Dancing Shadows

It’s about three or four in the morning when she’s awakened out of her slumber from one of the worst nightmares she’s had in a while. Malery lifts the covers and pats the mattress just to make sure she didn’t wet the bed as she so often did. She was a little precocious five year old who often wandered through the morning hours from not being able to sleep. Night terrors is what the adults called the nightmares that haunted her soul almost every other night and tonight was no different, except for what happened to her while she was fully awake.

Malery hops out of her bottom bunk bed, stands in the middle of her dimly lit room and looks around. It’s too dark to sit and play even though the night light from the kitchen reached inside the bedroom. There were still shadows in the corners in which all creatures hid and played. She quickly decided to make her way as fast as she could to the living room to watch some cartoons before her mother woke up. She scurries along making sure not to look sideways into the shadows, each step getting faster than the last until she is almost tip toe running through the dark apartment when finally she reaches the living room.

She comes to an abrupt halt at the entrance as she stares into the candle lit living room. She looks around acquainting herself with the surroundings before entering. To her immediate right was a one seater black couch with a wall to it’s far right. In that corner sat a statue of San Elias El Baron del Cementerio (Saint Elias Baron of the Cemetery) also known as Papa Legba in other cultures, with his candle and his offerings. His shadow danced slightly behind him bouncing in between the cement colored adjacent walls that made the corner he was seated in. To her left was a wall with a centered three seater black couch that faced the black entertainment system. Across the room from her were the windows and black loveseat.

She enters and immediately begins searching for the remote control. Heat rising up her spine as if she’s being watched. She stops to make sure she’s in the living room alone but all she sees is San Elias with his candle and his offerings. Her search continues. She looks on and between the three seater’s cushions and nothing. Her shadow dancing behind her on the floor as she moves about in the candle lit room. She searches on all of the couches, under all of the couches, in between cushions, on top of the entertainment system and nothing.

She stops searching and figures maybe she should begin approaching this differently. She slowly opens up the entertainment system beginning with the right side and makes note of everything that’s in there making sure not to miss the remote. She moves on to the left side and then the top shelves paying much attention to making sure not to miss the remote. Malery makes her way across the living room to the three seater couch and realizes that her shadow is no longer dancing behind her. A little creeped out, she goes to search on, under and in between the three seater all the while paying attention to the changes occurring in her peripheral. She sees a shadow moving across the floor but when she stood up and spun around, no one was behind her. Freaked out, she ran to her mother’s room and banged on her locked door.

“Maaaaaaa! Mamiiiiii! I was looking for the control and I was able to see my shadow and now I can’t see my shadow and there’s another shadow and I thought it was you but there’s nobody around meeeeee!! Maaaa! Open the door please!” Malery banged and banged on her mother’s bedroom door.

“Déjame quieta, COÑO!! Vete a dormir! (Leave me alone!! Go to sleep!),” her mom yelled from the other side of the door, frustrated because she’s awakened from this usual behavior for Malery.

“But Mamiiiiii!” whined Malery, “I had a nightmare ma, please let me sleep with you.”

“NO! Vete pa tu cama ahora! (NO! Go to your bed now!)” yelled her mom.

She slowly makes her way back to the living room and began looking on, under and in between the one seater couch once again, paying attention to her peripheral. Her shadow was no longer visible on the floor but now instead a whole different shadow took over. From the corner of where San Elias’s statue stood, a shadow grew slowly, inching over the surface area of the floor until no light reflected off of it. Malery ran back to her mom’s room and banged on her door.

“Ma please open up! I don’t see my shadow at all!! Let me in!”

“Malery! Ya! Te hable! (That’s it! I spoke!)” her mother sternly yelled from the other side of the door.

Feeling hopeless and alone, Malery went back to the living room where she noticed daylight peering through the windows. Her blood raced, thrusting and bursting a drum like sound in her ears as her heart pounds within her chest. She steps in and all seems to be normal. No shadows on the floor. San Elias’s candle light flickering and softly lighting the room. His shadow dancing behind him on the gray adjacent walls that created the corner in which he sat. And on the black three seater couch sat the remote control, right on top of the middle cushion as if it’s been there this entire time and she had been missing it. She picks it up, sits deep into the three seater’s corner seat, curls up into a seated fetal position and turns on the television.

She dares not look at the corner where San Elias stands but she felt his statue glaring at her cynically. She switched the channel to Cartoon Network where they were playing Cow and Chicken and instantly became engrossed into the show. After a few episodes, she hears the key enter the lock of the front door. The lock turns and enters her mother holding an arm full of shopping bags. Malery is now filled with goosebumps as she recalls the voice yelling back at her from the other side of the locked room door.