One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

<~*Chapter 9*~>

It has been almost a week since the senior projects have started, and it's almost the deadline. Scott and Grayson have worked hard and are almost completed with their project. Now it's the weekend and Grayson had Scott come over to keep working.

"Wow, we have one more slide.. This project has gone by quickly." Scott says, almost in disbelief.

"I know, I'm glad it's almost over though. This stuff is hard." Grayson says chuckling slightly.

Scott doesn't know if he can laugh, he'll be missing having fun on this project. He falls onto his back on the floor and Grayson sees Scott being lazy for the 50th time.

"Why are you laying on the floor again?" Grayson asks smiling, nudging Scott's foot with his own.

"Because I'm tired." Scott groans out but sits up nonetheless.

"Why are you always so tired?" Grayson asks, appearing somewhat serious with this question but also joking around.

"I don't sleep a whole lot." Scott says, not particularly lying but not telling the whole truth.

"You could sleep here if you want? After we finish you could just lay on my bed." Grayson suggests, Scott thinks about that.

Two reasons why he shouldn't is because he might not fall asleep and if he does fall asleep, he could have a nightmare or be talking out loud to his souls by accident.

You never know what could happen.

Two reasons why he should though, he is super tired and plus, it's Grayson's bed. Grayson's bed. His soulmate's bed. Grayson, bed, soulmate. Some people never get this chance and Scott truly believed he wouldn't, now that he has a soulmate, what if Scott misses this chance?

You never know how much you want something until you're given the opportunity.

And Scott is taking the opportunity. He's decided he doesn't care if something goes wrong.

He is going to sleep in his soulmate's bed and he's a little happy. Okay, maybe a lot happy.

"Alright, thanks." Scott says with a smile and actually giving a verbal response instead of freaking out inside his head.

"Okay, but now, let's just finish this last part." Grayson says seriously but he smiles happily.

"Okay." Scott smiles and decides to work extra hard so he can go to sleep faster.

.

"Well, we finished.. Now you can sleep." Grayson says while Scott literally jumps up and races over to Grayson's bed.

Scott calms down and gently sits on Grayson's bed and thinks things over.

Grayson is too busy laughing to notice how nervous Scott is.

Scott is going to be bold in this moment, not like super bold.. But, he can't really fall asleep, so.. He wants to ask Grayson to lay down with him.

Grayson notices Scott's not as excited as he was before so he asks, "Scott, what's wrong?"

"Uhm, would you mind.. laying down with me?" He pauses when he realizes his question seems weird and he quickly adds, "I just have problems falling asleep, I used to have a friend who would lay with me, but.." Scott mumbles on and on, now feeling super nervous.

Scott has thought of so many scenarios but he knows Grayson's not a mean person.

Not like that person, Scott hears Steve say in his head.

Grayson's face heats up, he seems quite flustered.

"I-I mean, you don't have to, I was just wondering if you-" Scott starts rambling but Grayson cuts him off.

"It's fine. I can lay down with you, if it helps you sleep that's even better." Grayson says, Scott seems so serious so he doesn't refuse.

Scott nods his head and the room is filled with awkward silence as Grayson moves to his bed slowly.

"Do you just want me to lay by you or..?" The end of the question is known by Scott, and he wants the latter.

"Cuddles always is best." Scott says mischievously, he smiles like an innocent child.

Grayson chuckles and shakes his head, "Alright, cuddles it is."

The room is so awkward, beyond awkward, because neither one of them know what they're doing.

But Grayson lies down and puts his arm out to which Scott happily lays down on.

And that concludes how they spent their Sunday.

.

.

.

Monday morning came and the project has been turned in and ready to present.

Scott and Grayson's cuddling session was greatly appreciated by Scott because he got a lot of sleep as Grayson held him and talked with him. It was very peaceful and less awkward as they lied there longer.

But now, school waits for no one, especially when they skip class so much that they should be failing but for some reason still have A's because they come on quiz/test days and pass the tests somehow. Example; Scott Powers.

