[Mark Borne] The Time Raiders: Episode 1 (Living Shadows)

“Somehow, somewhere, there’s more to the world than we think,” Sarah mumbled, staring up at the stars. “Don’t you agree?”

          “Maybe,” Alex agreed. He really didn’t think so, though. Most of the world had already been explored, and he figured they’d already discovered aliens if they existed. So he really disagreed with Sarah.

          “There has to be,” Sarah told Alex. “Life can’t be all boring.”

          Alex simply shrugged and continued to enjoy the stars. They quickly became boring, and he looked down, and saw one of the bushes moving. He focused, but couldn’t feel a wind. Besides, none of the other bushes were moving, and neither were the branches of the nearby trees. He stood up, and Sarah frowned at him. “What’s up?”

          Alex moved towards the bush, and a shadow reached out and grabbed him. He tried to speak, but even breathing was beyond him as the shadow choked him. “This is the boy?” a voice grumbled. “He’s worthless. There’s no Tempuspotentia in him.”

          “There’s plenty in the girl, though,” a new voice added. “Leave the boy, let’s take her, instead.”

          “The bounty was for the boy,” argued the first, dropping Alex, who gasped for breath.

          “Our clients will understand the change,” the second pressed.

          “Fine,” the first grumbled. Something heavy hit Alex’s head, and he fell unconscious.

Alex jerked forwards, gasping through his screams, before going silent and still. Just a nightmare…it’s just a nightmare…

          Except it wasn’t. It was also a memory. Or, at least, most of it. It had happened precisely a year ago, and now Alex was reliving it. He sighed, took some melatonin he had ready by his bed, and drifted off quickly.

Alex’s parents had both insisted on visiting some sort of doctor. “He seems fine in every sense of the word,” the doctor eventually proclaimed. “He’s sane, he’s in good health, and he doesn’t appear to be suffering from any form of trauma. It could be that, given the anniversary of the occasion, his fear is causing these nightmares.”

          Except it felt so real…

          Alex couldn’t remember what happened after his eyes drifted down from the sky. All he remembered was darkness, and then waking up to find Sarah’s glasses on the ground. He had taken them home, intending to take them to her first thing in the morning, but she had vanished. Police investigations had come up empty.

          Then they found bones nearby, and Sarah was declared dead.

          Sarah’s parents could no longer look at Alex. In their eyes, he had been spared where their daughter had been killed, and that was a sour reminder. Alex’s parents, on the other hand, were now super protective, and kept telling him anything could happen at any time, and he could lose his second chance at life.

          Of course, Alex didn’t care. His best friend was dead, and he should have died with her.

Alex entered the treehouse and stood in the center of it, looking around at the decorations. He had no idea how long he’d been standing there before he heard a commotion outside. He looked out the window and saw three men clad in black, and four teenagers. The lead teenager was a bald girl with darker skin, probably an Asian. One of her friends was a tall boy with red hair, and a casual smirk on his face. There was also an average-sized boy with a mop of dark hair and narrow eyes. The fourth member of the group was a smaller girl who was hiding behind the redhead.

          “Again?” one of the unidentifiable men asked. “You kids are always ruining our plans.”

          “Perfect, glad to hear it,” the lead girl retorted. “You can just leave and you won’t have to get hurt this time.”

          “You can’t stop us that easily,” the first growled. “The girl’s coming with us.”

          “Just try,” the bald girl dared. The dark-haired boy reached towards his side as if planning on drawing a sword, then snorted as his hand came up empty. That was all Alex noticed before everyone start moving at unnaturally fast speeds, except the young girl, who started backing away uncertainly.

          Alex climbed down the ladder and rushed over. “What’s going on?” he asked.

          “I don’t know!” the girl cried. “I want to go home!”

          Alex recognized her. She actually lived on the same street he did. “I’ll take you home, don’t worry,” he said, picking her up and running towards the neighborhood. “What’s your name?”

          “Ginger,” she told him, sniffling.

          “Pretty name. I’m Alex.”

          “Thank you, Alex.”

Lisa waited in Alex’s room. She hated what she had to do, but he interfered with her mission, which would inevitably cause the girl to be captured, which would only shove the Shadow League’s plan forward. The poor boy was doing what he thought was right, but he was interrupting the delicate order of time.

          So she almost winced when he entered and gaped at her in terror. She froze the two of them in time, and she froze his entire body, leaving only his consciousness free. He would hear her and process the information, but nothing more.

          “What you did today was wrong,” she told him harshly. “Because of you, that girl is now defenseless against our timeless enemies, and they’ll advance their plans. So, if I were you, I’d stop interfering with what you don’t understand.” She time traveled away, letting time progress as it should. As soon as she landed back in her century, she collapsed on the couch and breathed heavily.

          “You’re losing yourself,” Lee mumbled.

          “I’d rather be Lost than dead,” Lisa countered, closing her eyes. Indeed, she could feel the call growing stronger…the beautiful sound…

          She opened back up to reality and forced herself to admit, “I’m not sure how much more I can travel before I’m completely gone.”

If a random girl appearing in his room, giving him a speech, and vanishing into thin air wasn’t weird enough (oh, yeah, not to mention she was one of the teenagers fighting the dark-clothed mystery men earlier that day; the bald one, to be precise), it got weirder when another mysterious figure showed up.

          Unlike the bald girl, who wore darker clothes (though not black), this figure was wearing lots of white. She had a white hoodie, white pants, and a white mask that completely covered her head. Her gloves and shoes were also white, but they both had pink patterns printed on them. “Alex,” she said, her voice heavily modulated.

          “Who are you?” Alex asked.

          “That’s not important,” the girl told him. “What is important is that you keep interfering with the Shadow League as much as you can.”

          “No thanks,” Alex snorted. “I was just threatened to stay out of this, and I’m not taking that lightly.” Not to mention it’s my fault that girl was kidnapped like Sarah was…

          “That’s not a valid reason,” the girl countered. “The reason is because you’re the key to all of this. Time doesn’t influence you the way it does us. Wonder why the Shadow League hasn’t killed you as a baby? It’s because they can’t. No matter what they try to do to you, nothing comes close. There’s something you’re meant to do in your future, and until you do it, you’re protected. Stay involved, and bring down these kidnappers.”

          She vanished without another word.

          If I am protected, then this would be awesome! A heroic adventure that won’t end in my death! But can I take a stranger’s word for it? What if she’s manipulating me and feeding me lies?

          Or worse, what if she’s right, and that’s why the Shadow League went after Sarah?