Aaron frowned in concentration. Math had never been his strong point. Admittedly, he’d been doing better ever since Rey had returned and started helping out with the younger ones, but the equations still swirled around his head endlessly. It was two weeks since the group had been discovered to be completely made up of shadows. Since then, they had been working together as a group when necessary. They had not, however, begun working together on homework. They were all too proud to ask for help from each other and too embarrassed by their families to invite each other to study groups, even if they were willing to ask for help. He swore in frustration.
“Hey, Ronny, stop that. You’ll teach Morgen and Izzy to start swearing. If you need help, why don’t you just ask Jane?”
Aaron looked at his twin sister, Freya, meeting the eyes which were the same chocolate color as his. “You know I can’t do that. She’s got enough on her plate as it is. And I don’t see you trying to help.”
Freya quickly brushed her wavy brown hair back and retorted, “And you should know that you can do that. In fact, Jane would probably jump at any chance to get out of that drunkard’s house. You should just marry her already and let her live here. And I’m taking care of the others, so don’t bother me about it. I’ve finished it once already. And offered to let you see my work. You’re just too proud to admit to Jane that you have problems with math. Even though she already full well knows you’re no good at it.”
Aaron frowned at Freya. Disregarding the marriage quip, everything she had just said was true of course. They were twins, they understood each other better than anyone. And yet, Freya was acting a little strange.
For some reason, out of the twelve children (Arawn and Freya, Odin, Prajapati, Morgen and Isis, Lilitu and Jarilo, Scathac and Amaterasu, Nazha and Yoeiju aka Aaron, Rey, Odie, Patty, Morgen, Izzy, Lilly, Jerry, Scatty, Rose, Nathan, and Juju) their parents, Daniel and Emily, had given birth to, they had decided that Freya, their firstborn, would be the one to go to California for high school. At first he’d been lonely, but it hadn’t been too bad because she would video chat with him every day. There was also the twin telepathy that they seemed to share, myth or not. She had instructed him in math when he needed help and told him about her day all the time. It was really almost as if she was there with them still.
But sophomore year, something had changed. Right before winter break she had started talking to him in an excited, almost impatient manner. Random things would make her flush and she began missing their daily talks. When she returned for winter, she seemed a little depressed and spent hours tapping away on the computer.
Things had started going back to normal after she returned to California, but Aaron could still tell she was holding something back. Another year came and went and the talks they shared got shorter as the workload in junior year piled up. Every time they talked she seemed stressed and distraught. Then, he caught her crying. They were talking about her day and she started choking up. She closed the computer abruptly, but he caught a glimpse of a tear leaking out of her eye before the camera blacked out.
Only Aaron went to meet her when she returned that winter break, because he had a bad feeling. His suspicions were confirmed when Rey took one look at him and burst into tears. He hadn’t questioned her, but he had told his parents not to let her go back.
Daniel and Emily didn’t know what was going on any more than Aaron did, but it was clear to them that Rey really was feeling unwell and they transferred her to Medy High. She had hardened over the summer and Aaron had gotten used to it, but today something was wrong. His instinct told him that something was making her uneasy.
“Yeah, maybe I’ll go ask her, then.” He said, musingly.
Rey froze. She glanced at the small golden band on the middle finger of her right hand. “Actually, Aaron, I have something to do. Can you keep a watch on the kids?”
Aaron nodded. As the eldest two, they often had things they needed to do and would switch off between taking care of the younger ones. The ring bothered him, though. She had gotten that in California too, and looked at it often.
He stood up and, in a flash, she was out of the house.
Aaron was glad to be taking a break from his math homework, and at any rate, it was time he made dinner. He watched the kids while he made dinner and had Jerry and Lilly clean and set the table. But as he was putting down the food, a lightning bolt crackled through the sky. A strange, frightened feeling filled him, though he hadn’t been afraid of lightning since he was 5, and Aaron instantly remembered a very important fact: Rey was completely terrified by lightning.
Frantically, Aaron set the rest if the kids up for dinner, gave quick blessing and told them to be good. Then, he ran out of the house without his shoes or a jacket, calling Jane.
“Hello, who is this?”
