A Shadow Walker Knows My Name

“Have we…met before?”

It was a common phrase Lucca was used to hearing. Have we met before? Do I know you? Haven’t I seen you somewhere before? Most of it contributed to the fact that he had a twin sister with eerily similar looks. Aside from a few accentuated areas, they could easily take the place of one another.

But in this case, he actually felt like he might have actually met this other person. Was it a family friend? An acquaintance at work? It could have been someone he chatted with at the local coffee shop. Considering they were on a sidewalk in the city nearly in front of said coffee shop he was heading to this early morning, he started to believe this was the reason for the random encounter.

Whatever the answer, he found himself staring back at the young male, eyes focusing curiously on the familiar looking black fedora before lowering down to meet the gaze of the man’s light brown eyes. 

“You don’t look familiar to me,” Lucca said trying to hide the hesitation in his voice by rubbing at his jawline as he glanced away. “Sorry, but maybe you confused me for someone else.” Letting his feet guide him, he moved forcing confidence in his steps as he walked past the man ignoring the chill of a smile that steadily grew on the other’s face.

“Strange,” the man said as Lucca passed by him. “Because I’m pretty sure there were two of you.”

The words felt strange to him making him frown as he turned his head looking back at the man. His body tensed up as he found the man’s head unnaturally turned looking directly at him, the eyes he thought were a light brown before starting to look red as the sun started to rise above the horizon behind them.

“Lila.” The name off this man’s lips made the chills worsen in Lucca’s body as he shivered giving a frown before turning his body around to fully face the man.

“How do you know that name?” The suspicious lack of people or cars roaming around the city should have been an indicator that something was off. Lucca even felt a distinct lack of sound as if they were surrounded in a void the moment that man had uttered those first few words. Then to suddenly hear this man utter his sister’s name…who was he?

“Lucca.” A cold sweat ran down Lucca’s back as he eased back, focused warily on the man in front of him then down to the distorted shadow on the ground. It seemed to jolt, jumping as if hit by an electric current before calming down to normal. 

“My…my name…how?”

“Lucca…do you remember the story?” The man tilted his head down, his eyes being obscured by the rim of his fedora. Lucca wasn’t sure how he’d missed the twisting of the man’s body as it turned to face him, but his instincts forced him to step back as the mysterious figured took a step towards him. The man’s shadow seemed to stretch out further than what seemed possible from that small motion.

“The…story?” Lucca looked down finding the shadow suspiciously close to him as he moved back again, cutting his eyes up quickly to the man. Should he run? Would he even be able to get away with how close they were? Hell, could he even outrun that…thing on the ground that felt like it was reaching out to him.

“Perhaps I should narrow it down with this.” The man looked up at him as both his eyes shined an unnatural red as if the eyes of the devil were staring right into his mind. “Shadow Walkers.”

The two words made Lucca pause in thought, frowning before his eyes widened as his remembered the words. “Shadow Walkers…” His grandfather used to tell him and his sister stories about them. Stories about how there were creatures that roamed in the shadows at night and snatched away victims taking them away to their shadowy underworld. He used to believe it was just stories his grandfather would tell him and his sister just to scare them into going to bed on time. Lucca looked up at the man again confused.

Maybe the confusion showed up on his face, because the man actually laughed out before tilting his head down again leaving only his lips visible as he spoke. “Though the story is not completely accurate…there is truth in it.”

As soon as the words finished coming out past his lips, Lucca tensed up before he looked down at the black tendrils wrapped around his legs. When did that happen? It had been so fast that he hadn’t had time to react. Was he going to die here? 

Lucca yelped trying to kick at the tendrils to remove them.

It was already too late.  The tight grip around his legs only served to make him lose his balance as he fell backwards clenching his eyes shut tight to brace himself for the impact with the sidewalk.

It never happened. His body landed, but it was only a soft fluffy cushion compared to the hard cement he was expecting. As he opened his eyes and turned his head he saw the cloud of shadow underneath him serving as a landing pad between the sidewalk and him. It felt soft…and somehow warm in a way he hadn’t expected.

It didn’t attack him. In fact, it seemed far more protective than aggressive and not at all what he was expecting. As he turned his head returning his attention to the man again, he could see the other’s expression easily as a cocky smirk seemed to lift to the man’s lips as if he’d just enjoyed the most amusing insider joke.

The tendrils around Lucca’s legs unraveled giving him the freedom to move his body as he stood up keeping a careful eye on the man in front of him. Whether the man was bothered by the glare or not stayed smoothly off his face.

“I’m…not going to ask what just happened,” Lucca said choosing his words carefully as the man schooled his face to neutral, head tilting back in a cocky manner to stare at him as the fedora blocked the view of one of his eyes. “What I still want to know is how do you know my name?”

The man stared at him as if determined not to answer him. It sent a burn of frustration rushing through Lucca’s body as he opened his mouth to ask the question again only to be stopped when the man decided to speak.

“Lila. Lucca. Twins. Born of the same mother. Born of the same father.” The man paused as if letting the words sink in. It should have bothered Lucca but somehow, it felt like there was more to the words than the obvious.

