Episode 23: The Phantom of the Shadow Magic – Part 1
It was a very cold morning. Matt held onto himself, shaking. He took off his sweater and said to himself, “Geez, I gotta warm this up. I guess the only place to hide is in the restroom.”
He ran towards the men’s restroom. He grabbed the handle but a girl slapped his hand off the knob. It was Shirley who intentionally stopped him. Matt opened the door a little and Shirley spoke up, “That’s unfair now isn’t it? Abusing your fire powers just to take advantage of the weather?”
“Wow. Look at you. You’re wearing short shorts on a cold day. You don’t even need to use your ice powers on days like these because you get to wear short shorts.”
“Don’t blame me. You’re free to wear short shorts too.”
“Heck no, that’s weird! I’m just trying to go to the restroom. Geez.”
Shirley raised her right eyebrow as she turned her right eye closer to Matt, “Is that so? Are you sure about that?” Matt became frightened as Shirley started laughing, “Hahaha! It’s fun messing with you.” She slapped Matt’s back really hard and said, “Whatever. See you in first period.” Matt gave her an angry stare as he walked into the restroom.
He said to himself, “That Shirley… always messing with me. Her ice powers are so much more useful than my fire powers.” He began warming up his sweater, “Man, life is so unfair.” He yawned while heading towards the exit. As Matt left the restroom, the door closed. There was a black figure within one of the stalls, slightly moving…
~~~
During P.E., Shirley finished the mile after Matt. She huffed and puffed for air, “Gosh darn it, you’re getting faster! I used to beat you like nothing.”
“No you didn’t…” Matt said.
“Oh yes I did. I’m going to get some water now.” She ran away from her group as she went to get some water. At the water stalls, she pressed the button and water flowed out. She peacefully drank some water. However, after two seconds, the water began to deplete. She stopped and stared at it, “Eh?” She pressed the button again but nothing came out this time. She began to forcefully press the button several times in anger, “Ergh, come on, come on! I’m thirsty here dang it!” The button became stuck when she pressed it once more. “Agh!” She turned away to leave but she heard the water running again. She watched the stall working perfectly fine but the button was stuck. She became confused. The water began to flow at different levels this time. Shirley stared at it in fright. She became more and more scared as she kept watching. She eventually gave out a long shriek, “EEEEEEAAAAAAAH!!!!”
Matt and Santi turned their heads to the shriek. Matt said to him, “What was that?!”
Santi began to run towards the scream and Matt followed. As they arrived at the water faucet, they saw Shirley on the floor, shaking and staring fearfully at the faucet. Shirley pointed at it while shaking as if she had arthritis, “The… the faucet…!”
Matt saw the faucet. There was no water flowing at all. “What’s wrong with it?”
Shirley explained her situation to them, “It turned on at different water levels and I didn’t even have to press the button!”
Santi went up to the faucet and he pressed the button, “Hrm? There seems to be nothing wrong with it.” He helped her up, “Are you sure you’re alright?”
Shirley yelled at him, “I clearly saw it! Argh… Whatever.” She pushed Santi away as she went back onto the blacktop behind the large gym to rest. Matt and Santi looked at each other in confusion.
~~~
While Matt and Santi were resting, Santi spoke up, “Hey Matt…”
Matt watched Jen running around, chasing Stan. “Hm?”
“I was thinking… What if what Shirley saw was real?”
Matt knew it was safe to talk about their powers. He responded, “Hm… I don’t know. She’s not showing us proof. Maybe she’s just messing with us.”
Santi became frustrated, “Shirley wouldn’t go so far. She would have just said ‘just kidding, hehe!’ by now but she’s still frightened.”
Matt carefully watched Santi imitate Shirley. “Eh… (Disturbing…) That’s true… We should check up on the faucet again.” Santi agreed to do so as they went to the water faucet.
Santi examined the bottom, then the sides, “There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with it.”
Matt pressed the button, “And it’s perfectly fine too. Look, the water flows depending on how strong I press it.”
“That’s strange. I guess we can let this little thing slide on us. It’s not that strange now that you think about it. It must have been malfunctioning from the sewage pipes from within the buildings.”
