Flawless: A Shadow’s End

There had been a few moments of turbulence as we had flown across the country, but nothing like this. The sudden violent drops in our altitude as the small jet rattled its way back to earth had me clenching every muscle in my body. I held my harness for all I was worth as we made our approach, and I was nearly sick by the time we finally reached our destination. Having never flown before today, I felt fairly confident that the entire concept was lunacy. I prayed I could just walk back to Gettysburg if they ever let me return.

With a quick glance out the window, Lucian nodded to us. "The storm is pretty severe out there. We have a few coats in the back, and I suggest we bundle up."

"I'll keep my coat, thanks." Eli said, frowning.

"No one is taking your belongings, but a storm like this can be deadly. Please, for your own safety, allow me to offer you some protection." Her frown deepened, but as she looked back out at the blizzard, she nodded.

***

The parkas we found were long and thick, fully lined with down, but as we opened the door to the outside, it was clear the storm did not care about our preparation. We were in the heart of a blizzard and the wall of white that bore down on us was almost blinding. The little daylight that remained blotted from the sky and, as the others slowly made their way down the ramp to the tarmac below, I stopped dead.

Darkness lay before me, stretching in every direction. The storm roared and howled, battering us with everything it had, but the eternal dark did not move. It did not howl. It simply yawned before me, ancient and ravenous, endless and empty. And then it was not. Something stirred, some hateful thing took shape against the backdrop of white. I trembled as I watched the lines form, simple shapes at first, circles, squares, triangles. These then sharpened into jagged, cruel edges…

"Lucian!" I screamed over the storm, pointing at the creature that was taking shape just at the edge of the light cast from inside the cabin. At once he turned and spotted that horrid thing of blades and bloody steel that was growing more real by the second.

He made a fist with his hand, and at that moment, everything vanished. I blinked, but I could not see. The storm raged around me, but all the light had vanished. I was blind. Panic flooded my senses, and I slipped falling down the stairs before I fell headfirst onto the tarmac. I flailed for a moment and I could taste blood, but somehow; I was still conscious.

There was movement around me, and I heard shouting, but it was all disembodied. Eventually, someone lifted me up and carried me somewhere. A door slammed and suddenly my vision returned. The surrounding room looked to be some wooden cabin. The walls and ceiling were bulbous and made of exposed logs that fitted perfectly together. I was lying on what felt like a metal table when someone above me flashed a light in my eyes.

"Follow the light." A voice said, and I did as I was told as the light trailed back and forth. The light clicked off, and I realized it was just a small flashlight. Blinking away the spots in my vision, I made to sit up, and a hand pressed up against my chest. "Take it easy."

The voice belonged to someone with long, slightly frazzled, red hair. They wore a downright ugly purple sweater with a bright orange jack-o-lantern stitched into it, covered in mounds of textured fuzzy snow. "What happened?" I asked.

"By the looks of it, you tried to manifest your power into something nasty in the middle of a blizzard and Lucy had to stop you the hard way."

I looked at them again, not really sure what they were saying. "What?"

"That's enough Edelin." I turned my head and saw Lucian standing there. "How are you feeling?"

Slowly, I sat up and put a hand to my head. There was definitely a welt there, and as I wiped my face, I could tell that my nose had been bleeding. "That sucked."

Edelin laughed, "You didn't break anything, and even if you had, kids your age are just a bundle of rubber and bad choices, anyway."

That made Lucian sigh. "Is that your professional opinion?"

They glared at him. "There are no signs of concussion. He's got no broken bones, no lacerations, and we got him out of the snow before any kind of hyperthermia or frostbite could take effect. Even his bloody nose has dried up. Face it, the kid fell over and bonked his head. He's fine."

"Wait, what about the monster?" I asked, "Is it still out there?"

Edelin glanced between me and Lucian. "Do you want to tell him, or should I?"

"Thank you, Edelin, but I can take it from here." They nodded and walked away.

"Who was that?"

"That was Edelin Thatcher, the camp physician. They have been working for my family since before I was born. It is likely that they are one of the wisest members of the staff working here, despite their somewhat lax nature."

"How old is she?"

He frowned, "I am only in my thirties, I'll have you know…" He shook himself. "Regardless, after what I just saw, it feels prudent that you learn a bit more about your particular gift tonight rather than wait for tomorrow."

