Chương 15: Night Watch

June ended up going to his dormitory; it was late anyways. He spent a lot of time working on TLC before handing Shade's blade to the team leader. Shade weirdly enough was still attached to his shadow.

'Was she going to separate once I got to my dorm? Is this her way of walking me home?' June made it to his dorm and stepped in; his shadow followed, and the harmonic tune was still present.

'Should I address her?' June was starting to wonder if he would be killed in his sleep.

'Oh no.' The thought hadn't crossed his mind; he still needed to change his clothes and wash up before bed. He could turn the lights off since he had night vision, but he had a feeling someone who can live in shadows and is called "Shade" also could. June stopped and sat down on a chair; his crewmates gave him a housewarming gift, and he just needed to pretend to do something and nod off to sleep so he had some plausible deniability when it came to not changing or washing up before bed.

The thought of shaping his will into a backbar to cover himself while changing was funny; he almost laughed aloud thinking about it, but even then that would tell Shade he knows of her presence. She was on the rescue team that saved him; he doesn't want to make her uncomfortable, but he isn't sure what limit he should impose. He considered himself a shameless person; not much can embarrass him other than his family. He was used to having his boundaries ignored, so not much bothered him.

He didn't care if Shade saw him naked, but at the same time, he felt that it would have some ramifications on their next proper interactions. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. He grabbed the gift and unwrapped it; it was a book.

'The ovulation cycle of a worm' His eyebrows raised, the room felt more silent than its already deafening cadence. He opened the book and started reading.

The book was fairly interesting, but June ended up finding a window to nod off. He didn't know what Shade's intentions were, but he decided to have some faith. Which was what he said when he took the gamble of life or death again. It was morning, 6am. June had a friend that he would occasionally vent to, a good close friend of his; of course, he held back the specifically worse things and delivered a dulled version of his feelings and stories when he vented. Therapy didn't work for him; he tried a couple.

One was a church, and they tried to indoctrinate him into a separate cult. One time his therapist just ditched him, and a couple other times they never got past telling him the same repeated shallow advice. June decided to talk to that friend about his situation; normally when they met, it was for group events. His regular friend group had several people. But this time, and for the first time it was just the two of them. June got ready at 7am and left to head towards one of the great lakes of Canada.

He lived not too far from one; it was a short bus ride away. June rarely went outside unless he was invited somewhere, had an appointment, or was going to watch a movie alone. He had been raised inside his whole life; his father wasn't fit to bring him around, and his mother was pathetically hopeless. They never let him go anywhere without them, yet they would not bring him anywhere. So he lived most of his life trapped in his home.

Every trip to a new location felt like a harrowing adventure; he was used to the bus, but going somewhere new still scared him a little. Even with his powers he was still a little afraid. He had gone to this lake a year or two prior once; he remembered a long bike trail along the waterside. The trail led into the forest. It was still pretty dark outside. They last met in person a couple months back for a group outing, but June's new appearance was almost alien to his shoddy, tiny old self.

After a while his friend appeared. And 2 glowing gold eyes in the darkness shined through the dark forest, staring back