The shadows slowly shifted under the one flickering light in the center of the ceiling. They seemed almost alive as Detective Harry Grant surveyed the grisly scene. The man in the middle of the room stared blankly towards the lone light bulb. A sticky red-black mess framed his body. The five bullet holes in the dead man’s chest were still sticky where the blood leaked out.

Grant took a slow drag off his cigarette. He saw scenes like this every day, but that didn’t make it any easier to look at them. He leaned down to examine the man’s face more closely. “I thought you said you didn’t have an I.D. on the victim yet?”

The patrol officer shrugged.

Grant through his hands up in disgust. “Why’s everyone around me have to be just another blasted ignoramus. Look at him! That’s Amadeus Mayfair!”

“The World’s Fair guy?” the uniformed officer said.

“He’s a noted physicist first and foremost, but yeah, it’s the same guy.” Grant looked around the room for any sign of civilians. “Who found the stiff?”

“The landlady. She says the door was locked from the inside, as were all the windows. No way in.”

Grant turned towards the apartment’s entrance. He looked across the walls. “Now that ain’t possible. No way could Mayfair take five bullets from the hallway without anyone seeing a gunman. And where are the bullet holes?”

The uniform scratched the back of his head, obviously uncomfortable. “You’re the detective. We thought you’d know.”

“Well, it seems there are two possibilities here. Either we’re looking at a lying landlady, or something really fishy is going on here.”

From the dark corner of the room, a ghost watched and listened. Normally, Mister Haunt would agree with every one of Detective Grant’s words. This time he knew things were quite different. His network filled him in on the situation over the last few hours. He knew that Dr. Mayfair had been alone, afraid for his life. He knew that the physicist found out something he shouldn’t and feared retribution. He knew that in the last few weeks Mayfair became a shut-in whose only contact was his adult daughter.

And Mister Haunt knew exactly how a person could enter a room without being seen. Mister Haunt mastered the art of shadow-walking during his youth. He knew the art was lost, never to be taught again. He knew that the killer could only be one man. But Mister Haunt knew he had killed the other man many years ago....

*****

Fifteen years earlier...

The boy barely could walk as the heavy snow beat down on his bare skin. He wore only pants, slippers, and a tattered shirt. Despite the utter cold, his skin burned with every flake that landed upon his body. He prayed to find a way back to his home. But if any god heard him, he did not answer.

I’m going to die, he realized. It was the first time his ten year old mind ever deigned to think about his own mortality.

He didn’t know how he came here, only that snow followed him from all directions. The last thing he remembered was a car crash. And blood, lots of blood. He wasn’t sure how he got out in to the middle of nowhere. He certainly couldn’t remember what happened to his clothes.

The blizzard whipped snow at him from all directions. He couldn’t see far enough to even get a glimpse of his own hands. Horrible shivers racked his body as he stumbled forward in to the white abyss. Unaware of his surroundings, he never saw the wall before he stumbled straight in to it. He barely could move as the shivers shook his body to his knees. He reached for the barrier, the wall, whatever it might be. His hand strained in search of a way through. Instead, he found a door handle. He pulled with all his remaining strength. The door creaked against the pounding winds, but it opened. He stumbled in through the door. Finally out of the cold, his body gave in to exhaustion. He fell to his knees first. His vision blurred. His eyes rolled back in to his head as he saw at two figures, one above him. He felt his body fall forward. His head struck the ground, but he already hurt too much to feel it.

“Quickly, Nikola,” the taller figure said. “Go and get water and blankets. Our new guest seems to have endured a great trial to reach us today.”

“Yes, Sifu. Right away.” The smaller figure’s voice was small, young. He could hear the other boy rush off.

“Rest young one, rest. You are safe now.”

The boy felt his eyes grow heavy as the one called Sifu spoke. His words made perfect sense. He couldn’t remember the last time he slept. It took only seconds for consciousness to fade completely.

The boy slowly blinked his eyes open. Where am I?

