Shadows

The shadows are back. The ones that used to follow me everywhere in the dark. Wherever the light didn’t reach, they were there. They used to never leave me alone. Never give me a break. Never let me rest. Never let me feel an ounce of happiness. I thought I got rid of them back then… I thought they were gone for good… looks like you thought wrong-SHUT UP! Sorry, just ignore him. He’s one of the shadows. I’m not sure what he or the rest of them really are but since they look like shadows, that’s what I call them. I’m sure you’re pretty confused right now so let me tell you where it all began…

++++++flashback++++++

When I was six years old, I was the happiest child I knew. Just a regular boy with a normal life and a normal family that loved me, but I was always in a good mood. No matter what happened, I was always smiling. One day, my sisters and I were up in the tree house that sat about thirty feet away from the house in the backyard. Our parents were at work like every Tuesday so my siblings and I went up to the tree house to play games like we always do. Everything seemed normal. Everything was normal. Dawn, who was 11 years old, the youngest of my three older sisters, was reaching up for the game “Life” that was on the top shelf in the far right corner of the small twelve foot by twelve foot tree house. Her hair went just past her shoulders and it was black with a natural blue hue to it to match her name. Her ivory skin was blemish and scar free and she didn’t tan at all, but she never burned either so she didn’t have to worry about going in the sun. Her eyes were what really set her apart though. One was a beautiful light blue that looked like the sky in the middle of a sunny day. The other was a bright unnatural purple with dark purple bordering the irises and for her pupil. I always felt like the purple eye matched her bubbly and whimsical personality. Kimi, who was 14 years old, sat Indian-style only three feet away watching her, making sure she didn’t lose balance and fall off the small uneven chair she was standing on for height because she was so short. Kimi really did live up to her name now that I think about it. Her name was Native American and it meant “secret”. Our mother always told us we had a little bit of Ojibwe Native American in us. That’s what her dad, our grandfather, told her anyway. He lied a lot so we never really knew what to believe from him. Anyway, mom always liked the sound of “Kimi” so that’s how she got her name. Her hair was a dark chocolate brown which looked good against her naturally smooth tan skin. Her eyes were an unnatural dark blue. Like the-middle-of-the-ocean dark blue. I’ve never met anyone else with eyes like hers so I’ve always found that interesting and unique… and mysterious just like her... yeah I know I’m her little brother and all but I don’t know much about her. She always keeps to herself for the most part so no one ever really knows what goes on in her life besides what happens at home... and even though she was mostly stone-faced and didn’t show much expression, she would give these small smiles a lot. She didn’t smile as much as me but she still smiled often. Her smiles were beautiful and genuine, we could tell, so we always knew she was happy. And then Genesis, the oldest of us all, was 17 years old but she looked like she was 21 years old. She was easy going and layed back for the most part, but if anyone messed with her precious little siblings, she’d go all out on their ass. Yeah, she’s pretty protective of us. Mom and dad taught her to be. She has shiny brown hair that has a strange natural dark red hue to it to make her hair look like it was dyed with blood and it dried. Kind of a strange observation… thing… but oh well. I’m like that. Her skin was light but she could get a noticeable tan just by standing out in the sun for ten minutes. Her eyes also set her apart… they were a bright true green… I liked to call them “tree frog green” because the shade reminded me of a red-eyed tree frog… don’t ask. But the outline of her irises were weird… they were mostly iridescent. They faded from color to color as they went around. First it was a dark blue that faded to a dark green that faded to a dark red-brown then that faded to a purplish color. The colors were all very dull but when you got close you could tell it was like a rainbow around her eyes. Her pupils were kind of creepy to be honest… From a distance they looked dark brown but when you got like two feet away they looked like a bold but dark pink… almost red. I’m not sure how her eyes are like that… but I gotta say, they match her personality quite well. An eccentric persona with eccentric eyes. Hm. Seems about right.

