Huddled in the cave, Nasir sat with his back against the wall. He twitched at every noise he heard. Hands bloody, he tore off another bite of flesh he had carved from the bear he killed. Hunger begged him to find more food, but paranoia had other plans.


    “I need to leave. Master will be mad if I don''t. What do you think?”


    He stared at his shadow expectantly, and the shadow rewarded him and said, “You need to find Lyra and kill her for rejecting you.”


    Taking another bite, Nasir said, “We talked about this already. If she can’t see reason, I will make her. She will be mine.”


    “You are a fool. She will kill you before that happens,” it said as his shadow pulsed with laughter.


    Tossing the meat on the ground, Nasir said, “Shut up. What would you know? All you ever do is follow me everywhere.”


    He jerked his head at another noise. When he looked down, his shadow had vanished. He didn’t want it to leave. He didn’t want to be alone. With trembling lips, Nasir said, “Shadow? Where did you go?”


    A soft whimper came from the dead bear cub. To his horror, it was clawing at the earthen spike, pushing his body up till he plopped on the ground and stood up. It stared at Nasir with pure black eyes, blood leaking from its mouth and the gaping hole in its belly.


    Screaming in fright, Nasir slammed the back of his head against the cave wall. He scrambled for the entrance, despite being dazed from the blow to his head, and ran for his life.


    “Why are you running? You know you can’t run from your own shadow.”


    Looking back, Nasir sent a bolt of black lightning and another spike of earth at the dead bear cub chasing him. To his ever-growing dismay, nothing he did could touch it. His shadow laughed and said, “I told you; you can''t escape your own shadow.”


    Joining the cub was an ever-changing horde of animals chasing him, no matter which direction he turned. Crows dove through him, screeching, “coward, fool, worthless,” and anything else they could think of as they passed through his head.


    When a deer standing taller than him stepped in his path, Nasir drew his sword and said, “I won''t let you stop me!” He drove his blade straight into the beast’s chest and ripped the blade out, spraying his face in blood. Emboldened by the fatal blow, he swung with all his might at the deer’s neck, cutting it clean off in one go.


    The head shrunk, revealing a face for a moment, but Nasir rejected it, choosing to pick up his prize and roar. Holding it with two hands, he sent an earth spike straight up, piercing it at the base for all to see. Pointing his bloody sword at the dead bear cub staring at him, he said, “Don’t forget your place. You are just my shadow, after all.”


    The bear cub vanished in a puff of black mist. Nasir heard voices all around him. They whispered in his ear and said, “Just your shadow, you say. We shall see about that.”


    The shadow beasts swelled in numbers, chasing him whenever he grew tired, and his crumbling mental defenses broke down a little more. Forced to push on with no rest as the day grew closer to its end. They whispered in his mind all the ways he could die.


    “Tear. Rip. Chew, chew, chew. Tasty flesh. Fresh from the bone. Bleed. Scream. Feel our teeth. See our claws pluck out your eyes.”


    “Flames lick and bite. Pretty blisters go pop, pop, pop. Face melts like rain. White as bone. Brittle bone. All dust in the wind.”


    He screamed, clawing at his face, leaving streaks of blood. Unable to escape their nightmare. Nasir shook his head and said, “Get out of my head!” They did not.


    “Breathe in the dirt. Lost underground. Choke, choke, choke. Squeezed tight. Bloody fingers clawing at the end.”


    Nasir gripped his throat and squeezed. He gasped for breath; the memory of being punished by Haera resurfaced in his mind. He didn’t want to go back there. He couldn’t. Never again.


    “Falling. Swallowed by the dark. Free, free, free to fall. Will you ever meet the bottom?”


    Overwhelmed, Nasir stood no chance. Hands still clamped around his throat, he slammed into the trunk headfirst and fell.


    “Hurry, hurry, hurry. We come for you. Death waits for no one.”


    Scrambling to his feet, he groaned. The pain. Oh, the pain. Pounding, throbbing pain that beat to the rhythm of his chest. What else could he do? The dead bear cub’s black eyes watched, so he ran.


    His shadow followed, chuckling to itself. What else could it do? It was just a shadow, after all.


    The last rays of sunlight gleamed across the horizon when four figures approached Nasir. He was well beyond reasoning with. Fresh trails of blood coated his face and arms where he had been clawing at the voices that wouldn’t leave him alone. The fingernails from his shadow hand cut deepest.


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    As if his situation couldn’t get worse, Nasir was slack-jawed, looking at Siranya, Airdan, Ryo, and Daylor. They should be dead. This isn’t possible. Why would the dead come back to torment him now? He turned around to ask his shadow if they were responsible and found nothing. It had abandoned him. Again.


    Reaching for the shadows, Nasir ran toward the dead and bypassed them by teleporting. He couldn’t afford to waste time with the dead.


    The dead had other plans.


    Airdan was the first to catch up with him. Wind-enhanced legs propelled him past Nasir, where the young boy drew out a dagger and said, “It’s all your fault that my father died. You made my mother cry. I thought you were family. How could you betray us?”


    He laughed at the notion of trying to convince a dead child why he did anything. Nasir sneered and said, “You shouldn’t have been born. If it hadn’t been for you or Ryo, Lyra would have been all mine.”


    Airdan ran at him and said, “You didn’t even have the guts to kill me yourself. You had to have your master send his pet to do it for you.”


