Skyla looked at Melaina, her fingertips pressed against her temples, her eyebrows locked into a frown and her lips tight. She couldn’t do it.

 

“I can’t do it,” she said, sighing and leaning back in her seat. “I can’t give you the answer to your question. You’ll have to come back another day. My powers can’t do anything for you now.”

 

Melaina grunted as she looked away. What good is it to visit a fortune teller if all it can say is: “Come back another day”? She shot the gypsy a frustrated look and the old woman responded with a shrug.

 

“Thanks anyway,” the girl muttered at Skyla The Fortune Teller and got up to her feet to leave the room.

 

Once outside, she slammed the door behind her and took a deep breath. Why couldn’t Skyla tell her future? The question was simple: “Will I fall in love soon?” It wasn’t so complicated!

 

Melaina looked at the sky and realised it was dark. She groaned. “Why is it so dark?” she thought. “It’s barely 5:00!” The young girl shook her frizzy hair off her face and looked up.

 

She saw a small human figure walking towards her that grew bigger and bigger as it approached. She narrowed her eyes, trying to see who it was, though she couldn’t say anything but it being a guy.

 

Wary, she looked away and started towards her home, but when she turned around, the figure was right behind her. Melaina stifled a scream of surprise.

 

She had seen right, it was a guy. A hot guy actually, with hair as curly as hers, but rather of a brownish back taint and dark brown eyes. They just stared at each other, Melaina having to look up, since he was quite taller than her.

 

“Hey,” the guy said, a small smile on his lips. “Alexander,” he added after a second of silence, reaching out his hand.

 

“Oh, hi!” Melaina replied, blushing slightly as she grabbed his hand and they shook. “I’m Melaina.”

 

They remained silent once again, her blue eyes in his.

 

“Yes, well, I got to go,” Alexander told her.

 

“What?” she said, confused and deceived.

 

“Don’t worry,” he answered, hushing her up by putting a finger over her lips. “We’ll meet again.” He gave her a charming smile and left.

 

“Hey! No, wait!”

 

But he was already gone, leaving her standing there, beneath a sky full of stars…

 

It’s been a month now and Melaina hasn’t seen Alexander. She had waited and waited, for what seemed forever, but he never showed up. Sometimes, she told herself it had all been nothing but a dream and every time she said that, a small light left her eyes and her shoulders slumped, all hope gone. Some days, she didn’t even care about eating; Alexander’s mysterious figure was all that occupied her mind.

 

Even if she knew nothing about him, for she had met him just once and maybe even that one time was only something she had imagined. Still, he was the voice that made her smile, the person who made her sing and the shadow that made her dream.

 

The girl thought about that as she walked one day, her fists clenched. She paid little attention to the humidity and the cold outside and to the compact fog that was gathering around her, lost in her thoughts.

 

Though, after a moment, she started to take interest in the tight mist. Melaina looked around her and realised that she couldn’t see anything because of the fog. She took a deep breath, trying not to panic and started thinking of a way of going back home. Out of reflex, she started backing up, as if she was confronted to a danger in front of her. And then, she bumped into someone.

 

Melaina spun around, surprised, and looked up, her eyes meeting those, wonderfully brown, of Alexander. She remained speechless, the thought of seeing the guy that made her lose herself once again paralysed her. The pounding of her heart was the only sound she could hear and for a second, she was worried that it was so loud he could hear it.

 

“Yeah, I can hear it,” he said suddenly, breaking the silence. “But that’s normal.”

 

“Normal?” Melaina asked, her voice nothing but a whisper that broke at the last syllable.

 

Alexander nodded. “Yes.”

 

Then, she asked him the question she couldn’t help asking: “Who are you?”

 

There was a pause as a mischievous dazzle passed through Alexander’s eyes. “Come. I’ll show you.” And he presented her his hand.

 

The young girl hesitated, staring at his hand.

 

“What?” he whispered softly. “Don’t you trust me?”

 

“No,” she thought, but refrained from telling him that. Of course she didn’t trust him. He was a complete stranger, no matter how hot he was, no matter how many shivers he sent through her spine. Still, curiosity made her take his hand and she ignored the faint smile of satisfaction that appeared on his lips.

