5

WORDS COULD NEVER DESCRIBE how it feels to stroll back into my hometown in the dead of night. The place hasn't changed, not really.

The best part is how invisible I am, though I can't say even that is different from the way it was when I was here. Not many people dare to be out in the cold night. It's early October, but the chill is unseasonably severe for northern Texas.My human form would've hated it.

Thankfully, the weather doesn't affect me in the same way it once did. I can feel it, though, sense the way the wind shifts or the way it touches other people. The cold. The heat. I know it by the way it passes through me. But my shadow form doesn't change. I don't get hot or cold. I am existing only as a shadow, with no temperature.

None of it changes anything for me.

I casually stroll now, instead of floating around. I prefer the way my boots make contact with the ground I once trod upon as a teenager.

I can remember the route to my first target like the back of my hand.

Her house is dark for the night, save the soft glow of a lamp from somewhere inside. The lamp she leaves on for her father when he returns from his late shifts.

I have been an Umbra for a couple of years, but the one thing I have never gotten used to is the sensation of walking through walls.

The walls hate it, too. The house creaks slightly when I step through into its main hallway.

"Hush. I won't overstay my welcome."

I do hover above the ground as I float up the stairs. I doubt that creaky floorboard on the seventh step has been fixed, and I will not make more noise than necessary.

Her door is cracked, but I slip through as a shadow. She sleeps peacefully, unaware that I am about to enter her mind and create chaos in her nightmares.

It feels so perfect, like justice will finally be brought.

Do not forget your true goals, Rook. You are not here for petty revenge.

But I so desperately wish I could be. Alas, all I will do tonight is plant the seeds of destruction. I can't very well bring the chaos unless I set everything up.

"My darling Ophelia," I say softly, though there's really no need for that. She won't hear me. Not in the mortal realm. And she will not have access to the Shadow Realm yet.

I take a small orb from one of the many pockets I have on this suit. I crush it in my palm, then dip a finger into the liquid that remains and paint the blue juice onto her lips. Then a circle on her forehead.

She will feel none of it.

The blue juice is gone in seconds, planted somewhere in her mind.

"I will see you soon," I whisper.

This time, she hears, startling awake. I watch her look around, wondering what it was she might've heard. She can't see me. Her human eyes can't see beyond the visible. I may be but a passing shadow, a quick movement in the corner of her eye. But I don't exist beyond that. Not unless I want to.

And I don't. Not yet.

But soon I will. In the realm of nightmare.

I leave the same way I arrived. There's one more person I have to visit tonight here in town. I'm not entirely sure where she resides.

I find myself standing in front of the only coffee shop this town has, tracking the essence of the person I seek to find.

Reya, Ophelia's best friend. The one she attached herself to just before everything.

I find the essence and follow it to a house at the edge of town.

The walls of this house try to spit me out, but I persist. I find Reya asleep on the couch, a blanket tossed over her.

I pull out another blue fruit and crush it in my hand. When I paint it onto her lips, there's a shock that rides up through my entire being. She must be dreaming now.

Something about this one is wild. I don't know what it means that I feel the sensations of her dreams.

I shake my head. Perhaps Ophelia was not yet in a deep sleep.

I leave the house before it can expel me. That's two of my four targets.

I rise above the ground, taking flight to go to the city.

I've never been fond of the city lights or the way it never seems to rest. Cars still drive and people still lurk around as though it's not time for sleep.

Those who refuse to sleep at night don't contain dreams that we Umbra can feed upon. The dreams of the day don't quench our thirst.

I find Atlas and his roommate easily. Infecting them is similar to how I infected Ophelia. Neither of them is dreaming, so there's no shocking sensation.

I glance at Atlas one more time as I take my leave.

Soon I will have my revenge.