“What?” Ana asks, rising from where she’d been sitting on my bed to walk over to me..

I show her my phone, the images of the monsters in Salt Lake City front and center.

“Hmm. I wonder if we can tell people now?” Ana says.

“Tell people?” I ask.

“Have you tried talking to people about being a Beta Tester?” She asks, looking up to meet my eyes.

Henrik speaks up from my bed, “I tried! But I couldn’t for some reason. I can talk to you guys just fine about it though.”

Ana nods, “That’s what I mean.”

I frown, then move over to my messages with my mom. I try to type “I am a Beta Tester”, but my fingers just don’t move.

I blink several times, then close the app. “Well, that’s an odd sensation.” I say.

Ana sits back down next to Henrik. “Yep. We can use our powers in public just fine, but if we try to tell anyone about the specifics…” She makes a vague gesture with her hands. “We just can’t. I’m surprised you haven’t tried to tell anyone yet.”

I go over to my desk and pull out the chair. I turn it to face the both of them, then sit down. “I became a Beta Tester yesterday.”

The both of them stare at me in surprise.

“Speaking of, you guys aren’t speaking English, right?”

“No, but I can.” Ana says in lightly accented English.

“Speak tiny English.” Henrik says, then continues in Polish, “but I’m not very good. I didn’t think I’d ever be able to leave. I’m glad the system is translating.”

“What do you mean you became a Beta Tester yesterday?” Ana asks.

“A russian guy killed himself and gave me the system, then I had to fight one of those eyeless things to the death. Then this morning-” I wave vaguely. “All of us met.”

Ana tenses, her eyes meeting Henrik’s, “You had to fight one of the eyeless monsters?”

I nod.

“That’s not right.” Ana says. “There weren’t supposed to be any monsters until the first event.”

“The thing’s dead now.” I shrug. “Either of you want some water? I’m feeling thirsty.”

Ana bites her lip, then looks out the window of my room in thought.

“I’ll take some water.” Henrik says.

I nod, then make my way to the kitchen. It’s a small kitchen attached to the living room. A sink and some countertop across from a stove. Above the sink is a window looking out onto the street. I stop for a second to stare out into the evening darkness, the singular street light keeping it mildly lit. It’s not that late into the day, but Seattle winters mean that the night approaches fast. I consider turning on the lightswitch, but the light from the street is plenty, and I prefer low light anyway.

I take a deep breath, then turn to grab a cup from the cabinet and turn the water on. It hisses for a minute before I decide it’s cold enough and put the cup under it.

“Ez!” Ana shouts.

The yell makes me look up, and I see something barreling out of the darkness towards the window.

I leap out of the way and the sounds of multiple windows shattering fills my ears. Ana and Henrik yell something, but I don’t have a chance to respond as a large gray wolf slides into the kitchen. Its claws dig into the linoleum floor, drawing deep gouges as glass falls around the thing.

It turns towards me and bares its teeth. Its eyes are hollow, with red flames flickering deep inside.

It leaps towards me, snarling.

[Shadow Walk]

Almost instinctively, I step into the shadows and it jumps past me. I leave the shadows, calling Osiris’s sword from my inventory into my hand. I swing down towards the neck of the creature, but a flaming red whip comes from the broken window, wrapping around my sword and halting it mid slash. The flames light my sword in an eerie light, and I feel as something inside the sword rages against the flames.

The whip twists and the sword is pulled from my hands and flung into the wall. A cloaked figure jumps onto the broken window sill. Red flames in the shape of dragons circle up the figure’s arms.

A gunshot rings out from my room as howls echo through and around the house.

The figure steps through the window and hops to the floor covered in glass.

“I am the fourth Chat’Kai of Klesta. Give me the item if you wish to live, Beta Tester.” The woman pulls her hood back, revealing two curling horns on the top of her head. Red eyes glare at me, and an angry tattoo of a flame rests on her left cheek.

Gunshots and the sounds of fighting meet the howls of wolves in the yard behind my room.

Out of the corner of my eye, Shade’s arm extends from my shadow, moving through the shadows of the floor to my sword.

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“My name is Ezekiel.” I say, tilting my head slightly, “And I really don’t like being threatened.”

The wolf leaps at me, and a flaming whip travels through the air.

I roll to the ground, and Shade delivers my sword to my hand. As I come up, my sword cuts through the stomach of the leaping wolf.

The whip twists mid air, looking for my neck.

I jump away and the whip slams into a cabinet, breaking it and leaving scorch marks. A second later, the whip is heading towards me again, but this time, the living flames that circle the woman’s arms follow close behind.

I fall into the shadows, and the world turns dark. The flames seeking me crash into the cabinets above me as I lie on the ground.

For a brief moment, I’m struck with indecision. Whoever this person is, they’re unlike the monsters I’ve fought so far. They can speak, and they tried to offer me a deal.