“Jane, I need you to come over to my house, if it’s not much trouble, to watch the kids. My sister’s missing and it’s a thunderstorm and…”
Jane didn’t ask any questions. “I’m on it.”
Aaron closed his eyes, thinking. Where had Rey gone? And where would she go in a thunderstorm. He had run out of the house in a panic, but he had no idea where she would be. If she had something to do, she’d most likely be near the collection of town shops. He would start from there.
Half an hour later, Aaron was desperate. There had been several more bursts of lightning and no one had seen Rey at all. He got a call on his cellphone, and he only picked it up because it was Jane’s ringtone.
“What is it?”
“Your sister–Rey, right?–she’s here. She came back.” Aaron collapsed to his knees in relief, when Jane continued, “But…”
There was a pause. “But what?”
A sigh rattled through the phone, “It’s nothing serious, but you might want to come back here. Now.”
“Jane, what-” She hung up.
A few minutes later, Aaron stood slack-jawed in front of his house. What was this…? . Many cryptids who would normally not be in the area were there, as well as a number of the local ones. Even some mythological creatures, which were pretty rare. For some reason they weren’t attacking the house or each other. They looked instead, like a crowd of paparazzi waiting for the prey to step out of the backroom.
Aaron took several steps back and slipped behind the nearest tree. He dialed Jane’s number and, in a deadpan voice, asked, “What is the meaning of this?”
Aaron could practically see Jane biting her lip worriedly as she said, “I honestly don’t know. Brian came bursting in through the back door with your sister slung over his shoulder in hysterics. They were followed by that crowd. I don’t know why they’re not attacking yet, but I have all ten of your siblings in the living room. We were lucky that none of the younger ones were playing outside. The creatures appear to only be around the front entrance, so the back door should be open, but be careful not to accidentally let in any… unwanted guests.”
“Roger that.” Gliding his way to the back door, Aaron took out a pair of large sunglasses. He checked for tiny signs of shadow creatures. The sunglasses would point out any strange discrepancies that indicated shadow activity.
Everything was, for all intents and purposes, clear. Aaron stepped into the house, closing the door quickly behind him and surveying the entrance to make sure everything was okay.
Whipping the glasses off of his face, he sprinted to the dining room. Jane was sitting on the couch with the ten younger ones around her. Odie, who was the oldest after Aaron and Freya, and Nathan, who was the most mature of the siblings, were trying to take stock of the situation. They were asking Jane questions, and when Aaron came in, jumped to his side.
Nathan said, “Rey’s upstairs with some guy called Brian.”
Odie nodded, “She was screaming earlier, as per usual in a thunderstorm, but has gone quiet. I don’t know how that Brian guy’s doing it, because even you can’t console her when she’s like that.”
Aaron turned without a word and sprinted up the stairs and into Rey’s room. At first, he didn’t see anything, then he noticed two figures sitting on the floor at the foot of her bed. One was Rey, shivering with a blanket over her head. The other was Brian, who was saying something indistinct in a slow, soothing voice.
Neither of them seemed to notice Aaron until he made a small cough. In an instant, Brian sprang up, snatching a rifle which Aaron hadn’t noticed earlier and pointing it at Aaron. Aaron noticed a wild, frightened look in Brian’s eyes.
Seeing who it was, Brian said, “Oh, it’s just you,” and began putting the rifle back propped up against the wall. A flash of light was followed by the rumbling sound of thunder. Brian dropped the rifle and, by the looks of it, would have run, if Rey hadn’t covered her ears and started up a keening noise.
Brian went down on his knees in front of Rey and, pulling one of her hands away from her ear, began speaking in that slow, soothing voice again.
Aaron took several steps forward and listened, though he rather suspected that it was Brian’s tone of voice, and not the actual words, that were calming her.
Rey’s screaming subsided into muffled sobs and Aaron could hear Brian saying, “That’s right, Freya. You’re safe. It’s okay. We’ll both be fine. We’re not going to be hurt by the lightning. You’re home now and it’s warm and cozy. Rain can’t hurt you, right? You’re strong. Don’t worry about silly things like lightning. Shh, sh. Don’t cry. Just breathe in and breathe out. Look, your brother’s here now, too…” Aaron gaped as Brian continued on in that manner, despite the fact that he looked just as pale as she did.
