Shadows

We sat like scared children in the alleyway. Our hearts beating. His hand covering my breath. My hands gripping his jacket. His eyes looked wild as I turned my fear paralyzed head to look up at him. We were dead. This was the day we would die. There was no story for us beyond this alleyway.

I shut my eyes tight before mustering up the courage to look beyond Caleb, down the entrance of the alleyway. There crawling towards us, was one of them. A shadow. No face. No skin. No longer human. The sight of one of them brought back terrible memories and I began taking sharp small breaths. Caleb must have felt the anxiety and fear taking me over because he quickly took my almost limp hand and placed it near my chest where the heart shaped locket, he had given me resided around my neck.

I closed my eyes, and my mind began to calm. I focused once again on the situation at hand. Upon opening my eyes, I noticed maybe 10 feet in front of us a flashlight. Something I hadn't seen for a while now. My arm moved on its own, pointing at the device which could save our lives. My other hand grasped the loving hand covering my breath and I whispered his name, "Caleb...", he turned away from the shadow and quickly caught sight of my outstretched arm. Then our eyes met each other. I recognized that look in his eyes and began shaking my head furiously as tears began welling up in my eyes. His hand left mine as he began to stand.

"Please...", I whispered to him. He placed a finger to his mouth and then placed his hand to his chest. It took all my strength to not cry out for him to stop. The shadow by now was picking up that something was different about this alley. It smelled life. Caleb stood halfway between me and the flashlight as the shadow began making noises. Sounds of children playing, sizzling eggs, whispers of a dying love, and various other sounds escaped its mouth.

Shadows were not always as such. They were once people. People with dreams, families, and smiles. Life turned into thieves of death. They existed to steal shadows from living things and once your shadow was gone, you became what you lacked. You became one of them. As agents of death these creatures would often try to lure in those who still breathed life by making sounds from the memories of their previous lives. For us this meant trouble as it meant the creature knew life was near.

Caleb looked back at me and held up three fingers. Then two. Finally, one. I didn't know what was going to happen, but I saw his finger fall back into his palm and my body leapt from the wall of the alleyway and I began to run. Behind me horrible sounds played for my tortured ears. Caleb screaming a battle cry mixed of fear and hatred. The sounds of a previous life which played like a record from the creature’s body now were replaced by the sound of what I can only described as hatred and hunger left for too long.

My footsteps echoed throughout the alleyway as I ran. My destination was the sunny street in front of me. I wanted to look back but was afraid of what I might see. So, I ran. I ran faster and with more pain than I ever had before. Once my skin touched the rays of the sun, my body collapsed into the street. I laid there crying and screaming out all the fear I had stored in my heart. My voice echoing across a silent city.

As I struggled to catch my breath, I pulled myself up to a sitting position to finally look at the alley in front of me. Standing there was Caleb, and I was filled with a brief warmth. He stood with his hand on his chest. A silent way for us to say "I love you" in this world.

I smiled and laughed a little as I stared in his eyes. My hand grasped the locket around my neck. Then I made the mistake of letting my gaze fall down behind him. There on the ground was the shadow, gnawing away at the ground. I let out a sound one would think a shadow would produce. I began running to Caleb, but it was more of a hobble as I now realized my leg was bleeding from being scrapped across the pavement during my fall.

Despite the pain in my chest, I knew I couldn't get any closer than 6 feet. The shadow was devouring its prey. Caleb's shadow looked like a ragdoll as the creature ripped it from its natural place on the ground. Not even my sobbing could drown out the sound of the shadow eating its hard-earned meal.

I looked at Caleb and he looked up at me. "We can fix this..." I said, "I can just get rid of it with the flashlight. It'll stop". Caleb shook his head. "No, it won't Kayla" he said softly.

"Yes, it will."

"It won't stop Kayla. It's already too late."

"Shut up! Yes, it will! Give me the flashlight!"

He closed his eyes and threw me the flashlight. Soon after catching it I flipped it on.

Nothing.

"It was... It was dead?" I said with a shaking voice. A single tear began falling from his face.

"You need to go." He said through gritted teeth.

"No... I'm... I'm not leaving without you."

"You have to go Kayla..."

"I'm not leaving!"

"Kayla, Listen to me!"

