I stared out the window, towards the street. Dull street lamps glowed, fighting off the night's cover. A few lamps shone in windows in the apartments that I could see. And in the glass, my own reflection stared right back at me. My hair was black, bangs covered my forehead. My hair reached a little past my shoulders, tips dyed artificial purple. My eyes where green, gray almost. And sometimes, like now, for instance, they turned a bright green blue, and saw the colors that danced around. A pinkish red lingered on the street, a couple apartments down. It danced around under the streetlamp for a while.
And then vanished, faded off to wherever it was going. Or, scared off. The streetlamp it had been under flickered for a bit, then turned into an orange glow. I squirmed uncomfortably.
“Who?” I thought to myself, squinting. It edged out from between some gray apartments. Actually, everything had a gray tinge to it now- faded. Lost. I felt it before I saw it, black- a shadow. I shivered involuntarily. Around it was a kind of blue, which was weird. The fact is, not all 'spirits' or 'energies' are harmless. They don't all keep to themselves, mind their own business. Some are stronger, have been around longer. They attach themselves to people and feed off of their energy, slowly corrode them. Sometimes, if they're strong enough, they will push the soul out of the body and take over. Nicolette and I have only seen two cases of this though, and each time, we've looked away.
Way back in high school, we were sitting in art class. The principal was showing some man in a sharp suit around the new building. I don't know what his connection to the school was, maybe he used to go there, maybe he used to work there. I don't know. He had just gotten back from Afghanistan. Nicky noticed it first- she saw the shadow. The man's soul was following him around. It was floating around his head, yelling at himself. But it wasn't him. Whatever was in him, just kept talking, nodding along to the principal's . When I saw Nicolette's face, I knew something was wrong, automatically. “What??” I had hissed. “What is it?!” She didn't respond until they had left the room and I realized. “He was in the war- what do you expect?” “For him to have his own soul.” “Oh.”
But my point is, these spirits are not to be messed with. And now, as I saw a shadow across the street, you could understand how uncomfortable I was. The darker, stranger side of certain beings. I couldn't explain it, Nicky couldn't explain it, it was a part of life. I focused on the blue- edged shadow. It seemed to turn towards me. I shrank back, almost hiding. But as soon as it had noticed me, it seemed to disappear. The streetlamp flickered once more, and then returned to it's normal state, illuminating the night.
