I felt myself being picked up from my cot. My eyes were swollen from the torrents of tears that I had cried. Strong muscular arms held me tight. I knew better than to feel safe, only harm came my way. I hiccuped into the person's chest. The way I was acting was not the way of a twenty year old, but of a toddler. The halls were long and narrow and bright lights only made them seem longer. Becoming bored with being held, I reached up to my head and much to my surprise I had hair. Searching the rest of my body I soon came to realize it must have been a dream.
“Who are you?” I asked my carrier. I noticed it was a male when he looked down at me.
“I am your protector from all things unholy,” he replied. I questioned his response, but decided better to leave the conversation closed. His army like boots were heard as we continued down the never ending hall. There were other doors leading off to other places, many had nameplates.
“Am I dreaming?” I wondered aloud.
“No, but you better pay attention; these few moments you will have up ahead will be the most realistic moments you will ever live through,” he curtly answered my rhetorical question. I waited in anticipation at the most promising moments of my life; so I thought. The end of the hallway finally came in sight, a faint light glowed from the closed door. My heart pounded at the thought of the unexpected. When we reached the door, the man carrying me, opened it; at the sight of what laid in front of me took my breath away.
Chapter 4
A mighty being sat before me, I was entranced. At that moment, the man carrying me, dropped me to the floor and left. Pain shot up my stiff body as I stretched out my muscles.
“Do you know who I am?” the mighty thing asked.
“No, sir,” I replied...
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...ashed before my head, I was ashamed of my doings. This continued for what seemed like forever.
The time seemed to stop and the vortex where I was trapped slowed dramatically. I tried to succumb to the self pity that was so strong inside of me, but I didn't. I chose to do those things and now I will be punished for them.
I fell hard into a room filled with darkness. The dust billowed up when I fell on to the rocky floor. Choking from the plume I looked around the room trying to make out something. Red embers glowed around me and a faint buzzing echoed throughout the room. A fire erupted nearby and I quickly realized I was not in a room but an abyss. Footsteps were heard to my right and when I investigated, I saw what appeared to be a ghost wrapped in a blue cloak, step forward. My shock got caught in my throat as my Father's words replayed themselves in my mind.
The night was tempestuous and my emotions were subtle, like the flame upon a torch. They blew out at the same time that my sense of tranquility dispersed, as if the winds had simply come and gone. The shrill scream of a young girl ricocheted off the walls and for a few brief seconds, it was the only sound that I could hear. It was then that the waves of turmoil commenced to crash upon me. It seemed as though every last one of my senses were succumbed to disperse from my reach completely. As everything blurred, I could just barely make out the slam of a door from somewhere alongside me and soon, the only thing that was left in its place was an ominous silence.
Cody Blunt’s piece titled The Master of Shadows represents the assassin, Zed. This art piece was created in 2013 for the company Riot Games as the digital concept art for the character Zed. This piece can be found displayed as a representation of the character in their popular multiplayer online battle arena, League of Legends. In The Master of Shadows, Cody Blunt uses complementary colors, value, saturation, tenebrism, shape, and a small variety of different lines to capture the resting energy of Zed and provides a serene and mysterious interpretation of a lifeless city.
The Night Characters:.. Moshe the Beadle— was one of the first of the Jews to be taken away that Elie knew closely. Moshe then escaped the massive ditches of death and was able to return to Sighet to tell them of what the Germans were doing. The rest of the people, even Elie, thought that he had gone mad, so he pitied him. Oberkapo— was part of the 52nd cable unit at Buna.
In Shadow of a Doubt, Hitchcock utilizes and stretches the ambiguous line between comedy and suspense by utilizing smaller characters in the film to keep the story line moving, and to help break sequence or rhythm of what the audience had been perceiving at the time. Many of the minor characters were used as “fillers”, such as the waitress in the bar when Uncle Charlie and Charlie are sitting in the bar, and makes the comment “I would die for a ring like this”; or the quiet, gentle neighbor Herb who is fascinated with the process of homicide and murder. It brings to the audience an immediate comic relief, but similar to all of Hitchcock, leaves an unsettling feeling of fear and suspense with the viewer. Shadow of a Doubt is a film that hits very close to home for me, primarily because of the small town feel very similar to Orono that I have grown to know so well. There is a brutal irony that lurks through the film, especially during the time period that the film was made. The picturesque stereotype of small town life in the 40’s is brutally torn apart by Hitchcock wit and creative ingénue, putting the viewer in an uncomfortable mind stretch of reality.
I unwilllingly walked through the entrance of regret and guilt. With teary eyes from what happened the night before, I didn’t know what I could say. All I thought was ‘It was an accident’ but that didn’t matter anymore.
It was late I thought. Almost midnight yet I was still unable to sleep. I stared thoughtlessly at the moving shadows mumbling to myself, "it was just a story" but in my heart I knew it wasn't, it was more than a story, much, much more. Then, a crow appeared in the middle of my room. The crow stared at me with such intensity that I fell backwards into the safety of my pillow. I stared at the crow in shock as it disappeared into my closet and that's when I heard it, a long piercing whine that was like a nail to a chalkboard. I prayed that it would go away, I prayed with all my heart but it stayed there continuing its long whine. It was then when I caught a glimpse of it. I saw two glowing bloodshot eyes stare at me. I let out a scream born from terror and almost immediately my dad came bursting into my room. He stared at me with confusion but all I could do was point a shaking finger at my closet door. Cautiously, my father marched into the closet door only to find nothing inside. Then, without warning, the closet door slammed shut along with my father still inside.
