Once upon a time, there was a set of twins. One was energetic, happy, and seemed to be as bright as day. The other was morbid, depressed, and acted like a shadow of the first. The twins lived in a small village with their mother to look after them, as their father had disappeared years before. For the sake of the story, let's give the twins names. The first one, Sunny. The second, Shade. Now then, Sunny was popular in the village. She had friends and was very social; everyone seemed to love her. Plus, at the age of eighteen, she was known to sleep around. Shade, however, kept to himself, and, in doing so, was excluded from the village. He didn't have any friends, save for a small dog that kept him company. Shade wasn't nearly as nice as his sister. He played pranks and threw rocks at people, and, he would often get in fight with other boys in the village.
One day, the mother of the two, appeared in town, distraught, her hair a mess and her clothes disheveled. She asked anyone she could find if they had seen her boy, Shade, as he had been gone more than the few normal hours. No one had seen the boy, save for a small girl, who said she saw him walk into the woods nearby. The woods were believed to be haunted, and the mother new her son was as good as gone. In the center of the town, she wept.
In the not-so-distant woods, Shade walked through the trees, shifting branches out of the way as he went. Ahead of him, he saw an orange glow, and heard laughter. He made his way toward it, not caring if he was walking towards a bonfire made by angry spirits. That just made it all the more exciting. Climbing over a fallen log, he came to a clearing. In the clearing was two boys around a fire. Staying outside the edges of the light, he observed the boys, as he had never seen people dressed as they were. One of the boys, one with mahogany hair, said something that sent the other into a fit of laughter. A boy with orange hair added some sticks, that were in a pile next to him, into the fire and laughed as the mahogany one said something again. Shade circled the clearing, taking note of their looks. He finally came to an oak tree. Under the oak tree, there was a small tombstone, a name engraved into it with a small line as memorial for a deceased person. Taking a note of the name on it, Winter, he shifted back to watching the two other boys. The orange haired one had stopped laughing and looked at the grave sadly, all traces of humor that were in his expression before gone. Shade ducked behind the tree, afraid he had been spotted. He didn't know why, he just felt like he didn't want the boys to see him. He must have made some for of noise as one of the boys called out, asking who was there. He stood still, hoping that they would wave it off as an animal. That wasn't the case however. Footsteps started toward him and he started shaking, scared. He didn't want to get caught spying on them. The mahogany haired boy rounded the tree, a skeptical look on his face. His eyes widened when he saw the shaking boy. Turning, he called back to his friend, and turned back, only to find Shade gone.
Shade sprinted through the woods, getting temporarily tangled in some branches and shrubbery. He freed himself and ran out of the woods, grateful to see his familiar village before him. He sprinted through it, passing people and houses, running towards his home. He entered the house and slammed the door shut, leaning against it, afraid that the boy had somehow followed him and was about to break the door down. His mother sprinted down the stairs, going to see what the disturbance was. When she saw Shade, she broke down into tears again and ran over, hugging him tightly. The wares of his small journey finally caught up to him and he collapsed into her arms, small cuts stinging from where branches had hit him, his whole body shaking. His mother made him promise not to do that again and he numbly agreed.
Later that month, Shade visited the clearing again, only to find two tombstones and one boy, who was sat down in between the graves, tears running down his face. Moving through the forest, Shade collected strange flowers and went back to the clearing, sneaking around and placing them onto the graves.
The boy didn't notice the happenings.
After all, Shade was only a shadow in his collection of darknesses.