All of my sisters are a decent size. Weight-wise I mean. I may only be six years old at the time, but even then I could tell when a girl had a good body. Genesis had a beautiful figure. She looked like a model with the attitude of a skater girl. She had a nice breast size too… and I’m not some creepy little brother who looks at his older sisters’ boobs all the time either… jeez. I’ve been in her room before to do some cleaning because I’m just that awesome of a younger brother, and I’ve seen her bra size before. I think I remember the tag said C34. Most guys her age would say that’s the perfect size. They didn’t sag, but they were perky and bounced if she jumped or if her foot hit the ground too hard or if she ran. Again, I’m not some creepy little brother who looks at his older sisters’ boobs all the time. I’m just very observant. Kimi had a nice figure as well. Her curves weren’t as defined since puberty hadn’t hit her completely yet but she was still very beautiful. Her whole body was mark-free. No blemishes, no scratches, no bruises, no scars. Perfect. And even though Dawn was only 11, she still had curves. She was one of those lucky girls who got a figure at an early age. She was very beautiful and her personality just made her seem cuter.

Then there’s me. A thin 6 year old boy who looked about 10 and acted about 15. Not in that perverted kind of way but in that mature kind of way. Another thing really set me apart from everyone else was… I’m albino. But I was different than most albinos. My skin didn’t burn easily from the UV rays the sun gave off. My eyes weren’t that weird reddish-pink like most albinos either. They were a light grey like a husky’s eyes. They were also almost iridescent without color. Like iridescent with shades of grey only. One angle they look a dark grey, another they look almost white. Weird, I know. And to make things weirder, the outlines of my irises and pupils were jet black. My hair was the usual albino-white and so was my skin. My sisters all said I looked like an angelic porcelain doll. Uhm… okay. Mom even called me her “little angel”. I always liked to take advantage of my unique lack of pigment and wear clothes with little to no color. I’d try to keep it a nice balance between black and white. I never really liked grey clothing. It showed sweat too easily. Anyway, since my hair and basically most of me is white, that’s what I wore the most. White. With only small black designs or black accessories.

So now that that long-ass introduction is done… jeez I talk too much. Let’s get back to my story. Genesis was standing in the opposite corner of Dawn next to me. She had her nose stuck in some book about ancient times… geek. I was sitting Indian-style like Kimi just a few feet away from Genesis. To be honest, I’d like to call Genesis by some sort of nick-name since her name is a bit of a mouthful but nothing seems to fit her… oh well. I’ll think of something some day. Maybe Gena, nah. Genee? No… Or what about-

“Yo, Damien, you listening?” I was shook out of my thoughts by a deep smooth girl’s voice calling my name. Genesis.

“Hmm?” I look up at her with wide questioning eyes. I must’ve zoned out… I do that often. Genesis let out a light chuckle and smiled sweetly at me.

“I said I was gonna go get some ice cream to cool us off and I asked what flavor you wanted?” Her voice flowed like a sweet melody. I noticed that she had set the book down she was reading earlier and was standing by the top of the ladder. I looked over to see Dawn looking at me with those multi-colored eyes of hers and Kimi looking at me out of the corner of her eye. I must’ve been out of it longer than I thought.

“Uhm… vanilla, I guess.” I replied, my high-pitched child’s voice shaking a little out of confusion.

As Genesis nodded her head in acknowledgement and began climbing down the ladder, Dawn jumped off the chair she was standing on and landed on the ground while quickly sitting Indian-style like Kimi and I were and setting down the game in one swift movement. Wow… Dawn’s movements were always graceful and it always amazed me at how smoothly her body flowed. She was like a deer in the forest… Welp. That’s my mind for you. My mind works like a poet’s. For some reason I always try to word things to sound like beautiful poetry. A strange habit I’m not sure how or when I got into. I scooted closer to Dawn so I could reach the board better and Kimi did the same.

"So who wants to go first?" Dawn asked with an overly-curious tone to her voice. Kimi glanced at the entrance to the tree house then shifted her gaze to Dawn who was patiently- or rather impatiently but trying to act patient- waiting for an answer. Hoping we'd let her go first, I assume.

"How about we wait for Genesis? She wanted to play too, remember?" Kimi finally spoke up, a slightly confused expression on her face. Her and I both know that "LIfe" is Dawn's favorite game but we still get amazed at how impatient she gets when we're about to play it. Just then Genesis appears at the entrance of the tree house and we all look up to see her expression.

"How about you guys tell me what the hell is that thing outside?!" Panic was written all over her face.