I moved to the edge of the table and slid down to where my feet hit the floor. Lucian motioned over to the chairs next to the table, and we sat down properly. It looked like we were inside of a cafeteria. The building was rather long, with a set of kitchens on one side and several metal tables and chairs scattered around the other. The room was mostly empty, with only a few staff standing around. I glanced over and saw Eli standing near the wide set of double doors at one end of the room as she talked to Edelin. Our eyes met for a moment and I looked away. "What just happened? How did that thing follow us all the way out here? What aren't you telling me?"

Lucian held out his fist, and a pale glow escaped from between his fingers. As he opened his hand, there was a crimson rose floating a few inches above his palm. "My gift allows me to manipulate light. I can create the illusion of form, strengthen its borders, and give mass to nothingness. I can blind the body and forge imaginary realms that can fool even the most cunning minds. However…" he closed his fist around the flower and his fingers passed through the illusion, causing it to dissipate in a wispy mist. "I can never touch the flowers I create, and they have no scent. They are but pretty shapes and colors without value or substance. This is my flaw."

"Are you saying my 'gift' has a flaw as well? Because, to be honest, I can't really see that it has any upside at all."

"That is understandable. One of the most common ways of uncovering Edelstein these days is by simply watching the news. We look for certain tragedies or disasters that are proof of our kind coming into their power. My gift awoke when I was twelve years old when I accidentally blinded my mother."

"I, I'm sorry."

"My father actually celebrated the occasion, as I was the first Kline in five generations to awaken as an Edelstein." He sighed, "Such is life. Your gift, the power of darkness, is very potent. Unlike the illusory power of light, the powers of darkness allow you to create true, solid forms. Given enough concentration, you could easily create living roses, but that life would be bound to you, and you to it. This means that you could create such a rose with the sole purpose of choking the life from your enemies. If you did, it would seek your foes and kill everything in its path to fulfill that goal. However, the life you create is permanent and such a being would know nothing but death and murder and would never stop killing."

I sat there in silence, thinking back to that terrible night when all of this started. The drawing I had made, I created it thinking it would make a good monster. It was supposed to be evil, and I wanted it to look scary. I wanted it to kill things… and it did. "I killed my dad… didn't I? That night I was so angry with him… and my drawing tore him apart because of that. Right?" I looked over at him. "That's what you're saying, isn't it?" Angry tears filled my eyes. "Fine! Whatever! Just tell me what to do now! How do I stop it? How do I kill it?"

"No! Stop!" Lucian shook his head. "Don't you understand? This creature is bound to you forever. It is bound to your very soul. The only way to destroy it would be to destroy you."

"So that's it then? This thing is just going to keep coming after me for the rest of my life?"

"Again, it is bound to you. It cannot touch you without injuring itself. But there is still hope."

"What do you mean?"

"It is possible to bring this creature under your control again, but it will take time and effort. You must learn to master your emotions and forgive yourself. Such a monster was born from a single thought, but it grows more terrible and powerful the more you feed that darkness within you."

I shook my head. I wasn't sure I could ever do that. "What happens now?"

"Tomorrow will be your first official day here at the camp, and so tonight you should rest."

"No! I don't know what happened last night, but that's when that monster comes out. If I fall asleep, that thing will start killing again."

"There are preparations we can make, certain precautions, but as you no doubt noticed…"

My fists clenched. "It tried to come out just now. Yeah."

"You cannot, and should not, ignore this power you possess any longer. Your monster, as you call it, will not simply stop existing because you wish it."

"So what do I do?"

"Follow me." We got up, and Lucian led me to the back of the cafeteria. Here were several interconnected paths that led between buildings. "The Rockies can be a beautiful place, but often the winter storms can be… unpleasant, as you no doubt noticed on our trip here."

"That's an understatement."

"The snowfall alone can pile up several feet, so during the winter months we set up these temporary pathways between cabins."

As we walked, I saw a few other people, staff members I guessed, and most of them wore uniforms with matching dark green shirts and tan khakis. "You people actually treat this place like a summer camp?"

"The organization to which I belong has many facilities, and yes, this installation is a camp for troubled youth. Many of the residents who come here have never heard of the Diamantaire and had no reason to imagine that they were Edelstein. Because of the sudden, and often traumatizing, nature of how our powers awaken, not every child is ready to reintegrate back into society. At least not without learning proper control."

