Creature of the Night

Alexis visited Atticus and Ryan in the infirmary every day. She always hoped that Atticus would be awake when she would visit so she could question what happened to him and why he did what he did. However, Atticus hadn't woken up once since he had been brought to the infirmary and he showed no signs of waking up any time soon. Since Atticus was always asleep, Alexis spent most of her visits talking to Ryan.

He was extremely surprised to find out that Nightshroud was in fact Alexis's brother. After learning this, both Ryan and Alexis came up with theories on why Atticus had become Nightshroud.

Their theories included everything from brainwashing to possession to Atticus just going insane. Alexis hoped that the reason was something along the lines of brainwashing or possession. She didn't know what she would do if her brother became Nightshroud willingly.

Ryan stayed in the infirmary for a whole week. Chazz and Bastion had visited to find out more about the Shadow Riders, although there wasn't much he could tell them. Jaden visited with the intention of cheering him up, but he became irritated to the point where Nurse Fontaine forced Jaden to leave.

Zane came to the infirmary once, although he was there to see Atticus not Ryan. However when he saw that Atticus was unconscious he left the infirmary without saying a word and hadn't come back since.

Dr Crowler came to see him every day at the end of class. He said it was only so he could give him his homework, but the truth was that he was concerned about Ryan though he was too proud to admit it.

With no visitors and very little to do in the infirmary, he got so bored he asked Dr. Crowler to bring him more work to do tomorrow.

That night a boat arrived at Duel Academy carrying a coffin. The coffin then opened revealing a woman inside. The woman stepped out of the coffin.

'Okay Nightshroud, why haven't you reported for a week.' She thought as she stepped onto the island.

The next afternoon, the final lesson of the day had just ended and everyone was leaving the classroom. Alexis headed towards the infirmary to visit Atticus and Ryan. Everyone else left to find something else to do with their day.

Jaden, Syrus and Chumley were all walking back to the red dorm. Chumley seemed to be upset about something.

"Hey Chum, what's wrong?" Jaden asked.

"It's nothing, I just need to be alone for a while." Chumley said as he walked away from the other two.

"What do you think is wrong with him?" Jaden asked.

"I don't know, maybe he's worried about those Shadow Riders." Syrus answered. Jaden had told Syrus and Chumley about the Shadow Riders and the spirit keys the very night he received his key.

Chumley walked along the path that led to the lake. He had just received his latest test scores and saw that he had made little improvement.

'Man, if I don't start improving maybe I should drop out.' Chumley thought.

Chumley reached the lake shore and started to skip stones across the water in an attempt to take his mind off of his test scores. Chumley stayed at the lake for a few hours, but then as the sun began to set he noticed that there were an unusual amount of bats flying towards the lake.

'What are all these bats doing here.' Chumley thought a little fearful of the bats. Suddenly the water began to ripple as if there was something underneath it, then Chumley saw a woman emerge from the water and look straight at him.

Chumley screamed at the top of his lungs and ran away from the lake as fast as he could. Chumley didn't stop running and screaming until he reached the red dorm.

"Chumley, what's wrong?" Syrus asked concerned for his friend.

"Witch, there's a witch in the lake." A panicking Chumley said.

"Chumley calm down, witches aren't real." Syrus told him.

"But I saw her. She's at the lake right now." Chumley said, trying to sound convincing.

"Hang on, do you think Chumley might have just run into the next Shadow Rider." Jaden said. Until now he had been eating a bowl of noodles.

"Yeah, I bet that's who she is." Chumley said, although this did little to calm his nerves.

"Alright, now I can take on a Shadow Rider myself." Jaden said as he stood up and almost ran towards the door only to be stopped by Syrus.

"Jaden you can't just go and fight a Shadow Rider. You could get hurt." Syrus pointed out.

"Don't worry Sy, I can take her." Jaden said, sounding extremely confident.

"Jaden, Ryan challenged a Shadow Rider and now he's in the infirmary." Syrus told him.

"So what do you think I should do? Run away." Jaden said, almost sounding offended at the thought.

"Jaden you need to call the others and let them know that there might be another Shadow Rider here." Syrus said.

"That's a great idea. That way the others can watch me when I beat her." Jaden said completely missing what Syrus meant.

In less then an hour all of the key keepers, minus Ryan, had gathered at the red dorm to discuss the potential Shadow Rider. The others seemed to be confused when they saw that Syrus and Chumley were waiting with Jaden.

"Jaden why are Syrus and Chumley here? They can't hear any of this." Alexis whispered.

"Don't worry, I already told them about the Shadow Riders." Jaden said. The others seemed horrified to hear this.

"Jaden what are you thinking? Why did you tell them?" Chazz asked.

"Why not, they're my friends aren't they." Jaden answered clearly seeing nothing wrong with what he had done.

"Jaden can't you see that by telling them about the Shadow Riders you could have put them in danger." Alexis said.

"Don't worry about it, I'm sure they'll be fine." Jaden brushed her concern off.

"If we're done talking about Jaden's foolishness, can we please talk about this possible Shadow Rider." Crowler said.

"Alright then, Chumley said he saw one down by the lake." Jaden said.

Everyone turned to Chumley.

"Is this true, Mr. Huffington?" Crowler asked.

"Well I'm not sure if it was a Shadow Rider, but I did see a witch." Chumley said clearly nervous now that everyone was looking at him.

"That sounds like it could be a Shadow Rider." Zane said as he walked towards the exit.

"Wait, where are you going?" Syrus asked.

"I'm going to deal with this Shadow Rider." Zane said as he walked out the door.

"We can't just let him go alone, can we?" Syrus asked.

"Of course not. Everyone follow Zane." Crowler ordered.

Soon the entire group reached the lake. By now it was late at night and the moon was high in the sky.

"So is this where you saw the witch Chumley?" Jaden asked.

"Yeah, she was right there." Chumley answered, pointing towards the lake.

"Well, I don't see anyone around here." Jaden said.

Suddenly the ground began to shake. The shaking was so intense that Syrus fell over. Soon a large castle began to rise up out of the center of the lake. The castle appeared to be medieval and it had a Gothic look to it.

The doors of the castle opened and the same woman that Chumley had seen stepped out. She had pale skin and long green hair. Her eyes, lips and nails were blood red. She wore a dark red dress that showed a large amount of skin and around her neck was a golden choker.