The Shadow Man (Part 14)

There is no way that any family would be okay with staying in their house after a loved one was brutally killed in their bedroom. Officer Perez wasn’t surprised to hear that Jesse and his mother, who Perez had learned was named Camilla, decided to spend the next few days in a hotel room. Captain Mercer must have sympathized with them so strongly that he had the hotel room paid for by the precinct. Perez wondered if that was common, or if the Captain had finally gone soft. Jesse’s father Martin chose to stay in the house, and as the crime scene was thoroughly examined, he was cleared to do so. Officer Perez wondered if that was common, too. She had never spent the night in a house after someone she cared about was murdered in it. Maybe, Martin just couldn’t believe what happened. Or refused to…

Officer Perez was meant to be going home. However, even after her shift ended, she couldn’t stop thinking about what Jesse had told her about Olivia also seeing the “Shadow Man” Jesse referred to. Perez wondered if that had something to do with Izzy’s death. And if it did, what condition would her squad find Olivia in?

“This must be what a burglar feels like the first time they go to break into a house,” Perez said to no one in particular. She was alone, after all. She had remembered what Jesse said about the cave on the other side of the woods and felt there might be clues to Olivia’s disappearance there.

“I’ll just wait until I get past the trees to turn on my flashlight. Don’t need anyone catching me stalking through their backyard.”

Officer Perez brought her hand down to her utility belt, wrapping her hand around the textured grip of her state-issued Mag-Lite.

“A flashlight might be a better weapon against a guy made of shadows.”

This might have been true, but she brought her sidearm just in case the shadow person had more substance than she expected him to. To be entirely honest, she had yet to completely accept that what Jesse saw was, in fact, a shadow. People tend to see things differently than they appear when they are scared. It was very likely that he just saw a living person who was covered in the shade of the trees. But, Perez didn’t want to discount Jesse entirely. In her twelve years on the force, she’d seen some weird shit. This would be another of those things to add to her list of things she never thought she’d see.

Perez walked slowly through the woods, careful not to bump into any trees or trip over nothing like they do in horror movies.

“I’m far enough away…” she muttered while retrieving her Mag-Lite from her utility belt. The officer turned it on, sweeping the light from left to right and back again. Part of her was wishing a sign of Olivia, or this shadow man Jesse mentioned, would materialize in front of her; make her job easier.

“Oh, shit…!” Perez felt her heart jump in her chest. She was a bit more than halfway to the end of the forest, happy that she hadn’t walked into any spider webs, when she found a grey piece of fabric with pink and blue stars trailing down one side. Officer Perez had known what it was as soon as she saw it. The drawstrings gave it away.

“Is that a hoodie?”

Perez walked closer to the jacket draped over a bush that was low to the ground. Given what happened to Izzy she didn’t doubt there would be a trap near it. Or under it. Instead of picking it up, Officer Perez took several pictures with her cell phone. When you find a piece of evidence you’re not suppose to move it. Doing so could contaminate it with her DNA, making it more difficult to identify the real culprit.

For the first time since the investigation began Perez felt that she was on the right track. She continued on, looking for more clues as she walked.

“If this is here, then maybe Olivia left her watch on the sidewalk for Jesse to find. She’s left a trail! …Maybe. Don’t get your hopes up. This could have just been a coincidence.”

The Officer finally reached the end of the woods. She stood there for a minute, looking around cautiously. There was no man as far as she knew. But, this wouldn’t be the first time a suspect snuck up on her. Well, tried to. Actually, there was nothing there between the trees and the cave. Perez walked toward the cave, leaning against the left side of the opening as she peeked inside. There was nothing but darkness. And, the smell of iron floating out of the quiet, black hole that resided in the cave. She smelled blood.

Shadow Man (Part 6)

“And you brought friends?” Jesse looked down to see several shadow figures walking around at the Shadow man’s feet. There were seven of them, and they all had a distinct quality that Jesse had never seen before. Instead of the usual creatures that were composed of a uniform darkness, these looked more like smoke. Black at the bottom, lighter toward the top, as if the shadows were evaporating. The three shadows in the front that appeared to be cats of some kind were the strangest, with the likeness of oil being poured into boiling water.