"I guess that makes sense. So what about you? You must have known about all of this growing up."

"Indeed. While the gifts of the Edelstein are not purely genetic, often these gifts run in certain families. Because of this, there are special schools where every student learns of our history at an early age and they eagerly await the awakening of their powers."

"How big are these schools?"

"The school I attended had around a hundred students, though not all children born from Edelstein become Edelstein. As I mentioned before, I was the first Kline in several generations to awaken with gifts."

"That must have been tough, attending a school like that for most of your life without knowing if you would ever have any powers."

"Such is life." He stopped as we neared a wide set of double doors. "These doors lead to your room, but please understand, this is not a punishment." I frowned at that as he pushed open the doors and we entered another room that was made of concrete with a metal hatch built into the floor at its center. Lucian walked over to the hatch and opened it and motioned for me to climb down.

"You've got to be kidding me." I shook my head and made my way down the ladder. Once I reached the bottom, I hesitated as the room here was dark, but as I looked around, I found the switch. As the light came on, I found yet another vault door. This one was quite large, and almost reminded me of a set of red elevator doors. I looked around, but there didn't seem to be any obvious way to open it. "Seriously?" I moved out of the way to let Lucian climb down, and he only nodded at me.

"These are the precautions I spoke of before. This room, the red room, is for those that possess inherently dangerous gifts. Those that cannot control their powers and might seriously harm others."

"That means double for me."

"I will not leave you here alone, not until you are comfortable with me doing so."

I almost smiled. "You can't possibly do this for everybody that comes down here. I mean, your family runs this place, right? So what are you doing here wasting your time on me?"

He smiled back. "I do, in fact, spend much of my time working at camps, much like this one. I often travel from one facility to the next, volunteering, as I have always been a humanitarian. The truth of this situation, however, is that I am here because I am uniquely qualified to be your counselor."

"What do you mean?"

"One practice implemented across nearly all the facilities run by the Diamantaire is what we commonly refer to as the buddy system. Regarding Edelstein, this system involves pairing up those with opposing gifts, and my gift counters yours nicely." He walked over to the vault door and typed in a code into an electric panel hidden on the wall. There was a deep rumbling as the door slowly opened.

"So that's what you meant on the plane. When I asked you how you survived the night with me, you said something about having gifts of your own. Right?" he nodded, "And before, when we were out in the storm and I saw the monster forming, you stopped it, didn't you?"

"That's right." We walked into the room and there was a single mattress on the floor made up with a pillow and some blankets.

I walked over and stepped on one corner of the bed, testing it. "How? How did you stop it?"

"In short, all I had to do to stop your monster from forming was to plunge it back into the dark."

"What? But that doesn't make any sense. You can control light, right? Couldn't you just blast it with a solar flare or something?"

He chuckled at that. "That would have been a more dazzling way to dispel your monster, to be sure. However, I cannot create light any more than you can create darkness, and there was only so much available for me to manipulate out there. Though, even if I had done as you suggest, ultimately it would have done little good."

"I still don't understand."

"Light cannot exist without darkness, and no matter how powerful a light source is, it will always cast shadows."

I thought back to the room where Lucian and I had first met. Even with the bright harsh lights of the asylum, I had been acutely aware of the darkness that hid in corners and beneath the table. "But even if that's true, if you take away the lights, there's nothing stopping the monster. It can just run wild!"

"You might then suspect that darkness, the oldest force in existence, has an advantage over light. This is not the case, however, as without light to act as contrast, darkness becomes a formless mass, an endless void."

"So, by turning out the lights, you took away the monster's body?"

"Indeed."

I couldn't help but laugh. "I really am an idiot. Every night I was so afraid of that monster coming out, I slept with the lights on. If I had just turned them out, everything would have been fine!"

Lucian shook his head. "It's not that simple. All it would take is but a sliver of light and your creature could strike out at those around you. Any light at all would have given it form."

I sat down on the mattress. "I guess that explains the vault door."

He sat down across from me. "This arrangement is only temporary. Soon you will learn how to center yourself and come to an understanding with your monster."

"Come to an understanding? I don't think so. I just want it gone."

He shook his head. "There will come a time when you and your monster will see one another in a different light. In the meantime, why don't we get you settled in? Would you care for some reading material? Or maybe I could fetch one of the board games from the common room?"

I frowned for a moment, but then thought of something. "What about a deck of cards?"