Blurring traces

[Shade]

Continued from "What is past is prologue"

godsandinsects3.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=city&action=display&thread=3517&page=13

**************


Later, Shade had no idea how long she had been running. It might have been mere minutes or longer, but she had run until her sides had been hurting too bad for her to continue. The area around her had remained rather rundown and shabby, the kind of quarter she would not have dared to go without her powers. But of course, ever since her powers had surfaced, such things had never been an issue any more. What was far more of an issue right now, among other things, was that she was lost.

Her heart still hammering, a hand pressed against her side, Shade had found shelter in a small street bridge and pressed her back against the, feeling the rumble of a train vibrate against the moist bricks as the vehicle had rattled past overhead. She had not let her powers slip, nor had she intended to, staring into a rain puddle right in front of her, no mirror image staring back. She was sure if there had been one, it would have scared her.

It had taken a few long minutes for the jabbing pain in her sides to retreat, but what it had left was even worse. Confusion, fear, a rage of emotions that had seemed to be stuck on an endless runon loop, just as if her mind was overboarding from the impact of something she could not explain yet coming alongside a strange feeling of hollowness. She had not known where she was, nor exactly how she had found the hotel earlier, she could not tell which way to take back. But anyways…back where? Her memory, confused and meddled with by the mutant she barely recalled right now gave the illusion that there was no place to go back to. That she had arrived in New York City for the first time this very morning with nothing but a duffle bag and a pained heart, determined to find that Institute Jimmy had been talking about. As she had retraced that thought, shaking and shivering with fear, anxiety and cold under that lonely bridge, she had wondered where her bag was. Had she lost it somewhere at this hotel she didn´t remember getting to? All she knew was that she had ended up there and then she had found them. The monsters that had killed her brother. What had she been doing there? Looking for a stay for the night? She couldn´t remember but had decided to leave it at that. That seemed likely. But it hadn´t seemed to matter much. What had mattered more was something else: she had killed. And that thought had been more suffocating than anything, more scary than the feeling of being lost, taking hold a few hours later when she had left the shelter oft he tunnel to move on:

She had killed and even though it had been an act of revenge, the small voice calling out to her shrilly, demanding her to see the justice behind her actions was starting to dwindle mercilessly, leaving nothing but the horror of realising what she had done. Taking a life. Doing something that was so profoundly not her that it scared her to the bone to even think of it. What had enabled her to do it she could not fathom. She did not know that it hadn´t been her own motivation so there was no relief in the knowledge that it had not been her usual kind, loving self doing it. No relief. And where there was none, another thought took hold:

You´re a criminal. They will come looking for you. As she made her way away from the bridge her mind was starting to race with a new fever. They will come looking for you. What if someone saw? What if she had not killed the second man? What if someone found out? If someone had seen her face? She realised that this meant the end of her plans. The institute she had been heading for was now forever out of question. They wouldn´t take her in, not after what she had done. Maybe she could find others? But she shivered at the mere thought of what kind of mutants might take in someone who was wanted for murder. No. That was no option either. But what was? She could not tell. There was nowhere to turn to.

And then her rationality resurfaced. Just a bit. Just enough to cling to another desperate thought. You need to stay hidden, Shade. You must be careful so they don´t find you. You need to blur the traces. And you need to get rid of that gun. More than anything else, you need to get rid of that.

*****

Two hours later the gun dropped from her invisible hand, falling a dozen or so metres, dropping and appearing in mid fall, plopping into Hudson River from the side of a bridge while nobody was looking. Only a little way off a homeless man stirred in his sleep at the sound when the thing hit the water, rolling over on his park bench. But Shade didn´t notice when she retreated back into the early morning shadows.

[Gambit]

Gambit wasn't a mother hen for his girlfriend. He let her have her own time and live her own life - it was only fair for her allowing him live his own life with the many trips and days off that he would take every now and then. It was only all the more convenient that Shade actually needed less time for herself and more time with him.

So when she didn't answer the phone the second day in a row, this was a valid reason to worry.

