Somehow Kath and Rich managed to get both Ben and Shade out of there without any further trouble. Rich told Ben later that he couldn't have done it without him. Rich said he didn't know what the hell Ben did to his bullets, but they punched through those damn shadow bastards like they were made of meringue.
From there, they didn't know what the hell they were going to do. Shade continued to train Ben in the use of his powers, expanding on the strength he'd shown in their fight against Allan and the woman. It wasn't long before Ben could do the same thing, without passing out every time.
Rich left. He'd decided they were too weird, Ben and Shade without shadows, and that he didn't fit into whatever they were planning. And Kath, Kath who also still had her shadow? Well...
"Ben," Kath touched Ben timidly on the arm one day as he came in from training. Ben turned to look at her.
"Kath," he said. "What is it?"
She looked pained and Ben was immediately suspicious. He knew she hadn't been entirely happy here on the farm since Richard had left. It was hard, but, Ben thought, good. She went to town a few days a week for them, doing their shopping and whatever. Ben took her out, whenever Shade decreed he'd trained hard enough to earn a break. She hadn't allowed Ben to share her bed yet, but he thought that was only a matter of time. And if there was a certain stand-offishness about her when they were alone together, Ben did his best to ignore that, thinking it was a hold-over from what had happened in Casino.
"Ben," she said again, and he noticed she was crying. He reached out to take her in his arms and she pulled away. "Don't," she said. "Please, don't. I just need to say this, and get it out in the open, and then I... then I can go."
"What?"
"Don't," she said. "Ben, I love you. I loved you throughout High School, and I loved you even when I was married to Neil, and I still love you now. But, you've changed. Since losing your shadow you've become, I don't know, more driven. It's like you're constantly looking forward to some goal that I can never be a part of. Something I'll only hold you back from. I love you Ben, but I'm a distraction to you here, as long as you and Shade are waging this secret battle against shadows.
"Ben," her voice broke and Ben had to struggle not to take her in his arms. She was killing him, didn't she know that? She was killing his heart. And even though he knew it was coming, the next words still drove a spike straight through his heart. It was pain, and also, fear? Yes, a horrible fear of losing her forever.
She said, "I'm leaving."
"Kath, please, don't," Ben said. "Stay here, we can work something out..."
But she was already walking away. Any faster and it would have been a run. "I'm sorry," she cried back over her shoulder. "I didn't want it to come to this, just remember that I loved you..."
Her last words trailed away as she disappeared around the corner of the house. She must have already packed, because a few minutes later, he heard the motor start and the car roared away. He walked to the side of the house and stared at the car as it disappeared in a cloud of smoke going back out to the main road.
"Where's she going?" said Shade.
He was standing up on the veranda watching Ben. Ben knew Shade knew what had happened. He shrugged.
"I don't know."
And he didn't. All Ben knew was that Kath was gone and she'd taken the best part of his heart with her. All he was left with now was Shade's glorious cause. His glorious, fucking insane, cause to rid the world of shadows. Ben turned back to Shade.
"Come on," he said. "Are we going to train, or are you going to stand up there staring at my pain all day?"
THE END
June 2002
Paul Taylor
North Richmond, NSW
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about me
I was born and grew up in the small, country town of Casino where I completely failed to learn any sort of viable trade or choose a career. After putting in 20 hard years of labour in the exciting world of banking - a temporary job to pay the rent - I've decided to finally try and make a go of this writing business, the only thing I was ever any good at.
I currently live in Sydney in a too small house with too many people, including my lovely partner and our horrible black cat.
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