Shadow Puppets

SHADOW PUPPETS

Disclaimer: This short story deals with themes of CSA, and attempted Su1cid3 

Art and story are by me. This is part of my worldbuilding project. 

It got lonely sometimes, being here in the dark. There is a sense of comfort that comes from it, though. Something familiar about the feeling of black tar encompassing your body, it's almost like a tight hug - just one that never seems to quite end soon enough; one that becomes suffocating. The dark is all I've ever known, at least so far as I can remember. 

I live in the cracks of your world, hiding in all the shadows you see. Shadows may be dark and cold, but they show that there is light. Sometimes, when the bright sun becomes too hot, and you need to cool off, you come to me and I keep you safe while you let the sweat drip out of your pores. And, once you're done using the service I provide I'm left alone once again, unseen and unnoticed. Alone in the dark. 

There was this little girl once. I believe she could really see me. She started to give me comfort, she made me feel like I was more than just gloom, shade, blackness- I started to feel how the light must feel; warm. 

The night is when I am free to roam. I peer through the windows and see families, sometimes happy, sometimes not. One night I stumbled upon the most curious of things. I heard dull sobs coming from a dimly lit bedroom. I followed the sweet cries and glanced inside the room, inspecting it to find the source of the noise. Suddenly, a father creaks the door open and there it is, a little girl. Cheeks rosy and eyes puffy, it looked as if she had been crying for a while. The man went over to her, swept her up in his arms, and softly sang of beautiful birds and bunnies roaming through fields. While he was singing, he began gently rocking the child. Once she seemed to be feeling better, her father sat her up in her bed, gave her a kiss on the head after tucking her in. Then, he did the most peculiar thing. He used the light from her lamp and put his hands up by the wall. A shadow appeared, he used that shadow to create a shape. It was a rabbit; it seemed that the father was using these shadows as sort of puppets almost, to tell his story. The girl watched happily, in awe of the shadow tales being shown to her. 

That was then. 

That little girl grew a bit older. She stopped going to church, started skipping family dinners, she even stopped leaving bed that often. Eventually she stopped going to school. She loved her dad, but never cared much for her step-mom, it seemed as if she feared her, however she would never say. People would consider her to be strange, she was obsessed with white rabbits. She always liked them as a young girl, but ever since that night I watched through her window, her interest turned into obsession. The girl also had a fascination with looking like a doll, petite and dressed up in frilly dresses and bows. Even though she was now a teenager, she never stopped acting like a child. Her room was a soft pink, her bed filled with stuffed animals, her walls filled with drawings of rabbits- mostly white, sometimes wearing teal ribbons.

Occasionally when she hadn't gotten out of bed in a while, in the nighttime I would create those same shadow figures on her wall that her father once had made. It seemed to cheer her up. 

One day- one terrible day, her dad was on his way from home with flowers for his daughter that he loved so much, but never returned. News came in that her father, the one thing that it felt like she had left, was gone. He had been hit by a drunk driver; he tried to swerve but it was unavoidable. The girl was only a shell of who she used to be after that. She had been slipping away long before, but nothing was left. She would have rather died before living alone with her step mother. And she tried, with the pain meds her father kept in the medicine cabinet. ‘What a wonderful world’ playing on loop from her CD player, she attempted to take her own life. 

That's when I stepped in. I had to save the sweet little girl who had unknowingly once saved me, from the mere love she had in her heart alone. I put my hands up, in the form of a bunny she had  ever so loved, for her to follow. She got up out of her bed to follow in a haze, and I led her right to where I could safely grab a hold of her. I had special rules to follow, being a shadow from a different realm; this was breaking most of them. It was not my job to bring humans to our world, that job belongs to someone else. As I took her in my arms, I told her everything would be alright, and that she would soon be able to be in a nice field of flowers with all the bunnies she could ever want. She closed her eyes and hummed at this sweet thought. While she was distracted, I tried my best to summon Sketch, it was her job anyways. Sketch asked the girl’s name; I had a nickname I developed for the girl over the years, my sweet Bunzii. I saw her as a daughter of my own, always creating shadow puppets when she was alone and upset. I knew she appreciated it, and her love for them made me feel as though I was the sun opposed to the night sky. 

I kept my promise, now Bunzii hops through vast fields of beautifully coloured flowers. I check in every so often while doing my job. I am the silent guardian, meaning I am open to traveling around our realm. I broke the rules by interacting with the humans. Although I was punished, sentenced to her forgetting me; I am at least allowed to keep her safe as it is my duty. Bunz gets to stay a little girl forever in peace, and I was given the idea that I could be the shape of whatever I please. May it be a rabbit or a flower, I can be whatever I feel like and spread joy to many others.

Written in Sentry POV

Photo above is Bunzii, Art by me:)