 

Alexander led her through the thick mist, holding her hand. After several minutes, they arrived in front of a wonderful black Yamaha motorcycle, sparkling though there was no ray of light. They looked at each other and Melaina took advantage that moment to give him a confused look.

 

“What is the meaning of this?” she asked herself, frowning and then formulated her question aloud as he approached the vehicle and climbed on it.

 

“No questions, Mel,” he told her. “Just get on.”

 

Melaina put her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow. “No helmets?”

 

“You won’t need it. Trust me,” he said.

 

She shrugged and climbed on the engine behind him. “I hope you know what you’re doing” she sighed, wrapping her arms around his waist.

 

“Of course I do.”

 

And before she had the time to realise what was happening, they sprinted forward, the air rushing trough their hair, surrounded by darkness.

 

 

***

 

“What is this place,” Melaina inquired, suspicious. “Why did you bring me here?” She looked at the dark ocean that lay below the cliff on which she was stand on. She turned around briskly to stare at Alexander, who was half sitting on the motorcycle, his legs crossed.

 

“This is the place where I live,” he answered finally, as if it were obvious.

 

“What? How could you possibly live here? This is only made of rocks and water, there’s no way this is your home.”

“It’s not like I need anything more.”

 

There was a silence between the two of them. Then, Melaina exploded.

 

“Will you end up telling me what all of this is about?! You’re all dark and mysterious and… and rather handsome… But that’s not the point! You think this is just about you being charming? Well let me tell you that it’s not going to be like that!”

 

Alexander smirked at her, amused. “Really? And you’re sure about that? Well what I’d like to know is what the problem about me living here is.”

 

“Well… I… I don’t know. It’s just that… It’s completely impossible! How can this,” she showed the cliff and the ocean, “be you’re home?”

 

He crossed his arms and stared at her, smiling. Then, after a moment, his smile faded as he looked at the dark water. “I’m a Shadow, Melaina. I don’t really exist. Well, I do, but… nobody really knows that. Except you.” He looked at her seriously.

 

“And let me guess,” Melaina said. “You want me to help you.”

 

“Yeah. Kinda. I actually do. I want you to let me kiss you.”

 

There was a silence as they glared at each other, Alexander being malicious and Melaina being, in some way, completely furious.

 

“Are you serious?” she asked him in a deadly tone. “I don’t think that it works that way.”

 

“Actually, it does,” he replied sliding his arm around her waist. He lifted her chin up gently and as she was about to push him away, a low chuckling noise sounded. Then, a metallic rustling made them shiver and Alexander frowned, taking her hand and murmuring hastily to Melaina to follow him.

 

The girl obeyed and they ran furtively through a land of tall grass, wind blowing violently in their faces, as it started to rain, like that, out of the blue.

 

“What is happening?” Melaina yelled at the Shadow.

 

“Black Shadows,” he answered, continuing to run. “Shadows that spent so much time in their loneliness that they turned black with anger… They forgot what it’s like to be human.”

 

Suddenly, ten dark shadows appeared in front of them, making them stop in their tracks. “What the heck is this?!” Melaina whispered to herself. “Are we in Hell?”

 

Alexander pulled her in another direction and they kept running from the dark silhouettes of Shadows. After minutes of running, when Melaina was out of breath, they arrived at the end of a second cliff. Down, there was another ocean that was just as black as the first one.

 

“Oh my God, what are we going to-” she gasped, but as she was saying that, they were jumping off the cliff and into the dark, icy water. The coldness froze Melaina and she couldn’t think anymore, nothing was real. Nothing but the cold that stuck to her skin, to her soul like glue. And then, suddenly, she opened her eyes. She expected to see wild waves and ice, but instead she saw the greyish stone of a cave’s wall. Melaina frowned and sat up, lying against the wall behind her. She took her breath and closed her eyes again. This couldn’t be happening. Next to her, there was Alexander, smiling like always.

 

 “Well that wasn’t so bad, now was it?” he joked, his eyes sparkling wildly.

 

Before she could say anything, the sinister figures appeared again and approached menacingly. Then, without saying a word, Alexander put his arm around her waist again, pushed a wet lock of her hair out of her face and kissed her gently.