Chapter 6:Shadow Nether
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He crashed on a mattress. Ashnight rolled first to the edge, then to the other edge adjoined to the plastered white wall.
Seriously, what's with Mr. Nephilim and white actually? He soaked himself into the soft confines of the bed. It was like lying on fluffy cotton buds. That's what his brother had called it the day he brought one from The Dump.
He forced himself off the bed. Now he'd gotten Rael and the fucking rest out of his tail, he was free to be whatever he want. He glanced at his baggage at the far edge of this small room.
"Shadow Slave... no... no." He glanced at the tiles path leading to a lighted extra compartment. "What was that? A bath?" He walked through it until he arrived at the amber glowing room.
It was smaller than the bedroom. Wait, maybe he'll just call it bedroom. There was a bed after all.
This other smaller room had a ceramic boat and some hose with perforated edge.
It was a bathroom! He tossed off his clothes until he was bare, revealing his thin form, then he walked into this bathroom. But minutes later he flew out, dashed towards his backpack, dug his hands in among the other junk, grabbed a coverless book, then returned to the bathroom.
The first thing he did was to safely tuck the book at a stool near the bathtub. Then he walked towards the suspended hose, observed the set-up for a while before finally understanding that the steer wheel below it was actually the switch.
He rotated it clockwise but it didn't budge. "Anti-clockwise it is then." True to his thoughts, icy cold water sprayed, causing him to temporarily shudder before adapting.
Man, this was damn refreshing, having water as close as your bedroom, no need going to some cursed stagnant stream. The water over his body coursed through his dark hair before joining the free-flowing others on the tiled floor.
He cupped a few in his hands, then he drank it all up. It was cold, refreshing, and not to mention odourless. It wasn't viscous either. Was this really water?
He drank another few cups until he was full. Only then did he finally end the bath. Then he stared at the wide full-length mirror before him.
Damn. His black hair was now growing close to the edge of his neck and had taken a curly texture, while the ones up front were now a little bit close to reaching his lower eyelids.
He parted the middle of the hair strands before slicking them back. Now he could clearly see the black bags under his eyes and the paleness of his skin contrasting with his hair.
The creature looking back at him wasn't by any damn minuscule amount cute. Or maybe he was, a little. His eyes wandered to his slightly bony chest and flat stomach.
At least he was looking better than 90% of his fellow Downsiders, no rickets or displaying ribs, and no arid breakouts on his skin. He was damn healthy.
Healthy... The words slowly died as he tilted himself sideways to the mirror, bringing into view the odious colour of black that had devoured the entirety of his back. There were veins underneath, and sinister holes dented the ridge along his spine.
The noxious infestation. That's what many people would say. But...
He whistled.
"You can talk now," he muttered to the mirror with apathetic eyes. Subtly later, an eerie smile was birthed on the face of his reflection contrary to Ashnight.
"Can you stop trying to creep me out now? I get you're a sadist and all." He ruffled his hair again. "Do that again and you get less talking time."
The reflection's eyes went limp. "Do you hate me that much?" it finally spoke. "Do you know how I feel being used like some slave or something? It hurts!"
"Get out of my back, freak." He wiped the mirror before bringing the hose to the bathtub. He switched it on, pouring the cold water into the ceramic boat. This had to be the right way.
The blackness in his back slid down his skin, dissolving in the ground to form his shadow.
"Actually, that's not the right way, Ashnight."
"Huh?" He stared at the shadow on the floor, which was now crawling to the walls with his exact two-dimensional silhouette.
"Damn, the floor's too cold."
"Stop being dramatic and fucking tell me the exact way to do this." He switched off the perforated-edged hose. Man, he really sucked at naming.
"Well..." The shadow folded his arms, then shrugged. "You can just continue that way, or you can just press that little button over there."
"Thanks." Ashnight followed its pointed arm towards a button hidden at the interior of this ceramic boat. He pressed it, and water exuding steam poured into the tub.
"Wow. Cool."
"Yeah." He picked up his coverless book from the stand then crashed into the warmth. Man, it prickled his skin but in a right way. He moaned.
"You're gonna give people the wrong idea with that erotic sound."
He exhaled deeply again, fully submerging himself into the warm water further. "It's just you and me here, Freak, and is this magic? How they get warm water without boiling it?"
The shadow facepalmed. "I forgot how dumb you are. They're boiling it in a different sense, using what they call a thermoheater, like those electric on metal stuff."
"But you know..." He flipped through the pages of the old book, his treasured encyclopedia. A smug smile appeared on his lips.
"You know....? What's with the suspense, Ashnight?"
