Chapter 2: Blood and The Sword

"Don't worry I'm on the way!"

     That was ten minutes ago, I know that it must not seem like that long, but when you have four personifications of Death itself coming after you, I think you'd believe Walker if he says that it felt like hours. It was just Sarah and him on the run for their lives until a car came swerving around the corner and stopped just in front of them.

    "Get in quick!" Alex shouted as he opened the door. Walker and Sarah quickly rushed inside the safety of the car. Barely avoiding the VoidHearts coming after them, however, it seemed the VoidHearts were afraid of the metal surrounding the car.

     "Silver, they hate the stuff, for them, it's like vampires and garlic" Alex responded as if knowing exactly what Walker was thinking. Alex then hit the gas and started to drive away, giving Sarah enough time to finally ask a question.

    "Walker, what's going on?" she asked, a good first question for sure.

    "Well Walker here has lost his shadow, that means Death, the horseman or the Grim Reaper also known as the King of all VoidHearts has his shadow" Alex answered in place of Walker.

"Wait so hold on, what the hell is a VoidHeart?" Sarah asked unsure about whether to believe what she was hearing.

     "VoidHearts are those things that were chasing you, just a few seconds ago, they act as Death's henchmen so they themselves are Death, to be hunted by them means you're shadow is missing, quickly check your shadow," Alex said handing her a flashlight.

She turned the light on and noticed her hand didn't cast a shadow and her breath drew cold. Alex then grabbed the light back and continued to bring her up to speed with their current situation.

      "There is only one being that can reverse such tricks as removing a persons' shadow, he's known simply as The Shadow, but ancient lore calls him The Shadow-Walker a being created from both Heaven and Hell, now keep in mind there isn't really a lot of documentation about him, in fact, other than his name and the fact that he can bring peoples shadows back there's next to nothing else," Alex said trying to give as much detail as possible.

"That's impossible right Walker?" Sarah said trying to see if Walker believed it, but Walker just looked down. 

       "Oh... right," Sarah said now remembering that his father was killed by those things.

       "Is there any way to kill those things? They need to pay for what they've done" Walker said in a low voice that almost startled Sarah as Alex smirked and handed him a bag. "Take a handful of that and toss it at them, they'll burn up at the touch of it, they're ashes of the shadowless as far as I can tell it's the only thing that works on them"

       It's been four hours and Walker was terrified to be holding ashes, probably more so being caught holding them. He started going over possible answers he would give if anyone asked what was in the bag. While Sarah kept asking about the VoidHearts, eventually Alex just started giving small one-word answers.

       "So where are we going?" Walker asked unsure about where they were based on their surroundings. It didn't take very long to get a response, "We're heading to Arizona, I have a feeling this would be a good place to start our search of the Shadow-Walker" Alex said. What am I going to do after we find him? Just go back to my normal life? No, I was wrong to ever think things would be normal... This is my life after all.

        "I think the first thing we'd better do is prepare, just in case I'm wrong about him being here," Alex said warning them to be cautious. Walker and Sarah just blew it off as Alex just being too protective. "Yeah right Alex, we'll be fine," Walker said but then noticed his eyes started to close, which meant only one thing, he's falling unconscious.

Hello Walker

Who is this?

You'll find out in due time... soon you'll let me out, you are getting closer

Then his eyes shot open followed by him taking in deep gasps of air. "Walker, it's been hours you weren't breathing and you felt cold... we thought you died," Sarah said causing Walker to panic. "I... what?!" Walker said trying to comprehend what he was just told. "I-I'm still alive, I was pulled back into that void," Walker said while checking to make sure he isn't a ghost. "Let me guess, you have a message for us?" Alex asked seeming to know something about what was going on.

      "H-how did you know? Alex, what's going on?" Walker asked now more worried. "It's actually a good thing for us, it means the Shadow-Walker has established a link with you but is there a message? The timing was a little too precise" Alex asked wanting to know exactly what was said between him and the Shadow-Walker. Sarah is also anxious to know.

      "He said that we're getting closer, but that means that I actually talked to The Shadow," Walker said astonished that he had spoken directly with this Shadow.

      "Alright well... we're here" Alex then stopped the car.

      "Should we really be here at night?" Sarah asked but Alex had already got out and started surveying the area. It was then he found a cave entrance. "Come on guys!" Alex shouted making the other two get out and follow him.

