Chapter 1 Part 3 (Revival)

Inside the building it reminded Shadow of an old Italian Architect Ezra had told him about once, the way the building arches curved and the way the ornate designs curled up the walls and across the ceiling like ivy plants. Soho couldn’t help but turn in circles as he walked, trying to soak up as much of the beauty as he possibly could. Shadow did the same, only without the turning around in complete circles and bumping into Spieren, who was jumping at the slightest sound that didn’t seem to belong to any of them. Shadow didn’t blame Spieren for once. He himself was turning his head every which way as they continued down a corridor, each person diverging off into their own hall just as they had planned.

Finally Dawn the skeleton manifested into nothingness, Shadow let a shadow drag him into the world of shades, where he could see Dawn making himself comfortable not far off. Soho looked around, obviously to check if he was being watched, and began to shrink, his face and hair contorting, receding, and lengthening. Within seconds a man that couldn’t have been Soho a few seconds ago was standing there, blinking and flexing his fingers. It was Soho’s gift to become a clone of anything and anyone he looked at, he could be come that thing, right down to the last blood cell that might contain a cancer.

So Shadow stood in darkness for a long time, staring at Soho, waiting for him to move, and trying to anticipate when they might be found out. Would the guards see just him? Or would someone else blow the cover, and in the end it would be Shadow with the shackles? Those were the thoughts that haunted Shadow as Soho started walking, moving quickly and purposefully, greeting guards in the same way that the man Soho was tonight " Aaron " would have on any other day. It was another fabulous performance by Soho Tevye Knight. The minutes dragged on as Soho strolled, moving faster now, the amount of guards that seemed to bar his way was frustrating, even for Soho, who was looking like he was going to punch out whoever got in his way next. The stairs came next, and Soho moved down them quickly, stepping over the red rope and into the filtering darkness. Shadow followed after quickly, checking over his shoulders the entire time. It had to be any minute…. Any minute now. No alarms, no guards jumping out of no where holding guns. It seemed almost too perfect, too good to be true.

At the door labeled “Caution: Do Not Enter” Soho knelt down and pulled a silver pick about as thin as a needle from his pocket and set to work, casting a glance over his shoulder every other ten seconds. Five minutes seemed to be a stretch, but that was how long it took Soho to open the door and disarm the alarms that were decorating it like Christmas lights. That took another ten minutes, and at that point there were gunshots upstairs, making Shadow’s blood freeze and Soho loose his concentration.

“Damn it,” he muttered as the lock slid into place from the broken concentration that could have easily opened it. In not even a second, Aaron had vanished and Soho was standing there, shaking uncontrollably.

            {Dawn, where are you? What’s happening?} Shadow called out, his telepathic message hanging in empty air. Dawn must be unconscious. Then someone else called out,

            {Spieren got shot, we have to get out of here.} Dawn was saying, and he could be heard continuing, {I have Spieren out, I don’t know where Weasel is. Soho, Shadow we have to get out right now, they just called for reinforcements.}

Soho looked up at Shadow, who stood there uncertainly, then ordered, {Everyone find a way out, I’ll hold them off for you.}

            {But Shadow,} Spieren said groggily.

            {But nothing, we made a promise that you would leave me behind. Soho is in charge of the group now.} Shadow said, and no one said anything else. Everyone seemed to come to silent agreement about Shadow’s fate, and when Shadow turned around to tell Soho to clear out, he had already vanished. There were footsteps hurrying down the stairs, and Shadow prepared himself for gun fire, and maybe a dead man. Before he even had a chance to see what he was up against, something sharp hit his shoulder, a dart. They were going to drug him, good luck. He pulled the tranquilizer dart out of his shoulder blade and looked at the men. It was a SWAT team, some armed with rifles, the other half had tranquiller guns, which were aimed at Shadow’s vital blood streams. Shadow squinted, trying to find eyes behind the heavy glasses that they all wore. They had thought ahead of this, definitely thought ahead. It seemed like they were… prepared for this. Like someone had told them that Shadow would be here tonight.