The schools in Erebus aren't very strict. As long as you're learning and ready for being an adult, not coming to school is the least of their worries. Plus, many students are already working and taking after their parents businesses. The underworld is very fond of keeping history repeating, and family relations are important.

Scott got his things after leaving Grayson to go to his locker. He has to admit that they have gotten very close. They go to their classes together, partially because they have mostly the same classes but they also just bump into each other so instead of avoiding each other, they walk together through the halls and to their classes.

They split up at lunch but then meet back up for their next class. Then after school they would go to Grayson's house to work on their project.

Now, they're not sure what to do. Before, they had an excuse to hang out for a week, but now, it would be because they want to. They could make up more excuses like doing homework, or training together but who knows.

Scott decides not to think about Grayson right now. He has been thinking about too much lately and he needs to focus on some other things he has been putting off.

The umbra have gotten really weird lately and Scott's been coming up with an intense plan that could very well expel him, if him skipping class doesn't before then, anyways.

Scott will have to think about this later though. He doesn't want to be terrified before lunch.

"Scooott!" He hears his brother call from across the lunch room. Matt sat next to Melanie and waves erratically to call Scott over.

Scott smiles slightly and speed walks over to them, "miss me?"

Melanie's eyes stare at him in annoyance but she sighs and pulls Matt back to sit down.

"Of course not, idiot! But you've been gone a lot recently, got yourself a new friend?" Melanie says smiling mischievously on the word 'friend.'

"Well yes, don't say it weirdly though.." Scott looks at her in disgust.

"Anyways.. Scott! There's a match this weekend, are you coming? To at least watch?" Matt asks with twinkling eyes and his hands out in a praying gesture.

Scott says, "Yes, I probably won't be allowed to play though, I'll only watch.."

As he talks to his siblings, he knows he has to get the umbra out so they can have their free will back. But not just them, he'll work slowly to get rid of every shadow.

.

After school, Grayson asks Scott if he wants to come over to do something.

"I'm sorry.. Today I actually have to do something. I can try to come over later, if you want?" Scott feels bad not coming over but he really has to think things over before he has anything else to worry about.

"Alright, come over whenever you want. I'll be patient." Grayson says with a small laugh.

Scott smiles gratefully, "Thank you, I'll see you later."

Scott walks off, but not without giving Grayson a wave and a smile as he walks the opposite direction.

As Scott reaches his house, Matt and Melanie stop him in their living room to have a nice family friendly discussion.

"So, you're home today?" Matt asks with a nice, raised eyebrow.

"Yep," Scott says popping the 'p' while sitting down and waiting for his siblings to let him leave.

"So, you're done with the project, I guess?" Melanie says and Scott gives her same answer.

"Have you been sleeping okay? You haven't gotten dizzy or nauseas, have you?" Melanie asks, now going straight to the important questions.

"I've been fine.." Scott looks at his siblings suspiciously, they seem to be getting angry. "Why didn't you ask this at lunch? I thought I- Uh, what's with your faces?" Scott asks, Melanie and Matt's faces have now turned completely furious.

Scott has no clue what happened but he thinks he's got the answer.

"Melanie, Matt.. Calm down. Everything is fine, think about Anna and Seth, okay?" Scott tries to soothe them by talking about Anna and Seth, their parents.

Scott calls his mom by her name because his relationship with her is difficult, to say the least. And Seth has never seemed like a father to Scott; therefore, he'll call them by their names.

And why Scott is trying to calm Matt and Melanie down, that is so the shadows don't use their emotions to be taken over.

Scott has done his research. By that he means he's asked Steve and Bob about them.

Scott reaches into their conflicting minds, he knows what he needs to do to get the shadows out now. He's been practicing in his dreams with his souls. He knew he would need to do this soon, just not this soon.

Looking into someone's soul is unusual, to say the least. He has to go through memories, he doesn't really get to see what the person knows or feels unless he actually focuses on them but all he needs to do is find the exact place of the soul eating shadow right now, he can worry about other things later.

