These Shadows Remain: A Fable

Chapter 2

“How did you know,” Gabrielle whispered, “this is what the toons have become? How did you know that’s what we call them?”

“Tell me about the toons.” Already Tomas sensed that he knew more than his mind allowed him to see. A flash came. Across the plain the shadows chased the children. The shadows had set out to absorb humanity. He saw in pieces.

*

Gabrielle and Santiago turned telling the others to circle around the knight.

“They were real only in our imaginations,” Gabrielle began. “Then they wanted more reality. First they were jealous of us. Then they came to hate us.”

“They were changed,” Santiago said. “A great magic changed them.”

“Wait,” Tomas said. “You’re jumping ahead. I must know the whole story. Tell me.”

The children sighed and shivered. This time Tomas thought they were feeling a cold blast from some place.

Instinctively he stepped closer to them. He put his arms out in a wide embrace then gently rested one arm on the shoulders of Gabrielle who stood close to one side, then the other arm on the shoulders of Santiago, who stood close on the opposite side.

“Tell me,” he said softly.

His glance was kind on the children, and they found that they trusted him.

*

“The toons,” Gabrielle said. “That’s where it began. All the creatures we’d dreamed. We’d watched them on screens since we were babies, we’d heard the stories. We’d seen them in pictures. They were the pictures our families made for us.”

A little boy in the circle whimpered. The knight lifted a solacing hand from Gabriele’s shoulder and patted him on his cheek. Tomas was deeply surprised to feel protective tenderness, but he accepted the feeling. It seemed important to do so.

“Go on.”

*

The images had become real. They had penetrated into this realm of things. The images were no longer elsewhere, on a structure which conveyed them, screen or page. They were here. They had obliterated human history. Their time was now.

Tomas realized that he would know things about the story before Gabrielle said anything more. This was another surprise.

“Let me,” Santiago said. “I’ll tell you.”

*

“Batman, Spiderman, Superman, the Fantastic Four, the dinosaurs in Fantasia, the animals, the singing cups, the lions, Aladdin, the talking cats and dogs, the angels who’d once helped, the ghosts who had been everyone’s friends in the world, spiders and tin soldiers, ballerinas and beasts, the talking horses and singing birds, the ones that made you laugh, and the ones that scared you but turned out to be alright in the end. They came into the world suddenly. So suddenly they took our parents. We don’t know where the grownups have gone. All we saw was their fading out like a trail into darkness. You know what I mean. When the screen loses its colour and images and movements and voices and just goes black. Then they came for us. And they came for the grownups they hadn’t captured. We called them the toons. That’s what we’d always called them. They overran the world, full of anger and hate. And they were scary spreading like that. They seemed . . . hungry.”

*

Gabrielle said, “Let me continue: so we ran. And when we ran others joined us. Our friends, our neighbours. Other children. Running into the woods and from there we looked back and we saw a great battle in the night. Only sil o sil o sil o sil o.”