One of the cats slowly walked up to Jesse, circling him and rubbing its face on his leg like a house cat before running away and passing through a wall. ‘So only the big one can break things…’ Jesse thought noticing that he didn’t feel the shadow cat touch his leg. He felt comforted by the idea that not all of the shadow figures could potentially murder him. But only just a little. For a while, Jesse had been wondering if they could somehow shift between normal shadows—or as normal as shadow figures could be—and the solid type that break desk lamps.

Jesse took a small step forward, watching how the shadow man reacted to his movements. By this point, he wasn’t even concerned with the smaller shadows, although part of him imagined one of the cats growing twice its original size and being made of fire for some reason. The shadow man made no effort to move, so Jesse took another small step forward. Still no reaction.

‘Maybe it only reacts when I’m scared?’ The idea crossed Jesse’s mind as he remembered some of the things that had happened in past encounters with the shadow man. Whenever it had taken Jesse by surprise it would move, going so far as to break things when Jesse was the most afraid. But he also noticed that when he wasn’t scared the shadow stood still. Well, the big one did. The shadow cats did their own thing just as real cats would. Then another thought ran through Jesse’s mind: ‘Why cats? I fucking hate cats.’

To test his hypothesis, Jesse walked calmly toward the shadow man, looking at in directly where he assumed its’ eye would be.

‘I’m not afraid of you. I’m not afraid of you. I’m not afraid of you.’ He thought as he came to a stop a foot away from the hulking mass of darkness. ‘But I am a little hungry.’

The two stared at each other for quite some time, Jesse staring into the shadow man’s blank slate of a face. The more they watched each other, the more Jesse noticed two grey specks on the dark figure’s face. They never became any lighter, but they did get bigger. Or were Jesse’s eyes playing a trick on him? He stared a little while longer, watching the specks become the size of a pencil’s eraser. The grew until they were the size of a human’s eyes. As he stared, Jesse couldn’t help but remember something he’d heard someone on a television show say: “The longer you stare at the lights, the longer they stare at you.” Except, in this case, the opposite was true. And it was freaking Jesse out.

“I’m gonna pretend you aren’t real for a while.” Jesse whispered to the shadow man. “I can only take so much bullshit in one day.”

With that, Jesse turned to walk into his bedroom, closing the door behind him without looking. But, just to see what the shadow man did when he wasn’t looking, Jesse opened his bedroom door a few inches to peer into the hall. The shadow man, and all his minions, were gone. Jesse closed the door again, breathing a deep sigh of relief, then stared at his bedroom door for few seconds studying the patterns in the white painted wood; his mind blank. Wanting to think, but not being able to at the moment, Jesse went over to his desk, stood his lamp back up on its base, and brushed the glass of the broken bulb into the trash can on the floor. A part of him wanted to talk to Izzy. The part of Jesse that felt like he was losing his mind. The other part didn’t want to bother his younger brother just yet, so he sat at his desk.

“I’m not even taking the Percocet anymore, and shit’s still nuts.” Jesse told himself. “And now, I’m talking to myself.” He looked down at the drawer to his right where he tossed his prescription. Because it was so full of files, and papers that Jesse never threw away the drawer never closed, the cap of the medicine bottle preventing it from doing so. Jesse pulled the bottle out of the drawer and stared at the label, reading the instructions describing how much he should take.

“Alright, fuck it.” Jesse opened the bottle with a bit more difficulty than he should have had with a safety cap and poured two pills out of the bottle into his hand. He tossed them into his mouth, trying not to think too much about what he was doing. And swallowed them, with some of the water in the water bottle he kept on his desk next to the lamp. Then he took two more pills from the bottle, and took those, too. He took the full amount of Percocet for a day in one dose. Closing the bottle and leaving it on his desk, he stripped down to his boxers and got into bed.

