Haru [https://shadowsprey.com/wp-content/uploads/story-images/01_38_01_Haru-S6.png]

The wheels of the train had barely ground to a halt when Haru leapt from the car, the others on his heels. He ignored Edin’s protests as she followed behind the trio of soldiers as they raced through the near empty streets of the city.

He knew Kanna was there. The magnetic pull had snapped taut the moment they entered the city's walls. He was close enough now that he could follow it directly to her.

When the Theatre came into view, they paused. The walls loomed over them, nearly blocking out the sun and casting a shadow over the group. The sound of the crowd within reached his ears, their jeers and cries muffled by the thick stone.

He found a side entrance and descended on the guards. Haru shoved the first one and he fell into Osawa, who snapped its neck with a clean twist. Haru covered the second’s mouth so that he couldn’t scream out and slammed him back into the entrance, drawing his knife against the artery in his thigh.

Edin skipped away from the fallen bodies, her gaze lingering on them as the group moved into the tunnels below the Theatre.

He was getting closer.

The dark maze beneath the Theatre was dusky and dank, but the structure was easy to navigate. It was nothing in comparison to the labyrinthian halls of the Tower that he’d endlessly wandered, constantly following Kanna’s call before he even knew what it was.

The sound of the crowd grew louder and he stopped, holding up a hand to halt the progress of those behind him. They waited, quiet for once.

A thousand voices were crying out, gripped by terror and confusion.

Osawa grabbed Haru’s wrist, stopping his charge.

“Haru, she’s synching.”

Haru shook his head, pulling his arm from Osawa’s grip.

“No.”

“Just because you say it doesn’t make it true,” Vahn growled.

“Then stay away,” Haru said, “but I’m getting her back.”

Haru pushed himself faster as the temperature dropped, a cold wind licking through the tunnels. He had spent a year agonizing over the worst situations imaginable, but Kanna synching had never been a possibility he was willing to entertain. Of anyone, Kanna had the most control over her abilities. The shadows were her companion and her burden, and she knew how to maintain the line between herself and the dark.

Even underground, the tunnels had darkened and driven the guards from their posts. They met a few who scrambled in retreat, summarily dispatching them in the same manner as the first group they encountered.

The party turned a last corner, the way ahead opening to the air of day. Screams from the sands reached the tunnel, echoing in the closed space.

Haru rushed to the gates that blocked his way.

Through the bars he could see Kanna, blood spattered and weary. His heart stuttered as she swayed on her feet, the black creeping through her veins and out of her eyes. Three others were on the sands, shouting for her and trying to approach as she dropped to her knees.

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He yanked at the grates, but they pulled and stuck in place. Just beyond them, he was running out of time.

“Vahn, Osawa!”

The others joined Haru, following his gaze out.

“That’s Astar!” Edin proclaimed, pointing to the blonde woman on the Stage.

“Fuck,” Vahn said, the sentiment sharp but accurate.

Together, they lifted the heavy bar blocking the gates and tossed it aside as the shadows began to howl.

“I won’t be able to use the light,” Haru called over his shoulder as they ran through the opening, “not until I can get close. Get me through, then get the civilians to cover.”

The group ran out as the shadows spread, screeching their way through the air. One of the men on the sands created a barrier of rock and from the corner of his eye Haru caught Vahn shoving Edin behind it as they passed.

Haru kept his eyes on Kanna. The dark that she contained was flowing out of her, sliding from her skin and pooling around her body. The world split and she disappeared into the place between.

The other man tripped and began to scramble back, but the shadows caught him and held fast. Vahn put on a burst of speed and Haru dropped back behind the other two.

A wall of fire erupted between them and where Kanna once stood, clearing the shadows that had encroached and stopping more from screeching through, for the moment at least.

Osawa slid between Vahn and the flames as Vahn moved to lift the prone stranger from the sands. He gathered what water he could and formed a shield between the wall of fire and the others.

“Haru, go!”

Haru didn’t need to be told twice. He spun around Osawa and headed straight for the flames. They faltered at the last moment, allowing him to pass, before closing behind him once more, leaving nothing between him and the dark.

He would have to remind the shadows that he wanted her more. Needed her more. If he had to fight the darkness for her, he would.

Haru was a good soldier.

He couldn’t see Kanna anymore, could barely feel her now. The world had ripped open where she had stood, the dark widening and moving over the land.

The swarming shadows tried to seize him, tried to take hold of his weaknesses and turn them against him. He could feel them slide over his skin, tempting him to give in.

He’d fought them before. The dark nights at the Tower when he knew Kanna was so close, yet so far out of reach. She ignored him, avoided him, and he convinced himself that he would never be enough.

He accepted that. He accepted them. Even if his name had never passed her lips, he would still follow her.

That wasn’t how the story had ended. She turned to him, time and again. He’d held her when the dark became too much. He’d heard her screams, witnessed her pain.

He also witnessed her triumphs.

He’d seen her smile. Not the smile of knowing, the dangerous glinting thing that took over her when she was challenged. He knew the slow one, the one that reached her eyes. He’d seen her when she was herself, when she let go of the burdens she forced herself to carry.

She’d looked at him like he was the only bright thing in the world.

The dark could never take that.

I’m sorry Haru…

The echo came to him in the wind, the way she stumbled over her words. The dark had found his weakest moment. He had been too caught in her that he’d forgotten to give his own confession a voice. Then she was gone, and he never had his chance.

The memory of it only made him fight harder. Nothing was going to stop him from righting that mistake. He reached the shadowed gash in the world, but he didn’t stop. He didn’t hesitate. He knew she was there, just as he had always known where she was.

haru vs the dark [https://shadowsprey.com/wp-content/uploads/story-images/SP_Illustration_Haru_vs_Dark_-2.png]

The world shifted around him as he stepped through the barrier and then shadows’ screeches no longer reached his ears.

There was only silence, and darkness.