The Shadows Arise

 

Walk Towards the Journey of the Stick

Season 1 – Episode 2: The Shadows Arise

Who could believe a single mark in a single night that’s all it took to turn John’s silent existence into a warzone a battlefield like no other. What started as a confusion in a narrow alley now has stretched into something far greater, a way between the opposite, light and shadow. Guided by a mysterious hunter Jay, John starts to understand that the mark he thought was a wound is a gift that he never thought he needed, it’s a summons. And the shadows have already answered.

 

The whole city was unable to sleep even at night, it’s streets buzzed with shredded neon lights, hearing sirens from a distance and the atmosphere whispers of violence. But this night there is something different in the air a shock wave of tension surrounds the atmosphere as if the shadows themselves held their breath

 

John stumbled after Jay, still shaken from the alley fight. His chest brim with light that each beat echoes like thunder under his skin.

 

“Slow down,” he gasped “What are those things? Why are they after me?”

 

Jay didn’t look back, his massive blade swung casually at his side glowing while cutting small holes in the night

“They are shadows fragment of the Veil that feeds on the fear of others. They hunt the Lineborn.”

“the the…….Lineborn?”

 

Jay finally stopped and turn his sharpen eyes, with his voice lowed.

“You”

“You are one of them, born with a special line that connects you to both worlds, this one and the one hidden beneath it”

 

John shook his head repeatedly violently.
“NO NO NO NO NOOOOO, I’m just, a nobody, a nothing, I fight to survive. I’m not…..” He tapped the glowing mark “……whatever this is.”

Jay’s gaze soften feeling pity.
“You think I chose this? None of us did. The Veil doesn’t care what you want, but if you don’t accept it now no matter where you are or where you go the Shadows will keep on coming they will not rest until they have torn every piece of you apart”

 

Before John could open his mouth to respond a chilling wind swept through the streets. The lamps flickered and the pavement cracked suddenly they came dozens of them without any warning. Crawling out beneath the cars, peeling off walls, dripping from rooftops like oil. Their whispers grew louder filling the area with monsterious aura while chanting the same word.

 

“Lineborn. Lineborn. Lineborn”

 

John’s body becomes stiff, the feeling of panic holding him
“There are so many”

 

Jay raised his massive blade, he was calm as the night sky
“Then consider this your first lesson”

 

The Shadows match forward Jay cut through them with precise precision strikes each swing releasing bursts of light that shattered the darkness into mist. John moved away and his firsts trembling and his chest burning with energy he didn’t know how to use it

 

One shadow ran at him with claws outstretched and his instinct took over he raised his arm and the on his chest flared sending a shockwave that disintegrated the creature into variety of pieces

 

He smurked and his body shooked with raw power
“i……. i…. i… i.. i did that?”

 

Jay grinned faintly
“You did good again”

 

The battle raged and John fought clumsily at first each strike wild and desperate but the more he trusted the runes pull the more natural it felts the shadows fell one at a time but yet for every one destroyed double the number they emerge

 

Finally Jay drove his blade into the ground and a pulse of energy rippled outward causing the shadows remaining to vaporiate in a wave of light silence returned once more and broken only by John ragged breathing

 

“They’ll keep coming” Jay said grimly while pulling his sword freely

 

“You are marked now the Veil knows that you exist this was just the beginning”

John collapsed onto a bench while staring at his glowing chest “Why me? Out of everyone in the world why did they pick me? Why me?”

 

Jay sat beside him with his voice quieter “because the Veil chooses those who can walk both paths you are a bridge whether you accept it or not that’s what you are you can call it destiny and wild fact bridges are always attacked”

 

John’s fists clenched while fear lingered in his soft heart nut under it something else stirred a spark a dangerous kind of curiosity

 

“What happens if I FIGHT BACK?”

 

Jay’s smile was sharp “then you walk the journey and maybe with luck you may survive”

 

As John and Jay walked deeper into the night the city felt alive with unseen eyes the mark glowed weakly beneath his shirt a beacon which he couldn’t keep off

 

Jay spoke without looking at him
“This was a skirmish but soon you will face more than Shadows, you will face what commands them”

 

John shivered the echo of the whispers still crawling in his ears, he wasn’t ready for this but being ready or not does not matter anymore

Somewhere in the darkness a voice hissed
“The Lineborn has awoken

Next Episode: The Hunter’s Secret