In Death's Shadow

Prolauge

What is Life but the reality in which we exist till death. We are immortalized in a place where everything is mortal. We pretend to know what we don't know, and understand that we will never know the unknown. That's where death will meet us. Then what is Death but an unlikely weapon used for the fate of many. We are told we can not control every aspect of life but many play a key part of death. To share in this dance is to waltz with a shadow while it mourns with tears of blood. To forever bleed in the absence of light. They forget that one cannot exist without the other. To be shadow is to defy light. To be bad is to experience good. To know death is to have been through life.

- - -

There once was a young girl full of life and absent of knowledge. One day she met the shadow. It showed her unspeakable things, gruesome and beautiful. It taught her where to find them in the most unexpected corners. And then it gave her a piece of itself that would stay with her for the rest of her days. Less than a lifetime ago a shadow was awakened.

Her light was bright making her shadow dark. Have you ever wondered why a cheetah has large black lines under their eyes, or why football players draw black lines on their face? To help them see. The black shoo's away a layer of light and lets them see across the hot savannah. It reveals danger and prey. Her dark shadow came with a price, she could see almost too much. Once you see, you cannot unsee.

She tried being normal. She tried to fix herself. Whatever she did try failed. Now the shadow points to things she hadn't noticed before and she grieves for them.

She's a little older now and she still sees the shadow. Now she knows things. She knows how to steer herself away from it, ignore it, and pretend it was never there. It doesn't stop. It still taunts her. Every person she meets is a reminder. The shadow lingers behind each one and apparently, she's the only person who can see.