The Shadow in the corner of my room

Ever since I was a little a kid I’ve always noticed that there was a shadow in the corner of my room. It’s never done any harm to me or even tried to scare me, but it always stands there as if staring at me with curiosity. At first when I was a kid I would tell my mother about it and she would just tell me that it was my mind playing tricks on me and that I shouldn’t let it bother me. I was never scared of it in fact I took comfort in knowing it was looking at me it almost felt as if I had a friend that I only could see, so naturally I started talking to it. Each night my mother would come to tuck me in, she would kiss my forehead and tell me goodnight; she would then turn the lights off and I would see him appear it would always make me smile. As soon as my mother would leave the room I would start to talk to it with excitement.

“Hi, how are you tonight?” I would usually ask.

It nonmoving would never respond but I found it to be okay I would just continue asking it questions.

“Why do you stand like that” me wondering of its odd posture.

Once my mother heard me talking to it and she rushed in to the room concerned looking around as if perhaps an intruder had snuck in.

“Who are you talking to?” she had asked.

“My friend, it’s in the corner” I responded back.

My mother slowly turned her head towards the corner of my room and she paused. I don’t know if she saw it or not I just know her usual dismal of my friend now left her quiet. I remember her shaking her head in disbelief and then rubbing her eyes, she then quickly turned on my bedside lamp, light showering my room and my friend disappearing.

“See there’s nothing there” my mother aggressively told me.

After that night my parents got me a small night light that illuminated the corner of my room and I didn’t see my friend for years him slipping away to the back of my mind, as if it was solely a part of my imagination. As the years passed I had forgotten about my old friend that was until about a year ago; now me in my teen years. At first I was taken aback by it’s presents, I had completely forgotten about it so to the say least I was a bit frighten when seeing it.

“Shit!” I remember saying out loud.

“Oh yeah, you, I forgot about you” I told it.

After the sudden shock wore off I went about my business not giving the shadow in the corner of my room any attention, you see I’m one of those lucky few that grew up with genetics on my side, I was popular. I didn’t have time to talk to imaginary friends; I had real friends and I had real girlfriends, I didn’t have time to waste on talking to some shadow in the corner of my room. For some reason going to sleep each night I almost felt as if it were mad at me, for me ignoring it all these years.

“Leave me alone bruh” I told it.

Eventually I bought one of those big obnoxious looking flower trees and sat in the corner of my room to obstruct the view of the shadow and it worked it was gone. I was going off to college soon so I didn’t care if it was still there behind the plant watching me, I just didn’t want to see it, well that was until one day I unfortunately did.

I always told me friends about the shadow and most of them didn’t believe me most told me to shut up with my nonsense so I would offer for them to come over and show them, some took the invitation and when they would come over they would try to explain it off with some scientific explanation,

“It’s your curtains man its giving off some shadow”…

“No it’s a reflection of some sort I’ve seen Youtube videos about this”…

I got several answers from different people them not knowing how to explain the entity, but I knew it was a ‘thing’, once a friend now more like an annoying cousin that never leaves. The only person that seemed to ever take the shadow serious was Kayla.

“Dude, we have to do a séance or something it’s probably a stuck soul between realms; we have to save it” she told me.

I had no interest in saving it or interacting with it anymore, for all I cared it could sit in the corner for an eternity alone; that was its business. Though I took the opportunity to get closer to Kayla she was gorgeous after all and inviting her over for some ridiculous séance would be the perfect excuse to get her alone in my room.

“Séance? Is that were we strip naked and yell ‘Hail Satan” I mocked the idea back at her.

Her eyes narrowed with a bit of disdain and I saw that clearly my response had gotten under her skin, perfect I remember thinking.

“No dummy, it doesn’t work like that we only can do it on certain days and in about a week the moon aligns perfectly with the stars giving access to the Centaurus gateway” she eloquently responded back.

“Wow, you’re really into this stuff huh?” I asked her.

She nodded her head in confidence and I found that to peak my interest.

“Have you ever heard of the ‘mirror game” she asked.

“Is that where you stand in front of the mirror and say ‘BloodyMary’ 3 times” I asked back with a bit of befuddlement.

“Something like that, it is a kids game but it’s based on a real ritual and that would be the one we will use” she told me with incredulous eyes.