       Upon arriving at the entrance they read a sign, "Apache Death Cave, alright well this should be interesting" Alex said as he got out his weapons, one of them piquing Walkers' interest. It was a sword that seemed to radiate a dark aura.

       "Hey Alex what's that?" Alex turned to see what Walker was talking about.

       "Don't touch it!" Alex shouted just before Walker could grab it.

       "Okay fine, jeez Alex calm down," Walker said then walked away. Alex thought he heard a rattlesnake nearby, but it seemed to come from overhead. Though in the dark night sky, everything looked terrifying.

        "So Alex, you said that you thought the Shadow may not be here, why is that?" Sarah asked now very nervous. "Well, there have been missing children in the region and whatever it is, the creature would be repelled by his presence" Alex explained still searching the air. Until they heard a bark just behind them, causing them to turn and see a dog.

        "Did anyone lose a dog?" Walker shouted into the night sky then waited for an answer but got no response. "Alright, I've always wanted a dog!" Walker shouted in excitement.

       After walking into town to see if they could find a place to stay while they try and determine exactly what is causing these abductions. They searched for creatures supposedly in the area and cross-referenced it with the current events in town. They only got one result.

    "It's an Aswang, they're shape-shifting vampires originally from the Philipines, but it sounds like one recently made its way here," Walker told them.

     "Right, Aswang, they're most commonly... dogs right? oh no," Alex said now realizing they have an Aswang in their room. Only for Alex to find no dog in the hotel.

"Walker, where's the dog?" Alex said now really worried.

     "I let him out, he looked like he had to go," Walker said before Sarah came with more information. "It says here they don't like the smell of garlic or the taste of salt, other than that either Holy Water or the tail of a stingray," Sarah told them before Alex started packing his bag.

        "Well come on, we've got to go then, I've got Holy Water and garlic, I don't plan on getting close enough to put salt in its mouth," Alex said before heading out the door with the other three in tow.

       After a few minutes, the four found the bodies of cattle and a mutilated child, Walker tried to approach the dog just before it turned and changed shape. It had become this twisted thing with razor-sharp claws, its voice made sounds like the tail of a rattlesnake, its body became a scrawny, emaciated thing with gray and mottled skin. Along with milk-white eyes that are as cold-looking as they are emotion-free. Sores and boils covered its body. It had even started giving off the stench of rotting meat.

      Alex then opened the garlic pouch and threw the garlic at it, only for it to have no effect. He then threw the vials of Holy Water again no effect.

"It has no effect, Walker take Sarah and run! It'll be after you two" Alex said as he ran back to the hotel room and opened a case.

I never thought I'd need to use this again.

      Walker and Sarah were running for their lives but the Aswang was keeping up easily as it would jump from rooftop to rooftop being able to jump up more than fifteen feet high. Alex's car then pulled up in front of the two of them. Alex motioned for them to get inside the car as he got out and pulled out his sword that now radiated pure darkness. The Aswang was just a few inches away from getting its claws on them when Alex got in front of them and swung his sword slicing it in half.

       After a few seconds, it turned into smoke and disappeared, leaving everyone very confused about what had just happened to the Aswang.

"Come on, we're leaving," Alex said as he got back in the car. Though they had questions they knew this wasn't the time to ask as Alex looked as if he really could kill someone.

      After driving for almost an hour Walker couldn't take it anymore he had to know.

"Hey, Alex how did you know that I was talking to The Shadow earlier?" Walker asked now kind of suspicious of Alex.

       "It is in the lore, I told you, it means you are psychically connected to him," Alex said almost as if he rehearsed it.

       "Well okay but what was with that blade?" Sarah said taking her turn to ask a question.

       "It's called Semper Solus, that's the name of that blade, it kills anything, but it has a price... when anyone uses it attracts VoidHearts" Alex responded. "Is that it? It just attracts VoidHearts?" Walker asked not really seeing the big deal they did evade a group before.

      "Yeah, that's it, but those previous VoidHearts weren't really starved, they just had a meal, now they're going to be fast and smart, if they get your scent now, you'd probably die within days," Alex said, a total lie, but he started going as fast as he could.

      Though what he didn't tell them is that his whole arm felt like it was going to fall off from rot or that his whole arm was losing color becoming almost grey. He knew he couldn't let anyone else know that he had just sold half of his remaining lifeforce to save them. He knew that he couldn't lay that burden on them.