Born of Shadow (Shadow Walkers Book 1) Read online

  Born of Shadow

  Shadow Walkers Book 1

  By R. J. Murray

  Copyright 2016 Richard Murray

  All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, uploaded to the internet, or copied without permission from the author.

  This is a work of fiction intended for mature audiences only. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Some may be used for parody purposes. Any resemblance to events, locales, business establishments, or actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is purely coincidental.

  Contents

  Born of Shadow

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Note from the Author

  Chapter 1

  The thing I remember most was the crying. It wasn’t because of the pain, so much as it was because I’d just lost them both. Mum and Dad, my family. The only family I knew and both had been taken from me in an instant. I was only eight at the time.

  The policemen had towered over me, stern and hard faced. I understood now that they had been holding themselves aloof so that they could remain strong for me. After what they had seen, what they had found when they arrived, well, if they had not held themselves back then they would have broken too.

  At the time, though, I so very badly needed someone to take me into their arms and tell me everything would be all right. That my mum and dad would wake up and the world would return to normal. That they would play with me and laugh again. That the monsters weren’t real.

  “Penny for them,” Evelyn said and I shook my head to clear it of the dark memories.

  “Sorry Evie, woolgathering again.”

  She rolled her eyes in that over exaggerated manner that she knew irritated me more than pretty much anything else and exhaled a loud sigh.

  “Dramatic much?” I asked with a slight smile that widened as she stamped her foot in mock irritation. She did it as elegantly as she did everything else.

  With her long blonde hair falling in ringlets around an elfin face with big green eyes, she was stunningly beautiful even when a look of annoyance crossed her face as it did then.

  “I’m bored!” she said as she folded her arms across her chest. “You’re not being any fun Lena.”

  “Am I ever?” I muttered as I turned back to staring over the balcony, down at the drama on the road below us.

  Flashing blue lights illuminated the area outside the main entrance to the park. Several figures with torches in hand moved around almost aimlessly, as though unsure what to do. Somewhere, in the distance, a girl was crying.

  “Oh crap,” Evie said as she leant on the balcony railing beside me and finally saw what I’d been watching.

  “It’s fine,” I said to forestall her. I knew what she’d say. The words would come by rote now, so often had they been said that I could repeat them all verbatim. “Been nearly thirteen years, I’m fine.”

  “Sure thing,” she said with a tone in her voice that suggested she didn’t believe a word I was saying. I held back my smile as I watched her from the corner of my eye.

  The thing was, she’d been there for all thirteen of those painful years. She’d not been allowed to visit me at first, she’d been too young. But later, when something set off that dark place inside of me and released the fragmented memories of that night, when she was older, she’d come to visit me in the asylum.

  Not that we were supposed to call it that. It was considered the politically correct thing to call it a long term care facility now. But in reality, it was a place they locked up those terminally crazy people until the meds and endless talking sessions that were supposed to be therapy, actually made us well enough to be let out amongst the public once more.

  When everyone else had abandoned me, the one person who hadn’t, was Evie. I loved her for that, with every part of my being.

  “Come inside,” she said as she linked one arm with mine. “Have a beer and join the party. I’m pretty sure I saw Jamie giving you the look.”

  “What look?” I turned my head just enough to be able to see the impish grin she wore.

  “You know what look I mean. The, come here I want to ravish you look.”

  It felt good to laugh and if my laughter held a little bitterness to it, she didn’t seem to notice. She tugged on my arm until I pushed myself upright.

  Standing at five foot ten, I was only just taller than her when she was in bare feet but in heels, she stood above me which she loved. Tall and slim, though with enough curve to her body that she was considered athletic rather than boyish, she looked stunning even in just jeans and vest top.

  “Come on, let’s get away from what’s going on down there.”

  “But…”

  “No,” she snapped. Her light-hearted tone of earlier gone. “I’m serious now. It’s probably just an accident and you don’t need to keep doing this to yourself.”

  “I need to know,” I said. My voice was barely above a whisper and I saw the softening of her eyes. She understood like no one else ever would and I needed that. I needed someone to believe me.

  A burst of raucous music swept over us as the balcony door opened and a broad-shouldered guy with slicked back hair and a disturbing fetish for fake tan stuck his head out.

  “Hey babe, you coming back?”

  “I’ll be there in a minute,” Evie said as I mouthed ‘babe’ at her and tried not to grin.

  “You okay out here?”

  “Yeah it’s fine Mickey,” she said and blew him a kiss. “Get me a fresh drink will you?”

  “Sure, you want lager or wine? No cider left.”

  “Whatever, you choose.”

  “How about your buddy?”

  “I’m fine, thanks,” I said without looking at him.

  “You sure, I can nip to the church and get some holy water for you…”

  “Mickey!” Evie snapped. “Give it a rest.”

