Am I the only one that thinks Demoman needs more love? And that he's perfect for spooky stories? No? Okay! Because he's featuring, along with Scout, this story! Hope you like it.

...

It was a full moon night. The silence around the base invited anyone to just relax and have a moment of peace. Demoman, who usually would drink until he fell flat on the floor, found that night perfect for some reading. He decided to go outside, sit on a crate far from the noisy team, and read his book about strange and paranormal creatures under the moonlight. No alcohol or smoke, just him and the peaceful wild around, in a temperature better than perfect for anyone to spend outside. And as he sat there, alone, reading his book, he didn't hear the light footsteps that were getting closer and closer to him. He was so focused on his reading he didn't realize he had company, and it wasn't until that other person opened his mouth that he noticed him.

"Yo Demo, watcha doing here all by yourself?"

Demoman sighed, and closed the book. He just wanted a moment of solitude for once, but no, even that was denied from him, so he decided to try and shoo away the kid. He looked up from the closed book to Scout, and he was about to tell him to go away, when he saw that Scout was looking at the book between interested and a bit scared. Of course, everyone knew Scout had a big mouth and not the best courage, so maybe some encouragement to stay away while he was reading was a better idea than just tell him to "eff off".

"Nothing lad, just reading about creatures that lurk around at night, you know, those who get you when you don't expect them. One has to be prepared for everything, and I'm sure at least one of them is around here..."

Seeing the worried face in Scout was more than satisfying, and maybe with that the boy would let him be. But instead, the opposite happened: Scout was actually interested in that matter.

"Yeah man! I mean, I've seen weird things around here lately! That's why I was going to ask you about them, because you know, I'm brave an all, but you can't just punch those things and win, no man, those things have magic I tell ya. You need something much better to take them down"

Well, the lad had a point there, he wasn't as stupid as the Demoman thought. Still, that was his reading moment, and he wanted it to be alone and on his own. Maybe changing the tactic he would make him go away.

"Alright lad, why are you here? And don't tell me is because of paranormal creatures"

"But it IS! I mean, I saw the other da-"

Demoman pinched his nose, closing his eyes for a moment, before answering.

"Look Scout, I want some peace okay? I don't think you saw any of this around here. Even paranormal creatures need living beings to live, and we are in the middle of nowhere, in a stinky base with a murky lake between two buildings. So go back inside"

"But dude, I swear I saw someth-"

"Scout! Go-back-inside!"

To make his point, Demoman pointed at the base with his finger, while looking angry. He didn't want to be bothered at that hour at all, even with his focus ruined already. Scout's shoulders lowered in defeat, and then he raised both hand saying things like 'nobody listens!' and 'we all will be dead by morning' while walking inside the RED base. Once the boy was out of sight, Demoman returned his attention back to the book. He was in the page where the book described the 'Shadow Walker', a terrifying creature that would get inside somene's shadow and stay there, draining the energy of the host until it fell into a coma, and then go onto another host. It wasn't deadly on its own, but the person in a coma would never wake up again, no matter what.

The only way to know if someone had a Shadow Walker in his shadow was to look closely at it: the SW was alive somehow, so it couldn't stay still for too long, making the shadow move on its own from time to time without the person moving. That was a clear indicator that a SW was in there.

It was a dangerous creature, and Demoman had seen one of those years ago, when he was trying to hunt down creatures just for the fun of it. He still remembered when he went out hunting those things down with his friend, a professional of these things, older than him, who would teach him how to catch every single one of them. Too bad he needed money and had to accept this RED job, but he was sure when he got back, he would go out hunting again.

He then thought about the idea of having one around the base: would Respawn fix the energy drained, or it would just fix the body? Probably just the body, as he was more than sure that none of the companies had thought about the astral side of any life, like soul and energy.

He decided to stop thinking and resumed on his reading.

...

Once he went back into his room, Scout closed the door with a loud noise, making sure everyone knew he was angry. Of course, nobody would give a damn about it, and he knew it. Only for being the youngest he was the most ignored of the team. Yeah, he was loud and noisy sometimes, but that didn't mean he never took things seriously when needed. And now he could bet anything that something weird was in the base. He decided to give a rest to his thoughts and go to bed; dinner wasn't that necessary anyways, he could get a bigger breakfast in the morning to compensate for it. He turned on the small lamp on his desk and sat on his bed. Putting both hand on his face he tried to clear his thoughts.

"Now they'll think I'm crazy...great"

He opened one eye, and looking around through two of his fingers, he saw his shadow con the wall.

"Weird"

He stood up, going towards the wall. For some reason, even if his lamp was a still light, his shadow was moving like it was projected by a candle. He turned around to see the lamp just normal. Looking back at the wall, he saw the shadow was also back to normal. Scout sighed, and ran a hand through his hair, taking his baseball cap in the process.

"Man I'm hallucinating. I really need to get some good sleep"

With that, he decided that his normal clothes were okay to sleep in, and taking off his shoes, he went into his bed and closed his eyes. Shortly after, he was asleep.

...

The next day, everyone woke up ready for the fight of the day. Each one of them prepared, after breakfast, in the supply room, where they talked to each other about the plan for the day's battle. Strange enough, Scout wasn't talking as much as usual, something everyone was grateful for: a day without the brat yelling and telling the world how amazing he was. But after they finished setting the day's plan, Medic couldn't help but look at the boy: he looked paler than usual and had a tired expression all over his face. Medic decided to check on him later, perhaps he had developed a strange illness that he could investigate, but for now, the important matter was the fight.

