Shadows

Jeanne is a lanky lad, who would and always prefers the color black. A musk of angst permeated him constantly. Not seeming to mind the unwanted attention of others, Jeanne would simply ignore it.

"Jeanne, what are you wearing?" With a thick raspy tone, spoke a tall gentleman with clear blue eyes and sharply brimmed glasses. He then took a small sip from his mug.

"..."

"Well."

"Now Jeanne don't ignore your father, how are we all supposed to eat as a family when you walk down looking like that."

The woman slipped in with a bland, but wholly feminine quality. Her eyes were like pits of coal, dark and rough, her hair was rather curly when compared to the man's excessively straight hair.

Jeanne had a mix, his hair was rather long, coming down past his shoulders. The ends were springy as the roots that held them were thick, shiny, and straight.

"I swear, how the hell did I get such an embarrassing brother."

Another voice seemed to interject, she was a few years older than Jeanne, though Jeanne was much taller than the rest of his family, he was only roughly the same age as Lull and the rest.

The girl's eyes were as blue as her father's, as straight as his too. Seemingly this brought about a disparity where Jeanne had features of his father, he took after more of his mother's gloomy temperament in looks.

"Watch your mouth young lady, and Jeanne go back upstairs and change right now, you can't be walking outside looking like that, you'll get a heat stroke for bloody sake."

The woman wasn't wrong, the scorching sun outside was considerably unbearable, even with lightly dressed clothing. Jeanne's all-black attire, with his thick hair and black face mask, didn't help in the keeping cool department.

Up the stairs, a window with a slight creak to the left was bent, and so the implicitly tall young man stepped through, dropping down about forty feet. A slippery clicking noise was apparent in the lower half of his body as he stepped out walking with the sky's eye blinking over him. His black spurs, black coat, and old ferryman collar, with a deep black mask covering his mouth and long black hair that made the makeup around his eyes difficult to see. He had black gloves and pants beneath ruffles that were layered below that of a drum majorette uniform.

He was rather extra, or should I say eccentric. I suppose those could work.

Thirty minutes later Jeanne would step into an old local coffee shop. It wasn't like it was unpopular, just that no one has ever heard of it. The only staffer was a young girl who helped around, being that her father was sick and so in time this place became worse and worse off.

Jeanne particularly liked this place, not just because it was gloomy, but because he liked just the feeling. Rather than a feature of look or personal taste, Jeanne just felt comfortable.

Soon the girl, about the same age as his sister, so sixteen to seventeen years of age. Her small heels would clack against the semi-dusted hardwood as she would take up a paper menu that looked as if it had never been used. She said the same complementary lines she would always say. Jeanne practically had it memorized by heart.

"Jeanne correct." Her smile made Jeanne wanna vomit, but not in a bad way, just in a way that Jeanne particularly didn't like. He rarely ever spoke, yet to the people he spoke to, well it could be counted with less than one hand. Jimi, Lull, and Hoyes. Those were the three and in that order, he would delegate words. Jimi would be given a limited number of eight words a week, Lull six, and Hoyes two. This girl, Jacqueline, was what was on her name tag, though she would always introduce herself as Jacky. So that's what Jeanne referred to her as in his head.

"The same as usual."

A bright small broke away his thoughts, and with a slight nod, she turned around, not even bothering to write down the order.

Jeanne was fine with this, of course, money was tight for him, for what was a middle schooler supposed to do? Working on a farm, he wasn't Jo. Well anyway, a small cup of black coffee, two cubes of sugar on the side, and a biscuit with strawberry jam. On the island, this would generally cost two vrets. Though on days Jeanne had a little to spare, he would tip an extra vret. This money was practically considered dust from off the island. Jeanne knew this specifically because his father worked on the mainland, taking a boat at noon to work on the local shores.

