I heard screaming off in the distance, which momentarily distracted me. The screams beckoned my shadow, but Jude recovered my attention. He grabbed my shirt sleeve.
“Stay with me!” he screamed, through the blur of action, “Come on!”
He and his alter took off running down the street. The vengeful desire to catch Jude overtook me and I got up and ran down the street after him. He glanced back at me with a thrill in his eyes, “That’s what I’m talking about.”
I chased him down the street toward an area that seemed to be a school or educational institution of some kind. His alter kept close to him and a close eye on me. As he was approaching the grounds, a ten-foot, chain link, metal fence stood separating the outside from the property. I felt myself gaining on him, and the excitement inside of me grew at the thought. However, as he reached the fence, he immediately began scaling it with little effort and was at the top of it in seconds. He looked down at me, as I scanned the fence, determining possible alternate routes.
“Come on!” he shouted and dropped down to the other side. He stared at me through the fence, “You going to catch me or not?” His alter reached its arm through the fence, planting it straight into the middle of my chest; red light exploded on contact and knocked me off my feet. He was provoking me intentionally. With newfound strength, I pounced to my feet and clawed my way up the fence. As I was reaching the top, Jude looked back with a smile and took off running.
I was no match for Jude’s agility. He scaled walls and maneuvered through any terrain with ease. Like some sort of urban ninja, he made everything look like his playground. I struggled to keep up with him every minute our chase continued. Every time I thought I was getting close to him, he’d slip away- then I chased him into a loading area that was much like an alley, one way in and no way out. I picked up my pace as my feet pounded against the pavement, my knees absorbed every step of exhaustion.
Jude stopped and looked up at the end of the alley. I did not slow to give him a chance to get away. He took a step back, and then ran towards the wall. His left foot hit one inside corner of the wall and his right foot the opposite end as he developed momentum to scale the wall. He lunged upward and grabbed the top of the wall with his hands. He barely made the lunge but pulled himself up on top of it and turned, dangling his legs over the roof side, looking down at me.
“Enough!” I yelled up at him in frustration and complete exhaustion.
“Yeah,” he said, pointing next to me.
I looked to my right to see my shadow standing next to me, looking up at Jude. The red hue drained from the world and I saw it clearly. It looked weakened and unusually calm, still, it had a look of frustration from not catching its prey.
“What do you want it to do? Command it,” Jude said, placing his elbows on his knees and folding his hands as he observed us. I wanted to touch it and I wanted it to go away. I reached my hand out.
“Time’s up,” I said to it. It snatched my wrist in the air with one hand and placed the other behind my neck and pulled me close.
“Why did you lose her?” it said to me as it evaporated in the air and dispersed like smoke. Its grip was released and my arm hung in midair.
Jude crawled down from the roof and walked up to me. He placed his hand on my shoulder, “How do you feel?”
I looked over at him, “In control.”
“Good.”
“That was amazing,” I said, looking over at Jude, astounded, “Thank you.”
“Of course,” he said with a nod.
We walked back to the house together and parted ways. I thanked Jude again for his help and grabbed an abandoned pot off the porch. I headed toward the garage to find Caleb. As I approached, I heard loud electronic rock music playing through the open door. I peeked around the corner to see Caleb practicing a martial arts routine with his favorite weapon.
It was interesting watching him without his knowledge. He seemed to push himself to the limits. He wore only shorts and sweat dripped from his body. Every twirl and swing was executed with precision and a sort of contained rage. He seemed like he was trying to work out his demons as well. As the current song that was playing began to fade out, I knocked on the side wall of the garage to announce my presence. Caleb’s head shot up in my direction and he stumbled over to the CD player to shut it off.
“Hey, Dani,” he said with a look of embarrassment.
“You’re very good,” I said.
“Yeah, thanks. I try to stay sharp. I don’t really have a gift, so my fighting skills are what I contribute.”
“I see that. I’d hate to get in your way if you were angry,” I said.
“I rarely get angry, but it does happen.”
“I brought you something,” I said, pulling the pot from behind my back.
“A dead plant,” he said, taking the pot from my hands with both of his, “The dead plant from the front porch, if I’m not mistaken. Thank you?”
“I want to try to show you something. Come, sit with me
