Back to our band of intrepid adventurers running from a Shadow Scorpion! 

Please check out the media box where I have included a painting of the abandoned fish warehouse.

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At first Kami felt like she was spinning, but as her disorientation began to wear off, she felt more like an apple on a conveyor belt, jostled and tossed this way and that. She opened her eyes, then immediately shut them against the brightness. She cracked her eyes open again to see a bright blue sky with a few wispy clouds.

The movement stopped for a moment. She turned her head against a mouthful of shirt, then eased it back to look up into Liam's face. His jaw was set in a determined line, and she could tell by the strain on his face, the perspiration on his brow, and his labored breathing that carrying her was difficult.

She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing would come out. She ran her tongue over her cracked lips. Her head pounded. She wondered what had happened to her. She remembered talking to Yasmin, that was right. Talking to Yasmin and then, out of the blue, that drinking fountain was coming at them. It went black from there.

Now she heard Yasmin's voice dimly.

"In here. Quick!"

Kami forced her eyes open again. They were in an alleyway, leaned up against a grime-covered wall. The stench was terrible. There had to be garbage dumped nearby. She wondered why they were there, and why Liam was carrying her.

She could hear a clattering sound not far off. A woman's scream was cut short with a thump. A scraping sound was coming their direction, closer and closer. Liam held her tight, painfully tight.

She could hear a clicking sound, almost like a woman wearing heels, a giant woman anyway. She peeked into Liam's face again, but he wasn't paying any attention to her. His face was tense, eyes seeking out whatever was following them. She couldn't imagine what it could be! Certainly it was not a giantess in heels. Whatever this thing was, it terrified Liam. She could see it in his eyes.

Kami heard a hissing sound, then renewed clicking. Click, click, click. The thing stopped. She could see a bit of its shadow. It only had to take one or two more steps, and they would be exposed. Kami cringed against Liam waiting for the moment.

Suddenly, they heard a great rushing of wind, and the shape of the shadow began to change. It bulged and writhed and shot up into the sky, but not before she thought she saw a wing form.

"Let's get out of here," Samuel whispered. "We're sitting ducks."

They were moving again. Kami closed her eyes and pressed her face against Liam's chest. She should run with them, but she wasn't sure if her legs would support her. It wasn't long before Liam stopped. She felt herself being lowered to the ground. 

"Kami, are you all right?" Liam asked as he brushed her hair back. She opened her eyes and Liam's anxious face loomed into view. His shoulders sagged in relief as he hugged her close.

"She's fine!" Liam called to the others.

"Shhh," Samuel hushed, peering anxiously to the left.

"Sorry," Liam whispered.

Kami felt another set of arms around her now, and a kiss on her forehead. She was startled, then looked up to see Yasmin and realized with a slight disappointment her cousin must have kissed her. She noticed the other faces too—Chris and Samuel.

"How are you feeling?" Liam whispered into her ear. 

"Honestly? Like I had a run in with a bulldozer," she whispered back.

He laughed too loudly apparently because Samuel hushed him again.

"You must be okay if you can still make jokes," Liam said quietly. She tried to smile, but winced against the pain.

"Where are we?" she asked. She tried to sit up, but her aching body wouldn't let her quite yet. 

"Take it easy," Liam said. "We have a few minutes."

"We're trying to make it to the university," Yasmin said.

Kami looked about her. They were in a dusty building that must have been a warehouse of sorts, though it looked long abandoned. The walls were built with gray cinder blocks. A row of broken windows lined the ceiling. Patches of sunlight cut through floating blankets of dust and pierced the ground below, leaving other areas of the building dark and foreboding. Large hooks dangled from the ceiling. The air was stuffy and stale, leaving a slight metallic taste in Kami's mouth.

She shifted and stirred up a pile of cobwebs and dirt, causing her to sneeze. The sound echoed through the building and everyone hunkered down a little lower. They waited for the creature to crash through the windows or scuttle out of a shadowy corner, but nothing happened.

Her mind began to focus now, but the pounding in her head was more intense. Everything felt so wrong. The trip to Egypt wasn't supposed to go like this. She was supposed to get to know her grandparents, to see the wonders of the ancient world, to learn more about her father.

