The black cloud(preview)

A faint beeping, getting louder, louder… louder… It sounds like something he’s heard before. He can’t remember what. Never mind that, he needs to figure out where he is. Where is he? Not fully awake yet, He could use just a little more sleep, a little more sleep never hurt anyone, right? NO! He thinks, quickly sitting up. More beeping, constant beeping, getting faster, faster… It’s so humid. He thinks, looking around, where the hell am I?! He hears footsteps in the hall next to his room, echoing off the walls. He remembers hearing this sound before… he can’t recall when or where he remembers this from, but he’s heard this sound before. The footsteps are getting closer. The door opens, a woman walks in. He realizes where he is. It’s a hospital or some sort of medical room, the beeping gets faster, he knows where the beeping is coming from, it’s a monitor, he can’t think of the name, the one that watches your heart rate. What is he doing in a hospital? He thinks about it, he can’t remember doing anything to get hurt, and now that he thinks about it, he doesn’t remember anything at all. He’s pretending to sleep, an attempt to gather more information, the woman seems to be checking on him, after a couple of minutes she leaves. He sits up and opens his eyes again, the room is dimly lit, eerie, it appears to be nighttime, the clock on the wall In front of him confirms this thought. The sound of knocking fills the room. He checks the door, opening it only enough for him to see. No one is there. The knocking sounds again, this time, he realizes that it’s coming from the window, he waits, nothing but silence. Right when he thinks it won’t happen again it gets even louder than the last one, it sounds like the window would break if it was any louder, he rushes to the window, draws the curtains, and finds himself two or so inches away from a masked face, he’s startled, it’s too dark to tell anything about them. The window is the only thing keeping them from nearly touching. He opens it, but only a crack, enough to hear what it is they want. The moment the window opens in the slightest bit he feels a rush of wind, it’s strange, it feels like a shadow just went through him. The figure has vanished. He looks out the window for about a minute longer, looking for this masked figure. They are nowhere to be found. He closes the window and curtains, that was weird, he thinks. He turns around to start walking back to his bed, and he stumbles, the masked figure is standing in front of him, again, they are face to face, about the same distance as before, this time, there is no window. The heart rate monitor beeps faster, increasing in speed. The masked figure is silent, still. Too still.

“Who are you?” He asks, he goes to move around them, to the door, maybe he can escape, the moment he passes the masked figure he gets the same feeling, like a rush of wind, the figure appears In front of him, blocking the door.

“Who are you?” “What do you want?” He asks.

“I am Melany, and I need you to come with me.” Say, Melany.

“Why should I do that? He asks.

“I am not allowed to say, you will find out when we get there.” Says, Melany. She starts walking towards him, startled, he backs away.

“What are you doing?” He asks.

“You need to come with me.” Says, Melany. Without warning she lunges at him, so quickly he can’t comprehend what’s happened till it was too late.

“He-“ he spits out before she grabs him, almost in a hug, and it’s that same feeling he got before, but amplified, it feels like he got swallowed and spit out by a shadow, but in a different place.

“y! He says, finishing his cry. She’s on top of him, Melany stands up.

“Where are we? What did you do to me?” He struggles to speak, the wind knocked out of him.

“We're at a gas station in Texas.” Melany says.

“What? How? Where were we before?” He asks while trying to stand.

“We were somewhere in Hawaii.” Says, Melany, Her foot on his chest, preventing him from standing.

“How is that possible? What are we doing here?” He manages to spit out.

“I took you here.” say’s Melany. “No more questions.” She says, starting to tie him up.

“What do you mean? Why are you tying me up?” He asks.

“Just precaution, now sleep, your questions will be answered tomorrow.” She says before knocking him out with her elbow.

