Darkness. Everywhere was darkness. That’s the view you see by looking past the city lines. Everywhere just darkness. If you get close enough to the edge you can even see the line where the light is cut off. There is something tragically beautiful and fascinating about it. A sharp line that divides white from black creating a border by its own.

No one dares to come that close though. No one dares to come that close to the darkness and what is waiting beyond the light. Because that’s where the shadows live and people are known to disappear if they come too close. Just one step too far is enough. Sometimes not even that. But then there is one boy. One small blond boy with face pale and mind too childlike and pure to see fear. Barely old enough to walk and still always running towards the darkness because it looks beautiful to him.

He is different from all the others because of just that. Because he is not afraid. He is fascinated and curious with no trace of fear in him no matter how much his mother tries to teach him otherwise. Because fascination and curiosity is what gets you killed. It always gets you killed.

And yet the two year old is standing at the edge of the city, standing on his tip toes at the very edge of the line and trying to see into the never ending darkness, his own shadow extending right behind. But he isn’t afraid of the shadow either. He isn’t afraid at being surrounded by the darkness from both in front and behind. It always made him laugh in delight actually because the shadows are the only darkness that can be seen in the city and to stand like he was at the moment somehow always made him laugh. Maybe it were the grownups that always came running after him, he loved playing hide and seek like this always. But for some reason his parents don’t like it when he hides by the darkness. He could never understand why, it’s really nice. That’s why he always comes back. He wants to see what is there moving in the darkness.

Everyone says that the shadows live there and he wants to see. He wants to see because his shadow is his friend and he wants to make sure it will be happy when it leaves. He doesn’t want it to leave though. Who would he play with then? No one wants to play with him and his shadow. He doesn’t understand why. They are very good at hiding hide and seek after all. He would even dare to say the best. But still no one wants to play. It makes him sad.

It’s okay to be sad though. He sees a lot of grownups be sad so it must be okay. Still he doesn’t like being sad so he has this thing he does whenever he is sad. There is this corner in his house that is darker than the others, not as dark as where he’s gazing right now but still darker than most. And he likes just sitting there. Sitting and looking at how his shadow grows bigger as the darkness is shifting into it. That’s why his shadow is bigger than the other kids. Yes it is. And he’s really proud of that.

“Luhan!” A woman’s voice reached the little boys ears and he quickly turned around with a smile.

“You found me.” The blond piped up happily as he saw his mom running towards him but the smile was gone as she startled the boy by picking him up quickly and pulling away from the darkness with a grip that was too tight and left bruises on soft skin. Luhan could hear his mothers rapid breathing and feel the heart beating really fast like it was a train. She looked scared and it confused the boy as he frowned up at her. Why is she sad? They were only playing hide and seek…Right?

“Luhan stop doing this! You are not allowed to do this okay? Please stop scaring mommy.” She was still holding him too close but now one hand was holding his head to her neck, trying to get as much contact with her child as she can to make sure he is still there. A picture of her precious baby almost falling over the line and into the darkness way too fresh and alive in her mind. She’s going to lose him if he keeps going like this. She knows it. And she never wants that to happen. She’ needs to make sure it never happens.

“Why mommy?” Luhan, still confused, asked against her skin, giving up on trying to wiggle out of her grip. She was holding on too strong. It hurt but he couldn’t get out.

“Bad things happen in the dark honey. Bad bad things. And I don’t want anything to happen to you.” His mom answered, still not showing any indication she will calm down as she kept pacing in the light, far away from the darkness that haunted them all.

“But the shadows live there.” The boy countered, not seeing how the darkness can be bad. It isn’t. Shadows play there. He has seen it. He has seen once how shadows were playing with a child like himself. It looked fun. He must have been having so much fun since he never came out of the darkness. Luhan wanted to have fun like that. He loves coloring and it seems they were coloring because he could see red paint on the ground when the light shone over it again. Why don’t the grownups understand he just wants to play?

“The shadows are bad. They hurt people.” Mom explained making Luhan even more confused as he turned his had to look at his own shadow down on the ground. “No they don’t. They just want to play like me.”

“No. Luhan, baby, listen to me.” She spoke up in a voice that sounded urgent to the child’s ears and finally loosened her too tight grip so she can look her son in the eyes. Knowing that the wide innocent eyes that were now staring at her won’t be like that for long. Not after what she is about to tell him. Because she now knows that she has to kill that innocence in him to keep Luhan safe. Because he needs to be safe. “The shadows don’t play with people they kill them. I know you think that the shadows played with that little girl you saw but they didn’t, they killed her Luhan. And they will kill you too if you continue going that close to the darkness. I don’t want to lose you honey do you understand?” Luhan could do nothing but nod, eyes wide and for the first time in his life scared. They don’t want to play? They want to hurt Luhan? His mind could barely comprehend the thought as he glanced towards his shadow once again, but he didn’t see it as a friend anymore. It was a monster. And Luhan doesn’t like monsters.

That day was the end of the innocent mind of a blond little boy who wasn’t afraid of anything. It was the day he started feeling fear.

