The Shadows Within by faze1315 (reading strategies book .txt) 📖

Emily and snuggled up next to her. "These suits won't give us enough protection from the coldness," I whispered. Emily was tense next to me, but I snuggle in deep and let my head fall onto her shoulder.
I was woken by my foot repeatedly kicked. I moaned and rolled onto my side. "Get up princess," I husky voice kicked my side.
I jumped onto my feet and quickly took a defensive stance. A brown head boy stood feet away from me. We both circled each other, eyes squinted. "Where is Emily?"
"Obviously not here," he snarled at me.
"If you hurt her," I jumped, but feeble arms pulled me back. Emily held onto my waist and threw me onto the ground. Apparently she is stronger than she looks.
"Alex, I see you have met Vince, my friend."
"Vince?"
"Yes Vince," the boy held out his hand, but I brushed it aside and stood on my own. "You could be a little more thankful for the guy who brought you guys food."
I looked around at the cooked meat laying on a rock. It smelt wonderful and looked even better. "You caught that?"
"You could say that," He sat by the rock and ripped it into three pieces. "Enjoy." Emily and I sat down and dug into the meat. It still had food in it, just the way I liked it.
"Thank you," I muttered.
"Wait what did you say? I didn't quite catch that."
"To bad because I am not going to say it again,' I stood and brushed off the back of my pants. "There are probably still many demons out there that are starving and already caught the scent of meat. we should leave now if we don't want to be spotted."
"I agree with Alex," Emily stood by me, "lets leave."
For an hour we walked around dodging the scent of other demons. We ran into a group once, but we both wanted peace and ran past each other. Sadly few minutes after they passed us we heard the screams of them from behind us. The only thing that kept me from turning back was the thought that they were not killed. "Why are they doing this?"
"It is to see you could last the longest. You is capable enough on a battlefield."
"But why would they need to know that?"
"To recruit. Surprisingly not many demons volunteer to go against the all and powerful angels," Vince glared at me. I glared back. We both walked towards each other until Emily had to push us apart.
"We need to stick together, even if we are inches apart from ripping each other throats out. Right now I need you both to calm the fuck down," Emily pushed us both onto our butts and walked off.
"She is right you know," Vince pushed himself off the ground and pulled me up with him. "If we are going to get out of this unhurt we need to stop fighting."
"What is the point? Obviously none of us want to be recruited, so why are we fighting to be recruited? It makes no sense."
"Some of us-" Emily tackled us to the ground as a boulder hits just where we were standing. A group of kids walked of to the trees.
"Run!" I grab both of there hands and we run through the trees. Between the three of us, I was the fastest, pulling them behind me, but that didn't get us away from the rocks that were aimed for our heads. The only reason we could still run was because of Zila yelling at me where they were about to hit.
Just as I was hitting full speed, Vince trips, crashing all of us to mud with him. "Fuck it hurts!"
"You need to give him some of your blood," I scream at Emily.
"Why can't you?"
"Just do it!" I slash a cut on Vince's ankle and on Emily's hand. I looked up to see a huge boulder coming our way.
I screamed and lifted my hands above my face. I screamed and screamed, but no impact came. I slowly opened my eyes to see the boulder inches from my face, but it wasn't falling. It was hovering above the three of us. "How are you doing this?" Emily screamed.
I couldn't answer. In the distance I could see the group of kids running towards us. I quickly moved my hands to the left and let the rock fall to the ground.
All three of us covered in mud ran through the trees again until we stopped in front of a mountain. "Where now?"
"Only way to go!" We started to climb the mountain, slipped on crumbing rocks. It didn't help that the bottom of our feet was slick with mud. We climb to a ledge and peered at the kids below us. They were making there way up the mountain, but I focused on the rocks below their feet, causing them to fall back to the ground. "Good work," Emily pats my head.
"Thanks, but I-" a loud rumble stopped me mid sentence. Vince, Emily and I looked above us to see the whole side of the mountain crumble. "Oh shit."