The next day was strange. My head is throbbing, Melany is talking in her sleep, it sounds like she’s having a conversation, never mind that, she won’t wake up. I've been waiting here for nearly an hour now, when will she wake up? He thinks to himself, trying to remember something, anything at all. All he remembers is the night before. What happened to me? He asks himself, questioning everything, trying to make sense of what has happened so far. I woke up in a hospital room, and can't remember anything. Melany took me here, I’m not sure how, it seems that she can teleport. But the sensation feels so strange, it’s almost like getting punched in the gut, how does she do that? In an instant Melany is awake, he flinches, startled. “Good god, don’t do that! I’m going to have a heart attack!” He yells. “You’ll be fine, we only have a couple of jumps left to go, are you ready?” Melany asks.

“What?” “No I’m not ready, why wouldn’t you wake up?” “Who are you?” “Who were you talking to? ”He asks.

“I know you have a lot of questions but you’ll be ok, your questions will be answered when we get there.” Melany says. “Where is there?” He asks.

“The Legion.” Melany replies. And she embraces him again, taking him to their next destination. They made 3 more jumps like this, finally landing in New York City. In total it was only about five minutes and they were across the country. He’s getting more and more used to “jumping”. “How does she do that?” He thinks, wishing he knew more.

“Where are we now?” He asks, it looks like their in a deserted alleyway.

“New York City, we’re almost there.” Melany says. “Just one more jump, are you ready?” Melany asks.

“Do I have a choice?” He asks.

Melany starts counting down,

“3… 2…1…” the rushing feeling comes and goes, it gets easier and easier every time. Where are they now? It’s dark, he can’t see anything. “Where are we now?” “Where are you?” He Asks. After a pause, “we’re here.” Says, Melany.

“Where is he-“ the lights come on, he’s standing in the middle of a table the shape of a triangle, with three seats, each occupied by someone he doesn’t recognize, the one in charge looks older, grey hair, wrinkles. One person on each side. The others are younger, well built, one man and one woman.

“Welcome!” Says the older man that looks to be In charge, With a very loud, booming voice, “We are the elders, my name is Aldrich, I am the legate, or in other words, commander of the legion, and this is Enzo” he says while pointing to his right, “he is the head of defense and training, and to my left is Ailani, head of agriculture and peace among our people.” Aldrich says with a smile.

“What’s going on? I haven’t gotten a single straight answer this whole time, who are you people?” “What am I doing here?” He asks forcefully.

“Well, we are the legion of the black cloud, you are here to learn and figure out what your purpose here will be. We are all given abilities at a certain age, you just discovered yours recently, that is why you're here. Because if you didn’t come here it could be dangerous for the people around you. That is why you were in the hospital room, you had injured yourself while using your ability for the first time, and my apologies for having you tied up, we couldn’t risk losing you, Melany, will you please untie our guest? Says, Aldrich.

“Yes sir.” says Melany.

“What do you mean?” “What’s my ability?” He asks Aldrich, while being untied.

“Well we were hoping you would be able to tell us, did you forget?” Asks Aldrich.

“All I remember is waking up in a hospital bed and then Melany kidnapped me and took me here. How is she able to teleport? Is that her ability? He asks.

“No actually, that is something we can all do, and quite well with good practice! It sounds like you may have some sort of amnesia, we’ll get someone to try to help you out, But we all have our abilities aside from teleportation, it’s like a rank, the better the ability, the more respected you will be, than you can attempt to work your way up.” Says Aldrich.

“How do you know? How do you know what your power is?” He asks.

“Well you have to use it first, can’t tell without first finding out what it is again, and that my friend, will be your first task.”

In the next couple of days I found out that “we” can manipulate the shadows and use them as transportation, that’s why night is such a critical time. And everyone gets a random power unique to their personality. They gave me a name, until I can remember mine, Araysh, which supposedly means over-shadower, and I found out that Melany means someone who is covered in shadows. I don’t know when I will remember my real name, but this works, for now. I wonder how I injured myself. And I wonder what power I have. I've been trying to teleport, but it isn't working very well, I was told that training starts tomorrow, but I don’t know what I’m training for. All of this is too abrupt, random, I still have so many questions. I have my own room, not very big, no windows, what looks like it used to be blue paint peeling off the walls, just a bed in the middle of the room, no lights. There are no lights that I’ve seen but in the room I was brought here in. Melany coming out of nowhere will never not be creepy.

