Chapter 2

A blindfold is tied tight on, rope cuts deep into his wrists and ankles.

'What?! Ugh come on Death!'

Intense pain flows through his body, his skin feels like it'll burst into flames at the slightest touch.

His legs are thrown behind him, he tries to adjust in the incredibly small wooden box. The cold air burns his freezing dry throat.

Memories flood Adam's mind, of men beating him batons, fists, bats, electric shock. The pain comes with it and so does the fear.

Gah, you're an a-hole Death. He forces his legs up to his chest.

Bam!

"Shut up! Geez how is this guy still kicking?"

"I still think we should've just killed him."

He sighs and lightly pulls on the restraints, Adam whine at the pain. They hit the box again.

"Shut up!"

He looks out a small hole in between the boards. The ground is frosted, the air is even more brutal.

His head pounds so hard he feels like he might pass out. He doesn't dare move again, after at least an hour of hearing the horse's hooves hit the floor they come to a fast stop and Adam's thrown against the back wall.

He groans loydly through the gag, almost yelling as something small and sharp stabs into his back.

"Out of the way."

"Carrying some good cargo huh?" the muffled voice asks,

"What's it to you? Move before I change my mind and end you!"

"Kidnapping is punishable by death, if you turn and walk away now I'd be generous enough to let this slide, this once. I'm not always this understanding, I won't offer again."

"Alright you little witch!"

The ring of swords hitting one another gives Adam enough confidence to kick the wall. Doesn't budge but then again he has only so much room. Again, again, again. Finally the nails creak and the wall leans back. One more, it flies onto the dirt.

He scoots out, and falls onto his side. Adam sees them fighting and brawling. The two viking looking men and the female. She wears a black cloak with a hood hiding her face, black gloves, pants, boots, a sword on both sides of her waist.

She flips one over her shoulder and takes out a sword slicing his chest as he falls close to Adam. Adam turns, throws himself over to his sword, he sticks it between his knees and cuts the rope on his hands as fast as he can.

They finally snap, breaking free. She is just toying with the other brute. Adam cuts the rope on his ankles and gets to his feet, and stumbles away as fast as he can.

Every step sending searing pain into his body. He doesn't make it more than maybe thirty feet before he collapses and crawls away into a bush. His heart is pounding almost as hard as his body.

He looks back and she runs her sword into the man's back. She yanks it out and lets him roll over. She sheaths her sword and looks around, circles the cart and comes back.

"Well now where did you run off to?!"

She scans the trees and sees the area where he collapsed, the almost nonexistent frost melted from where he landed.

"There you are." she sings,

She starts over but Adam doesn't stick around. He turns and crawls out to the other side of the bush, he pushes himself up but his head is spinning so fast, that he falls back to his hands and knees.

The mix of pain with the cold ground is like fire to him, all over his body, head to toe, "Hey wait! I'm not going to hurt you!"

He jumps behind a tree leaning against it to keep from falling and grabs a thick dead branch to defend himself. She stops and smiles softly.

"If I wanted to kill you I would've done it already."

The words that Death had told him resurface, 'something good will come out of it.' Is she it? He had totally forgotten about Death, about all of that.

"Its okay, come on out."

He shakily swallows hard, he sets the branch down, only because he can't hold it any longer. It thuds to the frost covered ground. He crawls through the bush slowly.

"Whoa...they really wanted you to suffer huh?"

He looks at the black and blue bruises lining his body, Adam didn't even notice them before. Obviously he felt them, but he didn't physically notice them. "It's okay I got you." she says offering a hand,

Hesitantly he takes it, she helps him to his feet, takes her coat off and throws it around him.

"You must be freezing." Her short black messy hair sweeps over her forehead, she smiles again so brightly.

"Whats your name?"

"Uh....A-Adam."

"Adam? I knew an Adam once, but you aren't an old man." she chuckles,

He smiles weakly, forcing it.

"I'm Lydia, pleasure to meet you Adam. So, why did they do this to you?"

He shrugs, "I...um, I don't remember anything, just a lot of pain." he says, trying to sound as convincing as possible,

"Seriously? Oh man, I'm so sorry Adam. They really hurt you huh?"

"So, you're going to kill me?" Adam asks,

She snorts and laughs, "No, first, you haven't done anything to deserve it.....right?"

He shrugs, "Not that I'm aware of." he says weakly and softly,

She half smiles, and laughs again, "Okay next time someone asks that be a little more confident. Come on, it's freezing out here."

