Shadow of Death (SOD)

Chapter 39

THE NEXT DAY!

The next day arrived as normally as it could.

Except that nothing felt normal anymore.

The Reids woke up sweating buckets after enduring their second night of distorted dreams and disturbing visions.

For several moments, they simply remained where they were, trying to calm their racing hearts and steady their breathing.

Nobody said anything.

Eventually, they took their baths and came downstairs.

They gathered around the dining table and ate breakfast as normally as they could.

But even then, something felt terribly wrong.

Nobody could bring themselves to look at anyone else’s face.

Their heads remained hung low, each person lost deep within their own thoughts as the memories of the previous night continued to linger in their minds.

The entire mood and atmosphere was so solemn and heavy that it almost felt physical.

It was gripping.

Oppressive.

Like an invisible weight had settled over the dining room, pressing down on every single person seated at the table.

Yet, somehow, they continued eating.

They had to.

Eventually, breakfast came to an end, and everyone dispersed to get on with their respective activities.

Jesse and Asher were dropped off at their various institutions.

Jayden was dropped off at his new workplace while Jack himself headed to his workplace.

This left Clara all alone at home.

....

In class, Asher tried his best to listen to his lecturer.

He really did.

But his mind was immensely occupied by what could happen tonight.

Most of the time, the lecturer’s words flew over his head without properly registering.

His attention remained scattered as his thoughts constantly wandered back to the strange dreams and everything that had happened since they arrived in Vespers City.

After the Nuel incident, he hadn’t come to school for a few days.

And because his mind was so occupied with everything else, he hadn’t even noticed something important on his way to class.

The damage caused by his fight with Nuel had been strangely repaired.

The day after Nuel’s attack, the school had opened up as normal.

The only thing was that they had discovered several damaged areas around the university.

The main door had been smashed to pieces.

One of the school’s official buses had its windows shattered.

Even one of the halls had several broken chairs.

If Asher had been there at the moment, he would have been stunned by how nonchalant the university was about some of their belongings being vandalized.

There had been no panic.

No commotion.

Nobody seemed particularly concerned.

They simply got to work repairing whatever could be repaired and dumping aside whatever couldn’t.

They weren’t surprised.

They weren’t even particularly angry.

They simply believed that a Shadow creature had done it.

And honestly, it wasn’t like they could find the Shadow and sue it in court.

Unless they wanted to be summoned to the Shadow God’s court and charged themselves.

....

Class continued as normally as it could.

Some students yawned.

Others occasionally dozed off before their seatmates frantically shook them awake, desperate to prevent them from falling asleep.

Under normal circumstances, all of this would have been considered a distraction.

A student would have been punished or sent out of the class for sleeping.

But who didn’t know the conditions of the city at the moment?

Everyone understood.

Everyone was suffering.

Even the lecturer himself could be seen yawning silently at intervals, carefully suppressing it so he wouldn’t accidentally trigger a mass yawn.

It had become an unspoken rule.

Nobody wanted to be responsible for causing another person to fall asleep.

Finally, after a rough nine hours of a distracted day at school, Asher was now on his way back home.

He hurried along, not wanting to get home late and end up being attacked by the rulers of the night.

Fortunately, he managed to catch a bus on time.

By the time he arrived home, he had gotten back just in time to see his other family members returning one after another.

They all looked drained.

Exhausted.

Their movements were sluggish, and their faces carried the unmistakable signs of fatigue.

Quickly showering to wash away the exhaustion of the day, they all eventually settled in the dining room.

And once again, they began eating together.

"...."

The room was silent.

The only sounds that could be heard were the steady ticking of the clock and the occasional clinking of cutlery against their plates.

Tick.

Tock.

Clink.

Nobody said a word.

Their minds were simply reeling from the realization that they were practically doomed.

Each anti-sleep pill was capable of keeping someone awake for two days.

That didn’t mean they wouldn’t feel sleepy or experience the overwhelming urge to sleep.

The pills only kept their minds and bodies active for hours, preventing them from being completely overwhelmed by the urge to crash into bed.

And with each member of the Reid family having four pills, they could basically remain awake for eight days.

But for how long?

That was the question that continued to gnaw at them.

Each bottle cost two thousand dollars.

Even if they had enough money to keep buying them, their supply of money would eventually run out.

And the human body could only do so much without sleep.

At some point, their bodies would grow tired of the pills.

At some point, the medication would no longer be enough to suppress the body’s natural need for rest.

And when that happened, their bodies would force them to sleep.

What Asher was still unclear about was what would happen afterward.

If the sleep eventually came and they all fell asleep simultaneously, would the entire family be dragged into a Nightmare?

Or if one person fell asleep and subsequently ended up in a Nightmare, would the others remain safe?

He still didn’t know.

There were simply too many unanswered questions.

Maybe he would ask Mia tomorrow again.

....

Finally, dinner was over.

But instead of heading into their individual rooms, they all gathered in the living room.

Buckets filled with icy-cold water were placed in front of each and every one of them.

Everyone dipped their feet inside.

A shudder ran through their bodies as the extreme cold bit into their feet.

But they had no choice.

They needed to stay awake.

This was the plan.

Asher’s crude plan to keep them all awake.

If the entire family remained gathered in one place, they could keep an eye on one another.

The moment anyone began to doze off, someone else would notice and immediately prevent them from falling asleep.

It wasn’t a perfect plan.

But right now, it was the best they had.

Asher had his laptop placed in front of him with his headset over his head as he watched anime.

The others remained occupied with their phones while Jack and Clara quietly discussed something between themselves.

Nobody was allowed to sleep.

Nobody could afford to.

The clock silently ticked away.

And for some reason, it seemed to be moving faster than usual.

Seven pm became eight.

Then nine.

The passage of time suddenly felt almost cruel.

At nine pm, Jayden was still quietly surfing through his phone, texting with a crude smile plastered across his face.

He had met a beautiful woman at his new workplace and had managed to get her number.

They were currently chatting casually.

Jesse, meanwhile, was playing games on her tablet, her fingers constantly moving across the screen.

Flick—!

Flick—!

The lights suddenly began flickering.

Once.

Twice.

Then rapidly.

The entire room was illuminated and plunged into darkness repeatedly at an astonishing rate.

Everyone immediately lifted their heads.

Fear flashed across their faces.

Nobody spoke.

A slow wind began whistling through the room.

It carried with it a strange chill that seemed to seep directly into their bodies, rattling their bones despite the warmth that had filled the room moments earlier.

Then—

A bone-chilling voice whispered directly into their minds.

"For how long?"

Silence.

Then—

"Ba...thump."

Flick—!

The lights suddenly stopped flickering.

Everything returned to normal.

The room was once again illuminated by its usual brightness.

But the Reid family remained completely frozen.

Nobody moved.

Nobody spoke.

They all knew that voice.

They had heard it before.

The voice that belonged to the one entity they feared above everything else.

The Shadow God.

Asher’s hands tightened around his laptop.

His fingers clutched it so firmly that his knuckles almost turned white.

His teeth ground against one another as he glared into empty space.

He didn’t say anything.

None of them did.

Because the Shadow God hadn’t given them the opportunity.

It had appeared.

Spoken.

And disappeared just as quickly.

Leaving the entire Reid family sitting in terrified silence.

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