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Dan was just a little boy when he saw the shadow for the first time. He was playing with his trains when he saw a blackish, blueish murky shadow watching behind him. He, being a young child who didn't know any better, started to talk to the forein object that stood behind him. The forein object just smiled back in response.
Later that night when his mom was tucking him into bed, he decided to mention his new friend.
"Mom why is there a man standing next to me?" Dan looked up to his mom with curiosity in his bright brown eyes.
Although, daniels eyes were full of life and curiosity, his mom's face held the opposite expression. Her once smiling face turned to a scowl and her eyebrows creased.
"Daniel there isn't anyone standing next to you." Her face then lightened up a bit after she kissed his forjead. She leaned back and whispered, "I guess you made an imaginary friend huh?"
Despite his young age Dan knew that this thing was not imaginary. He didn't know what it was exactly but imaginary was what it was not.
Going throughout his life the gloomy man never left. He stood and watch Dan wherever he went. Dan tried to engage him on many occasions but all he ever did was smile back in return.
The older Dan got the more he learned to hide his 'friend'. He used to mention him all the time to his parents, who just assumed he was imaginary, but one time when he was 12 he overheard his mom on the phone with a doctor telling him that her son wouldn't stop talking about and to someone who wasn't there. After that day Dan knew to not speak of him unless in private.
After this event, his parents congratulated him for getting over his imaginary friend but that was the complete opposite of what was happening.
Once Dan hit his teenage years, he talked to this shadow man every single day and the shadow man never replied but he would sit and listen and smile.
This was all until one day. One day he stopped smiling. He would just frown and wouldn't make any eye contact with dan. This of course made Dan so so sad. He stopped talking to his once recent best friend. Dan's grades started to plumbit in school because all he could concentrate on is why his shadow friend was so sad.
This sadness of both people went on for years. neither boys looked at each other anymore, they didn't smile at each other anymore, it was like a clock that just randomly stopped ticking.
The awkward sadness was going strong until one day when Dan woke up there was another shadow there instead of his normal one. This shadow was not as black and definitely looked more like a human but just a bit faded.
Once Dan truly opened his eyes, the man started talking. "So my name is Chris and you're probably wondering where phil is at." Chris said it like this was his 1000 visit that day but unlike Chris, Dan had his shadow friends' name revealed.
Phil. Phil was his name and for some odd reason it fit him so perfectly.
Chris continued speaking though, not caring that Dan was in a trance over Phil's name.
"As you have been able to tell, Phil has been kind of out of it for a little bit. Normally this doesn't happen in our system but we have had a little glitch. Now normally you're supposed to have one person your whole life but clearly there has been some issues. So would you like to pick you're new guy or do you want us to send you one randomly?"
Dan was completely confused because this was a service. A company. A job. This was a business yet no one apparently had ever seem to notice these people.
Also, there was the aspect of phil, his guy, his shadow, going away forever. Dan didnt want to lose phil. He loved him since he was seen the first day. This would make his sadness worsen to lose his smiley friend.
Dan finally piped up, "what do you mean get a new one? I don't want phil to leave. and also what system is this?"
Chris looked up from the paper sheet of new shadows that he was holding. His eyes glared at Dan for awhile before Chris started speaking with a strong, disappointing voice, "phil didn't tell you much, did he?"
"No. Phil didn't talk at all."
Chris looked back down and wrote something on his paper, probably writing that Phil never spoke once to Dan.
"This service is a service where angels come and watch over a human. Now most people have them, actually almist every single person has them, but only a few people have the ability to communicate or see their angel. We work with God and get messages from him and as God knows all about people's lifes, he knows which people need more encouragement. He knows that you will never have a friend in the human world, so he allowed Phil to show himself. Except something happened with Phil and he become saddened. We aren't sure why though but we are working with him and still want to work with you."
Dan's eyes popped out of his head when Chris, an actual angel, was telling him this. Dan, despite his sadness and loneliness, actually had a guardian angel that also doubled as his friend. His best friend at that.
"Um excuse me Chris, so you are saying that I have a guardian angel? And if phil was meant to be my friend I want him to stay with me. I don't want to lose him. He used to always smile and make me laugh, I don't mind that he doesn't smile anymore or if he always had black around him. I want him to stay mine." Dan said very confidently and stubbornly. He was going to keep his best friend not matter what circumstances there is.
Chris looked Dan up and down, keeping his mouth pushed together. "Well I'll see what I can do."
After that day times got really boring and lonely. Chris didn't come back to tell him if he's getting another angel or of the status of phil. And phil, oh phil, he still hasn't come back. Dan missed his dark angel friend.
The days dragged on and on. It had almost been a year since he's since phil and Chris. He indeed did get another guardian angel, one who said his name was pj, but he wasn't phil, so Dan told him to go away. Even though Dan knew he had just made himself invisible to Dan's vision but couldn't truly go away as this was his job.
Dan started to become careless. He wasn't really sad anymore and he didn't want to hurt himself but if he was crossing the street he wouldn't look both way.
The pain and sadness was never ending until one day. One day when he was waking up for his first day of college, there was a thing sitting on the edge of his bed. He had to squint to see if truly but as he woke up more, his vision got better. He could see every feature of this light, bright shadow. This shadow was the one and only, phil.
Phil was sitting at the edge of his bed, smiling, and actually glowing. Dan jumped out of his covers and ran toward phil. He wrapped his arms around phil and phil just giggled. "I missed you too Dan. I really missed you."
Both Dan and Phil become so close after this. Closer than ever before. Phil told Dan that the reason he got so sad and bad was because he got to close to the devil but now he knew what to do in these issues and that he's sorry for what he put Dan through. But Dan didn't care about that. All he cared about is for the end of the time he was going to be with his guardian shadow.