Of Shadow Born by S. L. Gray

again.” There was still no movement. She was talking to nothing. No one heard her boast of bravery but it made a difference to her. She could feel her pulse slowing down. “It’s like that saying: fool me once? You won’t get a second chance.”
    She rolled the top of her pajama bottoms over like she sometimes did with her sweats at the gym. It helped to keep them on her hips and she felt like she might need to move. This little exercise was making her feel better, even if it assured she wouldn’t go back to sleep.
    She bounced on her toes, being careful not to actually leave the ground. She could bob up and down, but if she really jumped, she’d shake the floor. That would catch Kade’s attention no doubt. She didn’t need him right now. She needed to do this for herself.
    “You thought you were dealing with someone who’d just collapse and cry? Think again, crazy shadow army. I’m not going to make it easy. If you want me, you’re going to have a fight on your hands. ”
    Feeling brave, she threw a couple experimental jabs at nothing. She’d seen fights in the movies. There were kickboxing classes at the gym. She could keep her hands up, bob and twist and square off against an unseen opponent. Shadow boxing, she thought, watching hers move with the motion, ducking and weaving as she did. Her silent companion.
    Her too-tall, gangly, misshapen companion. Melanie’s stomach churned as, in the middle of throwing the next punch, it dawned on her just how long and spindly her shadow’s arms had become. The angle of the light behind her made it look odd, she told herself. There was nothing sinister about the shape . Nothing she hadn’t seen a hundred times before. 
    She stopped bouncing and let her arms fall to her sides. Standing this still, her shadow was nearly formless. Yes, someone would recognize it as human, maybe even female, but that was all. It was just a shape. No malice oozed from it. It didn’t threaten. It couldn’t intimidate on its own.
    Melanie moved, stepping toward her shadow and the far corner where she’d imagined the conspiracy moments ago. As she got closer, leaving the light behind, her shadow shrank, retreating. By the time she reached the corner, it had all but disappeared, swallowed into the depths the light couldn’t quite touch.
    “That’s right. In my home, I’m the one in charge. You do what I say or you get wiped out.” It felt right to whisper the threat into the darkness. She didn’t need to shout to make herself understood. Recalling the words Kade taught her, she repeated them, brushing a hand through the air, not quite touching the wall. She imagined scattering the blackness, watching it recoil from her touch. In her mind’s eye, it would dissipate like the fog burning off on an autumn day.
    It shouldn’t have worked. Nothing should have happened, and yet, as she swished her hand back through the s pace, she swore she felt something move. Something clung to her fingers for a moment, like tendrils of cool mist, then slipped away.
    She froze. Her heart was pounding again. She must have been closer to the wall than she thought. It could get cold in here on rainy nights. She had a draft she’d never pinpointed before. She had not just felt the shadows move.
    Except they were still shifting. Something brushed her fingers again, making her suck in a sharp breath then hold it. She went motionless everywhere, except for her eyes. Those, she kept moving, searching the darkness in front of her, hoping and yet not wanting to see anything near her hand.
    She didn’t know how long she stood there before she took another breath. Twenty seconds, maybe closer to a minute. It had been a long time since she’d recorded how long she could hold it. She hadn’t thought about it since childhood, at least, when she would sit at the bottom of the family pool, close her eyes and try not to float until she couldn’t help it, until her lungs were burning.
    She thought it would help train