Mr. Brown vs. Shadow

He felt it more than anything else: a cold presence rising from the shadows in the corner of his office. Out of them emerged Ms. Summers, as supple and elegant as always, but the air around her had changed. Her usual heartfelt, but serious demeanor was replaced by hatred and a sharp smile, entirely too sharp on her face, and she showed a hint of gloating.

"Hello, Mr. Brown." She crooned.

"How did you get in here?" He asked. The charms should have protected the Academy...

Another presence emerged from the shadows. The charms professor had a wicked grin, so unnatural on his usually jovial face.

"I may have had a little bit of help." Ms. Summers replied.

Mr. Brown put his hand under the desk, searching for the tiny emergency button hidden there.

Ms. Summers clicked her tongue.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

The warning came too late. He had touched the button and a painful shock traveled down his arm, the burning sensation hitting him all the way up the arm, up till the shoulder.

Ms. Summers took a step forward.

"I warned you. But you just like to make things hard, don't you?"

Mr. Brown stood up from the chair.

"What do you want from me?" He asked.

"Well, it's very simple. You" and Ms. Summers pointed towards him "have caused me sooo much trouble. So many of my friends have gotten kicked out of the Academy. And so many who had nothing to do with me, too. You left those people to starve to death on the street. Jobless. Frightened. Miserable." With each accusation, she made one more step towards his desk, until she reached it and promptly slammed her hands on it.

He took a few more steps back, finally touching the corner of a shadow. He could get out of here.

He looked at Ms. Summers with defiance, only to realize that the charms professor was gone. A mere second later, he realized that the dark magic that should have enveloped him by now was... blocked. A pair of icy hands, so abnormally cold, caught him by the shoulders and the professor’s voice whispered in his ears:

"Oh, I did what you asked me to. I blocked all the usage of dark magic, just like you wanted. But the only dark magic that blocked... was yours!" He giggled at that, as if he'd made a funny joke, but the noise was so cold, all the warmth from his voice gone. How had he not noticed that sooner?

"Now, I don't really like being interrupted, Mr. Brown." Ms. Summers spoke again, and all he could do was stay there and watch her with panic and disbelief. How had this gone so wrong so fast?

"You see, I had to deal with your mess." She gestured towards the window. "I had to befriend and help all those people that you left alone because you were too much of a coward to take care of them-"

"I tried to protect what I could!" Mr. Brown shouted back. And Ms. Summers stopped her furious speech for a moment, stunned at his words. Then:

"I thought I made it clear I don't like to be interrupted." She said.

The cold hands receded from his shoulders and after a few moments of the grinding sound of charcoal against the wall, Mr. Brown found himself unable to talk. Bound by another charm of this nefarious creature.

Ms. Summers craned her neck forwards, her eyes showing cold hatred. Mr. Brown still found it difficult to understand that this wasn't his friend. This was no longer Ms. Summers.

"I want to create a paradise for all my friends. And you stop me from doing that. Over. And over. And over again."

Then she smiled.

"But I'm willing to take care of you too. After all," and she reached for his hand. So cold. Entirely too cold. "I need your help. You rule this place. And I want to rule it too."

Mr. Brown wanted to say no, but the words wouldn't come out, so he shook his head and tried to back away. Immediately, the charms professor grabbed his shoulders and reached for his arms. Cold cold cold.

Ms. Summers laughed as he struggled, but the charms professor was stronger than he seemed.

"Oh, you don't get you choose." She said and reached for his hand across the desk.

What happened next was instinct.

His polished marble desk exploded, pelting Ms. Summers with the pieces. And the pieces that flew towards him were quickly redirected towards the charms professor, who melted into the shadows.

An enraged cry came from Ms. Summers, but she had lost her chance. Mr. Brown hit the wall behind him, bricks flying out at dizzying speed and, after a few moments, he jumped out, catching himself with a gust of wind, looking for a safe place to land.