He called Storm then, of course - his first and most trusted source at Xavier's mansion - who told him that Shade wasn't at the mansion and hadn't been seen for a few days. It wasn't like Ororo and Shade hung out together, but the mansion's staff wasn't so populous that one of them wouldn't notice another's absence.

He asked Ororo to get in touch with him, should Shade reappear at the Institute. What he did next was perfectly natural and logical for him, although someone else could be bewildered by such behavior - he drove to the Institute, walked in without attracting much attention and broke into Shade's room. A brief search through her things (her notes, lesson plans, calendars, traces of communication she may have had before going off in an unknown direction) produced zero results. He decided that whatever it was, it wasn't a job interview or a dentist's appointment, people usually write such things down. But then, of course, she could have used her phone.

Gambit made a mental note to talk to Xavier about probably using the Cerebro, but this was the last resort - Remy hated to beg for help, and he still had his own means and resources when it came to looking for people and things.

He left the mansion and returned to the Hellfire for now...

[Shade]

Shade had stayed awake until the first light of the morning had broken through the mostly run down roads of where she had been wandering about, aimlessly for hours. She had been using her powers constantly and the fact that the block of her memory had also made her forget about her progress she had made with them made her believe that all she could do with them was still just what she had called it years ago: "I vanish or I don´t." Therefore, in the morning she was so tired that she was forced to let her powers slip for a little while and she felt more exposed than ever, hiding in a small park near some dusty old backyards for most of the morning, fighting exhaustion. She slept a little then, dangerous sleep as she thought later, exposed and visible to everyone. Passers by. Police. But she was lucky, probably taken just for another out of plenty of people who had nowhere else to go but the streets.

By early afternoon she felt strong enough again to use her invisibility, this time to get some food. It felt like a miserable thing to do, just to steal it. She had about twenty-three dollars with her in her purse and had been intent on using those honestly but when she had made her way around the hot dog stand, her stomach rumbling, exploring the place cautiously and invisibly she had thought better of it. Or worse.

Later, it had turned out that it was maybe a good idea to hide herself. Had she had a proper look at the news stand, she might have noticed that the date they displayed did not match at all with the date she assumed it was, but she didn´t. Had she looked inside, she might have spotted a small report in the New York Times about a murder and one of the killers, a young woman with dark hair, supposedly a mutant, disappearing but described with hardly any detail by a man who had been there and merely been injured. But Shade did not look at the newspapers.

But she did get a bit of news from a TV, blurring out from a small shop. She would try all day to get more news, to get closer to a TV again without success, trying to confirm what she had heard in passing. For if it had not merely been her fears playing a trick on her, what had happened at the hotel had been discovered. Of course it had. She remembered people about to come up the stairs when she had fled...

That evening she found an empty building. Cold, but at least there was no wind in here. It had probably once been an office building of some sorts and she didn´t feel comfortable staying here, but she felt her powers worn out. She would not be able to keep them up when sleeping and she would need a place away from prying eyes.
She fell asleep exhausted, miserable and cold. Her mind still trying to figure out the odds and trying to come up with ideas of what to do next or where to turn.

[Gambit]

Gambit's sixth sense, his uncategorized instinct in which he had no control or understanding, but which came in handy every now and then, proved to be useful once again when he decided (for want of a better word) to return to the Hellfire and stay there until he'd figure out what to do.

It was daytime and the flow of patrons was slow, as usual becoming more intense towards the evening. Gambit took his usual place behind the bar counter, it gave him the feeling of being in the center of things. So he first overheard the waitresses gossiping about it.

"Well of course they would blame it on a mutant. When there's no one to blame, then GEEit's a mutant! I so hate this," one of them was saying. The hall was mostly empty and the music was low, so Gambit eavesdropped freely while absently looking up Shade's location in Google Latitude on his phone. She wasn't showing up on the map. Phone switched off? Disconnected from the service, deleted her account? Could be anything.

