CHAPTER 1
PIKE HAS TO WAIT UNTIL THE MALL CLOSES
Although Halo Ridge was a town on record, it had undergone some major development over the past few decades. Its districts and downtown area comprised of an increasing number of multi-level buildings. However, the architects didn’t consider how building them close to each other would also allow a Shade to easily leap from rooftop to rooftop—as this one did.
The shadowy figure took on the form of a werewolf, propelling itself across the skyline. When it reached the ledge of the last roof it could traverse, it took a brief glance back over its dark, brawny shoulder. Its eyes flashed yellow.
Three glowing figures were several buildings behind, but still very much hot on its trail.
It threw itself over the side and plunged downward. A lamppost abruptly creaked sideways to the grating sound of bent metal as it broke the monster’s fall. A public mailbox toppled over as the werewolf-shaped shroud unceremoniously tumbled into it and put a complete stop to its reckless dive.
Startled, a nearby pedestrian yelped and turned to see the commotion. He saw those unnatural yellow eyes glaring at him—and began to bolt away in terror.
But the Shade had already declared him its prey.
It charged after him in a frenzy. Panicked, the young man haphazardly threw any obstacle he could to slow or distract the menacing creature of chaos—toppling over trash cans and chairs from outdoor dining areas. The Shade wasn’t deterred; tripping and tumbling over these petty traps was a minor inconvenience to its rampage.
In one more desperate attempt to stall his pursuer, the young man shook off his backpack. Planting his feet, he twisted his body and whirled around to build as much swinging force as he could muster.
“Rrragh!” He flung the bag straight at its shadowy head.
And the Shade phased right through it.
The young man was caught. The Shade pounced on him and began tearing him apart. It drained every last mote of energy it could harvest as its prey screamed and flailed. When he finally fell silent, the chaotic werewolf’s shadowy ear twitched at another approaching sound. It jerked its head over its shoulder to look.
Then it quickly fled the scene.
Not a minute later, three figures surrounded in auras of bright, yellow light dropped from above and landed next to the victim. Those glowing mantles quickly faded away once their feet were firmly planted on the ground.
“Tch! It got away again.”
“It would have been destroyed by now if my future husband didn’t have to save you from being eaten.”
“Wasn’t your impervious ice wall supposed to keep it caged?! And for the last time, he’s not your—”
“Shh! Hey, it’s okay,” Ryan coaxed, holding up his hands in placation. “None of us were on our A-game today. And that Shade was strong.”
Erika and Crystal tossed their heads away from each other in a huff and a pout. Caught between them, Ryan heaved an exasperated sigh and crouched down to examine the victim.
As expected, he had all the signs of a chaotic assault—absolutely nothing. His body was completely unscathed, save for a few scrapes from being pinned against the sidewalk. He was out cold, and no amount of Ryan’s tousling roused him from his slumber. How long he would actually remain unconscious was a diagnosis for the medical team at the Luminescence Department.
“No point in chasing it down if it doesn’t want to fight us to the end,” he reasoned. “We might as well save our luminescence for next time and clobber it then.”
“That’s my future husband,” Crystal said, with characteristic lack of inflection. “Always thinking on the bright side.”
“Seriously, that future husband stuff is getting annoying…” Erika shook her head in frustration and pulled out her phone to draft an incident report. “Anyway, I’m going to post a bounty of it to the board since it’s been on the loose for this long.”
“Bounty?” Ryan shot her a questioning look. “What’s the difference between bounties and what we’ve been doing all this time?”
Erika held her arms in haughty akimbo as she turned to him and launched into an episode of exposition for him.
Meanwhile, the three aspiring Stars weren’t alone at the scene.
Watching them from around the corner, under the new cover of night, a stranger mused to himself. He had witnessed the whole incident. He was even there to see the moment the human became a Shade.
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“How interesting,” he murmured. “I wonder…”
He slipped away to ponder over this event.
Around the corner of the adjacent building, Pike DeSanto sat on a bench, waiting patiently outside the mall.
=-=-=
There was a saying that Pike heard his dad use often: the rich get richer; the poor get poorer. The poor die when they are milked dry. It wasn’t just an appropriate saying for money.
It was hard to miss three gleaming Stars streaking through the darkening twilight. Pike knew what they were up to, and the thought of who they could be chasing right now made him cringe a bit. He hoped there wouldn’t be any casualties tonight. He turned his gaze back onto his notebook, his heel tapping anxiously as he tried to banish the thought. Pike had nothing against Stars. In fact, his best friend Mindie Tachibana-Callahan was the best Star (that’s what she was aiming for, at least). He just didn’t agree with some of the things they did.
That was just to be expected too. When an institution got to be as old and renowned as the Luminescence Department, there were bound to be those with mixed feelings about the way they conducted themselves. Whether one agreed with their methods or not, however, no one would deny that the streets were better off having Stars around to get rid of troublesome Shades. They were an organization with a mission.