"Where are we going?"

"New Haven."

"What's that?"

She looks back at him confused and worried, "A-Adam, how much do you remember?"

"....Uh...my name."

She stares at me wide eyed, "Really? You have no memory of anything?"

He shakes his head, "Oh man....they really messed you up."

"It's not like it was important, just my identity." Adam says half smiling,

She looks at him in surprise, "D-did you just make a joke? About your own pain?"

He shrugs again.

She grins and shakes her head, "You are one of the strangest boys I've ever met."

"Coming from the teenage girl who just took on and killed two grown men, sorry, playing with two grown men."

"Well duh, I'm a Shadow Walker dummy."

They start over to the horses. "A what?"

"Oh yeah sorry, Shadow Walkers are a brotherhood, we almost died out from the last war. We are very advanced fighters, we were targeted because of the threat we posed. There were thousands upon thousands of us, now, maybe...thirteen I think, if they haven't died yet."

The two hook the horses and climb on. Well at least Adam is used to breaking horses back home.

He raises his eyebrows at her, "Yeah, we fought for Aurora Magic users. They have standard magic, defensive, offensive, creative, it goes on."

"So are you offensive?" Adam asks,

"I'm Aurora yes, Aurora magic contains all those, defensive, offensive, I have access to all those, it just depends on what area I use most, for me it's mostly defensive and offensive. Then there's Eclipse Magic, that's what the war was about, anything clicking?" she asks,

He shakes his head, she sighs, "You got a lot to relearn, Eclipse Magic is dark magic, everyone who has Eclipse Magic is evil."

"Isn't there good and bad in everything?"

She groans as they trot along the road, a few seconds go by of silence. She whines and opens her mouth.

"There should be. People who are born with Eclipse Magic or give up Aurora Magic for Eclipse Magic are cursed, literally. They are cursed to be evil, we have tried so many times to help them come back but once they are Eclipse users, they'll never go back. You're either one or the other, good or bad."

"You've lost people haven't you?"

She looks down at the reins, the joy has seemed to drain completely.

"Mm....you can also be corrupted Adam....Eclipse users can turn you into one of them. Not necessarily an Eclipse user, though they can do that too. But they can corrupt your heart, make you an evil Aurora user. There's still an unspoken war but because we both are in hiding and there's so few, no one addresses it."

"Im sorry Lydia. I can't imagine what you've been through."

She frowns at him, "There you go again. Why are you sorry for me? You've probably suffered more than me in the last three days alone than I did in the war. Even if you can't remember, why are you being so kind?"

"Is it really that rare?"

"Yes, for anyone. Why are you so kind?"

"I uh, recently had a very humbling experience."

"So you do remember something?"

"...Vaguely, but yes."

"It might help if you share." she says and trots fast in front of him,

"I watched someone I care about be in a lot of pain, and I did it to them. Not purposefully of course but, I lost them. I'd uh, I'd like to leave it at that."

She nods, "Losing a loved one is never easy. Alright Adam, I'm a pretty great fighter, I can train you, if you want?"

"Sounds nice, thank you Lydia."

She smiles and shakes her head after making an ugly face. "Ugh okay enough of this depressing crap, how old are you? Do you remember?"

"I'm eighteen, what about you?" he laughs,

"Hey, I just turned eighteen. I used to...what's that look for?"

"Eighteen? And you fight like that?"

Her cheeks turn a soft pink, "I was a fast learner, you kinda had to be, the war ended three years ago."

"You were fighting when you were fifteen?" he asks in disbelief,

"Yeah? Well technically I started training at eleven, a month after the war started, I trained for two years. I'm nothing special though."

"Bull."

She smiles, "Oh come on you haven't even seen others fight yet."

"I saw you throw them around like rag dolls."

She smiles at her hands, "Whatever."

"Where you from?" Adam asks,

"Ha, uh, not something I really like talking about, not to be rude! I-it just wasn't a happy time. I hope you're okay with that."

He nods, "Everyone has their own past, but it's theirs."

"Thanks Adam, I like you, you're different from other guys."

"How do you mean?"

"Well sure you have guys that care about others but haven't met anyone quite, erm, like you, I don't really have a word to describe you yet."

He chuckles and groans at the pain. They ride for several miles before he can't take it anymore, she forces him to stop and take a breather. The pain is so intense that his body still shakes with fear of touching something.

