Chapter Club: The Shadowrunner Chapter 25
Happy Friday! I’m excited to bring you another excerpt from The Shadowrunner.
Want to start from the beginning? You can find Chapter 1 here!
Last Time
Luke is the chief police officer in a small Arizona town called Abeja
His daughter, Lucy, has magical abilities that she is keeping secret from her parents.
A Texan named Silvia Montes was murdered not far from Luke’s house. Lucy both met Silvia prior to her murder and saw the murderer on the night of the crime. She has come to call the murderer a dragon
One of Lucy’s friends, Owen Macallan, fell into a coma about a month before the start of the book. He disappeared from his hospital room while Jenni and Owen’s mom were watching him.
Luke discovered a magical creature in the mirror of Silvia’s motel room named Pejito and its ability to reveal things happening far away.
On Halloween, Lucy encountered a monster in Owen’s shape behind the high school and the two fought.
After hearing about Lucy’s encounter with the monster, Luke convinced Pejito to show him the location of the monster: the local arcade.
Mateo crept through the smoke filled room. Red LED’s gave the illusion of fire filling the dark as shadows ran back and forth across the room.
Walked quickly, Mateo thought. Slowing his pace down. The last thing he wanted was to get pulled out for ignoring the aide’s instructions a third time this evening.
Mateo perched behind what looked like a water drum and looked over the balcony at the dark shapes moving through the maze of plastic walls inside the arena. His team was the red team and they were on the offensive. A group of four teenagers with red vests were advancing on the blue team’s base. He and one other member of the team were on the balconies, watching for the inevitable blue counterattack.
He saw a tell-tale blue light peak out from behind a warped wall and he fired. He let out a whoop of excitement as the light flashed white. This sniper position was going to be the key to getting most valuable player on the leader board.
He had just shot another one of the blue team members when he thought he heard someone walking up the ramp towards him. He ducked behind the water drum and peeked out with his head so that whoever was walking up wouldn’t be able to hit the lights on his vest. At first, the smoke obscured his view and then it moved, revealing a vacant walkway.
Mateo swept his gaze around the balcony. There was no one around, just him.
The flashing of the enemy base drew his attention back to the game. His team members had gotten a clear shot at the archways where the little targets were hanging and now they were going to town, racking up the points. Mateo stood up, aiming his weapon at the blue players that were half-heartedly trying to play defense.
When the last of the red vests turned white, the team started making their retreat. They bobbed and weaved through the corridors, barely keeping themselves from breaking into a run. Mateo nailed any of the blue lights that came into sight.
One of the blue team members peeled away from the others and started making their way up the ramp. Mateo ducked back and started to fire at him, sending his target behind another barrier. Knowing that it would only be a matter of time before the second blue team member came, Mateo started walking back to the other side of the balcony. He would grab Denton and the two of them would hold the bridge. If they didn’t, the blue team would just sit there and wrack up the points as they fired at their base.
He saw the second blue team member walk past the first and then the two were on the ascent. Mateo ducked behind the last pauldron there was before the archway, readying himself for the fight. He was about to call out for Denton when there was a gasp behind him.
Mateo turned back to the advancing blue team members and froze. At first, he wasn’t quite sure what he was looking at. One of the two boys was pinned up against the wall, his weapon dangling uselessly beside him and his hands clasped around his neck. The other boy was lying on his stomach and it seemed as though someone had cut his back open. Except, instead of blood and viscera running over the floor, bright white light spilled out from the ragged edges of the cut, illuminating the figure kneeling behind him. If he were to give his best guess, he thought the kid was around eight years old.
He looked hideous. The boy’s face was inflamed an ugly red, puffy and swollen. A line of snot ran down to the edge of his lip from his nostril. Most disturbing of all, his eyes were nothing more than black pools of nothing.
As Mateo watched, the monster lunged downward and clenched its teeth somewhere inside the boy lying on the ground. There was a scream as the monster jerked its head backward and ripped something out from inside of him. For a split second, he thought that the horror had the boy’s spine in its mouth. Then his brain caught up and the shape turned into what looked like a glowing braid of string.
Globes of light flew from the kid’s back as the edges of the tear knit back together. The monster turned to the kid pinned against the wall and his chest and stomach ripped open much the same way as the first victim’s had.
Mateo heard screaming behind him as people ran for the exit, but he couldn’t move. Terror kept him frozen in place, watching as the thing clothed in a child’s body consumed whatever was in the other teenager’s chest.
When the second victim fell to the ground, comatose, the child turned its horrible dark eyes on Mateo. He thought he was going to die. Then the child stepped back into the corner and melted into the dark. It was only a moment later that the lights turned on and the aides came in to see what had happened. Footsteps ran up the ramp and then there was a face next to his, asking him what he had seen.
Mateo couldn’t say anything. All he could see in front of him was the image of the child with the pools of shadow for eyes.