The Pits (Part 8)

Looking down at the stairs, Max wondered how he was going to get to the next floor without being noticed. They were made of wood, probably from the trees from the forest surrounding the house. And, seeing as how the rest of the house looked several decades old, the stairs were probably very creaky. He tried to think back to when the old man went up the stairs in the few minutes before when Max heard what sounded like Gio begging for help. Did the stairs make any noises when he went up them? In his panic upon realizing Gio was still alive, albeit apparently in a lot of pain, Max wasn’t listening to anything other than his friend’s cries.

            ‘I guess it doesn’t matter. I have to get up there one way or another. And the more I think about it the less chance Gio has of survival.’ Max lightly placed his right foot on the first step, slowly putting his weight on it. The old wood made no noise. ‘Maybe if I just climb up slowly I can surprise this bitch?’

            At that moment, there was a sound of something landing on the floor above and rolling around. Max registered that—whatever it was—it was made of some kind of metal as it made a distinctive ting upon impact. ‘Fuck it…’

            Summoning all of the courage he had Max walked up the stairs with his back along the wall to his left. The stair made creaking sounds like he expected they wood, but he no longer cared. Though, he did notice his heart being faster with every step he took. When he got to the top Max’s ears were filled with the pounding of his heart; his peripheral vision being clouded with a similar kind of static old televisions produced when they weren’t on the right channel. For a second, he thought he could even hear the static. Until he realized the sound was something heavy being dragged across the floor. The noise was coming from the room around the left corner and down the hallway from his current position. Max stared down the dark hallway, then down to the table in front of him. There was a crystal ball sitting on a small purple cushion among pictures of what looked like a younger version of the old man, and two women who may have been the murderous geezer’s sisters. ‘I wonder if they were lunatics, too, or if he killed them first.’

Max picked up the crystal ball with both hands, holding it close to his chest as he walked down the hallway to the rooms at the far end. There were two: one directly ahead with a large lock on the knob that sported a keyhole and a number pad with glowing numbers—the only obvious technology in the house, and a room to the right. The door on the right was open. It must have been a big room as the man was still dragging…whatever it was across the room, seemingly past where Max was standing in the hallway.

‘Just look in,’ Max thought to himself. ‘If it’s not Gio, go back downstairs and hide in the vent.’

Trembling, Max closed the distance between him and the open door, slowly leaning forward to peer inside. The room was only a little bit lighter than the hallway, but at least he could see more. The room was smaller than Max first imagined it to be, but there was another doorway at the other side of the room. It was closed. And, as he entered, for the first time Max realized there was a distinctive smell that seemed to emanate from that side of the room. As he got further into the room the smell intensified. ‘Please tell me this guy doesn’t eat roadkill.’ He said to himself. Max stopped, looking around the room. There were much better weapons to use against this guy hanging on the walls. Hammers, electric saws, a chainsaw in one of the corners, and a bathtub full of dirty, brown water with a car battery and jumper cables sitting on a cart next to it. ‘This guy’s gangster.’ Max admitted, although he wasn’t sure he’d like to find out how gangster the killer could be.

There was a sudden gasping sound from beyond the door to the other room followed by coughing. Coughing that sounded like someone was exhaling large amounts of water after being resuscitated from drowning. It started Max. Millions of thoughts ran through his mind; the most prominent one being ‘When did he drown Gio? I didn’t hear any water splashing.’ Remembering that his friend may have been knocked unconscious only minutes ago, Max decided Gio wasn’t awake when he was drowned, and couldn’t fight back.

‘I’m fucking DONE with this,’ Max thought. He held the crystal ball out in front of him and dropped it onto the wooden floor. He then walked over to the large sledge hammer hanging on the wall and waited.

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.”

What Happened on Mom's Birthday (3/3)

Eva and Natasha waved as their parents backed their car out of their driveway before going back inside. The sisters sat down on the couch in the living room, and as Eva reached for the remote to turn on the television, Natasha grabbed her hand to stop her.

“Spill!”

“Where?” Eva asked looking at the part of the couch where their clasped hands rested.

