Ghosts Have Shadows Too

It all started on a Tuesday. I never would've thought that my life would begin it's final countdown on a Tuesday, of all days. Yet, that's what happened, on the plainest day of the week, everything had changed. So, without further ado, here's the story, of how I died.

"But mom, I don't understand!" I complained loudly as I tied my shoe laces. "Why do I have to walk to school AND back home now?!" I whined, it wasn't fair, suddenly my sister gets into her first year of high school and suddenly everything is about her. My mother merely stood there and listened to me rant before she finally came up with an excuse to explain her illogical reason,

"Because, Rebecca, now that your sister is in high school, I would have to drive to opposite sides of town, your school is close by so, it makes it easier for me if you were to just walk there." She spoke to me in a tone that had always made me feel as if I were some idiot kindergarten child. I roll my eyes with a huff of annoyance, and stand up to get my backpack on.

"If she were the older one.. she wouldn't be walking..." I think to myself as I go through my mental checklist to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything. As if she could read my mind, "If Jill was older, she would have to walk to school too, it would be a good exercise for her, but you're the oldest so you have the responsibility to be able to make the sacrifices for your younger sibling.." she went on talking about my job as the oldest child, although after another minute of her ranting I had just walked out. I didn't have time for that, not when I had to now walk to school.

Ever since that day my mother forced me to walk to and from school, I had begun to notice that a shadow walked along side with me each day while walking to and from school. Although, despite a shadow being with mine, the body it was attached to was never to be seen, no body to walk along beside my own.

After many weeks of staying silent, out of curiosity one day, I decided to try and see if I could communicate with the shadow. I knew it was silly, and slightly insane to even try, but, I was curious, and each day my curiosity on this mysterious shadow had only grown.

As I headed down the path, joined by the shadow as usual, I hesitantly stuttered a small little "Hello?" which came out mostly as a squeak. For a moment I noticed the shadow stop for a moment, probably out of shock or out it was wondering why the stupid girl was trying to talk to no one.

It had felt like an eternity of anxiety building up, since I was worried that I had just been imagining the shadow this entire time, due to the fact that I have no friends, and speaking to this figure of imagination was the breaking point of my sanity. A few more milliseconds passed, before it responded with a simple "Hi"

I didn't know what to think, despite being the one to be the first to talk, I hadn't actually expected it to respond. It would've been better if it didn't, of course, I didn't know that back then.

"You- you can talk?!" I stammered, saying it more as a question than an observation, as I stared at the dark figure painted into the sidewalk, walking beside the feminine silhouette that belonged to me. "Of course I can talk." It plainly responded, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Th-then why didn't you ever say anything..?" I asked with curiosity and confusion as to why it had never once spoken to me.

"Because," It stated, "I didn't want to scare you away." "Good point." I nodded, that made sense. After a few moments of the silence that followed, I decided to try speaking, which was never a good thing to do, since, being an introvert, I was terrible at small talk, or any sort of talk for that matter. "So.. uh.. do you have a name..?" I ask awkwardly. Do shadows have names? Yes, they do, and James seemed rather offended that I had even asked such a thing.