From that point on I had no trouble defending myself and I needed to very often, but thanks to my new weapons and my new coat I came out without a scratch on me every time. Soon I was only given high-class deliveries to do, which for me was great because I got one or two of them each day and I got paid more to do them than I was when I had ten to fifteen regular ones. This gave me time to do the one thing I came to the city to do and that was to see the world, I would take time out to look at all the places around the area I was going every time I was out on a delivery.
Before I knew it three years had passed, I had seen so much and done so much in that time. I even started to get a nickname in the city. They called me the shadow, because all that was seen most of the time when I fought was a shadow attacking my enemies.
Then something began to happen in the city that was just off. I couldn’t fully understand what was going on but for some reason everything in the city just felt as if it was not the way it should be but then again, I might have been wrong, after all I didn’t fully understand how the city was run. However, I had a feeling something was off just by the way Adam was acting now.
A few months after this strange behavior started, I was given a very odd delivery to do. It had no recipients and no collection of payment all it had was a drop off point. All that was written was. This package must be set on the ground, and then the deliver must leave within a twenty count of setting the package down. I thought this was odd and I had to know why the instructions said this.
I took the package to its drop off point, set it down, and then vanished. I fell back out of sight and did the count, once I hit twenty someone showed up out of nowhere. “Wait a minute, did he just phantom step?” I said aloud shocked by what I had just seen. This just couldn’t be a phantom step, it must be something else, and I have to know what it was now not later. I appeared behind the person, pulled my blade, and then moved it to their neck leaning them back into me so they couldn’t run. “How did you do that, and what is in that box.” I asked as I pull my blade closer to their neck, touching it just a bit.
“The same way you did, and if you can move like that you should know what’s in this box.” Her voice said calmly. What she said caught me by surprise what could she mean by I should know what’s in the box if I move like her. “I have never seen anyone use a weapon while moving like this, you must be something special. But I’ll tell you what’s in the box; I’ll even share it with you if you lower the knife.” She said, I was a bit resistant at first, but I lowered it. “Now tell me what’s inside of the box I want to know what’s in it before I decide to change my mind about lowering my knife.” She slowly turned to me and held the bottom of the box to open it, then the white in her eyes turned blue, and she vanished.
“I was hoping you would make this into a challenge.” I said with a smile, then I vanished, reappearing right behind where she had stopped. “Your cute you know, but come on, you don’t expect me to be that easy to get away from when you have one of my packages.” I said to her as I took a step closer to her, she gasped for air. “Come on, leave me alone, it’s not like I didn’t pay for this its mine and I need it.” She said as she stumbled over herself a bit then vanished. “That’s so cute she thinks she can get away from me, like a little kid running from a parent.” I said to myself thinking about what she said, and what she meant by she paid for it and she needs it. “Oh well, I’ll be finding out soon.”
I appeared behind her walking to her, she was stumbling as if she was in pain trying to get away from me. “Lady, are you ok. Well, I know that’s a dumb question I can see you’re not doing ok. Guess you’re feeling the effects from moving so fast aren’t you.” I said to her as I walked up to her. She turned to me just for a moment and I saw her eyes were now blood red, which wasn’t a cute look. Then she pushed herself up as much as she could and I knew what she was going to do. I looked up and saw that the valley ahead of us had a steep ditch in it; I knew if she tried, she would end up in that ditch most likely dead. “Lady don’t…”
She was gone dropping the box as she vanished. Good thing I was much faster than she was. I vanished just after she did and appeared holding her flying backwards straight for the ditch. I had caught her and took the hit from the ditch just in time. Good thing too cause that really hurt and I was wearing a suite of armor. There was no way she would have lived if I didn’t catch her seeing that even the clothes she had on were already starting to wear down from her movements.
“Hey lady are you ok.” I said as I shook her gently, but she was out cold.
Well, this wasn’t very good, I hoped she would be ok, but I wonder if she was the only one coming for this package. I cover her up with my coat, and then went back to the drop point to see if there was anyone else coming.
After the sunset I decided that there was no one else coming. So I set up a small camp, and carried the woman to it, I thought about taking her to the city but I realized that it wouldn’t be a good idea.
I looked at the box, and then snapped it open. Inside was maybe twenty small bottles. I picked one up and inside it was a blue liquid, it was see threw and was almost glowing. I hadn’t seen anything like it before, so that meant that it wasn’t natural and someone made it. ”I just don’t think it’s possible to bottle the phantom style, so it must be something else that was giving her the ability to move that fast.” I said to myself, holding it up to the moonlight. I was in the middle of looking at it when, it was yanked from my hands by her. She pulled the cap off it and was drinking it before I knew it. “What is wrong with you lady why would you drink that, God only knows what’s in it” I said to her.