"I'm sorry." he mutters to her softly,

She snorts and taps his temple lightly. "Ow!"

"Don't apologize dummy. This isn't your fault."

"It's kinda pathetic."

She puts her finger under his chin and lifts, making his gaze meet hers. "If we were all perfect there would be no growth in this world, no pain and that means nothing to learn from."

"You're saying I should learn not to get tortured?"

She smiles, "I'm saying, we are all different. If you expect to run as fast as a hummingbird can flap its wings because someone told you to or you'd be worthless, then you care too much about what a cruel and corrupt world thinks of you."

He smiles, she grins and Kisses his cheek.

Adam feels the heat rush to his face, "What was that for?" he asks,

"To lift you up. You're my friend, that means your happiness is something I value."

"And you think I'm something special."

She grins, "What does that mean?"

"I've never met such a selfless person."

Her cheeks turn pink again, "I guess we are both pretty unique huh? Wow you're eyes are really pretty."

He looks down and bites his cheek, she giggles and kisses his cheek. He frowns at her, she smiles and squeezes her hand.

"How do you feel?"

"U-um, better.....great actually, I don't feel the pain."

"Yeah I got rid of it, it takes a lot of white plasma to heal for me so I had to wait sorry."

"White plasma?"

"Yeah so you have regular plasma and white plasma, white plasma is in other words magic energy, err, your energy for magic. It goes pretty fast to a certain amount, but using magic uses up the cells. It's like any drug or whatever, the more you use it the more you become used to it. Or in this case the longer you can last."

"Hm. How do you use magic?"

She gives him a confused look, "Even if you've forgotten your memories you should know somewhat how to use it. You don't have any idea?"

He shakea his head, "Hm...maybe it's still locked then? Only magic users with unlocked auras can unlock someone's locked one."

"And an Aura is..."

She giggles, "Magic filter, more or less. You've got a lot to learn Adam."

"Good thing I got a patient teacher."

"Yeah, so remember not to bite the hand that feeds you buddy." she says,

He puts his hands up surrendering. "I already owe you my life."

"Oh whatever, you do not."

"You took my searing pain away, you saved me, and are watching over me because I can't remember a thing."

"Weh....y-yeah okay but, you um...dang it, fine that's fair, but I'm not accepting any life debts or anything like that."

He laughs and gets to his feet. They walk back to the horses, she takes a deep breath and stops just before grabbing the saddle.

"Lydia?"

She rubs her head and climbs on, "I'm okay, white plasma is basically your body's energy, I just used a lot, but I'm okay, just a little lightheaded."

"I'm sorry."

"Hey, I'm alright, okay? No need to fret."

They trot down the road for miles until the sun disappears and the stars shine above them. They huddle around the fire that Lydia makes, gah he feels so useless.

But she laughs it off and plops down next to him and lies on her back. "I love looking at the stars, so much wonder and beauty."

"You really only see the good things in life huh?"

She shrugs, "I mean I try my best, there's enough heartache and pain in this world to depress everyone, why soak yourself in it when you can focus on a canvas like that?" she raising her hand into the air,

"Easier said than done."

"Heh, I suppose that's true, very true. But I still try my best to do so. It is hope that keeps people going after all. Hope for tomorrow, for food on the table, money."

"What do you hope for? Besides world peace."

She laughs, "Hmm....what do I hope for? As cliché as it sounds, to help as many people as I can, I hope to grow old, be able to look back on my life and be pleased with the effort I put in to helping the world be a little kinder."

"Lydia I think it's possible that every person could live a thousand lifetimes and never measure up to your generosity and kindness."

"You flatter."

"It's true."

"What about you? What do you hope for?"

"I'm not sure anymore. I've had a lot taken from me, that I know."

"A canvas? Tomorrow? Love?"

"Love....sounds more like your speed."

"Well I think everyone hopes for love. Some just look for different kinds compared to others."

"What do you mean?"

"I want true love, I want to look at someone and be able to say, 'You're my setting sun, my star in the night sky' I guess for someone like me, in my line of work that's just wishful thinking."

"Perspective matters."

"What does that mean?"

Adam lies down opposite of her and looks up, "Death for example, if the story is passed down I don't want some elaborate hero story of how I saved the world. I want something simple, skipping all of that, 'and the day came where he parted this world.'

"Hm...pretty humble I like that. Well, goodnight Adam."

He looks at her as she rolls onto her side. Adam closes his eyes and drift off slowly.