Shadows.

I walked around the house, with every light on, despite it being mid-day. Nobody was home except for me. I was alone.

It seemed like I was always alone when it got dark like this.

I pulled myself away from the kitchen and walked slowly into the living room, trying to keep my heart rate in check. The whole living room was dark.

Whoever had built this house had been dumb enough to not put any light fixture onto the ceiling in the living room, and I found a long time ago that turning on the two lamps in the corners only made them come out. It helped them seep from the corners and out of the walls.

Small lamps were only helpers to the monsters that keep me awake at night.

I tried to keep my breathing in check as I stole up the staircase, avoiding the corners, and jumping anything laced with darkness. I wouldn’t let them get me. I wouldn’t let the shadows eat me.

I ran into my room, letting the door shut behind me. I didn’t care how much sound it made. I pulled down the shades and reached to shut the blinds tightly. I didn’t want any light forcing it’s way into my room.

Light made them happen.

Light made them appear.

I sat cross-legged in the middle of my bed, staring into the pitch-black room I’d made. If there are no lights, then there are no shadows to contort themselves into people or monsters. They couldn’t get me if they weren’t there. They weren’t there if there was no light.

I told myself that over and over again until my heart slowed to a normal pace.

I told myself that they weren’t real, but that never helped.

I told myself it was just my mind playing tricks on me; that my eyes were seeing it wrong.

I told myself that those weren’t claws and that thing in the corner was only the hat I’d always worn before draped over a chair, not a monster waiting to snatch me.

I told myself that no matter what I could always pull out a flashlight and scare them away.

Light not only creates shadows, but hides them, depending on how you use it.

It was the only thing I could find to get them to go away. It was the only way I could keep them from stealing my breathe and eating my insides. It was the only thing to stop them from eating me alive.

It kept me safe.

A door slammed shut downstairs and I jumped before remembering it was only my mother. She was coming home from work, which meant that I had killed off at least four hours somehow. Making it eight.

I plugged small headphones into my ears, making it so that I couldn’t hear them roaring from somewhere where light created them. Music made their angry voices disappear into the night. Now, I couldn’t hear how much they wanted me; I couldn’t tell how close or far away they were.

The song was loud and pounded through my body, making a pleasant headache. I wouldn’t have noticed my door slamming open if it hadn’t have been from the large amount of light it brought.

It bounced off of my walls, pulling the things from their corners. They approached me, slowly growing to the size and shape of dragons and demons. Their clawed hands reached towards me, threatening to strangle me.

I didn’t hear my mother yelling at me to get up; to get a life. I didn’t hear anything except for their deafening screams. My horror-filled screams, rising to the heavens.

I fought uselessly against them until my heart beat so fast I was surprised it just didn’t give out. My feet kicked straight through their rigid, dark bodies. My hands scraped at my neck, slipping through their spindly fingers like it was just air.

I kept telling myself it was just air and that it was all in my head, but no amount of words could console me. There was nothing I could do to stop the blackness from over taking my vision.

And then, everything was gone.

And I sighed. No more shadows.