Shadow Man (Part 5)

‘Holy shit! Why don’t you just go home and leave my brother alone?’ Jesse stared at his Uncle as the large man stood and walked over to the stairs. Certain steps creaked, as they were made of wood, so he could keep tabs on Uncle Nick’s progress toward Izzy’s room.

Normally, Jesse was rather good at bullshitting—coming up with excuses was often an easy thing for him. But at that moment, the paralyzing shock he felt was keeping him from thinking about anything.

As they say, anything that can go badly will. Jesse saw a small black object in his peripheral vision, and instinctively turned to look at it. He followed what looked like a small cat making a beeline to the kitchen, disappearing beyond the door frame. Immediately after, the hulking shadow figure that had been causing Jesse so much stress since he left the hospital took a wobbling step into the living room, moving its’ head from left to right and back again as if surveying the room. Jesse wanted to scream but was a bit more concerned that everyone else seemed so calm. ‘How do you not see that?’ Jesse yelled inside his own mind.

Minzy began to cry snapping Jesse out of his trance. ‘Babies really can see things adults can’t,’ he thought. ‘Fuck off, shadow man. I’m busy.’

“Hey, Dad? Can I talk to you about something?” Jesse asked.

“Sure, bud! What’s going on?”

Jesse did his best to appear shy. “Um…In private?”

Jesse’s parents gave each other a look as if to say “Oh, shit…”

“You boys go and discuss your ‘man’ problems, while Isabella and I catch up some more,” Jesse’s mom said, shooing father and son away.

Jesse grabbed his father’s hand and led him upstairs to the teenager’s bedroom but left the door open so any noises from Izzy’s room could be heard.

“What’s up?” Jesse’s dad asked as he sat down on his son’s bed.

“Well, it’s about Izzy. He wanted to ask you, but he was embarrassed, so he asked me. But I don’t actually know what to do in this situation, so I was planning on asking you later when everyone went home, but it doesn’t look like that’s gonna happen anytime soon,” Jesse spat the words out quickly, while pacing back and forth. He had never taking acting classes, so Jesse only hoped he was coming off and awkward, or nervous.

“Now, you boys know that you can come to me with whatever problems you’re having.”

“I know…” Jesse mumbled looking at the floor. ‘Please don’t look at the desk lamp’ he thought. Honestly, his second biggest concern was getting in trouble for breaking it. ‘Focus, Jesse…’

“What if, hypothetically…”

“A hypothetical situation that you’ve already told me was about Izzy?”

Jesse’s eyes darted around the room for a second realizing what he said and thinking about what to say next. “Yeah. Okay, so there’s this guy that…kinda creeps him out. Has been for a long time. But there’s no way to get away from him. And…nobody would believe us if we told them what he used to—”

“Is it Nick?” Jesse’s father wore a stern, borderline angry face.

For the second time in less than twenty minutes Jesse was stunned into silence. He wasn’t sure if he made it obvious or not, but now that he had the chance to confess something that had been bothering him since he was in elementary school he couldn’t bring himself to say it. But, in this case, Jesse’s silence spoke volumes.

Jesse’s dad got up from the bed and stomped down the hallway. Seconds later, there was a bang when he kicked in youngest son’s door open to see Izzy in bed, wiping something from his lower lip, and Uncle Nick standing over his nephew.

“Get the fuck out of my house,” Jesse’s father spoke quietly, seething. He didn’t know exactly what was going on, but he never liked Nick, and finally had a reason to kick him out.

“What—” Nick started to speak, but the tone in which his brother-in-law spoke and the look on his face let him know he didn’t want to accidentally escalate things. After all, Nick was one of the few people to see his brother-in-law angry. He might as well be the grim reaper.

“Okay, man. Just making sure Izzy was alright,” Nick said raising his hands as a sign that he meant no harm. “I’m leaving, alright?”

Jesse’s father followed Nick to the front door, slamming in Nick’s face when he tried to say goodbye. Meanwhile, Jesse thought he should have a talk with his little brother.

“You alright?” Jesse asked.

“I’m fine.” Izzy definitely didn’t sound fine. He turned away from his brother, pulling the comforter up over his head. Jesse walked over and sat down on the bed next to his brother and put his hand on Izzy’s shoulder above the cocoon of blankets that Izzy wrapped himself with. A muffled sound came from the inside of the cocoon. “I don’t wanna talk about it. Not yet.”

“I gotcha, bro. But you know Dad’s gonna want to talk about…everything, now.”

“I know.”

“I’ll tell him you’re not up to talk about it just yet. But if you do wanna talk, I’m here for you.”

“Okay.”

Jesse walked towards the door of his brother’s room, but Izzy stopped him before he could leave. “Thanks, bro…”

“No problem, Izzy.”

Upon closing the bedroom door, Jesse looked down the hallway toward the top of the stairs to see the Shadow Man standing there quietly.

“I was wondering where you went.”