The Key of Shadows

The Gateway Series                                                                                        Key One
               


                                                    The Key of Shadows



I must obtain the power of the eight gateways. But how can I do that if the heart is still hidden?
I must obtain the power of the eight keys while the heart is still pure.
But how can I do that if the gateway is tainted?
I must kill all enemies.





The Gateway Series                                                                                        Key One
               

Evan Smith grabbed his full head of black hair in frustration as he stared at his mother talking on the phone. She promised, promised that they would leave to go to England today. Just like she promised they would leave the day he got out of school which was well over 5 days ago. But he wasn’t quite upset about it. Usually his mom was never home, and when she was she was sleeping.
“What the hell do you mean the flight is delayed?!, she said coldly. I told you that I needed to be on that flight today! No…You want to tell my son that we can’t leave today because you guys are illiterate and can’t do anything right?! I don’t care…no…well screw that!”
Evan’s mother hung up the phone and put her hand on her forehead. The depressed 14 year old didn’t even want to go downstairs to hear the bad news.
This would be the third time that his mom lied.
“Evan, Evan…!” Evan walked down the steps staring coldly. “Evan, sweetie, the flight was delayed im so sorry-“
Evan stared at her for a moment before he could think of the appropriate words to say.
“You know what, mom, forget it. I don’t care, why bother?!” Evan stormed up the stairs fuming with anger boiling inside of him. Evan threw himself on the bed and covered his face with a pillow. This was the kind of thing that made him sick, he started to doubt why he even believed a word his mother said.
“Evan, are you okay? Honey…it wasn’t my fault.”
“It was your fault, you booked the tickets didn’t you, and you probably knew that the flight would be delayed too!”
“Evan im not as dependable as I should be, but you can blame something like a delayed flight on me.”
Evan stood up abruptly, “Im going to bed.”
Something strange was building up inside of him; he couldn’t take it, this overwhelming feeling. He just wanted to hit something, someone, not his mother of course. He could try as hard as he wanted to suppress this feeling but eventually it would consume him. His mother stared at her distant son with ease.
“Evan are you okay? We should be leaving tomorrow im sure.”
“Fine.”, Evan said as he turned his back to her. She stared at him for a moment before she left him alone in the dark



The Gateway Series                                                                                        Key One
               

The phone rang at exactly 12:35 a.m. Evan shot up from his sleep. The phone had rung two more times before he even thought to react. Surprisingly his light sleeper of a mother didn’t hear the loud ringing.
“Hello”, Evan said rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
“Hi, is this Evan? Evan how are you, Where is your mother?”
“Well we were sleeping until you called, who is this?” Evan thought quietly to himself for a moment listening closely to the voice.
Evan went silent before speaking and when he did the words came out like poison.
“What the hell do you want?!”
“Now Evan, you’re only 14 years old, how would your mother feel about you cussing like this.” It was painfully noticeable that Evan didn’t like this person on the phone, which turned out to be his uncle.
“If you don’t have anything good to say I will be hanging up now!”
“Let me speak to you mother”, he said calmly.
“No…”
“Evan I don’t have time to play around with a child now let me speak her, if you would please.”
His uncle’s voice went serious and cold as he talked to Evan. By now Evan had slammed the phone down on the receiver and got back into the bed.
The phone rung again, this time Evan answered ready to curse but his mom stepped in snatching the phone away from him.
“Hello”, she said in an annoyed tone.
“This is the second time you have called my house, not to mention at 12 in the morning. Who is this?”
“This is Thomas.”
His mothers face lightened with relief.
“Oh hi, Thomas, how are you?”
“Ask him why he’s calling so late”, yelled Evan.
“Heh heh, cute kid.” His uncle said
“But I have something serious to tell you.” 
“Im sure it could have waited until the morning, you know, when people are actually awake to answer the phone.”
“It’s very serious, if I didn’t think that it was important enough I wouldn’t have called at all.”
“That is Nice to know.”
Evan glared at his mom as she lowered herself onto the bed. She started to shake suddenly; she even let a tear fall from her eyes.
“Do you know where he is? Are you sure? Positive? Oh my hell. Thanks for telling me.” 
“What’s wrong”, Evan said disdainfully.
“It’s about your dad, Evan…, he’s dead…”
Evan didn’t speak he just stood there silent. His mother couldn’t tell if he was sad depressed or surprised. But usually when Evan had a blank expression on his face as he did at the moment that meant he didn’t care.
The Gateway Series                                                                                        Key One
               