Chapter Four

The blinding light caused me to blink repeatedly. Squinting I looked at Neal who slept in a chair next to me and Vince in a chair by the corner. I pushed Neal's arms off my waist and sat up. The bed squeak lightly under me.
Emily walked in with four cups of coffee and rushed to my side when she saw me awake. "Thank you so much, I owe you my life."
I scratch my head and pushed my bangs away. "I don't know what you are talking about."
"When the half of the mountain fell, you used your powers to stop it."
"My powers?"
"You know, the ability to move things with your mind. You stopped the rocks from squishing us. We stood under there for whole five minutes! It doesn't seem like long, but you were holding hundreds of pounds. Anyways in those five minutes rescuers came in save us, but you block out from using so much power," she took a huge gulp of air. "It might not seem that big, but here."
She handed me a tall cup of coffee. "Am I even aloud to drink that?"
"It will be our little secret," she gave me a timid smile and sat down by Vince. It didn't take long for Neal to wake up. His hair fell in front of his face as he squinted at me and rubbed his eyes.
"I am so glad you aren't dead."
"Thanks me too," I chuckled and pushed his hair away from his eyes. Emily coughed and gave me the look. "Oh Neal this is Emily and Emily this is Neal. I met Emily in the battlefield, she is the reason I didn't die in the cold."
"And she is the reason I didn't die under rocks," Emily smiled at me and lightly pushed on Vince's arm until he awoke. "Come on, I am hungry."
"Why do I have to go?"
"There could be a killer roaming the halls, I need a man by my side," Emily pulled him up and out the door.
"She seems nice," Neal laughed and looked back at me.
"I guess, I only known her for about a couple hours."
"Actually more like two days."
"I was under for two days!"
"Yeah, but look at the bright side," Neal scratched his head and looked down at his shoes. "You missed two days worth of schoolwork?"
"Gee thanks. Now I am behind," I under plugged the IVs from my arm and swung my legs off the side of the bed.
"Come on," Neal grabbed the inside of my elbow and steered me towards a bathroom. "When you are finished, I will being you to my house and show you your room." Neal pushed me into the bathroom and through in a pair of clothes with me.
I looked at what he brought me. Tight leather pants and a pinstriped vest. "You got to be fucking kidding me?" I looked down at the hospital clothes they give us. Groaning I slipped into my clothes.
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The castle was much larger up front. Standing tall and proud, I squinted at the glowing bricks and flowers. Everything had a white orb inside them, making the gloomy atmosphere more joyful. "You live like a prince."
"That is because I am."
"Oh yeah," Neal grabbed my hand and dragged me into the main room. A large red sofa stood in the middle of the large room. A pool table of behind it and a flat screen in front. Picture hung around the room. Some of Neal, others of his younger sister. Not one picture showed both of them together. I walked up to one picture of Neal and fell to the ground laughing. "You were such a nerd."
"I wasn't that funny looking," Neal picked me up bridal style while I cried into his shoulder.
"You were so dorky," tears spilt from my eyes I was laughing so hard. Neal hair was cropped short. She had braces and this squinty glasses. In the photo he wore kakis pulled up to his waist and a polo shirt on. "But a cute dorky."
Neal glared down at me, "There is no such thing as a cute dork."
"Well if you were in my high school, I would fall heads over heels for you," I wiped the tears on my cheeks and pressed my face into his chest. Neal felt so good and smelt wonderful too. "You smell good."
"You smelt me?"
"Why yes I did," I tapped my chin. "You smell like... tiger lilies."
"I smell like flowers?"
"Yes," I laughed again. "If it helps, you smell like manly flowers."
"I think you are loopy from the pain killers that are kicking in."
"Nope, I am naturally this happy and funny." I pat his cheek and he set me down on a soft bed. He started to walk away, but I called out to him. "Could you read me a bedtime story?"
"Why?"
"It will help me fall asleep," Minutes passed where Neal just stared at me. "I promise I won't distract you and fall straight to sleep afterwards."
"Promise?"
"On my pinky's life," I laughed again and fell back onto the bed. I watched as Neal walked over towards me. I scooted over and patted the bed next to me. "I don't bite... hard."
Neal slowly laid down next to