I look up at the rain with a smile. The weather report was wrong, but it doesn’t bother me, instead I just enjoy the soft drops of water on my face. Seattle rain is soft, and I remember my dad saying that they were little kisses from the sky when I was a kid. I enjoy the feeling of it and the nostalgia.
My sweater has a hood, but I choose to leave it down as I keep walking. On the sides of the road, small shops of all different kinds shed light on the slowly darkening evening. I make a game of avoiding the cracks in the sidewalk, of which there are plenty, thanks to the trees that the city likes to plant next to its sidewalks.
The rain increases in intensity, and water streaks down my cheek. I consider pulling my hood up, but decide that the feeling is kinda nice. Plus I’m just a few blocks from home.
I pass one of my favorite chinese restaurants and take a turn down a quieter street. The shops turn into residential houses, and the street lights disappear. A surprising amount of the houses are dark, and my attention heightens as my eyes adjust to the dark.
The world turns quiet until there's a pop.
The colors of the world twist, and then out of nothingness, a man is thrown into me, making the both of us collapse to the sidewalk.
I curse, then push the person off of me. “Jesus Christ man. Are you alright?” I ask as I roll to my knees next to him.
The person mumbles something incoherent. It takes me a second to realize in the wetness of the rain, but a small pool of something dark is gathering around him.
I pull out my phone and the light reveals a gruesome sight. The man is covered in deep claw and bite marks, all of them losing blood. I hurry to dial 911, but the man reaches out and clutches my wrist, making my hand drop the phone to the floor and losing my light.
“English. Yes?” He asks, harshly, his eyes drilling into mine despite the lack of light.
“Yes.” I answer. “Just give me a second and I'll call-”
“No time!” He yells, interrupting me. Then in rapid russian, he speaks to the sky. He stops, his eyes looking at something I can’t see. Then he smiles.
“You!” He says to me, his eyes glaring at me. “Say yes!”
“Yes?” I say.
“Good.” He continues to speak in russian. Before I can stop him, a knife appears in his hand, and he stabs it up into his chest and into his heart.
I stare in shock, as his hand loosens on my wrist and falls to the wet street..
Then something even crazier happens. A blue screen producing its own light appears in front of my eyes.
Congratulations! Beta Tester Ivan chose you as his successor! You have received all of his items. Welcome to The Game Of The Gods™ Ezekiel Olson. As part of your congratulations, we at The System™ would like to warn you that you are now being hunted!
I read through the message in disbelief. Then in the distance, I see the same twisting of colors that had happened before the strange man had appeared.
I hurry to my feet as my mind puts together the warning of the blue screen and the distortion.
I look at the man on the street one last time, then book it down the street.
Something caused those wounds on that man, and I don’t want to find out what. I turn the first corner, towards my home.
A chilling howl unlike anything I’ve ever heard echoes down the street. I freeze, and look back at the direction I’d come from. It wasn’t the howl of a wolf, the very sound carrying a dark inhumanity that makes me shiver.
There’s no way I’m outrunning a creature that can make that sound. But what can I do? A weapon? Maybe I can call someone?
I curse again as I realize that I’d left my phone on the ground next to that man. I need a weapon or something.
My eyes move to a long handle stabbed into the ground in front of one of the houses, barely visible in the darkness. I sprint over to it and pull it out, revealing a shovel.
I turn around, and there’s nothing there. I clutch the shovel tight, the cold of the rain finally starting to get to me.
My eyes scan the darkness, the beating of my heart and the dropping of the rain all that fills my ears.
Water drips into my eyes, but I keep my eyes open.
Creaking above me makes me look up.
Standing on the branch of a tree above me, a humanoid gray creature with no eyes rests, long arms ending in claws cutting gouges into the branch it rests on.
It just stands there, its head tilted.
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I realize that I’ve been holding my breath at the sight.
I exhale.
The creature jumps at me, its arms extended.
I jump and roll away from the creature. Its claws make large gouges into the ground as it lands. I clutch my shovel, then swing with as much force as I can.
The creature cries out, as the edge of the shovel cuts into the skin of its shoulder. It swipes forward with its claws and I’m forced to let go of the shovel to dodge the strike.
Another hand follows and I barely move out of the way of the claws as I scramble through the grass. As the creature jumps after me, digging furrows into the ground with its claws, I realize that I’m going to die.
