Shadey

He looked all around, taking in the pure carnage of the scene. As he stood upon that one particular car, invincible and untouchable, he found everyone around him to be so pathetic.

He jumped down from the car, and broke his leg when he landed twelve feet below. He cried out in pain, astonished at the new source of pain. But he just giggled and stood upright.

He then proceeded, while smiling with glee, to stomp with that leg away from the car-wreck.

This behavior of his, self-destructive to say the least, only worsened his injury, until when he reached the cafe across the street, his leg was not just broken, but annihilated. The skin was ruptured, with blood slowly trickling down his leg. The bones beneath the flesh were also destroyed; one was broken right in half, and was jutting right out, smearing even more blood all over his perfectly white jeans.

But all of this, the blood, his cracked tibia, his bloodied garb, everything, was resolved. When he stopped walking, a sick slurping and cackling sound resounded from his person, filling the ears of any who passed by with an insane symphony. Then, it stopped.

The man named Shadey looked down at his ruined leg. It had completely healed in under ten seconds. After all the hard work he did.

But he was still having a good day.

He smiled and continued to walk forward.

"Young one." A voice echoed to Shadey as he stepped into his favorite cafe. Shadey groaned and tried to ignore the voice. "We will never leave you. Why fight us?" The voiced continued.

Shadey carried the coffee he purchased with his own (stolen) money to a nearby table and took his seat. He groaned to the ceiling when two forms appeared in front of him, taking the two remaining seats.

Both looked similar; they wore very long shawls over their bodies, shrouding everything within in darkness. The one on the left wore an intricately designed blue and white shawl, while the one on the right had a deer theme, with varying shades of brown throughout.

They both sat before Shadey in silence. Shadey groaned again and turned away from his two visiters, to the window. Just what he needed, another lecture.

"You have to grow up." The one on the right said. Apparently she was female. "Your actions will have a negative effect on those around you."

Shadey eyed her mid sip. He chucked his still hot coffee at her. It splashed all over the seat and bounced off the back of her metal chair after it passed right through her.

Shadey turned away from the two, completely shutting them out now. As he watched the scene outside from his large window view, he heard a sigh.

He ignored it. It wasn't even noon yet and those two were already bothering him.

"Uh... Shadey?" A more... Cautious voice muttered.

Out of the corner of his eye, Shadey took note of who it was. Then he returned to watching the results of the chaos he had caused. There were people crawling out of the cars, and fire trucks trying to put out a fire that just started.

'Great. Just what I need...'

"Shadey?" The feminine other repeated, trying very hard to get his attention.

But Shadey just continued to ignore her, as he did his ephemeral visiters, who apparently left him to his own devices at that point.

"Ah, well..." She continued to speak, even though no one was paying attention. "I just wanted to see how you were doing." The black-cloaked girl still spoke, even though no one wanted to hear her. "Are you... Eating well?"

"..."

"Ah... Are you... Getting enough exercise?"

"..." Still no response.

So she took it as an affirmation. "That's good. That's good..." The she was quiet for a moment, giving Shadey a brief window of opprotunity to flee, which he promptly took. "Ah, wait!" She called out, before chasing him out the door.

When they were both outside, she grabbed onto his collar and tried to pull him back. Shadey stopped and whipped around so he could face her. He stuffed his hands in his pocket and and leaned in as close to her masked face as her cowering stance would allow. "What do you want?" He hissed while wearing a fierce glare.

"I-I-I-I..." She stuttered, obviously too intimidated to reply. She gulped, pushing her worried-looking mask forward and back. "I needed to te-tell ya-ya-you that She's sick."

Shadey rolled his eyes and leaned back. "Who is sick?" He said as he turned around and started walking away. The girl followed close behind, craning her neck as she tried to deliver her message.

"Mary. Mary is sick, Shadnik." The girl called out.

Shadey stopped walking and spun around, his hand high in the air, and a firy look in his eyes before pausing. He looked at the messenger, his face now cooled to that of confusion. "Mary's sick? Since when?" He couldn't believe he was even curious about something like that, but he wanted to know more for some reason.

