Chapter 2 Part 1

The after math of Shadow's arrest and conviction.

Chapter 2

 

It was two weeks after the Museum mission, and Shadow’s arrest. Frescia came upstairs with her eyes puffy from tears. They had been like that a lot these days; everyone knew that Shadow and Frescia had been very close in more ways than one. It hurt everyone to know that Shadow wouldn’t be sitting in the living room now with his feet kicked up on the coffee table covered in fresh socks and reading his favorite book by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Ezra and Soho didn’t play chess much anymore, and Spieren was in his room kicking a punching bag more and more now a days. Everyone sat around now like bumps on logs. Finally one day Soho called everyone into the living room, and they all sat in, looking hopeful. Maybe Soho had come up with an idea for Shadow’s return.

Instead he looked grim, his eyes sad.

            “I have news from Central,” Soho announced and everyone went from quiet a couple of whispers to absolute silence.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper, a letter. He unfolded it with shaking fingers and read it through one more time and put it away. Suspense was making their stomachs hurt.

            “1419 says that because of Shadow’s sudden absence, something about Group 87 needs to happen. So this is my solution…” and he reached into his other pocket and pulled out papers.

            “Jade, you’ll be joining Group 547 in the Easter Islands… Rosary, Group 46 wants you to join them in Argentina…”

            “Wait, wait, what?” an energetic girl with jade green eyes jumped out of her seat, and a few light bulbs exploded. “What do you mean I’m going to the Easter Islands? I haven’t applied for a different location yet, my time doesn’t end for another four months!”

Soho coughed and said, “I know, because I am moving you all to active groups. Group 87 is officially inactive because it is lacking in the requirements of a permanent leader and a Dark Element. Group 87 is shutting down.

            “But, you’re our leader!” cried the girl named Rosary, her hands shaking unhappily while Soho bit his lip and replied, “I’ve made arrangements to go to Manhattan.”

            “No!” Spieren roared now, and Frescia said, “You can’t leave though; Shadow put you in charge…”

            “Ezra is in charge after I leave.” Soho said and he stared at the entire group who looked back at him, their eyes filling up with tears and disbelief, Frescia’s eyes were already pouring over.

            “Everyone, please, none of you will want to hang around here now, there’s nothing to do except for reading and playing chess, you’ll all feel much better after you leave…” Soho said and put all of the papers on the coffee table, spreading them out. 

            “Just… go, everyone go.” And Soho left the room, his head bowed down in defeat, his teeth grit tightly together. This was the most outrageous thing any of them had seen from Soho Knight. He had always been the one shouting there had to be another way. He was the one who put up the biggest fight, who actually fought to stay in the mansion, who went out at night to sabotage humans who tried to break into the manor. Soho Tevye Knight was not the one who was fighting for the Group this time. He was giving up; he was finally the one who was saying there was no hope. The worst part about it was he was right.

Rosary walked over and began to comfort Frescia, and Jade sat next to Ezra and said, “I don’t care what the Easter Islands wants with me, I’m staying here until Shadow comes back, whether that’s in two weeks or 100 years.”

Ezra smiled and patted the girl’s shoulder. “You’ve got spunk, that’s what 1419 liked. He’ll want you to use that to good use. You won’t be able to use that here now that the place is dead. Go somewhere else.” No one paid much attention to Frescia as she stood up and walked out the door, passing people who were drawing to the coffee table to pick up their files.

 

The hallway was empty other than Frescia Faber and phantoms that roamed the hallways, maybe her parents were here, they had to be dead by now. They were better off dead anyway, Frescia thought to herself as she found herself passing by Shadow’s room, and she paused to stare inside the room where unopened presents were still piled up on top of each other on the bed. She leaned in the doorway to watch the silent air and memories of Shadow inside the room like it was a looking glass into the past. She could see him walking around the room talking to different people who had sat in the heavy winged back chair close to the fireplace. Frescia had sat in that chair before when they talked by the empty fireplace, remembering what life was like before they became Gifted, before they were shunned, when life seemed beautiful.

            “What are you looking at?” Soho’s voice brought Frescia out of her nostalgic mood and she turned to look at Soho, who was holding bundles of underwear in his arms.

            “I was coming to say goodbye to you,” she said and followed him down to his room across the hall.  He dumped the boxers onto his bed and started to sloppily fold them into a suitcase.

            “I’m not the only person down here to say goodbye to,” he said and looked over his shoulder at Frescia.

            “Who else is here?” she asked nonchalantly as she stepped further inside.

            “There are memories too.”

Frescia didn’t reply, she looked down at the scene she saw now.

A suitcase was sitting on his bed, where most of his clothes were already folded up neatly.

He picked up a photograph of himself and Shadow standing in front of Alcatraz Island. His fingers trembled as he put that in his suitcase too.

            “Where in Manhattan are you going?” Frescia asked as she read one of the newspaper clippings that were plastered to the wall.

            “I’ve been thinking about joining the Broadway Circle. Be an actor for a while, it had always been one of my biggest dreams, ya know?” Soho looked over his shoulder and started to take down more posters, folding them up carefully. Some of the paper was already turning yellow, others were fresh. The oldest was a clipping saying, “Irene Knight sentenced to hang”. Why did he keep that? It seemed to torture him every time he read it.

            “What about you? You have Glade practically on a string for your opinion. He’s not shabby either.” Soho said casually and started to open up a second suitcase, throwing some clothes into it carelessly, others he folded with all the care of a mother.

            “I can’t leave here for some reason; it is my parents’ house after all. If Glade ever wanted to come to call, or have some question, he can come here. Anyway, what if Shadow got out? What if there is some magical happening and someone takes pity on him?”

            “Frescia you’re being silly. We all know that no one would ever take pity on Shadow. Look at what he did! He couldn’t control it, but still, we’re the only ones who knew the truth about Shadow.” Soho said and snapped his suitcase closed. Frescia looked away from Soho and back to the door. There was silence between the friends before Soho said slowly, “I’ll call you when I get to New York…. Good luck.” And pushed past Frescia out the door and out of sight.

That night the house took on a different, less friendly air. The house seemed dead.