Chapter 6

Shadow.

For a moment, for eternity, all was shadow.  Not an empty, lightless vision or the dark corners where light can’t quite reach, but a thing; a force.  Something with substance and form.  Something of emptiness and void.  He searched.  He couldn’t quite call it looking because he could see nothing and wasn’t even sure he was turning his head; or if he even possessed a head.  Was this death?

Subtly, the shadow changed.  At first he barely noticed, but it soon became beyond ignoring.  A purple haze slowly encroached on the shadow’s grip on everything.  Caleb looked down to see what made it, but the haze moved with him.  No matter how earnestly he tried to look down, the haze only grew slightly—as if it were something in his eye rather than a gradual violet enlightening of the shadowy world he found himself in.  He reached up and rubbed his eye, but the haze remained.  It only then dawned on him that he had felt his hand touch his face.  He wasn’t dead; or at least, not dead like he envisioned it being.

The violet light had moved to fill half of his vision, now, though it gave no illumination to anything.  The gradual growth was slowly overwhelming the shadow, and for some reason, that made Caleb even more uneasy.  Suddenly, his arm jerked downwards as he felt something tug at it.  He pulled away, desperately trying to look down and see what had him but the purple light was as stubborn as ever and he could see nothing.  The tugging grew stronger and he cried out, but found no voice.  Then the violet glow rushed at him and slammed into him.

Two bright, glowing spots filled his vision.  They hovered there, detached from anything in the violet light that had replaced the shadow and now infused everything; everything except the two lights.  Slowly shapes began to coalesce under and above the lights.  They did not diminish but everything around him seemed to fade into view as the violet began to define itself.  A nose.  Lips.  Hair.  Tires. 

Caleb blinked as his mind finally caught up to what his eyes were seeing.  He found himself staring into the face of some woman.  He didn’t recognize her but here eyes were like stadium lights they glowed so brightly.  Mesmerized by them, he continued staring.  She was beautiful.  Smooth skin and perfect lips sat on her flawless face.  Her hair rolled from her head in slow-motion black waves—like something from a dream.  It occurred to him that he was gawking and he looked away, realizing he hadn’t moved since running face-first into that truck.  It sat right in front of him, though it had changed.  He couldn’t quite place it other than to say he knew it was different.  In fact, everything was different: everything was purple.

The whole world had become shades of violets and blacks—like looking through tinted glass.  The parking lot; the pavement; the truck; even his own hands had a strange lavender tint—which disturbed him on more than one level.  He looked around in wonder, trying to see if anything was exempt from the deep violets and blacks.

And found himself staring at the shark-toothed killer from the alleyway. 

Caleb cried out and scurried on his back, rolling up to his feet and backpedaling into the truck again, slamming into it—though it didn’t seem to notice, not even rocking.  The woman with glowing eyes held a hand out to silence him and only then did he realize that the killer seemed not to see him, but instead was moving his head back and forth along the spot Caleb had been laying moments before.  Almost as if searching or…sniffing?  What in the world was that thing?

Caleb barely had time to register the thought as the woman with the spotlight eyes grabbed his hand and led him away.  He resisted for a moment.  Who was she?  Why were her eyes glowing?  Why was everything purple?  He had far too few answers and was becoming more convinced of his insanity by the moment.  But he had little choice.  If she knew what had happened or where they were, she was likely his best bet to get out of here.  He bit his lip for a brief moment before nodding and letting her lead him.

“Who are you?” was what he had intended to say, but it sounded wrong, as if a million echoes of his voice followed what he said making it intelligible.  Come to think of it, his earlier surprised scream had done the same thing.  He glanced over his shoulder at the murderer from the alleyway, suddenly reminded of how close he had just come to death.  The man stood to his full height—apparently his sniffing had yielded nothing—and glanced around, a grimace scarring his sickly face.  Finally he turned and stormed away, headed back to the alleyway where it had murdered the oriental man--who had then turned to smoke.

