Work Text:
A woman trying to smile, her long hair is covered by a shawl, and she is wearing a long dress, but something doesn't look right - the shadow behind her is a mess.
A slight blaze appears around it, and glowing eyes in shadow look into your eyes. But the woman who talks to you doesn't notice it.
She still speaks and just looks... tired. Just talk about how she misses her friends and how she loves her family.
You feel confused.
She is just a woman, but her shadow... It feels corrupted... Like this...
And she doesn’t want to tell her name... Like she is afraid of something.
You just recently came to this country, so you don’t know what going on. Yet, you are concerned about her... Something is wrong here...
Then you ask why she looks so tired. She replies that she’s just tired of her job, that she doesn’t even want to work there, and that people don’t like her. However, when you ask for details, she says she doesn’t want to talk about it.
And when you ask what’s behind her, she turns around and her shadow returns to normal again.
And to defuse the atmosphere, you ask her about what dreams she has and the woman suddenly smiles, not with a fake smile, but with a real one! She describes her dream with different details, all those strange places that she saw, all those people in dreams with whom she talked. You are surprised how well she remembers her dreams and became interested.
She just seems genuinely happy because all those dreams, as she says, remind her of her friends. However, you still feel a slight sadness in her, she misses those times.
She misses them, she just wants to go back, but she just can’t...
As you talk, a light rain starts and drips on your and her faces. Her face changes from slightly upset to already more worry, and she says she needs to leave... that she can’t stay here any longer. Then, when she leaves, the rain suddenly intensifies, as if it has some kind of worry.
It’s just a pity that you don’t have an umbrella now.
You’re thinking about your conversation... who was she anyway? Apparently she was on her way somewhere, but you stopped her and started talking... but who is this woman, and what's going on around her? Something felt wrong, a strange creepy shadow, a large memory of dreams, rain seemed as if it had its feelings too...
Your trip lasted about a few days. You heard people say something about rallies and a military general, but you tried not to pay attention to it. Besides, you are not interested in politics.
The rest of the trip, you won't see her again.
A few weeks after you return home; you hear that a big cataclysm has occurred in the country you came to visit.
The deluge flooded the entire capital of the country with thousands of victims, followed by multiple mass killings.
And when you get to the one who does these murders... You recognize this face in the photo... This is the woman you were talking to all those days ago...
But why her...
What happened?!
You couldn’t see the point of it all... how is that sweet woman who spoke with such tenderness about loved ones... Now does this?!
She doesn’t even look like herself here... she doesn’t feel like the person you met...
She felt like something was behind her in this photo.
You didn’t see her here, but her very shadow looking at you with glowing eyes.