It was a menacing dark night. At least to my eyes. I was nine at the time. But even at such a young age I was no stranger to the strange.
Growing up, I was always alone. No friends, and my parents were always too busy for me. Luckily in a young boy's mind loneliness is an opportunity for creativity. I would write. Write some of the most fantastic stories of a world brighter than our own. Ironic honestly, because my whole life I’ve always seen the darker corners of the world. The mysterious and unexplained. My stories, though fantastic, always seemed so basic.
But over time, the dark and mysterious became my friend. This is most true in the story of The Shadow. I should maybe give them a name. But nothing sounds as cool as “The Shadow”.
One night when I was writing in bed, I heard a tapping on my window. The time is twelve past eleven, and my parents have long been asleep. I’d never heard that tapping before. Some nights I would look outside my window, and just stare at the singular pole outside with a small light at the top lighting up a little section of street. I always wondered why that pole was installed. It didn’t really do well, but barely lit up a couple mailboxes. But this night was different. The light was out, and now the street was left pitch-black.
I looked out to investigate the tapping, and saw nothing. I mean, who could with the one light outside being out. But I go back to bed, and start getting ready to go to sleep. As I did, I looked towards my window which can almost be seen from my bed. I could see a faint flickering coming from outside the window. Like someone flipping a light switch on, and off rapidly. I got back out of bed to look at what could be making this strange pattern of illumination. When I did, I saw the light from the pole flickering, and below the light, a strange dark figure stood silently. This figure, though without a face to distinguish, gave me the feeling it was looking right at me. This alarmed me, so I ran back to my bed, and did what any kid would, and hid under my sheets.
I remember hiding under there for what felt like hours. Though everything was weirdly silent. I couldn’t even hear my dad snoring loudly in the room next to mine. I lifted my head out from under the covers, and saw that the flickering had stopped, and that the faint bit of solid light was shining through my window. No more flickering.
I got up, and creeped closer to my window, as I got closer I saw the figure is right at my window waiting for me. I screamed- “MOM! DAD!”
My parents ran in, and yelled, “WHAT?!” They almost seemed annoyed at me. Just another one of my antics. I cried out to them to look out my window, that there was someone out there. They stubbornly walked over to my window, looked out, and saw nothing. No one. Just a lonely light pole flickering. They turned back to me, and sternly said “Go back to bed…”
When they left, I crawled back to bed, and tried to sleep. But I couldn't. I had this aching feeling inside of me that this person was still out there. I stayed in my head for over an hour until… “tap tap tap”… They’re back.
I eased myself back to my window again, and looked out. It was there again. They were closer now. Right up to my window, they’re “hand”, if that even was a hand, was tapping on the glass of my window. I didn’t want to get in trouble with my parents again, so I decided not to yell again. Instead I waved.
When I waved at the figure it waved back. I suddenly lost any uneasy feeling I once had. This figure, though dark and mysterious. Seemed solicitous, and almost… kind… I continued to look at them. They stood there, translucent. I see no body, no clothes. Just the shape of a man… A shadow…
We stood there, the shadow and I. It mimicked me, and played little hand gesture games with me. We did this for a while till The Shadow pointed to the bottom of my window, and gestured for me to open the window. I’m not sure what came over me. Even in my young age I would have known this was a bad idea. But the feeling I had of ease, and comfort made me feel like I was with a friend. Someone I could trust. Like I’ve known them for years. So I lifted the window, and it whined, and scraped till it was fully open. I mumbled to The Shadow a simple greeting. They did not speak to me. They just stood there. No hand motion, and no more games. Just stood there. Looking at me.
I tried to talk to them further, and see if they would say or do anything. As I did, The Shadow began to slowly crawl through my window, and into my room. Only to be stopped by my parents turning on the light.
“What are you doing?”! My mother snapped. I looked back at my window to see it was shadowless. I couldn’t speak. I tried to mumble to my parents to explain I’d found a friend, but my words came out foreign with confusion. My dad ran over, and loudly closed my window.
My mother spent hours lecturing me about not opening my window, especially if I “see someone out there”. My father spent that time trampling around the house trying to find any possible signs of an invader. All to come up with nothing. It was hard for me to speak. Both out of fear of having my Game Boy taken from me, and out of sadness that I might have just lost a friend.
I never saw The Shadow after that, at least not for a long time. Sometimes I get that feeling. The feeling they were around, and maybe that I see it in the corner of my eye. But I knew one thing. I was alone again. No more shadow to keep me comfort. But it wouldn’t be long till I would find my next dark friend.
Writer: Jonah Stone
editor: Marie Osmola