The Shadow

A Terrible Dare

It was a dark, breezy night. It was the kind of night where a person could walk outside for hours and think about their sad, miserable lives while havingtheir handsin their pockets. Max, Cindy, and Chris were sitting on the couch watching TV, or should they say, a screen that plays every boring show known to man kind. They sat there, changing the channel, waiting for something interesting to pop up until Cindy broke the silence.

"I know what we can do tonight."

"Oh yeah, what?"

"There's this house 30 minutes from here that's about to get torn down in the morning. We should check it out."

Max was skeptical about the idea, while Chris thought it was just one of Cindy's usual pranks.

"Seriously", Chris said with a tone of 'not her bullshit again'.

"It'll be fun, and we might get to see a ghooost."

"Pfft, yeah right."

Chris didn't believe in the whole ghosts and spirits ordeal. He thought they weren't real and that the concept only existed for scary movies and books. But, if it got him out of the apartment and away from the boring TV, then he was on board. Max didn't fully believe in them. He thought it was a werid subject, but nevertheless, he respected them. He knew there were forces that shouldn't be reckoned with, even if those forces were hard to believe.

After a few minutes talking about going or not, they decided to go. They left the apartment and started walking to the broken house, but something was off. Max noticed the street that the house was located in, it looked like it was once 669 street, but something must've hit the sign because now it looked like . . .

"666" Max whispered under his breath.

He felt unsettled at the street sign as he stared at the number that represented something dark and evil. He wondered if they should continue further.

"There it is!" Cindy said. It was loud enough to be heard, but not so loud to be considered a yell. Either way, it made Max jump.

"Hold on guys. Maybe we shouldn't do this."

"What, why?"

"Because it's a bad idea and we have a project to finish."

"Stop making excuses Jones, besides the essay part is easy, we can finish it in 15 minutes." Cindy said.

In the end, they got to the house and entered. Max immediately got bad, evil vibes from the house. And if he was being honest, the kitchen was the only part of the house that still looked good.

When they started going up the stairs to the second floor of the creepy house, Max felt a chill go down his spine and decided he didn't want to go through with it. He told Cindy and Chris that they should go back and leave the house.

"C'mon dude, don't be a baby. Besides if anything happens we'll offer Cindy as a ransom for sparing our lives."

"Fuck you Chris"

Of course they didn't want to go! They're so desperate for a thrill they'll risk their lives for it. But Max wasn't asking them. He kept telling them over and over that they should go while also pushing them down the stairs and out the door. He tried to hide his fear by saying that he just wanted to go home and finish the project so he could play Resident Evil 4.

Well, that's it. They were outside.

Max suddenly felt good and peaceful when he stepped outside, as if he was at a calm forest where the sun shined. He was walking out for a bit until he stopped. He looked down to find a metal stick on ground. He picked it up and for some reason decided to turn around to the house. What he saw, would scar him for the rest of his life.

Max started at a 7 foot tall shadow that had glowing red eyes and a white evil-like smile. His pupils shrunk as the bad feeling he got was justified. His skin turned pale as if the color in his skin dissapeared.

Quickly he ran for two blocks, speeding past Cindy and Chris, not looking back with adrenaline in his veins and a will to live in his mind. He kept running until he fell to a stop when a truck passed by. The time it took him to try and calm down was the amount of time it took Cindy and Chris to catch up to him.

*heavily breathing* "Max, what the hell!?" "Why did you speed run like a maniac?!"

Max didn't know if Cindy and Chris would believe him. But seeing no other option, he told them the truth.

After telling them what he saw, they looked shocked and confused. They tried to tell him that it was over now and that it probably wasn't real. Max nodded and they walked home.

"Of course they didn't believe me. Who would? But no one can tell me what I saw wasn't real. After all, I saw it and they didn't. I guess this is just one of those cases where you need to see it to believe it."