Author's first words: This chapter may contain a bit of racism (and nuts, just kidding. But seriously) this is an important part of this story, so please read and respect its contents.
Chapter five: Dark Memories
"Should I tell her the whole thing?" Dan wondered to himself.
"Just tell her, I feel I can trust her. On the other hand, I also have a bad feeling, but maybe it's just my imagination."
"Fine."
"So it started like this…" Dan reluctantly began to tell the tale of his past.
Dan lived in a Symbian village. His father, a Symbian, and mother, a Chimbian, lived together happily. His parents were both doctors working in a general hospital.
He grew up in this village with his family, but his parents, especially his mother, were insulted and discriminated against. The villagers threw pebbles, rubbish, and even feces at them. They wrongly accused Dan's mother as a spy for the Chimbians during the racial war and his father as a traitor to his race. Dan hated this bigotry he experienced on a day-to-day basis.
One fateful day, while his family was strolling through the village streets, the villagers threw a stone at his father. The rock was heavy and sharp, hitting his temple. It ended up being the death of him.
The villagers didn't stop there. They continued to throw more stones at the mother and son. She shielded her child from the endless barrage of stones. Dan, a ten year old boy at that time, was terrified to see such inhumanity and violence from the people he had grown up with.
"Dan! I never wanted it to end like this," his mother said, her face flowing with blood. "Never be like them! Please, create a world where people are kind to each other. Where no one cares about race, religion or nationality."
She collapsed as a stone struck her forehead, dead.
Dan was left alone. The villagers took pity on him, growing tired of throwing stones.
He dragged both of his parent's corpses away and gave them a burial in his backyard of his home. Dan cried and mourned for a month, but he never received any sympathy from the villagers.
Luckily for Dan, he studied in a Chimbian school, where most the pupils never had that narrow-minded attitude. He continued his studies alone, without parental support. Strangely, he felt his parent's presence everywhere he went. He could hear whispers of encouragement, supporting every step he took. It had to be from them.
Dan joined the Scouts for his co-curricular activities. He liked the scout law which stated that a scout is a friend to all and a brother to all scouts, no matter what social class the other belongs.
Once he reached secondary school, he had to move out from the rotten Symbian village because the school was too far from the village. He liked it that way. He sold off his old house and used the money to rent a house in the Chimbian village. The money left by his parents was also enough to support him through his school life.
In secondary school, he slowly lost contact from his parents, but he proceeded on without that support. He made many friends there. Most of them were Chimbians, but there were some Symbians too.
Chimbians were the majority in this school. The Symbians, on the other hand, formed little friendships to the majority. They made their own circle of friends comprised of their own race.
Dan continued on with his studies and scouting. He was selected to be a prefect, an enforcer of discipline for the school. He did his job well, almost too well. He would report even the minor incidents to the disciplinary board. This created hatred towards him from the students. He did not really want to report them, but he was forced to by his duties.
Then, the students found out that Dan was a pervert. He would watch "those" videos. He actually did this a bit, but the victims of his reports exaggerated what he did. They reported Dan touched his "thingy" in public, but to him it was just an itch on his "thing". Then they spread rumors of him doing the worst to others.
"Did you hear? Dan is a pervert. He would do it anywhere, even in public!" a student once whispered to another.
"Yeah, I heard he's half Symbian and you know that some of them are, well, you know. I think he might rape someone in camp!"
"I think it's better not to join the Scouts."
"Lucky I'm not a member!"
This incident made him even more upset. He became an island again, except now in the Chimbian village. No one ever wanted to go near him. His neighbors moved out and the landlord tried to evict him. But eventually, the landlord took pity on him and let him stay.
Only a small group of friends continue to associate with him. Most of them were the scout members and boys he had befriended before that incident.
The news spread to the prefect teacher, Miss Chang, a fearsome lady.
"What? I can't believe that you would do such a…" she was so angry that she was at a loss for words. "You have given a bad name to the school prefects!" she said as she hit Dan's watch with her rattan cane. She had given it to him on the day he and his compatriots were selected. Some of the components of the watch flew apart at the blow. The function for prefects in the watch was disabled, but the compass built in it still worked.
Filled with sorrow, he biked to a forest nearby the village. Unfortunately, his bicycle tripped on tree roots and Dan was thrown off to an unknown place in the forest. It started to rain while Dan cried out in hopelessness. He wept, completely and utterly lost.
Suddenly, a shadow appeared right in front of him.
"Quick! You have to help! Form a pact with me, I need it to survive!"