The room was small. The walls were made of simple wood, much like the log cabins some country folk still lived in. Outside of a few oil-burning lamps that burned low, the walls were barren. He rolled over in the bed; actually more of a hammock than a true bed. The movement sent sharp, stabbing pains up his arms. But he could now see the open archway out in to the rest of the house. A young girl moved around the corridor on the other side of the door. She didn’t look to be much older than him, maybe twelve or thirteen. Her skin was well tanned despite the arctic weather outside. Her black hair fell all the way to her hips. It glistened in the fire-light. She turned towards him. The boy laid eyes on the most beautiful girl in the world.

Though he never saw one outside of magazines, he knew she was an Oriental. Her green eyes glowed like jade against her soft mahogany skin. Her beauty seemed to radiate towards him as she noticed him. She smiled.

“You’re awake,” she said. Her speech came with a slight accent, like the Englishman he sometimes heard on the radio. Her voice was soft and silk. He melted with every syllable. Everything about her enraptured him.

She came to his bedside and tucked the blanket back over him. “You mustn’t move though. You will tear the bandages from your arms before the balm can finish the healing process. I will call for Father and Nikola.”

With those words she was gone. The boy stammered, tried to say something, anything, as she left. Words escaped him. She drew him in like a moth to a flame and snuffed the fire out like it was never even there.

She returned in only a few minutes. She brought an old man and another boy with her. Despite the fuzz in his head, he remembered the pair from the gate.

The old man gave him a slight grin as he examined the boy. He was Oriental like the girl with gray hair and a long mustache. “Welcome to my humble abode, young man. We weren’t exactly expecting you. Visitors are rare to this land. I am known here simply as Sifu.” He gestured to the other boy. “You may recall Nikola from your ignominious arrival here. And you are already at least modestly acquainted with my daughter Lily. May I inquire as to your name and family?”

The boy racked his brain for an answer to Sifu’s question. As hard as he sought an answer, he could bring forth no recollection. In fact, he could barely remember anything before the snowstorm that had brought him here. “I... I don’t know,” he stammered.

“I thought that might be the case,” Sifu said. “No matter. You are welcome in my home for as long as you wish to stay.” He gestured to Nikola. “I have been known to take in orphans.”

The boy looked at Nikola. He guessed the boy was about his own age. He was quite skinny, almost rail thin. His skin was fair, almost white, with just a wisp of blond on his head. He met the boy’s gaze but showed no sign of emotion.

“Get some rest,” said Sifu. He ran his hand over the bandages on the boy’s arms and chest. “Let the poultice I placed on your bandages do their work. In the morning, you should be feeling well enough to help out with work and chores.”

Sifu patted the boy on the shoulder, turned, and left the room. Nikola followed closely behind. Lily walked back to the boy’s side. He couldn’t take his eyes off the radiant smile he already adored. “Welcome to the family,” she said. She giggled and scurried out of the room.

He thought only of her as he drifted off to sleep.

Over the next five years, the boy worked and trained every day with Sifu, Nikola, and Lily. Without a name, he quickly became known simply as Boy. He didn’t mind the new name as he grew to love his surrogate family. Sifu put both Nikola and he to work on dozens of chore each day in the elaborate stone house He rewarded a job well done with classes unlike Boy ever experienced in his school days. He taught them how to fight and how to defend. He taught them ways to move in complete silence. He taught them medication techniques to relax and strengthen the spirit. And every once in a while he taught them one of his many unique techniques. They learned to channel their own life force in to amazing feats of strength, stamina, and magic.

But despite all the amazing things Boy learned, despite all his hard work and training, his first devotion was to Lily.

Boy spent every free waking moment he could in the company of Lily. Often, Lily, Nikola, and he would sneak off in to the large field of peach trees in the massive square at the house’s center. They spent hours and hours dreaming about life outside of the hilltop home. None of them could remember the last time they visited the outside world, but they all shared beautiful ideas about the adventures they could have. Sometimes, Boy would show off some of the moves that Sifu had taught him to Lily. Other times he would spar with Nikola for her. She would always laugh when they fought, and she would always give the winner a kiss. The thought of the soft touch of her lips was all Boy needed to excel in his training. Over the months and years, he would quickly surpass Nikola as Sifu’s finest student. Sifu treated him none the better for it, but it made Boy proud that he had learned so much.

