Aarya

A small tingling feeling was building up inside of me. With a gasp, I opened my eyes. The feeling was building, and it was cold. Shivering, I sat up in the snow covered mattress. Snow covered? Shocked, I realized what happened. The open window was bringing in more than just a soothing breeze, it was bringing in a blizzard! With a shiver I ran to the window and shut it. But it was pretty late. My whole floor had a coating of snow, blocking the colored rug and the wooden floor. This was strange. Here in Virginia, we haven't gotten a blizzard since 2016! Shaking my head, I realize that my dog was still outside! With my luck today, he's probably suffering from pneumonia. Why was my window even open? I remember closing it last night... Hmm. Shrugging, I pull on a coat to face the weather outside. Opening the door, I finally realize how low the snow is. Funny. The snow coated my bedroom floor, but it barely fell 3 inches outside. I walk over to the fenced-off yard for my dog, when I find he isn't there. "Shit!" I curse as the fence gate was left open as well. "Those stupid dog walkers never close them. I start to make my way back to the house to call the police. Then I notice that the snow has stopped falling. Not a single flake fell from the bright blue sky. Shrugging off the hundredth weird thing this morning, I step ahead. I suddenly turn around, hearing my puppy, Archie, barking! There he is, with the gate closed and happily staring at me from a grassy island in a sea of ice. Then the weirdest thing of all happens. Every step I've taken isn't there.You can't see the footsteps I've taken. Running back to the house, I see the window closed and another me in my bed! Next, the snow disappears. "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!" but my neighbor doesn't notice me. I try to shake her, but my hands go right through her stocky frame. I stare at my hands again. I can look right through them. I turn back to the woman inside. Slowly, her eyes open. Except they aren't eyes. They are empty sockets. I step back and scream. Who is she? What happened to me? I get out my phone and try to get a camera on my face. Nothing. I. Am. Invisible. Shaking, I sit down, but the grass doesn't make a noise. Even the snow has disappeared. What is happening? One thought pushes itself to the front of my head. I saw those eyes, or rather didn't see those eyes before. They were outside my window last night. Staring. The creature was a shadow. A soul. Looking for an owner. A body to call it's own. With a shudder, I realize what's happened. My body has been stolen. I am a shadow. I must find another body. When I look at "me", it has my eyes now. Now I know what I have for eyes. Nothing. Why me? Suddenly, I see my neighbor with those nothing eyes and realize she can see me. My dog too. What is happening? What are the shadows doing? Confusion line their faces. The same one I felt. Whatever's happening, it's begun. Our town is becoming a shadow world. The creatures have taken over. Our world is over. Glad I'm still sitting down, a hollowness encases me. All other thinking is beside me. One thought becomes my life. Distant and foggy, it builds up louder and louder. Take a body? TAke a Body. TAKE A body. TAKE A BODy. TAKE A BODY.

The Shadow Keeper

"It is almost complete master." said the little boy he kept as a servant. It was either that or turn him into a shadow. But this boy had the brains to change the whole operation. Plus, he was fueled by the motive of staying alive.

The shadow keeper nodded at the boy. The keeper, the gender unknown stared at a map on the wall. The map showed a green world. Slowly, it was turning black. When the whole world was black, it would be his rule. The shadows would follow his every move.

The boy stood, shaking under the keeper's gaze until he was sent away. Their world was perfect. Shadows did all their tasks. The bodies they had conquered at least. The process was quite simple. One shadow captured the body of a girl named Aarya.

When a person was captured, their life twists. Things appear wrong and twisted until the body is gone and she has been transformed. Whenever the shadow Aarya glances upon another, they too are transformed. Soon, the world would be.

The Boy

Shivering, he headed back into the lab. He pushed the knob all the way up. Full mind control. He could make them do whatever he pleased. But he stopped. Was it worth it? Making all those people and animals suddenly gone? Just turned into slaves?

He glanced at the visuals in front of him, worlds of wonder turned black and desolate. The world was being killed. But it was fine. His parents deserve this. They tried to kill him. Humanity was evil and he was just helping the keeper.

But one troubling thought kept coming back. What if that wasn't true? What if his parents did nothing? That he was stolen? Then all this could be for no reason other than to please the keeper. He could help them. But, he knew he would die. So he did what he thought was right.

The keeper never paid him. Heck, he didn't even know what the keeper was like! He'd lived here for 12 years, since he was three. What if his parents were out there? Being zombiefied? He had to stop this. But he couldn't be obvious. What should he do? He looked through his notes for a solution.

Nothing. His plans was too good. He made it so no one could stop it if they found out. Even him. But he finally thought of it. Humanity's one beauty. Love. He went through the code and found the thought. TAKE A BODY was printed in fine lettering. He quickly changed the code, putting images in their mind, of people they loved. Some alarming things came to mind soon though. One town was thinking of him a bit! They said, they said his name was Avi. Then, the keeper came.

Aarya

TAKE A BODY. TAKE A Mom. MOM! Mom! Dad! Avi! Mom! Dad! Avi! I had to fight through the mind control. I held onto their images and pulled through. Soon, I gained control of my mind. I pushed away those thoughts of body taking and my head throbbed from the effort.

All around me the shadows turned back into the people they were. Archie groaned and then burst out of his cage. He lapped at my cheek affectionately for a while, and then went back to sniffing the ground.

Avi was a thought I hadn't thought of in a while. Slowly I remember him the day he was killed. Innocent and loving and then stolen. Gone from our lives. Forever. We tried everything, but our boy wasn't coming back.

He shot his head up alarmed. He pointed at the sky where a thunderstorm was beginning. It began to pour. Not water, blood. With a scream, I tried to escape. But the door wouldn't open. Soon a limp body fell from the sky. It fell into my arms and the rain stopped. All signs of it were gone.

The boy in my arms was very near to death. He was barely breathing. "Avi? Is that you?"

The keeper

The boy betrayed me. If I let him escape, he would tell my plans to all. I can take over the world without him. With a grin, I take out a gun and shoot him four times and let his blood flow to Earth. Soon, when there's barely any life in him, I let him fall to Earth a slow and torturous death.

He doesn't resist as I throw him out of the window. His heart barely beats. He lived longer than intended though. When I stole him he was so little and pale. He looks the same now.

He falls to the ground in the arms of a confused young lady. Aarya. She looks around as the blood rain stops, still bewildered. I turn away and head down for supper.

The Shadow Slaves

"WE REMEMBER. YOU STOLE US FROM US. YOU WILL PAY." With a war cry, the shadow slaves, no longer shadows, pounce on the keeper. Knowing who they were, Loved and lovers, brothers and sisters, they killed the keeper. They killed the person who wanted to conquer the universe. It was all over. The shadowfication. The Shadows jumped from the mansion in the sky, down to their families.

Avi

The world is fuzzy and so bright. I blink again. Where am I? A blood covered girl stands near me and I vaguely remember. Being carried into this room. Being shot four times, Once in both arms and twice in the chest.

Tubes surround me, helping me breathe as both my lungs have apparently been punctured. Suddenly she comes into view. I can barely recognize her. She beams at me and calls to someone. Two lovely people arrive. I recognize these people. Mom! Dad! Aarya!

They barely keep from dying, and I notice how horrible I must look. Aarya smiles and says something to me. What is it? Oh.

"Avi, welcome to your family."

THE END