The Shadow Continues Even Yet

Some notes of explanation perhaps, though if I were to try to explain all the little quirks of my mind it would take forever *sigh*
"Crime Over Miami" was the title of one of the Shadow novels, and perhaps the best known. In the radio shows, the bad guy would always be in a room (either by himself or with other bad guys) and they would be talking when suddenly this weird, low chuckle would sound. Then someone would say "what was that?!" and then it would come again along with "It is the voice of The Shadow" or something like that. And they were scared and said "I can't see you!" Terribly corny and very fun.


Chapter 5: The Gathering of the Shadows

I crawled through the shaft for quite a ways until I saw a light up ahead. I cautiously approached an opening on the bottom of the shaft and peered down.
There was a young man down there seated at a table reading a book, I caught a glimpse of the cover and saw the title “Crime Over Miami” or some such rubbish as that. It wasn’t something I was interested in. I cloaked myself and dropped silently into the room.
His attention was held fast by the book so to distract him I gave a low chuckle.
Nothing happened.
I chuckled again, louder this time.
Again, the man didn’t even look up from his book. It must be very engrossing book. Finally I practically shouted “The Shadow wishes to question you!” But not a stir. I walked over to the front of the man and was startled. The man was the governor of the nearby town; and he was dead!
Quite obviously he had been propped up in this position to fool anyone who happened to come in by the ventilation shaft, luckily I had shrouded myself in invisibility just before I came in so whoever may have been watching had not seen me. The walls looked soundproofed so I hoped they hadn’t heard me as well.
I went over and cautiously tried the door, it wasn’t locked, apparently they didn’t expect a dead man to escape. They hadn’t counted on the Shadow for a visitor though! Heh! Nyeh Heh Heh Heh……
It was quite a maze inside the castle, I followed the main passageway for quite some time before I saw anyone, it was an old man who was chained to the wall at the far end. I crept up closer and whispered into his ear:
“Keep silent, I’ll do what I can to rescue you.”
The old man looked around himself in vain. “Where are you? I….I can’t see you!” He cried. I assured him that it was all right, even though he couldn’t see me, I was indeed a friend.
“Now, I’m going to try to pick the locks on your chains here.”
“What chains?”
“The ones on your wrists and ankles of course!”
“Don’t you be going and doing a fool thing like that!”
“Why not?” I questioned.
“Because I put myself here and I want to stay here!” He said proudly.
I jumped. “You put yourself here?” I exclaimed incredulously.
“Why of course! I knew if I walked around the castle in my present state that I’d be a harm to others and myself, always stumbling down stairs and perhaps killing myself, it would be awful. I sleepwalk every night so I decided to chain myself up so I can’t go nowhere and hurt myself! The owner of the castle was kind enough to allow me the use of his chains here. Of which he apparently had a spare supply thankfully!” He cackled.
“Now why would you be going around hurting yourself?” I asked dubiously, “I don’t often hear of sleepwalker’s getting hurt!”
“What are you, deaf? I said I couldn’t see you didn’t I? Couldn’t you have guessed that I was blind?” I must have looked awfully chagrined at that point I’m sure.
“Yep!” said in reply to my silence “I’ve been blind for nigh onto thirty years now! Glad I don’t hurt myself all the time like I used to!” He added cheerfully.
Well, apparently there was no need of my services here. I bid the old man goodbye and started in the opposite direction. As I walked I heard echoing from the hallway behind me: “Goooooooooooooood-bye.”
After what must have been at least a meter of walking, I heard ahead of me the murmuring of voices, I crept up closer, more cautiously now and once again donned my cloak of invisibility.


Chapter 6: Flies and Shadows

“It’s suspected that there is an intruder in the castle, no one has seen anything yet but there have been little things that happened recently to make one suspect.”
“What things are those?”
“Well in the first place, the band of 'Werdwolves' we had are suddenly shivering in fear at every little noise, in the second, we found the ventilation shaft in their chamber open, I highly doubt any of them could have done it. They’re not that clever. Thirdly, we found the door to Governor el Crotez’s room open and I highly doubt he opened himself!” He gave a horrible laugh and I shuddered. What vile men these were! If they were anything like their lord, Bizriel, I was going to have my work cut out for me in rescuing the village.
The men continued talking but I slipped around behind them. The air smelled foul this way and I knew from experience that
“when you followed your nose to the smelliest place,
the villains are sure to show their face.”
So I started down the corridor to the right. After quite a bit of time, I spotted a doorway up ahead, the air was getting rather close now. I opened the door, slipped inside and quickly shut it behind me so that if anyone happened to be looking, they wouldn’t see an open door. There was only a dim light on here. I crept along this new passageway as cautious as before.
I heard a low buzzing sound coming my way. At first I wasn’t sure what it was so I flattened myself against the corridor wall. Then my worst fears were realized as I saw a swarming mass of man-eating flies coming right toward me! They must have heard the door open and thought it was their feeding time! What other vile creatures did Bizriel have in his castle! Werdwolves, Red-eyed snakes! And now……..man-eating flies!

I knew I couldn’t make it to the door in time and besides that I was determined to press on so I took the only course of action that the flies wouldn’t expect. I charges straight into the mass with a laugh of triumph!
Straight away I knew that was a mistake so I quickly closed my mouth. The flies' momentum carried them past me except for a few that clung to my clothing.
The angry swarm turned around and followed me down the tunnel, the flies that were already on me started to invade my sleeves and even my eyes, I could scarcely see, so bleary eyed was I already. Even swatting and brushing at them didn’t seem to help much, but I pressed on, it was my very life that was at stake this time.
The angry swarm was almost upon me, once they caught up I would surely be pulled down to my doom, up ahead I saw a room, sealed with a glass door and it had a cloudy vapour inside. I somehow felt I had to get inside, my strength was beginning to be depleted (after being awake all night long) but with a sudden burst of energy I took a deep breath and dove through the glass and into the room!
The entire swarm followed me and almost instantly dropped dead at the rush of the powerful vapour, bodies littering the floor at a depth of at least 7 inches around me.
This must have been the room of safety for the men who fed the flies each morning, I’m sure they must have had suits on but still there was some necessity of getting rid of the flies that clung to those suits.
Regardless, I had to get out of there fast or I’d soon join the flies upon the floor. The gas burned at my eyes so I felt along the far wall and just as my breath was giving out, found the handle, turned it and slipped out, shutting the door behind me. I gulped in grateful lungfuls of air and soon felt ready to press on. I knew I was nearing my destination when I saw moonlight coming from up ahead. With any luck, this was part of the tunnel that Bizriel used to get to his mines in the mountains. But what could he be mining? I scarcely dared to even imagine.