I felt a bit apprehensive seeing how enchanted she was with the whole ordeal, but I liked her and I wanted to use any chance to get closer with her so I agreed to her silly ritual.

“Okay, let’s do it, I mean let’s do the ritual” I said facetiously intending it to be an innuendo.

“Okay” she replied back with a smirk on her face shaking her head in humor at my 2 meaning suggestion.

We planned on meeting at my place in 2 days this gave her enough time to make sure to perfect the séance and it gave me enough time to prepare for our future date. I cleaned my room from top to bottom making sure to get rid of all my old fast food bags from underneath my bed, I even organized my closet just in case she decided to light some candle in there. Lastly I removed the plant that laid barrier between me and my old friend; I didn’t want Kayla thinking I was some prick.

The night came and I was elated at the prospect of having Kayla in my room alone, I even paid for my parents to go out to dinner with money I’ve earned during summer gigs; I told them it was a gift for being the best parents that I could ever have. I sat on my couch counting down the minutes on my watch waiting impatiently for her to arrive, it was almost as if time were messing with me, taking a sweet pace for the minutes to fade away. My anxiety was at an all time high and I didn’t know why, I mean sure I liked Kayla but I’ve been out with plenty of chicks and I’ve never gotten this nervous before but this time something was different, something was scratching at the back of my mind telling me to do something and I couldn’t quite figure out what that was. I ran upstairs to my bedroom and looked for it in the corner of my room, there it was as usual; I angrily approached it.

“Listen here whatever the hell you are, I really like this girl, you better not creep her out or swear to God…”

‘Knock, knock, knock’

The knocking at my door interrupted my brutal diatribe and with real glee and a pep in my step I ran back downstairs to let Kayla in. Right before opening the door I took a deep breath and calmly gripped the brass door knob in my sweaty hand, and turned. There she was standing there with an oversized backpack strapped to her petite body, looking up at me with a enchanting gaze, her beautiful eyes could literally melt a glacier.

“Dude you gonna let me in or what?” she asked irritated at me just staring at her for several seconds.

“Sorry, yeah for sure come in, I’ve been a little off all day for some reason” I told her.

“Perfect, that’s what happens on days like this” she replied back.

As she entered my house I could see the wonderment in her eyes almost as if she were a kid entering a candy store, she looked around and touched almost every item within her arms reach as she walked across my polished hardwood floors. She came to a picture that laid on a small table next to our couch in the living room, it was of me and my parents; she brushed her fingers across the frame as she looked at it.

“Where’s you parents?” she softly asked.

“There out for the night, we’re alone” I replied back with a cheesy grin on my face.

She rolled her eyes and smiled.

“Where’s your room?” she then asked.

“Upstairs, come on, I’ll show you” I told her as I grabbed her hand interlocking my fingers with hers.

As we went up the stairs my anxiety had gotten worse and that scratching that invaded my mind earlier had turned into a horrendous clawing, it made me stop in the middle of my staircase.

“What’s wrong?” Kayla asked with a bit of concern.

I hesitated for a moment trying to catch my breath before I responded, I knew how stupid I was being; I wasn’t going to let this moment slip away from me.

“Nothing, I think I ate something bad earlier or something it’s like I have some bad heartburn” I told her.

She squeezed my hand tenderly and then caressed my shoulder with her other free hand. We continued up the stairs and approached the doorway to my room, I reached out to turn the light switch on but she stopped me.

“No, don’t!”

My hand eased off the toggle switch and my arms fell by my waist side, we walked into the dark and I didn’t know what to expect. I sat at my bed hoping Kayla followed me but instead she looked at it, she could see it, she walked towards the corner of my room. My hopes of all this séance nonsense being a charade for me and her to get closer quickly dissipated as she began talking to the shadow.

“What has happened to you, we’ll save you don’t worry, we’ll help you” Kayla told it.

“Uhmm are you good” I asked her.

Unless my ears were deceiving me I could of sworn I heard her weeping softly to herself.

“Okay Kayla you’re kind of freaking me out” I told her.

She finally turned to me, tears gently slipping down her rosy angelic cheeks. I stared with a bit of bewilderment and before I could say something she dropped down her over-sized back pack that was once strapped around her to the floor. She started to pull out candles and setting them around the room.

