Shadow Man (Part 9)

Izzy stood next to his window, staring out at the trees in the back yard. He’d heard something that made him feel uneasy. It sounded like a muffled scream. At first, he wondered if anyone else in the house heard it. But, the faint sound of his parents who had decided to continue their argument in the living room told him that—in the very least—they didn’t. He doubted his older brother heard it, too. The last he knew, Jesse was sleeping. Izzy had been woken by a nightmare and, despite being thirteen, felt too afraid sleep alone. He went to ask if he could sleep in his brother’s room that night, but he saw the open bottle of pill on his desk and knew it wouldn’t be easy waking Jesse up, so he went back to his own bedroom, lying awake in bed. After a while, he’d managed to fall asleep, but the scream he’d heard woke him up again.

            ‘It wasn’t in the back yard,’ Izzy thought to himself. ‘It sounded too far away.’

            Taking one of the notebooks and his favorite blue pen from his backpack, Izzy began to write a note for his parents, and older brother. Given what he knew his parents were arguing about he figured one of them was going to come u to talk to him about…issues he’d been having with his Uncle. ‘Not like they can’t just ask Jesse. He dealt with it, too,’ Izzy thought before beginning to write his note.

            Only two words into writing his letter, there was a quiet bang coming from the inside of Izzy’s closet. He looked over, noticing the doors were shaking a bit. Then, there was another thump causing the doors to rattle some more.

            ‘In a horror movie, I’d die if I went to open the doors.’ Izzy thought about all the things that had happened that day, particularly the shadow man that appeared in Jesse’s window. Instead of walking up to the doors to his closet, Izzy slowly backed away from the door while moving to the right. There was a gap between the two doors through which Izzy tried to look into his closet. At first, he didn’t see anything. He stared for a few minutes, wondering if he should get a flashlight when a round white ball appeared through the gap in the doors. Izzy had no idea what the object was, until he saw the white spot disappear and then quickly reappear.

            It was an eye. Izzy turned to run for his bedroom door, but something wrapped around his mouth, and right ankle. After a few second, he felt something else encircle his torso and pull him backwards a bit. Izzy fought to reach the door, not understanding how something that barely felt real could have so much strength. He looked down to see solid black chains slowly wrapping around the rest of him, making it much more difficult to pull away.

            Izzy let out a muffled cry as he attempted to throw himself at his bedroom door, reaching out with his left hand. He didn’t make it. The chains were stronger than Izzy was, pulling him backwards. The doors to his closet flew open, and then shutting when the chains dragged him inside.

            He did what he could to force the chains to release him, but in the darkness of the closet, Izzy could feel the chains envelope his entire body several times. He struggled for a few moments before there was a snapping sound, and all was still. Izzy could no longer breathe, but he could feel a warm liquid pouring out of his stomach. He could see it, too. Through the crack between the doors, he could see red liquid oozing out and creating a large puddle on the floor just outside of his closet. And then, he felt nothing at all.

            “…up. Get up…” there was a sound that Jesse couldn’t quite place. It sounded as if he was underwater. “Jesse, get up!”

            ‘Wow. Even in death, people like to rush you…’ Jesse told himself.

            “Jesse!” The sound was clearer, now. “Oh, please wake up!”

            Taking a second to think, Jesse realized that the voice he was hearing sounded familiar, in a good way. And then he realized: he could think. His eyes snapped open when he figured out what was happening. He wasn’t dead.

            He started blinking rapidly to clear the blurriness from his eyes before looking around to see his parents and Mrs. Sandoval standing over him. In the corner of his eye, he could see red and blue flashing light getting closer. Jesse sat up.

            “What happened?” He took a second to examine his surroundings. He was lying on the sidewalk, exactly where he’d found Olivia’s watch. ‘How’d I get here? I was in the woods…wasn’t I?’

            “Are you okay?” Mrs. Sandoval asked Jesse. Looking her in the eyes, it was obvious that she had been crying for quite a while. That’s when Jesse remembered why he was outside in the first place.

            “I’m fine. Did you find Olivia?” Jesse asked, speaking quickly.

            The adults all looked at each other, then back to Jesse. His parents shook their heads. Mrs. Sandoval began to cry again.

            “No, but they’re looking,” she said as clearly as she could through her tears.

            Jesse held up the watch that he was still holding. He’d squeezed it so tight at one point that the glass on the clock face crumbled, cutting his hand.

            “Where did you find that?” Mrs. Sandoval asked.

            Jesse looked down at the ground. “Right here…”