Mega corporations who built malls in towns like Halo Ridge were of a similar ilk. It was already too late to enter this mall though. Pike knew he would just be turned away at the doors if he tried to insist. Then he wouldn’t be able to get inside at all, and he needed to. So now, he had to wait until the rest of the town was already asleep.
Local shops shuttered early. The moms and pops were set in their ways, even after dealing with generations of students from the town’s very own Halo Ridge University—the ones who tended to be up late into the night. If a student came looking for some amazing ice cream at Annette’s after eight in the evening, that was just too bad for them.
They would have better luck coming here, the mall that sat in the older, western district of town. Its window for entry ran a little later than the standalone shops. Convenience of later closing hours came at a price (a commercial price, to be precise), but it was there to serve that need. That was just how big business worked. How a mall was even built here in the first place was a sensitive topic to some.
Of course, with Pike’s awful luck, he missed that window too. Fortunately, he knew it wouldn’t be much longer of a wait. He sat on a bench outside the main entrance, running his pencil through his notebook and trying not to look too conspicuous. Although, he was acutely aware that the security guard at the door had his eye on him.
Eventually, the clock struck eleven. There was no church bell to announce it, nor did Pike check his phone for the time. He knew because the last droves of mall patrons finally emerged from inside. The windows displaying CommOnly’s mannequin went dark. The bookshelves within Barum & Royal became silhouettes.
Pike got up from the bench and moved towards the entrance. As expected, the guard stood in his way. He was taken aback when he recognized the old man.
“Jan? What are you doing here?”
“Oho! You must be an HRU student if you know me.” The old guard beamed with all his wrinkles. “I volunteer as a watch dog here during the weekends.”
“Ah… Right.”
Jan puffed out his chest, scowling with a theatrical air. “So! Need something, youngster?” His tone wasn’t unfriendly; he was used to dealing with university students after all.
“Um… The old activity center. The basement.” Pike’s eyes fell. “If you know. And don’t mind.”
Indeed, he knew. He was one of the few who still did. Back in the day, the old man had been the old activity center’s watch dog too. It was at someone’s personal request that he continue to watch over the basement—even after (or maybe, especially after) the change that happened above it. With a thoughtful hum, Jan opened the door for him with a grim smile. Pike returned it with his own and stepped inside.
“Candles should still be fresh. Relit them all yesterday.” Jan shrugged, trying to brush off his solemnity. “Well, the ones that still have wicks.”
“Thanks, Jan.”
“Is it for someone new?”
“Yeah.”
Jan’s grim smile slouched into a proper sympathetic grimace. “Sorry to hear. You know where to go?”
“Yeah.”
Pike’s footsteps echoed off the walls of the empty concourse. The overhead lights were dim, but still on. Although, he had a passing notion that he wouldn’t have minded walking through complete darkness either.
The stairs leading down to the basement were riddled with rubble—likely from the demolition and subsequent construction over it. Loose debris turned or crumbled as Pike made his descent. At the bottom was a door with a simple, analog keypad. As a luminescent, he could easily use his special aura to phase through the door and bypass the lock all together. That seemed like something extremely disrespectful to the crowd within, though.
Besides, he knew the code. After tapping a few numbers on the keypad, something within the door went click. Pike cranked open the door handle and stepped inside.
Sure enough, the candles were mostly lit. They neatly lined the walls, their warm, flickering glow illuminating this space beneath the mall. Each shed light below a photo, portrait, or child’s sketch of a soul that was lost but couldn’t be buried. If no funerals were held for departed luminescents, even less was the case for luminescents who had succumbed to chaos. After all, what point was there in mourning monsters?
As a result, this place, which had somehow eluded the Department’s notice even after the mall’s construction, was where loved ones hid their sorrow.
When he reached a proper space along the wall, Pike crouched and set his messenger bag down. Opening the flap, he removed a candle from inside and placed it in its spot along the row. The other things he procured: a box of matches, a blob of sticky tack, and a photo of him with his aunt—Sheila DeSanto.
He paused for a moment, gazing at the picture of them together. Amidst all the much less flattering memories instilled in him by others, a fleeting snippet lined with a smile made its way to the forefront.
“Gawin mo na yan. Sandali lang ang buhay. (Do it while you can. Life is over in a flash.)”
In the DeSanto family, Tita Sheila was one of the few who didn’t discourage him from pursuing his dream to write and create art. Pike stuck the photo onto the wall and lit the candle beneath it. Then he sat quietly in prayer.
When he was done, he got back up and collected his things. As he walked back towards the door, his dull, dark eyes scanned the other miniature shrines along the wall. Some of the candles had gone out, their wicks having burned all the way to the root, their wax a deformed puddle run dry. Indeed, in another story, this place would be a prime setting for something horrifying.
As Pike took one more glance back towards the gaping space of the basement, his mind began to play tricks on him. Within the shadows created between candlelight, he could have sworn he heard the echo of a familiar voice.
Please…
Ghosts didn’t exist, but nightmares did. To Pike, those nightmares could be very, very real. He tore his gaze away and quickened his pace towards the door.
Suddenly, just as he reached for the handle, the door opened.