The Shadow Report

Artwork by me

That was when I first saw it. A simple yet perplexing obscurity which laid elongated at the base of my father's feet but, how could it be something as self-explanatory as a shadow if I just watched it blink its eye open? It didn't seem to notice me as I watched it look fixedly upon my mother as she whimpered while my father drunkenly shouted profanities at her. Her eyes trying to study him in lack of understanding as she pondered if this was truly him or his new found love of whiskey talking. The shadows eye widened in amusement as he raised his hand towards her and as he swung, time seem to slow down as adrenaline flowed inside of my body. Then I just ran inbetween them, seeing the shadow slowly taking the form of a human figure as I blocked the piercing slap with my face. As I lay collapsed onto the floor, all I noticed was that my father now had a luminosity of his white aura trailing off into the dark abyss of the shadowy figure that was hovered behind him. That was the first time I was truly terrified for my life; not because of my abusive father, but simply because I was never taught how to prepare myself for the insidiousness of one's shadow. I could see the outrage in his eyes transition to remorse as the shadow being collapsed back into my father's shadow. As he exited the room, I turned my attention to my mother who seemed unaware of the shadow as she started to ask me if I was okay.
I continued my day as usual and went to school. Everything throughout the day seemed to be normal until recess came along and I stumbled upon a girl hectoring a young boy for no apparent reason. With us being all children, I thought nothing of it until I saw that same shadow emerge from her shadow exactly like the situation earlier with my father. I came to an abrupt stop as I loitered and continued to observe the situation in consternation. That was when I knew that this shadow wasn't just a figment of my imagination and something needed to be done to resolve this.
As weeks went by, I studied every person who happened to cross my path and discovered distinct similarities with these shadow beings: they all seemed to hide within the confines of one's real shadow, they all looked alike, and they all seemed to appear behind one who was tormenting a victim in someway or another. After I had discovered this, I decided to take my investigation even deeper and befriended several people who had these shadows attached to them. One person; a young girl to be exact, was upset one day and got into an arguement with another young girl and ended up hitting her. I mananged to resolve the issue by complimenting both of them and us all playing together for the rest of recess. As the days went by, I continued being her friend and always treated her admirably and one day, I saw the shadow dissipate into thin air as that white aura returned to her body and left her with a stunning ambience. There was a few people I befriended whose shadows ended up the same as her's and didn't seem to return after that which gave me the conclusion that these shadow beings could be disposed of but, also discovered that these people I came across had something difficult they were coping with in life such as trouble with grades in school, parents arguing, people hectoring them, and other things that most people would pay no mind to. After collecting all of this knowledge, I was pretty content with helping others see their lives in a better was and decided to keep doing so.
The following day, I learned I made a mistake with these shadow beings being so simple to dispose of. This day, I mourned the loss of my friend's older sister and I also was the one to witness the traumatic event. It was a day like any other, I went over to play games with my friend and we had a great few hours playing a variety of games, but then I had to use the restroom which was upstairs. As I walked up the stairs to the slightly open bathroom door at the end of the plain hallway, I heard a scuffled noise coming from within that was also accompanied by whispers of her sister saying horrid things to herself. In concern, I opened the door just in time to see the shadow hovering directly over her as her aura turned solid black and she held a handgun to the temple of her head. As I pleaded for her to stop, she pulled the trigger, and I was sprayed with her blood as the shadow being departed from her after finishing off what I assumed was the rest of her soul and hovered there. The shadow looked at me but through me to my friend who was now standing behind me screaming and the shadow moved towards her insidiously as I turned around to face her. It had attached itself to her and began to eat at her; endlessly enjoying her misery, and that was when I understood that you couldn't help everyone because, when they have had such traumatic things happen; an extremely abusive boyfriend in her case, and no one was there for them during the time because, they just kept neglecting them while all their thoughts turned negative, and these negative thoughts are what create our inner demons or as I prefer to call them: shadows, because you never seem to notice them until it's too late.
As days went by, I began to see my own shadow hover over me everytime I saw my reflection in a surface of an object. I assumed as much though since I was still mourning her loss because I felt as if it were my fault I couldn't save her. Then came a day where this boy noticed how depressed I had become but, he did not judge me in the slightest; he just understood. He spent my days after that with me, taking care of me with every negative thought and action. After a while, I began remembering just how fascinating of a person I was. This day was the day I noticed my shadow had finally dissipated into thin air and as I looked at myself, I noticed that beautiful stunning ambience that had returned to me.
Thus, concludes my report but do take care to remember that even when you're in the most luminous of areas, there is always that obscurity that will follow you, and that my friend is hidden in the shadowy parts of one's self.