  “What?” he asked, voice full of hurt innocence. “Gotta give Devil-girl what she wants.”

  “I’ll see you later,” I said to my friend as I gently pulled my arm from hers.

  “Don’t go,” she said and I raised one hand in a gesture of goodbye as I pushed past her idiotic boyfriend into the apartment. His mockery just one of the things about him that I despised. Not that he was the only one to mock. Ever since I’d first told my story, the other kids had called me names.

  The sounds of her berating him faded as he stepped onto the balcony and the door closed softly behind him. I took one last look around the people crowded into the too small space, the smell of someone’s weed was pungent and empty beer bottles were everywhere.

  When the other people bothered to look at me, their eyes went right past me in most cases. In others, I would receive a look of dislike or confusion as to why I was there. I glanced back only to see that Evie had seemingly made up with her latest boyfriend. At least that’s what I assumed by the way he was groping at her ass while they explored each o
ther's mouths with their tongues.

  No one spoke to me as I pushed through the crowded room and out the door which closed behind me with a loud bang that echoed through the hallway. I sucked in a breath of clean air and set off towards the elevators.

  A few minutes later I was out the door and across the road, headed towards the crowd gathered around the park entrance. Iron spikes topped the railings that thrust up from the low wall that surrounded the park and while it was in one of the smarter areas of the city, it still had a problem with gangs of youths gathering there on a night.

  Whatever had occurred there had attracted a number of local residents and passers-by alike. They formed a semi-circle around the entrance, prevented from moving closer by the blue and white tape emblazoned with the ‘Police line do not cross’ warning which was backed up by a half dozen uniformed men and women in fluorescent jackets.

  Beyond them, two paramedics were knelt beside a young girl, barely into her teens who was screaming almost hysterically. Blood covered her quite liberally and her top was torn, though she didn’t seem to be in any physical pain.

  A couple of men in suits stood nearby, glancing over to her as they waited for her to calm enough to speak to them. Detectives, I assumed since remembered the type from when they had waited impatiently for me to speak to them in much the same way as they waited for her.

  “What’s going on?” I asked a woman in the crowd. She turned to me, her grey hair still bearing rollers and a purple dressing gown wrapped tightly around her.

  “There’s been a murder,” she said.

  “Probably gangs,” a man beside her added. He turned his attention to me and looked me up and down, taking in my faded and torn jeans, plain t-shirt and scuffed trainers. He scowled and said, “Bloody teenagers fighting and selling drugs. They’re not wanted round here.”

  I ran one hand through my hair, fingers curling as though to grip it. Of course, it was too short for that. I kept it unstylishly short for that exact reason but it didn’t stop my hand moving there seemingly of its own accord, a left over habit from years of stress and pain. Another reminder of that night all those years ago.

  “We see them every night,” the woman agreed as she nodded her head. “Always so loud too.”

  “Not loud now,” the man replied grimly. He crossed his arms and gave me the once over again. “You live around here?”

  “No,” I said and pointed to the apartment building behind me. “Party up there.”

  “Bloody students,” the man almost spat. “As bad as the gangs. Most of them are the ones buying the drugs.”

  “I wouldn’t know,” I said. “Not a student, just visiting.”

  No, I wasn’t a student. Not that I hadn’t applied but they wouldn’t take me. Grades weren’t good enough. I’d need to repeat a few subjects first and redo my GCSE’s. They weren’t interested in why I’d been absent from school so often, for such long periods.

  “Look,” the woman said and pointed through the crowd as the babble of voices rose around us. Two more paramedics were making their way through the gates, carrying a stretcher with what had started out as a white sheet on it. Whatever was beneath that sheet was staining it in a number of places.

  “One less for us to worry about,” the man said with a grunt of satisfaction while the woman tutted but still nodded her head in agreement.

  I needed to get closer, to find out what exactly had happened. The shrieking from the girl rose in volume as she saw the body pass by and one of the paramedics reached for a syringe. No idea what was in it, but her voice trailed off as I walked away.

  The iron railings prevented me from climbing over and besides, the police were watching the immediate area closely. A few hundred metres walk through, and I turned the corner and headed towards another entrance. It would be locked for the night, but I could at least try and climb over there.

  As I approached the gate it immediately felt off. Wrong somehow and the broken links of thick chain scattered across the ground by the open gate didn’t do anything to make that feeling of wrongness go away.

  This is a bad idea, I thought as my breath quickened. I knelt down and picked up one of the misshapen pieces of metal and wondered at what could have torn and twisted the steel link as though it were paper.