“No, you said you’d tell me what you saw when you passed out on Mom’s birthday!”

“Oh, yeah…” Eva whispered. She really didn’t want to have this conversation, but figured it was going to come at some point. ‘I shouldn’t have told you about it. But I was still out of it, so…’

“Well?” Natasha stared into Eva’s eyes with impatient determination, kind of freaking Eva out.

“First of all, stop looking at me like that.”

“Second?”

Eva though for a minute. “There were…monsters…I guess. Everywhere. I mean, they were human-looking, so I guess they were actually people at one point. But, there was something wrong with them.”

“Like what?”

“Well, they looked like zombies. Straight out of those movies Benji like some much. But they had wings. Bat wings. They were all just moving rocks, or getting punished for not moving them fast enough.”
            “Punished how? Like, they were whipped or something?”

“Or something… One of them was strangled until he stopped moving. And when he started moving again, the leader, or whatever, through him into a huge hole in the ground.”
            “Holy, crap!” Natasha said, incredulous to the fact that this could actually happen.

“Yeah. I never thought I’d see that guy again, but a few minutes later, while the leader was talking to me, he just fell out of the sky and face-planted on to the ground next to the hole.”

Natasha let go of Eva’s hand and sat back. She felt a bit sick at the thought of watching someone hit the ground after falling from a tall place. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know everything, but she couldn’t help listening to it.

“The leader told me that was what purgatory was like. He said it was more ‘hell in a limbo, and nowhere near as hot’. And the people there sometimes would be killed and brought back to life repeatedly just to amuse him.”

“Why would purgatory be so messed up?” Natasha found herself nearly yelling. Eva shushed her. She didn’t want Benji to wake up, much less hear what she was saying to Natasha. He might tell their parents, who would probably send her back to the psychiatric hospital. Eva definitely did not want to go back. To her, that place was like prison: boring, and they decide when you leave.

“I don’t know. It was weird watching him actually do those kinds of things to prove a point. He set a girl on fire; told me she thought she was a witch when she was alive. He crushed a guy with a rock. And then he had someone carve his face off because he didn’t like looking at it.” Eva shivered. “That was the worst part. As soon as it was done, the leader sent him back to work mopping up blood and…other stuff.”

“I don’t want to know ‘other stuff’ means. You can skip that part.”

“Okay. After explaining what happened there, he got really sentimental on me. He said he preferred if people like me wouldn’t show up there. I guess if you kill yourself, no one really knows what to do with your soul because it wasn’t your time to die. He said most of us haven’t proven we deserve to be in hell, and that most of us are good people who felt like we couldn’t handle life. The leader told me he sends as many of us back to…life. Or to heaven to see if we can get in. That’s why I didn’t die. It wasn’t my time, yet.”

“And you weren’t bad enough to go to hell?” Natasha said.

Eva noticed the look on Natasha’s face. The one that said, ‘I’m calling bullshit’.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I’m not saying I don’t believe you…” Natasha started, choosing her words carefully. “But, that’s something I’d definitely have to see to be sure about it.”

“Why did you even ask me about it?”

“Maybe I was just expecting something else. Something less horrible. But regardless of what happened, I’m glad you’re still here with us.” Natasha smiled at her sister, and for once in a long time wasn’t reminded of songs about depression.

“I am, too,” wearing her own bright smile felt great for once. She felt like no one was judging her anymore. Like her family was finally comfortable around her. Ever since her last suicide attempt, Eva had felt as if everyone, particularly Natasha and Benji were judging her for being weak. She was glad to know that wasn’t the case.

“Hey, guys,” Benji said as he walked into the living room.

“’Sup?” Natasha said, trying to be cool. “Isn’t that what the kids are saying these days?”

Eva and Benji laughed.

“Nope. But nice try, sis.” Benji said pulling something from behind his back. “Uh…this is for you, Eva. I drew it last night.”

Eva took the piece of paper from her brother. “Thanks, bro.” She chuckled.

