Every morning, a dark shadow stretches across my front lawn. It is born from the tree outside my window and the picket fence surrounding my yard. Although these are two ordinary, innocent objects, they provide a black carpet for the worst of villains.

It is only when the aligned shadows capture my window sill that he comes to visit. My room is always kept dark, full of shadows, so that he can be free.

He is a Shadow Climber. Restricted to the darkness, he must stay hidden during the day. He must find shadows where there are none, or else be turned to a puddle of water, evaporated, and eventually, become rain.

If you listen closely during a rain storm, you can hear the sighs and cries of former Shadow Climbers as they finally touch the earth once again, and can resume their lives in the shadows.

But he is smarter than them. He found a place of refuge, a home which he returns to during the hours of sunshine. He also found a friend. When I come home from school, I lock my door and whisper to my companion that it’s safe for him to emerge from the space under my bed, that no one will see him.

And then he shares his stories. Stories of the distant past, or of the previous evening. They all take place in the dead of night, and they are scarier than any horror movie.

They awaken my deepest fears, and bring forth terrors that I never imagined. The horrors that he has witnessed make my skin crawl, my stomach weak. But even worse than those tales are the ones of the ways he has sinned.

Unpunishable crimes plague my nightmares and unthinkable deeds haunt my daydreams. It is not a necessity, nor does he do it out of instinct or for survival. It’s the sheer pleasure of hearing the screams and seeing the fear of his victims that motivates him, along with all the other Shadow Climbers. This being who seems so kind and caring is really a monster unimagined by all of the world.

Despite the fears that his stories evoke, I allow him to use my room during the day, and I continue to ask for a story each afternoon.

And I learn. I learn the types of things that I will shortly do, the techniques that I will someday use.

Because soon, I will become one of them. A Shadow Climber, resigned to the shadows that dot the planet each day, the darkness that envelops the earth each night.

Imprint

Text: Cassie Hoene
Publication Date: 01-08-2013

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