Hey guys! So I had this class this semester and one of the assignments was to choose a topic and create a blog. I chose film for it, and my first blog post was on Logan and the End of Heroism. Halfway through the post I started thinking about this story, and I decided that maybe I should try rewriting it. So here it goes, a full rewrite. I hope you like it!

Also, thanks to all of you who didn't give up on this story, and all the wonderful reviews. You are all amazing people.

I might post the link to my blog on my profile in case you're interested. I had a great time with it!

Enjoy.

The first time I slipped into the shadows, I was ten.

Quite literally slipped.

It was a late February afternoon, and though the snow had been scraped away from the playground for us to play in, we still had to tread carefully. Or so we were told, at least. We were ten, our heads just a few feet away from the ground, and falling didn't quite hurt as much.

It had been a while since the nuns had let us out to play. We'd had a few snowstorms the last couple of weeks, the howling wind lulling us to sleep at night but keeping us in during the day. It hadn't been that bad, except for that one night when the power went out. We played hide and seek, trying to convince ourselves that the darkness was exciting rather than absolutely terrifying. That night they gave us extra blankets, and we fell asleep to the sound of Father Joaquin reading us a story of a brave mouse that fell in love with a princess, and how he fought tooth and nail to save her.

But as I ran through the playground, ducking to avoid the swings, the story of Despereaux, the mouse that fell for the princess, was but a distant memory. We were playing tag, and I could hear the other kids' peals of laughter as everyone fumbled around the snow trying to get away from Matt, who had been it for an embarrassing amount of time.

I paused behind Matt, breathing hard, but safe. That is, until he turned around and spotted me.

"Run Morgan!" Mia yelled, safe from the top of the monkey bars.

I didn't need to be told twice. I took off, knowing that I had to find a way to lose Matt before he got to me. And he would. He was faster. And highly motivated.

My eyes narrowed on the second set of swings at the far side of the playground. It was getting pretty late, and the yellow swings were barely visible. We probably only had a few more minutes of playtime before they called us in. But, until then, I could hide in the dark.

It wasn't until I was halfway there that I realized that the swings weren't empty. Cassie sat in one of them, her feet planted firmly on the ground and her eyes focused on me. She looked expectant, like she was waiting for something. For me.

Cassie was strange. She was older than most of us, fourteen or so. She had big blue eyes, which at first used to annoy me. Blue was my favorite color, and mine were boring old brown. But hers were weird. She stared at us, but she wasn't looking. She was lost in her own little world, as I once heard Father Joaquin say. She looked like it. She almost never played with us, and when she did, somebody usually got hurt. She never actually did anything, but she was always there. A small disappointing frown as she watched our lives play out.

If you asked me, it's like she always knew what was coming. One time, on Tim's birthday, she told us not to eat the cake. It was chocolate, we were nine year olds, so of course we ate it. We all got sick that night, and she was the only one who didn't. She had just stared at us, shaking her head in frustration as we stuffed our faces with chocolaty goodness. We should've listened.

Now, as I ran in her direction, her big blue stare made me nervous enough that I didn't notice the frozen puddle. It wasn't until I stepped on it, and the brief spurt of panic that told me I had done something wrong overwhelmed me, that I noticed. My hands automatically went up to protect my head, but my eyes were still on Cassie and the gloom that surrounded the swings as I fell.

Except I didn't fall. The shadows swallowed me whole.

The first time I fell into the shadows was so fast that I barely noticed. In one blink I was falling, the next, it was dark, and not a moment later, I was stumbling to my knees, my nose an inch away from jean-clad legs. Cassie looked down at me, one of her hands coming down to rest on top of my head as I blinked up at her, completely and utterly bewildered.

But she was smiling. "Don't worry Morgan," she said. "You'll get the hang of it."

She paused, cocking her head as she considered her own words.

"Eventually."