She looked at me, her eyes blue again, then she looked at the box and then back at me. “You didn’t drink any so I have the advantage now.” She said with a smile, making me laugh. “Really, you have the advantage I don’t think so, you almost killed yourself earlier, and look at your clothes they are all ripped up and even your skin is red and bruised, look at me I don’t even have a scratch on me.” I said to her with a smirk on my face. She looked at me and kept looking back at the bottles. “You don’t know what this is do you?” She asked.
“Nope, I don’t know what it is, I’m not told what’s in the packages I deliver, just where to take it and how much to collect for it.” I said answering her. I was hoping that now that she was talking, she would tell me what I wanted to know. But, I didn’t think that was going to happen anymore as she pulled the box and cover it, sitting holding it behind her back and staring at me. I knew she must be in a lot of pain and couldn’t run from me anymore even if she wanted to, the pain would shut her body down if she tried again. She must have realized that she didn’t have the advantage as she started pushing herself back with her legs trying to protect the box.
“Look you see the coat that’s over you right now, that’s mine and its worth more than that package by far trust me. So why don’t you just tell me what’s in that box.” I said to her. “It’s called Shadow. It’s a drug that lets you move very fast for very short burst. You must be taking it too, if you were able to keep up with me. So why don’t you look like I do, is there a different one that you take that doesn’t have theses side effects.” She said to me trying to keep her hands from shaking. “I’m not taking anything to be able to move like this, I have been training for years to do this, maybe longer than you have been alive. How old are you anyway.” I spoke in a very low voice as not to make her feel like I was cornering her.
“I’m not young, I’m almost as old as you are I’ll be twenty five in a few weeks.” I burst out laughing, I couldn’t hold it in when she said that. “How old do you think I am?” I said, trying to contain my laughter. After a bit, I stopped laughing, and she answered me. “30? I mean you can’t be that old.” I was shocked by how old she thought I was but then again, I do look very good for my age. I thought smiling. “No little one I’m closer to 200 than I am to 25, I’m actually over 200 years old, but I stopped counting. I figured that there was no point in counting if I was never going to die, it just seemed a bit childish and well out of place for someone like me.” I said to her with a smile.
She looked a bit less on edge as she let go of the box and wrapped the coat around herself more. “So tell me something, why would you take anything that does this to you?” I asked her I just couldn’t think of any reason why anyone would willingly take something like that. “Because it gave me the power to do things that I could never do without it, to fight like no one else, and to keep my family safe. I would gladly die to protect them this pain I’m in is nothing.” That was shocking to hear from her I did not expect her to say that at all. “Well, I expected you to say something else to be perfectly honest, I expected something much more selfish.” I said to her as the thought dawned on me that the drug was coming from the city.
My mind was now filled, with questions about what was going on in the city, maybe this was why they have been acting so weird around me lately. They were watching me this whole time trying to see how they could copy my powers. “How much did you pay to get this?” I asked her, she looked at me, and then backed up a bit. “I didn’t pay for it, I wanted a weapon very badly, but I couldn’t pay and they gave me this. They said if I could use it and show it off they would make me anything I wanted and I did, but now I need it to feel better, to stop the hurting inside.” She said, coughing a little.
Her words confused me and made perfect sense at the same time; though it was true that they were all about making a profit, they also loved making new things. Getting her to test their new weapon in exchange for a weapon she wanted would be a simple trade that benefited them more than it did her. And from what I could see from how much pain she was in and how she was hurt, she had the bad half of that deal. “What kind of drug is this anyway and why would you keep on taking it after what it’s done to you.” I asked her, she was quiet for a while, then answered me. “It’s not my choice once you taste the power you can’t stop you need it or your body hurts. Shadow is like nothing else it makes your life different.”
This thing, whatever it was called was too dangerous to be on the market, my abilities should never be in the hands of a normal human and never in the hands of someone that wants to use it as a weapon. I had to find out who in the city was making this stuff and I had to stop them no matter what it cost.
I would be taking her back to the city once she rested and recovered maybe she could help me find the people responsible for making the drug. Then I could stop them from making it and make sure it was never made again.
Continues in Chapter 19 or go to previous Chapter 17
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