Chapter Eight: Assault of the Shadow Thief
Jazz had just finished her sentence when the black cloud slammed into the window. He swirled around the ceiling for a couple moments before landing to the ground and taking the form of a dark, hooded figure with blazing red orbs for eyes. Just looking at him gave me the creeps. Then, he started speaking. His voice sounded really distant, like he was far away. I wished he was.
"Hello, Starcatcher," he sneered while glaring at her. "You have something that belongs to me. Something very precious."
Dean cleared his throat.
"And why should we listen to you, ya giant black douche?"
The creature laughed, and my body literally started shaking.
"Perhaps young Jasmine hasn't given you a proper description of me. I am Ombra, the last of an ancient race seeking what you call starstuff. If you want to know how important it is to me, I have spent eons, traversed the stars, and crossed dimensions for it. Now, you will give me the locket with your starstuff in it, Miss Thomas, and then you will tell me where the last cache of it is."
Jazz cast me a look, and I looked down at her hand, which was making a pretzel shape with her fingers. Luckily, me and Jazz had codes for if we ever got in a tight spot. That one's "run like a Kenyan and get out of here". She then went back to glaring at Ombra.
"Not going to happen. Besides, I don't even know where the cache is at. It's one of our greatest secrets, like "who really killed JFK", or "how many licks does it take to get to the center of a-"
"SILENCE!" he roared, and his shape seemed to enlarge, spreading out over the room. I noticed it pass over Bobby's shadow, and immediately looked at him. For a second, he looked like he'd just been stabbed, before taking the look of a zombie.
"Bobby?" Sam asked nervously. He had that "something bad's happening" temple twitch going on.
Bobby reached down and grabbed a knife he'd been cleaning earlier that day and tossed it at Dean, who luckily was able to dodge it.
Me and Jazz both looked at each other.
"Kenyan!"
We ran up the stairs and grabbed our stuff that we had from the trip to the mill. Jazz pulled out a dagger.
"What's that going to do?" I asked and she pointed to the blade.
"Gold. Good protection against starstuff, and a weakness of Ombra's."
There was a train wreck in the living room. Bobby had gotten to Dean and sliced up his arm pretty good. Knowing Dean though, he's probably fine. Sam had tackled Bobby and pinned him to the ground. He looked at us.
"Go!"
I wasn't going to argue with him. Both of us bolted to the door, when we remembered Mr. Creeper. He blocked the exit and stared at us.
"I'm sorry, children, but I cant let you leave."
His hand-tendril-thing reaches for Jazz, but she slams the dagger into it. Ombra howled in pain, and that was our exit cue. Before we could get out, however, Ombra reached for my backpack. That's when something weird happened. There was a flash of blinding bluish light, kind of like a flame, and Ombra let out an ear-piercing screech before dissolving into the air. Jasmine grabbed my arm.
"Come on, we have to go!"
I wanted to turn around and see if everyone was okay, but I knew I couldn't. We got to my bike and started it up, then sped away as far as we could. Finally, we made it to a motel about twenty miles from Bobby's. After renting a room, we sat in silence, waiting. I breathed easier when my phone went off. It was Dean.
"Hey, are you kids safe?"
"Yeah. What about you guys?"
He chuckled. "Oh, you know. My arm's gonna take a while to heal, and Bobby's complaining about a Charlie horse, but aside from that we're good."
"Okay," I said. It got quiet, and then he asked what I knew he would.
"What happened back there?"
I sighed. "I have no idea. It all happened too fast."
Dean hmm'd, and then continued.
"Well, we all think it's best if you guys stay low for a while. They know you frequent Bobby's so how about you go head over to the east side of the States for awhile? Until it's safe, you know."
"Yeah. I got it. Thanks, Dean."
I hung up, and got a look from Jazz.
"What?"
"You lied to him," she replied. "You have a good idea about what happened to Ombra."
I sighed, and went to my bag.
"Yeah, I lied. I didn't want him worrying. I think it might have something to do with-woah."
I opened up my bag, and all of a sudden the room was bathed in a blue glow. The gem was glowing a lot brighter than it did before. There was also what looked like an electric current running through it, with little white electricity arcs all over the gem.
"That's…not normal," Jasmine said. I laughed a little.
"I know, but when is anything ever normal for us?"
That made her smile. I put the gem back in my bag, and laid down on the bed. Jazz looked over at me with puppy-dog eyes.
"Jason, can…can I lay with you tonight? I'm still pretty shaken up."
"Yeah, of-of course," I replied, and she cuddled up next to me with my arm over her. She fell asleep pretty quickly, but I couldn't sleep. Not with a pressing question in my head.
What is that gem?
Meanwhile…
Ombra sat in silence, brooding on his defeat. Of course, the Thomas girl knew that he had weaknesses, but the boy. That simple boy. He had defeated him so easily. How? It was something that he carried. Something that had great power. Something…not of Earth. There was only one thing he could think of.
"I must have it. At ALL costs."
Thanks for reading, guys! Sorry about the hiatus, and for this chapter going pretty quickly. If you're wondering about the cuddling part (which you're probably not), I based it off of Peeta and Katniss, as I saw Mockingjay the other day (such a great film). I'm going to try and work on this and my other stories tomorrow.