            {I did it Shadow, I’m sorry.} A voice whispered telepathically to Shadow as the darts flew towards him. Everything seemed to be slowing down as the adrenaline in Shadow’s blood actually turned painful.  

            {You killed my family, I only joined the group so I could find out what your next heist would be,} the voice continued, and one of the darts hit Shadow’s throat. He fell to his knees, as another pierced both of his elbows.

            {You traitor.} Shadow thought as he fell onto his back, the SWAT rushing around him, more darts, bodies pressing in, sleep, and darts…

 

Shadow couldn’t see when he opened his eyes. He was blindfolded, and the shackles around his ankles confirmed the horrible reality made Shadow shudder and someone began to speak, his Miranda rights. Oh shut up, Shadow thought as they pulled him onto a stretcher and began to carry him. I don’t deserve the Miranda rights…

Still the voice continued to speak, a headache started to form in the center of Shadow’s forehead. Make it stop, make it stop.

Then the coldness of outside hit Shadow so hard he shuddered hard the stretcher trembled with him. He could hear a large van rumbling, an armored van maybe. Then he heard more voices, radios, and even a couple people could be felt close by.

            {Jason,} a voice said, and Shadow turned his head to where he was sure Cicero was hiding behind a tree, out of sight of humans who were standing and gaping at the scene.

            {Cicero, go away, I don’t want you to see this,} Shadow said and looked back up at where he believed the sky was. Why did Cicero have to see Shadow like this? A man who had fallen to where not even grace could see him.

            “He’s awake,” someone muttered, and Shadow could feel more tranquilizers being pushed into his system. He felt sleep coming on again, and just before his thoughts became nothingness, Cicero muttered, “I can’t even call you my brother…” and then nothing.

 

Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. Went a clock in the living room. Frescia was pacing, Ezra was trying to get his nerves calmed by reading the heaviest book he could find. It didn’t work. Then voices were screaming, “We have to help him! We gotta get him out of there!” Ezra was the first to stand up and hurry out of the room, and Frescia followed after him, her skirts swishing like angry wasps as the voices got louder in the middle of the main hall. Soho and Weasel were yelling loudly, and Spieren was being slapped in the face by Dawn. They all looked distressed.

            “What’s going on?” someone called and Soho screamed back, “Shadow got caught, we have to go help him!”

Everyone went quiet at that. Some people looked grim, others were smiling with the thought it was a joke in their minds.

            “That’s impossible, Shadow can’t be caught, he’s, he’s Shadow!” a fiery headed boy called, his eyes widening when Soho didn’t break out in a joking smile.

Frescia and Ezra looked at each other, as if coming to some kind of decision about the chain of events.

            “I’m taking a few people and we’re going to break Shadow out,” Soho said but Ezra said, “No you won’t, we aren’t doing anything, Shadow is suppose to be caught.” Ezra said and started walking down the stairs, Frescia following him along with a few others. It looked like a funeral procession.

Soho stared at Ezra incredulously as the old man came to stand in front of the party.

            “What do you mean he was suppose to be arrested?”

            “Hibernius told us that two years today, Shadow would… would be arrested, while trying to break into the Museum.”

            “We thought that the prophecy wouldn’t come true, it was just a joke of that Hibernius had invented in his free time,” Frescia said slowly, running her hands through a gentle lock of hair and looking at the dumbfounded group who still lay panting and, in Spieren’s case, bleeding.

            “Well, did Hibernius say that the someone would help him out? That Shadow would get away somehow?”

            Ezra looked away and Frescia closed her eyes and bit her lips, holding back a small tear that still managed to slide between her eyelids.

            “He said that was going to be decided by someone who was close to him, we assumed he was talking about one of his brothers, but we haven’t seen either of them.”

Soho sat down and muttered, “I saw Cicero sitting out with him while he was having his smoke, do you think he knew about it?”

Ezra shrugged and someone else, the same pyro mumbled, “Maybe Cicero has a trick up his sleeve…”

No one said anything else, they all stood and sat in a formation of mourning. The sun was starting to rise, casting their shadows away from the heavenly light of the sun.