"They say it's a woman, too," the other waitress remarked. "And the dead guy - he's, what, from an anti-Mutant group?"

"I don't buy it," the first one replied skeptically. "Sounds like a fake piece of news, like something they'd want to stir people up with."

"Well, why not, it could be true."

"Well it's totally a cliché."

The conversation breezed through Gambit's awareness on the very edge, almost automatically he sort of stored it for later reference, never actually focusing on what was being said. He'd later realize he'd heard about it but wouldn't recall where and how.

But it was this random conversation and the news of a murder with the alleged culprit a mutant woman that got him listening very attentively to a patron mumbling something what seemed like drunk gibberish. A man sat down at the bar counter, ordered whisky and then out of nowhere (Gambit was used to it) started to mutter. Partly talking to his glass and partly to the bartender - and Gambit was all attention now.

It took him significant diplomatic skills to get the man talking. The man called himself Manuel and was very reluctant to go into details but the hunch made Gambit press on. He had the advantage, too - after all, how many people find it natural to spill their guts to a barkeep over a nice long glass of liquor? Gambit even played the lovely "man, you're so stressed, just relax and drink, the next one's on me" card.

It wasn't long before it became obvious that his intuition had worked perfectly: of all places, of all people the man involved in the reported murder came to his bar. And the details the man was unknowingly slipping to him lead Gambit to realize another thing: the alleged murderer, the mutant woman could very well be Shade.

He played his sympathetic barman role to the end, confirming his guesses as he went. The woman had long brown hair. She was a mutant. Her name was Emily (this was where Gambit stopped guessing and started merely looking for confirmations). She had connections to Xavier. She could have lost someone close to her to mutant haters. Although the last bit was more of a guess but the heavier the alcohol intoxication became, the more Manuel seemed to believe this guess.

Gambit left him there, making another mental note to pass the anonymous word to the police about this man sitting in the Hellfire. Or at least his name and other stuff.

He knew now where to start looking.

[Shade]

Shade, of course, was completely unaware of all of this going on during the day and if she had been aware, it would not have made any sense for her. Her mind told her that nobody would be looking for her for other reasons than for catching her. She had killed so whoever might be out to get her would either be a cop or worse, one of them. She had been trying to push that thought away but had been unable to and instead it had settled into a new kind of credo: don´t trust. An addition to: don´t draw attention. She reached a point where she was scared to think things over properly because no matter what direction she thought, it scared her. Was this really her?

That night, she hardly found any rest, mostly because of the cold and while she sat there, her knees drawn towards her body, her chin rested on it, shivering, she found herself actually considering that she should have stolen something to keep her warmer. A jacket, a coat, something like that. A blanket. She was wearing a jacket but after more than 24 hours mostly out in the cold she was feeling really cold. The only reason why she had not done it yet was that something about her was reluctant to accept the fact of what was happening. That it might be a good idea to get some things organised to survive outside. At least until she had a better idea of what to do next.

She couldn´t keep doing this. Run around and stay hidden all the time. It was taking its toll on her to use her powers so much, making a wearyness settle she had not known so far. The use of her powers had always come in handy and as something that didn´t cost much effort but she had been using them for many hours and almost constantly (apart from the nap in the park and her sitting here right now) so a new kind of exhaustion was starting to take a firm hold. Sooner or later, things would have to change. She needed a warm place, something more to eat, a place to stay. Something that every normal person needed and appreciated. But then she remembered what had happened and the fact that there was rumours about her on the news as it seemed, was narrowing her possibilities.

Maybe mutants. That thought was starting to grow when she sat there, trying not to let her teeth chatter. Maybe there was a palce she could go to with mutants that would take her in. She had been thinking that thought before and rejected it, but it was starting to look more and more appealing, despite her fears. The institute she put aside as unrealistic, but maybe something else? Heck, she didn´t know this city, she had no idea where to start looking but she abandoned her place in the old building, deciding that she was not about to sleep while freezing like that anyways, and made her way back out, into the city, heading for the more livelier spots, looking for mutants. And she found them, here and there, some that were so obviously mutants that they probably stayed hidden during the day.