A sudden weight hit him square in the back, knocking the breath out of him, making him lose his focus and what should have been a nice descent turned into an ugly fall, the sound of a bone breaking and a sharp hiss of pain radiating like hot coals coming from his arm, who had taken the brunt of his unexpected fall. But, despite that, he could feel a buzzing chill from the weight on his back.

His pulsating pain muddled his thoughts as whoever was on his back reached once again for his hand.

A flash of memories hit him, as he remembered the terribly scorched hand of that poor guard that had been hit with light magic.

As the icy fingers reached for his pained, broken arm, he summoned whatever effort he had left and put as much light magic into the touch as he could.

A cold feminine laugh erupted from Ms. Summers (it should have worked) and she grabbed his hand (why didn't it work), only to scream in pain (try something else) when the buzzing light turned into licking flames. She flinched and that was enough for Mr. Brown to try and push her off his back with a strong gust of wind. She fell back, wincing and he stood up and ran. Didn't even look back to see if he was followed. As he scrambled blindly forwards, he tried to stand in the sunlit areas. The less she could use her shadow-warping, the better.

As he ran, his unbroken hand searched for his golden pocket watch, his way of calling people when he needed it. His fingers grasped the cold metal and he took it out, quickly calling the first person to appear on the screen: Noah White.

The watch made a pleasant ding as Noah appeared behind the glass, worry lines etched deep into his skin.

And before Mr. Brown could say anything, there was a guard in front of him, hand raised in the air. Foot steady on the ground, he launched a tremor, raising the ground right under the unsuspecting guard, launching him high in the air with a startled yelp.

"Hi, Harry!" Noah said, entirely too cheerful for the whole situation. "Why did you call?"

Three more guards showed up and, from the shadow of a nearby tree, the charms professor with his grim smile came as well.

"I am being surrounded by the-"

His watch fell to the ground, an arrow knocking it clean out of his hand. Desperate for a distraction, Mr. Brown kicked up the dusty soil, launching an improvised smokescreen, before taking the watch and running off.

"What is happening?" Noah sounded worried, but still not grasping the situation.

"The people controlled by the darkness!" Mr. Brown clarified, panting. His arm still sent painful throbs with each running leap he made. He had to get out of here. He wouldn't last much longer.

And that's when he suddenly collapsed to the ground, the air knocked out of his lungs again as the earth that had been his friend a moment ago pulled at him, merciless. As gravity doubled in on him, he fell on his crippled arm, a guttural scream coming out from his throat. He panted heavy and looked ahead. In front of him was a student, white wavy hair flowing in the wind.

"Caught you now." She said and he recognized the tone.

"Hold on, I'm coming!" Noah said, foolishly believing he'd be here on time.

The student stepped on his golden watch and with a sickening crunch, the glass shattered. She bent down and grabbed him by the chin.

"Shouldn't have called your friend." She tsked.

"Shouldn't... have come... so close." I panted back, then sent a tremor that knocked her balance, then like quicksand, the ground gave in underneath her feet and she started sinking. She lost her focus and control over her ability.

As breathing became easier, he knew the gravity was once again back to normal and he also had learned a startling truth: they may be a dark element now, but they still had their innate abilities (explained in edit) for the cruel puppeter to use.

He tried to stand up, his arm groaning at the effort, before a heel dug into his back, pushing him back down. A cold hand reached down as he yelped in pain, red blisters reaching down for broken bones.

A painful handshake was made and Mr. Brown was gone as well.

As an after note, Shadow said to herself in Ms. Summers melodious voice:

"Shouldn't have struggled."

-

Edit: So, I mentioned the words innate ability this chapter. It's kind of like the special ability that you get born with, specific to each element. It can't be learned or taught, you're born with it. So, for light that would be the visions and for dark that would be thoughts and memory reading and for air, like in this chapter, it's gravity change. That's why it's such a crucial thing, even though the people are now technically a dark element, they still have their innate ability, making them that much harder to deal with. I do have a few extra details on tumblr, darcyrose-here, for curious folk.