The shadows.
They follow you.
Watch you.
Calculate your every movement.
Yet, no one cares about them.
They say it’s a trick of the light, a natural phenomenon.
That they’re nothing but dark echoes of the sun.
Oh, darling.
You don’t know what’s coming
_____________________________________________________________________
Alex Rillan didn’t get dreams often.
However, she was sure that they didn’t start with said person hanging off a cliff.
She could barely even see, but her fingers automatically tightened around the sharp rock, piercing her soft palms. Gasping, she scrambled to find a ledge, a sturdy branch, anything, but her feet came up empty. Her hands were slipping, her footing was nonexistent, and her mind was racing as the pieces fell together.
This wasn’t a normal dream.
Her breaths came in ragged pants, lungs aching from exhaustion. Alex’s head fell back as she stared at the cerulean sky above. Such a pleasant sight, aside from the fact that she was literally about to fall off a dream cliff.
No, she thought. Not a dream. This is real.
Alex’s right hand gave out, leaving her dangling from the steep side with nothing but five fingers keeping her from death’s doors. The ground below was veiled with mist, but anyone with half a mind could tell that falling resulted in immediate death. Which Alex preferred not to do.
Her hope slowly deteriorated as her fingers began to lose strength. After seconds of struggle, her grip almost fully gave out. Alex took one last breath…
And let go.
Usually, that results in falling, hitting the ground, dying, the usual.
It definitely didn’t come with a side of bony hands.
Cautiously opening her eyes, Alex realized that she hadn’t fallen. A gnarled, gaunt hand gripped her wrist, preventing her from plummeting into The Abyss™. She peered up at the figure and gasped.
They were covered in full black, a dark cloak hanging off their papery arms like a second skin. From the shoulders down, they looked like any normal human: arms, torso, legs that weren’t floating. But their head—that was a different story. Their hood was pulled up, but their face was just…darkness. It reminded Alex of the electronic masks some of her classmates would wear for Halloween. Except, this time, it was just pure black.
Instead of pulling her back up, the figure kept their hand clamped around Alex, giving them full control over her fate. They stared at her, although it was hard to tell given that they had no face.
“What do you want from me?” Alex finally croaked. “Who are you?”
“Stay still,” The figure’s voice was smooth yet raspy at the same time. It reminded Alex of an all too familiar feeling that she just couldn’t grasp. “I can always let go of you.”
Alex pushed down the wave of panic threatening to overtake her senses. “Answer my questions.”
The figure laughed. “Such a curious young girl. I will never understa—”
“Boy,” Alex bluntly replied. “I’m a boy now.”
Alex was genderfluid. Assigned male at birth, he had bounced around different titles of the LGBTQ+ community, but never felt something truly connected. Eventually, he became genderfluid—male or female based on his current emotions. His parents had been supportive, defending him in the harsh realities of today’s society. However, not everyone was as sympathetic. He would always feel the hard glares of relatives searing down his back as he politely corrected them when he was misgendered. He could feel his teachers’ patience wearing down after switching to the girl’s locker room for the third time that week. Life wasn’t always easy for a queer person, but Alex managed enough to avoid questioning looks and heated arguments.
The figure paused, tilted their head at the new revelation. Then, they threw their head back and cackled, a jarring sound that grinded on Alex’s core and threw off his senses.
“I’m sorry, did you say something…” The figure chuckled. “Aaron?” Alex froze.
Aaron was his legal name, the name he was called before he became genderfluid. No one ever dared to call him that, except…
The figure’s face contorted, their pitch black shadows melting into a tanned complexion fit with emerald green eyes and a small scar across pink lips.
That scar, Alex’s mind raced. No, it can’t be her.
Alicia, Alex’s older sister, loomed over him, her face plastered with a cruel sneer. “Pathetic,”
A cold chill jolted up Alex’s spine. “No,”
“Why couldn’t you have been a normal brother?” Alicia’s grip tightened. “Instead, you go around telling everyone that you’re queer and embarrass our family!”
Alex’s breathing quickened, his heart racing, eyes wide in fear and shock. His sister had always called him Aaron during his male times, but never actually insulted him. Before he could choke out a response, Alicia’s face blurred once again. Messy brown hair fell into deep brown eyes, all set over a crooked nose, disfigured after years in the boxing ring.
“You’re just a disgrace,” David, Alex’s father, scoffed. “Be a man or a woman, not both.”
Alex sobbed, the remarks shooting daggers through his heart. The people he trusted most were the ones skinning him alive, piece by piece. He tried to pry himself from his father’s hands, but he had a grip of steel. His face looming over Alex, casting shadows tha—
“Just leave me alone!” Alex begged. “Please!
David laughed. His face swirled once again, and his features distorted. His coffee eyes traded for sea green ones, and his cocoa cowlicks pushed back into a sleek black ponytail.
“I didn’t raise my child to be this way,” Emmaline, Alex’s mother, exhaled, disappointment written all over her face. “What are you? A daughter? A son? You’re not mine, that’s for sure!”
Alex was full-blown crying, his face glistening with tears as he watched the three most important people in his life tear down all his walls.
The figure—Alex couldn’t bring himself to call it his mother—reverted back to their original self, the embodiment of darkness. They opened their mouth, and spoke with his family’s voices.
“You’re just an embarrassment!” Their calls echoed in Alex’s mind, rattling the groundwork of everything he had built. He threw his head back to stare at the figure, breath shaking as he uttered out his final words.
“Let go,”
The figure dropped their hand, and Alex Rillan fell into the darkness.
_____________________________________________________________________
Alex shot up from bed, heart pounding as he surveyed his surroundings. Breath shaking, he rose to his feet and turned on his lamp. He rubbed a shaky hand across his face, allowing himself to come to his senses.
You were right, he thought. None of this was real.
Alex cautiously climbed back into bed, pulling the covers over his ears. Everything had seemed so real. The cliff. The figure. He could have sworn he felt their hand still on his wrist.
It’s fine now, he reassured himself as he drifted off into a peaceful slumber. You’re fine.
Somewhere, hidden in the shadows of the darkness, a hooded figure stood guard, watching as the young boy returned to dreamland once again. Sighing, they slowly ambled to the side of his bed, eyes never leaving the still figure. They just stared for a moment, waiting as…
Sorry, what was that? I didn’t catc—
[crash]
When your eyes are closed, I see you clearer.
When your breath grows soft, I draw nearer,
Sleep while you can, little wanderer of night.
*Shadows remember**, even when you turn on the light.*
[thump]
end