“Hey, Araysh! Want to come train with me? I need a sparring partner.” Asks, Melany.

“I don’t see why not, where?” Asks Araysh.

Grabbing him, Melany takes Araysh to a huge room filled with every weapon you could think of, the ceiling is domed, the room is about the size of a football field, people are everywhere, sparring, training, throwing knives at targets. It’s dark, it seems that everywhere is dark, Melany says I will be used to it soon and that’s also one of their abilities, they can see in the dark, but they have to train themselves to do so, that’s why I can some-what see, if I were normal I wouldn’t see anything.

“Keep your guard up.” say’s Melany, after dropping Araysh to the ground for the millionth time.

“What do you think I’m trying to do?” Say’s Araysh. They are fighting on a blue mat, in the middle of the room.

“Slow down!” Says Araysh.

“Speed up!” Melany says with a grin.

Melany is fast, too fast, I can’t even land a single blow on her, I haven’t touched her once yet, this is the first time I’m seeing her without a mask on, she’s beautiful, long dark hair, beautiful features, strong build, lovely brown eyes, and always seems to be smiling. It’s hard to focus on fighting.

“You're distracted” say’s Melany after teleporting behind him and putting him in a headlock. “What’s wrong?” She asks.

“N-n-nothing!” He shouts, attempting to free himself, which only causes her to tighten her grip.

“I said, what’s wrong?” Flipping him onto his stomach and pinning his arm to his back in an unnatural way.

“NOTHING!” He shouts, feeling strange, different somehow, stronger. He starts to stand, with ease almost, escaping her hold and reversing it onto her.

“Oww!” She cries out in pain. He quickly lets go of her arm and starts stammering an apology, right when he releases her she disappears.

“Where did you go?” He asks, Almost as soon as this leaves his mouth he gets hit in the face, he only sees a flicker of movement before it disappears, it happens again. “Hey, stop doing that! Where are you?”

“Over here!” She says.

He quickly spins around and sees her for a split second before she disappears again.

“I’m over here!” Coming from somewhere behind him.

She hits him again, this time before he can turn around, he realizes what’s happening.

“Over here!” She says.

This time, he’s ready for it, he spins around and narrowly dodges the next attack, she goes flying past him, he watches her disappear into thin air.

“Hey there” she says behind him, grinning.

“How are you doing that? You're everywhere at once!” He asks.

“Practice, lots of it, it’s your turn to try, are you ready?” She asks.

“Hell no.” He says, fearful of what she may do.

She grabs him, again, almost in a hug-like manner, and suddenly they’re on top of the one World Trade Center, the tallest building in New York. It's nighttime.

“Oh god, what the f-“ she pushes him off the side.

“AHHHHHHHH” he screams.

“Hi.” says Melany, falling next to him.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” Shouts Araysh, terrified.

“Helping you out” say’s Melany.

“HOW THE HELL IS THIS SUPPOSED TO HELP ME” He yells.

“Use your power and you can be back in your room on your bed in an instant, if you don’t, you hit the ground, simple as that.” Says, Melany.

“But I don’t know how to! I’m just going to hit the ground and die!” Shouts Araysh.

“I guess so.” Melany leaves, teleporting away.

Lost, and very shocked, Araysh sees the ground slowly getting closer and closer, unsure of what to do.

“Oh god, what do I do, think man! It can’t be that hard, right? Just think of where you want to go and go there! Alright alright alright, in my bed! I’m in my bed! I want to be in my bed! DAMNIT, nothing is working! God, just think of something, anything at all!” He thinks to himself. In Total it was probably only a minute worth of falling, but it felt like forever.

