TRIGGER WARNING: Mentions of suicide and depression in this chapter. 

I slung the strap of my backpack over my shoulder as everyone else was packing up the last of our stuff, ready for another day of endless walking. 

Beside me, Jenna groans. "Isn't there a way for the shadow-girl to just teleport us there?" 

"Her name's Jess," I responded. "And don't you think if she could, she would do that by now?"

She looked at me. "Geez, sorry. Didn't know you were so snappy in the mornings."

"I'm not snappy." I retorted. 

"Uh, yeah, you are. Have been for a few days. I was just joking about the whole teleporting thing man, lighten up!" 

She stood, holding on to her own backpack with two hands and running over to Quinn, who has a big smile on her face. She was apparently pretty successful after I had left the day before. Jenna told me when I made it back that Quinn had managed to lift one of the blocks of wood that had been floating in the water a few feet in the air, but she was a little scared to try any further. 

"Great." I said, stifling a yawn. 

"What do you mean, 'great'? That's awesome! She's already getting some confidence in herself about this power, aren't you excited for her?" Jenna asked. 

I shrugged, rolling over on my bed. "I guess." 

"'I guess'?"

"Jenna, I'm really tired, can I just go to sleep?" I said, and that was true. I felt like my legs had turned to lead after getting back . 

"Earth to Tyler?"

I jumped, jolted out of my thoughts, as Jess literally materialized next to me. 

"Geez, don't do that!" I exclaimed. 

"Sorry. I keep forgetting you guys can't really do this." She said, shrugging. "So, you ready for today?"

"I guess." I said, feeling a slight sense of déjà vu. "Do you think we'll run into any Shadows today?"

"Probably. We've given them a full twelve hours to track us, staying in one place like this, so they've probably got a decent idea where we are."

"What? Why'd you let us stop for that long?" I asked. 

"Tyler. You're humans. You need sleep." She said. "If we get to Darklox and you're all dead-on-your-feet exhausted, how do you expect us to win?"

"Easy. Just do the power thing to me and it's over in seconds."

"Yeah...about that..." She said, suddenly not meeting my eyes. 

Before I could ask what she meant, I heard my dad's voice from a few blocks away. 

"Tyler! Come on, we're front lines today!" He joked, but I could still see the slight change in his expression when he saw Jess, even though he covered it up with a smile a split second afterwards. 

"Coming!" I called back, and turned to Jess. "You coming with me?"

"No." She said. "Your dad has been nice enough to have his buddy Mitch watch me today. Fun times." 

"Oh." I said, remembering the deal I had made with my dad. "Right."

"See you in a bit, Tyler." She said, before walking over to where Shane and his dad were standing. 

I ran up to my dad as we all started to leave. My dad and I walked a little bit in front of the main group, slightly out of earshot due to how loud everyone was being, talking and laughing with each other. 

***

We'd been walking for a few hours when I brought it up.

"Y'know, Dad, she's not as bad as you think." I said. 

He sighs. "Tyler, we're not having this conversation right now."

"Why not?" I asked. "I'm just saying, Jess isn't a bad person."

"She's not a person, Tyler, she's a Shadow."

"So? She still saved my life, and she hasn't done anything to hurt us."

"Yet." He said. "I just don't think it's a good idea to blindly trust her."

"What, like I was supposed to blindly trust you?" 

He's taken aback for a bit. "What?"

"You never told me." I said. "About any of this. Skylar told me about your past and who you were, not you."

"I...I had my reasons." He said. Dad has never been one to yell when Macey or I say something we know he doesn't like. He always said he thinks we should have our own beliefs, and that we shouldn't be afraid to talk about them. He always said that if we were too afraid to talk about things that bothered us, none of our problems would ever be solved. Of course, I used this rule to my advantage a lot more than Macey did, but I still knew that it would work. 

"So tell me some." I said. "We've got time." 

"I didn't want you to want to have the life I did." He answers. 

"What?"

"Tyler, the life I lived...I never got to be a kid." He said. "My mother was killed when I was four years old." 

I keep walking beside him, clinging to every word. I've never heard anything from his past before.

"She died when a zombie hoard came to our village. She told me to run, so I did. I came across a cave, and that's where I stayed. Holed up in a dark cave with a few torches and the basic necessities. I was alone, and scared. And then, the next day, I found Ty. Well, more he found me. He was being chased by zombies, and I let him in to keep him safe. He was so scared, and he told me his family was dead. That was when I knew." 

"Knew what?" I asked. 

"Knew that I was all he had." He said. "At that moment, I became an older brother, and I didn't have time to be a kid anymore. I had myself and Ty to protect, and I couldn't let him down. From then on, that's all I did. I kept us alive, that was my job."

"Woah." I said. "You were four and you were thinking like that?"

