Eli Fletcher: Mark of the King: Book 1
Strangled by a Shadow

Over the next week Billy’s attempts to get under my skin all but fail miserably. Dipping my hands in cups of warm water in an attempt to make me wet the bed ended with me subconsciously swatting both cups away, spilling it down the front of he and Marco; blocking the bathroom door only to realize later that it swings into the room and not into the hallway; trying to double-team me with Marco to give me a swirly, where they were interrupted by Mr. Reese coming in to wash his hands. His last attempt was just this morning when they tried to write something on a wall to make it look like the message we’d been questioned about two weeks ago. They were caught literally red-handed by Mrs. Katz; seriously, their hands were covered in red paint, not to mention their clothes, shoes and everything else the cans of paint spilled on.

The only thing that’s gotten to me is the fact that Fiona has been hanging out with them again. She hasn’t spoken more than two words to me since the kickball game and I don’t understand why; we were getting along so well; she was literally my first friend I’ve made since Joshua, the homeless guy.

That’s why right now you’ll find me hiding behind a dumpster behind the main building, hiding from everyone. Despite Billy’s failed attempts to bully me lately, it has gotten annoying and the one friend I thought I had to be able to confide it, has been avoiding me like a cootie plague. Don’t judge me; I heard some of the younger girls saying something like that the other day.

“Psst,” someone says from above me.

I look up and see Fiona of all people looking down at me from the top of the dumpster. I laugh at her antic and wipe a couple tears from my face.

“What’s wrong?” she asks, dropping down and joining me behind the dumpster.

“Nothing, I got some dust in my eye,” I lie to her.

“It has been windy,” she says, playing along.

“I didn’t think you were talking to me anymore,” I say bitterly.

“I was a little upset with you after the kickball game, but then I realized he deserved it,” she admits.

“Who deserved what?”

“Well,” she says, taking something out of her back pocket and then sitting down next to me against the brick wall, “after the game was over, you told the others to smile and act like they had a great time even though they lost.”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“Nothing! Except, you told them that it would upset Billy and that was the only reason you gave them.”

I open my mouth to argue but she interrupts me by raising her hands in surrender.

“But, I was wrong!” she says quickly. “After everything Billy’s tried to do to you, he deserves to be put in his place like that, so I’m sorry for avoiding you like I did. Can you please forgive me?”

I stare at her for a moment, unable to look away from her bright, electric blue eyes. How can I not?

“Of course I forgive you, Fiona.”

“Oh good, then I guess I don’t have to give you this present to beg for it,” she says, picking up a rolled up comic book.

“What’s that?” I ask.

“I thought of you when I saw it the other day when I went into town with Miss O. We were at the book store picking up the new text books for class when I saw this whole section of comic books and this one stood out to me the most,” she says handing it over.

“Archangels,” I ponder out loud. “You got this for me?”

She smiles at me, her eyes almost squinting as she does. “Because of that mark on the back of your hand,” she says, eyeing my right hand.

I look down and examine the smudge of orange-ish brown that’s been on my hand pretty much my whole life.

“What about it?” I ask her.

“I don’t know, it’s always looked like angel wings to me,” she says with a shrug.

“Jefferey! Fiona!” Miss O’s voice echoes off the brick wall and the dumpster.

“We better get back; she sent me looking for you; you’ve been gone for an hour and missed lunch.”

“Yeah, I needed some time to myself.”

“I get it, you don’t want Billy to see you cry,” she teases.

“I wasn’t crying,” I protest. “I told you, I got dust in my eye.”

“Uh huh, because of all the wind and it’s oh so dry in Colorado isn’t it?”

I shrug. “Compared to California it is,” I mutter.

Fiona laughs, rolling her eyes. “Whatever.”

I stand up first and offer her my hands; she takes them and I pull her to her feet. As we walk back together, her arm brushes against mine, causing the hairs on my arm to stand on end. Her fingers even bump into mine, her pinky briefly hooking around my index finger. When it happens a second time, I grip my finger around hers and don’t let go until I see the disapproving look on Miss O’s face. I quickly let go and she grins and winks at me.

“Just not in front of the kids, okay?” she whispers to us before we enter the building.