She joined a group of young adults at some point who were hanging out by a house entrance. She had been watching them for a while, making sure they were not dangerous or at least trying to do so. They were talking about this and that, mostly gossip she guessed and neither the names nor the places they mentioned held any meaning for her. She pulled the hood of her jacket into her face and joined them, starving for something to eat and for the warmth of the little fire they had going.

She didn´t stay long. They were friendly, but soon and unexpectedly, their conversation turned to mutant matters. Some place they wanted to go to or considered going to later, a mutant bar or something, she quickly forgot the name again. But what made her excuse herself was them starting to talk about the murder. Maybe they found it odd that she left after that but she had no experience at all in masking a crime. They had not mentioned they believed it had been a mutant, but the fact that they had rather seen it as something outraging to accuse one had made her feel terrible. She had thanked them for sharing the fire and told them she needed to be on her way. One of them looked after her into the night, wondering what was up to the young woman and why she would forsake a warm fire and the protection of company so soon.

[Gambit]

Gambit left his bike in the garage and took a car instead. A bike was no good here. Where he might find Shade? Would she be healthy? Would she be conscious? Would she need hiding? Although with her powers she wouldn't, of course, but that was only if the answer to the first two questions was affirmative. There were other variants to consider, but Gambit didn't have enough information for more conjectures.

By this time, he already knew where the murder had taken place. He stopped his car a few blocks from there and quickly found the police lines and several officers present. There was no need for him to go inside the building, he just stopped at some distance from the policemen, took out a city map and started eavesdropping, pretending to look on the map and making a call and writing messages to someone about being lost.

It took him a while to pick enough bits of info from what he could hear to put things together. Manuel's words were confirmed by someone who lived in this building or nearby. The alleged murderer was a woman, she matched Shade's description, she ran away after it happened, someone saw her, apparently.

Yet she hadn't turned out at the mansion. There had been plenty of time to get there by any transportation, unless she avoided it and either went by foot (Gambit seriously doubted this) or either went elsewhere. This place was at most two hour's walk to either Gambit's apartment or the Hellfire Club, so Shade didn't go to those places, either. Unless she did and stayed silent and invisible. Why on earth?.. Gambit doubted this as well.

Maybe it was time to start his own search in the city.

He got into the car and drove to spots he knew where mutants could be found in small groups, gatherings, bars or even congregations. He asked in terms of "Hey, I was supposed to meet a date here, looking this and that? Anyone of the kind been here today?"

His patience was wearing off when, after two hours of fruitless driving and questioning, he came across a small group of young mutants who looked halfway between homeless people and idle hipsters. Gambit's red eyes and accent made him look trustworthy, for the mere reason that he was a mutant, one of them; you never knew when these things could be a benefit. The young people confirmed having seen someone like that, earlier in the night, they gave a brief description and even pointed the direction where he could follow her.

He thanked them, left some money as a token of gratitude, and left. No doubt if the police came across the same youngsters later, his description would be given away as well, but he would worry about this later.

[Shade]

For the lack of other ideas, Shade returned to the building she had been to earlier, an abandoned office building maybe two blocks away from where the young mutants were still gathered around the fire. She had been wandering around a bit, restless, the uncertainty of what to do next, where to go, nearly driving her insane. She had no plan, but she knew sooner or later she would need one. She couldn´t stay on the streets like this. Become her own name by just dwindling hidden and merely showing when her powers were draining her. The thought alone was creepy and she tried to abandon it, not managing to do so completely.