The novel that caught my interest is Shadow and Bone by author Leigh Bardugo. To start off, I must admit that I am not a reader who is always interested in one book for a long period of time because I have the tendency to lose interest and become bored. On the other hand, Bardugo has written a very intriguing novel that made me want to read more and more. Throughout the entire novel, I never was bored of the plot. Shadow and Bone the first book of its trilogy. The main character is Alina Starkov, and she is an orphan. Her best friend’s name is Mal, and he grew up to a handsome and an incredible hunter. After growing a bit older, Alina and Mal become soldiers who are on assignment to cross over the Shadow Fold. The Shadow Fold is a dangerous place of complete darkness, and is inhabited by volcras; dangerous creatures who feast on human flesh. The two setted off into the Shadow Fold, and here, Alina witnessed a soldier being taken away and eaten by a volcra in person. In a mere second, Mal is severely wounded when a volcra’s talons tore across his...
Shadow of a Doubt is an Alfred Hitchcock film that was shot on location in the 1940's town of Santa Rosa, California. The town itself is representative of the ideal of American society. However, hidden within this picturesque community dark corruption threatens to engulf a family. The tale revolves around Uncle Charlie, a psychotic killer whose namesake niece, a teenager girl named Charlie, is emotionally thrilled by her Uncles arrival. However her opinion slowly changes as she probes into her mysterious uncle. In the film, director/producer Alfred Hitchcock blends conventions of film noir with those of a small town domestic comedy as a means of commenting on the contradictions in American values.
Jun’ichirō Tanizaki uses In Praise of Shadows to relate to the audience by talking about the multitude of differences between traditional Japanese aesthetics and modern western inventions. He shows how these differences affect the past culture, causing it to fade away with the introduction of innovations that are more useful, beneficial, and efficient. There are many aspects of different beliefs on the same idea that the author should be open-minded about. The audience has insights on the author’s perspective on many of the presented objects and places talked about throughout the book.
In Ursula LeGuin's essay titled “The Child and the Shadow,” LeGuin dives into the realm of how humans and he/ she’s shadow divides them into the collective consciousness and the collective unconsciousness. LeGuin begins her dissertation by recalling an Hans Christian Andersen fiction novel she read as a child. The main character from the novel is too bashful to confront an attractive lady that lives across the street. He then allows his shadow to take on this courageous task by going across the street and entering the lady’s home without any restrictions or supervision.
I awake to lukewarm water dripping down my forehead from a damp towel. I feel a thick liquid against my back. I scan the area, Unfamiliar. I find myself lying in a cot in a filthy room. The sight room itself was depressing, not that it was in extremely bad conditions but it was all…brown, the kind of brown that makes you feel depressed. It reeked of fish and motor oil, one of the queerest combinations of scents I have encountered. My ears start to pick up the deep monotones of a man speaking in other room. In my drowsy state I couldn’t make out exactly what he said but I did manage to g...
We are like the people in Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave.” The people chained to the cave were forced to look at projections and shadows that were cast upon the wall. Because the shadows were the only thing they had seen, they perceived them to be the “truth”. Today our “shadows” have become the media, death, and pain which influence what we believe to be “truth.” The media, death, and pain are fairly common in today’s world and we encounter them often enough. Very few have reached the real “reality” ruled by thought and reason. Life is a struggle in which achieving enlightenment and seeing “reality” is the goal. We have a biased outlook on life because we are imperfect. Our notion of reality is distorted from the shroud of ignorance that surrounds us.
Not being able to stand such self-torture, I hurried my pace to what was almost a jog, until I had caught up with the unfortunately boring group that I was, as I felt, universally bound to. I came to a bend in the tunnel, where I saw through the glass window, that which before entering, gave no hint of its existence. "I'll soon be in the air."
My hand shaking at every thought, a cold shiver ran down my spine as cold sweat trickled down the side of my forehead. I lifted my hand up and a strong smell hit my nose, it was the smell of blood. I lifted the object and shock hit me like lightening, fear displaced my sadness, sickness changed my bloodstream from blood to a thick liquid pus and vomit. I held the muscle with my right hand as my left hand was paralysed with shock. The adrenaline shot me forcing me to move but shock shattered me into thin slices that were impossible to put back again.
I looked up at the black sky. I hadn't intended to be out this late. The sun had set, and the empty road ahead had no streetlights. I knew I was in for a dark journey home. I had decided that by traveling through the forest would be the quickest way home. Minutes passed, yet it seemed like hours and days. The farther I traveled into the forest, the darker it seemed to get. I was very had to even take a breath due to the stifling air. The only sound familiar to me was the quickening beat of my own heart, which felt as though it was about to come through my chest. I began to whistled to take my mind off the eerie noises I was hearing. In this kind of darkness I was in, it was hard for me to believe that I could be seeing these long finger shaped shadows that stretched out to me. I had this gut feeling as though something was following me, but I assured myself that I was the only one in the forest. At least I had hoped that I was.