Chapter 2.2

"I can't believe we all just obeyed these people." She muttered, watching as more children are forced into lines below. The process continues for about an hour. There were just over nine hundred children staying in these apartments.

"I had to admit it, but we're kind of powerless." The words slip out.

"That's not true. That's not true at all. We relinquish that power by obeying and thinking we have no choice. But we do, we always have a choice, the question is whether we can live with it. Screw them."

"Okay. So, lets come up with a plan. We can't talk to other apartments. We can't get out of here. If these really do have poison in it, then you could die. I think I'll still be resistant, but what about you? What can we do?"

"Start by finding a solution to one of them."

"How?"

"Your imaginary friend, he can help us right? I saw the way the two of fought. It was pretty badass."

"Yeah, but that also made me pass out, and I had no idea how I did it." I still felt a bit weak to be honest, like I ran a marathon without training beforehand.

"You just have to practice."

"Easy for you to say… Fine. Even if I manage to control it, how are we going use Shadow to get out of here?"

"I don't know yet."

I scoffed at her optimism but blatant lack of planning and foresight.

"I know it's not much of a plan." She admitted.

"It's not any sort of plan. It's a vague idea at best… But we can work on it." It was a start. We could at least work towards a goal rather than mindlessly accepting that was our fate.

"Can you get him here? Shadow?" she asked.

I nodded and summoned Shadow. He towered over Theo, barely fitting in the apartment, but she didn't even blink, "you can't see him can you?"[SS1]

"No, where is he?"

"Right beside you."

She spun around "I can't see him. Try imagining how you felt when he turned solid. You were pretty upset about Alex…" she suddenly stopped midsentence, shocked at herself for mentioning it, and knocked off guard at the wave of emotion that washed over her.

Her words pierced through me, my chest tightening at the sound of his name. I felt like I failed him, and I felt guilty that we'd been going on about how to escape without thinking about what happened to Alex. He was my family, and I wasn't enough to save him. Suddenly, Shadow moves by my side, taunt, as if ready to fight off a threat.

Guilt clouded her expression "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up." There were tears brimming in her eyes and she looked away, unable to look me in the eye.

I ignored the pang of guilt twisting my stomach. "No, you're right. I think Shadow reacts to my emotions somehow." I remembered when he covered me in black smoke when we killed Jason Smart all those years ago, he was trying to calm me down, and now, when I was reminded of Alex's death, he reacted.

"So try and remember how that felt." She suggested gently, she was being careful with her words, watching me carefully, holding back what she really wanted to say.

I didn't want to remember. But I did it anyway. I brought my mind back to the school corridor, I remembered dragging Theo behind me, she was shaking slightly was fear. We were almost there, just a few feet and we would have got to him. We probably could have saved him. Then the door blew out, an explosion of fire erupted, shattering the door and windows. Heat washed over us, and the sight of fire burned our eyes. I remember the grey smoke clouding the corridor. I think I shouted his name. but instead of Alex emerging from the wall of smoke, there were Garlantian soldiers.

Walls that I built in my mind to protect my sanity, tumbled down. It was a crazy wave of anger without direction, immobilising despair like a hole had been ripped out of my stomach, and the terrible guilt that somehow, this was my fault.

Everything was pushed out of balance, and I remember the battle cry filled with seething rage that erupted my vision into Shadows and turned him solid. The way we danced around their attacks effortlessly, we saw every eventuality and countered their movements before they'd even finished. Side by side Shadow and I slaughtered anyone who came our way. We bathed in my rage, which fuelled our fight and wouldn't let anyone stop us.

My vision flickers red, and I think I could see the sky of Shadow's world. I thought it was working before red hot pain shot through my eyes. I screwed my eyes shut, but I was no longer seeing through my eyes. The pain continued, and I dropped down on my knees.

"I can see him! Hey, what's wrong?" I hear Theo shout, but her voice is a bit distorted and I almost don't understand what she's saying.

"Somethings wrong… It hurts!" I scream, I try letting Shadow go, but doesn't work. The pain gets louder and louder. So loud that I thought my skull would split.

[SS1]Haven't mention yet that she could see him before.