During Scott's private lessons with his souls, he's learned about the many kinds of Umbra in the world. One being a soul-eating shadow.

Umbra are literal shadows. They were once human, but once they died, their personal shadow removed itself and went to look for a soul to bond with. Bonding with a soul that isn't your own hurts that soul and starts decaying or removing particular parts of the soul. Hence why Scott needs to get rid of them before any others get harmed, Scott just needed to find out how.

For instance, say a person died. That soul passed onto the underworld where the Demon King holds souls to be reborn into another person. There are rare cases where the whole soul does not go though, the shadow can accidentally disconnect and try to look for a new host. But most souls already have shadows and having more than one can make the soul expand until it is forced to remove certain things or the shadow will start ripping apart the soul itself.

This is how new beings have been created. Shadows accidently disconnecting from their soul and kicking out roommates in another.

Shadows don't have the morals of humans, they don't really think and they don't have feelings.

There are ones that accidentally take emotions though. Same can get love and will choose the first soul it sees and never leave it. Some get anger, wanted to kill every soul it comes across. Some get bored feelings, moves from one soul to the next rather quickly.

Shadows can literally come in all shapes and sizes.

All beings have a soul, plants, animals, even insects that Scott absolutely despises.

But, anyways, Scott has found the shadows inside of Matt and Melanie.

Getting them to leave is going to be tricky, killing them is the easy part.

First, he has to call the umbra by its original name which can only be found in the shadow itself so Scott has to go in the shadow as well as the soul they are inhabiting.

Next, Scott will grab the shadow after it has been sucked into submission by saying its name.

Third, he will pull the shadow out gently and move it into a being with no soul, like a blanket or something non-living like that. It works on living things too, but if it were another person it wouldn't end well for them.

Lastly, he will destroy that being, burn it, crush it, tear it, whatever needs to be done to make sure the shadow dies with that object.

And he followed those steps exactly.

But unfortunately, he has another problem.

"What the hell is going on!?" Melanie asks as she paces the room.

"Uh, we were talking. Yes." Scott says being very convincing, nodding his head and moving to cover the burnt couch pillows on the floor.

"And then you.. What did you do?" Matt asks showing his confusion because he is literally holding his head in his hands.

Scott would erase their memories but everyone will learn eventually, so why lie now?

"Alright, you caught me.. I'm.." Scott takes a deep breath in while his siblings look at him anxiously waiting on an answer.

"I'm a magician." Scott says, making his siblings want to go mad with all of his jokes.

"Stop lying and answer us!" Melanie shouts angrily, maybe the shadow wasn't the one with anger problems.

"Okay, I'm sorry.." Scott says, "You probably won't believe the truth anyways."

Scott takes a deep breath and goes into their minds now free from the disgusting umbra.

'Melanie.. You know how we're a mix of vampire and werewolf essences? Well, I'm also a demon.. Dad had some interesting secrets.' Scott starts his long explanation while Matt and Melanie are so stunned watching Scott.

Scott explains what their dad told him long ago, he's a demon working for the demon king. He mentions that that's the reason why their dad left and how Scott was going to learn from him but never got the chance because he disappeared.

His mouth isn't open but they can hear him talk while he taps his foot and pretends to roll an invisible mustache.

'Oh, and I found my soulmate. I'm not telling you who because they're too precious for you guys.' Scott continues his long explanation, now playing with an invisible beard.

'If you're still wondering about the time I went missing, I will never tell you that so don't even ask.' Scott keeps talking until he feels he's described everything that has happened in the past few days.

"Alright, so we good? Bye!" Scott teleports to his room without letting his siblings have any time to respond. Although Scott was playing around while giving away a secret he's had for so long, he was still extremely nervous so he did odd things to cover up his nerves.

As he thinks in his room he decides what to do. 'Today has been eventful. I'm just going to go to Grayson's house, they'll never look for me there.'

Scott teleports to Grayson neighborhood and spends the rest of his day with Grayson until he teleports home, without being seen of course.