Caleb turned to watch the mysterious woman leading him away, if only to get away from that thought process.  She was just as deeply tinged with lilac colors as everything else—except for her starlight eyes.  She had long flowing black hair that seemed to almost drift on an unseen wind.  Her clothing did the same, a billowing robe or dress fluttering behind her in lazy, graceful motions.  Almost like they were underwater, everything flowed and floated even though they both moved normally.  The effect was dizzying and made his head hurt.  He didn’t want to think about what it meant about the laws of physics in this place.

They moved briskly through the parking lot—though her hair and clothes seemed not to notice in their underwater dance—avoiding cars as they made their way towards the back of the strip mall.  He glanced up at the neon lights usually depicting store names or advertising various beers, but they were all dead.  A door swung open to his right and he looked watching as a middle-aged woman walked towards her car.  Her movements were odd and jerky, unlike his and the mystery woman holding his hand.  At one point she seemed to simply appear 5 feet in front of where she was—like watching a DVD skip.  Caleb’s eyes widened and he turned, craning his neck to watch her more but losing sight as they moved around the back of the building.

It was nearly black here, with very little light reaching the alleyway.  The woman scanned the alleyway with her glowing eyes, finally nodding to herself and turning to Caleb. 

Brace yourself.  He heard a voice say into his head.  It was a woman’s voice and something told him it was from her.  He decided not to think too hard about how he was hearing it in his own head for now.  This can be a little shocking.

Then the shadow came again.  Black and thick, it washed over him like a blanket thrown over his head, suffocating him suddenly.  The sensation of quickly rising filled him, as if in an elevator going far too fast and only speeding up.  Pressure closed in all around him and his head felt like it was being crushed.  He tried to draw breath but found no air for his lungs to grasp.  He clawed at the air desperately and tried to yell but found himself without a voice.

As suddenly as it began it stopped and the world returned to normal.  His yell finally found a voice as he stumbled backwards, crashing into something hard that made a loud hollow noise like a bell or empty dumpster. He heard himself  yelling in short bursts, drawing breath in between them in a panicky pant.  Then a hand clamped over his mouth, shoving him against a dumpster, eliciting another hollow bell noise--apparently he had slammed into it ealier, too.

“Quiet!  He’s still around.”  Caleb forced himself to stop yelling and looked into the face of his muffler.  She had long black hair and green eyes that even now looked about in a panic.  It took him a moment to realize it was the sun-eyed woman from the other place.  Without the brilliant light from her eyes, he almost didn’t recognize her.  She looked to him sternly and he nodded to let her know he wouldn’t yell again.  She released him and stepped back.

“Sorry.” She spoke low in an almost whisper, “I couldn’t risk that beast hearing us.  I don’t know that I could take us both away again.  It’s hard enough taking someone extra along once.”  She took another look up and down the alleyway then started walking.  “Come on.”

Caleb watched her go, a bit dumbstruck at first.  How had they gotten here?  And what was the purple world and what did she mean ‘take someone along with?’  He shook his head.  He wouldn’t get answers standing here watching her walk away.  He stepped from the wall of the dark alleyway and followed her, jogging to catch up.  At first he walked alongside her, stealing sideways glances and chewing his lips.  Finally he couldn’t take it anymore.

“Umm…hi.  Do we uh…know each other?”  He asked.

She shook her head, eyes blanketing everything around them.  “No.”

Caleb walked further, nodding his head nervously as he kept her brisk pace.  “So how did you…I mean…that was pretty good timing when you…did whatever it was you did.”  Could I be any less smooth?  I sound like a freshman trying to get a Prom date.

A slight smirk crept onto her face, which did nothing to help Caleb’s assessment of the impression he was making.  She continued to scan everything as they exited the alleyway onto a side street.  Streetlamps cast a dim orange glow onto the sidewalks in splotchy circles to either side, and the Vegas lights only a few blocks away lit everything in a dusty grey haze.

