THE CODEX OF SHADOWS: AWAKENING OF DERICK GREENWOOD

CHAPTER 2 — THE THINGS THAT HUNT IN SHADOWS

The bookstore was suffocatingly dark. Only the faint glow from streetlamps outside pressed against the windows, barely cutting through the shadows stretching across the aisles.

Derick’s breath was shallow. “Halden, stay behind me.”

Halden whispered, “You mind telling me why we’re hiding from… whatever that thing was?”

A scraping sound cut him off, a long, deliberate drag of something sharp against the metal door. Derick tightened his grip on the Codex. “Because it wasn’t alone.”

The scraping stopped. Halden’s voice quivered. “W-What do you mean ‘wasn’t alone’? Are you saying there are more of those things?”

Derick whispered, “Yes.”

“How do you know?”

The book in Derick’s hand pulsed once. He swallowed. “Call it a… feeling.”

Halden let out a shaky exhale. “Fantastic.”

A slow tapping… tap-tap-tap… echoed across the glass door. Then a low voice, distorted and layered, seeped through the cracks. “Derick Greenwood.”

Halden stiffened. “It knows your name.”

Derick’s heart slammed against his ribs. “Yeah. I noticed.”

The tapping stopped. Derick peered over a broken shelf toward the door. A tall silhouette stood just outside, no face, no features, just an outline darker than the night itself.

The shape flickered, its edges rippling like smoke caught in a storm. The creature whispered, “Give… back… the Codex.”

Derick whispered, “Not happening.”

“Then DIE.”

The glass door buckled inward with a deafening crack. Halden gasped. “Oh God—Derick”

“GO!” Derick shoved him toward the back hallway. “Storage room! Lock the door!”

“What about you?!”

“Just go!”

Halden hesitated only a second, then limped quickly toward the rear. The creature slammed the door again. Metal screeched. The lock snapped.

The entire frame bent inward as the thing forced its way through. Derick backed up, gripping the Codex with trembling fingers. “Come on… do something…”

The book remained silent. The creature’s voice twisted. “You are not meant to live.”

Derick shouted, “YEAH? Well too bad!”

The shadow burst through the door, shattering glass. Shards rained across the floor. Derick scrambled behind a toppled display. “Why are you after me?!”

The creature’s form elongated, twisting unnaturally as it crawled over shelves. “Your blood calls us.”

“My blood? I’m not, I’m not anything!”

“You are EVERYTHING we were told to destroy.”

The thing pounced. Derick rolled aside, barely avoiding spiked limbs that speared the floor where he’d been. The Codex heated in his hand.

Derick gasped as words burned across the first page: “NOT THIS ONE. RUN. NOW.”

He didn’t argue. Derick sprinted toward the back hallway. The creature’s limbs scraped the floor as it chased. “You cannot run from the dark, Derick Greenwood!”

“Watch me!”

He threw himself into the narrow hallway just as the creature lunged, its claws slicing the wall inches from his face. Derick kicked the door shut behind him and turned the lock. “Halden?!”

Halden yanked open the storage room door. “Get in! Now!”

They slammed it shut together. Derick pressed his back against the door. “Halden, what do you know about this book?”

Halden’s face was pale. “Kid… you need to listen very carefully.”

“No more riddles,” Derick snapped. “Tell me the truth!”

Halden swallowed hard. “I knew your family.”

Derick felt the air leave his lungs. “What?”

Halden whispered, “Your parents brought a book just like that to me, twenty-two years ago. It screamed too.”

Derick stared at him, stunned. “My parents? You’re saying they had one of these?”

Halden nodded. “Your mother said it held the key to something ancient. Something dangerous. Something people would kill to obtain.”

Derick’s hand shook as he gripped the Codex. “So what happened to them?”

Halden opened his mouth, But the hallway outside erupted with a monstrous roar. The storage room lights flickered violently. Halden flinched. “They’re trying to break in.”

Derick stepped forward. “Halden. What happened to my parents?!”

Halden’s voice trembled. “They said the book was only half of something larger. And the people after it would never stop.”

“Who? Who’s after it?”

Halden whispered the name like a curse. “The Eclipse Order.”

Derick frowned. “Never heard of them.”

“You weren’t supposed to,” Halden said. “Your parents hid you to keep them away.”

Derick’s chest tightened. “So they’re coming after me now because of this book?”

“No, Derick.” Halden shook his head. “They’re coming after you because of what you are.”

Derick’s blood ran cold. The walls rattled as the creature slammed into the hallway. Derick grabbed Halden’s arm. “What am I?”

Halden spoke in a whisper barely above breath. “Your mother said you were born with something inside you. Something ancient. Something sealed.”

The Codex vibrated violently against Derick’s palm. He whispered, “Sealed…?”

Halden nodded. “They said if the seal ever broke, if you awakened, every creature tied to darkness would sense you.”

Derick’s voice cracked. “Like the thing outside.”

“And more,” Halden said. “Far worse.”

A claw tore into the hallway door. Derick flinched. “We’re out of time.”

Halden grabbed a metal crowbar from a shelf. “So what’s the plan?”

“The plan,” Derick said, “is we get out the back before that thing rips this place apart.”

The hallway door cracked down the center. Derick ran to the back exit, grabbed the handle, Locked. Halden cursed. “I left the keys in my jacket, front counter!”

Derick swore under his breath. “Okay. New plan.”

He turned to the Codex. “I know you can hear me. Help. Me.”

The book glowed faintly… then snapped open. Derick stared at the new handwritten line forming: “Use the light.”

“What light?!” Derick shouted. “I don’t know how I”

The storage room door buckled violently. The creature’s growl seeped through the cracks. Halden backed up. “Derick, whatever you’re going to do, DO IT!”

Derick clenched the Codex to his chest. Heat surged into his veins, slow at first, then burning hotter, brighter. His skin glowed with faint cracks of white light.

The creature burst through the hallway door and lunged. Derick raised his hand instinctively. A blast of white energy erupted from him, slamming into the creature with a thunderous shockwave.

The monster screamed as its shadowy form peeled away, burning from the inside. “DERICK!” Halden yelled, shielding his face.

The blast faded. The creature collapsed, its body flickering. Derick staggered, dizzy. “Did… I kill it?”

The creature twitched, crawling toward him weakly. “Kill… you?” it hissed. “Your awakening… is only beginning… heir of the forbidden line…”

Derick froze. “Heir of what?”

The creature laughed one last time, broken, distorted, spiteful. “You… were never… meant… to live.”

Its body dissolved into smoke and vanished. Silence swallowed the room. Derick collapsed to his knees, breathing hard.

Halden lowered the crowbar. “Kid… we need to get you somewhere safe.”

Derick stared at the Codex trembling in his hands. Something wet hit the floor.  It was blood, dripping from the edges of the pages. “What… the hell…” Derick whispered.

Halden stepped closer. “Derick…?”

A new line slowly appeared on the Codex’s first page, written in thick, red ink that looked too real. “Do not trust the next person who says they want to help you.”

Derick stared at the words. Then he heard footsteps approaching outside the back door. A woman’s voice called through the metal: “Derick Greenwood? Open the door. I’m here to help you.”