Moving Shadows (I)

July 17, 2054. Friday. 9:30 am.

"Beep. Beep. Beep." The loud digital alarm went off. Kiyro reached over with his hands as he searched for the audible obnoxious alarm. After a couple of attempts, he finally could silence it with a heavy downward force of his hand. The alarm clattered and fell to the side.

"Ugh," he groaned. He was still tired from last night's ordeal. Flashes of last night's events were recalled in his mind, bringing him fully awake. He bolted upwards and scanned around the room.

"When did I get in bed?" He checked his clothes and noticed they were still the same as what he had worn last night.

"You're finally awake." Sylph chirped. The Embryo Alive glasses automatically turned on. A small holographic bird appeared before him on his lap. "I was wondering when you would finally get up. We got a lot of things to do today."

Rubbing his eyes, Kiyro recalled every last thing that happened last night. The surreal events that seem to come out of a horror movie happened last night. So the whole event felt like a dream; he did not know if what happened last night even happened.

"What are you waiting for? We've got to help speed up the next World Quest. Are you going to act stupid all day long?" Sylph chastised him.

"That was not a dream?" Kiyro whispered lightly under his breath. His mind was groggy from sleep.

"Did you say something? I couldn't hear you. Speak up."

"Last night wasn't a dream, right?" Kiyro stared intently down at Sylph, waiting for an answer. "No, wait. You bastard. You lied to me last night and left me without giving me a good reason." Kiyro angrily raised his hands towards Sylph and tried to grab him but failed. His hands slipped through like butter.

"Kuhuhuhuh. I'm holographic."

"I'll get you for this."

"You can try." Sylph shrugged it off as if it was nothing. "Either way, I was programmed to make it my top priority to complete the mission handed down to you. So I had to use what I was given."

"Don't ever do that again. Next time you pull such a stunt, I will find a way to get rid of your existence." Kiyro's hands popped and crackled.

"Deal. I knew it would only work once." Sylph shook his head in understanding, but for some reason, Kiyro didn't believe he did. "But why do you think it's a dream? Have you hit your head or something? Do you want me to personally replay the videos that happened last night? I recorded everything."

"You recorded it?" Kiyro said, surprised.

"Give me a second, and I'll pull it up." Sylph tittered for a moment and blanked out. His eyes glazed over as he searched for the necessary data. "Here it is. I made some quick edits, so it's fast forward." Then, finally, he came back to reality.

A holographic video appeared before Kiyro and played in real-time. The camera scanned around him, the sunlight slowly diminishing into the background and becoming night. The streetlight flickers on and lights the streetlight that was once off. Before him lay the empty playground where no insects sang their usual songs. The scene skips to him, placing the stones in each location that the Alive gear has specified. Each time the scene changes and stops to relive the moments.

The white cat appeared before him and meowed. Then, one by one, the cats increased in numbers and surrounded him as each rune stone was placed in its location. When he finally appeared at the final drop site several times, static disrupted and made the reel flicker.

"Was that a power outage or electrical interruptions?" Kiyro asked.

"What do you mean?" Sylph looked at him, confused. "Where?"

"Go back a couple seconds." Kiyro directed, and Sylph rewound the reel where the static flicker appeared.

"There. Stop." Kiyro raised his hands. "Play it again from there." The scene once again replayed where the screen created a disturbance in the video.

"What about it?" Sylph asked, confused at what Kiyro was going on about.

"Didn't you see it? Humanoid shadows were moving in the background; even the screen had static at that moment. I don't think this is the only time. Play the rest, and you will know what I mean." Kiyro's voice was full of worry. What happened last night was real, and what he saw was real. The video was proof of the whole ordeal.

"I don't see what you are talking about. I think you are going slightly insane from yesterday's

ordeal. Seeing shadows and stuff." Sylph huffed and rolled his eyes.

"I'm not. Zoom in and clarify the picture on the top left."

"Come on. There is nothing there."

"Just do it." Kiyro pointed toward the area where he wanted Sylph to zoom in and make the image clear.

"Fine," Sylph grumbled. The screen zooms in and amplifies a dozen times. In the background, near the edge, a human male silhouette barely became visible. "Am I seeing things?"

"No. I'm seeing it just as clearly as you are."

"That's a man. How is he transparent? Is the government making new technology?"

"Could be, but I'm not so sure it's possible yet. It's a little weird. Don't you see it's like the shadows are transparent? If they were making something invisible, wouldn't it make sense that they want to disappear all the way?"

"That's true." Sylph paused for a moment and paced back and forth. "Wait."

Sylph stopped and pulled up the same video and faced forward to all the other spots in the video where there was static. Each time he checked and amplified, he found different silhouettes of the shadow man that were present almost off-screen from the reel. Only once, near the end of the clip, where Kiyro was speaking out loud, there was a full image of the shadow man clear as day.

The face was captured clearly even though it was transparent. A human male stared back full of anger and hatred. His lips were curled in a snarl, and he seemed to carry a weapon on his waist that Kiyro believed could be a sword. Kiyro shivered when he stared at the picture. The man's eyes were completely black with no irises. Claw-like hands were outstretched towards Kiyro, coming down to rend him in half.

"I don't believe this," Sylph said with complete loss. Where did all these shadow people come from?" More than fifteen images of the shadow people were out for Kiyro and Sylph to see.

"I don't know, but I'm not liking where this is going less and less," Kiyro replied. He leaned back on the wall on his bed.

"It seems you were telling the truth."

"Well, it's over and done with. I need some answers. Do you think you can find something about this on the website?"

"Let me check." Sylph's eyes glazed over while he was accessing the information.

Kiyro sighed in relief that he was not insane. The footage proved to him that this was not a lie, but at the same time, more questions popped into his head. What is the world hiding? He thought. How much more?

He didn't know where to begin to search for the answer to the shadow people. There were already too many questions and answers that were not quickly answered. He wondered if Eve had received a Real Live World Quest as well.

"Okay. I think I got something," said Sylph. He came back to reality and pulled up another holographic web image. "I'm going to save the images and fade out your face. You don't mind if I post it online, right?"

"No, I don't mind. However, I would also like to see what other people say."

"Well then, I'm going to place it on the 1111 website and the forum." Sylph had begun to surf the internet once again.

"Why the 1111 website?"

"They seem to ask for video submissions for the Real-world Quest, and you get paid if they use your video. So I thought you might need some money."

"And how do you know this?" Kiyro folded his arms.

"Look over your spending."

"Wait. Wait. Back up. You did what?" Kiyro asked, appalled. He did not like where this was going.

"Just a small background check."

"It's a felony, and you go to jail for that."

"Not if you don't get caught," Sylph winked and smiled.

"That's true, but you've been caught red-handed. You just stated what you did."

"Yep, but there is no proof. So you can't do anything."

"Why, you little…." Kiyro stopped himself. What he said was the truth. This little imp was seriously giving him a headache. "Don't do unnecessary things without my permission."

"Fine. If you are done grumbling, I'll be going with the plan and uploading it. Kapish?"

Kiyro waved his hands, letting Sylph go ahead with the plan. He actually was antsy for a possible reply from 1111. By making the video popular, he might gain some kind of answer from different people who might know the answer to the questions he was looking for.

"With that being done, I found some interesting video files with some of the quest recorded.

Most people who uploaded their videos don't have anything happening. However, there are sporadic cases where something unusual did happen, but not as over-the-top as yours. I found a couple of the videos have some kind of orbs that look like will-o-wisps floating around the players. Let me show you."