“Listen,” she said, “to be honest, you were just lucky.  I was in the area and…just saw what was going on.  I knew I could help you so I did.”  She took a deep breath and turned right, moving quickly down the street.  “I’m sure you have a million questions running through your head, but I can’t answer them now.  I can’t escape from him like I did earlier and neither of us stand a chance in a fight with him.  So the questions will have to wait.”

Caleb nodded, “Yeah ok...sure.”  A million didn’t even begin to cover the questions he had, but in truth, he was so far away from everything he had accepted as reality only a few shorts hours ago, that he doubted he would ever find his way back.  He was bright enough—and had seen enough sci-fi flicks—to give names to things he had seen tonight: teleportation, zombies and the like (he didn’t quite have a name for melting oriental twins) were common Sci-Fi Channel faire.  The problem he was having was reconciling the idea that those things were somehow no longer just the domain of movies and books but were grounded in reality.  That or he was going insane.  He wasn’t sure which explanation he would have preferred at this point.

They moved down the poorly-lit street and came to a shopping center complete with an oversized grocery store, a Kinkos and a 24 hour coffee shop.  The woman made a beeline through the parking lot for the coffee shop, aptly named Off the Strip Cafe.  They stepped inside and made their way to a corner booth where the woman sat, looking around and glancing in various directions before approving of her choice and settling in.  Caleb noticed there was a good view of the wall-sized windows as well as the kitchen entrance from where she sat. 

For the first time, Caleb actually took a moment to take in the girl’s appearance.  She was slim, but not boyishly so, obviously being a woman and not a girl despite her small size and girlish face.  A black tank top with a large white skull sat front and center on it, the image managing to be macabre and cute thanks to a pink bow in its head.  Long black hair hung down to the middle of her back, coming up a few inches short of her dark jeans.  Large black boots that looked like something straight out of a punk catalogue and make up that ran the spectrum of dark purples, blues and blacks finished up the look.  The flowing fabrics from the ‘shadow’ world were gone, but the sheer beauty remained and Caleb found himself gawking a little bit, now that the threat of death didn’t loom over his shoulder.

“Sit down before you attract more attention.” She spoke, pointing across the table to the vacant booth seat.  She glanced at her watch as Caleb complied, sitting and starting to shake a little as the repercussions of the night began to set in.  The relative normalcy of a coffee shop at 4 in the morning allowed the absolute insanity of the last hour to settle into his broken concepts of reality, finding a nice home somewhere between Bigfoot and the Tooth Fairy.  His reverie was broken as he realized she was speaking again, “…able to wait here until dawn.  He won’t come looking for us once the sun comes out.”

Caleb nodded, thinking he may have solved the puzzle a bit.  “Is he a vampire, then?”

She looked at him as if he was the one who drug people into purple shadow worlds and had glowing eyes, “No, because he won’t try to kill us in broad daylight where people can see it.  He might be bloodthirsty and insane, but one thing Bane isn’t, is stupid.  He’s survived a long time by being smart about where and when he kills.”

Caleb nodded, feeling even more of a moron than before.  Vampires?  He shook his head as the waitress brought coffee and asked if they wanted food.  Neither of them were in the mood to eat.  He sipped his coffee as he thought of what to ask next.  She spoke first, though.

“Besides, all that bull about vampires being destroyed by the sun is a lie.  They can walk in daylight just as well as you or I.  It’s why they’re so dangerous.”

Caleb choked on his coffee, looking at her with horrified eyes.  “What?  You mean…?”  He slumped back in his booth.  Suddenly, Bigfoot and the Tooth fairy didn’t seem too unbelievable.

She sighed at his reaction, “Look.  Let’s take it one thing at a time, ok?  We’ve got a couple hours to kill, so I may as well answer some of your questions.  Yes vampires are real.  In fact, a lot of the things you thought were myth…aren’t; magic; immortality; psychic powers.  All of those things are real and more.  What’s your name, by the way?”

“Caleb.”

“Well Caleb, I hate to break it to you, but most of what you know about the world is a lie.”