"Who are you? You don't look familiar. And why should I form a pact with you, anyway? Just get lost!"
"What's the matter? I feel that you have some sort of a problem. Are you lost?"
"What's it to you? Can you help me get outta here?"
"Well…er, yes. I can help you. Just form a pact with me. Hurry! I'm gonna vanish and die soon!"
"Fine! Just get me outta here!"
"Yes! Nice meeting ya," the shadow extended his hand to Dan. He grabbed it.
It pulled him into a strange world shrouded in complete darkness. Dan felt blinded.
"Welcome to the phantom's realm! And since you have formed a pact with me, I can continue to live now!"
Dan fell from the portal that was opened by the shadow, introducing him to the new world. He didn't know what was going on, freezing in place as his eyes lit upon fantastical sights. There were shadows walking the world like humans, odd shadow plants resembling cacti, and creatures slithering about with shadowy bodies. There was absolutely no light, making Dan wonder how he could see what was before him.
Suddenly a voice began to speak from out of nowhere:
"So, my shadow, I see you've formed a pact already. I grant you an extended life here and in the human world. And you, host, please take care of yourself. Your death means his death. Shadow will guide you well and help you whenever he can.
A dark glow joined Dan and Shadow together.
"Why am I here? I thought you were supposed to get me home!"
"Well ya see, you've formed a pact with me. It had to be witnessed by the Grand Shadow of this world. Now that it's done, I can live longer. I needed to form a pact with someone in order to survive here, so I was given some time in your world to find one. Without a pact, I'll vanish and die. Since I found you, you were the one."
"Can you bring me out now?"
"Sure." He led Dan on a walk through shadow realm. After walking for a few miles, Shadow spoke. "Okay, here we are."
Shadow opened a portal and brought Dan out of the realm. Dan realized that he was in his house.
He considered leaving it.
"Nice house you got here."
"Yeah, but unpleasant stuff has happened here over the past few days. It's probably the fengshui. Maybe I should stay somewhere else."
"Come on, it's just something small. It won't kill you."
"Thanks, Shadow."
"Thank you for letting me live."
After the encounter with Shadow, Dan continued to experience unkind treatment from the students, and even some from a certain circle of teachers. It was always Shadow that encouraged him to continue on. In the end, he became the scout leader of his school after gaining the scout teacher Miss Mek Ketong's trust.
Dan began to stay in the Scout Headquarters, assuming the role of the leader.
The other scouts accepted him as leader, but some of the younger members made fun of him sometimes. He would punish them whenever that happened.
Vee Xiang, Hsein Loong, Tisha, Xiyin and Hsien Phing were his right hand helpers. They would support him even in the worst of situations. Ever since the beginning, they had been on his side.
Dan recalled rising up through the ranks together with them, each gradually becoming a leader or elite member. With his compass watch as a reminder to himself to never repeat his old mistakes and Shadow giving him a helping hand, he strived to be the best scout he could be…
"So that's my story," Dan finished.
"Oh, so sad… What about the time you pushed me into that tree?" Ann pointed over to the said tree.
"Actually, that was the shadow realm we went in. For your information, most live trees are not hollow and will have a mark if something went through it."
"Oooh, now I get it. I thought you were a tree pushing maniac."
"Heh… So how come you don't have a school?"
"Since you told me your past, I guess I'll tell you mine..."
Author's space: Yes, I know, this chapter is not as long as the last one, but I did my best…
?: Your best?
Author: What! Who goes there?
*Dan and Ann come up through floor*
Dan: Hey big guy, we're here to make fun of you!
Ann: Yeah! *draws a lion, bringing it to life*
Author: No, not the lion! Anything but that!
*Lion attacks author's computer*
Author: Nooo! My computer! Don't you know that you were created there?
Dan: I thought we were created from your draft book!
Author: Oh, right…
Ann: I found your draft book! Now I can make myself invincible!
Dan: I think I want to change this space. I mean, an author's space? What the heck is that? You already have so much space in your world. Do you really need more?
Author: But you were created in this space.
Ann: Who cares, we're alive now. Bye!
*Dan and Ann escape into their own shadow*
Author: I thought Ann couldn't do that!
Ann: Well, now I can! With your draft book!
Author: Oh well…
Author's last words: There you have it, the answers to the mystery of the shadow! Next up: the secrets behind Ann.
From now onward (and from before too), all dialogue from the shadow will be written in bold.
Actually I almost cried when I wrote this… Luckily, they didn't know *winks* Hey, wait a minute! I can't wink in real life! Too bad...