“…I know that already,” Lucca said having a small bit of hesitation as he responded. Was this something he didn’t want to go any further?

“Lila…was born to a mother. Lila…was born to a father. Lucca…is not Lila’s brother.”

“…Huh?” One of Lucca’s brows curled up in confusion as he stared at the man wondering if he had a few screws loose. It certainly seemed that way.

“Lucca…is like Lila. Lucca looks like Lila, talks like Lila, but is not Lila.” The man stared at him before a grin broke out on his face as if taunting Lucca with his expression. “Do you understand what I am saying?”

“I understand that you’re completely nuts!” Lucca groaned reaching up rubbing his hands across his face forgetting for a moment that the man shouldn’t be someone to let his guard down around. Any yet when he lowered his hands, the man still remained in place, not looking the least bit exhausted from standing up so long. Then again, maybe he wasn’t really a human at all. It was starting to seem like that anyway.

“You were not meant to be born as Lucca,” the man continued reaching up and brushing a finger against his lips as if contemplating something. “You are nothing more than a shadow of Lila.” 

At first, Lucca didn’t think anything of the words. But as he thought more on it, his frown started to deepen more and more. “What…what do you mean by that?”

 “You are Lila’s shadow,” the man said as casually as a person talking about breakfast.

“How can that be?” Lucca shook his head quickly thinking to the times with his sister. “Lila has her own shadow. How could I be her shadow?”

“The shadow around her is only visible when you are by her side. When you aren’t with her, she doesn’t have a shadow.” 

“So you’re trying to say I’m one of those Shadow Walker things?” Lucca stared down at the man’s shadow clenching his hands at his sides. There was no way that was true. Why was it no one ever mentioned it before?

“As a shadow, you became so good at mimicking the original that you shaped yourself into her form and became her. The only flaw you had was you became a boy instead of a girl. Otherwise, you would have been completely identical. You hid so well that others couldn’t detect it.

“But I did,” the man said chuckling as he focused on Lucca again. “After all, we are one and the same.”

“…What do you mean?”

“…I am a Shadow Walker.” The man’s shadowed seemed to stretch out as the sun continued to rise. Maybe it was just Lucca’s imagining, but it felt as if the man himself was moving closer to him. “Your grandfather’s shadow to be exact.”

The image popped in his head at that moment. He saw the small version of himself sitting on the living room floor of their grandparents’ house with his sister Lila beside him. They would sit in front of the fireplace with blankets wrapped around them looking up in awe at their grandfather who was busy embellishing stories as they snacked on cookies. Sometimes they were funny stories, sometimes very adventurous. 

Then every once in a while he would tell the story of the Shadow Walkers. It was during these stories that Lucca felt like his grandfather’s shadow stood out weirdly. While the stories were meant to be a way to scare them into not wandering off at night, Lucca found his focus split as the shadow moved making images on the walls and dancing in a way that was not the least bit scary. In fact, the shadows movements had seemed familiar to him.

Then he saw another memory…a world shrouded in shadows but very similar to his current home. It was only a brief memory, the shadowy image of a man with a fedora smiling at him as if they were close friends. Did he know people here too? It wasn’t much but that small glimpse that seemed to make his heart speed up was enough to make him want to know more.   

“…You remembered something,” the man said staring back at him not seeming as scary as he’d initially started, instead feeling like a person close to him. Were they good friends? Family? He wasn’t sure yet.

Lucca up at him feeling less fear and more of that familiarity. There was warmth in his chest at the sight of the man thinking back to the dancing shadows on the wall. While there was that connection, the images the shadow used to display on the walls painted the picture of another life. 

Was he special in that he was a part of two worlds? Lucca looked down at his hands turning them over checking out both sides. He looked human. He felt human too.  But he was also being told he wasn’t human. And now…the idea of this other world, a world he may also be part of, had him feeling intrigued. 

He thought back to the man’s words a few moments ago as he looked back up at him swearing that for a moment he saw a small bit of uncertainty in those red eyes. Did he remember something from all these images flooding his brain? Did he remember something seeing the shadow of a man with a fedora?

“Yeah,” Lucca said giving a slight nod of his head before smiling as if to reassure the man. It was only a brief motion but the man’s eyes widened a slight bit in surprise. The more he saw, the more he wanted to know about this man. Who was he to him? “I remembered something very important.”

“What do you remember?” The Shadow Walker looked up at him walking closer eager for his words and maybe even craving them. Lucca closed his eyes, darkness covering his vision as he listened to something in the distant past.  He could hear his grandfather’s story, could see the shadow dancing. His grandfather had done something…something that had caused the shadow on the wall to jerk in response as if surprised.

“Your name,” Lucca said opening his eyes finding the man looming over him staring down at him in anticipation. While subtle, Lucca swore he saw the man’s shoulders tense up at his words, eyes widening with surprised feeling similar to how the shadow did to his grandfather’s story. “Grandpa said your name once in one of his stories.  I believe it was ….” He paused for a moment staring up at the anxious red eyes before a mischievous grin spread across his lips as he spoke the next words. “Actually…have we…met before?”

End.