2A/N I do not own any of the characters or the Lorien Legacies. They belong to Pittacus Lore.
Shadows linger in the dark, some with no light to be cast upon, wither and fall away; some, find a light to cast themselves upon; some simply wait.
Marina lost Eight not so long ago. Now she might lose her world. To nightmares. To visions. To apparitions. She'd been having them rather often these days. They weren't of Seterakus Ra, the leader of the mogadorians who'd taken Ella, not of the other garde, at least, the ones still alive. They were of Eight. Joseph, Naveen, Vishnu… Whatever it was that you wanted to call him. She saw shadows, wisps of him everywhere, each one feeling more painful than the last.
Marina had been trying to keep away from the dark room at the end of the Nine's newly rebuilt penthouse hall that housed Eight's body, which they had recently recovered from the mogs. To prevent the body from decaying till they could actually give him a burial, Marina had had to freeze his body in ice again. After freezing Eight, Marina passed out from fatigue. She hadn't slept for two weeks waiting for John and Six to return after they'd been separated after another siege, but the sleeplessness, she knew, was mainly because of grief, not worry.
It was nearly the middle of the night when she finally decided to enter the room after nearly two months of avoiding the room that housed Eight's body. She passed John and Sarah's room with Bernie Kosar sleeping on the floor as a beagle, Nine's room with all the drips they'd taped on Nine forcefully when he stopped, refused to eat after he'd healed; her room which she used to share with Ella; Six's room with blankets strewn across the floor; Adamus's room with a Chimaera in the form of a fluffy long-haired cat; Sam and Malcom's room… Then she came face to face with the last room. Eight's new room. His last room.
The inside of the room was dark, even with her legacy to see in the dark, because of the tears welling up inside her eyes. Marina blinked and tried to look at Eight's face. Tried. Looking at his face hurt even worse than watching him die. Marina leaned down, planted a kiss on the ice that covered Eight's face, curled up into a ball on the floor and started to cry. Silent tears running down her face, turning into ice on the way down.
"Cry if you want. I'll wait. Forever if you would have me to. It's fine. I don't mind. Not at all."
"What? Who are you, your voice sounds so familiar…"
"Oh. I see. You haven't come to visit me not because you're mad at me for dying, you've forgotten me instead…"
The voice sounded hurt.
"Eight? I… just haven't heard from you in a long time… I.."
More tears rolled down her face.
"I've been seeing you everywhere… why didn't you say anything! I…"
"Shadows do sometime find themselves a light to cast upon. Me, I've already gotten a light. I only needed to wait."
Marina looked next to her, where the voice had come from. And saw, instead of a person or a ghost, she saw a shadow.
"You're a shadow… Where is the rest of you? I never knew... Eight..."
"Marina. The dead leave shadows behind, just as the living do. But some of us become our own shadow. But only because they want to stay. I have a reason to."
"I can't touch you, I can't hold your hand, I can't kiss you, I can't..."
"I can. If you're sure you don't hate me for being dead."
"Why would I hate you for being dead?"
"I don't know."
"I have loved you since the day I met you. And I will till the day I come back to your side Eight. Never doubt that."
Eight smiled.
"You always steal my lines. Don't you? I love you too."
"I..."
Eight leaned over and kissed Marina on the lips, silencing her. The kiss was just as real as any of the kisses they'd had. Just as beautiful, perhaps even more so.
"I knew Spanish. I just never told you."
The shadow put his lips against Marina's ear.
"Tú eres la luzde mi sombra se ha echado sobre. Usted mi sol, será para siempre la única fuente de luz de mi sombra será reflexionar. Cuando su luz se desvanece, mi sombra se desvanecerá con él.(You are the light my shadow has been cast upon. You my sun, will forever be the only source of light my shadow will reflect upon. When your light fades, my shadow will fade with it.)"
Marina smiled and whispered back.
"Not bad. Not bad at all. Usted será mi sombra para siempre, no tendré otra, tomo mi sombra, por es suyo para tomar. (You will be my shadow forever, I will not have another, take my shadow, for it is yours to take.)"