She woke each day and smiled at the shadow in the corner of her room.
It was a ritual. A thing that made the shadow less looming in the dark of night when it seemed to stretch and pinpricks of light pierced it like long, grinning teeth.
So she smiled every morning. And it smiled every night.
And she lived a life of peace and kindness, as those would do her harm glimpsed a gleaming grin in the night and were never seen again.