The Shadows

“GET DOWN ON YOUR KNEES!”

The shout cracked through the square like a whip.

Rei flinched so hard his shoulders jerked. Eight police officers stood, guns trained on the masked man. Their fingers were tense on triggers, knuckles white, eyes darting between the masked man, Seiko or in their eyes the two freaks before them and the frozen rain hanging in the air.

A warning shot rang out.

The bullet struck the pavement several meters away, sending sparks skittering across wet stone.

Rei squeezed his eyes shut for half a second.

When he opened them, the masked man was moving.

Slowly.

Deliberately.

He lowered himself to his knees.

The movement was almost… respectful. Calm. Like he was indulging a child’s demand rather than obeying an order. His long black coat pooled around his legs as rain hovered above him, droplets suspended inches from his shoulders, from the barrels of guns, from Rei’s eyelashes.

Rei’s breath came shallow.

He’s actually doing it?.

“Hands behind your head!” an officer barked.

“Don’t try anything, you hear me?”

“Drop the mask. Slowly.”

The masked man tilted his head.

For a heartbeat, Rei thought he might refuse.

Then his gloved hands lifted—unhurried—and reached for the edge of the white mask.

The world felt impossibly quiet.

No rain.

No sirens.

No wind.

Just the sound of Rei’s heart hammering in his ears.

The mask came loose in the man’s hands—but before it could fall—

A radio crackled.

“-Static—Unit Seven, confirm visual—Static-”

One of the officers stiffened, pressing his earpiece harder.

“What?” he snapped. “Repeat that.”

Static.

Then a voice, colder, sharper.

“Confirmed visual. That Freak is listed Kill on Sight. High-level threat. Do not attempt capture.”

Rei felt his stomach drop through the pavement.

The officer’s face twisted—fear, relief, cruelty all mixing together.

He raised his voice.

“YOU HEARD THAT!”

The rain shuddered.

“OPEN FIRE—!”

Lightning split the sky.

White light tore across the square, throwing jagged shadows from every officer, every car, every shattered wall—

And from those shadows—no the shadows themselves

Moved.

Rei’s scream got caught in his throat.

Long, writhing shapes peeled themselves off the ground, stretching unnaturally thin and sharp, like arms and tentacles made of darkness itself. They lashed upward, snapping around wrists, around necks, around weapons.

Guns were ripped free and flung aside.

An officer was yanked backward so hard his boots left the ground, slammed into the side of a cruiser with a bone-rattling crash.

Another choked as something coiled around his throat, lifting him just enough that his feet scraped uselessly against the pavement.

“WHAT THE—?!”

“GET IT OFF—!”

“SHOOT—SHOOT—!”

But there was nothing to shoot.

The shadows were the attack.

Rei stared, frozen, mouth open, chest locked tight.

This is not Seiko or the masked man.

This wasn’t anything like the shock waves or rain.

This was wrong in many ways his instincts screamed at him as Rei’s eyes shaked at the sight.

The masked man began to rise.

Slowly, smoothly, as if gravity itself had decided not to argue.

The shadow-arms receded, releasing broken officers onto the pavement in crumpled heaps. Some didn’t move. Others groaned, clutching limbs, dragging themselves away in terror.

The masked man stood fully upright.

Rain still hung suspended around him.

He lifted his hands.

Fingers spread.

Reaching upward—then slowly, deliberately, lowering them.

Pointing.

At the police.

The rain answered.

Every droplet crashed downward at once.

Not falling—slamming.

The impact was deafening.

Police car roofs buckled inward like thin tin. Windows exploded and shattered in glittering bursts. Officers were driven to the ground as if struck by a physical wall, bodies skidding across wet pavement.

The square became chaos.

Screams.

Rain screaming against metal.

Sirens dying mid-howl.

Rei finally found his legs.

They shook violently, but they moved.

Time to run.

He turned—

And something closed around his wrist.

Cold.

Unyielding.

Rei screamed.

He twisted, panic tearing through him as he faced the masked man up close.

Those eyes—

Not glowing just a dark blue color visible thru the eye sockets.

Not wild.

Just… empty.

Focused.

“LET GO!” Rei shouted, slamming his free hand against the man’s chest.

The impact felt like hitting a wall of compressed air.

Nothing happened.

The masked man leaned closer, grip tightening just enough to hurt.

For a terrifying moment, Rei was certain this was it.

Then—Rei swung with an open hand towards him.

The masked man was ripped away.

His body snapped sideways, hurled across the square as if seized by something invisible and violent. He smashed into a wrecked cruiser, metal screaming as his body dented the frame.

Rei staggered backward, released.

He looked down at his hands.

They were shaking.

They were wet.

They were—

Mine?

Did I—?

He didn’t finish the thought.

Rei turned and ran.

He sprinted blindly, lungs burning, shoes slipping on soaked pavement. He ducked between buildings, past overflowing trash bins, past shattered storefronts, until the street narrowed—

An alley.

He stumbled into it and slammed his back against the brick wall, chest heaving violently.

His hands clawed at the air as he tried to breathe.

Rain poured normally again.

Sirens echoed somewhere far behind him.

Shouting. Orders. Screams.

Rei slid down the wall until he was crouched, forehead pressed against cold brick, fingers digging into his hair.

“What—what was that—?”

His voice cracked.

He stared at his palms again.

They looked normal.

Too normal.

“I didn’t touch him,” Rei whispered. “I didn’t—”

His breath hitched.

The memory rose uninvited.

The pen stopping mid-roll.

The masked man flying away.

Rei laughed weakly.

A broken sound.

“No,” he muttered. “No, no, no…”

His reflection stared back at him from a rain-slick dumpster—wide eyes, pale face, a boy barely holding himself together.

His lips trembled.

“I am…” His voice barely existed.

“…a Freak?”

The word hung in the alley.

Heavy.

Unavoidable.

True.

And somewhere beyond the walls, sirens screamed louder—as if the world itself had just noticed him, and not just the world but something lurking in the shadows…