Silence forced its way into my mind as I stared at him. "Go..." He whispered. I looked again at the shadow which had now finished its meal. It looked up at me, or at least from what I could tell it did. Anger and rage began fueling up inside me. I then let out a scream at the beast. "I hate you!" I yelled. "Kayla." Whispered Caleb, "Please... go". His body was now beginning to turn. Shadow began to take over his legs and crawl upwards until it would inevitably swallow him whole.

A sudden cold began to creep onto my back. I instantly looked up at the sky. There moving slowly, was a mass of clouds quickly beginning to cover the sun. "Kayla! Go, now!" He screamed. This time I listened. Once again, I began to run. This time escape seemed impossible. The only thing that could keep the shadows at bay was sunlight. Other forms of light, like the flashlight, would confuse them as they would believe they were in pain until they realized what was touching them was artificial.

"It not fair", I thought as I ran against an impossible time limit, "We were so close. The inner city was only a few blocks away."

The inner city was a last hope at a "normal" life. It was a set of walls built around a metropolis. I had only heard stories from Caleb about what life was like inside. We had plans to escape this world by living there. We were going to get married, have kids, live a life. We were going to be happy. But now...

My leg began throbbing with pain as I continued to run down streets and turn around corners. Every once in a while, I would glance up at the sky to see the giant formation of clouds continue to devour the light of the sun. It wasn't that far but now I had a problem. The sun was covered just enough for the Shadows to be able to start moving freely amongst the rubble of human civilization. So far, I hadn't seen any shadows but no doubt they weren't far away.

I smile began to creep onto my face as I turned another corner and saw the giant gates to the inner city. I brought my hand to the locket around my neck. "I'm going to make it." I said to myself.

From behind me came a thunderous sound and I made the mistake of looking back to see maybe three or five shadows galloping at full speed toward me. I turned my attention back toward the inner city. I was going to make it. I looked up at the sky. The sun was now almost completely covered. I could no longer feel the warmth of the light on my skin. From behind me the sounds of whispers of a lost past played from the mouths of the shadows. Crowded streets, children crying, engines revving, people talking, fighting, singing. In some strange way it sounded... normal.

"Hey! Open up! Please!" I screamed at the gates. I didn't see anyone who could have heard me, and I continued to yell to the emptiness, hoping someone inside would hear me. "Hey! Open the gates! There behind me!", No response. I glanced behind me again. They were far behind. Then I felt a sharp pain as my foot twisted on some rubble. I tumbled over and the world became a blur. Then everything came to a stop as my head hit against the gates to the inner city. There was still a blur as I tried to gather myself from the fall.

propping myself up against the outside of the gate, I could definitely tell that I messed up my ankle pretty bad. Pain continued to shoot up my body. Then I began to feel warmth flow down the right side of my face. I brought my hand up to feel it and realized it was blood.

As my vision came back to me, I gave a deep sigh and let my entire weight fall back on the gate. There in front of me were the shadows, feasting. It was over. My head rolled to the right and that's when I noticed the hole in the wall of the inner city. The reason nobody had answered my call was probably because they were all gone.

I sat there for a good while watching the creatures I had feared for so long feed on my shadow. It didn't feel real at all. I brought my hand up to my chest for the heart shaped locket Caleb had given me and I pulled hard, snapping it off my neck. After fumbling with it for a couple minutes I managed to get it open. Inside was a photo of us in winter gear. All wrapped up, warm, and cozy. I could feel tears beginning to well up in my eyes.

It was then that I noticed another shadow stumbling around in the streets. It was making its way towards me. At this point I didn't care how many showed up but this one was different. It stood up on two legs rather than traveling on all fours. It eventually passed by the other shadows and stopped only a few feet from me.

I looked up at it, confused. It stood there, staring, and playing a familiar song. I felt an anger begin to rise in me again. I wanted to yell at it to go away, then its hand began rising from its side. I watched as it slowly brought its hand to its chest. I don't know if what the shadow did was real or just what I wanted to see. I kept the locket close to my heart as the shadows finished feasting. Eventually they left, probably in search of more food for their weightless stomachs. Only the two-legged shadow remained as I watched my body slowly begin to fade. I gave it one last look before closing my eyes. It still had its hand on its chest.

Still clutching the locket close to my heart, I whispered my last words in this world to the familiar shadow as it played that familiar song from its memories of life.

"See you soon..."