It looked to Aaron like he couldn’t help, but he heard something strange and stopped to listen. “Remember that time I almost shot you because I thought you were a shadow creature? You made me think just of a siren, though I suppose you looked more like a statue of an angel or valkyrie. And you really saved my sorry hide. I might’ve died on my very first assignment if it hadn’t been for you. I really wasn’t ready for it all. I’m so glad you were there for me. You were so strong and beautiful. You still are. So don’t start breaking down on me, please don’t. We’re both afraid of lightning, but it’s going to be okay. We’ll both be fine. Because we’re safe here. Please calm down.
Aaron stared at him. “What did you say?”
Sprinting down the stairs again, Aaron ran into the living room. “Jane, stay here and watch the youngest ones. Don’t move from here, we’ll handle it. Juju, keep the concentrated barrier up. You were the one who erected it, right? Odie, Nathan, Rose, Scatty, and Patsy, come with me. Bring what you need.”
Odie said, “We all have what we need already.”
Aaron nodded and headed out into the hallway, his siblings hard on his heels. Taking a deep breath, he opened the door.
“Odie, hawk form, get info from the birds in the vicinity and return to report. We’ll already be fighting at that time, probably, so do your best not to get in the way, I don’t want you hurt.”
Odin nodded and jumped, turning into a hawk and flying off. Next, “Patsy, pull some fog around the creatures, we need to limit their visibility. Nathan, pull Juju’s barrier around their creatures so they don’t escape. Same with the fog. Keep the electric wires out of the barrier.” Nazha closed his eyes in concentration and began to mutter something incomprehensible. Prajapati gave a cheery thumbs up and pulled out a biker’s helmet, which he always had under his arm. Putting it on his head, he began moving his hands across a keyboard only he could see.
Finally, “Scatty, ” Scathac and Amaterasu, twin, black-haired girls with long pigtails, gave identical grins. They both reached up and clasped the silver necklace that each was wearing. Rose had a silver katana for a pendant, Scatty had a silver branch. When they pulled their fists away, their weapons seemed to unravel from their necklaces. Rose was holding a full-fledged katana, and Scatty, a long, wooden staff. The creatures before them didn’t appear to notice, though Arawn had fully expected them to attack at the sight of weapons. They were all milling around aimlessly, looking a little lost.
Aaron, put on his sunglasses and took out a pair of rather strange-looking sticks. Both sticks were shorter than average, and the chain that connected them was much, much longer than it should have been. One stick was wrapped in soft, black leather, while the other had a protrusion that made it look like the hilt of a fencing sword. The chain was wrapped around the two sticks.
Carefully, Aaron unwrapped the chain. Each stick seemed connected to the other on top and bottom by magnets. Aaron pulled them apart and held each one as if it really were the hilt of a sword. The black one was in his left hand. The one in his right hand began to hum, and a strange haze appeared over the round protrusion. The chain glittered between the two sticks.
The fog was descending around the confused creatures, so it appeared that Patsy was doing his job. Aaron frowned at the mass of now-obscured creatures in front of them.
Odin came flapping down and landed, turning back into a human. It appeared that Nathan had let him and a small flock of birds inside the barrier.
“Yo bro, I thought you said you’d probably be fighting by now.”
Aaron replied tersely, “You came back sooner than expected, and the SC’s (abbreviation for shadow creatures) are acting weird. Report.”
“The birds weren’t too far away. They were all congregated around the barrier. They aren’t shadow creatures, but they were curious about this random congregation of animals that just popped out of some tree the lightning hit. Notice, these creatures, which would normally also be attacking each other, are just milling around.”
Aaron rolled his eyes, “Thanks for the biology lesson, now I asked you to report.”
Odie shook his head, “No appreciation for the finer points of life. Alright then, Mr. Hasty, here’s my report. These creatures don’t belong in this area. They’re confused and displaced. The portal they came through closed up as soon as they passed through. But the interesting part, is that they didn’t actually follow Rey here. They just found Rey on the way, as she was royally freaking out. As a matter of fact, from what the birds were saying, she more almost got trampled to death than chased down. From that, I can guess someone doesn’t like us. OR well…. maybe we got the shadow aura.”
