(Shadows)
By Jakob Konger
read the suite from the beginning
(shadow)
(She’d been expecting her shadow for months now, ever since her son had run from home. He’d left in daylight. She’d been there. She was in the street behind her home when the shadow fell over her, not in the street for any reason but to stand out in the sun before the day was gone. She watched the shadow shrink down towards her. More matte-black details emerged with every inch of its approach. It looked like a deformed spider, a giant tortured insect whose many legs had been tied to its chest. She stared up into its single flat glass eye, stared however many thousands of miles or kilometers straight through to the other end to try and meet the eyes of whoever it was that cast this shadow, but then the wind rose up around her and sent dust into her eyes. She had to let them shut. before she saw a thing. As the roar of the machine grew louder, though–like it were preparing one final lunge down toward her–she opened her eyes and stared one last time into the shadow’s eye, refusing to blink despite the dust and the dry wind that cut deep in her eyes. What did she need to see anymore? What did it matter if she felt a little pain? She stared down straight into the shadow’s eyes, until she saw her own face stretched and reflected back there. Only then did the street dissolve around her.)
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