Inklings Youth Advisory Board Writers Group: Sadie Miller
This summer our Inklings Youth Advisory Board Writers Group chose a topic to write about. The goal of this project is for us to stretch ourselves to explore new topics and formats in our writing, share our work with others, be open to feedback, and enjoy collaborating with other writers. The theme is Shadows. Enjoy reading!
Leave a comment below on what you thought!
Shadows
by Sadie Miller
The Great Abyss is where Shadows dwell.
We all go to the Abyss in the end, but we call that trip Death. There is no way to escape, as the dimensions within fold and twist every few moments. When the place does let a soul go to find a new life, it is timely and specific. But when Death comes, what becomes of the Shadows?
Shadows come from the Great Abyss. They claw their way up from the seemingly bottomless void in which they have no purpose. Why anyone would stay anywhere where they had no true value is beyond me. (You see, no one has any particular value in the Abyss…it’s quite a long and strange side effect of the place that travels beyond human comprehension.) They are born in this Abyss, and when they leave and cling on to a being, they become dark and noticeable.
A Shadow has to take the journey of climbing the Abyss wall. The long and tube-like tunnel, I hear, has two sectors. The bottom sector has rough, dark edges and embers encrusted in some places. The upper sector walls are light and airy, like misty rainbows. The nearly tangible clouds drifting through the top sector must make the end of the journey a difficulty.
Shadows then attach to a soul. Should these souls need protecting, they will do their very best to deliver. Souls need protecting from all kinds of things; it’s a little ridiculous how many. As it could take quite a while to name off those things, I’ll let you imagine them for yourself. So how, you must ask yourself, do the shadows know how to protect from all of these mysterious things? They have experience. Shadows are seldom new; old shadows will clamber from the Great Abyss and find new masters and mistresses. They are guardians. They follow their owner like new puppies, and are prepared to do so for all eternity. Unfortunately, only Shadows are truly around for that long. So when their owners die, they are sent to the Abyss once more.
The cycle of a Shadow is a wide loop, and it goes differently each time. The bottom line is that shadows are more that reflections. They are truly magic, in no good or bad way.
