Shadow Man (Part 2)

The moment he got home, Jesse ran upstairs into his bedroom. It was great to be back. He couldn’t wait to sleep in his own bed again. But it was only a little after 10 o’clock am, and he wasn’t tired. ‘First thing’s first,’ Jesse looked at the label on the bottle of meds he was given. He made a mental note to look up information about Lortab some other time, and put it in the bottom drawer of his desk. The drawer where he put things he didn’t want his parents to know he had.

 He then picked up his cell phone off of his desk and checked the messages, inwardly thanking his mother for plugging it into its charger while he was away. Thirty-two texts, nine missed calls, and over fifty emails. All of the calls were from his parents when they heard about the accident he was involved in. Despite calling so many times, they only left three messages. No doubt because they already knew what happened and were calling to see if Jesse would even answer.

Most of the texts Jesse hat received were from his friend, Olivia. Seventeen of those messages were from her. The rest were from Jesse’s other friends, his younger brother, and s few relatives who had heard that he was in the hospitals several days after the fact. Jesse sighed.

“At least they didn’t leave messages. I’ll just send a group text to my friends, then text Olivia back. Everyone else is gonna be hear, later, anyways.”

As he typed a message into the box at the bottom of the screen for his friends to see Jesse felt a presence behind him. It felt similar to the feeling people get when they’re being watched. Except it was accompanied with a feeling that someone—or something—was reaching out to touch him. Jesse didn’t want to turn around. He wasn’t afraid, but felt that he didn’t want to see what was behind him. For the first time in his life, he felt like something dark was following him. ‘I hope a serial killer didn’t sneak into our house. I just got out of the hospital!’ Jesse thought as he forced himself to turn around.

“Why did I turn around?”

Jesse found himself staring at a tall, black shadow. It was shaped like a man, and seemed to exist entirely on its own. It wasn’t cast across the floor and walls like any other shadow. It stood in front of Jesse silently staring. It had no eyes, but Jesse could feel its gaze looking him over.

And then it was gone. The whole experience lasted no longer than four seconds. It didn’t fade out, or dissipate the way a cloud of smoke would, which is what Jesse was hoping for. It was just gone.

“Should I not have turned the hallway light on?”

Jesse looked through the door to his room, slightly to the left. His brother, Israel, stood leaning against the door frame with one of those sarcastically concerned expressions that he was known for. ‘So, that’s what happened…’ Jesse realized he’d been saved by his little brother. ‘I didn’t even notice the lights change.’

“Nah, it’s fine. Why?” Jesse asked as he sent the message on his phone.

“You looked like the light from the hallway bothered you. Did those doctors turn you into a vampire, or something?”

“I bet you wish they did.”

“Yeah, kinda. It would be cool to have a vampire for a brother. You’d be so much cooler than you are now,” chuckled Israel.

“Yup…” Jesse quickly searched for Olivia’s contact in his phone, sending her a quick message that he was home, and asking if she could come over to his house.

Israel saw the serious look on his older brother’s face, and, this time, was legitimately concerned. “You know I was just joking, right?”

“I know, Izzy. You’re never serious about anything,” Jesse said as he tossed his phone onto his bed behind him.

Izzy looked down to the floor feeling badly for annoying Jesse. “Sorry…”

Jessi sighed, again. “Come here, bud.”

Izzy walked over to his older brother, who pulled him into a long hug.

“What’s wrong, Izzy?”

“Mom and Dad made it sound like you might…not be coming back,” Izzy began to tear up. “I mean, you were kinda mean sometimes, but I didn’t want you to…” The younger boy trailed off.

“Die?” Jesse was surprised. Sure, they were bothers, but they had never been close. So, Izzy’s reaction to his return from the hospital caught him by surprise.

Izzy let out a small whine, “Yeah,” before sobbing into the crook of Jesse’s neck.

“Dude, calm down! I’m not gonna die, alright? Everything’s fine now,”

The two ended their hug, and Izzy took a couple steps back.

“Now, go clean yourself up. We’ve got people coming over in a little bit. Can’t fucking wait,” Jess added that last par under his breath.

“I’m going, I’m going.”

As Israel left the room, Jesse realized that same uncomfortable feeling he’d had earlier was back. Although, this time, it felt a bit stronger than last time. Jesse saw a dark object in his peripheral vision, and quickly turned his head to the right just in time to see the same large shadow man flash in front of him swing its arm and knock over the lamp from his desk.

A few seconds later, Izzy popped his head back into his brother’s room, still wiping away tears, asking, “You okay?”

“Yeah,” Jesse said catching the breath he didn’t know he was holding. “I’m good, bro.”