{"id":1804,"date":"2023-10-17T15:34:25","date_gmt":"2023-10-17T15:34:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1804"},"modified":"2023-10-17T15:34:31","modified_gmt":"2023-10-17T15:34:31","slug":"me-and-my-shadow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/me-and-my-shadow\/1804\/","title":{"rendered":"Me and My Shadow"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is your first time, right?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The knife slid from my already-sweaty palm onto the ground with a thud. Someone had seen!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was perched on a branch above me, swinging her legs. Behind her, gossamer wings sparkled in the half-light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My heart stopped. This was it. I\u2019d gone mad with the stress of it all. I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

She pulled a handful of fruit out of her pocket \u2013 berries of some sort – and stuffed them into her mouth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s obvious,\u201d she said, still chomping, purple juice dripping down her chin now, \u201cbecause a) there are no other murder fairies here, and b) you\u2019ve made a right mess of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMurder fairy?\u201d I managed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery murderer has one. I\u2019d give that a soft six out of ten. Use a sharper knife next time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I needed to snap out of this. There wasn\u2019t time for hallucinations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere won\u2019t be a next time,\u201d I muttered to myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it was true. I wasn\u2019t in the habit of luring people into the woods and killing them. Trust me, this \u2018murder,\u2019 if we must call it that, was necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I walked over to the place I\u2019d hidden the spade earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSeriously? You\u2019re using that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I jumped. Now she was fluttering in my face. \u201cAre you still here? You may as well help me dig.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She settled herself cross-legged beside the body. \u201cNah. I\u2019ll just watch and comment. On everything you do from now on!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started digging. \u201cFor how long?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t choose that spot. Over there\u2019s better.\u201d She did have a point. \u201cI\u2019m here for as long as they decide. I\u2019m Sylvie, by the way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBen. Who are \u2018they\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Elders. They\u2019ll summon me when you\u2019ve been punished enough. Hurry up. It\u2019ll be dark soon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s how it\u2019s been for the last five years. She\u2019s always there. At work, on the pitch, on my dates. Always with a mocking laugh and a list of \u2018could do betters.\u2019 Not only that, she\u2019s a fan of practical jokes. It\u2019s intolerable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I\u2019ve come here for answers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sylvie prods me with her wand. \u201cFortune tellers are frauds!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShut up!\u201d I say, just as Mystic Misty sticks her head out of the beaded curtain, dark curls tumbling over her shoulders. She raises an eyebrow and beckons me in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bangles jangle over the crystal ball. \u201cHmmm. I see your problem,\u201d says Misty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sylvie scoffs. I swear Misty shoots her a side-eye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYour curse ends tomorrow. Rather luckily, given your crime.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I haven\u2019t told her my crime. Did a conspiratorial glance just pass between Misty and Sylvie?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I skip outside, high on relief. And immediately trip over a wire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sylvie\u2019s in fits of giggles. \u201cCheck your pocket!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I scramble to my feet and reach into my pocket. A compact mirror glistens in my palm, a jagged crack down the centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOops, you just broke a mirror. Know what that means?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Misty suddenly appears beside Sylvie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSeven more years,\u201d they chime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

She pulled a handful of fruit out of her pocket \u2013 berries of some sort – and stuffed them into her mouth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s obvious,\u201d she said, still chomping, purple juice dripping down her chin now, \u201cbecause a) there are no other murder fairies here, and b) you\u2019ve made a right mess of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMurder fairy?\u201d I managed.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery murderer has one. I\u2019d give that a soft six out of ten. Use a sharper knife next time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[695,965],"tags":[7,161,989,119,13,437,12,816,128,988,14,191,118,84,11],"class_list":["post-1804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-695","category-october-2023-the-curse","tag-her","tag-here","tag-knife","tag-ll","tag-me","tag-murder","tag-my","tag-now","tag-out","tag-right","tag-she","tag-there","tag-they","tag-time","tag-was"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-t6","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1804"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1806,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1804\/revisions\/1806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}