All my hopes, all of my dreams are about to die to the claws of a creature out of a horror movie.
My mouth stretches into a line, as my mind focuses. Time slows, the creature practically frozen as it leaps at me.
Use me.
A voice whispers into my ear. A voice that I hadn’t heard since I was a child.
Do not fear me.
The voice isn’t real, just an illusion of my mind. An imaginary friend that had kept me safe from the evils of the world. It had protected me from the bullies and abusers, but it wasn’t real. Just the coping of a young mind who needed a protector. Still… There’s the chance. The claw reaches ever closer to me as my mind ponders the voice. With few other options, I nod.
Your shadow is here for you.
A deeper darkness reaches out of the shadows and grabs the arms reaching for me. The claw stops at my neck, the very tip drawing a single drop of blood from me. The darkness reveals itself to be a thick shadowy limb grabbing the arm.
I stare wide eyed at the limb coming from the shadows, my gaze following it until I see the vague outline of a great beast of darkness.
Title Activated! [Friend Of The Shadows]
You have learned the spell [Summon Shade]
Granted Class: Shadow
Error: Too low level for a class.
Class pending till level five.
The gray creature struggles against the arm holding it. I move away from the claw puncturing my skin. Then taking advantage of its bindings, I reach out and grab the shovel still in its shoulder. I pull on it until it pulls free in a shower of blood.
I swing the shovel into the struggling gray monster, then I pull back and swing again. The head of the shovel hits bone and the shaft breaks in my hands.
I stumble forward, then turn to the gray creature. It slumps forward, its head halfway off.
The shadowy limbs retract into the darkness, dropping the gray creature. The darkness in the shadows swims over to me, disappearing at my feet.
Congratulations! You have reached level 2! You gain a two percentage point increase to brilliance and physicality along with an increase of 20 points to your mana.
The world returns to normal and I gasp for air as I stare at the body of the gray thing at my feet. Before my eyes it turns to dust, the only proof of its existence being the gouges it had left in the ground of the poor person’s lawn.
Also, what the fuck was that shadow? That definitely never happened as a kid. One of the blue screens had called it a shade, right? Or at least, that’s what it implied with the spell [Summon Shade].
I look over the strange blue screens that had been begging for my attention and read through them again.
I know I’m not in VR. But this seems an awful lot like video game terminology. And if it is, there’s a chance that I have a “Status.” The word carries a strange sound with it as another blue screen pops up in front of me.
General Info: Ezekiel Olson, Age:18, Level:2, Class: N/A, Mana:120
Sponsor: N/A
Titles: Beta Tester, Friend of The Shadows, Watched By The Gods,
Special conditions: Abyss Watcher
Physical Condition: Healthy
Physicality: Athletic 75%
Brilliance: Graduate 48%
Equipment: Sword of Osiris (Unique), Unknown Box (Unknown)
I read through the entire thing, only mildly disappointed that it doesn’t have the usual rpg statistics. I guess having only physicality and brilliance simplifies things at least. But what’s with the equipment? The only thing I have on me is my wallet, a house key and- well, my phone is on the street next to a dead body.
Dear god, I need to grab my phone before I’m implicated in something.
I start walking back up the street towards where the strange russian man had died. If it’s a game-like system, then maybe I have a storage of some kind or an [Inventory].
Another blue screen appears in front of me at the thought, showing a list of items with pictures right next to it. On the list are the two items that my status listed, plus a box of dumplings, a wallet, a backpack, a bottle of water, some clothes, a jacket, and 43 gold.
It would’ve been nice to know I had a sword available to me before I broke some poor man’s shovel.
I reach the body, the blood barely visible in the rain.
“Sorry man.” I say, reaching down to grab my phone. I click it on, glad that it still works despite being covered in water and blood from when I dropped it. I finish dialing 911 and call, the tone rings for a solid couple of seconds before I’m picked up by an operator.
“Hi, I uh.. This guy ran into me bleeding from a bunch of wounds, then stabbed himself and I’m pretty sure he’s dead.” I say, unable to take my eyes away from the man in the darkness.
“What’s your location?”
I give her the streets, then wait on the phone as the ambulance is sent on its way.
It’s barely a minute before the siren reaches me, cops close behind.
I take a deep breath, and prepare for a long round of questioning.