lost my shadow
(this is part of the prologue I wrote for my NaNoWriMo. do not laugh.)
“Why? WHY?!” she repeated incredulously. She finally looked up and met his unflinching stare. “I’m standing here trying to burn a chair that won’t burn and I’m talking to a fucking ghost!” Tears began to slide down her face, pooling the corners of her mouth. “Leave me alone, Japheth. Go away from me forever. I can’t stand you. I can’t stand thinking that I’m going crazy because no one else has ever seen you!”
“Eve knew I existed.”
“No. She heard a voice. She never really believed that you were real. I don’t even believe it anymore! What if I see you only because I’m going insane? I’m losing my mind!” she cried, her voice catching as a lump settled in her throat. “Go away. Leave me alone! I WON’T SAY IT AGAIN!”
There was a long silence in which they stared at each other. His hands were clenched into fists at his side.
“You once looked for me. You once were comforted by my voice,” he said in a low, growling tone that she had never heard from him before. “Now you ask me to go, to leave you be. I will go because you asked it of me. Because you have cried out of fear of what you will not believe anymore. Burn the damned chair. Forget about me, but know that I am real. You will regret doing this and when you weep for me to come back to you it will fall on deaf ears. Goodnight, Mehitabel.”
He came at her from the darkness and she felt her heart stop the moment he would have walked right into her—but he was gone.
