Shadows that speaks
1781 Words
Rylan didn’t sleep.
He couldn’t.
Not after what happened at Dock 13. Not after the stranger’s words kept running circles in his mind—
“Remember who you were… before the world erased you.”
He sat on the edge of an abandoned rooftop, the cold wind cutting across the city. Below him, lights flickered from broken streetlamps, cars hummed in distant traffic, and the world kept moving as if his entire life hadn’t cracked open hours ago.
He rubbed his face.
“Who the hell was I before all this?”
He didn’t get the chance to search deeper. His earpiece buzzed.
A single voice whispered through the static.
“Rylan.”
He froze. “Leah?”
Her breathing trembled. That alone twisted a knife inside him.
“Rylan… I don’t have long. They’re moving me.”
His heart slammed. “Tell me where you are.”
“I—I don’t know. They blindfolded me until a few minutes ago. I think… I think it’s underground. I hear machines. Water. Like a drainage system.”
Underground. Water. Machinery.
A dozen possible locations flashed in his mind.
He clenched his fist. “Leah, listen carefully. I’m going to find you.”
“No,” she breathed. “You don’t understand. They’re talking about you. The file. Your name.” Her voice shook harder. “They said the world is safer forgetting who you are.”
Rylan’s pulse stilled—completely.
“What else did they say?”
“Something about a—room. A room you were never supposed to leave alive.” Her voice cracked. “Rylan, who are you?”
The static burst, drowning her voice. Then—
A harsh male voice cut in.
“Rylan Cross. You’re making this… difficult.”
Rylan stood instantly, every muscle tight. “If you touch her—”
“We already have,” the voice replied calmly. “But she’s alive. Whether she stays that way depends on how you answer one question.”
Rylan’s jaw clenched. “Ask.”
A short beat. Then—
“Do you remember what happened thirteen years ago?”
His breath vanished.
Thirteen years.
The year his life ended.
The year his name disappeared.
The year his memory fractured.
The earpiece clicked. The line went dead.
Rylan stared into the city, fists trembling.
“Thirteen years… what the hell happened to me?”
He didn’t wait. He dropped from the rooftop, landing silently, and sprinted through the alleyways until the city’s noise swallowed behind him.
He needed answers.
He needed someone who knew the past he couldn’t reclaim.
That led him to one person—Parker.
The tech genius. The only one Rylan ever trusted with a secret he didn’t understand.
He found Parker’s workshop hidden behind a scrapyard of twisted metal and broken electronics. The door was half-open, humming with electricity.
Rylan stepped in.
“Parker.”
A pair of legs stuck out from under a table. Sparks flew.
“Unless the city is collapsing, I’m busy,” Parker muttered.
“It’s collapsing,” Rylan answered.
Parker slid out so fast he hit his head. “Ow—damn—wait, Rylan?”
Rylan didn’t smile. Didn’t lighten the mood. He just said:
“They took Leah.”
Parker froze.
“…You’re not joking.”
“No.”
“What do you need?”
Rylan stepped closer. “Information. About me. Thirteen years ago. Everything.”
Parker blinked. The silence became heavy—almost dangerous.
“You really want that?” he asked softly.
“Yes.”
Parker swallowed. “Rylan… that was the year you died.”
Rylan went still.
Died?
“Explain,” he said quietly.
Parker grabbed a tablet, tapping through encrypted files. He looked pale.
“You weren’t always like this. The shadows, the secrecy, the new identity. Before that… you were someone the government classified as a national asset. Highly trained. Highly dangerous.”
Rylan felt a cold ache in his chest. “Why don’t I remember?”
“Because,” Parker whispered, “they wiped you.”
Rylan’s eyes darkened. “All of me?”
“Almost. You survived the process, but you lost the memory that mattered.” Parker hesitated. “They tried to kill you afterward. You escaped. Barely.”
Rylan stiffened. “Who tried killing me?”
Parker tapped again.
A symbol flashed on the screen—a red crown, broken in the middle.
Rylan’s breathing stopped.
That symbol. He saw it on the file. On the warehouse wall. On the stranger’s ring.
“What is that?” he whispered.
Parker lowered his voice. “Rylan, that’s the mark of The Hunters.”
The name echoed like a shadow across the room.
Rylan’s voice hardened. “What do they want?”
“You,” Parker said. “They want to finish what they started thirteen years ago.”
Rylan closed his eyes for a moment, letting the truth settle like ice in his veins.
“So that’s why Leah was taken.”
Parker nodded slowly. “They know you care. It’s leverage.”
Rylan clenched his jaw. “Then I’m going after them.”
Parker’s eyes widened. “Alone?”
“I always have.”
Parker grabbed his arm. “Then take a lead. Something—anything. You need a starting point.”
