comatic sleep I heard a gentle tapping. I rose groggily and went to my window. Maybe another freaking pigeon had decided to ask for a freebie. But, as I made my way to the window I saw two orbs of light, one blue and one red. I almost screamed but my screams would be overshadowed by my rapid heartbeat, I was sure of it. In desperation, I did the only thing I could think to do...I punched the window. It didn’t budge and only left me bending over in pain due to my now swollen hand. The window, much to my dismay, slowly opened as the shadowy figure seemed to slither into my room. He stood on his legs, towering over me like devil incarnate. He observed my room, looking from corner to corner finally resting his eyes on me. I felt a warm dampness in my pants that I hadn’t known since my toddler years. He came close to me, looking into my eyes.  Yet again, I felt death's words chill down my spine as I stared at his orb like eyes. This was it, this was where I was gonna die, just ashes on the ground with no one to remember me. I closed my eyes taking my last breathes when...nothing happened. I opened my eyes and in my face instead of the towering shadowy figure stood an average sized dark skinned man. In my face was his greeting hand.

“Hello friend, I am Jerry. It’s good to finally meet you.”

I didn’t know what to say, I just reached out and shook his hand. That’s when I noticed his eyes, they were just a normal blue now. He was not at all what I imagined he would be. Maybe I had been tricked or something...but he wasn’t a scary demon of death so who was I to complain. I shook his hand a little more comfortably now. I don’t know why but for some reason he started to grow on me. A smile slowly started to grow on my face. Then he dived under my bed and picked up a personal magazine  of mine and all those feeling completely vanished. he opened it gave a disgusted look and chucked it out of the window. I went to the window as if to call it back into my loving arms, but to no avail. I slumped back into my room. A long sigh escaped my lips as I turned back to this jerry person who was now laying on my bed as if he were about to fall asleep.

“What are you doing here, who are you and what the hell do you want with me?!” I shouted at him not attempting to mask my rage in the slightest. He smirked at me and brushed his hair out of his eyes as he sat up.

“I saw your little display on the street side earlier, you know what you are.” I was confused as to what he meant, but then I remembered. The flash of light when I had been cut, that had to have been it.

“You mean the light?” I asked.

“So you do remember.” he answered back to me with an unnecessary flip of his hair. “I saw that and knew, that you had to be one of us. A Stranger”I was very confused what did he mean.

“What do you mean of course we are strangers. You're a stranger to me and I’m a Stranger to you. What’s your point?” He seemed to think that I was telling a bad joke. He let out a forced laugh that would have made an infant yell “liar” and stood up once again. He handed me a small piece of paper with a bunch of symbols scrawled on it.

“Come to this address tomorrow afternoon.” Before I could ask anything he slinked back out of my room, just as easily as he had come in. I...had nothing to say to that, it was late and I was tired. I threw the paper onto the ground collapsed onto my bed and fell asleep.