By the time Luhan turned three he could only look at his shadow with fright. Fear that society made you feel and just like that he lost his best friend. At eleven he hoped it will leave soon. Twelve and the blond started feeling fear that maybe it won’t leave. What if the shadow stays just to hurt him. He was terrified to death for two years until he woke up one morning at fourteen to find the shadow gone. All that was around him was light and he never felt so relived in his life.

There was one thing that didn’t change throughout the years though. A secret that he made sure to tell no one because it wasn’t allowed. He wasn’t allowed to go to the darkness. And yet he never stopped. Because even as he got scared he was never too scared to stop coming to his favorite place. The very edge of light and dark.

He kept going and just sitting there out of sight of anyone in the city. If someone wasn’t purposely looking there they couldn’t see him so he liked it there. It was calming. It was safe. And he didn’t have to feel afraid. Because as he sat there and watched the darkness move and shift with shadows in front of him the spark of fascination and innocence was back in his eyes. The spark no one but the shadows get to see.

Luhan’s parents tried, they really did. They tried getting him scared and in a way they succeeded.  He never got too close to the edge anymore, but he was never that far off either. He got scared of the shadow’s like he’s supposed to but never so much as to stop the fascination he felt towards them. That childlike part of him stayed even as the shadows scared him to death on some days. And he couldn’t see anything bad about it. It’s just the way he is, and he’s not going to change any time soon.

However, that’s exactly what happened when a month after his nineteenth birthday the lights went out. When the screams started and didn’t stop even that little that was left of the child he was, was gone. As he looked out of the window of his house two days later as the screams finally stopped Luhan felt fear because he could see why they stopped. He hid deep in the basement until then, all alone in a big house and knowing the rest of the household is probably gone forever, his parents, family…But it wasn’t until he looked out of that window that he saw what happened to the ones who couldn’t hide, who were too late. Because the streets were covered by darkness, by shadows, but as they moved the red moon from above shone over the ground below, showing everyone dead. Everyone was dead. Everyone.

The next few days Luhan found himself at that same window often, even through the fear of getting caught and killed he couldn’t help it. The fascination was somehow still there no matter how small. He could still hear screams every now again from the people that escaped but were caught all the same, he knew that will be him one day. And just like that the fear was back. So much stronger than ever before.

Luhan thought that it will all end when he loses his own shadow. But how wrong he was. So very wrong.

The food went way too fast, forcing him to move out onto the streets in desperate search for something to eat anything. To the streets covered in corpses and blood. Blood of his friends and families.

He tried avoiding the shadows but there were too many and before he knew it Luhan was running. He was running but he had nowhere to run to.

I’m going to die. This is it. The thought echoed in his mind as he was surrounded by the darkness that moved, by the shadows. The blond’s arms were covered in blood from where he ran into wall of houses since all that was illuminating the blinding darkness was the red moon above. But all it did was make it all look even more like a nightmare then it already did. His heart was beating so hard he was sure the shadows can hear, he could almost hear them laughing and maybe he even did as he felt a lingering cold touch on his ankle, making him flinch and try moving away but there was no away. He couldn’t even take half a step back and they were only getting closer. And he couldn’t fight back even if he wasn’t so weak from lack of food, how can you fight something that doesn’t exist, something without a body? You can’t.

The darkness enveloped Luhan in no time and everything was cold, so cold as the formless beings moved over him, making him feel pain like nothing he ever did before it finally stopped. He couldn’t even remember falling on the ground but still he was lying down as he came to. Did he pass out? He couldn’t remember either. But he was surely dead right? The pain didn’t stop though so how…?

Brown eyes opened to see darkness. It was just darkness for a second before the boys eyes could get used to it enough to see the red light shining over something, over a body that wasn’t body. Over a sight that made him gasp as he stared in disbelief at a boy who was barely there. A boy who just chased off the shadows.

But it wasn’t that what surprised Luhan the most. It was the boy’s body. He didn’t have one. Or he did. The blond wasn’t sure because in the darkness he could see a pale face with pitch black eyes and a shock of hair the same, but he could also see only half of it because the rest was covered by darkness. No, it wasn’t covered by it. It was darkness. The boy was darkness but he has a body. Arms and legs and a body even if half of it was lingering darkness.

Luhan heard of shadow’s strong enough to have a solid form but he never saw one before. Never before now. But the boy was losing the body as more and more darkness took over pale skin. And yet the boy was still standing there, chasing the other shadows away from Luhan with strong dark covered hands and growls menacing enough to make your blood run cold. It surely did Luhan’s.

The boy could barely think from the sharp pain that was trying to take his consciousness again when he saw the other turn and look at him, eyes barely visible anymore and the blond could swear he saw a smile on thin lips that were now completely taken over by darkness just like most of the rest of him was. And he wasn’t thinking anymore, he couldn’t think. Still he said the next words with so much honesty, thinking that he will regret them but yet knowing he won’t.

“Attach.” His voice was weak and pained but the other must have heard because just as the rest of him was taken by darkness Luhan could feel a coldness he hasn’t felt for years pass through his whole body and he knew. He knew he had a shadow once again.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Yea okay I’m turning this into a two shot too so there is one more part to await. Hopefully it will be written soon but I have too many fics to promise anything. I hope you liked this though. Please comment below with your thoughts because I love hearing them. Also subscribers and upvotes are appreciated too.

Until next time…