As the count came to zero, and the Administrator's voice announced the start of the event, Medic ran out following Heavy, with Demoman and Soldier close by. They had to capture BLU's briefcase in order to win, as always. They had decided to leave Engineer behind with his sentry guarding their own briefcase along with Pyro, while Soldier, Demoman and Heavy went for the attack with Medic as their healing backup. Sniper and Spy would distract them, one shooting from far and the other backstabbing and saping as much as possible, and once the coast was clear, they were counting on Scout to get the briefcase and run towards their base. They had to admit that they always relied on Scout to do that part of the job, since even being a talking-to-much brat, he was the fastest little thing they've ever seen.

As the attacking group managed to get a clear path for Scout to sneak in they realized the boy wasn't around, or at least in plain view. Medic decided to use the earpiece everyone whore to get in contact with him, so he brought his finger in his ear to activate it.

"Herr Scout, you may want to go inside now and get the briefcase, or maybe you need help with that?"

The rest snickered a bit even when they kept shooting at the enemies. Medic waited for an answer, but upon hearing none, he tried again.

"Herr Scout? Did you hit yourself and fell unconscious? In that case, please wake up and move"

This time he got an answer, but not exactly what he expected. He was waiting a retort from the younger man, inspiring some anger in Scout so he could go faster and fetch the damn thing, but instead the answer came in a tired, darker than usual voice.

"On it Doc...I'm just having some...troubles around here..."

"And what kind of troubles are those?"

"'m tired...and I don't know why"

Medic sighed. In one side he was getting tired of the boy's behaviour for not putting all effort into the battle, but on other side he had a few questions in his head, specially when everyone knew Scout was never tired.

"Did you eat properly this morning?"

"Yeah...and slept a lot...look, I'm in the sewers...I'll try get it from there, alright?"

"Alright Scout"

That last answer got some concerned voice from the Medic. Yes he was a sadistic son of a...but he was still a doctor, and he needed his team healthy. If Scout was experiencing some sort of illness, he would have to find out about it and cure whatever it was before it got everyone else. He told the others to stay in their position and keep the BLU team away from Scout, but Demoman had other ideas. Excusing himself and leaving before the rest could say anything, he went into the sewers, following Scout. Something in that situation smelled fishy, his hunting instincts were telling him so, and he wanted to know what it was.

He didn't have to run a lot before finding him. In the small room that formed the corner of the sewers was Scout, sitting in a corner inside the place, his head down and ones arm over his knee, while the other was just left there hanging like a doll's arm. He even didn't notice when Demoman came in until his shoulder was touched. He slowly turned his head up, all dizzy.

"Dude...told ya...I was gonna get it...you don't have...to rush me that much...geez"

Demoman frowned

. That was an odd behaviour, but they were in the middle of the fight and they needed that briefcase. He made a quick decision.

"You're not well lad, just stay here and rest a bit. The Doc got an uber, so the attacking team will get the case, alright?"

"No way, man..." Scout retorted "You'll rub...this in my face...for the rest of my life..."

Demoman chuckled a bit. Yep, that was Scout's behaviour alright.

"Look, we don't always have good days alright? We all understand, just stay here and rest. We'll get the briefcase and finish this round, then the Doc will take a look on you and see what happens"

Scout looked a bit afraid at that, but his tiredness was winning over him, so he just nodded. With a small 'alright' he let his head down again, and Demoman took that as his cue to leave. BLU was busy defending his base anyways, so no one would even try to come around this place; it was usually used when attacking, and today they had the upper hand. Demoman would come back later to get Scout and take him back into the RED base before the next round in the afternoon. He went upstairs where Medic and Heavy were already causing havoc amongst the enemy team, and Soldier was being the crazy bastard he always was. When Medic saw him he asked for Scout, to what Demoman answered with a simply 'he's having a bad day'. Medic nodded and continued with Heavy.

A few minutes later and an used uber, they had the briefcase dancing into their own base. They didn't have any problem at all to win the round, and as Soldier, Heavy and Medic were going back, Demoman went down into the sewers to fetch Scout.

Once he arrived, he found the boy in the same position he left him. This concerned him a bit, but of course he would never let the little brat know it; he would be damned if Scout knew someone was actually caring, he would rub it in their faces for a long time. But this time something was odd. His instincts were kicking at his conscious self, warning him of something. And then he realized it: Scout and him weren't the only ones in the room. He quickly went next to Scout, shaking his arm to wake him up.

"Scout! Hey lad, wake up!"

No matter how much he moved him, the boy didn't answer back or moved. Demoman looked around, trying to find the source of whatever was weird in that small room, until he remembered something. The night before, while he was reading, Scout said something:

'Yeah man! I mean, I've seen weird things around here lately!'

Demoman looked back at the boy, and that's when he realized what his instincts were trying to tell him. How could he have been so blind? Now he saw it in all its glory.

Scout was right, something weird was around there. More specifically, something weird was in Scout's shadow, moving it in weird ways while the boy was still.

"Oh no..."

Something called a Shadow Walker.