The girl nodded. "Uh... Well, since you left really, that's what the doctor said, but he insists it's not because you left. He said it has been with her for a long time, and it's just been getting worse and worse." She said all of this in a small voice while cowering into herself, making Shadey lean in more to hear her.

"And?" Shadey commanded with an impatient voice, making the girl flinch slightly.

"That's it." She whimpered. The worried white eye painted on her dark-wood mask looked up at Shadey. "I think you should come back... Home. It miht help." She gulped, displaying yet another nervous tendancy of hers. "What are you going to do?" She asked.

Shadey stood upright, and exhaled deeply. "Nothing," and in a very quiet voice that not even he meant to use, "Probably." Shadey turned away from the girl and continued walking down the sidewalk without her.

He grinned when he turned a corner, looked back, and realized she wasn't following him.

Then he groaned up to the sky when he turned around and found his two companions. He tried to shake them off by running, but they just flew alongside him. Worse yet, they were talking to him again.

"Shadnik." The man wearing blue said, "Why are you running?" He asked as he flew through a telephone pole without causing any form of damage.

"Shut up!" Shadey cried as he turned into a nearby allyway and began climbing the backwall.

"Shadnik," The man said as he appeared in front of Shadey, blocking his view and forcing him to slow down some. "You must do as your sister requests." He commanded. "Mary may die because of you. Can you live with that?"

"Screw you!" Shadey curtly exclaimed. He hastened his pace, runnng headlong through the city, trying his damnedest to escape his followers. He tried his best o to ignore them as he ran, but their constant questions still invaded his conciousness.

"Where are you running?" The woman asked with a tone of worry. They were now in a suburb, quite some distance from the outskirts of the town they were just within. Shadey was running across lawns, knocking down lawn gnomes and scaring children.

"Away! Now leave me alone!" He roared.

Shadey continued to run, for hours it seemed. It wasn't until the first hour ended that he realized that the two were no longer following him. He raced across the countryside towns, across endless valleys, and even conquered great forests of obstales.

But he continued to run.

He stopped with an actual screech when he reached the seaside, the beach and water dyed scarlet by the setting sun. He was exhausted, panting, haunched over and worn from his hours-long trek, his face was red, his eyes were strained, and his garb was soaked in persperation.

"I don't know." He muttered in a hoarse, dry voice. He tried clearing his throat, but the action only yielded a sharp pain. He stood upright, earning a few pops from his spine.

He looked behind himself, and back again. "With no Gods to turn to..." He began walking forward, to the sandy limits of land and before him.

He continued to walk on in a slow steady pace. "With no life experience to draw from..." He looked down at his hands, no longer hot and prickly from hours of runnng; they had been returned to his natural state, like everything else. He looked back up at the slowly approaching waters.

"I don't know what to do." He looked across the sea, to the setting sun. He gripped his chest and grimaced. "I've only ever wanted freedom..."

"But now you want something completely different, and it is tearing you apart."

Shadey tried to ignore the man. Even though he spoke the truth.

"Shadnik, you can heal her." The woman, with her gentle voice, deicded to contribute to the conversation. "You know this, don't you?"

Shadey grunted. Here he was, trying to be pensive and have an epiphony, and he was being spoon fed it by the Gods themselves. Still, it was better than nothing...

"But you can't." The man admitted for Shadey. "At least not without abandoning everything you've worked for up until this point."

The woman sighed, and praddled on with her companion. "Accepting your title as Avatar would mean you could use our powers at your whimsy. Even on others."

Shadey closed his eyes and tried to enjoy the ambience of the beach.

"But it would mean submitting to us, and our will whenever we saw fit."

Shadey inhaled the salty sea air and released it back into the world. He opened his eyes. With a quicke check, he found no visitors behind him, only sand and earth. He looked back to the sun, almost entirely gone.

For the second time in his life, Shadey truly felt like there was nothing he could do.

So just as the young Shadnik had done all those years ago, Shadey collapsed to the ground and weeped in desperation. It didn't work last time, and he doubted it would work this time. But at least it felt good.

Sometimes life... Just isn't fair.