Drowning in Shadows
An original horror story
Heavy eyelids were Jenna’s enemy. Sleep did not invite the rest it normally promised. Slumbering only opened a door to a dark path she didn’t want to travel. She had to force herself to stay alert. For her sake. For Samantha’s sake. Simple math summed up their precarious situation.
Staying awake equaled life. Falling asleep equaled a fate worse than death.
Rain battered the diminutive house on all sides in a steady drumbeat. Fierce gusts of howling wind rattled every window and the screen door. A power outage stole all light beyond a steady flicker of candle flames.
Jenna’s eyes trailed over to her friend. Samantha huddled on the floor against the side of the couch. Breaths pierced her lips in shallow gasps. Tears escaped from under pinched eyelids. Jenna also sat on the floor, claiming a spot in front of the couch, with both arms wrapped tightly around her knees.
"We need to be brave and fight this," she said. "I refuse to fall victim to a stupid urban legend.”
Samantha shuddered and cracked open her light brown eyes. Dark circles spread under her lower eyelids. Jenna imagined her own blue eyes appeared equally heavy from their shared drowsiness.
Neither girl slept for a minute since shadow people first appeared almost 24 hours ago.
"I don't know how much longer I can stay awake." Samantha spoke in hushed tones as though fearful of being heard. “We can’t survive without sleep.”
"We won't live unless we stay awake." Jenna's soft voice contrasted with her ominous words. "You know if you drift off, they will take you."
Both girls witnessed the aftermath from seemingly innocuous slumber. Six people sheltered inside the house when violent rainstorms and flooding started pounding their city yesterday. Only two were left.
Samantha dipped her chin to her chest.
“The whispers. I can’t …” She hesitated for a moment and then drew in a sharp breath. “I can't block them out any longer."
Jenna’s frown deepened. A struggle she understood far better than she ever wanted. Their words soothed the soul and felt enticing. Their voices were designed to invite sleep. She had to keep reminding herself that listening to the shadow people is how the others met their end.
"I know." Jenna licked her lips and stared straight ahead at the darkened fireplace. “One whispered to me. Their words make sense. But we can't give in."
Silence greeted her words.
She immediately cast her eyes back to their former spot. Samantha’s eyelids had fallen shut again. Her breaths were settling into a rhythm consistent with a person slipping and sliding into a deepening slumber.
No! She can’t succumb.
“Wake up!”
Jenna doubled her fist and punched her friend in the arm. Samantha’s eyelids popped open. She unleashed an angry shout and gave Jenna a hard shove.
“That hurt! What the hell’s wrong with you?”
“You can’t leave me here to fight this alone.”
“I’m not doing this on purpose.”
“This is already so hard.”
“I’m sorry.” Samantha had a defeated look in her light brown eyes. “I can’t force myself to keep staying awake for much longer. No energy drink in the world will change that fact.”
Jenna wanted to curse her friend’s weakness, but she might as well apply the same curse to herself. Her own strength faded as seconds became minutes and minutes became hours. They waged an unwinnable battle against dark entities who owned the upper hand from the start.
None of it seemed fair.
Neither she nor Samantha were responsible for breathing life into this nightmare. David drew a circle, lit candles, and then called forth the shadow people with an incantation. All meant as a twisted joke.
It should have ended there.
It refused to end there.
Six gathered in the room to invite the shadow people to step through the bedroom mirror and enter the real world. David’s laughs soon turned to screams and he got what he deserved. Then three others were also taken in less than 24 hours.
Samantha and Jenna alone had not succumbed.
“Sam, I wish we could erase the past day like it never existed,” Jenna said. “If I had known the truth —”
“What’s done is done.” Samantha said, cutting her off. “I just wish we knew how to send these monsters back to where they belong.”
That summed up a nightmarish dilemma facing both girls. How do you force shadow people to return into a mirror? Failing to find a solution vexed Jenna. Google searches before the power outage — and before their phone batteries died — uncovered no useful answers for undoing the curse they invited.
Applying brute force didn’t work.
Taylor grappled with one until she shattered. Each remnant shard of Taylor then melted into the floor and vanished. No stains or residue remained behind.
Jenna’s eyes grew heavy again. She blinked forcefully to try to keep them open. Samantha crawled around to the front of the couch. She drew Jenna into her arms and caressed her honey blonde hair as they cuddled tight. A moment she dreamed would happen with Samantha but never dared bring into existence. Jenna smiled, tilted her head, closed her eyes, and puckered her lips.
At once, her eyes snapped open. Samantha remained in her former spot against the side of the couch. Head hanging down. Eyelids shut.
Oh God.
We both fell asleep.
Jenna’s breaths escaped from her lips in shallow bursts. She ran both hands through her hair and locked fingers behind her neck. Sleep overtook her only for the briefest moment. Maybe if Jenna forced herself to stay awake until the storm finally broke, it would be enough.
A chance to test her theory never materialized.
Shadows writhed and twisted in the far corners of the room beyond the reach of candlelight. A ripping sound greeted Jenna’s ears. She clenched her teeth. The house itself seemed to tear like a sheet of paper, leaving a giant gash in the air running from the living room ceiling fan down to the area rug in front of the couch. A violent green light emerged from the gash and bathed the entire room.
One shadowy figure stepped out of the gash. Tall and gaunt. Much more than a normal human. A bowler hat adorned their head. Both oval eyes glowed with an eerie hue matching the other light.
Jenna’s heart raced and her lips trembled. She wanted nothing more than to leap to her feet, grab Samantha, and flee to a different room in a different house in a different city. Travel advisories and storm warnings be damned. All four limbs were frozen. Flesh covered paperweights. Leaving her powerless to do nothing except stare at the dark entity drawing closer.
A long arm stretched out toward Jenna. Long spindly fingers poked through holes cut into a cotton glove adorning their hand.
“Sleep is good. Rest is paradise.”
The whispers inside Jenna’s head turned audible. No visible mouth revealed itself on the shadow person’s face. How did they speak?
The air grew heavier and thicker around Jenna. Pelting raindrops and distant random thunderclaps faded into the background like ambient white noise.
Samantha let out a violent groan. Jenna snapped her head over to the side of the couch again. Her friend’s skinny limbs contorted and flailed as a second shadow person jerked her body straight off the floor. Jenna turned away again and dipped her chin as tears trickled down her cheeks, unable to watch Samantha succumb to the same dark fate which the others met. A fate now waiting to also stake a claim on her.
Sleep is good and rest is paradise.
For shadow people who abduct humans and claim their souls.
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Very tense. Nicely done! 😎