This week’s Thursday’s Threads entry

Every week Siobhan Muir runs #ThursThreads – a Flash fiction contest that runs from 7 AM  Time to 8 PM Mountain Time. The prompt is chosen from a line from the previous week’s winning tale, and you must include the prompt in the story – you cannot change the tense and the only thing you can insert is punctuation…

This week’s prompt was “I’m the one casting it” And for your entertainment – My entry:

Jumping at shadows

The shadows are growing long again, and as the seasons change, I can’t help but wonder what lives in those shadows.

What lies are told? What worlds exist only in that moment?

As I walk I see my shadow follow me and the writer inside starts playing ‘what if?’ What if the Shadow is a living thing? What if it’s following me, trying to catch up and take over my life?

Is there some metamorphic point where the shadow and the real world meet and what happens if we dive into each other? Do I become the shadow? Does the shadow become me?

I used to wonder these things— until one moonless night when the shadow moved and I didn’t.

I hate to admit it, but I ran. I ran for all I was worth, and in that moment of panic, I didn’t realize I’d run out into the street until the headlights rushed towards me from all angles. I’d lost my shadow, but only until that moment of impact when everything became clear.

I looked up to see a young man standing in front of me, offering me his hand. I let him help me up, and looking around I realized my shadow was where it belonged doing things that shadows do.

I gave him a relieved smile, “I was running from my shadow,” I shyly admit.

“I know,” he said. “I’m the one casting it.”

 

(c) 2021 M.T. Decker

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