“Do you know what you’re doing?” I asked with concern, my anxiety shredding my insides.

She said nothing; just continued setting the candles and then lighting them. She then pulled out some weird looking powder and started throwing it on my floor.

“The fuck Kayla” I yelled out with frustration.

Again she remained quiet and started mumbling some words to herself that I couldn’t quite make out.

“Kayla” I cowardly whimpered out.

She just stood there next to the thing in the corner of my room continuing to chant out loud to herself.

“Kayla” I once again said as I started to walk closer to her.

“psssppssspssssppssss” Kayla continued to whisper to herself.

I reached out to grab her shoulder.

“Kayla, come on stop trying to freak me out”

Before I was able to grab her shoulder she quickly turned to look at me, startling me causing me to fall backwards to the floor; me nearly missing heading my head on the edge of the bed.

“Jesus!” I yelped out.

“Where’s your mirror” she demanded to know not even concerned with my fall.

“What mirror” I responded back with irritation, ready to call it a night.

“I told you we needed a mirror to do the ritual” she said.

I got up from off the floor and went towards my dresser and grabbed a handheld mirror that I usually used.

“Here” I said while handing her the small mirror.

“No! We need a mirror big enough where we can see our bodies. Don’t you have a full length mirror or something?” she asked while seemingly to be stressed.

I had to think for second, for some reason we didn’t really have a lot of mirrors in my house I didn’t know why I just knew that my mother didn’t like them. The only one I could think of is the one in our downstairs bathroom; it was a decent size mirror big enough for both our reflections to be clearly seen.

“Our down stairs bathroom has a pretty big mirror” I told Kayla.

This time she grabbed me by the hand and dragged my downstairs with rapid pace.

“Kayla, let’s just call it a night; I don’t want to do this” I told her.

She just ignored me and kept pulling me down the stairs. I finally had to forcefully pull my hand away from hers, causing her to flinch.

“Just stop okay!” I demanded.

She then grabbed both my shoulders and reached up to kiss me surprising me completely. As her face slowly pulled away from mine I was left with such passion and bliss, it almost felt as if I was able to breath for the first time and I savored every bit of oxygen.

“Whoa” I remember saying.

“Can you relax now, I promise after the séance we’ll watch a movie or something upstairs, okay” she said.

I have to admit, I was sold because all I could think about was me and her together watching some cheesy Netflix movie, so I agreed.

“So where is the bathroom” she asked now knowing she had me in the palm of her hand.

I pointed and she once again grabbed me by the hand and stormed towards the bathroom. She set out more candles and then once again pulled out the mysterious looking powder spreading it all over the the small room. She then turned to me with a serious gaze.

“Okay look, whatever you do don’t let go of my hand okay; if you let go we will lose our connection. Also when I tell you to just stare into your own eyes and don’t look away; okay. This is very important are you ready?” she asked with such a serious tone.

Honestly I was a bit freaked out but wanted to get this over with so I responded back with “sure”.

Kayla began chanting some weird language that I couldn’t recognize she then grabbed my hand interlocking our fingers.

“Okay now stare deep into your eyes” she commanded.

We both stood there in the dimly lit small bathroom and just stared at our own reflections for what seemed to be hours. The longer I stared at myself the room seem to fade away into darkness and soon everything started to become a bit hazy, finally I broke my gaze away from the mirror.

“Okay Kayla, this is stupid we’ve been standing here for like 30 minutes” I said but then noticed it.

I turned back to see my reflection and realized it wasn’t moving, it wasn’t shadowing my own movements instead it was just staring intensely straight ahead.

“Impossible” I mummer-ed to myself.

I reached out to touch the mirror with curiosity.

“Don’t”

A hand came across swatting my down, it was Kayla she was now awake as well, which made me feel a bit relieved.

“It worked, where on the other side of the mirror” she cryptically told me.

“I can’t believe this now wha…” before I could finish my question Kayla was running out of the room leaving me alone. Freaked out I followed her and saw she was headed back upstairs; I grabbed out to stop her wanting to know what the hell this place was.

“Kayla stop! Now tell me what the hell is going on” I demanded to know.

She sighed, not wanting to be interrupted in her journey but with me gripping at her shoulder tightly she had no other choice.