“Evan? Are you okay? You know this means that we can’t go to London, there is a court hearing.”
This little timid of information sparked his interest, although he wasn’t quiet surprised by the break of news, his mother always found a way to piss him off.
“What is the court hearing for?”
“Your custody…” A look of frustration and outrage appeared on his face. He bit his lip and rubbed his forehead back and forth until you could see how scarlet red it had become. He kept frowning until he spoke.
“Why- why what’s wrong with you having custody of me?!? You can’t give me to someone else im your child!” he said not far from a yell.   
“It seems your father requested it before he died.”
“But why?”
“I understand that you can’t fathom why your father would do something like that, but I don’t know why either.” Evan shook his head fiercely as he ran his hand through his black hair.
“I just don’t understand”, he said quietly to himself.
“Just go back to sleep, we can talk about it in the morning.”
“No we cant, we can’t! We can talk about it right now, right now! Mom your such a horrible liar, how can you be so calm, so…nonchalant about it? I care more than you do? It’s amazing, really!”
“Evan…”
There it was again that sensation, the feeling of sudden anger that he couldn’t control, boiling up inside of him.
“Evan are you sure you’re okay? You should go back to sleep.” 
Her determined son wasn’t going to bed until he got some answers out of her, which was pointless because she knew squat didily about it. She couldn’t even begin to process the news in her head. It was like watching the news. You see that someone gets killed and you feel so sad, but you could never imagine that happening to you. And when it does it’s like… what the hell? Once again she was becoming a distraught mother. Not just from the death of her X but now he wanted to take her child. And now her child might even agree to leave her. How could she live without the one thing that she loved so dear, the one thing that lead her to get out of bed every morning and fight for the life that she wanted him to have.
Evan kept pacing back and forth rubbing his forehead and cursing under his breath.
“Evan this is the last time im going to tell you to go to sleep.”

“No, heck no, im not going to sleep, because your lying to me, instead of telling me what I deserve to know you’re treating me like some little kid whose stupid, like im little kid that still believes in Santa Clause, you’ve got to be kidding me mom, im smarter than you’re making me out to be. Don’t lie to me!”

His mother sighed, got up and left the room.
The Gateway Series                                                                                        Key One
               


Evan turned his faced the window. No matter how annoyed he got, he couldn’t find it in him to cry for his dad. It’s not like he was ever there or that he ever came to visit him. Honestly in this case Evan shouldn’t have given 2 craps if his father was dead, but now the he was it was just more of the realization that his whole life was falling apart.
Evan heard a gasp, he didn’t realize that it came from his own mouth; he was lights out before he even hit the ground.
His mother caught him while she put the needle in her pocket, and tucked Evan into bed. She kissed her sons head, started at him once more as he groaned out in pain in his sleep, turned off the lamp next to his bed and shut the door.
She wasn’t a bad mother, she wasn’t, and her son would just have to realize that on his own.
“Evan….get dressed”, with that she walked from the room and out of the house.

The drive to the court was a long tedious one. The hearing was out of state. Evan reluctantly offered to take a plane but his mother insisted that they should bond by riding into to Florida. Evan, of course, resisted, but to no prevails.
The more Evan dwelled on the upcoming case the more he understood that, he just might have to live with his uncle.  And if that happened he would kill himself, or his uncle, one had to go.
“Make sure you’re polite and that you don’t speak out of term”, she reminded him as they pulled to a stop at a red light.
“I don’t need you to critique me and chastise me on what to do”, Evan said as he turned to look out the window. “Maybe you should be worried about yourself.”
“Evan- That attitude of yours is getting old, im tired of it! You’re 14 years old, don’t you speak to me like that! I know you’re still angry but I couldn’t give a damn anymore, Evan, I can’t apologize enough, but like I said, get over it”
Evan glared at his mother from the corner of his eye before he rolled over and ignored her for the rest of the ride.




The Gateway Series                                                                                        Key One
               
Everyone knew about it. Thomas Claspry knew about it. William Winters, Gale Adams, everyone knew about it, everyone except Evan Winters.
They all wanted in and they all wanted to posses its massive power.
“I agree that the planned worked out well, they believed everything, and if Thomas acts right we will get the boy.”
“Let’s be serious, Gale, we all know that the kid can’t stand me, so how do you expect for him to trust me?”
“Heh, heh, I don’t!”
“William, are you really okay with this?”
“What does it matter, he can’t back out now!”
“Last time I checked I wasn’t talking to you-“
“No its okay, I am perfectly content with what I have to do, I want power, power can compensate.”

We were waiting outside for hours waiting to distribute our loads to the men. Im sure you know that Creek Way is a very dangerous place. The night was unsteady and cold it was starless outside and nothing moved around.
Two men sat waiting for their business associates to meet them at Creek Way.
Creek Way was an abandoned underground factory (mostly for mafia trades) that held a lot of secrets. And for the two men to be waiting alone in the night wasn’t very smart.



The Gateway Series                                                                                        Key One
               

That morning Evan woke up with a serious headache that wouldn’t allow him to think straight let along use him arms and legs. But despite his now increasing pain he had slept with ease through the night. Then after the pain had numbed he remember, that his father was pronounced dead last night by his uncle, who he blamed for running his life.

“Good morning Evan.” His mother entered the room and sat on the bed.
“We’re going to court today; you can decide who you want to be with.”
That was just great! Just perfect! He couldn’t even wake up and have a normal morning, a normal breakfast, or a normal day in general. He couldn’t have a normal anything. Something bizarre always had to happen.
“I still don’t understand” he stammpered, “If dad is dead then why would Thomas want custody of me?!?”
“Evan, Im not sure okay? I am just as confused as you are!!”
“Don’t yell at me, why are you yelling at me? Don’t take your frustration on me because you know the judge will realize how bad of a mother you are.”
His mother’s heart froze. Evan was typically the good mama’s boy that made good grades, got all of the chicks, and was friends with everybody. And now, to see his frustration, his true colors coming true she sincerely considered getting him a therapist.
There was a long, long awkward silence as the bickering mother stared at he enraged son.