There was a crowd of people around the front door of the arcade when Luke got there. Closer inspection revealed a higher proportion of women to men. As he stepped out of his car, someone called out and then they were all around him. One of the women shouted, “they won’t let our boys out!”
Luke waded his way through the crowd to the front door and tried the door. When the door rocked against the deadbolt, Luke slammed his hand against the glass.
“Open up! This is Officer Alden!”
Behind him, he heard sirens. A moment later and a patrol car pulled into the parking lot. Officer Muna jumped out of the car and charged toward the door.
“Out of the way!” she yelled to cries of protest.
An aide dressed in red and white pinstripes appeared on the other side of the glass. His eyes widened when he saw the two officers, but an instant later his face showed relief. He fished keys out of his pocket and undid the door, pushing it open just wide enough for Luke and Officer Muna to squeeze in while parents shouted outside.
When the door was shut and locked behind them, the aide said, “Thank God you’re here!”
“I thought you went home,” Muna said under her breath. “How did you know there was an incident?”
The aide saved him from responding. “This way, Officers.” He gestured to the back of the arcade.
“What happened here?” Luke said, ignoring Muna’s question for the time being.
“There’s something in the laser tag room, but the lights won’t turn on!” The aide said, his voice quivering.
Luke felt himself go cold, but kept walking. Was the suspect here? Had he attacked two more boys? Panic rose like a fire sucking in breath. Before it could consume him, he dashed it with the resolution that he needed to be the hero now. If the suspect hadn’t left yet, a confrontation was inevitable.
The entryway lead into a dining area speckled with large, round tables. The chairs around them were one step above folding chairs and had a yellowed cushion on the seat. The entire area was surrounded by booths the same color as the chair cushions. A bar with a brightly lit sign took up the right wall. The rest of the building was taken up by games festooned with flashing lights. Though there were no sounds of amusement in the building, the staff hadn’t gotten around to turning the machines off.
Next to the wall carpeted with black felt and a humming TV screen was a group of teenage boys who had been corralled by two other arcade workers into a set of booths next to the laser tag arena. Included in the group were at least three dads, or what Luke assumed were dads based off their age.
There was one boy sitting by himself in one of the booths. He was scrunched up in the corner with his feet up on the seat and his knees pulled inward slightly. By the looks of it, he was the only one who hadn’t been talking about what happened. His testimony would be the least muddled by conversation. Luke walked over to stand in front of him.
“What’s your name, kid?”
The boy looked up at him with a blank expression.
“Mateo,” he said, almost too quiet to hear.
Luke turned to Muna. “Keep the others here. I’m going to find out what’s going on.”
Muna nodded and stepped towards the larger group. Luke turned back to the aide and said, “I need somewhere private.”
The aide pointed towards a door marked Staff Only, “You could use the break room.”
“Thanks,” Luke said then turned back to Mateo. “You want to come with me for a minute? I want to talk about what happened.”
It looked like the teenager would refuse. He flinched back into the booth and drew his legs closer around him as if he were Lucy’s age.
“It’s okay. You’re safe now. I just need to ask you a couple of questions and then you can go home.”
They locked eyes. Luke could see the fear reflected in his dark pupils. Then he nodded and carefully extracted himself from the booth. Luke led the boy into the commandeered break room. It was empty besides the stack of fliers in the middle of the table. Luke did the staff the favor of tossing them into the recycling bin before turning back to the teenager.
“You want to tell me what happened?” He asked, opening the voice recorder on his phone and placing it on the table in front of him. If the situation had been any less dire, he would have used a dedicated voice recorder. Unfortunately, he wasn’t prepared.
The boy broke eye contact with him and mournfully gazed at the back wall.
“It… It was horrible.”
“What happened?” Luke said.
“I… it got Denton and Kevin. It ripped something out of them.”
Luke frowned. He had already known the recording would go into the restricted evidence locker, but he hadn’t expected someone to have seen the process that had happened with the previous victims.
“You said it attacked your friends. Where are they?”
“I don’t know; I didn’t see them come out.”
Their bodies were probably still lying in the dark, like the homeless man he had found under the bridge. That meant two more beds at the hospital, two more families waiting to see if their children would ever wake up.
“What did you see?” he continued, pushing aside his thoughts to focus on the case.
“It looked like a kid, but it… it was a monster.”
The teenager locked eyes with him, terror emblazoned on his eyes. Luke held a steady gaze in response. A kid? Had he seen Owen? This boy needed him to keep it together and he was planning on doing just that.
“How could you tell it was a monster?”
“It didn’t have any eyes,” he said. Luke realized he was shaking. He scooted his chair over to the boy and rested his hand on his shoulder.
“Hey, you’re safe now. Nothing’s going to hurt you.”
“How do you know that?”
The fact of the matter was that he didn’t know. Whatever he had seen, it wasn’t the man who had attacked Owen. But he couldn’t have seen Owen. A little kid like him wouldn’t have been able to attack two older boys. And that left him with no idea what was in that room. That wasn’t what Mateo needed to hear right now.