    Nasir trembled in anger. He teleported behind the boy and grabbed him by the neck. He lifted Airdan and slammed them into the ground, summoning an earth spike that shot through the child''s stomach and out his back.


    Sword in hand, Nasir said, “You should have stayed dead,” and sliced through the boy''s head.


    Footsteps drew Nasir’s attention, and he took off. Away from his tormentors. Away from the dead. Away from the nightmare.


    Next to find him were Ryo and Siranya. Unlike Airdan, they wasted no time attacking. Ryo wielded a sword imbued with fire, and Siranya wielded hers with lightning. Nasir thought it fitting she had kept her element after death.


    They attacked him in unison, as if they had fought side by side for a very long time. Another impossibility Nasir couldn’t figure out. Ryo never traveled on his own. He never left Lyra’s side. Ever. Siranya was a mystery to him, but he didn’t think she ever roamed far away from Timberwood.


    They avoided his black lightning and earth spikes, forcing him to rely on his strength with the sword and the power to move around using the shadows.


    Ryo blocked another strike aimed at Siranya and said, “You were never going to be good enough for Lyra. The two of us always ranked top two with her at the peak every time. You weren’t good enough, even for third place. That went to the traitor that killed Daylor during that blood moon so long ago.”


    Siranya grazed his arm, sending a jolt of electricity that caused Nasir to drop his weapon. Poised to strike him again, she said, “I only came back so I could yank out your eyes and force them down your throat. Do you know how much pain I was in when you tortured and forced yourself on me?”


    Sensing the true beginning of night, Nasir rejoiced. He reached out and commanded the shadows to manifest and restrain the two before him in vines of condensed shadows. Another ability forced into his brain by his master.


    Nasir walked up to Siranya and turned to Ryo and said, “I’m not good enough? I will show you how wrong you are.”


    He let his hands roam her body. Fingertips lingering each time her body squirmed from his touch. Licking her cheek, he said, “I didn’t have the time to enjoy myself last time, but…” Nasir gripped Siranya’s jaw and kissed her.


    The sound of his shadow vines snapping drew his attention to Ryo. Free from his binds, Lyra’s dead husband lunged at Nasir, who picked up his sword from the ground and defended himself.


    Struggling against the vines, Siranya said, “Free me, so I can cut out his tongue and jam it down his empty eye sockets.”


    He ignored her tirade and focused on defending himself against Ryo. He was a skilled swordman, but not the best. Under the night sky, only his master could ever defeat him. Catching the blade with his shadow hand, Nasir laughed at the absurdity. Why had he not tried that before?


    Nasir clenched his sword and drove it into Ryo’s chest to the hilt. He leaned in as the elf choked on blood and said, “All you were ever good for was staying home to keep an eye on your son. And how did that work out for you?” He slid the blade free and sent a bolt of black lightning through the elf, who fell over, twitching.


    Siranya broke free and pulled out a dagger. She held it up to her throat and said, “I won’t let you have me a second time.” Siranya smiled and drove her blade in, then collapsed.


    Standing before him now was Daylor. Lyra’s father. Their village''s best warrior and the one responsible for training all of them. All the memories of the elf sparring with him until he collapsed in the mud came to the forefront of his mind.


    Daylor pointed at Ryo’s corpse and said, “He will always be better than you.” Then he pointed at Siranya and said, “And that is not how you treat someone you care for.”


    Nasir couldn’t take it. So, he turned his back on the elf and ran.


    “Run. Run. Run. Death has finally come.”


    Hearing the voices again, Nasir looked around for his shadow and missed the tree.


    He woke up on the ground, a sword held over his chest. Daylor prepared to strike when Nasir blasted him with shadow energy, knocking him over. Restraining him with shadow vines, Nasir searched for a rock. Finding one suitable for his task, he stood over the struggling elf and said, “You don’t get to tell me what to do anymore. You''re supposed to be dead.”


    Lifting the rock high, Nasir brought it down hard on Daylor’s face, breaking their nose. Fueled by his rage, Nasir continued to bash the elf until his skull cracked and caved in, leaving nothing recognizable behind.


    Nasir stepped back to admire his work when the dead bear cub appeared. It stared at the dead elf and grinned. When Nasir looked down, he didn’t recognize who they were.


    “No, this can’t be right. That was Daylor. He came back from the dead. It has to be. I’m not crazy. I know what I saw.”


    Attached to his feet once more, his shadow said, “Are you sure?”


    Unable to look at whoever he had just killed, Nasir ran away right back to where he had killed Ryo and Siranya. At least, that is what he thought. He didn’t recognize them either. Shaking his head, Nasir refused to believe he was wrong.


    Pulling his hair till chunks ripped out, Nasir said, “I’m not crazy. I know what I saw. This has to be a trick. I have to find who did this and kill them.”


    Quick to respond, his shadow said, “Crazy who? Crazy you? Crazy we be. Let’s ask the dead boy and be free.”


    Convinced that at least Airdan was real, Nasir ran back the way he had come and fell to his knees in front of the body. He picked up the head and stared into its eyes, begging it to change back into Airdan. Unable to look at it anymore, he clutched the head against his chest and cried.


    Stop crying and dispose of that head. I have need of you. Come now.


    Nasir collapsed from the pain shooting through his body. Every emotion he fought against moments before vanished. Nothing but his desire to serve his master remained.


    “Yes, master. At once.”


    His shadow rippled with laughter. A voice he couldn’t hear asked, “Can we stay?”