• Look into the fire. Do you see it? Right there in the middle where the biggest, brightest log just made that loud pop. Wow that was a lot of embers scattering that time!

    You see it too don’t you; a shadowy face tinted red by the firelight, peering out at us? What about the one over there in the far right corner of the hearth? That one is definitely female though I’m pretty sure the one in the fire is an older male. It looks rather grandfatherly.

    I’m sure you wonder what they are. Let’s just say they are what we call watchers, from the Shadow Realm. They have always been there, observing us. For those who have eyes that see, they really aren’t too hard to spot. I have seen them all my life, lurking in corners, scaling down the gutter pipes of rooftops, and on one particularly frightening night, hovering over my head when I awoke in the middle of the night.

    Mostly they just watch us and observe, but I believe, that once they are done observing all they can of our habits and ways, they will no longer be satisfied with just watching. I truly think they have an ulterior motive.

    My Gramma says I am just making it all up, that I really have a vivid imagination. But that’s not entirely true, because once I actually saw them chase after the neighbor’s cat.

    You see, cats can see shadow people better than I can. And Boots, the neighbor’s cat had been stalking one in our yard, because it had been spying on me. Before long, the shadow had summoned up a few friends and they very hastily eased over to the cat like a mass of thunderclouds blocking out the sun – all in the exact spot that the poor cat was crouched. I never saw a cat arch its back higher before it jumped backwards, spun into the air and ran for its life.

    The shadows followed it, leaving me alone in my front yard, slightly shaken and confused. Until that moment, I had believed that the shadows I saw were tricks of the eye, and that the cat had been stalking a grasshopper or mouse in the shaded parts of the yard. Now I know different, and will never again let anyone tell me that there is nothing to be afraid of in the shadows. For I fear the shadows themselves.

    So I wait, ever vigilant, for the day when the shadows are no longer satisfied with watching me. And I wonder if there is anyone else out there who sees them as well. I wonder if anyone else has noticed that they are not just shadows, but that there are actual spirit-like creatures who move as shadows, watching, waiting and planning… I really wish I could say that I have an over-active imagination or that I am just crazy. But something deep down inside, tells me otherwise…