Behind The Shadows

shad-ow \ 1: partial darkness or obscurity within a part of space from which rays from a source of light are cut off by an interposed opaque body 2: a reflected image 3: shelter from danger or observation 4 a: an imperfect and faint representation b: an imatiation of something; COPY 5: the dark figure cast upon a surface by a body intercepting the rays from a source of light 6: PHANTOM 7 pl: DARK la 8: a shaded or darker portion of a picture 9: an attenuated form or a vestigial remnant 10 a: an inseperable companion or follower b: on (as a spy or detective) that shadows 11: a small degree or portion: TRACE 12: a source of gloom or unhappiness 13 a: an area near an object: VICINITY b: pervasive and dominant influence 14: a state of ignominy or obscurity

Chapter One

The darkness showed no mercy to Ichigo on that lonely walk home. Because she had picked to stay late and help clean up Puddings mess, she had also chosen to walk home even later and not even begin to think of how dark it could become that night. Yes, there were streetlights, but not enough to her liking at all. Not many different thoughts roamed in her head, just the normal ones of Masaya and how stupid and rude Ryou was to her that evening at work...no, everything felt the same. In fact, it felt so normal and calm that she decided to hum as she thought of her date tomorrow with Masaya.

It was only until she opened her eyes when she noticed.

"Wow, it's so...strange down this road at night...I guess I never really noticed it before," she looked around, trying to find the meaning to this feeling. She looked up where a streetlight usually was shining over her. "Oh...it's broken..." The light flickered. Ichigo shrugged, and although the slight feeling of insecurity stuck with her, she hummed along, trying to forget it. She had an important day tomorrow, nothing could slow her down...

...or so she thought.

Funny thing about the darkness; no matter how much you try to block it out of your mind and ignore it's secrets it always manages to keep up with you, reminding you that it's there, and anything could be inside of it.

Ichigo wandered down the same path as always, but this time she was more alert. Something was wrong, she was sure of it now. She began to walk a bit faster. Just a bit. Ghosts weren't her thing, and she didn't want to get freaked out by one tonight. She wouldn't.

Crash

She yelped and quickly turned around. Nothing. She stepped forward. Crunch...She looked down at her feet, broken glass on the sidewalk. She looked up. Another streetlight just went out. Well, it practically was shot out from what she heard.

"No Ichigo, it's nothing. It's just a coincidence and nothing tonight is different from any other night I walk home," she re assured herself. "Nope everything is fine. In fact, I'm gonna skip home!" she put on a fake smile and turned and began to skip down the sidewalk with her eyes closed. She skipped right past a streetlight, and began to hum.

Crash

This time she screamed. She couldn't help it, it was just all too freaky now. She stopped, slowly turned around, eyes still closed, took a deep breath and...opened her eyes to find yet another broken streetlight bulb on the ground by her feet.

Someone was following her. Someone could be throwing rocks at the lights after she passed them just to freak her out. But it had to be someone who knew her...someone who disliked her. Yes, she was catching on. It had to be someone like that. Could it be Ryou?

"Haha very funny Ryou. I'm not afraid of that!" she looked off into the distance behind her. Nothing stirred. "Ryou? I know you're there..." her voice echoed down the empty street. "Ry-"

Crash

She squeaked and turned back around to face the path to her home, to see another light broken. No one had thrown anything, or shot it. She was staring straight back there...she would have seen...

So if it wasn't a person...it had to be a...

"GHOST!" she yelled and began running towards her house.

She was running so fast, she couldn't see anything. Not that it would be any different, the lights were breaking faster now, as if they were trying to keep up with her. It wasn't too far now...yes...comon-

"Ow!" she had tripped on a crack in the sidewalk. "That hurt!" she rubbed her knee where she had fallen.

"You shouldn't be running..." a voice came.

"Huh?" Ichigo looked around. Where did that come from? "Did someone say something...?" she studdered.

"You foolish little girl." the voice was very high pitched and squeaky like.

"H-hey! Wh-where are you?" Ichigo was still on the ground, looking around like crazy. Her heart was pounding.

"Would you like to see me?"

"Y-yes! Show yourself!" Ichigo held her mew mew pendant tight in her hand, ready for any attack now.

"As you wish..."

Ichigos breaths were short, her heart was pounding so hard she could feel it through her chest. What was going on? She could almost barely see anything. Was the thing coming? What was it?

The last few streetlights went out. Now it was complete darkness. All that was there was Ichigo, still on the ground, closing her eyes tight trying to hold back a scream.

"Tick"

Ichigo yelped a little, feeling something brush against her shoulder.

"Tock"

She thought of Masaya, and was hoping with all her might he would come and everything would be okay again.

"Tick"

Ichigo heard heavy breathing coming closer to her, and footsteps. Too bad she couldn't see. It was also very bad that she was in shock, for she couldn't remember what to say to transform into a mew mew. She was just too scared, everything was wrong...

"Tock"

Ichigo had to at least try to see something. She opened her eyes.

"Time's up."

(scream)

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Look for the next chapter.