"Sometimes the sound we hear doesn't come from outside. It comes from something inside us… that has been locked away for a long time."
---
The morning sky is gray. The school is filled with an unusual noise because it is not the voice of students, but a whisper that comes from an unclear direction.
Like the rustling of leaves… but in layers, as if there are hundreds of mouths talking at once between the sound of fans and shoes.
Harith sits at his desk. His eyes are red, he hasn't slept enough.
He tries to focus on the whiteboard, but his vision is blurry.
When he bends down, he sees that his shadow is gone.
He quickly pulls his feet under the desk. His heart is racing.
Until he looks at the next wall, only then does he see that his shadow is stuck there.
Not on the floor. But on the WALL.
The shadow seems to be staring back, and begins to whisper but not with his mouth, with the movement of the shadow on his lips.
"...I'm hungry…"
---
"Harith!"
Aina patted her shoulder. Harith flinched.
"Eh, are you okay? I called you three times already."
Harith looked around, the class was back to normal. The shadow on the wall had disappeared.
"Haah, okay. Just not enough sleep," he replied, trying to smile.
But Aina didn't smile back.
She bowed, her voice low.
"Harith… do you believe that a shadow can come to life?"
Harith looked at Aina's face.
The girl's eyes looked blank, as if she already knew something.
---
During break, Harith didn't go down to the canteen. He went to the old laboratory located in the back building that had long been closed.
Because yesterday, when Tok Halim shouted "DON'T TOUCH", there was something in his tone that seemed like he knew more than he seemed.
Harith opened the door of the dusty laboratory, but it wasn't quiet.
There was a slow thumping sound inside. Like a heart beating in an empty space.
Duk… duk… duk…
In the middle of the laboratory, there was a large mirror cracked at the bottom.
He saw his own shadow there but it stood upright, while he bowed.
Harith slowly touched the surface of the mirror.
As soon as his finger touched the glass, the temperature of the room dropped suddenly. His breath was misty.
His shadow whispered:
"You let me go yesterday. Now I'm free…"
"And you know what I want."
Harith backed away, but from the crack in the mirror, the same black hand appeared as yesterday in the lake.
It gripped his wrist tightly. Cold. Smooth. Alive.
"You can't run away from me, Harith. I was created from every fear you hide."
---
The laboratory door slammed shut!
Tok Halim entered, holding a cane, a hoarse voice echoed:
"DON'T LOOK AT THAT SHADOW!"
The mirror exploded until its fragments flew, Harith fell to the floor.
But the glass fragments, when scattered, each one showed a different reflection... One showed Harith crying.
One showed him screaming.
Another... showed him standing with pitch black eyes.
Tok Halim knelt down, his mouth pursed as he read something.
"He's awake... The eclipse has started again," he whispered.
---
Harith fainted.
In the darkness, he heard many voices like whispers coming from all around, but they all called the same name:
"Heir of Light... Heir of Light..."
He saw a faint white light. A man stood at the end of the dark hallway.
His face was blurry, but his voice was very familiar, his father.
"Harith... don't trust your shadow. It's not yours anymore."
Harith tried to move, but his legs were heavy.
His shadow appeared next to his father and smiled.
"He's late, father. I'm already halfway there."
The light went out.
---
Harith woke up in the school's infirmary.
Aina's hand held his.
"Harith… you passed out in the lab. Tok Halim found you."
Harith was thoughtful.
"The mirror..."
"What mirror?" Aina asked, but her voice trembled as if she knew something she didn't want to say.
Harith looked at the wall.
There was a shadow there, standing upright but Aina's shadow didn't follow her movements.
---
"And at that moment Harith realized that he wasn't the only one whose shadow had been freed."