Only the Shadow Knows

“Tell me,” I begged of my shadow, “why are you so much more trans­par­ent than any of the other images I’ve encoun­tered thus far?”

“As both gate ‘n’ gate­keeper to the vast and unex­plored reaches of your own inner space, the void that sep­a­rates the gates of heaven from the jaws of hell, I allow free pas­sage to any thought form, whether good or evil, who wishes to enter your life,” he replied, “for like any shadow, I sim­ply reflect what still remains hid­den from consciousness.”

“Is that why I’m so afraid of you?” I asked as I grew increas­ingly more appre­hen­sive of the anx­i­ety that’d over­taken my body which had begun shak­ing so vio­lently, I could barely con­trol my own movements.

“The fear, you’re expe­ri­enc­ing, is really that of your demons, who’re deathly afraid they’re about to be exposed,” he replied.

As my head went into a spin, and my heart pounded away at the bars of my chest, in wild gyra­tions, I slumped to my knees, gasp­ing for air, for his words had got­ten stuck in my throat. In one vio­lent con­vul­sion after another, did I vomit up three, large ‘n’ gray, leathery-​​skinned demons who just stood there look­ing at my wretched self, with their fiery red eyes, before div­ing back down through my shadow, to seek out the dark­est depths of the void in which to hide. With that, I broke out cry­ing ‘n’ laugh­ing hys­ter­i­cally, where­upon my shadow stooped down and gen­tly helped me to my feet.

“My God!” I gasped. “I had no idea that such hideous crea­tures as these even existed, much less dwelled within me.”

“And still do,” piped up my shadow, “for you have only visu­al­ized what you have yet to exor­cise from your­self. Now that you’ve become a threat to their exis­tence, they’ll do every­thing in their power to keep you from expos­ing the truth hid­den within them from even themselves.

“I’m pos­sessed,” I cried out of the feel­ings of humil­i­a­tion and defeat that’d over­taken me.

“Come now, my lad!” exclaimed my shadow. “You must get hold of your­self, for all is not as bad as it seems. Why you’ve been given a great gift in the abil­ity to see your demons, or that part of your ani­mal nature which still has you in its grip. While you may now see this knowl­edge as more of a bur­den than a boon, you’ll one day be called upon to share it with the rest of the world, for like Jonah, you’ve been con­fined to this instinc­tive exis­tence, to force you to find the way out.”