Day 2,211

It was easy enough to mistake it for a shadow, that greyish outline on the ground, only it wasn't attached to anyone. It reminded me of Peter Pan - the boy who lost his shadow and had to go chasing after it but for the fact that this shadow was walking around so casually I couldn't help but think its person was long gone.

I don't know why I decided to follow it but I felt like I had to know where it was going so I stayed a few paces behind it and made sure that my own shadow made me out to be as uninterested and ignorant as possible. Somewhere along the line, it figured me out and began to slow down until it was walking right next to me, our shadows almost touching.

Of all the mistakes I've made in my life, looking down at this unattached shadow was probably the worst. It looked larger to me, not in terms of scale but in terms of depth as though I was standing above a three dimensional person and not an absence of light.

While I was caught up in my wonderings it seemed to move upwards, closer toward me as if it was stepping out of the pavement and before I knew it there was a face where only an outline should be. It opened its eyes and I suddenly felt like something had scoured my very soul, dragging pieces out and leaving me gasping for air.

When the world stopped spinning, it began to sink back down and as it opened its eyes one final time I saw that they were mine. I don't know what else it took, I'm still finding out how many memories I've lost and people I've forgotten and who even knows what it's doing with all the things it took.

I just keep my eyes front and centre and hope it doesn't come back for the rest of me.