Chapter 9

As Christina and Alex finally make their way down and out of the apartment complex they notice through the storm that night is preparing to blanket the world. They know as night begins to fall on Halloween that their evening has just begun.

"Come we have to hurry! We have to get to The Street before anymore souls are lost." Christina says it as one with a beautiful heart who takes it as a personal failure when they cannot save an innocent.

Alex loves that about her. "Yes, Ma'am." He says opening up the car door for her.

The Street is a street that on Halloween night turns into a gateway between the world of the living and the world of shadows. Even before Europeans found their way to America the American Tribesman had many tales of the area.

Where everything appears the same, but nothing is at it appears. A reflection is the medium of ensnarement and the trapped wander for all eternity. Never understanding. Never fading. Cursed to wander the city wondering where everybody has gone.

Alex and Christina park a block away and walk with cautious intent. From months of research of historical books and newspaper clippings of missing persons Christina believes this to be the legendary unholy street.

Christina, Mary and Casper hang back. Alex is once again being used as the bait to lure the shadows of hideous intent out into the open and into the ring of power of the Book of the Spiritual Nexus. Mary and Christina are nervous, but both Casper and Alex are kind of excited to see what happens.

The following telling of the tale is from the Chronicles of The Crew as written by Alexander Misery many years later. All combined thought it was a wise course of action to begin to catalog their journey so those who would take up the banner after their time would have a strong foundation from which to start from.

And this is that tale.

Howling wind and pelting rain had been coming from the gray sky all day. As gray turned to charcoal and then to black the elements calmed, but night is the time for the miserable and restless to begin their journey.

As I walked down the cold, dark and deserted street I looked into a mirror world. The black pavement still wet from the day's rain glistened like obsidian. There below my feet another whole world shined darkly.

The deeper I looked the more I began to see things that did not exist in the real world. I'd glance up real fast thinking to catch a glimpse of the eyes I saw staring up at me from the road. Nothing.

I looked up at the buildings and around every corner thinking someone was trying to play tricks on me. After all it is Halloween night. Still nothing.

It must merely be the lights and shadows playing with my mind. I continued my journey down the long silent street, half-heartedly keeping my eyes on both worlds.

Off in the distance I began to hear the town hall's bell beginning to ring out the arrival of an hour before midnight. How had so much time gone by? Before the eleventh gong I noticed that my feet were getting heavier and with every attempt it was becoming harder to take a step.

I looked down and saw a mist swirling at my feet. Some how the pavement had heated up and I was sinking into the melting tar. I put out my hand to see if I could feel any heat coming from the road, but I could not. Just as I was beginning to pull my hand away I saw those bodiless eyes staring back up at me.

I reflexively pulled my hand away but at the eleventh gong of Halloween's night a hand reached forth and pulled me down into that other world. With one final gurgling scream I laughingly thought that the other world was just a reflection of my own. I was wrong and so are you.

I awoke in the middle of the street damp and chilled. A vague memory of what had just happened crossed my mind as a dream fades as you wake.

I got to my feet and looked around. I saw nothing out of the ordinary. I looked down at the other world and there it still gleamed. Was my mind playing tricks with me?

I'd have to remember to get a physical as soon as I was able, but I began to believe that the stories were definitely true. With nothing else to do I resumed my journey into the night.

After all bait must lure the predators out from the shadows. Perhaps not the wisest choice of words or actions, but my belief in Christina, Mary and Casper was absolute.

I looked back over my shoulder through the night to where I thought Christina and our ghostly allies would be watching from, but I saw nothing more than empty streets and lonely buildings.

At first this world seemed no different than the one I had inhabited my entire life. First the differences were subtle until finally reality came crashing down.

In my world shadows were cast by light and physical objects. Here the shadows were the physical objects. Even the streetlights that continued to shine held no power.

With the streetlight above and in front of me I looked behind me to catch a glimpse of some semblance of a shadow, but there was nothing. It appears I am now the shadow. And it appears shadows do not create shadows.

I was beginning to understand. I was beginning to get a sinking feeling. Then I laughed out loud as the sinking feeling grew to wondrous heights as I realized I am now a reflection.

As the creatures that inhabit this world are shadow, me as a physical being am a reflection. When I laughed out loud at the duplicity of the meaning of sinking feeling, after all sinking was the doorway to here, nearby shadows began to form into cloaked beings.

What I thought were parked cars, fire hydrants, puddles and even the street lamps were actually the beings that make up this mirrored world. My laughter did not please them.

In all of Christina's studies and from history evil lurked in the shadow. Those with faith knew that as long as you could see your shadow you were safe. It was only when your shadow disappeared that you would become vulnerable.

Not just because of the obvious reason of the sun leaving you behind, but because of the wonder of where the shadow had gone. Now Alex knows where those shadows go when the sun goes down.

Now that I was a reflection, not solid matter, it would be no trouble at all for those shadows to enter my being and control me like a puppet. The shadows the marionettes who live for the hideous intent to make one lose their soul.

As I looked around not really fearing the approaching shadows I thought one last time of Christina. Like Casper, my main dream from life was to find a wonderful woman to love. I had achieved that and I was prepared.

These shadows had no need to boast about the coming foul deed for this is their realm and the outcome was never in doubt. That was until they reached out to make the pathway from shadow to reflection.