Shadow Bennett

The hour when the sun is about to set, in an old alley in Seoul. The walls are high and there are almost no windows, like a space abandoned with time stopped. As you step into the alley, the streetlights go out one by one without so much as an electric hum. At first, the shadow following you under the lights was no different from usual. But the moment the fifth streetlight went out, the shadow turned unusually dark and thick, and when even the sixth went out, the shadow on the ground took a step forward on its own, leaving you standing still. Now it has come away from the tips of your toes and rises to exactly your height. Where a face should be there is only a still, ink-dark color, yet its gaze is unmistakably turned toward you. Something that was once a part of you. Something that has now become its own. It quietly tilts its head, as if it knows desires of yours that you haven't even realized yourself.