Matt thought about the sewage pipes, “We… drink from these water stalls?”
Santi gave Matt a stare then he continued on, “Let’s go back. It’s just a little glitch, I assume.” Matt gave a sigh as he followed Santi.
~~~
During lunch, Shirley was watching Matt, Jen, Danny, and Yessenia eat their lunch. Matt took a bite on his burger. While he took a bite, he turned his eyes to Shirley, who was blankly staring at him. Matt dropped his burger which fell into pieces. Jen stopped eating since she was startled from his burger’s thump. Matt said to Shirley, “Hey, what are you doing? You didn’t even take a bite on your… noodle things.”
Danny examined the noodles, “What is it? I heard it was but I forgot the name of it.” He took a noodle with his bare fingers, “It’s strange…”
Shirley shook her head, “Take it if you like it. I’ll just drink some water.” She took her water bottle as she slightly opened it. She placed it on the table and went on, “Hey Matt, can I see your math homework? I have your math class for fourth period.” She turned to get her backpack.
“Oh boy! Yes! Thank you Shirley for the food!” Danny happily dragged her plate towards him but he knocked down the water bottle. It dropped on Shirley as she became frightened.
She did not scream this time. She was only stunned from seeing water flow again just like during first period. Matt noticed her frightened expression, “Huh?” Matt stood up, “H-Hey, I’ll go get some paper towels from the men’s room!”
Jen stood up as well, “Right, I’ll get some from the women’s restroom too. Wait here, Shirley!”
Yessenia sighed, “Danny, you messed up again.” Danny frowned.
In the men’s restroom, Matt turned on the faucet and he placed a paper towel under it, “Wait a minute. Water poured on her. Why do I need a paper towel with water? Geez.” He went to the paper towel machine. He started pulling the switch downward but it became jammed. Matt kept trying to pull, “What the heck?! It’s stuck!” The plastic machine broke off and Matt took a step back, “Wha- How flimsy! It broke so easily.” He tried to pull onto the paper towel but it was stuck as well, “Gosh darn it!” He turned to the stalls to get toilet paper instead but he saw a very dark strange shadow under the stalls. He became very frightened, “(I-Is that… a ghost…?!)” His heart was pounding fast.
He could not move because of his fear. He started hearing a slight chuckle within the stalls sounding like ‘hehehe’. He closed his eyes, shook his heads, then he quickly ran out of the restroom with a little bit of paper towel that he successfully got before the paper towel machine broke.
~~~
Matt ran quickly towards the cafeteria. Jen giggled, “See? You’ll be fine, Shirley! You’re gonna be dried in no time.”
Matt ran up to the table and he grabbed Shirley’s arm, “Shirley, hurry up. I need to tell you something!”
Shirley asked him, “Wha? What is it?”
Matt turned to give her a frustrated, fearful expression, “I believe you!”
Shirley’s heart skipped a beat. She finally has someone who could trust her even through the craziest ideas, “Wha…”
Alone, Matt told Shirley about what happened in the restroom. “I have a feeling this has to do with us.”
Shirley had tears in her eyes as she held onto both of his arms, “I don’t know. I don’t know what’s going on with me. This is too scary, Matt, too scary… I can’t handle it anymore! I thought about this through P.E., Science, and even through Piano.”
Matt sighed, “It was scary for me too… But don’t worry. I’ll definitely find out what the heck this thing is!” Shirley wiped her tears away and they began feeling better.
~~~
After sixth period, Matt was holding onto his private area, “Oh, oh I need to go to the restroom! I didn’t get to go since this morning at seven!” He ran into the restroom and chose the only open stall. As he finished he went to the water faucet and gave a sigh, “Ah, much better.” He was about to turn on the faucet but he stopped, thinking about what happened to him during lunch. Matt hesitated from turning on the faucet. Then again, he’d feel very dirty if he did not wash his hands. He closed his eyes as he quickly washed his hands. He turned off the faucet and he skipped the paper towel part. As he was stepping away towards the exit, a voice was heard, “Running away already?”