On those lands, from what his father has said, they use a different currency that practically snaps the small coins Jeanne would carry into a fine powder. The reason they can live so lavishly on this tiny mass surrounded by water is because of the transition between currencies, thousands of vrets can be gained from just a slip of paper that has '100' written on it. The first time Jeanne heard of this he practically passed out. That's why one of his small dreams was to get off this stupid rock and never come back.

Sadly, the thought of leaving certain things behind bothered Jeanne and so he would wait till the ceremony of adulthood before fully committing.

Jeanne sat pulling down his mask anytime Jacky wasn't around, then would slowly savor his auspicious snack. The closing hour arrived and Jeanne took himself and left. Walking in the darkness of night, then realizing he forgot something, his mask, freaking out Jeanne began running in a fit of distress. Jeanne wasn't much of an athlete, but when it came down to getting to something, he was quite nimble. Darting through the shadows he came to the front of the shop, noticing the lights were still on, only to then open the door to Jeanne's dismay.

Jacky was pinned down onto a table, her neck being squeezed by the rough man's hand. The built-up tears began to flow as she saw Jeanne in the corner of her eye. With a shocked expression, Jeanne stared at the man turning to look in his direction. Once the man made eye contact with Jeanne, a semblance of fear washed over the man.

The lower half of Jeanne's face was hideous.

Jeanne took a few steps forward, both were silent, as Jacky seemed to be losing consciousness. Then coming out the back clamoring about, were two other men who appeared, jumping slightly with a heart-racing shiver. Looking at Jeanne's face through the dim lighting as he stood, emotionless, every exhale felt like death was lurking around their necks.

Like a black stone pillar did he stand, and as the men stood, shrouding darkness whelmed over them. It was not fear, nor was it confidence, it was…

"Man, what do you want?" said the man to the left.

Jeanne breathed, each breath like a vacuum of death.

"Shush. Hey, seaweed head, move along, it seems you came for something. If it's her I don't mind sharing, but I'll be first."

Jeanne twitched for a second, a burning rumble in his gut spewed through his chest, like a raging torrent. Jeanne knew not what this feeling was, but he did not like it.

Noticing in more detail, Jeanne could see a slight loosening of the grip around Jacky's neck. Looking lower he could see the man's unbuckled belt and his pants halfway pulled down.

Jeanne breathed again, a heavy sigh taken. The room seemed to turn cold as the shadows in the corners felt like they could be alive.

The two other men looked at each other, feeling a rushing notion of distraught. They wanted to run, but they couldn't.

Gaining his composure somewhat, the man to the right said, "man, just ignore him, let's just take her and dump her off in the trunk. We can mess with her when we find a good spot."

The man was lanky with bloodshot eyes. He stood close to Jeanne, and as his attention slowly turned away from Jeanne, within a second his nose would be twisted. His jaw made a cracking sound as his entire head spun, his chin jumping to a point in the air.

"Wow, what the… " The man to the left then was somehow flown to the entrance of the shop with neither arm attached to a socket.

"Oh god, what the hell, shit man I'm sorry alright I'll let go, please man, just don…" An anvil dropped onto his head as he plummeted to the ground in a spray of red fluids that smelled unlike that of fresh blood.

The woman's face did not change for five minutes, whilst Jeanne and she just stayed there in silence.

"Come on man, are ya just gonna stand there or are ya gonna help her up."

"Who?"

"Me? I'm the one who dropped the anvil and flung the two douchebags. Really now, I've been helping out a lot of brats recently, what's with you guys and getting into danger."

Toto in a lackadaisical fashion popped down from the ceiling as if it was just a casual thing to do. Pulling a cig from his pocket, he handed it with a gentle grip to Jeanne, but he denied it with a mere shake of the head.

"Well fine, can't say we all have the same taste. You alright lady, well shit, you ain't actually that much of a lady."

Jeanne's face turned dark.

Toto turned his head, almost giving him whiplash, a sense of unknowing fear struck him.

