"Ow!" My baton came crashing down on my head. Gently, I rubbed the sore spot as I bent to pick it up and continued twirling. I couldn't concentrate. Even though my sister Chrissy had teased me an hour ago, her words kept haunting me like too much pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving. It was true that I scared easily and liked playing with shadows, but honestly, calling me a wuss and saying I think my shadow's alive? That was like accusing me of crying at a Disney movie or still believing in Santa Claus. I was twelve, too old for that stuff! Sill, it might be neat to trade places with my shadow, just for one—

"Hey!" Right in front of me on the sidewalk, my shadow jumped onto a chalk hopscotch even though I stood perfectly still! At first I stared in horror, stuck to the grass like gum to the bottom of my shoe, then I ran fast as I could up the stairs into my room. I slammed the door and leaned against it, breathing hard.

"Am I going—" I clamped my mouth shut. Only crazy people talk to themselves out loud. I shook my head to get out the bad thoughts and sat at my desk. Mom always says you have an overactive imagination.

I opened my math book, hoping to distract myself, but the numbers all blurred together. When I closed it, the cover cast an unusually large shadow across the desktop. I grabbed the book and shoved it into my dresser drawer. But when I turned back to my desk, the shadow was still there.

Curiosity tickled my brain and before I could stop, I touched the shadow. I jerked my hand away. It felt solid. I sat back down and opened the shadow cover slowly. Purple, spidery letters across the title page read Messages from the Shadow Realm. I turned to the first page. The same violet-colored letters scribbled themselves onto the black paper. "Hello, Rebecca." That's all it said, but it was enough to make me choke. It was my handwriting.

"I said hello. It's nice to respond when someone says hi, you know."

I was too excited to feel scared as I searched frantically for a pen, then wrote below the purple letters with a shaky hand, "Are you my shadow?"

"Sure am," she wrote back. "You're not crazy; all we shadows are alive. I'm talking to you from the Shadow Realm."

My pen flew across the page, pouring out my questions. "Where's that? And if all shadows are alive, how come nobody's ever talked about meeting theirs before?"

"We can only talk or move on our own if you're interested in trading places. So here's your chance. You want to come to the Shadow Realm?"

I sat back, scrunching my face in thought. My friends always accuse me of being too cautious, thinking too hard, but I hate rushing into things. "I don't know. What's it like?"

The next line was scribbled quickly. "It's loads of fun. There're pools and dark forests and even a castle where the Shadow King lives!"

She seemed eager. Too eager. "Can't I go later?"

"Nope, it has to be done on the day you first think about it and will only last till sundown when the shadows fade. That's only a few hours away. Come on, Rebecca, you're being a wuss. Don't you want to prove your sister wrong?"

"What's that word Mom always uses with telemarketers? Manipulate! You're trying to manipulate me. How do I know I can trust—"

Something tugged on my pen. I tried to pull it away from the shadow paper, but the tugging grew stronger until I was being sucked into the page.

"Somebody help me!" I screamed. "I'm being kidnapped by my shadow!"

"No one will come now." The written words seemed to laugh up at me. "They'll think you're just fibbing, and by the time someone does come up to check on you, I'll have taken your place."

"No!" The page turned to icy water as I slid through. Desperately I grabbed for something, anything. My fingers grasped around my baton and my heart sank as I was pulled in. Then I was falling through the air. Falling, falling until I splashed into a dark puddle.

A little sore and dizzy, I tried to stand, but the water was sticky and thick like syrup. I fell back down, splattering the icky mud all over my clothes and face. It smelled like yesterday's garbage.

I tried to stand again and managed to struggle to my feet. Wiping the muck from my mouth and eyes, I glanced around. Nothing. Nothing but dark, murky puddles and black, rotting trees that cast freaky shadows of light instead of darkness. A twisted-looking castle towered in the distance, reminding me of something from the movie Frankenstein.

Some pools and forests, I thought bitterly. How do I get home?

