The Shadows We Hide by Jane Bailey (best short novels txt) 📕

Blink said uncertainly. "But they don't look like doctors or priests to me..."
They all stared at the three pages.

The first page was of Magenta.
Pic #1:

She wasn't looking at the camera and her body was covered from head to toe in clothing with her head down and hair covering her face.
Pic #2:

She was surrounded by yelling humans. She looked scared but determined. She was in the process of raising her hand to her temple.
Pic #3:

She was at a protest fighting for Freaks. Her face was uncovered by her hair and she looked angry.
Pic #4:

She was reaching towards the camera with her hand and her other hand on her temple, a faint smile playing at her lips. You could practically see the aura of power around her.
Derek could see the sympathy, awe and fear that covered the faces of the people in the room.

The next page was of Ryder.
He wore a black wife beater and some black jeans with two swords on his back along with two guns on his hip. The pictures looked as if they were taken from a security camera.
Pic #1:

He was posing like superman. With bloody bodys behind him.
Pic #2:

He was showing off his muscles. With more bloody bodys behind him.
Pic #3:

He was blowing a kiss. With even more bloody bodys behind him.
Pic #4:

He was giving the peace sign. The room was then full with decapitated bodys and blood everywhere.
Again, Derek could see the fear on the faces in the room only this time it was tinted with humor and disgust.

The last page was of Shadow.
Pic #1:

She had long curly black hair and looked like a happy 13 year old girl.
Pic #2:

She still had long black hair but instead of looking happy, she had a split lip and the picture was a mug shot.
Pic #3:

She was staring up at an older man. She held a knife behind her back but he was unaware of it. Her hair was cut like a boys and spiked in the front like a small mohawk and her hair was blue. She had an eyebrow piercing and tattoos on her back and arms. A cruel smirk graced her lips.
Pic #4:

She was crouched low and surrounded by humans. She still had the blue hair and piercings and tattoos but this time her eyes were black and filled with fear and rage. Her teeth were sharpened and so were her nails.
The room filled with sympathy, confusion, and absolute fear.

Chapter Four

It was daylight out when Magenta and Ivy finally got to a motel. They passed several but they wanted to be far way from the humans that knew what they were. It took about two hours and Shadow travels about 500km/h.
That's pretty fast.

Magenta thought to herself.
As soon as they stopped though Ivy dropped to her knees gasping for breath.
"Oh shit! Ivy, what's wrong?" Magenta asked frantic. She didn't kill her did she?

Ivy let out a wheezing laugh. "You try running and jumping full speed for two hours straight and see if you don't run out of breath. Although I didn't feel anything while running..." She mused to herself.
"You had me scared. Ah thought ah killed you." Magenta sighed.
Ivy chuckled. "You can't kill me, Mariah. Trust me. I've tried."
With that happy comment, Ivy got up and started walking towards one of the rooms. Magenta walked next to her tiredly. She didn't get to sleep all night. She couldn't wait to get into the bed.
"Don't we have to like, check in?" Magenta asked.
"I don't know. I want to try something first." Ivy said distantly. She got a look of concentration on her face before gasping. "It worked!" She sounded surprised. "I didn't think it would."
"What worked?"
"I tried to use the shadows to feel if there was someone in the room and it worked! Gave me a huge headache though. Lets go."
Ivy jumped into a shadow and then into another shadow that was inside the room in a corner. Magenta made sure the room had no sign of life before setting her bag down and taking her coat off. She saw Ivy doing the same. When Ivy turned around though and put her back towards Magenta, she gasped softly. Ivy continued on, not hearing her.
There was a tattoo of a lion baring it's teeth in between her shoulder blades with red eyes. Along with that were thin jagged scars crisscrossing on her arms and lower back as if she was whipped. Magenta couldn't see the rest of Ivy's back and she wasn't sure she wanted to.
"Ivy?" She asked softly.
Ivy sighed and ran a hand through her hair and sighed. "We're both tired, Mariah. We can talk about it tomorrow."
Magenta smiled. "Okay. But ah was thinking, since your power works with darkness, we can start sleeping during the day and moving around during the night. It's safer that way."
"Smart." Ivy said with an appreciative grin. "That way we'll always have a quick getaway."
Magenta then looked around the room. It had two queen sized beds along with tobacco stained walls and a rusted mirror on top of a dresser. The tiny bathroom had a tiny shower with a rusted sink and another rusted mirror. It wasn't the nicest but Magenta could deal with it.
Ivy came out of the bathroom after a shower in her black bra and underwear, her blue hair wet. She had a tattoo of a tribal crow dipping down her hip and she had her belly button pierced. When she turned around Magenta saw the full extent of her scars. She had scars on her wrist that looked as if she did them herself but also had scars along her back. It definitely looked as if she was whipped. She climbed into bed.
Magenta stripped into my dark green bra and underwear as well. If Ivy wasn't modest neither was she.
"Goodnight, Mariah." Ivy said softly with a yawn.
"'Night, Ivy."