And then, as he’s scrambling for something, anything to think of, anything to go to, he thinks of her. He thinks of Melany, how beautiful she is, how delicate yet strong she is, and an instant before he hits the ground, he gets enveloped in shadow, a second later he sees a wall barreling towards him, no, that’s not right, he’s barreling towards the wall, too late, he doesn’t realize in time, right before he hits he’s grabbed by Melany and teleported to his bed, finally coming to a stop.

“Ahhhhh— oh… I’m not dead! I did it! I’m alive!” He yells as he’s pinching himself just to make sure it’s all real.

“That was a bit too close for comfort, keep in mind that you keep the momentum you go in with, have you figured it out?” Asks, Melany.

“I think I have! The feeling is so strange! But at the same time, it also feels so natural, it’s like you get swallowed by the shadows and then spit out where you wanted to go!” He exclaims, excitedly.

“Indeed it is, I’m glad you figured it out again, it’s almost dawn, you should probably get some rest, there will be more training tomorrow, we need to teach you how to use your teleportation effectively, good morning Araysh.” She says with a smile.

“What?” He asks.

“Just a little joke among us, see you tomorrow.” she says.

“See you.” He says, trying not to blush.

That night all he did was think of her, completely forgetting that she had just pushed him off a building, until he passed out from exhaustion.

The next day was tough, lots of teleportation, dodging, attacking, more rooftop jumping, I think I’m getting the hang of things, it feels so natural, like the shadows are a part of me now. It feels great, like I’m powerful when I do it, as if nothing can stop me. Melany walks in and sits by him on his bed.

“Hey, Melany?” Asks Araysh.

“What’s up?” Asks Melany.

“I forgot to ask, but what were you doing that day, at the gas station? When you were talking in your sleep?” He asks.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you about that, well, that’s my power, telepathy.” Says, Melany.

“Woah, how do you do it? How did you find out?” He asks.

“That’s a story for a different day, but I was in a bad situation and it came through, and I was able to get help.” Says, Melany. “And that’s why I pushed you off of the roof, you were in grave danger and you survived because your teleportation came through, you just needed a reason to use it.” Says, Melany.

“Alright, I’d rather stay on the ground next time though.” Says, araysh, not pushing the question, she clearly doesn’t want to talk about it.

“We can work something out.” Says Melany, with a grin.

“What do you know about the elders? Who actually are they?” Asks araysh, changing the subject.

“No one knows very much about them, they are the founding members of the legion, they helped create everything we have and know.”

“Ok, but who are they?” He asks again.

“I'm not sure who they really are, but we all came from a planet named Varjo, they said that they were attacked by a foreign species, and they fled here.” Explains Melany.

“What could have been so bad that they had to leave instead of fighting back?” He asks.

“It was like nothing they’ve seen before, like these beings just knew everything that we knew, but knew it better, no matter what we did, we were outsmarted, outworked, they couldn't be defeated. It's like they adapted to and overcame everything in their path. Those of us that couldn't escape were left to die.” She says, with a solemn look on her face.

“I'm sorry to hear that, may I ask what these beings looked like?” He asks.

“They looked like normal people, which was the worst part, it was difficult to tell who was ours from who was theirs. This is just what I was told though, I was too young to remember.” Says Melany.

“The elders told you this?” Asks araysh.

“Um, yes, why?” She asks.

“Nevermind, I just don't trust them very much.” He says.

“Why is that?” She asks, clearly irritated.

“I'm not sure, I just don't like them, they're just strange, like they have something to hide.” He explains.

“I don’t know what you're talking about, they’ve been nothing but good to me my whole life, if it weren’t for them I wouldn’t be here today.” She says, frustrated.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that, I’m sure it’s nothing.” He says, in apology.

“It’s alright, it’s just that they’re like parent’s to me, they’ve always been there for me, I was raised by them, and they taught me everything I know.” She explains.

“Yeah well, I can't remember the last 16 years of my life, if I am 16, I don't even know how old I am.” He says.

“I hope that you remember one day, but until then, we will train, so if those monsters ever come back they'll be sorry.”