Prologue

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by fairytalesinspireme

by fairytalesinspireme

Prologue

Fort McMurray, 2060

I sit in my ravelled, and twined wooden chair, that Father made me when I was just a little girl; well littler than I am now. My eyes trail along my grey colored skin, shaded, and draw upwards towards the leafs that blow in the wind, and fall off the tree’s, and then traipse along the rest of the shaded ground.

‘Color,’ a beauty the Dark Plague took from our planet, so long ago. My Father and Mother could never describe such a thing to my sister Hailey and I because the invasion happened long before the two of them were born.

My Fathers parents lost their Shadows when he was only twelve; leaving him to migrate from Grasslands, to Fort McMurray, where he met my Mother, her Father and the rest of the forest community. A safe heaven the shadows have not been scene for over two decades. The community believes this is because the World is so big, and there are still colorful parts the Dark Plague have not consumed; leaving shadows in the hands of their rightful owners. I on the other hand being only eight, think a little differently.

I tend to stick to myself; and away from the rest of the Forrest Community kids my own age, because they are loud and obnoxiously draw to much unwanted attention.

I can remember being five years old, and listening to all of the interesting stories my grandfather would tell the rest of the community adults, and children about where he originally migrated from. It was the only other place I knew that could be real enough to exist outside our community; a place called Edmonton.

My grandfather never explained why him and twelve other members from the Edmonton Community left, and only travelled as far as Fort McMurray, but he did say the way of life he lives now, and the way he lived back then was much different, and he wanted to be different.

Our community was always taught it was only safe to go out during the day, when the sun could not reveal our shadow. We were also taught it was safest to go out during the night time, and that we could make as much noise as we wanted because our shadows could never be consumed during the darkest of Earths hours, only during that of Earths lightest.

For many years other community members lived the way my grandfather told them it was safest, until finally after my Father and Mother picked to be one another’s soul mate, and had me, they decided it was safe to go outside during anytime, even during the daylight.

My father was tired of living in fear, so he tested my grandfather, and on countless occasions proved his theory wrong, leaving him to triumph in being right all of the time.

Soon after my family stopped living in fear of the Dark Plague the rest of the Forrest Community followed suit.

***

My sister Hailey is turning six tomorrow, and my parents are planning on throwing her a Birthday Party; another thing I see differently than the rest of my family. I do not see a Birthday as something special to celebrate, I see it as a tragedy; why in the hell would anyone want to live like this?

When I am older, I am never going to have children. I am not going to be like my parents and be selfish, and born an innocent baby into a world without beauty, surrounded by pain, and suffering. For the rest of my life, I will live in hiding, with the fear of one day losing my Shadow, and the rest of myself to the Dark Plague.

Whenever it came around to my parents wishing to celebrate my own Birthdays, my only wish was; there was to be no singing, no participation by anyone else in our community, and I did not wish any of my family to pretend they were over joyed by my birth, because I certainly was not over-joyed with my selfish parent’s choice to give birth to myself, let alone my younger sister.

***

“Happy Birthday too you, happy birthday too you; happy birthday, happy birthday… Happy Birthday too you,” everyone shouts out to Hailey. I lean against the wood of my families shared shack, that my grandfather built by hand, and passed down to our family, after he died last winter. My Mother cried for months, and still cries when a special day passes that reminds her of her beloved father. I never hear my Mother cry about the loss of my grandmother, but I think she was the reason why my parents tried to conceive so that they could have Hailey so close to her passing, but that was an epic fail because she was born on October 19th, and my grandfather died on September 2nd.

Suddenly, the grey surrounding everyone singing to Hailey turned black, a shade I was very much familiar with, and the sun peaked out of the clouds, “Plague,” Mother yelled, and then her shadow began to lift from the bottom of her feet, and consume her into the ground, so she was nothing more than a mere Shadow for a moment, and then was black with the rest of the ground.

I froze, I did not know what to do, I watched as the blackness consumed my sister Hailey, and within seconds she was gone. My Father tried to run, but his Shadow fell to the darkness, and he was gone as along with the rest of the community.

Quickly I stood on top of the table and reached for the ceiling of our wooden structure, where my Grandfather built a secret attic. He said ‘if there was ever an invasion of plague to hide in the attic, because the black will only consume you, if your shadow can be highlighted along the ground,’ so I did just as I remembered.

***

Days passed, and I remained in the attic, living off of the water that leaked in from the ceiling above, and the plants that grew along the inside of the attic. I waited until the fourth night fall, grabbed as many of my things as I could carry, and I headed as far away from Fort McMurray as possible, not knowing where I would end up.