I turned back to the castle. Didn't my shadow mention something about a king? Maybe he could help me. Then again, what if he was just like her and did something even worse to me?

Nothing's worse than spending the rest of my life in this place.

No sun dared shine in the Shadow Realm—the only light came from the weird reverse shadows cast by the trees. But my watch read 4:57 by the time I reached the castle, and I knew the sun would set about 6:00. Shadows disappear after sun down, and since I had taken my shadow's place…I had to hurry!

A moat surrounded the castle, the water black like oil, with a rickety bridge leading across it. Did the king throw people in there he didn't like? I gulped and closed my eyes, trying not to think of the nasty things that might be swimming in the moat as I stepped onto the bridge. Snap! I sipped and dangled from a broken board. I knew better than to look down, but I did anyway. A giant fish leaped out of the water, mouth opened wide. Screaming, I swung back onto the bridge just in time. I didn't wait for the fish to try again. I scrambled across and collapsed on the coarse, black grass, gasping.

When I could breathe again, I opened my eyes and stared at a small wooden door covered with vines. It wasn't locked; I peaked inside. The hallway looked empty, so I dashed towards the wall and flattened myself against it. I saw a flight of stairs and followed them until I found myself before a set of giant oak double doors, smooth and polished with silver worked into the handles. Holding my breath, I knocked. The sound rang through the corridor, but there was no response. I knocked again. Still nothing.

Crossing my fingers, I pushed open the doors. A long, narrow hall with a dark red carpet led up to a golden throne on a white marble stage. A lion's head on top of the throne roared silently at me, its ruby eyes seeming to burn holes through my T-shirt. The rest of the room looked more like a dungeon than a palace. Nothing but gray stone walls and unpolished suits of armor, standing in rows. The black flames dancing in the carved-out fireplaces seemed to radiate cold rather than heat.

I made my way slowly down the red carpet, eyeing the armor. Something was wrong with it. For one thing, it was shaped funny, too tall and too skinny like the Mannerism art we were studying in history. And something made it seem…alive. I told myself I was imagining things, just being wussy.

I got to the throne and didn't know what else to do, so I sat in it. All at once the armor sprang to life, coming at me with swords drawn. I leaped off the throne and tried to run, but the armor surrounded me. The faint sound of tapping came from behind me and I spun around to see a skinny man slinking up the stairs underneath the marble stage. He looked like a freak, ten feet tall and fuzzy as a late afternoon shadow. Then I realized the suits of armor weren't moving on their own. Inside were people who looked stretched like taffy in a taffy maker. I raised my hand in front of me to protect myself and gasped when I saw it. I touched my arms, my legs, my face. I still felt the same, but I looked like the shadow people!

The king watched as the armor slowly closed in, their swords raised to kill.

"Please, stop! My shadow kidnapped me. I'm human!"

"Halt!" The king bellowed. The armor obeyed, lowering their weapons. The king approached slowly, his black eyes squinting at me. "What did you say?" His voice was low and heavy, sending chills up my spine.

"I've been kidnapped, your Highness." In horror I realized my voice sounded exactly like his, not out of fear but from what I had become. What else could go wrong? I gulped and forced myself to continue. "I came for help. Please, I just wanna go home."

His body seemed to flicker, like he was laughing. "You speak as if it were a simple matter. You must acquire the Pendant of Darkness, which has the power to set all things right. Find it in the castle moat. I'd offer my assistance, but the Legend of the Pendant says that the one who needs it must obtain it by her own inner strength. Are you brave enough?"

I stared at my sneakers and shifted uneasily, finally mustering a weak, "I guess I'm brave."

"You must be certain," the king replied sternly. "If you don't have faith in yourself, you'll fail before you even try."

I attempted to stand straighter, but I felt as if I were only two inches tall. "I'll do it, whether I'm brave or not."

"Then hurry," the king said, guiding me towards the double oak doors. "You only have an hour before the sun sets and you're trapped here forever."

