Nameless Shadow #3 | Teen Ink

Nameless Shadow #3

July 20, 2016
By WarZone PLATINUM, Rockledge, Florida
WarZone PLATINUM, Rockledge, Florida
45 articles 0 photos 1 comment

Favorite Quote:
The purpose of literature is to turn blood into ink. - T.s Eliot

Sometime only paper will listen to you.-Unknown


I snicker at the mortals that come to my kingdom. They always complain to me, instead of dealing with their problems themselves. There's only one God that lives in the Middle World and that's me. The God of Humans. The Middle World is a war zone with acidic air and monsters of all different kinds. I fight for my life everyday and you want me to go out of my way to help you. Life doesn't work like that. In life if you act like you’re perfection and you're not, well then you deserve to die.

 

I sit on my throne covered in different silks when a woman comes up from the crowd of people. She's draped with black cloth. "God of Humans I ask of your help. My husband has gotten himself in trouble."

 

"Why should I help you? I have hundreds of people a day come through those doors each with their own troubles. You all want but will never sacrifice anything in return. I do not matter to you all. You only remember me when you want something."

 

"God that is not true. Some respect you a lot. Also you must remember something, you were once human yourself. You are no better or worse than anyone else because you the God of Humans are us and we are you. We are the same and nothing alike. How can the God of Humans not understand Humans? Humans are two words. Perfectly, imperfect."

 

With her words my body locks up. The room around us becomes black with no other person around. Just her and I. It’s a curse. She isn't human. A snake crawls from her clothes and wraps around me biting into my shoulder. The pain is like no other and before I know it my vision is blurred. Before I pass out I hear her voice. "You are not the God of Humans until you learn how to be a human again. Till then you are nameless."

 

I wake up in a ash covered field filled with black grass and red flowers that I've never seen before. I see bodiless black shadows walk around me. I'm in the UnderWorld. I look at my hand and see a black palm that's wispy and made of shadows.

 

I get up and look around. I've been to the UpperWorld before and unlike the Underworld it's bright and has a magical and peaceful feel to it. The UnderWorld has an evil and sinister pull to it, you don't really like it but yet you want to see more of it.

 

I need to get to the Middle World but who am I kidding they won't recognize me and I'm very weak right now. For a shadow to move freely in all worlds they have to be hundred or thousands of years old. Not many shadows get to that age. They usually reincarnate by that time. 

 

In this state I can't cry but I feel sad. "Shadow." It rings in my ears and then my body disintegrates in the wind to end up in front of a throne. It’s the God of the UnderWorld. I'm shocked but you would never know since I'm a shadow. I stand in a crowd of shadows. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Shadow equals slave in the UnderWorld. There’s nothing I can do.

 

Tens thousands years pass with my life like this. I stop tracking time after the first hundred of years. Master after master all bad and evil. Who was I? I don't remember. What was I? I don't remember. What's my name? Even my identity has been stripped from me as more time passes.

 

I walk through the valleys when I see a woman hanging from rusted chains. She looks like a God from the Upper World. How did she get down here and why is she in the UnderWorld?

 

"What are you doing?" A shadow comes up to me and I point up to the God. They look up at the God and gasp. "That's the God of Vanity. Rumor has it she wasn't supposed to be the God of Vanity but the God of Chances. She choose that position to punish herself."

 

The shadow before me continues to talk but I stare at the God of Vanity longer. Her chains will soon break and when they do, I will come back. When the God of Vanity falls from her chains I was the first one she met.

 

I asked her the questions on my mind and she told me about everything. I don’t know why, I was just a stranger at that time but she was in a state of weakness. When she talked to me I felt as if I was used to listening to people talk about themselves but when was it, that I can't recall.

 

“I know I’m a failure.” She says sadly.


"You sacrificed so much for your brother both alive and dead and you still think you failed. Listen and listen closely from what I learned from being here for so long is not all angels have halos." She looks at me shocked but it's true from what she told me.

 

Being in the UnderWorld long enough I knew I could make a deal with her. "God of Vanity as you may know isn't a luxury title and there are no guarantees you'll be able to go back to the Upper World, but I'll make you a deal. If you take care of the souls down here caused by the last God of Vanity I'll help you get to the Upper World. Also you must give me a name. I am a shadow but deep inside I was once a person and I want to be given a name. Then I will not just be any old shadow but a shadow with a name."

 

"Let me think about the last thing. I don't want to give you a bad name but beside that I accept your deal." She shook my hand and the deal was sealed. I look down at my hand. She shook my hand and the deal was sealed. I look down at my hand. It has solidified over the years I’ve been down here.

 

If I learned one thing from the God of Vanity is that even Upper World Gods are not absolute and in fact act like flawed humans themselves. Sometimes they act like children too. Though they know they can never actually be human themselves. Which sadness some of them because as Gods and Goddesses they will last thousand of years and experience everything and can get everything. It gets boring after a while as there is a limited things in these worlds.

 

Though childish and foolish, Vanity was uptight and didn't know how to let go of the past. Her past haunted her and caused nightmares. Her past started to control her life and to get rid of it she would trick people. Making her name become toxic in people's mouth. By letting her past go and coming with terms with her true self and demons she learned how to be free. Through the years together her appearance and looks changed drastically. From a greedy queen who wouldn’t lift a finger, to a fighter in the middle of a battle. A weapon even chose her when we went to the God of Weapons.

 

When the last soul was purified I had to keep my part of the deal I used the little power I had obtained and I showed her to the portals in which she could go through. She wanted me to follow but I knew my place. Before she left though she turned to me and smiled.

 

"Light. That's your new name. Even though you are a shadow and remain in darkness you are brighter then the lights in the Upper World. If you ever want to go to the Upper World just say Vanity and you'll be able to travel in any of these portals." Vanity a God bowed to me a shadow and left.

 

Without her knowledge I followed her and watched her meeting with her brother. She really has grown over the years and it brings a smile to my lips. When she pulls him outside I sit on his desk. They laugh full of happiness as they run and dance in the fields. After a while my smile starts to waver. Children replace the two gods. The children are all laughing and playing in fields. This is a memory I have never had before and something I thought would be impossible happens. Tears starts fall to the ground. I don't know who these children are. I Just can’t remember them. I smile bitterly at the ground.

 

“Not all Angels have halos but not all Devils have horns your majesty.” I fall back on the desk and my body turns into nothing more, nothing less than black smoke. My body is tired.

 

I fall back into the UnderWorld slowly, breaking the atmosphere and leaving a trail of black smoke. I look at the blackened sky wishing light would shine through the black clouds. This reminds me of falling into a lake and looking at the sky as you fall. Another memory I faintly have but can’t remember clearly.

 

“Who am I?” I say raising my out stretched hand to the black sky.


The author's comments:

Series:Lessons For The Imperfect Gods


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