Shadow Gaffix

by Ryu Raven

Azurame woke up one morning, prepared for a normal day but that was no where close to what he got. A normal walk along a dirt road to visit his family turns into a fight for his life against the darknss.

CHAPTER 1

Azurame walked out of his home one weekend morning and saw his sister in the front of the house talking to a man about her age, maybe older. He slipped back into the house and attempted to eavesdrop on his sister. When he realized it was no use, he walked outside.

Rika turned her head as Azurame walked out of the house. She looked back to who she was talking to after she waved good-morning to her brother. Rika was about 5'4" tall and she had blonde hair that went down barely past her shoulders. She usually wore a red t-shirt and a black jean skirt. One thing you would probably notice about her before anything else would be her necklace, a pair of dog-tags. They belonged to their father, a general in the Gaffix armed forces.

Azurame said a simple, "Good morning," to his sister and the stranger. Azurame was 14 years old, soon to be 15, and had shaggy brown hair. His eyes were a beautiful shade of green, and he always wore hooded sweat shirt and a baggy pair of black work jeans. It was only on rare occasions that he did not wear that sweat shirt; it belonged to their mother, a stay-at-home house wife. On this particular day, Azurame was wearing a black pair of work boots, which was a good indication that he was going to a quiet place, most of the time it says he was going to the graveyard. He wore a necklace with a coin hanging from it. It was a Japanese coin that had characters in the three, six, nine, and twelve o'clock positions. The character in the twelve o'clock point was "love;" in the three o'clock was "Peace;" in the six o'clock was the character for "Family;" In the nine o'clock position was the symbol for "Life." This necklace also belonged to their father.

Azurame walked down a very familiar road, the road that lead to the graveyard. He walked for a mile or so and stopped in front of the gates to the cemetery. He stepped through them as they eerily opened, almost as if the spirits themselves opened the gates. He walked by several graves, but stopped in front of three particular grave sites. Azurame kneeled down in front of the graves, and each of the graves had something in common, the family name "Itachi" being engraved on the stones. They belonged to his older brother Sharako, his father, and his mother. His father and his brother both died in war, and his mother died from a broken heart soon after. Luckily for Azurame, Rika was old enough to legally be his guardian. Azurame stood and heard a noise. He turned to face who else was there, but was only greeted by a shadow. He watched as the shadow took form. It was still a shadow; it was just in a solid form. "What the—" he started, but was interrupted by the creature lunging at him. Azurame side stepped the attack and ran for the gates.

He stopped as he realized what had opened the gates before. Two of the shadow creatures jumped from the top of the gates. He turned to run again, and realized the horrible truth; he was surrounded by the creatures. Azurame put his arms up in a martial arts fighting stance, and a bright light appeared. When the light faded, the creatures were all covering their sickly yellow eyes. Azurame felt something in his hand. He looked and saw a sword. The sword was nothing like he had ever seen. Its hilt was, it seemed, of solid gold; the base of the blade had three bubble-like knots that twisted in between them; the actual blade itself was of the finest metal Azurame had ever seen. He readied himself as the shadows recovered. He attempted to take them on, but was backed into a corner in less than two minutes. He stepped onto one of the tombstones, one he had never noticed. He readied his blade and started batting the shadow creatures away. He fell from the tombstone as it started to rise.

"What in the—" he looked at the tombstone and realized that it was another creature. He noticed that it bore an emblem of a heart. He stood up and his blade disappeared. "Not good!" he said as all of the creatures attacked him at once. He ran back towards the gate, but fell into a black portal. "What—what's happening? I can't see anything, and I'm not falling." He stood up, feeling solid ground beneath his feet. He could see perfectly, but he just couldn't see the ground that he was standing on. He looked around and laughed, probably out of insanity. "This is perfect. At least those shadows are gone." He sat down and the blade reappeared. "Nice time for you to show up!" He yelled and laid it across his lap.