My face burns hot with embarrassment and Fiona bumps me with her elbow, giggling at me as if she read my thoughts.

“Jefferey, hold on a second, Fiona go on ahead to the preschool room,” she instructs and I wait back with Miss O as Fiona walks quickly to help with the young kids.

“What’s wrong, Miss O?” I ask.

“Where were you?”

“I…I needed to be alone for a little while; I wasn’t far.”

“But you didn’t tell me where you would be; you can’t take off on me like that and not say something. I’m your Watcher and am responsible for you. If you’d have been attacked or taken, I’d be in huge trouble, not to mention worried sick,” she rattles off quickly.

I hold up my hands in surrender. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, Miss O. Relax; I’m sorry, it won’t happen again. If I need to go somewhere alone, I’ll come to you first, I promise. I just have one question,” I tell her.

She takes a deep breath as if to brace herself and asks, “What’s that?”

“What do you mean you’re my Watcher?”

“I guess it’s time to give you a little more information,” she says reluctantly, jerking her head towards the end of the hall. I walk with her to her office and sit across from her like usual. “Every adult you’ve gotten to know at each group home or foster home you’ve lived in,” she says, shutting the door, “has been a Watcher. Our job is to watch over you and protect you until you’re ready to become the new Sicarius.”

“Sicarius? What’s that?”

“It’s what the demons have been afraid of you becoming; an assassin. Some have tried to kill you; others will try to convince you to join them. They’ll feed you lies disguised as promises; they’ll offer you things that will tempt you; they’ll even threaten to take things from you if you don’t. My job is to protect you from that until your training is complete,” she explains.

“Training? What do you mean by training?”

“An angel will be sent to conduct your training. You will learn how to hunt, fight and defeat demons,” she says quickly.

I blink slowly at her, trying to comprehend what she just told me.

“I know I just dropped a lot in your lap, so to speak,” she says, “but is there anything you want to say or ask?”

I shake my head slowly and stand up.

“If you need to talk, I’m here whenever you need me.”

I nod as I turn towards the door and I hardly notice where I’m going until I end up at the preschool room where the children are once again causing a small riot. The noise pulls me back to reality, reminding me that there are other things in my life than what Miss O just told me about. Fiona steps up to me, an urgent look on her face but I don’t hear what she’s trying to tell me. Shaking my head, the full noise of the room fills my ears.

Stepping around Fiona, I place myself in the middle of the room, take a deep breath and holler out a long, “OOOOOKAAAAYYYY!” to get the kids’ attention. Just like before, the kids stop, frozen in place as if I’d hit a pause button.

“Now that I have you attention, I have something to say,” I continue on quietly. “It’s not fair to Mrs. Katz or any of the others helping her out when you all act like this. The way you’re acting is very disrespectful; I’m very disappointed in you guys; I know you can do better than this. Now, I want you all to quietly,” I emphasize, “start cleaning up; once everything is put away, you can each find one thing to play with or share with someone else. But, I don’t want to have to yell like this to get your attention again.”

“Sorry, Jefferey,” they say in unison.

“Don’t apologize to me,” I correct them.

“Sorry, Mrs. Katz,” they redirect their apology and then continue as I look at each helper in the room, even Billy, Allaryce and Marco.

“Thank you,” Mrs. Katz whispers, coming out of nowhere to hug me tightly.

“You’re welcome,” I say awkwardly when she lets go; when she begins to help some of the kids clean up, I turn towards Abby’s tea party to find her sobbing over a pink, plastic teacup. I kneel down next to her and when I reach up to touch her shoulder, she shoves my arm away.

“You’re late!” she says through her cries.

“I’m sorry, Abby; I was talking to Miss O.”

“But you’re late!” she screams, finally looking at me.

I look over my shoulder and my face burns as I notice everybody staring at us. I nod as I return my attention to Abby.

“You’re right, Abby. It won’t happen again, I promise.”

“Abby,” Fiona says kneeling down on the other side of her, “would it be alright if I joined you?” she asks her.

“You want to have tea with me?” she asks hopefully.

Fiona nods. “I do; it looks and smells so delicious.”

