Prologue

When Mario was a young child, he remembers seeing things that other people couldn't, creatures in the shadows walking around unseen by the rest of the world. He even befriended one of them, one as young as him, one with a humanlike appearance, Blake, he called himself, his best friend, his only friend.

Blake kept him safe from the scary things Mario could see around him, spiders walking over the walls which only he could see, creatures hiding below his bed or inside his closet, some sort of ghosts haunting specific places and people. It was his friend who kept them away from him, he couldn't live without Blake.

At first, his family took it as the vivid imagination of a child, an imaginary friend was nothing to be concerned about, but as Mario grew older, the people around him began to worry about his mental sanity. A 10-year-old with no friends but an imaginary one, who talked about seeing things that were not there, even other kids around his age were creeped out by him.

'And kids can be cruel with those they don't understand.'

Bullying was something Blake couldn't protect Mario from, at some point he was no longer capable of going to school. His parents were worried and decided to look for professional help, he saw multiple psychologists and psychiatrists, physiologically there was nothing wrong with him, so they treated him for Schizophrenia, it took them years to find out the appropriate amounts of medication for him to be "normal", or as normal as one with his condition could be.

By his fifteenth birthday, Mario could no longer see Blake or the scary things within the shadows, he was finally living a regular life, his family moved to another city so he could have a new beginning in a different place. His little brother, Matt, a couple of years younger than him, was his main supporter, the one who would help him integrate with people their age.

The meds helped him go through high school with no problems but those normal for a kid his age, he partied with friends, had a couple of girlfriends through the years, he even graduated top of his class, managing to get accepted into a prestigious school to become an engineer. All his past troubles nothing but a memory, his friend Blake forgotten.

His years in college were his happiest, he fell in love for the first time, Virginia was her name, an actress in the making, he needed a model for his photography class and she needed some pictures to apply for auditions, a mutual friend introduced them and the connection was instantaneous. By the time of their graduation, they had been together almost four years.

Mario started working for a big company in the computer industry, he was a productive member of society, or so he thought. His boss made him work extra hours, he barely had time for Virginia, much less his friends and family. He was being exploited, a new employee being forced to carry responsibilities beyond his paygrade, and he went through with it.

His job strained his relationship with Virginia, until they could no longer go back. When she left, his heart broke like never before. Not only his job became meaningless, he stopped taking his meds and taking care of himself. That was the moment his "normal" life ended and the beginning of the nightmare.

He was twenty-five when it happened, one night on his way home, he saw a creature stalking a teenage girl, it was humanoid in form, but he could see its eyes, completely black and emotionless, a perpetual expression of madness on its face, evil incarnate. He was hallucinating again, he had been sloppy with his meds and now he was seeing monsters roaming the streets. He panicked and ran home.

The next day the girl was dead, they found her body in a park close by, a couple of blocks away from where Mario had seen the creature following her. Mario couldn't understand what was happening, he couldn't explain to anybody what he saw the night before. Was he crazy? Somewhere deep in his mind he knew, it was real, the creature he saw wasn't an hallucination, he couldn't go back to his meds, there were monsters around and only he could stop them.

He quit his job that day, purchased a gun and a hunting knife, for some reason Mario needed to hunt down the creature, it was nearby and he knew it. The following nights he would walk around the neighborhood, he disguised himself as a jogger going around for exercise, not that far from the truth, he needed to improve his physical condition.

On the fourth night, he found the creature, it was sitting on a bench in the park, looking for its next prey. Mario remained in the park, he watched until the creature stood up and left, for some reason he decided to follow it. After more than one hour of walking, they arrived to an old warehouse, the creature went inside. He was nervous, quite scared, but something inside compelled him to go after it.

The monster was waiting for him, its gaze looked straight into his soul, at that point Mario knew he had made a mistake, he was not the hunter but the prey. "How did you know?", the creature asked him, Mario stood still, his body frozen in fear, incapable of answering. He could hear the steps of the monster as it approached, standing one step away, it examined him. Mario could see face of the creature turning into surprise, "you are a chosen one", it said.

The creature laughed in delight, its hand holding his neck, "thank you for coming to me, you don't know what it means to me". The grip of its hand grew stronger, the monster was strangling Mario and there was nothing he could do to stop it, he couldn't breathe and felt something inside him leaving his body towards it, an energy he didn't know he had.

Suddenly, he was on the ground, his heart beating faster than ever while trying to catch his breath. When his eyes moved upwards, he saw another creature, one made of shadows, fighting against the first monster. The battle lasted no more than ten seconds, the first monster falling unconscious, his expression no longer of evil, the monster inside was dead and the body on the ground was that of a male.

"You have to kill him", the shadow humanoid said, "his soul is no longer inside and his body is no more than a vessel for the invaders". Mario grabbed his knife and stabbed the man in the heart, trusting the words of the creature who saved his life. When he realized he had murdered a person, it was too late, he heard the scream of a woman witnessing as he took out the knife.

He decided to run away, leaving the knife behind and completely missing the fact that the shadow creature had disappeared. Mario arrived home later that night, he panicked and didn't know what to do. He thought about calling his brother, his parents, but what could he say? How could he explain himself? His life was over.

"Mario", the shadow said as it appeared in front of him, "calm down friend", it tried to reach its hand towards him. Mario, sitting on the floor, grabbed its hand and stood up, finally recognizing the one who saved his life, "Blake", he quietly said, his face filled with disbelief, "it can't be". But he knew Blake was standing in front of him, his friend was real, always had been. The clouds inside his mind disappearing for the first time in years.

"We don't have time Mario", Blake's voice sounded worried, "the invaders are coming soon and you are not ready to face them", he paused, "no one is".

After that, Blake told him he had been hiding in Mario's shadow, sleeping until the time he was needed again, for he knew the end is coming and his friend is going to need him if they are to survive. Mario listened quietly, deciding to trust Blake's words, everyone would think he was crazy, he couldn't tell anyone about it, not yet, but he knew what needed to be done.

A couple of days later, police showed in front of his door, and took him away for murder. He was lucky they found evidence against the man for the murder of three teenagers, getting public opinion on his side.

Nonetheless, Mario talked about a monster possessing the man he killed, the judge declared him mentally ill, he was put inside a mental institution to be treated for his Schizophrenia.