The Shadow (Ep. 6, Pt. 2)

Well, after all the excitement, the atmosphere seemed to calm down, and things were back to a normal feeling. Zayedie stood in the kitchen, and while putting away groceries, she stopped and turned around to face me while placing her left hand on her left hip.

“Rebecca, what kind of noise was it that you heard again?” she asked, looking curious as to what it could have been.

“It was a loud bang. Like something had either fallen, or someone had hit something,” I said as I sat down in a small white metal kitchen chair.

“Well, there is nothing here, so who knows. Why did you not go and see what it was?” She said as she turned and finished putting stuff away.

“Because I’m too chicken, and plus I have heard all the stories of the antique furniture, and it’s somewhat pretty creepy. Of course, I was little when I heard those stories, so that is probably why they were scary,” I said with a laugh but felt uneasy. “Maybe we have a ghost.”

“Oh, hogwash,” Zayedie said. “The little dresser in your room has some history. I bought it years ago while we still lived at the other house, way before you were born. It is around two hundred years old or more at the most.”

“Well that’s creepy enough, and it just had to be put in my room… ugh,” I said as I got up to do some dishes. “I remember the story of the creepy little hairy thing that was seen sitting on the corner of the dresser.”

“Why yes, that was your uncle that saw it when he was younger. He said he threw crayons at it, and they went right through it. Hit the wall behind it, he said. He said it looked like some sort of little evil creature, but he only saw it that one time.”

“Well good, maybe I won’t see it because I don’t want too,” I told Zayedie as I went on to do other chores around the house, so she would not have to do so much.

It is true about hearing the different stories about the furniture and the different experiences that some of the family had experienced. So, with the darkness of the night approaching, I chose not to think of that stuff. Off to bed we went and as I gott ready for bed, I had a slight feeling of being watched. No one was in my room but me, so I just brushed it off as some of the thoughts from earlier trying to seep in. I turn the light off and crawled into bed. On occasion, I had the the feeling of not being able to move in bed or everything shaking when it probably is not at all. Just strange feelings and sensations while in my bed, in the dark. The moon must have been shining due to the window shade having a light glow to it. Soon I fell asleep, but not for long. There was the feeling that someone was standing there watching me sleep. It was like they were right there close to my face. As I awoke from my sleep, and yes, I was asleep until now. I looked at the bedroom window and half of it was blocked out. As I stared at the window, I could see the outline of something standing there. The top of this shadow looked like there was hair, but it stuck out from the shadow-like short points like somebody had a bad hair day. I never could see a face; it was just all black and it just stood there like it was watching me. This scared me so bad I could not move, could not scream—just lay there and wished it would go away. I pulled the covers up to my face and closed my eyes tight. My breath was quick and short, all while I repeated to myself, “If I close my eyes it’ll go away, ff I close my eyes it’ll go away.” I repeated this to myself enough times that I eventually fell asleep.

The next morning, I opened my eyes and looked around my room. There was nothing there to see except my room. I found Zayedie downstairs in the kitchen cooking breakfast.

“Ok, the creepiest thing happened last night, and it scared me so bad,” I told her as I sat down.

“What? Well, why didn’t you say something? And what happened?” Zayedie asked as she kept cooking.

“I tried to scream your name, and nothing came out. I could not move either. There was something standing in between my bed and the window,” I said as I took a sip of some orange juice.

“What? You were dreaming, I’m sure,” Zayedie said, while serving her usual breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon with her famous (at least by me anyway) biscuits.

“No, I was not dreaming, I was wide awake, just as I am now,” I told her in a seriously no-joking tone. “I want a night light to go into my room so at night my room won’t be totally dark. I do not want to see that shadow again, it really freaked me out.”

“A night light, oh my Rebecca,” Zayedie said with a slight giggle and a sigh. “Ok, I’ll get you one.”

When we went to the store on the very next trip, Zayedie indeed bought me a night light for my room. Although I never figured out what the shadow really was, if the night light burned at night, then I never saw anything. This is not to say that a loud bang or two could not be heard, or that the window shade never flew up for no reason; I believe that the small antique dresser that was in my room may have been the cause, but no one really knows that. I never told anyone about the shadow, and after some years of being away from the house, I thought that maybe it had been just my imagination. I ended up going back to live with Zayedie for a while and ended up sleeping in the other front room that had a cute little brass bed in it… along with, yes, some antique furniture. My at the time boyfriend came to visit and well, guess where he got to sleep… ha ha, in my old room. How lucky he was, better him than me. He never knew about the shadow either, in fact, I had somewhat forgotten about it. So, after he had laughed at me for even using the night light, I didn’t tell him about keeping it on either.

We all crashed for the night in separate bedrooms, and all was quiet for the most part.

“REBECCA!!! REBECCA!!! Come in here,” Somebody was yelling from the next room with a scared tone in their voice. It was coming from my old room. I got up and went to the room as the yelling and eventually whimpering continued. I opened the door and turned the light on.

“What in the world are you yelling about?” I said seeming irritated because I got woke up. “Hush, you are going to wake everybody up in the house.” When I got a good look at the whimpering mass of flesh that was sitting straight up on my bed. He was white as a ghost, with eyes as big as saucers. He was pointing toward the window and stuttering while trying to get his words out.

“It was r-r-right there,” He said or tried to as he pointed at the window. Of course, when I looked there was nothing there.

“What was right there?” I asked.

“I d-d-don’t know. I-i-it was tall and solid b-b-black. A tall sh-sh-shadow.

“What did you say?” I asked slowly not believing my ears. “A tall black shadow?”

“Yeah, even th-th-though I called your name, it still st-st-stood there. It di-di-did not go away until you put the light on,” Said the stuttering mass of ghostly white flesh.

“Uh ok, well remember you picked on me about having the night light on… now you know why,” I told him as I closed the bedroom door and went back to the other front room. The next morning over breakfast, we told Zayedie about what happened. I also told her that she was the only person that I had ever told the story too, about seeing a tall black shadow in my room. Now Bobby had seen, it so now I am convinced that I really did see something. After this, I never saw the shadow ever again. Makes me wonder if what I saw was just a taller version of what my uncle saw when he was younger. Well, we’ll never actually know, but hopefully, it is gone for good now.