By Haven Walkur (original post)
Lindsey is a student at the local community college, and apparently lives at the hotel. She's a skinny girl in her early 20s, and very big-hipped for her build. Lindsey has lank brown hair, pale skin and freckles, and apparently lives on junk food. She's perennially short of cash and drags an overstuffed bookbag around with her everywhere.
And her shadow is just – wrong.
Regardless of the ambient light level, Lindsey's shadow is always sharply defined. The shadow is often either far too big or far too small for Lindsey's 5' 4“ form. Sometimes the shadow is displaced, appearing in front of Lindsey or far behind her, or in locations where no shadow could reasonably be cast. Sometimes the shadow is truncated, so that only the upper or lower half of it appears, or only the right or left side. Sometimes the shadow isn't there at all, regardless of the light.
And sometimes the shadow doesn't look entirely…human. Partially human, yes, or even mostly, but with…things…added. The shadow of skeletal shark jaws. The mantle of a huge squid. Ribbon-like streamers that undulate and grasp. Spindly mechanical protrusions. Mandibles. Great softly bobbing growths. Toothed cogs and misshapen gears turning, turning….
Lindsey affects not to notice anything odd about her shadow, and is aggressively rude to anyone who comments on it. “What are you, some kind of nut? You're sick, you know that? Get away from me before I call the police, you lousy freak!”
But her eyes are haunted.
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