“We have everything under control,” Luke lied. “We’re going to find whatever hurt your friends and we’re going to bring it in.”
“It’s still in there,” the boy replied.
Luke resisted the urge to run into the arena. He didn’t want whatever it was to get away, and he wanted to find Owen.
“What did you see?” Luke repeated. He patted the kid’s back, trying to calm him.
Suddenly, he broke. He dropped his head to the table and started crying. Sobs violently shook his body as the words spilled out of his mouth.
“It came out of nowhere and it ripped something out of them and when it was done it just disappeared!” he cried.
Luke glanced at the door, hoping that it would be enough to at least muffle the sound. He didn’t want to scare the others any more than they were.
“You’re safe here,” Luke repeated.
“I thought it tore out his spine, but he wasn’t even bleeding!”
The kid continued crying and Luke stood up. Mateo was shattered and sending him back to his mother was going to present more problems than it would solve.
“I’m going to go get you some help. Do you want some water?”
The boy sniffled, his eyes red. He nodded and Luke walked back out into the arcade. Officer Muna saw him and met him as he closed the door behind him.
“What are we doing here, sir?”
Luke whispered in response. “I need you to call the hospital and get a psychiatrist down here. Whoever is available. Tell them that there’s a kid here who needs to be evaluated for trauma and they might have to take him in.”
“Got it.”
As Officer Muna stepped away, Luke grabbed her arm. “And one more thing. Make sure they know that none of this can end up anywhere. No anonymized data. Nothing gets out.”
“Understood, sir,” Muna responded.
Luke got an aide to bring him a glass of water. When he brought the glass back into the break room, the boy’s sobs had mellowed out into quiet whimpering as he laid on the table. Luke put the glass next to his arm and said, “we’ve got someone coming to help you. We’re going to take care of you.”
The boy sniffed and lifted his head. He took the glass in front of him and took a small sip.
“Do you want someone to come and sit with you?”
He nodded.
“Okay. If you want to talk any more about what you saw, have them come and get me. Sound good?”
The teen nodded again before taking another sip of water.
Luke stepped out and let Officer Muna know about their arrangement. Then he turned his gaze to the door to the arena.
His legs felt wooden, like his toes were connected to the ground with super glue. If Owen was in there, and he had no reason to believe that Pejito was wrong, Luke wondered if he could protect him from whatever monster Mateo had seen. On top of that, was he ready to see what had become of Owen since he had disappeared?
One of the aides standing nearby asked, “Is there something wrong, Officer?”
But if he didn’t go in, no one else would.
“No. Thank you.”
Luke stepped forward and into the dark of the entryway. He pulled his flashlight from his belt, wondering if it would end up doing him any good, and turned it on. A few steps more revealed a room that smelled faintly of sweat. Dark monitors hung from the walls. Luke stepped into the arena beyond and scanned the room. It was about thirty yards deep and ten yards wide and filled with half-walls and barriers. Plenty of cover for teenagers playing an advanced version of cowboys and Indians.
Mateo had said the monster had disappeared after attacking the boys. He walked out into the space in the middle, where he could get a good view of the balconies around the outer edges of the room. He noted the orbs of light floating on one of the corner balconies. That was where the monster had made his attack, probably where it had left Denton and Kevin. And whatever it was did the same thing to its victims as the man with scarred lips did to his.
Luke advanced to the area under the balcony where the lights were. Luke shown his light into the corners of the barriers as he made his way to the innermost corner.
As he stepped into sight of the corner, his flashlight winked out. He tried turning it on again, but the bulb remained dim. Luke replaced it in his holster and let his hand hover over his gun. Not that it had done much good to shoot at the man when he found him under the bridge.
“Owen! Are you in there?”
There was a low growling sound as a faintly tepid breeze washed over him. It was like the one he had felt under the bridge, but this one was much fainter. He raised his pistol to point into the dark.
“Come out with your hand’s up!”
Again the growling, as if from an animal. Luke tensed, waiting for whatever was in the dark to spring. When nothing came, Luke glanced up at the lights. They were the only source of illumination in the room. Maybe they could replace his flashlight.
Luke ducked out from underneath the balcony and walked up to the lights. He walked carefully, trying not to step on any hidden bodies as he shepherded two of the wisps down to the ground level. One glowed a deep blue and filled him with the memory of looking out a window as a car drove away, while the other was a deep purple and filled his ears with the sound of rain. When he brought them back to the corner where the growls had come from, the light they cast edged out the darkness. The creature hissed as the light reached it, and Luke gasped at what the light revealed.
A child was curled up in the corner, his knees at his chest. His face was red and puffy with fluid leaking from his nose and eyes. Or where his eyes should have been. Just like the teenager had described, there were no eyes in his sockets, just pools of darkness.
It was Owen.
I hope you enjoyed this sneak-peak of The Shadowrunner. What did you think? Let me know by leaving a like and some of your thoughts in the comments below!