The Shadow Above

There were always things to be wary of in the lake, things that you hear about while young that cause varying degrees of fear. Out of them all, the one to be most afraid of was the shadow on the lake.

“Beware the shadow above.” The older ones warned us as we swam in the water. “If you ever see a shadow above you that is much bigger than you, just dive down and away.”

The shadow was our “boogeyman”, one that would come from time to time, sometimes silently, others with a roar that can be felt in the water.

When my siblings and I were small, we took heed of the older ones’ warning, heading down even as the they would swim towards the shadow as if to fight it off. We always thought they succeeded for the shadow invariably went away. However, when the older, bigger ones came back down, there were less of them, with some showing injuries, mostly to their mouths and faces.

I swam around in a small, deep lake. It only looked small as the bottom sloped upward towards the surrounding tall hills and mountains. The bright orb shone upon the lake, as it traversed above, lighting nearly all the way to the bottom as the water was crystal clear. It was a joy to swim around.

As time passed, my siblings and I grew and the older ones disappeared. The shadow had not appeared for a long time in living memory. Soon, my siblings and I were now the older, bigger ones. Memories of the shadow above faded to stories.

Then, of course, one day a shadow loomed at the edge of the lake and started making its way to the centre of the lake. Its approach was heralded by a roar that reverberated through the water. My siblings and I schooled together with great concern. However, whether it was due to bravado that we didn’t heed the old warnings, felt the we could hold our own or that it was a duty to fend off the shadow, we cautiously swam towards the surface, towards the shadow.

The first thing the shadow did was drop something into the water. We thought it was its tail. It was a long and dropped all the way down to the lake bed.

Giving its tail a wide berth, we cautiously approached the shadow now looming menacingly above. It was many times our size. It had gone silent and still.

As we closed, we saw movement in the surface above. We felt the vibrations reach us. The shadow had dropped other things into the water but we could not see what they were as it was bright in the sky around the shadow.

We slowed down as we waited. Soon, we saw that there were glints slowly drifting down. Some of my more adventurous siblings sped away towards the glints, while us others slowly followed. We saw them move as if to swallow something, at which they then jerked and thrashed about.

My remaining siblings and I paused in the water. We couldn't tell what was happening so we moved closer, only to see the others be quickly whipped up into the above towards the shadow. When they broke the surface, that was the last we saw of them.

We froze in our shock and in fear. What had the shadow done? The shock slowly faded. We hesitated, unsure whether to swim at the shadow or away. There were fewer of us now. Some decided to swim away, while I and a few others remained facing the shadow.

Moments passed. Nothing happened. The few of us remaining made to turn away, only to stop when we felt the vibrations in the water again. Summoning our courage, we went to investigate.

Sure enough, there were glints in the water but it wasn't until we were at the same level as the glints in the water, we could see what they were. Attached to the shiny glints, was a thin line and a delicious looking morsel, all of which was moving near mesmerizingly in the water.

I checked myself before nipping at it, questioning what I knew. Perhaps we were wrong about the shadow. Were the older ones of the past lying about the shadow's intentions. Here it was giving us food. Remembering what we had seen earlier, was the shadow here to take us away, perhaps to someplace else, one different and/or greater than where we were now?

I mulled over this, now mesmerized by the morsel in front of me. It wasn't until I saw the others latch onto their respective morsel I made my move. I feared I was going to miss out more than I feared the shadow, so I lunged forward and closed my mouth around the food.

PAIN!

Something had stuck into my right cheek. I couldn't see what it was but felt it. I was in agony. This was not right. We had lulled into a trap, a trick, an agonising trick. The older ones hadn't lied after all. Now here I was, as well as the others, in the clutches of the shadow above.

I felt panic and terror well up. My face was hurting. I tried to turn and swim away, only to find myself being led up towards the shadow. I thrashed about, trying to dislodge whatever it was in my mouth that held me at the mercy of the shadow.

Regardless of how hard I thrashed, I felt I was being drawn towards the surface. One by one, I saw the others disappear even as they fought and thrashed. Sensing my strength fading, I did what the others hadn’t tried. Fighting down the terror and pain, I turned to the surface and swam upwards with all of my might.

As I broke the surface, I left the water and lake behind me. I found that I could not breath in the vacuum above. I tried not to panic as I started to spin around. Spinning slowly, I took in the details of the creature that casted a shadow over the lives of my kind.

Its long neck extended up from its large body, two appendages holding onto a long flexible spine to which I was now attached. Its skin was bizarre, with the skin of the body, neck, appendages and head not matching. I could see its two wide eyes looking at me, its mouth also wide and full of teeth.

As my ascent slowed, I saw the neck rear away from me. As it did so, I saw it had other similar looking neck and heads. Each one had slowly turned towards and looked with the same hunger, eyes and mouth wide. That shadow had more than one head.

My face turned to the water as the head nearest me, the one that held me in its clutches, disappear into its body, something I’ve seen a shelled long necked water-bound creature also do. I had one more look at the creature’s body before I dove into the water and swam down in abject terror.

I felt an agonising pull in my mouth that suddenly slackened to plain agony. I rocketed away from the shadow momentarily in the direction of its tail. I realised there was now a tear in my mouth, whatever it was that the creature had me by now gone. I followed the tail down to the depths, my vision clouding over more and more from the pain, until I knew darkness.

I did not know how long I was unconscious for but I was awakened by the jolt of the shadow’s tail hitting me. I moved away in case it came after me, but it only rose up towards its body.

Following the rising tail, I looked upwards. I saw that the waters around the shadow had gotten murky with indistinct shapes floating within. I stayed my approach when the shadow roared once more. The waters churned as the creature, to my relief, started to move away. I waited until I was sure it was not going to turn.

The murky waters, where the shadow had been, slowly stilled, the shapes stopping their dancing around. Ignoring the saying of ‘curiosity killed the catfish’, I drew closer to investigate.

I closed until I could see what the shapes were. The shapes were of fish heads, bony skeletons and tail fins, with scraps of eyes and skin littered about. I have seen the remains of my kind that passed naturally so I horrifyingly realised I was swimming in the remains of my siblings.

The waters were gently moving the remains around. I floated there, stunned for a while, until a head passed in front of my vision, the empty eye sockets looking at me accusingly for surviving. My reverie broke and I swam down and away as fast as I could.

I now knew the fate of the previous older ones, a fate shared by my siblings and nearly by me. They never fought the creature off. They had been lured to their deaths and consumed by the many heads of the shadow. It was only when the creature was sated it left.

I was alone. It was down to me to spread the story of the creature and warn others about the shadow above.

As I slowly swam away from the remains, I spotted others like myself but much smaller. To them, I'd now be an older, bigger one. I had to try to spare them of my siblings' fate. I knew what I had to do and swam after the small ones to give them the truthful warning.

Fear the shadow above.