Abby grins from ear to ear and then looks over her other tea party guests, deciding who to replace with Fiona. She opts to toss away a purple hippopotamus and then looks at me with wide eyes before getting up again and replacing the stuffed animal to one of the large toy boxes.

“Sorry, Jeffy,” she says when she sits down again.

“It’s okay, Abby, thank you for putting it away. Oh and you can call me Eli,” I blurt out.

Fiona looks at me curiously. “Since when?”

“Since my talk with Miss O; I’ll tell you about it later,” I answer.

“Why do I have to call you Eli now?”

“Because I just found out that that’s my real name.”

“Did they find your parents?!” she asks excitedly.

I shake my head. “No, they just found out more about them,” I tell her.

“I’m sorry they didn’t find them,” she says.

I shrug. “It’s okay, that just means more tea dates with you,” I say, winking at her.

Abby blushes shyly and then begins to pour us each a cup of tea, asking us silly questions. It’s hard not to smile during my tea dates with Abby, and now that Fiona is going to be a part of them, I have even more of a reason to smile.

________________

The dorm room is completely silent except for the deep breathing of the three other boys in the room. I stare at the ceiling, wishing for sleep to come but it doesn’t. I’m in the top bunk now because Steven asked to switch since he suddenly developed a fear of heights. Then Miss O’s suggestion from the other night comes to my mind: pray. I’ve never prayed before; never really thought it did anything, but seeing as I’m not sleeping anyway, I take a deep breath and think about what to pray about and how do to it. Should I do it out loud or just think about it in my mind? I decide, since everybody’s sleeping, just to say my prayer in my mind.

Um, hey God, wait, is that okay to say? Can I talk to God like that?

Something in my mind tells me that it doesn’t matter how I speak to God as long as it’s honest.

Sorry…I’m new at this; I’m not even sure if you’re going to hear this or not, but I figure I’ve got nothing to lose by trying. I’m not even sure what to talk about.

Suddenly things I fear come to my mind.

I know Miss O just told me a lot about myself I never knew before, but are there really demons trying to kill me? What are demons anyway? And why aren’t they just trying to get me to join them instead? Wouldn’t that make more sense?

I wait for a response, but all I feel is more fear; fear of being alone; fear of being used by these demons; fear that I won’t be able to keep anyone safe.

How will I be able to keep Abby or Fiona or even Miss O safe? I don’t care that Miss O is my Watcher; she shouldn’t have to die to keep me safe like all the others did.

As soon as I finish sharing my fears in my head, a rush of energy overwhelms me. My heart begins to pound quickly and I have the sudden urge to run throughout the halls.

Well, that had the opposite effect I was expecting. I was hoping praying would relax me and help me fall asleep, now I feel like I can run laps around the building.

“Eeeliiii,” a voice whispers my name.

I sit up in my top bunk and twist around searching for the source of the voice. Across the room the corner suddenly grows dark; not like a shadow but pitch dark as if darkness is taking over the room. Then the darkness takes a human-like shape, and by human I mean that it looks like it has arms and legs and a head and stuff but their shape is way longer than it should be. The shadow creature rises to the ceiling abruptly and after only a second’s hesitation it zooms across to me, floating above my bed. I fall back onto my pillow and my wrists bind up in my bedsheet as do my ankles. My pillowcase slips off of my pillow and ties around my head, silencing my voice before I can cry out for help.

The shadow creature’s elongated claw wraps around my neck, squeezing tightly. I’m struggling against the restraints around my wrists and ankles, but the more I do, the tighter they get.

Eli, a new voice speaks to my mind; something about it is familiar, but it’s hard to place.

I try to look around, but my head can’t even swivel. The shadow then punches me in the chest, forcing air out of my lungs but I can’t breathe back in again. My vision grows darker the longer I go without air.

Eli, the voice speaks again. You have my strength in you; you are stronger than you know.

Taking the voice at its word, that and the fact I’m running low on consciousness, I muster as much strength as I can and pull at the bindings around my wrists. The fabric stretches as it attempts to hold me back, but the stretching turns to tearing as I grit my teeth in search of more strength.

You can do it, Eli, the familiar voice encourages me.

