Chapter 1
Shadow By Chase Ryan
Copyright 2020 Chase Ryan.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission, requests, write to the publisher addressed “ Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below.
ISBN: 0 ( Paperback)
ISBN: 0 ( Hardcover)
Library of Congress Number: 0
Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Names, characters, and places are products of the author’s imagination.
Front Cover Image by Adobe Spark.
Book Design by Adobe Spark.
Printed by L.E.C. Productions, Inc., in the United States of America
First printing edition 2020. L.E.C. Productions Inc.
For Ethan
Part I: Chamberlain, Nebraska Welcomes a Shadow
Chapter 1
Axel raced town down the street on his Schwinn. He knew he shouldn’t have dumped water fish guts on Billy Richard’s head and knew he was in deep crap. The streets were like a maze and Axel was trapped. Axel raced down an alleyway “dead-end” he whispered to himself. There were only two options, hop in the trash can behind the butcher or face them and Axle would rather have a black eye than pig liver all over him. Axel backed up to the wall. “ So.. what should we do with Ax?” Billy said spitefully. “ I know.” Axel said. “ let...ME...GOOO!”. “ Great idea, ace” said one of Billy’s goons. “ Yeah go ahead Ax... leave,” Billy said. Axel knew it was a trap, but he was gonna take this chance to get out. As he turned to leave, he heard them take something out. “ No, no, no!” he thought. He turned. And pointing at him was one of the biggest bb guns he had ever seen and it fired. The next thing he noticed was the feeling of a million hornets sticking into his chest. The pain shot through his body. “ I am gonna die!” he thought. Then he blacked out. Axel woke up in the alley. It was pitch black. He knew his mom would freak out since she is overprotective. Then he remembered the gun. His first intention was to check his chest. As he looked at his chest there was only a tiny gash made by the bullet, though he was bleeding. Axel sat up and walked down the alleyway. The street was empty. The only light was the street lamps. Then he felt a drop fall on his head. “ Great!” he thought, “ it’s gonna pour!”. He walked along the empty street. By the time he got to the end of the block his Jurassic Park t-shirt was soaked along with his jeans. He wore the same thing almost every day because he loved the movie. There was something special about the shirt that he loved, but he didn’t know what. This thought always confused him. As he got to his street the lamps went out, which they usually did every day at the same time. This gave him the time. “ 10:30 ” he whispered to himself. He always loved watching them flicker outside his bedroom, but they stayed off which was new. Axel didn’t really notice because he was caught on the fact that it was 10:30 pm and he had his chores still to do. As he stepped his porch stopped. He heard someone. He turned to a shadow-like figure standing in the street. He froze at the sight of him. The figure ran at him and stopped inches from Axel and said with a raspy voice “ Don’t worry, I wouldn’t hurt you, but you’ll be glad what I’ll do next!” Then the shadow backed up then ran into Axel.
Chapter 3
Axel flew back into the screen door. His mom ran to the door and screamed. Axel was bleeding like crazy, all gashed and bruised. She ran back into the house and dialed 911 in rush. Outside Axel moaned and tried to comprehend what just happened. His mom ran back to him “ wh...wh...what happened!” she whimpered. All Axel could say was “ Shadow man… street… into me.” then he fainted. Axel woke up around 9:00 the next morning in the hospital. His mom was asleep in the chair facing his bed. A doctor walked into the room and went over to him and said “ High Axel! I am Doctor Migaire. Looks like you got beaten up pretty badly. Care to tell me how it happened?”. Axel looked at him and knew if he told him the truth he would think he was crazy and he would go to a different hospital. “ I... don’t know,” Axel said finally. “ It’s fine Axel.” the doctor said. “ Here’s a remote watch something if you want .” .“ Thanks!” Axel said with glee as he turned on The Simpsons.
Chapter 4
Axel woke up in his room. The room was pitch black. Axel looked at his clock which showed 11:59 pm. As he looked around the room, an eerie sensation fell over him, as though he was being watched. He got up and went to the window. The street lamps were flickering and in the distance, a figure stepped out of the shadows and Axel knew who it was. Slowly the figure walked closer and closer. Axel panicked. He didn’t want to go downstairs because he didn’t want to get closer to the shadow, but if he stayed in his room the shadow would know where he was. Axel didn’t know what to do so he ran downstairs and to the basement. He barricaded the door with random junk he found laying around and hid under the stairs. Minute after a minute he stayed quiet waiting to hear something, but nothing happened. Finally, he decided to look out the basement window, but nothing was out there. He walked up the stairs and parted the junk and unlocked the door. He decided to look for his mom. Axel walked up the stairs and entered his mom’s room. He walked over to her bed and tapped his mom and his hand fell through her. The shadow jumped out of her bed and Axel backed up to the wall. “ Do you want to see what I can do? Said the shadow. Axel was frozen to the wall. He didn’t dare speak. “ I’ll show you anyway!” shouted the raspy voice of the shadow. The shadow darted at Axel and entered him. Axel groaned with pain. “ This is worse than the bb gun!” he thought. Axel groaned and screamed, then the pain stopped. He heard a voice in his head, “ Look down.” it said. Axel looked down. There was his shadow spread across the floor. “ Now think of Billy,” it said. “ Why would I do that?” said Axel. “Because you’ll never wake up.” said the voice. Axel panicked obeyed. He thought of the bullet piercing through his chest, of the cruel things Billy and his goons did to him. “ Now look at your shadow,” the voice said. Axel looked down at his shadow. In the hand of his shadow was a knife.
Part 2: Massacre at 128 West St.