“You better be glad you’re actually talented, Benji. I told Dad you were up all last night drawing, when I’m ninety-five percent sure you were playing videogames. I even told him about the thing you were drawing for him for his birthday.”

“Good thing I actually drew something for his birthday,” Benji said as he walked towards the kitchen. “Hey, Eva. If you need someone to talk to, you’ve got me.”

Without waiting for her to answer, Benji disappeared in the kitchen, no doubt to forage for food like a normal teenager does.

Eva looked at the picture her brother drew, and she could swear her heart skipped a beat. “No. Fucking. Way.”

“What? Is it a family portrait, or something uncharacteristically adorable of him?” Natasha asked trying to look over Eva’s shoulder.

Eve turned towards Natasha and held up the picture.

“This is him! It’s...it’s the leader.”

Natasha looked at the very well-drawn picture. “That’s him?”

“Yes!”

“God, he’s one ugly mofo.” Natasha said as she stood up. “I’m going to get something to drink. Want someth--?”

Eva and Natasha stared at each other in silence. Both were making an effort to understand what was going on, and could see the gears turning in the other’s head. Finally, Eva asked, “How does he know what the leader looks like?”

What Happened on Mom's Birthday (2/3)

Eva and Natasha looked behind them at the front door. The opaque window had been broken, and an arm surrounded by the sleeve of a black winter coat was swinging back and forth. It seemed to be reaching for the door knob, but the window was much too high were them to reach. Natasha screamed, and ran up the stairs to their parent’s room. Eva, now very unstable, wobbled over to the front door, and locked the deadbolt as her sister forgot to when she came home. Eva sat with her back against the door and tried to catch her breath. Things seemed to be going too fast, and her vision was unfocused.

She had a clear view to the back door, where the first person in black was standing. With the drugs and booze in her system she could see two of everything. Which made watching the person raise a rock and smash the sliding glass door to millions of pieces much more frightening. As the glass rained down on the hardwood floor, Eva screamed for Natasha to hurry up, but there was no response.

“Natasha?! They’re in the house!”

‘Wait, why am I scared?’ Eva asked herself. ‘I wanted to die. And I’ll probably be unconscious in a few minutes.’

“Natasha?” Eva tried to force herself to sound calmer. “I love you, and I’m really going to me being your sister.”

Tears began to roll down her cheeks again as she realized what she had just said. It seemed to solidify that, regardless of how it happens, she was going to die today.

“When you get the chance, get out of the house and run to the neighbor’s, okay? They’ll be able to help. And call Mom and Dad. Don’t let them walk into this mess. Not on Mom’s birthday…”

Eva looked up the stairs, slowly turning her head, and ignoring everything else around her. She didn’t even notice most of it. The person at the front door was gone, but their ring had fallen on her and bounced off. The side door in the kitchen was now open, and a shorter person was walking slowly towards her. The person at the back door was almost in front of her. And there were lights shining into the house flashing red and blue. None of that mattered.

At the top of the stairs, slowly walking down, was Natasha. Only, all her clothes were entirely black, and her face was distorted, apart from Eva’s already slightly impaired vision. In fact, Eva could only tell that it was her sister because of her distinctive hair style, similar to Rihanna, circa 2008.

The person in front of Eva stopped down, much faster than they could walk, and placed his hand under her chin. They lifted her chin up to make her face them, and Eva finally realized. It was her father. But, as soon as she reached that realization, her father had thrust is index finger into her mouth, as far back as he could, only pulling his finger out when the alcohol and remnants of the Vicodin that she took earlier forced their way back up.  Heaving several times, she realized Natasha was holding her phone and the half-empty bottle of Vicodin. Eva had forgotten to put it back in the medicine cabinet. But she did remember to read to bottle, and forcing someone to vomit was not how you’re supposed to handle an overdose.

Despite her father’s efforts, Eva fell unconscious against the door.

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“Don’t forget to lock the door, Tasha,” said Bernice, looking back at her daughter.

“I’m not going to forget,” Natasha sighed. “And I won’t let Benji stay up too late.”

“Okay,” Bernice smiled. “I wasn’t going to ask you to do that, but he does stay up too late some nights.”

