Category : Books-Fiction

Sub Category : Horror

Katherine walked, slowly, for what seemed like an eternity. She passed by trees, nature, animals and everything living, that wasn't human.

The pain, the grief and her will to survive caught up with her and for the first time in a long time, she lifted her head and looked at the sky. Birds of brown and black flew overhead.

The sky had shades of pink, entwined with the blue and the sunlight.

She reached the main road. Her body was burned, cut up and her mouth was dry. Her lips were chapped and broken.

Her neck hurt as she looked up at the sky again. She didn't know what to think or what to do. Her body took over her heart and she wept. Her tears were warm on her cold face. The tears fell like warm raindrops onto the ground below.

She saw a bench over in the distance, across the road and passed a farmyard. She had no more strength to keep walking.

She hobbled over to the bench, her eyes misty from tears. Her back to the sun, she sat down. She held herself as no one else could. She might have been the most important person in the world, there and then.

She thought of herself with her family. She remembered happy times. She would take a sharp inhale and get choked up when she remembered what it was like to laugh. Laugh and really mean it.

She closed her eyes and swallowed hard. The saliva burned her throat.
As she opened her eyes and looked in front, she saw her shadow. It was as good as a mirror. Her shadow was full and complete. There was no pain or loss in her shadow. There sat a full person. The shadow was her and her own.

This was the same shadow that would be cast onto the ground in 30 years or even 1 day ago. Her shadow displayed no pain or anguish. It followed her, wherever she went and wherever she would go. Almost as her spirit, reminding her of being a whole person, tougher than her enemies and darker than the night.

She stood up, while keeping her gaze on her shadow. In that moment, it was as if angels had picked her up and shown her the way. She looked to her right, cleaned up her tears with the back of her hand and walked away from the sun. The warmth always on her back and her shadow forever beside her, never broken.