She had been wandering about for another two hours or so, hiding with her powers, and when she decided to return to the building, she was drained. When she turned the corner, she could feel her head ache, her heart beat painfully with the effort to stay hidden. She would not be able to stay invisible, just minutes, not longer. She made her way slowly to the entrance of the office building, splintered, hollow glass doors leading into an empty hallway without electricity and from there into rooms, to an non functioning elevator and a cobwebs stained staircase. It was tempting to let her powers slip then already and she was about to do it when she heard the single, short howl of a police siren at the other end of the road. A squad car patroling the nightly streets, not looking for her in particular but its mere presence scaring her already paranoid mind. There were just two choices. Show up in the middle of the street as in pop up out of nowhere and make herself more than suspicious, or: run for it. Reach the entrance and get into hiding quickly so she could let her powers slip. She decided for the latter and ran, unseen, towards the building entrance, her jaw set, her breath coming in pants at the efforts. Her powers pulling on her strength mercilessly.

She took the bend around the splintered class door sharply and felt something tug on her right hand, panically and quickly tugging hard, seeing something come off around her wrist and flutter to the threshold where it lay in semi darkness. She didn´t stop to look what it was, it appeared to be a bracelet of sorts and she frowned as she nearly stopped for a split second, the brief thought bugging her that it did not look familiar. Where did she get that from?

But she couldn´t afford to stop. Instead she dashed on for another few steps, turned sidewards into the staircase before she dropped against the wall with a stiffled groan, her powers slipping as she stayed hidden from the cop car that was driving past outside. She kept her eyes close, trying to level her breath, instinctively listening to sounds outside but unable to focus much for the moment, her heartbeat echoing in her ears from exhaustion.

[Gambit]

It was already dark. Gambit kept asking random people if they had seen anyone but the later it got, the fewer were there for him to ask.

Supposedly Shade was still around here. Gambit didn't think she'd run anywhere far during the night. It was her second night out there alone - unless she'd found a group of people to cling to, or was already caught by the police, she'd stick around. He knew she was unlike him in this respect, but he could at least try and guess her manner of actions.

He took out his flashlight and started looking at the most obvious things - entrances to dark alleys or houses where some footprints could be seen, or empty windows and various nails or broken boards sticking out against the walls - to see a piece of fabric or something. Anything could be useful. But so far he could only see that some dogs lived here, by wisps of dog hair on edges of objects near the ground. Not much help.

He noticed something flickering to the light of the flashlight in a doorway of an empty building. Could be a flattened beer can, for all he knew, but he walked closer anyway.

It was a bracelet. He recognized it right away, a Vodoun charm, the one that Tante Mattie had sent to Shade. He picked it up and examined it. The bracelet was torn, and the examination of the doorway explained why.

He shone the flashlight inside the building. "Shade, ya there?" he called, not too loud so as not to attract attention from the street.

[Shade]

Shade had been drowsing in an uneasy, fickle slumber that had settled on her as soon as her breath had calmed a bit. She had had no choice than to keep her powers down even though she felt exposed sitting against the wall that way in plain sight, no matter whether this building was possibly merely home to a few rats, no matter the fact that someone coming in would not spot her because she was hidden near the doorway.

It might have been two hours or three since she had arrived and since then she had not moved, just sitting there, exhausted and half asleep, her senses always nervously alert. But still, for a moment, sleep had taken her only wo wake her abruptly when she heard somebody calling. She was wide awake at once, her senses working seemingly too slow so she froze and it took her several seconds to sort in what was happening. Immediately, she vanished but didn´t move, staring towards the doorway to her side. There was light, moving light probably coming from a torch. Her first thought was the cops, that they had found her but then it suddenly hit her, her brain processing the words that had been called.

An inner voice yelled at her, telling her hysterically that her ears must have been playing a trick to her, telling her that whoever was out there had called her by her name. Surely that must have been her dreaming... she told herself that but some part of her told her that she was kidding herself. She tried not to admit that thought because it was utterly confusing and scaring.

For a few seconds that seemed far longer to her she sat rigid, not moving, not even breathing, her mind racing. The voice hadn´t sounded familiar and her brain with a strange clarity sorted it in as a male voice. But she knew noone here, and noone knew her. She should just not move. Just stay. Just wait till the light went away. And for a second she was about to do it. Then, despite all she had been through the last two days or maybe partly because of it, because at this point she was partly longing for help and because her amnesia set her back to a time where she had thought herself untraceable when invisible, she slowly got to her feet, her curiosity getting the better of her.