“He’s a teenage boy, Mom. That’s kind of their thing.”

“It’s those damned videogames,” Marcus mumbled as he put his jacket on. “I wish he’d do something more productive, one of these days.”

“He works a lot on being more creative,” Natasha offered.

“Videogames can’t help with that, can they?” Marcus asked.

“I’m not sure, but he draws a lot. He’s pretty good, too. Maybe you should check them out?”

Marcus considered this silently, with a growing smirk on his face at the thought that his son might be doing something useful in secret. “Maybe. When he opens the door to his room.”

Eva laughed at that as she walked down the stairs. “Are you guys leaving, already?

“There’s my other favorite daughter!” Marcus said Kissing Eva on the forehead and giving her a bearhug.

“If we don’t go now, we probably never will. But we’ll be back in a few hours.” Bernice said.

“Where are we going, again?” Marcus asked for the third time that day, and got the same answer.

“Don’t worry about it,” Bernice giggled. “Where’s Benji?”

“He’s taking a nap,” Eva replied. “He was…up all night,”

“Videogames?” Marcus raised an eyebrow.

“No, Dad! He said he was making something. For your birthday.” The inflection at the end of Natasha’s sentence indicating that Marcus should know better.

“Oh, well, as long as he’s doing something good with his time. Maybe he’ll work for Disney, or something.”

“Probably, not,” Eva laughed. “His work is more realistic. They look more like he took pictures with a camera, and less like he drew them.”

“Is that so? Maybe I’ll have to ask to see them when we get back from our date,” Marcus made a sad attempt to wiggle his eyebrows at his wife.

“Stop, Marcus. We’re already married. You don’t have to try to be funny,” laughed Bernice.

“You laughed, though. So, it worked.”

Shadow Man (Part 3)

The sound of the doorbell ringing sounded throughout the house, and Jesse sat up on his bed groaning. He hated that his parents invited so many people over to him now that he was back from the hospital. ‘Hopefully, not too many people are coming. All the really needed was a call from my parents that I’m not dead,’ he thought to himself.

Jesse looked up to see his younger brother standing at the top of the stairs, in front of Jesse’s open door. Izzy turned and looked at Jesse, “I don’t have to go down there, too, do I?”

“Boys! Come down, already!” their father’s voice came from downstairs.

“That answer you question?” Jesse asked, chuckling a bit at the timing.

“Yeah, yeah…”

To his surprise, the first person there was his friend, Olivia. She said a quick hello to Jesse’s parents, and turned to go up the stairs to Jesse’s room.

“Hey!” Jesse said happy to his best friend after his two weeks away.

Olivia nearly tackled Jesse when she ran over to hug him tightly. “You really are back!”

“Um, yeah. Didn’t my mom tell you?”

She did, but, I mean, you got hit by a car. A CAR!”

“Yeah, Liv. I was there,” Jesse laughed, grabbing Olivia’s hand. “Come on! I’ve got something to tell you!”

Jesse glanced up at his dad who was wiggling his eyebrows at his son, insinuating a romantic relationship between the two teenagers. Jesse glared at his dad before turning around and walking up the stairs. When he and Olivia got half-way up, they heard Jesse’s dad yell, “Use protection!”

“What?” Olivia was flustered. But not as much as Jesse whose face was almost the same color red as the shirt he was wearing.

“Don’t listen to him. He’s on drugs, or something,” he said trying to diffuse the situation. It didn’t help that they could hear Izzy laughing from downstairs.

The two entered Jesse’s room, and Olivia sat down on the bed, crossing her legs in front of her. Jesse closed the door behind him as quietly as possible. He didn’t want his mother yelling at him for closing the door with a girl in his room. Again.

“So…” Olivia started. “What’s so important that you couldn’t tell me over the phone, and you have to close your door like you broke into your own house?”

Jesse chuckled a bit, looking at the floor. He had only recently realized that he felt as if he was going crazy because of the shadows he’d been seeing.

