Shade of Shadow- Other Side Trilogy

Chapter One- Labelled

Chapter One- Labelled

Yellowknife 2072,

            Society throws us a ‘label,’ but a lonely World throws me a ‘shade,’ followed by a Shadow I am plagued to keep safe. 

            The sun shines bright along the gravel, and I stand on a rock, and stare at myself, I still own myself; I think swiftly and smile. 

            For twelve years I have lived in hiding, and never searched for another human.  I thought for sure there was more people out there in the World besides myself, but gave up on searching after spending the first two years living and fending for myself after my family was consumed by the Dark Plague. 

            I remembered the community my parents lived in, and how noisy life was; it’s no wonder the plague found them.

            And my poor sister Hailey, she was too young to understand why I never wanted to participate in community events, and always stayed in hiding.  I listened to my grandfather, and stayed away from the community, and everything, or anyone that would give my whereabouts away to the plague.

            My grandfather was the very reason our community stayed safe for all the years leading up to his passing.  And then when he was no longer around to get after those in the community who lived just as reckless as my parents, things started to get much worse.

            People where setting off for days at a time outside our community, into what use to be known as the actual city of Fort McMurray, Alberta, and they were bringing back strange objects, one’s I have never seen, nor my Mother in her life-time.

            Some of the objects the people brought back were noisy, and some drew others out of the community to find their own treasures.  My Father explained to Hailey and I, the people where simply being greedy.  Still to this day, the only understanding I had of such a word, was that to show greed, was to desire an object well beyond what it was needed for, obtain it, treasure it, and then keep it for your own greedy need, to satisfy some sort of crazed desire for it.

            Although my family was all about living recklessly like the rest of our community, one thing my Father did agree with was following my Mother’s fathers advise, to never leave the Forrest Community, because it was safe.

             I jumped off the rock I was standing up on, playing with my shadow, and walked towards a fresh running stream of water, and decided to jump in.  I have gone days without bathing, and even though I am alone, I like to keep myself clean; it makes for better hiking conditions, especially in the warm summer weather.

            I only knew it was summer, but I did not know what month it was.  I lost track of keeping time, and days when the plague took my family.  I do not know if it was because of sheer shock that I was now alone, or because I knew it was only a matter of time before the plague would consume them all.

            The only thing I was sure of was my age; I was going to be twenty this year.  And the only reason I knew that was because I counted each summer as a new year, and my Birthday was in August on the 17th.  I just did not know which day that was.

            Every year in the summer I would work extra hard to catch a rabbit, because my Father would always catch one for my Birthday, and make what he liked to call a ‘Rabbit Stew.’  I did not know how to make the stew, but I did know how to cook a rabbit.

            I tried to eat frog every fourteen days during the hot weather, because I wanted to keep my families memory alive not only in my mind, but in my heart as well.