Prologue: The First Shadow
Laughter, cheers, and the clang of glass radiate from a bar on a late night of November.
There is the sound of an argument in the bar and the entrance door swings open. A man holding a brown bottle walks through the doorway.
The man mumbled to himself, "Man, I can't believe they lost. To the Cowboys nonetheless!" The man took a quick swig of the bottle and stumbled to the road. The man headed to an apartment building and walked through the alleyway between the buildings. As he passes half way through the dark alley a street light turns on and he flinches. "Why is there a random light here?"
A shadow passed at the corner of the man's eye. He stumbles back, looking for the shadow. The man shrugs, "I'm probably becoming delusional." The man walks underneath the light and stops and shivers. Extending his hand and says, "Why does it feel so cold all of a sudden?" He looked up at the light post and covered his eyes with his hand.
Another shadow passed in front of him and the man stumbled back toward the edge of the light. He felt a tug on his shirt and jerks at the sense of touch.
He asks himself, "W-what is going on here?"
As he listens for the sound of movement, his eyes settle on a black shadow standing to his left. It seemed the creature to be fully composed of shadows and was hunchbacked, and radiated a black aura around it.
The creature opened its eyes which, were red with white pupils. The man said, "Is this a joke? Who are you and why are you doing something like this." The creature recoiled and growled at him. The man tried to look defiant despite how frightened he was.
"If you think it's funny to pick on a drunk old man, then you should, you should think again," he said once it seemed to calm. The creature opened its mouth to seem to try to speak but nothing came out.
"Ha! I saw right through your ploy and now you have nothing to say!" The man lurched forward to grab the creature he thought was a man. However, instead of grabbing the creature, his arm passed straight through it.
"Ah! What the heck?"
The creature grabbed the man and looked into his eyes and the man shrieked in fear. The creature dropped him and transformed into a black mist. The man got up but before he could move he was shrouded in black smoke. The man heard voices in his head, the voices were whispering. Every voice was hardly audible, the man looked at the now dim and flickering light post and choked.
"W-what are you?"
The creature reformed and stared into the man's eyes and growled. It grabbed him and he hit the arm with his bottle. The creature let go of the man and he slumped to the floor. Once the man recovered enough to look around in a blurred vision, he could still see the black cloud surrounding him.
"H-help," he groaned. "Please."
The black mist seemed to get denser. Then the image of the creature formed in the mist. The man tried to flee in fear but was pinned by the creature. The creature then growled again but this time it was much more louder. The creature raised its arm. The light post shattered as a the man yelled in agony.