Rowen in the Shadows

Abstract

Whether it is a supernatural occurrence, or a hallucination brought on by any number of possible mental health conditions, the phenomenon of shadow people sightings is worldwide. These humanoid figures have no distinguishing features, simply total blackness. They are like a black hole of a human. When my daughter was four years old, she began seeing these shadow people. They’ve silently watched her ever since. In addition to these phantasms, she sees wings – similar in nature to auras – on everyone she encounters and is kept company by the voice of the twin brother who was never born and whom she never knew existed. In this creative piece, I aim to explore the blurred line between the reality of mental illness and the possibility of the supernatural in a fictionalized account of my daughter’s experiences