It was just about sunset when Mariah awoke with a scream, waking Shadow up as well.
"Andrew!" Mariah screamed.
Who is Andrew?

Shadow thought to herself.
"Mariah, Mariah! It was just a dream, it isn't real." Shadow soothed while wrapping Mariah into a hug.
"Ah'm okay. Ah'm okay. God, I'm so embarrassed." Mariah said, putting her head in her hands.
"Hey, everyone has nightmares." Shadow offered just before someone knocked on the door.
Shadow and Mariah looked at each other in alarm. No one was supposed to know they were there!

"Grab the bags and hold my hand." Shadow mouthed. Mariah did as she said.
Shadow opened the door. There were three women in what looked to be full body swim suits standing on the doorstep. One was a red head and had a warm smile, the other African one had dark brown hair and a calm smile, and the other was a Korean teen with black hair and a nice smile. It would have been a dream come true for a bisexual Shadow if she didn't do a quick scan using her powers and giving herself a major headache in the process and find out that there were about nine more people hiding in the shadows. Dumb asses.

Shadow smiled. "Thanks but no thanks. Toodles!" She said with a cheeky smile and disappeared into the shadows that hid her.

Derek watched from the shadows as Leah, Nabila, and Kai knocked on the door. He thought that this was a stupid idea but he wasn't the one in charge so he had no say. Fuckin' Noah! He thought.
He watched as Shadow opened the door. Her and Magenta stood there in their bra and underwear holding hands.
Shadow wore a black set of bra and underwear while Magenta wore a deep green bra and underwear. Derek loved green. While Shadow was tanned and marked with tattoos and piercings, Magenta was pale and pure. Yes, Derek was lusting after the target. Sue him.
He watched as Shadow said, "thanks but no thanks. Toodles!" And with a cheeky smile from her and a sexy smirk from Magenta, they disappeared leaving behind no scent and nothing but a wisp of black smoke.
Everyone stood there in there places for a moment, stunned. How were they supposed to catch the girls if they didn't even get a chance to speak before they disappeared.
"...Maybe we should go after Ryder first..." Blink suggested.
Everyone else just nodded.

Chapter Five

Magenta and Ivy stopped in a town called Terrytown in America near New Orleans because the sun was up. Ivy thought it was a good idea to change countrys. Magenta asked her why and she said she watched too much C.S.I to not know that they probably won't expect two eighteen year old girls to get to America in one night. Magenta agreed although they'll have too make a trip back to Niagara Falls. It was beautiful especially when they jumped into the shadows in the water. They could even breath underwater! Well, in the shadows at least.
Ivy again checked which room was empty in the Americas Best Value Inn. When they got inside, Magenta really hoped that this wasn't the best value America had. The building was very old. The room didn't appear clean though Magenta was sure it was. When Magenta got into a shower first, the towels were very rough and thin and she couldn't close the bathroom door. The ceiling tile was peeling off. The hotel provided soap but no shampoo and the carpet was not vacuumed.
Ivy checked the other rooms while Rogue was in the shower but they were all like that.
Once Magenta and Ivy were both showered and sitting in bed quietly, Magenta got up the nerve to finally tell her story.
"Ma name is Mariah Anne from Mississippi." She started softly. "Ah had two loving parents and a pretty much perfect life until ah discovered my Freakishness when ah kissed my boyfriend, Andrew, at a school dance and scrambled his brain putting him in a permanent coma. Ah was bullied constantly after that and one day three kids wanted to fight me. Ah knocked them all out cold but it put me in a coma for about three weeks because I over used my power." Ivy nodded sympathetically but didn't interrupt.
"Anyways, when ah woke up, I was in a place where they experiment on Freaks. They would make us use our powers so they knew what we could do and they'd jab us with little