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ME AND MY SHADOW, a short story by actung. Date added: 2010-03-13. Times viewed: 1290.

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Intro: In the darkness, there is no light.

Heading home after a long day in work. It's late and dark. The street lights are few and far between. I feel so tired and frustrated. Everything is just catching up on me. Nothing good ever happens to me. I'm working a job I hate. I have to make money somehow. My own fault really. I go and open myself a shop just as the recession was about to hit. Seven months later I had no choice but go and close it down. Had to sell the house. The wife left and took my son with her, and what I now call home is a shitty small, one room apartment, a place that somehow seems and feels darker than the street that takes me back there.

‘Hey', I hear a voice call out. I look around but can't see anyone. ‘Hey', I hear the voice call again, ‘down here'. I look down and see my shadow move from being before me to going behind me as I come close to the next street light. I briefly assumed that my shadow had said something, I look straight ahead of myself thinking not only do I need to start having some sort of life but I also need sleep. I pass the street light and my shadow is once more on front of me.

‘You want out, don't you?', came the voice once more. It is my shadow. My shadow is talking to me. I'm loosing it. ‘You're my shadow, and there is no way you are talking me' I say looking back on front of me, still having a few more minutes until I get back to my own private little hell hole. ‘We can help one another'. Things may not be easy at the moment but I never thought my own mind would let me down. ‘There is a war coming and we need you, you are a natural leader, you can become a general easily'. I begin to whistle trying to ignore the fact that my shadow is talking to me.

My shadow once again moves behind me, another street light is approaching. ‘You have nothing to live for', I turn and look at the ground, ‘nothing to live for, I have a lot to live for, I have a wife and son', ‘your wife left you and took your son with her, besides you will be doing this for them. You'll be fighting to save them'.

I began to run. I don't know why. It's not like I can just escape from my shadow. I get back to the apartment and go inside without turning on any of the lights. The little light there was outside shone through my one window. ‘You know what you must do'. I am sweating heavily. With my hands I wipe the sweat from my forehead through my hair. I reach to close the curtains. I can feel a power, some force or nature repelling me away from the curtains. ‘What about my son?', ‘you will be saving your son, there is some rope under your bed'. I tie a noose, set up the rope, climb onto a chair.......

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