[ WP ] You live in a world where people 's shadows show who they truly are at their core . Some shadows look like monsters , some look like animals . You are the only person in the world with no shadow .

His work day started the same. He still liked to call it a work day. Very few people still did. Most just called it the work night, or the working hours to avoid confusion. He remembered what it felt like to walk down a street and see people's faces lit by the bright glow of the sun and see their smiles without the strange disembodied white teeth moving around in blackness. He hated how it was now. 
 
 He rolled over from his bed and spotted the last dying rays of the sun still shining on the overcast clouds. He stepped through his house and into the shower, bright lights all over for the slightest chance it would be different. It was a bad idea to step out with his eyes unaccustomed so he turned them down as he neared the end of his routine. By the time he stepped out his house was pitch black. He headed to the train station in the near darkness and began his commute. 
 
 He thought of the days before the roll over. He remembered sitting on a bus and every eye would dart instantly towards the feet of anyone who got on, then continue doing circuits around the floor of the bus. He remembered watching peoples bump into other people because no one was looking forward. He remembered people yelling at random other people in the street because they did not like the shadow at their feet. He only witnessed one near beating but he heard of several brutal incidents. These were effectively thought crimes, people were being beaten for what they were and not for what they had done and it sparked massive nation wide debate. He vaguely remembered watching a movie about something similar as a little boy. When the police refused to take complaints about a person with suspicious shadows people took it into their own hands. Anyone who lived by himself with anything resembling a monster was a child molester. Anyone with an aggressive creature attached him would cut a wide arc when he walked down the street, everyone straining to catch a glimpse of what they were avoiding. Workplaces collapsed, parents refused to send their children to non screened schools. Job applications now considered it standard procedure to have a shadow screening as part of their interview process. There was no hiding and not surprisingly it was a downward spiral. 
 
 Till Ruling 554 was passed. It was a right to privacy which was essentially a basic human right that had been tested sorely after the first coming. Public lighting was illegal, busses and trains would have to have boarded up windows and black lighting and fluorescent strips were to be used for walkways. Directed lighting was illegal, you could carry a lamp under the 360 illumination rule. And the biggest one, night would be the primary time for business. It was illegal to discriminate on the basis of shadows, and that was strictly enforced in schools but anyone who caught a glimpse of your shadow would forever have it taint you in their eyes. 
 
 He met Danny as he stepped into the building that held his office. He did n't need the custom mark that glowed under the blacklight that he wore on his jacket; he would recognize that smile anywhere. He had known Danny since before this all began and nothing had changed. 
 
 Hector smiled as he walked up to him. `` Still up for the twilight beach run?''. Danny laughed, `` Always, its been too long and I've been busy with Erika and junior''. It was impolite to ask about a newborns shadow but most of them were the same, a kind of blob that reminded Hector of clay and he was probably not the first to come up with that analogy. Children being what they were, blank canvases ready to painted upon. In any case Danny had volunteered the information about his child and Hector knew Danny would love that child regardless. `` At least he has one!'' Danny had rubbed him while they drank beers and and listened to the waves on a crowded moonless weekend night on the sands. The moonless nights were always popular but Hector missed seeing the water and the waves. Hector had laughed but the same questions arose in his mind again. Where was his shadow? Why did n't he have one? He remembered the looks of disbelief he would get when he dared go around in the light and although he missed the days before the darkness terribly he could n't help but feel a slight sense of relief. He was glad for Danny in this regard, Danny could n't care less about his lack of a shadow. Maybe because he had known him since they were kids growing up in a small town or maybe because Danny knew him for what he was. In Danny's own words Hector was... perfect. `` If you had a fucking shadow'', Danny had slurred once, the alcohol doing most of the talking, `` it would be a fucking angel''. `` Or a pair of tits'', he continued, `` Beautiful.. tits''. 
 
 He was glad for Danny, who would n't be, he did n't have a lot of other people. He had given up on romance after years of trying. He smiled when he thought about guys who would consider sex on the first date to be getting lucky. Because shadows had become such a thing, exchanging shadows was a sign of commitment and girls would consider themselves getting lucky if they got one on the first date. No girl ever liked what she saw when Hector would stand face to face in his brightly lit bedroom. How could they? He knew everything about her and she knew nothing. The imbalanced wrecked every relationship he hoped for. 
 
 [ M ] y first time please be gently. I'm not done but I got a bit tired, I might continue.