Instead, they were running for their lives from an impossible threat that was all too real. 

 "Are we safe here, in the dark and all?" Kami asked.

Samuel shrugged and glanced nervously over his shoulder. 

"They used to process fish in this warehouse. That's why there are fishhooks hanging from the ceiling. The building has been condemned, but who knows when they will tear it down," Yasmin whispered. "I am hoping Gedo's secretary might have an idea of where we can find him. I didn't want to lead the shadow creature there, so we're staying here until we know it's gone."

"Shadow creature?" Kami's breath caught. "Is that what that was?" 

"How long have you been awake?" Liam asked.

"Since just before the alleyway," she said.

"We were attacked by that thing in the library," Samuel said too loud. Now the others were shushing him.

"You should have seen it," Liam said. "Chris and Samuel had it pinned to the wall with a torch. Show her, Chris. Show her what it looks like."

Chris shyly pulled out his odd weapon and squatted down next to Kami so she could see it.

"How does it work?" she asked as she touched the black rubber surface of the flashlight. Up close, it looked even more crude.

"I think they move by slipping from shadow to shadow. So first you lure them out of the shadow with the light. It disorients them, and when they're out of the shadow, they're weaker," Chris said. Then he touched the lasers taped chaotically to the flashlight.

"These separate the shadows and weaken them further. You can't think of a shadow creature as being made up of one shadow. I think it's actually made up of several shadows that merge to form a shape. If you separate a creature enough, it becomes much weaker. Weaken it enough and it's bound. It can't move. The only problem is this device just isn't powerful enough. That shapeshifter slipped out." 

"But it was working," Liam reminded him.

"For a bit," Chris admitted, rolling the flashlight in his hand.

She smiled at him.

"That was clever, the way you figured out their Achilles heel like that. Wish I could have seen it in action."

Chris reddened under the praise, and she could tell he was pleased.

"You know," Samuel said. "If these shadow creatures keep attacking, we'll make a fortune. Think of the international governments with deep pockets that might be interested. Of course we'll need a better prototype, and it needs to work consistently."

"How'd you figure this out?" Liam asked Chris.

"I never would have gone after a creature like the one that attacked today, not on purpose anyway. But there are other ones. Did you see that creature's abnormalities? Face kind of smashed in, like it wasn't fully developed? Unformed feet?"

"Well yes," said Liam, "but I figured it was because the creature was a shape shifter."

"Maybe," Chris said. "But out there, in the desert, there are creatures that are not fully formed, that seem less intelligent. They are little blobs of shadow that ricochet off rocks or move backward. Some of them just spin in circles. Others are missing body parts or have other abnormalities. That's what I was doing yesterday when I met you—trying to catch one so I could study it."

"The pet carrier," Kami remembered suddenly. "Is that what you're using to hold them?"

"Yep."

Chris glanced over at Samuel, who was examining his duct-taped creation, and bit his lip. "Now he's interested, when he sees the money. What did he call my idea yesterday? Hare-brained?"

"Maybe he's just worried about you getting hurt," Kami said.

Chris snorted.

"Yeah, right. If he cares so much about my safety, do you think we'd still be here after those people disappeared? After he found some of their dead bodies?"

"I have a name for your weapon, Christopher," Samuel said. "The Laser Saber 3000. Catchy huh?"

"He's obsessed with Star Wars," Chris whispered, rolling his eyes.

"I dunno Sam-O. That might work, but I'm kinda leaning toward something a little more sleek, like the TorchShadowSplitter PS51 myself," Liam said. 

"PS51?" Kami questioned.

"Sure," Liam said. "Tack some letters and numbers on the end and all of a sudden it sounds more impressive." 

"Smart aleck," Samuel muttered.

A loud thump tore them away from their conversation.

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So what do we all think of Chris's contraption and his ideas to capture shadow creatures?

The dedication for this chapter goes out to a fabulous Wattpadre @shirsha who rocked her way through Born of Shadow despite a busy school schedule and her own writing. I really appreciate her detailed comments throughout. You can check out her fabulous writing by clicking in the dedi link above. In particular I am enjoying her story It's Not Easy which I highly recommend.