She tried not to make any sound at all when she got up, her feet shuffling slightly against the floor though, the place where she had been sitting until a moment ago indicated by wiped away dust on the floor. She was still holding her breath almost when she looked around the doorway. Despite her invisibility she merely took a look, didn´t stand in it, merely peeked.

There was a man here, holding a flashlight. She could not make out much of his features in the darkness of the hall, but he seemed tall with short hair and still rather young. He seemed to be looking for something and she had already partly dismissed the thought that she had heard him call her name, partly banning that into wishful thinking. Still, the presence of the stranger unsettled her. What was he doing there? Who was he? A tiny voice told her that she had not been mistaken, that he was looking for her but that didn´t make any sense at all.

A hand against the door frame she narrowed her eyes, trying to make out more details. He was maybe dozen steps away from her, but against the light of the torch it was difficult to make out details.

[Gambit]

Someone was here, Gambit could've sworn. The funny things his mind could do, a hidden part of his powers, his submerged empathy detected it. He never knew, of course, who exactly it was whose presence he felt, but here there were few reasons to doubt - Shade's bracelet meant Shade. It didn't mean she was alone here, of course, so he was very much on guard.

He thought he heard some footsteps inside, but since he was yet partly on the street, sounds could be misleading. He switched his flashlight off, fastening it to his tool belt that partly hid under his opened trusty trench-coat and started walking slowly up the stairs. It would give him time to adjust to the darkness and rely only on the streetlights coming in from empty windows. He'd handle it, for a thief it was a regular thing, not too comfortable, but he was used to it. Looking for an invisible Shade in a dark room was probably worse than looking for a black cat in a dark room. But she was Shade and he was Gambit, so he had the advantage.

"Shade, I know ya there," he called again in the same tone. "Why ar'ya hidin' from me, chere?"

Why indeed??

[Shade]

Shade stayed near the doorframe that lead to the staircase, watching with growing confusion. He seemed intent on finding out whether there was someone here. Whether she was here? She clung to what she thought reasonable: that he was someone looking for someone but that this person could not be her.

After a moment, she thought he might be leaving, but then he switched off the flashlight, plunging the hall into near darkness but allowing her for a moment to make out more details. he was wearing a long coat and when he looked her direction for a moment she could see something else: his eyes were red. He was a mutant. That confused her even more, it was one more thing that didn´t make any sense since it tossed in new doubt into her vague theory that he was some sort of cop. But maybe there were mutant cops in New York?

He walked towards the doorway, towards the stairs and she backed away, her sneakers causing no sounds and if so they were overlapped by the sounds he made when moving. Hardly any. That didn´t do much to calm her. He was heading straight towards her and for one terrifying moment she thought he had seen her. He was a mutant. Maybe he could? She froze. And then he spoke again and this time there was no doubt. He knew her name. He knew she was here. But why? Who the hell was he?

He came closer, only a few steps distance between them now and she could either have pressed against the wall, hoping he would not touch her accidentally when walking past or avoid him. Up the stairs. Again she decided for the second option. She spun around and nearly fell as she stumbled, her foot hitting the first stair before she managed an awkward leap and starting to dash up the stairs as fast as she dared. It didn´t work soundlessly, there was the light tap of her feet which sounded so terribly loud in her ears. Up. She thought, up to another room. Maybe she could shake him off. The fact that he knew her name scared her.

[Gambit]

It was quiet at first, and Gambit was trying to make out some sounds of breathing or something. He could feel someone was close. When he heard the sound of steps running up the stairs, he knew at once it could only be her. Invisible, right in front of him.

This could have been so much fun in other circumstances...

