Prolouge:
“No…no…go away…stop…STOP!”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“You have to do this.”
“I can’t!”
“Yes, you can. You will. You must!”
“It’s wrong!”
I watched as Shadow slithered across one of the padded walls in my cell. The Others called it a “safe room” but I had learned from Shadow what prison was. I wasn’t stupid. I could understand things, if someone took the time to explain them. But someone, some expert, listened to me babble for five minutes and labeled me with retarded as well as crazy. Shadow told me so.
Shadow. Not the most creative name in the world, but that’s what he was: A black silhouette, always on the floor. Or the wall. Or the ceiling. There had to be lights on for me to see him, though. I couldn’t see him when the Others turned the lights off and the Box said it was time to go to bed. I could always hear him though.
“Since when do you care?” He hissed. I didn’t like it when he hissed. Usually, he sounded normal. Like how the Others sounded, when they talked to me using the Box. “According to them, those Others as you call them, I’m wrong too. Why should you let them, who say I don’t exist when I clearly do, dictate your life?”
“I have issues…” I say, slipping back into myself, putting on my “Robot Voice”.
Shadow sighed. “Soon, my friend, soon.”
I just stared at him, my expression blank.