He smiles a little. "I like to think I was a smart kid. So, that's how we lived. And that's how I continued to live, even after we found Mitch, Jerome, Jason, all of them. I was never a kid. I was always fighting to stay alive. When we found the Kingdom, I thought it was finally a break. I would get to just live my life, and we'd be safe. But that's not what happened."

"What happened?" 

"Ty was taken prisoner by the squids." He said. "Man, I'll never forget that day. We were in the water, fighting for our lives, and he's far away. And then his sword snapped, and I just...I went into panic mode. I swam as fast as I could, but when I got there, he was gone. Just like that. Disappeared into thin air. And then, I swore I'd get him back. I obsessed over it for years, until finally, the Kingdom let me start building an army under my name when I was twelve."

"You were twelve, and they let you..."

"Be general of an army, yeah, I know." He laughed a little. "Pretty stupid move on their part, if you ask me. But my point is, Tyler, I never got to be a kid. I was always fighting for someone's survival. It wasn't good for me. I got really depressed around thirteen. I thought I'd failed. It had been six years at that point since Ty had been taken, and I somehow got it in my head that I was the one who was at fault he was kidnapped. I struggled to find a reason to get out of bed in the morning. I don't know how managed it every day. Once..."

He takes a deep breath before continuing. "Once, Jerome had to talk me down from the ledge of a seven story building at three in the morning."

I almost froze in place. "You were going to-"

"Yep." He said. "He almost failed, too. My point is, Tyler, my life might have seemed cool and amazing and adventurous, but it wasn't. I never wanted you or Macey to try following in my footsteps. I wanted you to be kids. I wanted to protect you from the kind of life I had."

"Wow." I said. "Well, now I get why you didn't tell me." 

"I thought it was a little heavy for a kid, yes." He said. "But anyway, I just don't think it's a good idea to trust Jess when we still know so little about her." 

"Yeah, but Dad, she's not like the other Shadows." I said. "All the other Shadows have instantly tried to kill us!"

"You might get to test that theory." 

We both jumped at the sound of Jess's voice coming from right beside me as she materialized. 

"Quit doing that!" I exclaimed. 

"Shh!" She said. "Ten of them. They're close. Get ready." She said, and disappeared. 

My dad and I looked at each other, before immediately grabbing our weapons. My sword appeared the instant I summoned it, something I was still getting used to. I assumed it was starting to trust me more. 

We backed up to the rest of the group, who already had their weapons out and had formed a type of circle. 

"What's the plan?" Shane, who stood beside me, asked. 

I shrugged. "Don't ask me, they haven't even shown up yet." 

"The plan is to not get yourselves killed." Jess said, appearing next to me, making me jump for a third time. 

Suddenly, a voice rang out from one of the trees. "Well, well, well! Look what we have here!"

A figure dropped to the ground from the trees. A Shadow. 

He looked at Jess, grinning. "'Ey, Emily! Come down here with the others and look at what we found!" 

Nine other Shadows dropped down, equally positioned around our circle. Only one was different. She appeared to be a girl with long curly blonde hair, and was dressed in a blue dress. It only took me a few seconds to figure out what was so unnerving about her. 

A glowing yellow crystal hung around her neck.

"We got a Crystal." I muttered to Shane, who's eyes widened, no doubt remembering his uncle. 

The Crystal grinned.  "Well, would you look at that? We found the traitor!"

Jess gritted her teeth. "Screw off, Donaldson, before I make you regret it."

"Ooh, feisty as always." The Crystal said. "We'll see how good your comebacks are when you're rotting in a cell. Get them!" 

The Shadow closest to me made the mistake of lunging for Shane first. He dodged, almost slamming into me as the Shadow stumbled before regaining it's balance. 

"Together?" I asked, holding up my sword. 

He grinned at me. "You take this kill from me, Dahlberg, and I'll turn this blade on you." 

"I'll take that as a no." I said, and looked around as he ran towards the Shadow. 

Everyone was fighting one of the nine Shadows, but the Crystal stood in middle, completely unharmed. 

I ran for her, and passed by Jess, who, as I watched, shot down one of the Shadows who had instantly gone for her. 

As she stood, our eyes met for a second, and I gave her a look that hopefully said "do the thing". 

In response, she gave a small shake of her head before running towards a Shadow that was winning against Cameron and Quinn. 

I froze, watching her run away. Jess wasn't going to help me? How else could I beat this thing easily?

I was so shocked, I didn't notice that the Crystal had walked up to me until I was being held in the air. 

"Aw, you're cute." She said. "Unfortunately, you're not that bright. I think it's past your bedtime, kid. Nighty-night." 

And with that, everything went dark. 

---------------------------------------------------

I decided to give you guys a longer chapter this time around to make up for not having a chapter last week! I hope you enjoyed! 

(Also, there's a little reference in here, can any of you find it?) 

Art by: GirlyBirdGamer