He darted after her, leaping over several steps at once. He knew if she turned from the staircase into the room adjacent to it, she'd make a slide on the dirty floor from turning at a high speed of running and it would be heard. He'd watch out for that slide while running up along the stairs. As he ran, he swiftly grasped his bo staff off his belt and extended it, keeping it slightly inclined to occupy the entire width of the stairs - if Shade had any intention to stop and lean against the wall to have him run past her, she'd get in the way of the bo staff.

[Shade]

It took seemingly no more than splits of seconds until the man jumped after her. Suppressing a scream Shade upped her speed, half racing, half scambling up the stairs, driven by basic flight instincts now. Whoever he was, he meant business. And he was fast. Far faster than she had guessed.

A hasty glance across her shoulder while her left hand was tracing the wall in order to avoid a fall, she noticed in the dim light that he had gotten out something. A sort of stick or staff she had not noticed before and her heart gave a painful leap when she noticed that he was doing it to block the way back. Someting told her this meant he could not see her but it also meant he had heard her and was now eliminating every possibility to turn back.

Shade two days ago would have seen a situation (well, not one where Gambit was basically on her heels, but a situation where she was chased by someone unknown to her) as so threatening that she would make use of her stealth. Shade now was unaware that she possessed such a power and therefore did not try at all. Instead she ran on, like through a miracle not falling in the twilight that was only slightly illuminated from the lights of occasional streetlamps filtering in through the mostly broken windows, tossing light grey shadows mixed with dirty yellow on the stairs.

She could tell he was close, so close behind her. She could not make out the sound of his breath against her own, but he was there and close, moving with frightening speed, mercylessly catching up.

Shade reached the first floor and, hoping he would think she´d just keep running up, darting sidewards, nearly slipping on the floor as she turned the bend, racing into a large room that was mostly empty apart from a few desks and large shelves with old, yellowed, abandoned folders. She nearly cursed as she dangerously lost footing, for a moment her hand touching the floor but just in time catching herself, her foot kicking and leaving a long slide in the dust as she sped on into the room and away from the staircase.

[Gambit]

A-ha, there it was, the sound Gambit was listening for. He knew he had better chances of intercepting Shade on the stairs as he could run faster than her, and her going off onto one of the floors gave her more room where she could hide, but he preferred an even level and an empty space where he could watch and listen, instead of faulty sounds reverberating through the empty staircase.

He slowed down near the entrance to the floor and saw the line Shade had left in the dust. He walked in carefully then, surveyed the room and slipped into a shadow along the wall further away from the window. He could be invisible too, sometimes, so two could play that game.

[Shade]

Shade didn´t remember, but normally she would have enjoyed this: hiding, trying to trick Gambit in a game of hide and seek. It would have been fun and a challenge for both of them, but not right now and right here, where she didn´t remember and all she felt was fear. She ran on, into the room, her footsteps sounding louder to her than they actually were. Only after about a dozen steps she dared to look across her shoulder... and found she was alone. Or was she?

Confused and insecure she slowed down, looking around. He had been behind her seconds ago, he had been almost close enough to reach her or to knock her off his feet with that staff and now it was as if the shadows had swallowed him. She stopped, forcing herself to calm her breath and turn it into almost soundless breathing. It didn´t really work. Her limbs were tense, ready to jump away at any given second. Where had he gone? She froze. Listened. Nothing. But still. It had been too suddenly and she could not hear any steps up the stairs. Had he really run on?

Shade narrowed her eyes, trying to make out details in the dark. It was a ghost place, old, dusty furniture placed here and there, giving the room a somewhat creepy feel. Somewhere outside she could hear another police siren far off, echoing through a splintered window. She relaxed a bit. Normal Shade would never have relaxed there, had this been a game for fun. Normal Shade would have known he was there with her, somewhere, melting with the shadows.

Maybe she had shaken him off, she thought. Clinging to that thought, but she didn´t let her guard down completely and stayed invisible. She felt helpless, cornered even though she didn´t even know whether she was cornered. She didn´t have anything to defend herself. Across the room there was a doorway, far to the other end of the room that had probably once been an open plan office, desks nestled between shelves. Slowly, carefully she started her way across the room.