It made Nikola fiercely jealous. Boy knew something was wrong with Nikola, but he had no idea how wrong until it was too late.

It was far too early in the morning when Lily rushed in to the tiny cell that was his room. “Come,” she cried. “Nikola has gone crazy and challenged Father to a death duel!”

Boy didn’t want to believe it, but he had seen the crazed look of jealousy and animosity in Nikola’s eyes before. He would never have guessed that Nikola would do something like this. He yanked on his pants as he hustled in to the hall. He rushed down to the training room behind Lily. He slammed the doors open to the hall they used for training. Sifu and Nikola stood about fifteen feet apart, their eyes locked intently on one another.

Sifu gestured to them to stay back. Lily ignored the warning and started towards him.

“No, my daughter,” he said. His eyes never strayed from Nikola. “I have been formally challenged, and neither of you will get in the way of this duel.”

Lily started towards her father again. Boy reached out and grabbed her by the arm. He pulled her back. “No, we must let them duel. I will not question either’s honor.”

Lily struggled to pull away, but Boy held her tight. As Sifu and Nikola began to circle each other, she gave in. She collapsed in to Boy’s bare chest, sobbing.

Boy watched as Nikola and Sifu slowly circled one another. The room was lit by hundreds of candles, casting shadows throughout the hall. With a blinding flash of movement, Nikola charged Sifu. Sifu vanished before his student could ever strike. He appeared in the shadows across the room. Nikola turned and growled at Sifu’s shadow-jump.

“Turn and fight, old man!”

“I will not give in to anger, Nikola. That is not our way.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Nikola said. His rage swirled around him in a black malaise as he spoke. “It may not be your way. But my way is winning.”

With that he vanished in to the sliver of shadow he stood upon. He instantly appeared behind Sifu. He lashed out with a devastating kick to his teacher’s lower back. The sickening crack of Sifu’s spine would soon follow

Sifu turned slightly. He brought one hand up. Nikola’s leg landed right on his palm. He quickly twisted, sending Nikola spinning backwards.

“This is a fight you cannot win, Nikola. I ask you to stop now. You will live to leave and fight again.”

Nikola scoffed at the master’s words. “I don’t think so. I’m tired of calling you master. I will prove I’m the greatest shadow warrior of all.”

Sifu shook his head. “If that is what you wish, then I have truly failed you. Come. Let us finish.”

Nikola again vanished in to the shadows, only to reappear directly below Sifu. He tried to land a brutal uppercut as he emerged from the shadows. The master easily side-stepped the blow. He grabbed his student’s arm and flipped Nikola away from him, towards Boy and Lily.

Boy could see the sick grin on Nikola’s face. He could see the glint of steel in his former friend’s hand.

Boy rushed forward, but it was already too late. Nikola drew the dagger fully from his sash. With a twist of his body, he buried the knife to the hilt in Sifu’s chest, just below his collarbone. He yanked the blade free. He drove the blade down again, this time in to Sifu’s heart.

“NO!”

Anger turned Boy’s vision to a red haze. He lashed out with a devastating kick to the thigh of Nikola. Nikola stumbled back but remained afoot. He lashed out with the blade. Boy parried and caught Nikola by the wrist. Boy ducked down and swept the feet out from under Nikola. Nikola tumbled to the floor. The dagger dropped from his hand and slid across the floor.

Nikola lashed out from his prone position. His kick knocked Boy to the floor with him. They both struggled to reach for the blade. Boy stretched his fingers out, almost wrapping his hand around it. Nikola dived atop him in a bid to grab it. Both men fought with one hand on the deadly weapon. Its blade still glistened with their master’s blood. Boy struggled mightily and shoved the blade back towards Nikola’s neck. With one final burst of strength, Boy brought the dagger across Nikola’s throat. Blood flowed freely from the jugular. Nikola clutched at the wound as he gasped for air.