“Okay, this is what I like to call on the other side of the mirror. It’s like our world but slightly different. It smells different looks slightly different and time doesn’t exist here, what you think might be days here is mere minutes from where we came from” she said to my disbelief.

“Wait, you’ve been here before” I asked with astonishment.

She remained quiet not even bothering to look up at me.

“Okay how do we get back?” I wanted to know.

“Listen we have to get back together otherwise one of us might get trapped here. When we’re ready to go back we just get back in front of the mirror and stare at yourself, have you ever suffered from sleep paralysis?” she asked.

“Sure” I told her.

“Well in the same way you slowly start to move again, is the same way you wake up out of this place, you’ll feel it; just stare into your own eyes. But remember we have to leave together” she told me.

I let go of her, I was left with bewilderment and I dropped to my knees feeling as if I was going to vomit. I could see Kayla running up the stairs towards my room; well I guess you could call it that. After taking several deep breaths I started looking around the living room; it was different I could sense it. It smelled almost like stale cardboard, I can’t explain it, and it seem darker even though the lights were on. I stood up and walked towards the photo of me and my family that sat next to my couch, picking it up I realized I looked the same but my parents faces it wasn’t them.

“Adam! Come quick” I heard Kayla calling for me, I dropped the photo and ran upstairs.

“What happened?” I exclaimed after bursting through the door.

Before Kayla could even explain anything there it was; the shadow that laid in the corner of my room but it wasn’t a ‘it’ it was a ‘he’. It was a young looking boy no older than 11 and he was chained to the wall, a collar grotesquely strapped around his neck cause him to hunch over; finally realizing why it always stood like that.

“What the hell” I squealed out.

“Hurry we have to get him out of here, help me, find something to break these chains” she told me.

I continued staring with disbelief ignoring her request.

“Come on! Help me we don’t have much time” she growled at me.

I snapped back to my senses and ran towards them; I instinctively started to pull on the chains.

“I can’t leave” the boy said causing both me and Kayla to stop.

“What why not? We gotta get you out of here” Kayla told the boy.

The boy looked up at both of us and I could clearly make out his face, it was pencil thin; he was extremely malnourished, dark rings sat underneath his eyes and his voice sounded as if had been a smoker for the past 80 years.

“Daddy won’t like it if I left” the boy said.

“The fuck” was the only words that escaped my mouth.

“Who are you talking about” Kayla asked the boy.

Before the kid could get a chance to respond we heard the voice, it came from downstairs. The hairs on the back of my neck stood and I was terrified.

“Kayla, w-w-we gotta hide, come on; come on” I demanded.

I could hear the most disgusting footsteps treading up the stairs, with every step I hard a heavy squishy thud ring throughout the house, whatever the hell that thing was it was huge. I grabbed Kayla and forcefully pulled her into the closet, the beast’s voice still calling out.

“Where’s Daddies boy?”

Finally the footsteps stopped and I heard the door break open.

“Where’s Daddies boy?” the creature called out again.

“Here he is Daddy” the boy screeched out.

Kayla slightly opened the door to get a peak of what this creature looked like and when she did she began to scream, luckily I was able to close her mouth shut before any sound escaped the small closet.

“Shhh” I whispered to her.

The beast continued talking to the boy and then finally left we could hear its heavy footsteps walk away; what sounded like it went towards my parents room. I was in shock, I didn’t know what to think but Kayla ran out of the closet towards the young boy once again.

“Kayla we gotta go come on before that thing comes back” I said.

“We can’t leave without Kyle” she replied back.

I paused, how the hell did she know this kids name.

“Wait you know this kid?” I asked with astonishment.

Then we both raised our heads up in a moment of horror, we heard the creature snoring, it was grotesque gurgle sound.

“Kayla how the hell do you know this boy?” I demanded to know.

She broke down and started to cry, she looked up at me and pleaded with me to help her.

“He’s my brother” she said.

My mouth dropped opened from shock. I couldn’t even fathom a response my mind travelling a million miles an hour plus I couldn’t think with that sound coming from my across the hall.

