Silence Of The Shadows

• Vincent Vong, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2013

As I walked home, I did not notice it. I did not notice the silence. I had been lost in thought, simply walking home, with arriving at my destination my only desire at that time. It had been a normal school day; same old classes, chatter with friends, playing sport, things that you would normally do at school.

However, the eerie silence of which set my spine tingling -when I noticed it, that is- frightened me. Never in my life had I experienced the quiet serenity that I was now noticing around me. When I noticed it, it was like someone had turned on a switch in my brain. "How queer," was the first thing I thought. "I never noticed the silence settling in, I wonder where everyone has gone to." And that was the truth of it, the silence had suddenly just appeared a while after I started walking home, as sudden as a mouse trap being set off.

Suddenly with a sharp jolt to my mind, I realised that there was also no sounds of nature, of cars, of absolutely anything. It was then I knew that something was very, very peculiar. I then proposed to myself the idea that I was on the verge of lunacy and that I was simply imagining things. I quickly dismissed the idea, as I believed that you would turn insane easier by believing you were already mad.

I shuffled home nervously, gulping when I reached the front door of my home. It was a comforting thing to see, until I asked if anyone was inside. A disturbing silence answered me. Usually, my mother or sister would be home to greet me, but the silence was making me both scared and insane. I asked again, when suddenly someone grabbed me from behind, holding my mouth down.

Struggling for just a moment, I calmed down when I noticed that it was not a face looking of maliciousness, but a calming one which had abducted me. I tried to speak when the stranger lifted her hand off my mouth, but as soon as I did, she put her index finger in front of her mouth as a signal to be quiet. I obeyed silently, and spread my hands out in a gesture that indicated that I was confused. Still silent, she pointed at my feet. It was then I noticed it, for out in the blinding sunlight, one noticed the absence of a shadow quite easily.

My mouth gaped in horror as I tried to understand what was happening. Could the mysterious disappearance of our shadows have something to do with the silence? Swiftly, the lady led me into the middle of the road. It was then she spoke.

"We have to stay where there are no shadows," she said. "The shadows are finally fighting back, for we have been living on the overworld for too long. This land once belonged to them, but every few millennia, the humans and the shadows swap places. The humans are forced to take the shadow's place, copying its exact movements. The shadows walk among the Earth as if they are humans."

"That does sound very interesting in all," I said, trying not to be rude. "But how do you know all this?" The lady replied after a moment's hesitation. "I am a rebel... shadow."
I was flabbergasted. To think that a shadow looked exactly like a human was something that would make one think. What if we were the shadows? What if the things walking at our feet were humans, and we were just the shadows.

I knew I was right from her expression.