ShadowBorne

Chapter Five

Plans spread across the hood of the van, paper held down by Marcus’s elbow and the weak beam of the flashlight. The warehouse loomed ahead, dark except for the shadows we cast under the streetlights.

“Corners checked?” Marcus asked, a cigarette glowing red in the dark. Tom and Riley moved around the building, rifles ready.

“All clear,” Tom whispered back.

“Back door’s yours,” Marcus said, nodding at me.

 “Just in and out, keep it clean.”

I lifted my hands, feeling the weight of the gun under my jacket. “Yeah… it’s a light piece. In and out.”

Marcus smirked. “Don’t get cute. Everything’s always a light piece to you.”

I didn’t answer, just moved. Tom tapped the wall at the other end. “All clear.”

Marcus crouched, checking the padlock, metal scraping softly.

 “Riley, ready?”

“Always.”

The lock gave way with a dull snap. We slipped inside.

Boxes were stacked haphazardly, some split open, others marked with fading stencils. Dust motes drifted in the flashlight’s beam, thick enough to taste. Every step echoed too loudly. Marcus muttered instructions over his shoulder. “Stick to formation. Don’t drift.”

“Right,” I said, moving left, keeping doors and crates in sight. Riley stayed right, whispering to Tom about the back exit.

Everything felt slow, stretched thin, like time itself was hesitating. My skin prickled, the air suddenly wrong.

Then it happened.

The first shot rang out sharp and deafening. I ducked instinctively, hand flying up as glass shattered somewhere above us.

Tom yelled. Riley fired blindly and Marcus barked orders that meant nothing now, his voice swallowed by the rising noise. Chaos exploded in my chest. Sirens wailed too close, too fast. The other men weren’t moving like they should have been.

“Get down!” I shouted, but the words vanished into the gunfire.

I slammed myself against a stack of crates, heart hammering, watching shadows jerk and scatter. Boots thundered on concrete. Another shot cracked. Someone screamed, high and raw.

My stomach dropped when I peeked out and saw a cop sprawled on the floor, blood pooling beneath him, eyes already glassy. Marcus slid behind a column and disappeared. Tom and Riley had vanished too.

That was when it hit me.

I was alone. Alone in a rigged job.

Alone with a dead man I knew nothing about and sirens closing in.

The shipment crates were up ahead, glowing under the flickering light, and I realized something that hit harder than any bullet could. I was the sacrifice, the one they could abandon while they slipped into the shadows. The very people who had dragged me into this betrayed me and left me all alone. And if I don't get out of here, I would have a court case to contend with. 

I moved carefully, each step deliberate and calculating. Another siren broke the air and it sounded already close. I ducked behind a crate and heard Riley call out on the wired phone…

“Marcus, where…” 

“Bastards!” I muttered.

The line cut and the doors burst open, more police lights flashing through the broken windows. 

“Freeze!” 

I stayed low, breathing shallow. Every instinct screamed to run, but the exit wasn’t clear. Shots rang again, and a body dropped near the loading bay. One of theirs. I didn't care to look as I bolted, sliding across the floor, dodging the debris. The smell of gunpowder and blood hit me, and I realized I was the only one left moving. Every exit was a risk. Every shadow was a lie. The police had arrived too fast, like someone had already tipped them off.

I reached a side door, kicking it open and rolling onto the asphalt. The night air hit me, stinging my lungs as I ran without looking back. By the time I slowed, I was breathing like I’d run a mile. Heart pounding and ears ringing. Was this why Marcus kept persuading me to join the operation? I’d been used. Every plan and every formation had been a lie. Little wonder I was the only one without a solid plan, I was only asked to follow. They didn’t need me, they needed someone to carry the fall.

I pressed myself into the shadow of a delivery truck, listening to the chaos behind me, the shouts, the orders, the sirens. Everything was over in minutes, but the memory of being abandoned burned longer than any bullet wound could.

Rounding through the back, I ran towards the open space just the way we came in. My boots slapped against wet asphalt as I burst out of the side door, lungs burning, night cutting into my chest like a blade. Sirens were everywhere but none of them felt close enough to matter. I told myself that if I could just get distance, just get lost in the dark, I’d be fine.

I cut through vaulting over a low fence and scraping my palm on rusted wire. Pain flared but I didn’t slow it. I kept thinking about the road, movement meant escape. And as I bursted into the road, I didn’t notice the cars at first or even the way they were angled wrongly.  

But the moment I stepped off the curb, I got a rude shock. 

“Drop the weapon!” A calm voice came from the dark and I froze. Another voice followed, closer. “Gun. Now!”

As my eyes adjusted to the environment, I turned my head slowly and came face to face with three armed men spread out just enough that I couldn’t take them all even if I tried. Their guns were already positioned 

My fingers tightened around the grip and for half a second, stupid instinct kicked in. I thought about pulling my guy from my back pocket since none of them could see behind me but again, I did the math.

There was one of me and three of them. There was no escaping. 

“Easy,” one of them said as if he could read my mind. “Don’t make this worse.”

I exhaled, pulled the gun out and let it fall from my hand.

“Hands up.”

A few seconds later, as they pushed me toward the cruiser, I looked back once, stupidly half-expecting to see Marcus or Riley or anyone standing there waiting to save me but there was nothing. Just flashing lights and strangers doing their jobs.

Since I was the only one they saw, they assumed the other casualties that died were my partners but I knew they weren't.  They were the boys who watched over the warehouse. It didn’t matter that I hadn’t fired the shot, I had no evidence whatsoever and no money to push my case under the rug and before I knew it, it was a major case. 

The trial moved fast. The prosecutor smiled when he spoke and with the ‘evidence’ that was arranged, my lawyer could barely help me. Objections were overruled before they were finished being said and a verdict was made and I was declared guilty. 

Somewhere between the verdict and the sound of gravel under my shoes as I was led to prison, a screeching sound tore through everything.

My chest jerked, my eyes snapped forward and the road rushed back into focus, horns blaring from every direction. I had missed the red light and almost too late, a small figure darted into the street.

A child.

The scream of the child echoed in my ears as I came back fully to the present, hands gripping the wheel like my life depended on it.