Dawn, Kimi, and I quickly glanced at each other with worried expressions. Genesis stumbled to get inside as fast as her long legs could and crawled to the opposite wall to curl her knees up to her chest, her whole body shaking with fear. Kimi shot up and ran to the entrance to look outside as Dawn did the same. I just sat there dumbfounded as to what the heck was going on until I finally gather myself and join my two sisters at the doorway/trapdoor. I froze when I saw what Genesis was so scared of... what the heck is that thing?! Dawn cupped her hand over her mouth to hold back a scream as her eyes grew wide when she saw it as well. Kimi was quick to pull her back away from the entrance so they wouldn't be seen by that... thing. She didn't pull me back thoough, I wasn't in her reach. I stood there by the entrance still completely frozen as my three sisters huddled in the corner together trying to muffle each others' cries. I couldn't move. I was too curious as to what that creature was that was now perched at the base of the tree just staring at the tree trunk. What is it doing? Where are it's eyes? Does it have eyes? It doesn't even have a nose! Does it? My young mind was swimming with questions I wanted so badly to be answered when I felt a strong tug at my arm. In an instant, I was yanked back from the entrance and pulled into the tight huddle my sisters were in.

"Get away from there!" Kimi whisper-yelled to me. Her voice was shaky from a mix of panic, fear, and confusion... mostly fear... as she gripped my arm tight.

"What?! I wanted to get a good that at... it. Uhm, guys? What exactly is it, anyway?" I asked, my tone dripping with curiosity more than fear. The confusion had faded by now. I just really wanted to know what that thing was.

"How are we supposed to know?!" It was Dawn's turn to whisper-yell to me now. Her multi-colored eyes glittered with tears threatening to spill from how scared she was. Poor Dawny... "Just stay quiet! We don't know what that thing is, but it doesn't look too friendly... and I don't know about you, but I'm not interested in becoming an alien's lunch!" She continued coldly... Well that's a new tone to come from her... I guess a situation like this has never really come up before so I've never really got the chance to see Dawn's... erhm... "dark side".

That's when I did the stupidest thing my little six-year-old-mind could think of... Yep. You guessed it. I wiggled out of Kimi's still-painfully-tight grip and darted back over to the entrance. I look down just to see that creature still sitting there... and still staring at the tree trunk... Huh, weird thing. I wonder what it's doing? It was about the same size of a full grown tiger, I decided, and it had a long whip-like tail. It was sitting like a dog in front of the tree directly below the trapdoor thing that led to the ladder. It looked more like a black panther now that I think about it- wait... does it even have any skin?! It looked like all the skin on it's body was torn of to reveal the patterns and movements of it's muscles... which were a scary large size. But it's muscles were black. And it didn't seem to be bleeding... It's long tail swayed casually from left to right as it continued to stare at the tree trunk, or the ladder? I couldn't tell since I couldn't see it's eyes because I was directly above it. I could tell that even though it was just sitting down, it was big. I think it stood/sat a good 5 feet from the top of it's head to the ground. Jeez this thing is monstrous. It's large muscled moved visibly from just it's slow steady breathing. I leaned a little to the left to see the rest of it's tail- holy-! It's tail had to be 12 feet at least! It also had these largecurved spikes coming out of the end of it's tail, but they looked like they were floating just inches away from the actual tail, with some weird black smoke/cloud stuff between the spikes and the tail. Two large spikes were on opposite sides of its tail about a foot from the end and two more slightly smaller ones were just inches above the first two. At the very tip was one single small spike that i could tell was hovering at the end and not actually touching it. I shift my gaze back to the creature's body. It had long muscular hind legs that were tucked in at its sides in the dog-like position it was sitting in. It's front legs were long and muscular as well. It looked like it had paws of some sort, but it didn't really have toes. Instead, there were four large claws that stuck out of the creature's palms(?). It had a fifth claw that was further up it's wrist on the inside like a dog's or a cat's paw. I let my eyes wander to it's head. Again, since I was directly above it, I coudln't get a good look at its face, but I could see that had long ears that looked almost... amphibious? They were long web-like thinks that had a spike on either side of each of them. I studied it's head for a bit longer half hoping it would look up so I could see its face and half hoping it wouldn't because what would it do if it saw me...?

Just as I was about to go back to the corner to rejoin my sisters... it looked up.