Novel & Cerita The Shadows Between Us

•|•|• In the Black Years, they came. When we were lost, and the Shadows mocked us. With them came light and hope. Tell me, how do we repay the heavens for sending their angels? •|•|• [SHADE SHADOWS] A strangled gasp tears from my throat as I fight for air, the feel of the cold hard ground beneath me as I stare up at the ceiling. Blurry faces peer down at me, paired by distant sounds speaking inaudibly above me. Hands immediately come to my aid as my vision slowly clears, and with it, the desperate voices of the company around me.

As the sun began to set, casting a warm golden hue over campus, Charlie, Maya, Ethan, and Liam gathered in their secret hiding place, the old abandoned hedge garden behind the science building. The air was thick with anticipation; they had been waiting for this moment for weeks. The four friends had been diligently gathering information about the plot against the werewolf king, and now they were ready to share their findings with Jessica.

The morning light filtered weakly through the curtains, casting fractured patterns on the floor — much like my thoughts, splintered and jagged. I sat at the small kitchen table, clutching my cup of cold coffee, staring at the leather-bound book *Reflections of the Forgotten* open before me. The stories inside weren’t just tales — they were warnings, lessons written in sorrow and hope. Women who had lived as shadows, trapped in lives borrowed from others, fighting to reclaim their own reflections.

It felt like a spotlight alright—a cruel one, shining directly on me while the rest of the world faded into the background. I found myself just staring at it, hoping, wishing for the universe to somehow intervene and fix this disaster. I kept waiting for someone, anyone, to laugh and say, “Just kidding! This is a prank!” I was positive that it had to be a joke, and any moment now someone would swing in and save me from this embarrassment. But nobody moved. The silence was deafening, and instead, the whispers started to grow louder and more insistent. People pulled out their phones, and in a flash, someone snapped a picture. My humiliation captured for all eternity.

A slow release, like it had been holding a breath for centuries and chose now to exhale. And from that breath— Shadows bled upward. Not smoke. Not mist. Shadows. They bent toward us, curious. The threads in my chest burned. “You’re not supposed to be here,” I whispered—not to Lucian, not to Theron. To it. The shadow shifted in answer. My ears popped. My teeth ached. The shape it made was wrong—too tall to be a man, too narrow to be a beast, its edges folding in and out of themselves like pages turning in a book no one was reading.

The only thing that mattered was bringing Rayne back. I materialized at the edge of the chasm, peering down into its seemingly bottomless depths. The darkness was absolute, a void that swallowed all light and hope. I extended a Wolf claw, preparing to slice my palm, when an unsettling chill crept over me, signaling the arrival of The Shadows. They emerged from every direction, and none, their dark tendrils writhing like living serpents.

I could taste metallic blood in my mouth. All I could see was the face of a man running towards us, or maybe I was dreaming. We have a man in our sights. Though his light was so bright. Had I died? Was I in heaven? With all I’d done in life, I couldn’t be there. But still, his actual face, the light that surrounded him.... It was like we were in two different worlds. Him in the light and me... I watched his angelic face as slowly the last drop of energy faded, giving way to darkness. THE END

Yesterday we jumped from the cliff; thankfully, the parachute opened on time. We are in the mountains, spending our vacation in a cosy cottage. It's monsoon; windows are displayed with fog and dark green forest. It's romantic. We were fucking like bunnies for the last two days. She is curled under the bedsheets, totally engulfed in reading a novel. Her coffee is getting cold beside the window. "I searched about this book; I know what happens in the end." I slid beside her under the bedsheet. "No!" She whined.

Cora says, her voice excited, “you’re almost there, Ella! A few more pushes –“ But her voice fades away and – and the shadows at the edge of my vision, they don’t fade – I frown, blinking, trying to understand – Because, I mean…I’m not passing out. This is not the darkness at the edge of my vision that I’ve felt before when I’ve felt faint. This is – what the hell, it’s real shadows curling at the edges of my room… “Do you…” I ask, my voice panting as I whip my head, looking around the room, “do you guys see that?” Sinclair’s hand is on my face, turning it towards him now, his voice worried. “See what?” “The…the shadows,” I say, pulling my face from his hand, looking around the room again. T

I can feel their presence pressing against my skin, not cruel, not kind— just inevitable. And then I wake up. Every time, my heart is racing, my body cold, my hands shaking. But there’s never pain. “The second dream is different,” I said, my voice lower. “It came after.” This time, I’m not in the forest. I’m standing in nothing. No ground. No sky. Just darkness stretching in every direction, thick and endless, like I’ve fallen into the space between worlds. Then light breaks through it. Four shadows rise around me, tall and massive, their shapes shifting constantly. Wolves but not like any I’ve ever seen. Their bodies are made of moonlight and smoke, their eyes burning silver, gold, red, and