SHADOWED

The road to happiness is paved with great sorrow. The road to revenge is paved with great difficulty.

During an important day to beat all important days, there was a certain air in the atmosphere, a certain feeling; the weather even felt the importance. Intermittent blustering wind with brief showering rainfall doing battle against moments filled with a sun-drenched calm. For on a summers evening in 2018 Darkness was planning to come out of the shadows to declare his intentions to end a war which has been raging through existence since time began.

As night battles day all year round some seasons temporarily get the better of one or the other. No matter which stakes a claim, no matter which claims a lead or marks its presence, the other still exists and goes on to reclaim a lead of its own at a different point of the year. There is always day and there always is night, neither ever really defeats the other. In his confidence Darkness is sure this is about to change. Never has he come so close to what he has at this point in time. In his arrogance or despite his confidence he failed to see just how ready Light was and always is.

But really, is Light in all honesty all that ready? Light had its moment so long ago when a son was gifted to the world and that in itself provided much for Darkness to lay claim to or at least to attack, now Darkness is about to have its own moment to shine. He has brought nine daughters to the same location for the first time ever, his team not quite so ready to wage war. Darkness is sure Majella Smith will fall in line ... she is the key. Whether she will be or not, Darkness has no idea just how much in force his opponents so happen to be at this event. As it is, to him this does not matter.

In nine daughters there is one he never truly got to do his bidding for she is somewhat anomalous. Darkness is sure she'll come around, see the light as it were, he does have his place for her. See the light she will to the point she will fight for it and perhaps unintentionally against it too?

There are others present in the ballroom who will hear the message Darkness has to deliver, others who will fight for Light. Darkness knows this and is perfectly fine with it, he even expects it. His message will hold more weight with followers of light in attendance and again his own confidence tells him there is nothing any of them can do to fight back.

There is a young lady in attendance at this unique event who is neither concerned with Darkness or Light, if anything she is partially driven by a darkness though not quite that of which belongs to he who has a message to deliver. She is of the same age as the nine daughters, and she is at the ball with an interest of seeking revenge upon one of them.

1.

Tammy Lester might one day have become a dance instructor, she might have trained to become a teacher, she might have thought of venturing into fields such as law or medicine, she could have thought of a lot of things, maybe she still might or maybe her actions at this event will be the last she'll get to perform.

Instead of looking into any kind of future career and at only eighteen years of age, she has spent the better part of her life considering just how she can seek and attain a revenge. It is more than considering; Tammy is ready to go all out. She has been so consumed by seeking revenge, consumed by the when, the where and the how that she is willing to attain it at any cost. Tonight, however, may not have been the best of moments or the best of places to attempt to exact that revenge she so desperately wants.

The costs and risks of seeking revenge are higher in Tammy's circumstance than one may typically assume and are so much higher than what she could ever imagine them to be. To a degree, she is aware of something and an evening at a ball will either extend her awareness of this something and give opportunity to be more cautious or it will take her life entirely.

Deformed, disfigured, and left at the mercy of humiliation for the rest of her life, Tammy could just sit and hide in a corner, forever hurting over what came her way or she could go do something about her circumstance. Eight years of age and with a serious eye injury, surgery was very necessary on the day of. In school and holding a handheld mirror, it shatters. A shard of glass, a rather large one at that, hangs in the air.

With her peripheral vision Tammy could see one girl looking at her, silently taunting her, threatening to do her worst and there is nothing Tammy can do about it. The shard shoots right into her left eye at great speed with only Tammy and this other girl witnessing its occurrence. She, this other girl, actually laughed when mayhem ran riot.

The pain, the gore in a space where children are plenty, the mayhem, definitely a moment many will never forget.

Besides being particularly disturbing, the injury was not one to be waited upon. Calling for an ambulance and waiting for some assistance to come to the child would not do, the feeling would be to get Tammy to a hospital as quickly as possible. Teaching staff got her there, ringing ahead informing of what would be incoming and straight into surgery she went. An eye for an eye as the saying goes is what brings Tammy here on this day. When it can be considered, would the long-term goal be revenge right from the beginning?

As tough and rough as children can be at times, serious revenge does not really come into the equation right away for eight-year-old Tammy, not for some time at least, indeed when it does it can be and is consuming.

Groggy, eight-year-old Tammy could not consider much upon waking. In a hospital recovery room and being told that she has lost an eye, and at such a young age, devastation hits right away. It would be a couple of days or so before she could really consideration anything.

Children accept things more readily, not necessarily the loss of an eye but the means with which it came about. Glass mirrors don't just shatter for no reason. Shards of glass don't just hang in the air for no reason, and they certainly don't propel themselves all by themselves. For an eight-year-old with this occurring, thoughts don't turn to the supernatural. It is just accepted as something having happened and having been caused by another child.

While all those around the classroom screamed and roared, reacted so like most would when confronted by such a thing, the one one girl laughed, not only that but to Tammy it more than seemed that this other girl willed the whole event to happen. Tammy could see this girl watch as the shard of glass hung in the air. She did it, this other girl hurt her. Yeah, this other girl hurt her and hurt her on purpose and for this she must pay.

Initially upon waking and the moments after waking, it was the end of the world, complete and utter disaster, nothing would be worth anything ever again except it would because of one thing, to get back at that girl. No one would know this for Tammy would not open up to family or to anyone else; a childhood effectively ended that September afternoon in 2008.

Three months, just a little over twelve weeks after the incident, just a little over twelve weeks after a life altering surgery, eight-year-old Tammy Lester returned to her school yard. Playing, skipping, chasing, arriving children and their parents, everything came to a stop, everything went silent, slowly at first then totally. There would be more surgeries to come and that could be frightening to consider, equally frightening along with the feeling of dread was that thought of having to return to school and indeed, the moment the return was made was not a pleasant moment at all.

All eyes on a young girl walking alone, alone at her own request, she had asked her parents not to accompany her through the school ground or to the inside of the school building, so alone she walked from the school gate through a yard full of onlookers, on into the building then to a classroom with silence all around and every eye on her and her very visible injury.

As she walked, she tried to focus dead ahead, she tried to focus on getting to her classroom and to her seat, but Tammy couldn't help herself. She is still just an eight-year-old, an eight-year-old who has never felt as alone as she did in that moment. No matter what, that other girl is going to pay.