The morning sky was too bright.
Birds were chirping as if nothing had happened and the sunlight fell on the roofs of houses in Kangar calmly.
But if you look closely,
there was something strange.
There were no shadows.
Not because of clouds, not because of fog.
The light was still there, but there was not a single human shadow on the road.
A boy cycling to school stopped by the side of the road.
He looked down...at his own feet.
No shadow.
He chuckled, thinking his eyes were wrong.
But when he looked at someone else,
everything was the same.
"Mom, look at this!" he shouted.
But the mother just smiled blankly.
"The shadows don't matter anymore, honey. Our world is clean."
---
At Seri Gemilang Secondary School
Aina sat at the back desk, staring out the window.
The sun was so bright it hurt her eyes.
She rubbed the back of her neck, there were still fine scars there, as if something had been cut.
She didn't know why, but every time the light was too strong, her chest felt tight.
"Aina," called the teacher in front. "Are you daydreaming again?" "Sorry, teacher..."
Aina smiled thinly, but her heart was troubled.
Since that "night of the eclipse", everyone seemed to remember nothing.
They said it was just a big thunderstorm, but Aina knew it wasn't what she thought.
She still remembered Harith's face.
The face that disappeared in the explosion of light.
---
That Night
Aina went home, closed the door to her room and stood in front of the mirror.
She didn't know why, but lately, the mirror had always been foggy from the inside as if someone was breathing behind it.
"Harith… if you're still there… let me know."
No answer.
She placed her palm on the glass.
Cold.
Suddenly, something appeared.
Not her reflection but a shadow.
Not hers.
The shadow of a man stood behind her in the mirror,
but when she turned around, there was no one there.
Aina fell silent.
Tears fell from her eyes.
In the mirror, the shadow moved its lips slowly, but clearly.
"I promise… this world will never disappear again."
---
In the Shadow World
Dark.
There was no time, no sound.
But in the middle of the darkness, a small light shone.
Someone sat inside. It was Harith.
His body was half-transparent, but his eyes were still the same.
He looked ahead, at the thousands of shadows he had swallowed before.
They bowed to him, as if waiting for instructions.
"We are not here to hide anymore," he said slowly.
"We will wait until the light learns to accept us again."
The shadows smiled.
And above them, in the sky of the shadow world,
there was a black sun that slowly glowed red.
---
Mini Epilogue
In the human world, on the back wall of an old abandoned school,
someone painted graffiti in the shape of a partial eclipse and underneath it was written the name:
Heart Of Shadow.
No one knows who painted it.
But every time the sun sets, the graffiti will glow softly as if welcoming something that will come again.