Matt froze in fear again, “(Oh no, oh no! No, no, no! It’s that g-g-g-ghost…!)” Matt turned his head like a broken nutcracker.
Matt saw the second stall. There was a dark shadow again. “Are you afraid?” said the voice.
Matt pointed at the shadow, “Am I talking to a ghost?!” The locks behind him made a clicking noise. Matt turned around, “Did you just lock the restroom?!”
“Sh! Don’t talk so loud, kid. You don’t want someone to barge in and think you’re crazy for talking to a ghost do you?”
Matt jumped in fear, “So you ARE a ghost!”
The stall’s lock made a clicking noise. An actual shoe was shown, along with the bottom of a pair of pants. Matt saw an actual person’s leg under the stall! “You’re no ghost!” He saw the shadow behind the shoe, “But… how can a shadow appear in such a place like here?”
The door slowly opened. Matt took a step back as he carefully watched. The door completely opened and it was a male student! Matt opened his eyes wide, “I’ve seen you a few times before…!”
“NAW, really dude? I was just in your sixth period class a few minutes ago.” The shadow behind him disappeared right in front of Matt’s eyes.
Matt pointed at the disappearing shadow, “What happened there?!”
The student laughed, “Haha! It was my shadow, what else? I’m Jaime Tang. Welp, it was fun messing with you and that Shirley girl. Time to go.”
Matt gave a stupid expression, “Wah- That was it? You scared me and now you’re walking away with some strange shadow, pretending nothing happened?!”
Jaime stopped, “You have fire power, don’t you?”
Matt was surprised from his statement. He tried to lie, “Eheheheh, what are you talking about? That’s impossible.”
“I’m not stupid. Maybe. I overheard you about your fire powers, and Shirley with her ice powers.”
Matt face-palmed himself, “Argh, (Why did I have to talk to myself?) I was just playing around. I knew you were there all along. Yeah, that’s right. I tricked YOU. MUAHAHA!”
Jaime shook his head in shame, “Tsk, tsk, tsk, don’t lie to me. You’re the quiet kinda guy that doesn’t do much during class. You know, I…”
He stopped talking and Matt questioned him, “You what?”
“Never mind. You don’t have to hide your fire powers. Watch.” A shadow quickly appeared like a flash towards Matt from the floor.
Matt quickly tried to burst a fireball at the ground for self-defense. “Agh! What the heck was that!”
Jaime laughed, “Haha, ouch. That kind of burnt me a little. Well, I have shadow power.”
“You’re… another one just like us?!”
“Of course I am! You think a normal person can summon a shadow like mine? I can sneak up on people any time I want.”
Matt looked up at his imaginary bubble, “Even on people in the shower…?”
“Yep.” Jaime answered.
“Huh?!”
“Hah, don’t worry! I’m no peeping tom. I use it only on certain people such as you when you blabbed to yourself about your fire powers this morning. Do you normally talk to yourself?”
Matt turned red, “N-No… Argh. Do you always use your shadow powers?”
Jaime answered him, “Almost all the time when I feel like it! I’m loving it too.”
“You LOVE your powers? I hate my powers! It’s annoying me! It’s not even useful. You could lock the door from across the room. And me, I-…”
“You can blow things up with that damn fireball you got there.” Jaime joked.
Matt said in a serious tone, “Really, Jaime, I really don’t like this power.”
Jaime joked again, “Don’t worry! When the time comes, you are able to make good use of your fire powers.”
“For what? Tell me THAT.” Matt tested Jaime of his arguments.
Jaime responded, “To burn people up. Come on, use your brain. Heh.” He opened the door and left.
Matt stood there, “To burn people up…? But that’s only for evil usage…”
~~~
---- Next chapter preview:Matt: On the next chapter, we're going to continue with Arkon's Magic! Yessenia and Jaime are the focused characters in the episode besides Matt. What is going on in Arkon's Magic?!
Jaime: Yahoo! Dude, we're going to mess with this place real bad.
Yessenia: We'll destroy it to dust.
Matt: Wha? Y-You guys... (Scary...). Next chapter, The Phantom of the Shadow Magic - Part 2!
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