Shadow

Obsidian eyes haunt me in my dreams. They are eternally watchful, tracing my every move. I’m ensnared in the corner when they uproot themselves from his angled face and embed themselves in my porcelain skin. Slowly they sink, deeper and deeper, until they become a parasite in my heart, burning it black. I jolt to consciousness with a start.

He emerges in my waking hours with his black wings covered by rough, leathery, black feathers. He clouds my thoughts with his pure-sin smile as I walk through downtown. Past the music shop and photographers’ studios. Office after office. I feel the soulless black eyes x-ray my insides. I can feel their burn on the back of my neck. I touch the tender spot and turn my head to look behind myself. The shadows shift to disguise the disappearance of their artful master: The Shadow King.

I wrap my arms tightly around myself; pleading with my insides, begging them not to spill out over the cracked sidewalk. My apartment seems miles away. Quickening my pace, I shoot my eyes from side to side. The shadows are closing in on me. I smell their sweet, seductive fog as they cling to my legs.

I make the fatal mistake of glancing behind me. As my head turns, my foot slides across the ice. I don’t have time to process that I am falling before I feel something solid grab me around the waist. Everything is slow-motion as I look down to see massive arms. They turn me toward him with an inhuman grace. My head is dizzy, growing increasingly slow as I try to identify whether he is my captor or my savior. The last thing I see is dark, razored hair that parts to reveal shadowy black eyes and a wicked smile.

* * * *

I don’t know where I am when I wake up, I don’t know what I am; I just know that I’m different.

I feel immense strength coursing through my veins as I survey the tomb-like room. I clench and flex my hands, observing their majestic power. A smile escapes against my will. Something is different. My teeth are jagged, each one filed to a point. They sink into my bottom lips as I test out their potential for damage. I look back down to my hands. My nails. They’re thick. Pointed and sharp.

A shudder overcomes me; my body quakes with terror and delight. He walks into the dim light, that sinful smile consuming his face. I back into the corner of the room, knowing what will come.
His eyes crawl out of his face. They attach like leeches to my skin, sink into my heart. I can feel the tears of the saints run down my face and hear the screams of acid-covered children escape my lips as those eyes change me. I won’t plead with him. I won’t ask him to end the excruciating pain.

I cringe as I accept my fate. It’s who I am. Who I knew I would someday become.

I am his Shadow Girl.