1
The meeting
Hell riddled the world. The hollows replicated and took the images of everyone. The smell of death filled my guilty soul with regret as I walked down the playground with corpses of the innocent scattered and fairly decayed with their loved ones. Death roamed with me, waiting until I made the decision to be take my life and be dragged to the underworld. But I wasn’t alone with regret. There were other shadow carriers that roamed the dead streets with the flames that infested the skies. God no longer wanted to look down at the world we shadow carriers destroyed. The innocent and forgiven were all gone now. All that was left were his abominations. And we had no right to see the face of god.
Us shadow carriers opened the gates of the abyss. We were blind, thinking we could save the world from the demon hollows. But all we did was feed them. But they won’t feed on our bodies. That can’t ever quench their void stomachs that was nothing more than an abyss. They eat our souls. For our souls gives them the nutrients to take shape of anyone we know and love.
It’s not safe for anyone to roam the streets alone. But for shadow carriers, all we need are our shadows. Those are our only weapons that can stand a chance against hollows. I sat on an empty bench in the park, waiting for my friend. It was covered in blood and small dead pieces of meat, but fairly empty. Shadow carriers used to roam the world in packs, to protect themselves from hollow attacks. If any of us roam together now, it’s a beacon, and a swarm will kill us all. So we all must stay alone. For our own safety. As I waited for my friend, I looked around at the gloomy world, dread filled my body. This was once a beautiful park, now a lost memory. Like me and the life I used to live. My mom, sister, friends, now gone.
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I heard crushing of small rocks under shoes head toward me. I looked to my right to find my friend, Vince Wisham, walked towards me with a grin. I smiled back.
“Roy.” He said. As he walked up to me, with his arms wide open. I opened my arms as I got up from the bench. He then ran into an invisible wall right in front of me. Sadly I knew that was going to happen. He was a hollow.
“Clever.” Vince said with intense enthusiasm. His eyes rolled back and disappeared into his head, leaving only black hollow sockets. “Very, clever.”
The hollow then, sprayed the blood and body fat of Vince at me like a powerful hose. My shadow rose off the floor and turned into a shield to protect me from the acid-like liquids. Then, I did something the creature didn’t expect. I slammed my left hand on the bloody concrete and a symbol of the ancient shadow carrier’s binding spell in a bright yellow light. And more lights in the small area appeared and leaped and twisted themselves on the impostor. The spewing stopped and my shadow turned into a sword.
“I knew you weren’t him.”
“Oh, really!?” the hollow chuckled. “How so?”
“I saw you eat him.”
“Then why did you decide to meet him?”
I started to cry, but I kept my composure. “To see his face one more time. And to tell him I’m sorry that I couldn’t get to him on time.”
The hollow started to laugh uncontrollably. “What’s wrong? Guilty conscience?”
“Yes… But killing you will make me feel so much better.”
“Aww, whatever makes you sleep at night.” It laughed again.
After having enough of it’s taunting, I stabbed it in it’s evil heart and it twisted Vince’s body and exploded into black dust. After I killed the creature that killed my friend, I fell to my knees and began to cry even harder to the point I felt my blood rush into my face. Then my shadow touched my left shoulder. I looked up to it. Shadows may not talk, but they’re always around you. No matter what. It felt what I felt. I smiled at my shadow.
“Let’s go home.” I said.
My shadow helped me up and returned to the floor. And I walked. Walked back to my miserable home in a world us shadow carriers now call “Melancholia.”