Lily ran forward and shoved Boy off his dying former friend.

“Damn you,” she cried. “Why did you have to come here? If you had never appeared none of this would have happened.”

“But,” Boy stammered. “I was just trying—”

“No,” Lily said, her words cut by tears. “Just get out. Get out now.”

Boy just looked sadly at the beautiful woman he had grown to love.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “Goodbye, Lily.”

Boy turned and walked away, leaving Lily weeping over the corpses of his master and his friend.

*****

9:15 p.m.

Mister Haunt could not understand it, but he knew that only another shadow-walker could perpetrate this crime. Somehow Nikola survived his slit throat. It didn’t seem possible, but Sifu’s powers encompassed many traits that the untrained would call impossible. Perhaps Nikola knew a secret technique, unknown even to Mister Haunt. He didn’t bother to question it farther. He just knew that he must find Nikola before he could kill again.

One of his network connections, a dockyard sleaze named Marlon, had tipped him off that a hired assassin was gunning for Amadeus and his surviving family. A trace of public records by another of his connections showed that Amadeus possessed only one living relative: one Wilhemina Mayfair.

Mister Haunt tracked Wilhemina to her job as a typesetter for the Daily Champion. He kept her eyes on her from the shadows. When her work day ended at nearly eight p.m., he followed her in to the night. He kept his distant, but never let her out of his sight as she made her way by foot back to her home. Haunt wondered about the reserved young woman. She clearly expressed ambition to be a reporter at the paper. But despite or perhaps because of that desire, she certainly seemed nonplussed that her only living relative, Amadeus, was now dead.

She also seemed a ready and willing target. She meandered at every store window. She stopped to pet every animal being walked by its owner. Mister Haunt wondered if she knew that her life was in peril. After an interminable hour, she walked up to her brownstone. She removed keys from her purse and let herself in. Haunt heard a click from the other side. At least she was bright enough to lock her door. He melted in to the shadows. Darkness surrounded him, but he moved through it. His thoughts focused on her home and the shadows within. He slid in to the shadows of her living room. She remained oblivious of his presence. With powers like his, Nikola would have no problem murdering his victim.

Mina Mayfair flipped the lights of her home. She dropped her coat on a free-standing coat rack to the left of the door. She brushed her hand through her hair as she started across the living room and in to the open kitchen. She walked straight for the icebox. She leaned down and opened the icebox door. As she reached inside, Haunt watched a handgun slowly emerge from the shadows cast against the kitchen wall behind her.

Mister Haunt rushed from the shadows. His twin .45s emerged from beneath his billowing black cloak. The barrels blazed as he fired at the shadows. Mina screamed as she turned around at the sounds of the shot. The bullets smacked in to the wall as she stumbled back in to the icebox. The final two bullets didn’t strike the wall. They instead landed with a dull thud in human flesh. Nikola stumbled from the shadows. He wore simple gray slacks and a white shirt, which now sprouted blotches of red on his abdomen.

Nikola smiled as he saw Mister Haunt’s cloaked visage before him. Haunt’s red eyes glowed back at him from beneath the shadows of his cloak. Nikola’s smile drew the ragged scar across his neck in to its own sick grin.

“I knew you’d come. You always were a self-righteous fool.”

Mister Haunt again raised a .45. But Nikola’s hand shot up faster, firing a round in to Haunt’s chest. Mister Haunt stumbled backwards. He dropped a .45 from one hand to clutch the wound while he raised his other pistol. But it was to no avail. Nikola was already gone, vanished in to the shadows.

Mister Haunt stumbled back on to Mina’s ottoman. She rushed over to check on the strange man. “Are you all right? I think you just saved my life.”

Her eyes met his. Mister Haunt recognized that same beautiful shade of green. Just like Lily’s. “You’re welcome,” he said. Haunt melted in to the shadows.

“Thank you,” she said, staring at the shadows that were once a man. On the seat of the ottoman, she found a business card. The card was black on both sides, but otherwise blank. She clutched it in her hands.

Somehow, Mina knew that she would see the strange man again. She knew her life had just changed forever.