My right arm breaks free suddenly and swings around, catching the shadow in the side. The shadow creature rolls away, but remains floating in the air. A red light appears in two triangular openings in what I assume is its face, followed by a grotesquely wide mouth with the same red glow revealing two rows of razor sharp teeth, orange like flames.

I tug at the remaining restraints, ripping the cloth like paper until I’m finally free and then swing my legs over the edge of the bed. The shadow creature flies out of the room, so I drop down, light as a feather, and land gently on my feet without a sound.

“Whoa,” I say quietly and then run out of the room after the monster.

I barely catch it blast through the wall at the end of the hall.

“Eli?” Steven says with a scratchy, sleepy voice.

“Hey, bud, I’m sorry if I woke you. Why don’t you lie back down?” I suggest and he nods, falling back onto his pillow and immediately begins to snore again.

Still completely wired after the attack; I search for the shadow creature. It looked like it was heading for the dumpster area, so I decide to go that way. When I’m halfway down the hall, I see light spill out one of the bathroom doors at the other end. Slipping into the stairwell, I look back through the window to only see darkness in the hall, but I’m sure that whoever was coming out of that bathroom saw me.

I wait a minute before attempting to move again. As soon as I’m sure the coast is clear, I sneak down the stairs. Once I exit the building, I trip over something on the ground; a roll of duct tape.

“Random,” I say, picking up the beat up, half roll of tape. “Too bad I didn’t see this first,” I say with a sigh, looking back at the locked door.

The latch to the door across from the dorms clicks; I duck behind the dumpster as the door opens, spilling yellow light onto the littered pavement. I hide out of sight, hoping it’s not Mrs. Katz or Miss O searching for me; if it is, I’ll be in huge trouble for being out of bed in the middle of the night.

The door closes with a heavy thud, so I twist to see if anybody is waiting for me. When I crane my neck around to look at the door, I come face to face with Abby.

“Abby? What are you doing here?” I ask, my heart pounding quickly after being startled by her sudden presence.

“I was going potty and then I heard a growling noise, so I ran for you.”

“Growling, what growling?”

“From the monster,” she whispers and then looks around with scared eyes, hoping the monster hasn’t followed her.

I stare at the scared little girl for a moment before finally standing up. “Let’s get you back inside,” I suggest and then pick her up at her prompting of lifting her arms for me. Her arms wrap around my neck while her legs wrap around my waist, holding on tightly.

A clanging noise behind me catches our attention. I spin in place to look for what caused the clatter to find a cat running away and an empty can of tomato soup rolling away from the second dumpster.

“Stupid cat,” I mutter under my breath before Abby tightens her grip on me. “Abby, are you okay?” I ask as she begins to tremble. “Abby, what’s wrong?”

“Monster,” she whispers.

“Where?” I ask.

“Turn around,” she whimpers.

I turn around like she says and find a figure standing in the shadows; I can’t make out its face because of the darkness, but I can tell it’s breathing heavily from its body to rising and falling in its hunched over position. It’s not the shadow creature, though; that much I can tell.

“I’m going to set you down, but I want you to stay behind the dumpster, okay?”

Abby shakes her head, her body trembling in fear. “Don’t leave me,” she begs.

“I’m not going to leave you; I’m trying to protect you,” I try to assure her.

I squat down, forcing her feet to touch the ground. She pulls her head back to look at me while I keep an eye on the shadowy figure out of the corner of my eye.

“I promise you, I will never let anything hurt you, okay? But, you have to trust me; I need to stand up to whatever this thing is or else it’ll keep coming back,” I tell her. “Do you understand?”

She looks over her shoulder at the creature still staring at us and then back at me again. When she nods, I direct her behind me, instructing her to hide behind the dumpster again.

“Look,” I say, stepping towards the creature, “I don’t know who or what you are, but you need to leave; there’s nothing here for you.”

The creature doesn’t respond with words, but takes slow, deliberate steps towards me instead. I take a step back and bump into Abby. I twist around to make sure I didn’t knock her over. She looks up at me with her sad, scared eyes and my resolve to protect her is set. I nod my head towards the dumpster again and she quickly retreats to the large, green bin.

Facing the creature again, I clench my fists, taking my own steps towards it. When it rushes forward, I do as well, meeting with a heavy thud. The creature falls to the ground, its mask falling away.

