The Shadow

Setting his phone down, Arthur clicked off the light and collapsed onto his back. He was feeling heavy, and very much ready to sleep. Perhaps it was a little hot, but he was sure he would be out in moments. A light breeze was rolling in, but brushing only the duvet, he felt like popping the other window open, but he was far too comfortable.

Could he reach from here? Maybe, but he couldn’t widen the window from his position. His hand dropped and he turned his face back into the pillow. Not long now. Stop trying to adjust the room around you and just relax. What time did he have to be awake tomorrow? What day is it? He gave up trying to pin it all down, his mind was whirring, but his body was exhausted…

Oh, Arthur was awake, did he just wake up or was he never asleep? He didn’t know but all of a sudden he was very much alert. But something felt a little bit odd…

It was cold. His toes were slightly exposed and it had taken him a moment to realise that they had numbed. Kicking slightly, he worked to get the blood pumping into his foot, meanwhile reaching for his phone. How on earth had the temperature dropped so much? Arthur clicked on his phone and his eyes looked up past it.

Both windows were open.

Had he opened both of them before he got to sleep? He wasn’t convicted either way, so he looked back down at his phone. 3:15. It was an extremely awkward time to be wide awake. Arthur quickly googled the outside temperature. 18 Degrees Celsius. His brow furrowed, it was icy in here! But there was no mistake, it was his area, and the temperature had barely fluctuated all night.

The moonlight was pouring in, so he had no problem fumbling for the window latch as he began pulling it back down. Looking up, he searched the skies. That’s odd too. It was completely clear, well, cloudy. It was a blanket of matte black right across his field of vision. Where was the light coming from?

He peered to round the window frame but couldn’t see even a crescent moon poking through the mass of darkness. Exhaling, Arthur tugged the other window down- and stopped.

Looking through the bottom left corner of the window pane, he spotted a silhouette on the far side of the street. He hadn’t noticed before, when he’d been looking above the rooftops. The streetlights were off, but the ominous moonlight seemed to light the figure up from the far side. Even so, Arthur couldn’t make it out anything about this person, nothing except the open umbrella that was as black as the night sky.

Peering a bit closer, he seemed to make out the shape of a long skirt that hovered above the pavement. All this time, maybe a minute or two, the figure who looked like a woman hadn’t budged. He would have guess a statue but she had not been there before.

Arthur squinted as a rush of cold air hit him. He looked down. The windows were closed! His eyes widened slightly and he looked back up, the woman’s head was moving, slightly rotating as the umbrella made way. Her head started to peak out and Arthur inhaled sharply, ducked under his window. He was breathing heavily, he didn’t know why but he didn’t want to be seen.

He waited for about 5 minutes before standing up straight and peaking over the ledge.

She wasn’t there.

There was no rush of footsteps, no slam of a car door, she was just not there anymore.

He was shaken. Why? She was just some random woman standing in the streets. Arthur tried to put his finger on it, something was just ever so slightly off about that woman. He glared at the floor and racked his brain. Of course, the wind, the moonlight. It had felt like there was nothing outside his window, the whole street and above, nothing but her. No sound, no light, no movement. The thought of being seen… it would was like he was the only thing she saw too.

He opened his eyes. What? Hadn’t he just been awake, he rushed to his bedside and clicked on his phone. 3:22. He looked out the window. Nothing. He breathed a long breath and looked around the room. Something just felt so… skewed. At least 15 minutes had passed, he had thought, but he’d apparently just fallen asleep and woken up in 7 or 8 minutes after he had first awoken. Shaking his head, he unlocked his phone and tapped around, trying to take his mind off it.

About half an hour later, he felt himself start to need the loo. Throwing his phone down onto the bed he jumped up and walked to the door and across the hall to his bathroom. As Arthur relieved himself, he thought about the woman. There was something odd about her, but people are constantly making there way back from stuff in town, even at this hour. He pushed his hands under the tap, turned it off and opened the door to go back to his room.

He stifled a yell of fear.

Arthur was hyperventilating, he shivered and gripped the stairs as he stared at the bottom step. There had been a silhouette, he was certain of it. The same silhouette.

The umbrella was erected and he was sure she had been looking his way, although what he had seen was far too dark to make out any facial features. He slowed his breathing and collected himself. The brain is capable of all kinds of imagery in the dark, and the woman was already in his head. Getting up slowly, he moved back to his room.

Immediately he treaded towards the windows and looked out to the pavement. The woman wasn’t there, but a boy replaced her. He froze. He looked young. 8 or 9, he looked to be in a very old fashioned school uniform, with shorts and heavy shoes. Just another person on the street, but he was too young, and he too was completely stock still. Not so much a twitch.

Lightening flashed and Arthur fell back, but not before he saw the boy was staring straight up at him! His eyes weren’t quite visible, and the rest of him hadn’t moved, but there could be no mistaking the direction of his gaze.

Suddenly, the boy was moving, his shoulders were hunching, and falling. Was he laughing? He may have been able to tell sooner had he been able to see his face, but it was clear now, he was laughing so much that he was shaking. He was doubling over now, clutching his stomach, and Arthur just started to hear a quiet, but deep cackle. Almost lost in the wind, but clear nevertheless.

The wind? He looked down and saw that the windows were wide open, as if in that moment. Is curtains were billowing in, flicking into him. He looked back up and saw the boy, he was no longer laughing but Arthur could see his eyes. White, with little to no pupil. Suddenly the whites of teeth emerged from his silhouette, pushing wider into a grin.

Arthur’s eyes widened and he staggered back, pulling the curtain down with him. As the cloth fell, he saw that the towering figure of the woman stood in the corner of his room, he tried to gasp but it never made it out. A hand from the periphery if his vision came in and clamped over his mouth, another pair pulled him backwards into the darkness.

Arthur’s eyes began to droop, between blinks he stared at the woman, she hovered over him as the darkness shrouded in to his frame of vision. His eyes shut completely as her hand reached for him.

He woke up. Blinking, he glanced at his phone. 3:34. He looked out the window, nothing, not even moonlight. Falling back onto his bed, Arthur stared at the ceiling, he didn’t sleep.