“Before you and your family moved here, me and parents rented this house. I was always into scary things especially witch craft. I was convinced that there other realities and spirits all around us, my older brother Kyle always laughed at me, he called me names, I would tell him to shut up but he always had my back I loved him. One day I read about the “mirror game” on the internet and I wanted to prove to Kyle that other worlds existed so I set up everything that I needed to, to ensure the ritual would work. I told Kyle about it and once again he laughed but he didn’t laugh for long. We stood in his room, this room, in front of his full length mirror and performed the ritual. We made it here to this side of the mirror, I was delighted and gleeful; Kyle couldn’t believe what he was seeing. We first explored around the house having fun seeing how different this world was but that’s when I told Kyle I wanted to explore outside see how different the world looked, Kyle told me not to but I didn’t listen. He followed me of course, he didn’t want anything bad to happen to me. It was about a block away when we both saw it, we couldn’t believe of our eyes it looked like a monster from our worst nightmare and it turned to us. It chased us but Kyle was faster than me, I tripped and fell to the ground, the thing was about to grab me but Kyle came back; as the thing grabbed him all I could hear him scream to me was ‘run’ so I did. I ran back inside the house and up to the room and escaped back into our world.” I couldn’t believe what Kayla just told me.

She cried even louder falling to her knees in such remorse me standing there just staring down at her.

“I didn’t mean to leave him, I was scared, he told me to run. I always promised to come back for him but I didn’t know the ritual could only be done every ten years, I’m so sorry Kyle” she said while reaching to embrace him, his face stoic and emotionless.

“I, I don’t know what to say” I empathically said.

“This is your house right, then grab something that can break these chains please.” Kayla begged.

“Kayla, that’s not your brother anymore; look at him” I said.

Her face dropped with utter sadness, I could see the defeat in her eyes and a feeling of heroism overcame me.

“I think my father keeps some bolt cutters in the garage” I told her.

She raised her head and smiled at me, hope restored. I could still hear the heavy snoring coming from my parents room. I crept towards the staircase taking every step with as much caution as possible not wanting to awake the creature.

‘grrrrrrr’

The snoring intensified triggering my anxiety, I only had six more stairs to go.

‘creeeeeeekkk’

“No!” I whispered out loud, it was stair number 4 I had forgotten had loud it was but luckily the snoring continued. I headed towards the garage, it was still so unbelievable how different this world was. Even in the garage I could hear the beast, I found the cutters and nervously headed back towards the stair case. Walking past the living room I once again saw the photo that I dropped earlier of me and my parents. I bent down to pick it up; staring at it again I was left with amazement of how I looked the same but my parents didn’t and that’s when I realized, the snoring had stopped.

“Why are you not in your corner!” a monstrous voice rang out.

I looked up to the top of the staircase and there ‘it’ was a nightmare that I wish I could forget. A hideous beast that was massive, its skin resembling a slimy substance similar to a snail. Its mouth laid across its torso as if its stomach controlled its body. It had no visible arms but antennas protruding from its back waving around as if searching for something. I froze in horror and dropped the bolt cutters to the floor. It stormed down the stairs sounds of those squishy footsteps inundating the air and I ran; back to the bathroom. I shut the door behind me and locked it as quickly as I could.

“What are you doing out of your corner!” the beast yelled out at me again.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, okay, okay, stare at your eyes” I told myself as I saw my reflection in the mirror still staring straight ahead.

I locked in on my eyes but it wasn’t working or perhaps I was too nervous and out of frustration I punched the mirror and then everything went black. I don’t know how much time had passed but I woke up on the bathroom floor, my eyes exhausted as if I had slept for hours and my head pounded. I noticed shards of mirror were on the floor the mirror was broken and that’s when I saw Kayla, she was still staring straight ahead at her own reflection in the cracked mirror.

“Shit, Kayla!” I had forgotten about her.

“No, no, no, no, snap out of it come on” I pleaded slapping her trying to awake her but instead her eyes remained wide open and glazed over, she wouldn’t wake up. I then remembered what she had told me that we had to leave together. I sat on the bathroom floor holding Kayla in my arms crying until my parents had gotten home, they called for an ambulance. The doctors pronounced her brain dead and the cops investigated me accusing me of perhaps drugging her but Kayla’s parents didn’t press charges because the same thing had happened to their son, they thought it was a medical condition of sorts but I knew the truth, I knew what had happened to her. I’m headed off to college in a week and I’m thankful because I don’t know how much longer I can sleep in this house, you see when I turn off the lights at night to go to sleep there are now 2 shadows in the corners of my room.

Thanks for reading!