Don’t Look At Me

He curled up more tightly in his corner, praying that the shadows sweeping by would ignore him and continue on their paths. He didn’t want to know what would happen should they stop and decide that he was more fun to play with than what they were already doing.

He could never be sure just what was going to happen at any given moment and so he must always be on his guard without actually looking like he was.

If he looked too tightly coiled then they would stop and want to know why.

Sometimes they just wanted to know what it would take to make him snap.

It was always different and yet always the same.

Somethings were familiar for all their strange unfamiliarity.

He wasn’t sure just why that was and it frightened him.

He knew that most of the shadows were other parts of him, parts that enjoyed the pain they caused or the way laughter could turn from innocent to cruel without any warning whatsoever. He was nothing more than a small child’s toy for his own desires that had risen and overcome his, admittedly few, better parts.

Some of the shadows used to be like he was, curled up in far away corners hoping to not be noticed. He didn’t want to join them.

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This was inspired by the Dungeon Prompt: Introducing the Alter Ego.