Shadows
In a world as vast and teaming with life as our own, it is daft to believe that we humans sit upon the throne of the food chain. I am aghast to think that I too once believed this to be true. How arrogant, how absurd! And why wouldn’t I? I find myself asking that question a lot these days. Why not? Why wouldn’t I believe us to be the rulers of this planet, the kings and queens of Mother Earth, sitting upon our throne? Wasn’t that what I was taught? Wasn’t that what all the text books and nature documentaries spouted as fact? All from the mouths of the intellectuals, the school bound. The book bound troglodytes who are too intelligent to see beyond the pages of their books into the world beyond. Into the real world. Into the world full of shadows.
Now, I once heard it said that nothing can be certain except death and taxes. And though I may not be a learned man, I do understand what Mr. Jefferson was referring to. Death does indeed come to us all, in the end... and the taxes, god don’t get me started on the taxes.
But I digress.
Death does indeed find us all. Now, most will find that the hand of fate will be dealt at a ripe old age surrounded by friends and family. Existence will slip away in a whisper, retreating to the void that lies beyond. And then there are those unfortunate souls that will find their fates not as favorable. So many of these unfortunate souls find their life’s journey extinguished too soon, and in some cases tragically before old age is even an option. Heart attacks, strokes, car accidents, overdoses; the list of tragedy seems infinite.
And then there are the vagrant faces that litter the bulletin boards of police stations across this great nation, and I would venture to guess the world. Those forever lost, the vagrant dead, that have seemingly blinked from existence. What if I were to tell you that they were taken? What if I were to tell you that not all who die meet their fate in bed, or in a car accident, or on the street, but instead their fate was delivered by tooth and claw?
I’m not talking about those poor souls that are mauled by lions, or the fools at our great national parks that find themselves on the wrong side of a bear and its meal.
No.
I mean something far more wicked and far more complicated than that. What if I were to tell you that there are things that lurk within the shadows, things with sharp teeth and gnarled claws that don’t fit within our definition of natural? Supernatural, if you will.
Any sane person would call that notion ridiculous! I too would have agreed with those sane people in my youth. Even now, my rational mind fights what I know to be true. I have seen things in my time, things that do not fit within our perceived concept of the world. And yet my mind still tries to rationalize the irrational.
That brings me to the question I find myself asking a lot these days. Why do we fear shadows? Is there something in our wiring, some instinctual byproduct of a time long past? Is it the shadows, or what we know might dwell within them, that inspires such fear?
We live in an age of technology, an age of science. The natural world has been studied since the dawn of time. Yet, we’ve learned more of the planet in the last fifty years then we had in the previous century, adding explanation to our fears. Chipping away at our ancestors theories, invalidating our instinct. Oh, the enlightened age of information and idiocy.
So, then why do we still fear the shadows? Even if we’ve been assured there is nothing to fear? I mean, science tells us shadows are merely the product of the blockage of light. Then why do we still feel afraid when the realm of shadows descends upon the land each night? Why do we turn on the lights to get a drink of water in the middle of the night?
Is it that within our subconscious we understand the true nature of the world?
Do we instinctively know that there are things that dwell within the very shadows science has told us to not fear? Things that lurk just out of view. Things that shift just beyond our peripheral as the shadows grow thick. The sudden unease as the sun begins to fall beyond the horizon and the inky shadows grow long. As the tendrils of night reach from the very depths...
Let me assure that your fears have validity. What dwells in those shadows are indeed the creatures that myths and legends were made of. Creatures our ancestors knew to be true, yet science, in all its wisdom, has since proven irrational.
I know the truth. What dwells in those shadows are monsters.