"Oh." His eyes swerved back to the shadow in the walls. "If this Mr. Nephilim's domain, he could just be doing it magically. You know, Ender tricks and all."
"Oh, that might be true." The shadow nodded with his hands to his chin. "Also you know what you ordered me back at the tram?"
"Uh huh." His focus was on the book he was casually flipping.
"I did some spy-ons. Here are my observations. Firstly, Rael's bad news. He's got a sentient treasure, that katana you saw."
A sentient treasure. Seems his instinct was right. Such a weapon was third only to the holy grade and divine treasures. Such treasures were capable of autonomous action and destruction of near unfathomable magnitude, not to mention their capability to adapt with time.
"Continue."
The shadow swirled around in the wall. "And that silver-haired girl, she's bad news also."
He clapped the book shut. "Why?"
"I can't get a read on her. It's almost like she's a shadow like me. I dunno, just my hunch, but she's bad news."
He slumped back. Yeah, his hunch told him so, also the way she'd appeared beside him evading his heightened sense, in fact her eerie behavior in general.
"Also, Saint. He possesses a keen sense of déjà vu towards you, kind of sees the darkness in you."
"You added the last part yourself, didn't ya?" He returned to his treasured encyclopedia. His black eyes scanned through the page lackadaisically, enraging the shadow.
"So no fuckin thanks? I'm working my ass here without getting paid."
"You're feeding off my body, freak. My precious life expectancy. You're one of the reasons I'm here."
"Hey, psycho, keep it down! Or I'll fuckin make your ass marshmallow." Moraine's voice screamed from the adjoining room accompanied with some slammings on the wall.
He and the shadow just gave each other a distressed stare before the shadow whispered, "Told you, you get too sentimental easily."
"I wouldn't if a certain someone didn't loom all over my head like some persistent halo."
He rose from the tub. Can't fuckin read my book in peace.
"Hey, you've read that thing about a hundred times already, not to mention it's damn incomplete."
He gave the shadow a death stare. "You got any other better ideas?"
"Cover yourself up."
He stared downwards at his yours truly, then back at the shadow who winked at him.
"Fuckin retard. Where the hell were you from?"
He walked towards the exit, grabbed his tracksuit, took a nice sniff. Yep, definitely smells nice. Then he put the pants on.
"I dunno. I told you countless times, I've always been with you. But I just have this feeling like I once had wings." The shadow returned back to him, then it moulded itself forming the shapes of angelic wings behind him.
"Like this."
Tiredly, Ashnight just sighed. "Shoo." He waved the shadow off, who went on to give a dance on the ceiling. The only way he could sleep was if this persistent shadow was out of him.
The existence of this shadow dated back to when he found himself, without any single memory, in a Great Dump. He had been scared, nearly choked to death by the polluted air, but was saved by him, the grey-haired boy who came to be his brother.
The grey-haired...
Ashnight wiped the tears threatening to spill from his eyes, then he sniffed in deeply, partly inhaling the scent of something delicious along with it.
He glanced at the bed to see a covered dish wafting white steam and a folded white tracksuit, but his eyes dismissed that, subtly lingering on the food.
"So you're gonna let it all go? What the upworlders did? Or is this all one of your facades, getting all chummy with them to win their trust and gain full understanding of them?"
"You know, since I have two names now, I'm gonna give you one." He placed his hands on his chin as if thinking. "Nether. Yep, Nether it is then." He pointed at the shadow.
"For real?!!" The shadow exclaimed, acting surprised, then its voice dropped flatly. "Don't deflect, Ashnight. What's really your plan?"
He sighed. "You know, you're a bit like Sunny's first shadow, other than it wasn't half as talkative as you." He walked towards the bed. "You sealed this entire conversation from him, right?"
"Yep, I did. It was a bit hard. After all, he's a fuckin Nephilim. Pretty sure he'd be guessing my existence as if present."
Glad the shadow wasn't pushing its earlier question, he crashed on the bed, then slowly and tentatively, making sure to inhale all the wafting goodness, he finally disclosed the meal.
It literally took all his willpower to stop him from pouncing on this paradise before him. The mountain of sliced grilled meat and cheese and fries. His saliva was literally dripping on the plate.
Damn it all. All the threats. Life here was gonna be fun. He grabbed the steel cutleries.
"Too bad I can't taste it," the shadow sighed from behind him.
"Yeah, it's fucking bad. But you know, you could be a good boy, start crafting my strategy for the maze test tomorrow. We run through it all night. Do that, then..." He brought his cutlery to the sumptuous paradise.
"I'll do any one thing you want."
The shadow gave a sinister smile that eclipsed its entire face.
"Deal it is then."