Shadow, My Version
A friend was doing LJIdol and even though she is no longer in the competition, she decided to write something on the topic anyway.
I felt like writing something, just for fun before going to bed, so I decided to do it on what I presume was the topic for this week - shadow.
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I have to stay very close to walls. Otherwise, the shadow can get me. It only ever attacks from behind, when your back is turned. It is impossible to ever see it because any place you are looking is a place where it cannot exist. So you can never know what it looks like, how big it is, how long and sharp its teeth and claws are, how strong and agile its limbs are, how hungry the look in its eyes is or how the poisonous saliva drips from its wide mouth filled with rows upon rows of razor sharp teeth as it stares at you and readys itself to leap on you...
It cannot exist in the gaze of any human, nor in view of an intelligent animal that cares about the humans present - pets can protect you, if they are paying attention. Parties and dinners are good, with everyone facing each other and thus everyone looking behind one-another. One-on-one conversations work pretty well too. The shadow normally won't risk attacking when someone merely looks away for a moment as when your gaze returns to the area it inhabits, it will be destroyed. It must look after its own survival as much as we must look after ours.
Of course, being a shadow, and a being that must never be seen, it does particularly well in the darkness, in the shadows. When you are outside, it could be anywhere, hiding at any distance, hiding behind any object; and the further you are from civilisation, the more chance there will be shadows, far from any watchful eye. Once I was staying in a cabin in an area surrounded by trees and without even the reflection of city lights bouncing down off the clouds. There were two buildings, and I needed to cross between them after night-fall. Halfway across the 10 metre gap I felt the shadow at my back and barely managed to make it to the next building, to the light, into the view of the others staying there before it got me.
You can feel it, if it is there. A presence, a pressure, a feeling of crawling on your spine, between your shoulder blades, as if it had already marked out the place where it was going to latch on, as if you felt a ghost of a premonition of what was to come.
So keep your back to the wall, nothing can attack you from behind if you keep your back to the wall.
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Ridiculously, this is pretty auto-biographical for a certain period of my life, except that my shadow had no description; in fact, it was difficult to explain to people that I wasn't actually afraid of anything, there was only the fear and the feeling, not a fear OF something. We had to have Sunday lunch with the curtains closed behind me, because it wasn't possible for people to see out the window and around the corner in order to dispel the feeling. Most of the time it wasn't a problem because it is hard for the shadow to hide in a small, well-lit room even if there is only one of you in there. However, it was awkward getting all the way to the bathroom at night. No, no one made me see any psychiatrists or psychologists or anything. Even though I was basically having panic attacks about the theoretical possibility of something being behind me. It requires a lot of bravery and courage to walk through a dark area when you literally feel like you are about to die as a result, even when it's not real. You KNOW you're NOT going to die, but you FEEL like you ARE. Sometimes, the brain is ridiculous.
I felt like writing something, just for fun before going to bed, so I decided to do it on what I presume was the topic for this week - shadow.
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I have to stay very close to walls. Otherwise, the shadow can get me. It only ever attacks from behind, when your back is turned. It is impossible to ever see it because any place you are looking is a place where it cannot exist. So you can never know what it looks like, how big it is, how long and sharp its teeth and claws are, how strong and agile its limbs are, how hungry the look in its eyes is or how the poisonous saliva drips from its wide mouth filled with rows upon rows of razor sharp teeth as it stares at you and readys itself to leap on you...
It cannot exist in the gaze of any human, nor in view of an intelligent animal that cares about the humans present - pets can protect you, if they are paying attention. Parties and dinners are good, with everyone facing each other and thus everyone looking behind one-another. One-on-one conversations work pretty well too. The shadow normally won't risk attacking when someone merely looks away for a moment as when your gaze returns to the area it inhabits, it will be destroyed. It must look after its own survival as much as we must look after ours.
Of course, being a shadow, and a being that must never be seen, it does particularly well in the darkness, in the shadows. When you are outside, it could be anywhere, hiding at any distance, hiding behind any object; and the further you are from civilisation, the more chance there will be shadows, far from any watchful eye. Once I was staying in a cabin in an area surrounded by trees and without even the reflection of city lights bouncing down off the clouds. There were two buildings, and I needed to cross between them after night-fall. Halfway across the 10 metre gap I felt the shadow at my back and barely managed to make it to the next building, to the light, into the view of the others staying there before it got me.
You can feel it, if it is there. A presence, a pressure, a feeling of crawling on your spine, between your shoulder blades, as if it had already marked out the place where it was going to latch on, as if you felt a ghost of a premonition of what was to come.
So keep your back to the wall, nothing can attack you from behind if you keep your back to the wall.
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Ridiculously, this is pretty auto-biographical for a certain period of my life, except that my shadow had no description; in fact, it was difficult to explain to people that I wasn't actually afraid of anything, there was only the fear and the feeling, not a fear OF something. We had to have Sunday lunch with the curtains closed behind me, because it wasn't possible for people to see out the window and around the corner in order to dispel the feeling. Most of the time it wasn't a problem because it is hard for the shadow to hide in a small, well-lit room even if there is only one of you in there. However, it was awkward getting all the way to the bathroom at night. No, no one made me see any psychiatrists or psychologists or anything. Even though I was basically having panic attacks about the theoretical possibility of something being behind me. It requires a lot of bravery and courage to walk through a dark area when you literally feel like you are about to die as a result, even when it's not real. You KNOW you're NOT going to die, but you FEEL like you ARE. Sometimes, the brain is ridiculous.