Mask?

I stand over the heap of a blond boy unconscious on the ground. “Billy?”

My stomach drops; how could I have hurt him so badly?

“The monster was Billy?” Abby says, stepping up next to me and holding my hand.

“He was wearing this,” I say, picking up the ugly mask off the ground.

“They made those for Halloween last year,” she tells me.

The door into the building swings open revealing Miss O, Fiona and some other kids.

“Eli? What happened?” Miss O asks, kneeling at Billy’s side, placing her hand on his chest.

“I think Billy was trying to scare me but scared Abby instead, but when he followed me out here, I thought he was something else,” I explain. “We ran towards each other and he fell when he ran into me; he was wearing this,” I add, handing her the mask.

Miss O sighs. “Okay, why don’t you go to my office and wait for me? Fiona, can you take Abby back to the kids’ room and Allaryce, can you help the girls back to bed? Marco, can you and Travis help the boys?”

All four of them nod and start corralling the kids back into the dorms. Fiona walks up to me and reaches for Abby’s hand.

“Go on to bed, Abby,” I urge her. “Everything’s fine now; you’re safe.”

She reluctantly lets go of my hand and takes Fiona’s instead.

“See you in the morning,” Fiona says.

“Yeah,” I say dryly and then begin to follow them into the main building as Miss O helps Billy to his feet. I hang back and hold the door open for Miss O.

“I’ll see you in my office,” Miss O says, trying not to sound angry.

I nod and then hang my head as I saunter down the hall. This must be a record for me; I’ve been here, what, a couple weeks or so and I’ll be packing my bag again. Maybe I should just run away and beat them to it. I slump into a chair outside of Miss O’s locked office. A few minutes later she shakes me awake. I turn my head, looking up and down the hall; I’d fallen asleep in one of the chairs outside of her office.

“Sorry that took so long; Billy woke up and told me his side of the story.”

I nod and then follow Miss O into her office.

“So, tell me what happened; first I’d like to know why you were out there to begin with.”

I take a deep breath and try not to slouch in the chair. “I couldn’t sleep, so I decided to pray like you suggested the other night. As soon as I did, this thing attacked me, some kind of shadow monster,” I say and then gauge her response, but she barely bats an eye. I continue to tell her my account of the story until to the point she came outside.

“So, God has given you your powers,” she says, leaning forward, resting on her elbows. “Billy was foolish to try and scare you and Abby like that, but you still shouldn’t have fought back,”

“I wasn’t thinking about having powers; plus, I thought Billy was another monster.”

“It was a demon,” Miss O corrects.

“A demon? Like what I’m going to have to hunt down?”

She nods slowly; clearly exhausted due to the extremely early hour. “A shadow demon to be exact; it’s a low level soldier that attacks people in their sleep; at least, most of the time they’re asleep. In your case, though, you’re going to be dealing with them in ways most people never will. You, since you touched that orb when you were six, have been able to physically see demons, even the ones that haven’t crossed from the spiritual realm into the physical,” Miss O explains, finally deciding to tell me everything.

“So…” I say slowly as it dawns on me that she mentioned I’ve been given powers. “Am I going to be killing demons?”

Miss O nods her head gently; I can see sadness in her eyes also. “Your powers are to be able to send them back to the spiritual realm where they belong.”

“Where they can’t hurt us?” I ask.

Miss O shakes her head. “Not necessarily. When they’re in the spiritual realm, our power of prayer is what keeps them at bay. When they break into the physical realm, they can intimidate us easier, therefore weakening our prayers.”

“How do I send them back?”

“You will have a weapon to fight them.”

“Where do I get that?” I ask.

“Unfortunately it’s a rite of passage for the Sicarius to find the pieces of the sword.”

“It’s a sword?” I grow more excited with each new piece of information.

“It is and when you ‘kill’ them you send them back to the spiritual realm.”

“How do they get into our realm?”

Miss O sighs; she obviously wasn’t ready to divulge so much information tonight, but I’m not about to stop asking questions as they pop into my head. If this is going to be my future, I need to know everything.

“I guess I should start at the beginning…”

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