“Maybe they shouldn’t have let me out of the hospital,” he said slowly.

“Why not? Are you still in pain, or something?” Olivia began to feel a sense of panic.

“No. I’m…seeing shadows, everywhere. Most of the time, they’re just in the corner of my eye, and they disappear when I try to look at them.”

“Yeah, they’re shadow figures,” Olivia stated as if everyone should know that fact.

“What? So, you’ve seen them, too?”

“Nope. But they’re scientifically proven to be caused by blind spots in the back of people’ eyes.”
            “Do they ever show up in front of you?”

“No, that’s pretty much impossible. Why?”

Jesse stared Olivia in her hazel eye, waiting for her to understand. He imagined the words to describe his situation in his head, and telepathically sending them to his best friend.

“You can see them…in front of you?” Liv said as if saying it too loudly would cause the world to collapse in on itself. And for Jesse, maybe it already had.

“Just twice. The second time, it knocked over my lamp,” he said pointing at the desk lamp lying on its’ side amidst a puddle of broken glass from the lightbulb. Jesse still hadn’t cleaned it up. Part of him was too afraid to go near it, thinking something invisible might pick it up and throw it into his face. But he also wanted proof, no matter how admittedly weak that proof was.

Olivia looked over to the lamp, and back at Jesse. “Are you sure you didn’t just bump into it?”

            “I’m sure, Liv,” tears began to pool in his eyes, and form trails down his cheeks. “You see why I don’t wanna tell anyone else?”
            “Yeah, I do. But, I don’t think you need to go back to the hospital. You’ve been through a traumatic incident. Just give yourself time to…I don’t know, get used to being home?”

            “I’m sorry I told you,” Jesse said, whipping the tears away. “I should’ve known nobody would be leave me.”

            “It’s not that I don’t believe you, but…” Olivia paused to think of something to say. “Yeah, actually, I don’t believe you.”

            Jesse felt a little shocked but tried not let her know that.

            “You’ve never lied to me, and I don’t think you’d start now. And if you were lying, I’m sure you say something that’s actually believable.”

            Olivia began to pace back and forth, thinking. She only stopped when she had come to a conclusion. “You may not be lying.”

            After what she had just tole him, Jesse was even more shocked to hear her say that.

            “I mean, there are reasons that people can see things that other people can’t. Maybe it’s a supernatural thing. Or, maybe getting hit by a car caused some type of mental illness.”

            Jesse didn’t like that idea. “I got hit by a car and now I’m crazy? Great.”

            “Mental illness and being crazy aren’t the same thing. Read a book.”

            “It’s right there,” Jesse pointed towards his window, behind Olivia. Not taking it too seriously, she turned to face the window. There it was, just outside the window. It looked like it was grabbing onto the frame of the window on the outside, looking in. Just as featureless as the other shadows. Or maybe this was the same one.

            “I have to pee,” Olivia said, not entirely sure if she was surprised or scared.

            The shadow person moved its head presumably in her direction when the door to Jesse’s bedroom opened.

            “Hey, guys. Mom said w—what the actual fuck is that?

The Pits (Part 5)

More than caught up. Max did a complete three-hundred sixty degree turn to see that he and Simon were surrounded. By this time, Simon was beginning to hyperventilate, but forced himself to slow his breathing. ‘At least Gio got away,’ said Max in his head. Although, he’d much have preferred to have escaped as well. He put his back to Simon’s. The last thing he wanted was for one of them to grab him, even though it was likely to happen anyway. Being back-to-back with Simon was like being backed against a door with another killer on the other side. In other words: not much help.

“What do you guys want?” Simon asked, shocking everyone including himself. Just a minute ago, he was having trouble breathing correctly.

“We want you,” said one of the other cultists with a very feminine, but firm voice.

At the same time, all of the cultists pointed at Simon and Max, repeating the words “We want you”, although they were out of sync. Their voice started low, but grew louder and louder making Max somehow feel as if walls were closing in on him. It didn’t take long before Max couldn’t take it anymore.