He handed Rylan a tiny storage drive.
“This contains everything I recovered about your past. The Hunters. The world that erased you.”
Rylan stared at it.
“And Leah?” he asked quietly.
Parker shook his head. “No location. No signal. They’re blocking everything.”
Rylan pocketed the drive. “Then I’ll make them unblock it.”
Parker hesitated. “There’s one more thing you should know.”
Rylan raised a brow. “What?”
“You weren’t just some soldier, Rylan,” Parker gulped. “You were the best. They called you something… something you probably won’t like.”
Rylan folded his arms. “Try me.”
“They called you The Fallen King.”
Silence crashed down.
Rylan stared at Parker, speechless.
“That was your code name,” Parker continued. “Because you were the leader of a covert unit. The strongest. The one they feared. The one who fell when everything collapsed.”
Rylan’s pulse thundered.
The Fallen King.
His own title. His own past. And he never knew.
He didn’t move for several seconds.
Then he said quietly:
“I’m going to find Leah. And then I’m going to find the people who took my crown away.”
Parker nodded quickly. “Be careful. If The Hunters know you’re remembering—”
“They should be scared,” Rylan cut in.
---
Rylan left the workshop.
And that was when the night shifted.
He felt it. A presence.
Someone was following him.
He stopped in the middle of the street, head turning slightly.
“Come out.”
A shadow moved behind him, silent but intentional.
Footsteps emerged from the darkness.
A hooded figure stepped into the dim streetlight. Not tall, but with confidence. Their voice was calm.
“You shouldn’t have learned the truth.”
Rylan’s hand went to his holster. “And you shouldn’t have come alone.”
The figure chuckled lightly. “You think I’m here to fight?”
Rylan narrowed his eyes.
“What do you want?”
The hood lifted slowly, revealing a woman with sharp eyes and a scar across her cheek.
“My name is Mara,” she said. “And I’m here to warn you.”
Rylan didn’t lower his guard. “About what?”
She met his gaze.
“About the night The Fallen King was destroyed.”
Rylan’s heart stilled. “You know what happened thirteen years ago?”
Mara nodded. “More than you ever will—if you keep running blind.”
Rylan took a step closer. “Then speak.”
Mara looked around. “Not here. The streets have ears.”
“Then where?”
She hesitated, then whispered:
“There’s a place. A place you forgot. A place they erased. If you want answers… come with me.”
Rylan studied her carefully.
“Why help me?”
Mara exhaled, and for a moment, the confidence cracked, revealing something raw underneath.
“Because I owe you,” she said. “More than you can imagine.”
Rylan’s brows pulled together. “Owe me?”
“Yes.” Her voice trembled. “Because thirteen years ago… you saved me.”
The words hit him like a blow.
“I don’t remember,” he said quietly.
“I know.” She stepped back. “But if you come with me, you will.”
Rylan tightened his grip on his gun. “And if it’s a trap?”
Mara’s eyes shone with something unreadable. “Then you’ll die remembering the truth instead of dying in the dark.”
Rylan stood still.
The choice hung between them.
Trust the stranger who claimed to know his erased past…
…or stay blind while The Hunters moved closer to killing Leah.
Mara extended a hand.
“Come, Rylan. Before they get rid of the last person who ever cared about you.”
His heart stopped.
“Leah?”
Mara’s expression twisted.
“They’re preparing to move her again. If we don’t leave now, you’ll never see her alive.”
Rylan’s breath hitched.
He stepped forward.
One step.
Two.
Mara turned and started walking into the shadows.
Rylan followed—
—until a sudden explosion shook the ground.
BOOM.
The shockwave threw him backward.
Dust. Smoke. Screams from the distance.
Mara spun, eyes wide. “They found us!”
Rylan pushed himself up, coughing. “Who?!”
Mara’s face paled.
“The Hunters.”
A red laser dot suddenly marked Rylan’s chest.
And another.
And another.
He exhaled sharply.
“Mara,” he said coldly, “run.”
“No. I’m not leaving you.”
Rylan lifted his gun, eyes burning.
“Then fight.”
Above them, on the rooftops, shadowed figures appeared—dozens.
All wearing the same symbol.
The broken red crown.
Rylan’s heart pounded.
Leah was out there.
His past was hunting him.
And now the Hunters surrounded him on every side.
The leader’s voice echoed through a megaphone:
“Rylan Cross… The Fallen King. Kneel.”
Rylan raised his weapon instead.
“Over my dead body.”
Mara grabbed his arm. “Rylan, there are too many—”
He cut her off with a sharp whisper.
“Then we make them remember why they feared me.”
The Hunters took aim.
Rylan and Mara stood back to back.
And the night exploded into chaos—
- Writer
