Hear No Evil

Chapter 3

The darkness was familiar but sometimes turned. It changed. So full of fear, of terror, he'd cry and cry and rock back and forth, would try to hide but had nowhere to go. It felt like someone was in that small room with him, but no one was ever there. 

He didn't know what ghosts or spirits were. He didn't know that there could be something after death, what death even was. All he knew and believed in was the Shadow Man.

The Shadow Man would come when he was least expecting it, when he was half asleep, when he was reaching for the cans or bent over, rubbing his aching stomach. He'd come when the pain was too intense to ignore, when the tears wouldn't stop pouring out.

The first time Nico saw him, he screamed so loud and so full of fear, They came running into his small room. Shadow Man was in the corner, inhumanely long arms reaching for the cans, mocking Nico's earlier actions, his legs bent and twisted and not even holding him up. He wasn't touching the floor. His arms were longer than Nico's body.

They were even afraid. But as soon as they caught sight of him and the can was pushed from the shelf, Shadow Man disappeared. Nico could remember Their curses, Their screams.

The first time he saw Shadow Man was the first time he saw light. They pulled something out of Their pocket, pushed a button, lit up the small little room and caused more pain than he could ever imagine.

Bright. Too bright. His eyeballs felt as if they were leaking out, dripping down his face with the tears. He could imagine it vividly, smell it, hear Their screams again.

Then everything went dark. He slept. He woke to the sound of his door opening and the yells to empty his bucket, no light, his eyeballs intact, no Shadow Man there but that can missing from the shelf.

/\/\/\/\/\/\

Dr. Solace pulled his phone from his pocket and turned the screen on before holding it out. "Was this the thing they used? Is this what caused the light?"

Case 142 looked up at the swinging lights on the ceiling. The rays of pain they caused. How he had slowly become used to it. The small shadows that would creep over them if he tried hard enough.

The lights flickered. Dr. Solace also glanced up at them.

/\/\/\/\/\/\

They never spoke about Shadow Man around him, didn't even seem like it had happened. But when They were with him, when They were watching him empty his bucket or giving him his food, the shadows would move and They'd get nervous. Worried. They'd rush anything, would even empty the bucket Themselves if it meant getting away faster. Shadow Man made them nervous, but Nico slowly started to get used to him.

He learned not to be afraid. Because Shadow Man would try to knock down cans to him, and sometimes would succeed, but even when they worked together they couldn't get them open. During the Second Time he'd run through the house with him, up and down the hallways, his long arms stretching across the walls and knocking around the creaky chandeliers.

They saw. They plotted.

The long arms still scared him, no matter what. Their inhuman proportions. The way Shadow Man's legs would look broken. The wrong ways they'd bend. How he couldn't control them but he still moved wherever Nico went. How cold it got around him. How he'd expand when They tried to do anything against him.

They first brought in a large book covered in dust. Nico couldn't see it well, he couldn't see anything. They had lights. In Their hands and on the creaky chandeliers. But when he finally found the courage to peek through his fingers, after they read things that didn't make any sense, he'd see Shadow Man rise over the wall, long arms expanding, covering the kitchen, broken legs seeping blood from the cracks and the creaky floorboards.

They ran. They didn't lock him back in his room. He wasn't sure where They went, but it was the longest he had in the house alone. 

He didn't like how the chandeliers hurt him now, how bright they were, how his eyeballs burned and screamed. How he had to cover them if he got too close. How he hid in his small room anyways because it didn't have the light.

But then he got curious. His door remained open. He thought about love and momma. Wanted to see if Shadow Man would help him get her.

"Mister...Mister Shadow Man...can you help me get my momma?"

It had been the first time he spoke in years, since he was down there with her, since he could ask for lullabies and songs and what happened to Bianca. His throat ached and his eyes watered, and coughs burst out of his vacant chest.

Shadows covered the creaky chandelier outside his room. He took a step out, then another, saw Shadow Man against the wall, holding a long arm out.

I'll save you