Novel | The Children Who Eat Shadows

Louis was a little afraid of the night.

Because when night fell, "that child" would come.

Just as thin moonlight leaked through the gap in the curtains,

a crunching, crunching sound would come from the corner of Louis's room.

It sounded just like someone nibbling on a cookie.

"...Who's there?"

Louis whispered softly from under his covers.

"Me?"

A small voice replied from the darkness.

"I'm a child who eats shadows."

When Louis strained his eyes, he saw a small child there.

Black hair, black clothes, black eyes.

And he was eating Louis's black shadow as if it were a treat.

"Hey! Don't eat my shadow!"

When Louis shouted in a panic, the shadow-eating child smiled brightly.

"It's okay. Shadows grow back right away."

"They grow back...?"

"Yeah. You see, even if you eat a little bit of a shadow, it goes back to normal after a while."

"I-is that so?"

"That's so."

The shadow-eating child smiled happily while crunching, crunching on the shadow.

Louis felt a strange sensation, one that was somehow a little scary, yet not scary at all.

After that, the child who ate shadows came almost every night.

At first, Louis was afraid, but gradually, he began to think of the child as a friend.

"What do shadows taste like?"

One night, Louis asked.

The child who ate shadows smiled again and said, "They taste like the night."

"The taste of the night?"

"Yes. A little lonely, a little sweet, and just a tiny bit bitter."

Louis felt a strange sensation.

However, one day.

A friend at school stared at Louis's feet and asked curiously,

"Hey, Louis. Isn't your shadow a bit strange?"

"Strange?"

"Yeah, it's kind of... really thin."

For the first time, Louis looked at his own shadow.

Before he knew it, it had become very small and thin.

He felt his footsteps were much quieter than usual, too. His reflection in the mirror also looked somewhat blurry.

"Hey, child who eats shadows. Isn't this wrong?"

When Louis asked, the child who ate shadows made a slightly sad face.

"...It's still okay."

Really?

Yeah. It's okay if your shadow disappears, you know.

But what happens if it disappears?

The child who eats shadows said quietly.

You become like me.

Louis shuddered.

Like you...?

I used to have a shadow like you once, too.

But once it was gone, no one remembered me anymore.

The next day.

There was almost nothing left of Louis's shadow.

Even when he went to school, no one called Louis's name. Even when his friends were right beside him, they wouldn't speak to him.

Even when he called out, "Hey!", no one noticed.

Even the teacher didn't see Louis.

When he returned home, his mother muttered to herself.

Louis? Hmm... who was Louis again?

In that moment, Louis felt himself fading away.

Night.

Louis shouted at the child who eats shadows in a loud voice.

Give my shadow back!!

But the child who eats shadows just quietly shook his head.

"Shadows, you see, once you eat them, they never come back."

"I don't want that!!"

"It's not scary."

The child who eats shadows said in a gentle voice.

"Even if you disappear, I will remember you."

Louis's shadow was finally, completely gone.

And from the world, there was no one left who remembered Louis.

Then, a while later.

In some town.

In a dark room of some house, a small child wakes up.

In the silence of the night, there is a faint crunch, crunch sound.

When the moonlight spills through the gap in the curtains.

In the corner of that room, there was a child who eats shadows.

--It was Louis.