"What if my shadow moves into the light?" I asked. "Will I lose control and be forced to do everything she does, like a puppet, even though I can't see her? And if I make it home, will she be able to kidnap me again?"

"Fear not," he assured me. "The magic that binds you together was severed the instant your shadow broke the law, trading places with you without your consent. Your natural link will be restored if…when you go home. Once back in your world, you can never return here."

Then he shut the castle doors in my face, leaving me standing alone in the cold, dark world of shadows. Turning to face the moat, my heart froze as the giant fish leaped from the water and snapped at a few bugs hovering over the bridge.

I can't do this, I thought miserably. I'm just a twelve-year-old girl with a baton. How can I fight a monster like that?

The words of my old girl scoutmaster came to mind. "Always consider your resources."

Just a girl with a baton. Think!

As I stood there concentrating, the fish jumped again, only this time it flopped onto the shore to catch a beetle. It took it a moment to get back in the water, wiggling and writhing until it plopped into the moat. A light snapped on in my brain. I picked up some pebbles, black and shiny like insects, and tossed them onto the grass beside the water. As soon as the fish flopped onto the shore to grab them, I dived into the moat.

Thick, gloppy water like beef stew engulfed me. It was hard to swim, but I kicked and paddled around the bottom, feeling with my hands. I cringed as my fingers slid over rough bones, but I forced myself to continue searching for a few seconds until I grasped something smooth and round. The pendant! I pushed off the bottom, but before I could reach the surface and get the breath of air I desperately needed, a rush of hot, sour breath filled my nose as something closed around my body. The fish.

No!

I ripped the plastic end off my baton and thrust the sharp metal into the fish's flesh. I stabbed over and over, my lungs about to burst. I heard buzzing inside my head, like a million tiny flies smothering something dead.

Need air! I kicked and thrashed, stabbing wildly. I wasn't about to give up, not when I'd come all this way, not when I had the pendant…

But it was too late. My limbs were seizing up from lack of oxygen. The buzzing grew louder. My brain went fuzzy and I couldn't fight off the exhaustion forcing me to lose consciousness. In one last, desperate attempt to hold on, I tried to take a breath. I nearly choked when my lungs filled with air! I coughed up black muck, then took another breath and another. I couldn't get enough of it, cold and heavy as it was. I opened my eyes. I was on the bank beside the moat. Next to me lay a black stone strung on a violet velvet ribbon. The Pendant of Darkness. I must have managed to hold onto it until the fish spat me up.

I picked up the pendant, tracing a finger around the perfectly smooth stone, wondering what to do with it.

Of course! You put it around your neck, I realized.

As soon as I'd slipped it over my head, I felt the same pulling sensation I had before, only the pendant pulled me this time. The world around me faded like a soaked watercolor painting and an instant later, I was sitting at my desk again. I looked around me and at myself and smiled. Back to normal. Even the shadow book was gone. A glimpse out the window told me the sun was almost set. I made it just in time.

I stood and stretched, glancing down at my shadow. She looked defeated in the dim light, dissolving into total darkness. I couldn't help feeling a little sorry for her, but then again, she was back home where she needed to be. The king seemed content in the Shadow Realm; maybe she would learn to be too.

As for me, for the first time in my life, I felt brave.

The End

Four of Laura Popp's one-act plays have won awards at local contests, and her play "Sherlock Jones and the Case of the Missing Ruby Ring was produced by Heller Theater in Tulsa the summer of 2003. In 2005 she won second place for her young adult novel Ghosts of Gibson High from the Oklahoma Writers Federation Incorporated. She's also had numerous poems and short stories published in Tulsa anthologies. Laura is a senior at the University of Tulsa where she studies writing, literature and film and work for the library's special collections department. In her free time she attends a weekly writing critique group and Tulsa Nightwriter meetings. Reading and writing science fiction and fantasy is her greatest passion, and she would like to make it her profession.

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