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Challenge of the Month XIV: May
Spirit World. Some call them ghosts, or angels, or guides. The Japanese call it Shinto. Cultures around the world call it Shamanism. Many call them the schizophrenic ravings of lunacy. Whatever you call it, or them, write about the unseen world of spirits. Fiction or non-fiction, poetry or Prose. $100 purse to our favorite entry. Outstanding entries will be shared with our publishing partners.
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Glamastro
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Living with the shadows

“The training at the academy is complete today. You will be assigned a human now. Congratulations!!”

The whole arena burst up with cheers, hats in the air, and the night closing in.

I was really excited to be working from the next day.

Everyone arrived at the employment office. My friends were there. The queue wasn’t excessively long, but tiring nonetheless. After an hour’s wait with a refreshing can of refreshments, my turn finally arrived.

“Human 108000000000”

That was a surprise. I would be assigned to the 108th billionth person to ever live. A really cool number....Cool numbers are really common now, given the amount of digits.

“Work starts......right now.”

An array of shimering black lights streaked across my body as I teleported to Earth. On a hospital bed, a baby was born. The lights diluted my presence and my vision, but I was there nonetheless... I am going to be her shadow from this moment on.

Rules of physics are a pain...but rather interesting. I can shine out of my glorious darkness and rest every now and then, given the lighting or Lily’s slumber.

She was a heavy sleeper. 1 year into, she slept like...15 hours a day...

Her first word...her first word!!!

Her first language!!

Days passed, nights passed. She barely notices me... I remember her being so scared of me the first time she saw me...Am I that ghostly??

She never noticed me...but it was fun here. I like the feeling of my 2D self being stretched out onto 3D objects...occasionally running into an old friend is always fun... When Lily's not around humans, I see the shadows of her stuff...They don't talk like human shadows, or maybe they do but we can't communicate across the difference.

Her whole life is passing through my eyes. She does a lotta things.. Loves hanging out with people, painting, reading poetry...I listen in and get into it too.

New people in her life...new friends for me to make...I was really excited every nanosecond.

Death comes unnoticed though.

When she was 20, she died in a car accident. Beyond recovery, lying on a hospital bed, she breathed her last. I watched as her luminous essence floated into their realm ...I wanted to go too...but I had to be painfully stuck, the rules of physics didn't allow shadows to go up flying...And we couldn't cross realms either.

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