  I should leave, nothing good can come of going in there. But I had to. I wasn’t sure why, but something was drawing me in. It was as though the answers to a decades-old question was just beyond the gate and all I needed to do would be to step inside to find out what had really happened all those years ago. I took one last look along the street to make sure I wasn’t noticed and then I slipped through the gate and into the park.

  The bright luminescence of the full moon in the clear sky above provided enough illumination to see by, though shadows and patches of darkness dotted the park by the trees and thick shrubbery. That was probably for the best, I needed to stay out of view of the police.

  While the local area around the park wasn’t exactly high rent, it was miles above what I could afford so I didn’t know the area that well and wasn’t as familiar with the layout of the park as I’d have preferred. I did know, just from listening to Evie’s friends, that if you wanted to buy something to enhance your night out, you needed to speak to the guys who hung out by the fountain. Which I knew to be towards the centre of the park.

  With heart hammering in my chest and my breathing shallow, I moved slowly through the open space. Darting from bush to tree, to bush, always keeping in shadow with a watchful eye for danger.

  “Please let it just be gang violence,” I muttered as I approached the fountain. I wanted it to be that but at the same time, a small part of me hoped it would be something else, something that would finally allow me to have the proof I needed.

  The circular basin of the fountain was made of grey stone and was almost ten feet wide. In the centre stood a stone plinth with what I could only imagine was a mermaid holding a vase. Water rose up above the statue for almost a metre before it dropped back down into the basin in a gentle spray.

  A lone policeman stood before the fountain with his back to me. He was standing with feet apart and hands tucked into his vest in a pose I’d seen the police use often. He was at ease and didn’t feel any immediate threat was nearby. My heart sank.

  It was looking more and more likely that it was just a random act of violence, likely gang or drug related. If it had been something else, something different, then the police would be responding to that difference.

  I turned to go, to push back through the bush and head home. Disappointed once more by yet another failure to find the truth. To find the evidence that I wasn’t crazy.

  Then it happened. All around the park in the gardens and houses that surrounded it, dogs started barking. A high pitched sound of outrage, of warning to stay away, of fear. Behind me, the policeman began to scream.

  Chapter 2

  It wore the darkness like a cloak as it leapt from the shadows and raked inch long claws across the policeman’s stomach. Dark fur and eyes that glowed amber were seen in a flash before it was gone again, leaving the man to scream and scream.

  He collapsed to the ground, one hand pressed to the gaping wound visible between the shredded clothing over his waist while he reached for his radio with his other hand, bloody fingers scrabbling to hold it as he screamed for help.

  I wanted to step forward, wanted to rush out and help him but I was frozen in place. Fear kept me rooted to the ground as every nightmare I’d had for the last thirteen years came back to flash through my mind. It was real!

  The creature appeare, leaping from the darkest shadows to rake its claws across the arm that held the radio and then it disappeared again. It was playing with him, as a cat with a mouse. What manner of creature would derive such pleasure from tormenting another?

  Flashes of light in the distance, near the front entrance to the park, indicated that help was on its way. I silently willed the poor
man to hold on, to stay alive and fighting just long enough for that help to arrive.

  That ever growing pool of blood beneath him told me that it would be too late no matter whether they arrived in time or not.

  A low growl issued forth from somewhere, somehow audible other the sounds of the barking hounds and the pain filled shrieks of the dying policeman. Then it appeared again, leaping the full width of the fountain to land beside the wounded man.

  It lowered its muzzle and sniffed at his wounds, uncaring of those others that were running across the park, too slow to be of any real help. It bared long fangs as it raised its head and glowing eyes seemed to pierce me to the bone.

  I ran. Without hesitation or thought for the poor man whose cries cut off abruptly behind me. I ran as though my life depended on it because I firmly believed that it did.

  Arms pumping, I cast aside all pretence of staying hidden and made straight for the side entrance as a howl sounded off to my right. The howl of a wolf as it chased down its prey. Me!

  The gate slammed shut behind me and I hesitated a moment, indecision clear on my face for anyone to see. To go left, back towards the police and the crowd of people one street over or go right along the silent street and hope to find somewhere safe.

  I set off running to the right. The police would all have abandoned the main entrance to respond to their fallen comrade’s call for help. If I went to the left, then all I would be doing was bringing the monster to a fresh group of defenceless victims.

  A dark blur sailed over the iron railings further along the street and I skidded to a halt beside a parked car. The hounds had all fallen silent on this side of the park and I could well imagine them cowering in terror, hoping the creature left them be.

  It stalked forward, the top of its head almost level with the roofs of the cars. It was huge and had an overpowering presence, a sense of impending violence in every step it made. A promise of death in those glowing eyes. It was going to kill me.

  That was inescapable. I realised that straight away as it bared its fangs in what I took to be a grin. It was enjoying itself and while it wanted me to know that I would die, I had the sense that it wasn’t going to be quick.