“SHUT UP!” he yelled before grabbing Simon’s trembling arm and attempting to run through the circle of people towards the part of the trail that turned left at the fork. He barreled through the two people who had tried to create a wall by standing side-by-side. Simon wasn’t as lucky. The same people grabbed him by the arm that Max wasn’t holding onto, and pulled him away from Max.

Simon’s arm slipped out of Max’s hand, and before he could go back and reach for Simon one of the bigger people in the group picked his friend up and threw him over his shoulder.

“If you want your friend, you’ll come with us,” the big one murmured in the deepest voice Max had ever heard. They stood there staring at Max to see what he would do.

“Run!” Simon yelled to Max. “It’ll be harder for them to catch you now!”

“Bu—”

“Fucking GO!”

For once, Simon was the scariest person around, yelling in a way that Max had only heard once before. Flashbacks of his parent’s worst fight resulting in his father finally leaving them for good played throughout his brain before One of the cultists took a step forward to reach out for Max, who took a quick step back.

“Sorry, Simon…” he said as he turned and ran down the path. ‘I guess I can leave my best friend. Must not be as good a person as I thought I was.’

“Why would you tell him to leave you?” the leader of the cult asked while watching Max run downhill and out of sight.

“No sense us both getting caught,” Simon quietly answered. “Besides, I was keeping something from him, too. So, I guess he and I are even.”

“And what would that be?” The leader turned to face Simon as he lay draped across the large man’s shoulder.

‘I wanted to die, anyway,’ Simon thought returning the leader’s gaze. “Don’t worry about it.”

“It seems to me as if you have a death wish. Most people in your situation would be kicking, screaming, and begging for their friends’ help.”

“I take it you’ve done this before,” Simon said trying to sound as defiant as his friends had earlier in the evening.

“Yes. To everyone here. And it was done to me, as well. I needed to be shown the righteous path.”
            “Great…”

“I would like to show you the same, if you would allow me. We can mentor you and show you how to live a better life.” The cult leader held his hand out toward Simon as if to shake his hand.

Simon stared at the hand in front of him for a second before glaring at the leader.

“I’d rather die.”

The leader lowered his hand, and began walking away. “Gabriel?”

“Yes, Father?” the large man carrying Simon turned to face the leader as he walked away. The man apparently known as Father stopped suddenly, and without turning around, spoke.

“Give him what he wants.”

Father continued to walk back into the woods with a small group of other members of the cult. The other cultists continued after Max, leaving Gabriel alone with Simon.

“Well, come on th—” Before Simon could finish his sentence, Gabriel grabbed Simon by the legs, reared up, flinging Simon over and face-first into the ground. Simon was now blinded with dirt—not that he could see much before this incident—and refused to open his

eyes to face his murderer. He felt Gabriel stomp of his stomach a few times, then felt the large man’s breath against his face.

            “Too bad I have ta kill ya,” he began. “Your kinda cute.”

            Simon could barely cough out a response before Gabriel rolled him over and slammed his face into the rock next to Simon’s head.

            Once…Twice…

            Gabriel then picked up the rock and bashed it against Simon’s major joints, breaking several bones in the process. Simon didn’t feel all of the pain that was being inflicted as he passed out when Gabriel broke his right arm. And soon after, he slowly stopped breathing.

            Gabriel giggled. “When you’re dead, you’ll be a pretty present for Father. Maybe he’ll hang ya up like he did the last guy and I’ll get ta see ya some more.” 

New Schedule for Uploads!

Hey, Everyone!

Having deadlines makes me more likely to post on my Blog, so from now on there will be a new post every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Each of those days will be dedicated to a different story.

Mondays: The Pits, Wednesdays: Shadow Figures, Fridays: What Happened on Mom's Birthday. When a story is finished I'll start posting a different story on one of those days.

Thanks to everyone who reads my blog! I'll try to stay as consistent as possible. If you want to stay updated, you can flow me on my blog, or on my twitter, the link for which is at the end of this update.

--GhostWriter

Link to my Twitter:
www.twitter.com/SeeYouInHell7

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.”