Preptober Prompts Wk. 4 Day 1

It’s here! It’s here! My week of wonderful Flash Fiction prompts to end out our Nano prep month. Of course, after this week, there is still a few more days of October during which there will be no prompts, so I encourage you to come up with your own. 🙂 For this week, I will be doing a combination of Sigma and The Day the Sun Caught Fire for the prompts.

Okay, onto the prompt! ^-^

The key to this prompt is all the characters (if they’re not already) are now high school age and in modern day America if your story is in a medeival-like setting. (or your home country ie, if you’re from Canada or England this can take place there) So, that’s my little note for you all.

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   Riley reached for the coffee on the counter after his name was called. The shop he’d chosen was quiet, inconspicuous, off the beaten path. Surely, surely he was safe. Nothing could go wrong. He was just a boy after school getting coffee and working on homework.

  I am hidden. I am nothing. Normal, average.

Taking his place in a booth near the back, Riley’s eyes were draw, further to the back. His fingers began to burn, his chest heave. His veins tingled with fire as his eyes locked onto the dark, hunched figure in the far right corner, pouring over a textbook. .

Shadow.

He was safe, he thought, in this back alley shop filled with students. He thought nothing could get him. He was nothing, he was normal.

The Shadow was looking confusedly at a Algebra book. His dark face twisted into a snarl at the pages. He didn’t look familiar, and his eyes were a curious shade of green. Katastro’s were carbon coal black. Riley felt some of the tension melt from his shoulders like wax before a flame.

He looked young, the Shadow. Couldn’t have been more than their equivalent of 16. And he looked… scared. Riley didn’t think he’s ever seen a scared Shadow before.

“Hey, yeah, I know. A rare sight.” The Shadow looked up.

Riley froze. It’s not just limited to Katastro? 

“Sorry, no.” The green eyes twinkled. He was friendly. Or, he seemed friendly. Riley didn’t believe that there could be a thing as a good Shadow.

“I’m Periegos. But most people just call me Perry.” The Shadow’s appearance changed. No longer was the boy in front of him clad in midnight skin and shadowy twitching hair, but a normal looking teenager, with a light tan and short red hair. A soft smattering of freckles dotted his cheeks like stars in the sky. Ari would have made some snide comment about how all the people she meets are prettier than her.

Then again, Riley never agreed with her.

“Sorry, I startle a lot of people. I know you’re scared of me. I actually know who you are. Don’t worry. Eris and Kat got themselves in major trouble with Erin last rotation. They’re, oh, how in English, grounded. I mean, I’m not much better off. Having to go to a human school for three years. I can not get a handle on this Algebra.”

Riley just blinked. Man, if anyone, this Shadow was like Max. Bright, talkative, and totally harmless. His years with Mara had taught him a few things about the inner workings of people. “I’m Riley.”

A harmless Shadow, imagine that.

“Hey, so, would you mind giving me  hand? I’ve got a test on tetari, oh, Wednesday. And There’s no way I’m going to pass this without a human’s help.”

Riley found himself nodding. “Yeah, sure.” He paused, How did you know me?”

“Oh, Kat is always bragging about the human he tortures. You have the worn face and eyes of a person being picked on. I’ll tell him to lay off if you help me with this class, please human? Err, Riley?”

“Tell him not to kill Ari.”

“Kill? Oh, dude, has he been killing?” Perry looked both shocked, unsurpirsed, and annoyed. “He should not be doing that. I mean, I get it. Humans. Weak, fun to play with, but that’s highly illegal.”

Riley must have looked very offended.

“Okay. Not smart. Look, I’ll take that to Erin. I can pretty much promise you that whatever he’s been up to will never happen again. Erin doesn’t tolerate any of that kind of thing. This might actually go to Mors. I don’t want to be there to see HIS sentence.” Perry rolled his eyes and disappeared only to re-appear in front of Riley.

“So, what’s it like to be human?”

Something told Riley that this was the first in a long line of questions, but not necessarily ones he would regret answering.

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Aha. Too fun, too fun. XD Let me know if you’re excited for this the final week of prompts! Hope you enjoyed this little story as much as I did writing it.

See you tomorrow for another prompt and story!

~Allie.