'Well damn, don't we have something special. He's quite tall and already can put up some pretty impressive murderous air. V. would probably enjoy having him tag along. Well not that it matters much at the moment,' Toto thought in the small millisecond given before the murderous rage would envelop him.

"Hey! Yo, relax, it was a joke, just a joke."

Toto waved worryingly, he then mumbled, "Shit, I seriously almost had to kill this guy."

'Phew, that was a close one.'

Jeanne's temperament cooled, and Toto patted him on the shoulder then walked out the door in quick steps of silence.

Without realizing instantly, Jeanne just thought, 'Wait how the...' The shock of the situation finally sunk in. As he tried to remember, that guy was on the local baseball team, Jeanne recalled. Not thinking of much else.

He then began cleaning up the place, moving the bodies outside, and with surprisingly little effort, the anvil was light enough for him to move it. What a lucky surprise. The roof still had a hole in it and the door was broken because a body flung into it. Well, it shouldn't be too big of a deal.

Jeanne then looked around to find his mask, finding it he put it on instantly. He then picked up the girl and laid her down in the back room where a large sofa was located. By morning's time the girl awoke to find Jeanne sleeping in a chair, his face resting on a table, slightly shaking him, Jeanne began to get up. Rubbing his eyes slightly, he soon had an uncomfortable feeling, Jacky seemed to stare at him with a face of pity and bewilderment.

'Ah,' he thought, 'my mask fell off again.'

A painful look of shame rose up on what flesh could show color. As the rotting black scars that spread about the lower portion of his face pulsed. His gums and everything in between could be seen, the small stitches that closed the large slits by the side of his face to have corrosion. Two small bolts were digging at a diagonal below his nose. His nose was half eroded though, only showing a metallic black nasal bone. His frizzled hair didn't help either, for a small piston could be seen from a hole on his left side where his hair would normally cover.

'So that's what he looks like, I-I what should... What are you saying, thank him obviously.'

Before she could speak her thoughts Jeanne pulled up his shirt, wrapping his arms around his head, trying to cover as much up as possible. Then he jolted out the back door sprinting all the way home.

He climbed up a steep pole, cracking open his window, once inside the dark room a 'click' and a shower of lights washed over him. His father was sitting in a chair looking at him. A stern scolding was about to begin.

***

In the night previously, the seemingly powerful Toto was somehow getting nightmares of a black ghost with a robotic skull choking him. Toto in a fit of unease, pulled out his phone, the '6' on the back glowed and a call came through.

[Hello]

"Ares, you there."

[I did say Hello]

"Okay, don't need to be snarky. Anyway, we need to hold a meeting pretty soon."

[Why?]

"I think the 'Colours' are about to make their move. Not just that, recently on the lookout I saw Scorpio's ship, I'm positive it was that. Even asked a blue-haired boy who seemed to have seen it as well."

[Alright, well a Zodiac meeting will be held soon, supposedly a new Cancer has awoken]

"Really!" A stunning look of surprise came over him. 'Well shit, ain't things moving a little too fast.'

[Don't worry, I've checked up on one of the 'Knights' who are pretty proficient, and he claimed no alterations to time had occurred in the recent months. So I'm quite confident in saying Sidus hasn't used his abilities in any severe way yet]

"Even still..."

[Seriously don't worry. The worst thing to happen is we have to go out and battle a couple of Zodiacs, and maybe one of the 'Sons of Lucifer']

"You make it sound so easy," a light chuckle came from his phasing words.

"So can I see you?"

[No]

"What! Oh come on, we haven't met in forever. Not like it could harm you or anything, just to stop by. Actually here, I'll come to see you, where you at."

[...]

"Uh, Ares."

[Yes]

"So I can see you?"

[No]

"What why?"

[We'll be meeting at our annual meeting, you can see me then]

"No that's not the... Did they just hang up?"

A slow buzzing static rang from the small rectangle.

'They really hung up.'