Aaron wanted to shout at Odie, but instead, he gritted his teeth and said, “What. Do. You. Mean?”
“Well, everyone in the house barring the last two sets of twins are shadows. Maybe we smell to shadow creatures. So if, per say, they got zapped into this area and the portal-ing got them confused and robbed them of their animalistic desire to run rampant and/or kill each other, then they might possibly be drawn towards a familiar enemy, which would be us.”
Aaron frowned, “That’s ridiculous. I hate math and science, and even I know that’s ridiculous.”
Odie sighed dramatically, “I know… so, that leads us back to my first conclusion: someone with shadow power really hates us, but they messed up, so the animals aren’t attacking us.”
Aaron said, “Attack or not? With you here we have sufficient power to wipe them out, providing we work together.”
“Attacking would probably bring them out of their stupor and get a response. And it’s true that they very well might just start attacking each other, but it’ll still be a tight race. Mom and Dad’ll kill you if the twins get hurt.”
“Esh. You’re probably right, but screw that useless couple.” Aaron plowed forward, swinging his “nunchuk” in his right hand, rather more like a mace than a nunchuk.
Odie chuckled and shook his head, “Typical.” Jumping into the air, he assumed the form of a giant crow, leading his slightly confused small flock into battle.
Scatty and Rose moved forward, backs to each other, in precise, swirling motions. Matching the each other’s steps perfectly, and leaving no room for attack.
The animals reacted. They snapped at each other and the new threats. The three siblings and odd flock seemed somewhat overwhelmed, but not hopelessly so. Well, they were doing as well as any group could, Aaron reasoned, against a horde of monsters from which a three headed snake wasn’t the worst.
A silver spike impaled a warpy, bat-like creature next to his ear. Rose’s delighted voice called out, “Sister Freya!”
Scatty added, cheekily, “It’s about time.”
A girl with wavy brown hair and full battle armor glided towards the fray. Silver strands floated around her body like vapor. She stood in front of the doorway of the house. She had her two hands in front of her, palms down. Every time she moved them, the strands responded.
A carcass the twins had made lurched towards Aaron, but he just took two steps back and pressed the side of his sunglasses. The carcass burst into flame.
“Sorry.” Scatty called out at Aaron.
“You know we can’t use our extermination method with others in such close vicinity.” Rose said, smiling slightly, as she sliced through a creature that was heading towards Nathan and Patty.
Five, excruciatingly long minutes later, the five siblings were standing, completely exhausted, among a pile of SC debris. They were injured all over, some minor scratches, while others, bad gashes. Odie obviously couldn’t feel his arm, and Scatty’s right ankle was swelling dangerously. Nathan and Patty were sleeping against the wall, a few bruises and scratches indicating where they had been attacked while performing their duties.
Brian was standing against the doorpost, watching them with amusement. Freya caught sight of him and frowned, “Don’t you have anything better to do than stand there?”
“I suppose so. You all need to get patched up, and I’m sure Jane’s worried.”
Odie snorted, “Of course she’s worried, lightning freak, she’s been like a mother to us since Aaron met her.” He pushed past Brian, escorting Rose and the limping Scatty. Freya followed them.
“Lightning freak?” Brian said, offended.
Aaron sighed, looking at Nathan and Patty. He went over and pulled Nathan up.
“Hey.” Aaron looked at Brian. “How is it that you have so many shadows in your household?”
Aaron blinked at him, “Our good-for-nothing parents are both shadows. All twelve of us were born perfect to be shadows, so it’s natural that the egg came to all of us who are old enough.” He shrugged. “It’s tiring and sometimes I worry about what will happen to us all, but I don’t really think it can be helped. Being a shadow, well…. It’s in the blood, I guess.”
Aaron could feel Brian grinning at his back as he half-carried half-dragged first Nathan, then Patty into the house, completely unaware that Brian was silently laughing at him and thinking, “In the blood, huh? I should’ve known.”