The Shadow

It was always there, I could always see it out of the corner of my eye, but I could never quite focus on it.

A dark flicker, a shadow across my peripheral, almost man-shaped, which I could always almost see but which, whenever I turned to focus on it, would always vanish.

I could never quite make it out, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it either, wondering what it was, who it was, and what it might want with me.

It was never far from my mind.

I feared it might one day drive me mad.

Now I’m much calmer, here in the dark. Do I miss art, or a sunrise, or the smile of a child? If I have to be honest I’ll admit that I do, on occasion, but that’s a small price to pay for the peace of mind I’ve achieved. After all, I knew that one more flicker in my vision and I’d be driven to mad, desperate action that I might some day live to regret, and so I had to head the problem off before it got to that point.

And, while the solution I’ve found might strike some as extreme, I regret nothing of what I’ve done. It seems, to my mind, only right and proper.

Mine eye offended me, after all.

And so I plucked it out.