I stumbled back in horror and ran in the opposite direction. I glanced back repeatedly but didn’t see Abel behind me. I slowed my pace as I came upon a small concrete bench, and saw a figure sitting on it, weeping. I walked in front of the figure and it looked up at me. It was my mother.
“How could you do this to me?” she said, weeping. “Look, this is all your fault!” she held out her wrists as black, tarlike liquid poured onto the cemetery floor, splashing as it fell.
“What the fuck is going on?” I said, confused and mortified, turning my back to her.
Every step I took, I turned my head rapidly, hoping I would not encounter anything else. I stepped back and fell over an object of some sort. As I did, I heard the familiar growl from my previous delusions. It was that beast. I had knocked off the blanket and it stood, looking at me, growling. It had the hungriest look in its eyes. I crawled away from it, moving backward on the ground, thinking it could probably break out of that cage and devour me.
“I was just a schizophrenic patient with my own life struggles and you beat me until I was braindead,” said William, stepping out from behind a gravestone. His body was mangled just like it had been after the last encounter I had with him.
“You killed the father of my son,” said Trish, materializing in the air.
“You killed my brother,” said Cain.
“You deformed my son the day he was born. He will have to live like this the rest of his life,” said my father’s sister, holding a mangled baby in her arms.
“I was trying to stop Franklin’s reign by running for mayor and you killed me for no reason,” said the man from the campaign party.
“You tortured the father of my son in front of him,” said Cindy.
“You let Christian molest me for years and then you just left me alone,” said Nathan.
I rapidly turned my head back and forth, surrounded by these dark representations of my thoughts.
“Shut up, shut up,” I said, closing my eyes. I tried to block it out, until I heard horrifying shrieks. My eyes shot open. The figures that had stood before me moments ago had begun to transform. There were dark figures ripping out from inside their bodies, like demons escaping. They were thin, black, lanky creatures that walked on all fours with round heads, razor sharp teeth, tongues like serpents, and no eyes. They resembled smaller versions of the caged demon, hissing and growling at me as they closed in around me.
I rose to my feet, paralyzed and shaking in fear. They nipped at my ankles and I kicked toward them to keep them at bay, still looking around for an exit. I took a step back and one lunged at my ankle and clamped down.
Its serrated teeth dug like razor blades into my flesh. Another pounced at my arm, digging into my forearm. The teeth ripped through the skin with ease, creating a gill like wound in skin on my arm.
“If you head for the door, they’ll let you go,” said Franklin, standing behind them as they prepared to make a meal of me. “They’re sadistic demons, Danielle. If you resist, they’ll tear you to shreds.”
As he said this, two more pounced on me, one gripping my side and digging its teeth into my shoulder, the other biting into my waist.
I fell to the ground in front of the cage as the demons ripped apart my skin. The beast stood there watching me be devoured. It had a terrifying rage in its eyes that was difficult to look at. In that moment, I realized what it was. It was my shadow, as Anarah had told me, I had it caged up in my subconscious.
“I need you!” I screamed at the creature. I lifted my hand and undid the latch. The door swung open slowly.
The other demons halted in their acts as it crawled out of the cage like a majestic, demonic cat. It glanced down at me with sick displeasure, and I heard a groan growing from within it. One of the creatures in the background lunged at me.
My shadow caught it in its talon-like claws midair, then gripped it around its waist and tore its body in half. Black blood splattered across the grass.
At this signal, all of them bounded toward me or my demonic shadow at once. I covered my head with my arms, as I lay on the ground. I could hear it. I could hear it ripping each of them apart, tearing them to shreds, dismantling their limbs.
It was so powerful, so protective, and it had been caged up this entire time. The sound surrounded me like a pack of dogs fighting to the death, growling, hissing, barks, yelps, and the sound of ripping flesh.
I opened my eyes to see it finishing off the final demon. Streaks of scratches and bite marks adorned its skin. It panted in exhaustion, looking around to see if there were any challengers left. Once it seemed to realize its job was done, it looked at me and let out a small yelp as it sauntered off among the trees.
“Wait!” I called to it, but as always my shadow was never much for listening. I got up and examined my limbs. They were back to normal.
“Wait,” I called again and ran toward the trees to try to track my shadow down. As I went further into the trees, it became increasingly darker. I felt around, trying to see through the darkness. I pushed myself through more trees and came upon a clearing.
The place was familiar to me. The grounds were drenched with the waters of recent rains and puddles formed in crevices of mud. To my left, I noticed a set of swings