I don’t want to kill them.

I reach my hand out and call to the darkness that lies in the shadows, it wraps around me like an old lover, purring under my touch like a living thing. It wants to be used, and it calls to me, begging me to enter its depths. It is so easy for me, to move the shadows, to call for them.

Ezekiel.

I shake my head, then point my hand towards the girl looking around the room for me.

Due to the effects of the title: Friend of the Shadows, [Twist Shadows] has become [Twist Darkness]

The darkness leaves me, twisting and warping across the kitchen floor to wrap around the arms and legs of the girl’s shadow.

She yells out in surprise as the darkness binds her, and pulls her to the ground. The flames twisting around her arms writhe in anger.

I run through the shadows to my room. The window is broken and the two other beta testers are outside, fighting a pack of wolves in the darkness of the tiny backyard. Ana has both of her guns out, and Henrik’s bandages float around him. Twenty wolves surround them, they walk into and out of the shadows, but I can see every one of them.

The woman howls, and the wolves retreat, running into my room and past me to the woman.

Once they’re past me, I leap through the window and out into the night. The darkness still covers me, as I run to the two Beta Testers, both of whom are breathing heavily.

We need to get out of here, but… can I pull them into the shadows with me? Something tells me that would be a bad idea, the things that rest in the depths of the darkness won’t take kindly to those not of the abyss.

Instead, I step out of the shadows in front of them, startling them both. Both guns are pointed towards me and I find cloth wrapping around my neck.

“Hey guys. It’s me.” I wave. The cloth leaves my neck and the guns lower. “We need to leave. Now.”

A long loud howl echoes through the night, and everything goes quiet. The pitch of the howl is distinctly feminine in sound.

“Yep, time to go.” I run to the fence and pull myself over, the sounds of Ana and Henrik follow me.

My feet hit the ground, and theirs are close behind.

We book it towards an old busted up Toyota, and I slide over the hood to the driver’s seat. A quick look under the car shows a key taped to the inside of the rim.

I rip it off, and unlock the drivers door, then unlock the doors for the others. It’s not my car, but Jason can suck it anyways..

The fence bursts open in an explosion of flame. The woman steps out onto the street, her eyes instantly finding us.

I turn the key and the engine roars to life.

Emergency break off, stick into first, clutch and accelerator down.

I peel down the street with an unhappy roar from my engine. It almost stalls, but I pull back on the accelerator just enough to ensure that we’re off.

I look through my back mirror to see wolves pouring out of the broken fence and running towards us. The woman raises her hand and fire gathers to it. Then it shoots out.

I twist the wheel as I shift gears, moving to the other side of the street. The road we were just on explodes in a pile of asphalt and concrete.

I continue to swerve, but she just watches as the wolves chase after us. I turn my attention to the road ahead of us and screech around the corner in a right turn.

Henrik squeals, and I turn my attention to him. He shakes his head, his face pale.

I look back to the road, going far too fast for a residential neighborhood. I look into my side mirror to find the wolves still close behind.

We’re close to traffic time, which means I can’t go onto any main streets. I twist the wheel into another sharp right turn, and my stomach rises to my chest as for a second I think the car will flip.

The wheels touch the ground and we’re off.

I need backroads with high speed limits to lose the wolves.

I swerve around a car, and they honk loud at me, only for the honking to stop as wolves jump over the car and around it, leaving large dents and scratches from their claws.

I’d been thinking about going to Len’s place to use the Humble Abode anyway. Time to follow through on that.

Another sharp left, then my foot weighs heavy on the gas as I maneuver through and around some stopped cars.

I run a red, barely missing a car following their own green light..

Instead, the car hits a wolf close behind me throwing it a few feet, and the whole intersection comes to a stop as the pack makes their way through.

My foot weighs heavy on the accelerator as I reach a straightaway and I shift up to fifth gear. Slowly, the wolves fall farther and farther behind.

I look over to see Henrik quietly praying with his eyes closed.

A glance to the backseat shows Ana smiling wide, her eyes crazed. “Hahaha! Again! You should drive more often!”

I shake my head and turn my gaze back to the front. “Do either of you know what a Chat’Kai is?”

Henrik opens his eyes to shake his head. Ana purses her lips then also shakes her head.

“That’s what the woman called herself.” I say, “It sounded important.”

“I don’t know. I can find out.” Ana says, her expression calming. “Where are we going now, Ez?”

“We’re going to a city called Monroe. My friend owns some property out there, and it’s a good spot to set up base while we figure things out.” I sigh. “I should make a phone call.”

I pull up the contacts on my phone while glancing up at the road.

The phone rings for a second before it picks up.

“Hey mom… I uh… I have some bad news about the house.” I chuckle to hide my nervousness.