WHERE IS JARED

Does your shadow leave you when you step into the dark?

Let me tell you this story about Jared--my cousin whom no one remembers he ever existed.
He is as Jared as any Jared has ever been, just a litte bit more obsessed with his curiosity.
One day, he asked why people fear the dark.
He was dissatisfied with all the anwers he got.
I found him in the library the next day reading all the books he could read.
One of the books in his desk reads an interesting theory:

People fear going in the dark not because they think about ghosts but because they cannot see their shadows.
The shadow of a person is a reflection of his soul - the imaginary friend of children whom they have grown afraid not seeing; this becomes an instinct when they grow up.
Lux umbra tenebrarum.
Light is the shadow of Darkness.
There is Darkness long before there is Light.
Darkness created Light and Matter to see itself.

Beside that text is an intricate diagram elaborating how material bodies are actually illusions, that shadows are the souls, and that the real universe is far, far away, composed of antimatters also known as spirits.
The real universe or the spirit world, the diagram explains, is connected to the physical world through quantum entanglement.

The book--titled "Daylight Moon, Midnight Sun"--is obviously an occult textbook about New Age beliefs.

Jared halted taking notes and pointed at the illustration in the cover of the book, then pointed next at the strikingly similar illustration used as the design for one of the doors in the library.
Suddenly, he walked near that door, turned its knob and pulled it open.
Weird as it seems, the opened door does not open to anywhere - it is literally just a door mounted on the wall.
"Lux umbra tenebrarum," muttered Jared as he walked towards the dark area between the wall and the door obstructing the light.
I involuntarily turned my head at the librarian as she tells us to stay quiet, and when I look back at Jared, he is gone.
Just like that.
It was the last time I saw him.
I tried calling for him several times but the librarian forced me to go out and I was not allowed to go back in again.
She did not believe me when I said that my cousin went missing.
She insisted that I've been alone there all along.
That I have always went there alone.
Even the video logs of the library showed no signs of Jared ever going there - ever.

My parents, Jared's parents, his friends, no one remembers who is Jared.
There are no records about him, no photos of him, none at all.
His room in their house also turned into nothing.
The door to his room now opens to nowhere, like that nonsense door mounted on a wall in the library.

There are times when I sneak back inside the library to try to go find Jared.
Each attempt was futile.
Failure.
I tried opening the "roomless" door and went behind that same dark area where Jared stepped into - but nothing happened.
I tried looking for the same books Jared was reading but there were none.
Nowhere in those bookselves.
Nowhere in any bookshelf.
Even searching the internet showed no records for "Daylight Moon, Midnight Sun" at all.
There are blogs and articles that I stumbled upon telling similar things like that in the book but none among those refered to exactly what Jared and I have read.
After a few more times of going back there, the door in the library mysteriously disappeared.
The librarian along with everyone who frequent in the library sweared not remembering it ever existed.
Even the door to Jared's room has also disappeared the last time I checked when our family paid visit to their home.

Lux umbra tenebrarum.

I chant the same three words every time I stand before any door to make sure I still remember everything I know about Jared, but I never truly have had the courage to step into those dark areas between walls and open doors.

So, from then on, every time I see kids - who remind me of my cousin - I always warn them to never, ever go behind any door that opens to nowhere.