Terror Tales

SHADOWS

    It was warm under there, eyes shut tight, breathing in his own hot moist respiration over and over as he clung tightly to the edging of the thick cloth. He shook and his heart beat uncontrollably, through every pore of his being. He didn't care though, not in the least because here, he couldn't see it. No, not here, not beneath the blanket. Here, somehow, he was safe. He knew it didn't make any sense but it worked and as long as it worked it would be his sanctuary. It was a nightly ritual the run. The run from the hallway to the warm bedding, but he knew, he just knew someday he wouldn't make it.

     He was christened Joshua David and was born nine pounds and twelve ounces, not a small baby by any sense of the word, but once he reached age three things changed. From that point forward he became a slight sallow child, even bed ridden for a while. Now continually cursed with Insomnia and night terrors to the point that he remained sickly. He was a good child though and never gave his parents a word of trouble except at night. Every night when nine o'clock came and he was again ordered into the room and every night in vain he fought them on this prospect. He had told them a hundred times why, but they never believed him nor even seemed to care, and after a short while they insisted it was just a childlike ploy to say up for a little longer. But it wasn't.

     Just because you don't believe in something, doesn't mean it's not real. It was there, there in the corner of his room. It was always there. If you walked past it you may never see it. If you were not listening just right you may never hear it. But it was there and if you looked just right and had your mindset tuned just so. Then it all became horribly visible and once it was visible, it was always there. With Its constant moans and cries, its strange human like movements visible one moment then lost within the shadows of the room the next. This faint twilight apparition moved, huddling in the corners of his room, waiting, just waiting. What was it was waiting for. Why didn't it just do whatever it was going to do and be done with it? This worry and constant stress of the unknown weighed heavy upon him every night. Joshua, would hum, sing loudly or recite sweet stories to himself. Trying anything in insufferable and vain attempts to drown out the sounds and formations of mental objects that choked his thoughts.

     Joshua lay there, nested in his sanctuary again. Listening to the crying, eyes peering just above the hemline of the blanket. He watched the shadow in the corner as it writhed and pulled, trying it seemed to get tighter into the corner.

"What do you want?" Joshua screamed out.

But there was no reply, just the consistent crying and sorrowing. He couldn't take it anymore, no, not another night, no more. Joshua tore the covers back and leapt from the bed, now mere feet from this horrific vision.

"What do you want?" he screamed a second time. He took a single step forward and the shadow twist and rose, in and out, fading and forming and the moans and cries seemed to grow louder and louder.

"What do you want from me?" Joshua pleaded

"Answer me." Joshua said reaching out in an attempt to grab the faded form.

The Shadow then rose and fell, pulling itself tighter to the wall, suddenly within the grey, eyes open wide and staring.

"No, it screamed, go away, you're not real, go away ghost go away."

"Ghost?" Joshua said, "Ghost?" He looked down at his hands and body it was almost formless like a shadow in the night.

And he screamed!

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This book is the work of fiction, any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictionally. Other characters, places and events are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2015 by David Brown

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