"What the Shadows Remember"

It’s easy to forget the way the sun once touched you, but the shadows never do. They hold the memory of every step you’ve taken, every corner you’ve turned, every moment you tried to leave behind. They wait in the quiet, in the places we don’t dare to look.

I walk through rooms where time no longer matters, where light flickers but never truly stays. The shadows stretch long against the walls, whispering stories I’ve buried. They remember it all—the promises I broke, the love I once cradled, the fear I let settle in my bones.

They say nothing is ever truly forgotten. Maybe that’s true. Maybe it’s the shadows that keep it all for us, tucking away the things we can’t bear to carry in the light. I tried to outrun them once, thinking if I moved fast enough, left enough distance, they wouldn’t follow. But shadows… they know how to wait.

They know how to bend around the corners of our lives, find their way through the smallest cracks, even in the spaces between breaths.

And here’s the twist—the shadows don’t just remember what was lost; they remember what we never had. The lives we could’ve lived, the paths we didn’t take, the words we swallowed down. They hold it all, keeping the untold stories alive in their quiet embrace.

In the end, it’s not the light we should fear, but the shadows… for they know too much.

© Nelly Vee