Shadow in the Field

Have you seen something your shadow did in the corner of your eye? Maybe wave or make a hand gesture?... I have seen it... but that wasn't my shadow...

I would like to share a childhood memory with you... one that I have repressed for a long time, but I have to get off my chest none the less... I think I was 11 at the time we had just moved to a small rural town in central Canada, I was of course not enjoying the idea at all (as most children always react to moving...). What I didn't like most about the place is that... well... there wasn't really much to see outside of town, just flat fields and crops in rectangular shapes that had almost never-ending straight grid roads that separated the fields in perpendicular road connections. We had bought a house in the outskirts of town for a good price, and the house had a big deck on the side not facing the town.

"Go play outside Zachary," my mother said with a smile, "you have to get used to life here now..."

Of course I agreed. I had really enjoyed the view from the deck because it had huge windmills standing in a green field. My face of un-sureness had melted away when I saw the towering windmills overhead, and I had stared up in daze. I looked on the horizon to the west and ran, I ran around like a kid who was getting chased by a bear. For hours on end I ran, I ran until the sun was just setting and became orange, eventually I had to go inside for supper because it was getting pretty dark... To my surprise mom bought a pizza, and when I took a bite of a slice I thought maybe living here wouldn't be bad after all...

I had to leave for school the next day sadly, and I wasn't looking forward to making new friends...



I remember at lunch that when I sat down with some of the kids that I had befriended earlier in the day were talking about something, so I asked them what exactly they were saying.

"I heard that field with the windmills is weird," Johnny said with a malevolent tone, "Like creepy-weird!" I of course was interested because I knew I lived right next to them, so I told the boys I did.

"You live right next to the haunted field?" Billy asked with a worried expression on his face.

"You don't really believe those ghost stories do you?" I asked them.

"They're real!" Johnny piped in, "I heard I guy went into the field at night... and never came out."

At this point I saw genuine concern on both Johnny and Billy's face, and this kind of made me a bit on-edge. I replied and told them they have nothing to worry about and that I'd be fine.



I didn't really sleep well that night after what Johnny and Billy said about my field, and I eventually just got up and went downstairs for some warm milk. I filled my glass to about a quarter-full and shoved it into the microwave for 30 seconds, and as the microwave made the same electric humming sound it always makes... I noticed... the backdoor leading to the deck was open. I went back, grabbed my milk, a flashlight, and went outside to investigate the cause of the open door. When I peeked out the door I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary...just our plain deck, I then felt a cool breeze with a... noise... what sounded like muffled whispering out in the darkness... I set my milk down on the deck and went into the blackness.

It was very dark, so dark in fact that I couldn't see my own hands. The further I walked the more clear and noticeable the whispering became, until it was if whatever or whoever was making that noise was right in my ear. I couldn't make out a word of what the voices were trying to say to me, I noticed I felt a chill run down my spine and a feeling of dread had swamped my mind, I closed my eyes trying to make the atmosphere surrounding me dissipate... My wish had been partially granted, and I found myself only a couple yards away from my house... Was that just a hallucination? A cloud of fear? To this day I always feel that felling when I look into darkness as the memories of it return to me. I looked up and saw a silhouette, this silhouette looked like a solar eclipse at it's totality. Whatever it was also had two round "eclipses" for eyes and seemed to float in mid-air, the arms and hand were not at all proportionate to it's body, and had a human-shape. The whispers were still there but less invasive of my eardrums this time.

"What are you?" I asked, I could feel the sweat rolling down my face.

"Hel-hello..." The voice sounded like a child with the harmonic undertones of the whispers.

"Um... hi?" I was more curious then scared at this point, "Who are you?"

"I don't know..." The apparition replied, "I don't have a name..."

My adolescent mind at this point abandoned fear and replaced fully with curiosity, (but I was still cautious)

"A cool guy like you needs a name!" I chimed, "How about... Sam?"

"S-S-Sam?..." He had backed away, and now he was what looked like scratching his head in thought.

"S-Sam sounds... okay... yeah..." His eyes had grown larger, and he seemed happier "What's your name?"

"It's Zachary, Zachary Alexander Cerno," I put my hand out for a handshake, "it's a pleasure to meet you!"

Sam looked down at my hand like he was confused, but I couldn't tell.

"It's a handshake... you put yours out and grab mine like this..." His huge black-hand felt cold and dead in my fingers.

"He-he-he..." Sam giggled as he looked behind, and then back to me. "Would you like to play with me for a bit?... Maybe 'Hide and Seek?'"

I looked up at him with a big smile and replied with, "sure!"

After playing for about an hour I told him I was tired and waved goodbye to him and went back to bed.



The next morning I was exhausted by what had happened last night, and I wondered... was I dreaming?... I told my mom the detail of what happened last night and she just thought I was being silly. I wasn't really surprised, I always tended to exaggerate my stories to ridiculous proportions. When I was walking to school though I looked behind me... and... my shadow... waved to me? I soon realized that the shadow... he was following me to school.

"Sam, what are you doing?" I said with a whisper.

"I want to go where you go!" I saw his head peek out of my shadow on the ground as he said this. I didn't think much of it, and I agreed because I thought he might like school... still though... something didn't sit right in my stomach about this...



"What do you have for lunch dumb-ass?" Michael asked with a sadistic look in his eyes, "Oooooo looks like the new kid has a slice of pizza... Hand it over!"

"Go bug someone else Mike!" Johnny protested. I saw my shadow underneath was retreating under the lunch table in fear.

Michael grabbed my lunch, waving it over my head like some sick dog-treat trick. I hated Mike, and it didn't take me long to figure out he wasn't my friend...

"Z-Zach... get him to go away..." I saw Sam's eyes between my feet darkening with fear. I was angry at Michael for scaring my new-found friend, and I splashed my lemonade in his eyes. Mike's eyes turned red, and leaked tears.

"Arrgghhh... You'll pay for this Zachey!" Michael then ran to the boy's bathroom in pain.

The next period was Math, and with my friend it was... a lot more fun! We would play this practical joke on our hot-head teacher Mr. Garonsworth by Sam sneaking his shadow across the floor... and when Garonsworth would walk by... he'd trip him! After about 10 royal-stumbles though, Mr. Garonsworth broke his glasses. When we realized that he was screaming because of glass in his eyes... I looked down at Sam... and saw him giggle in a mischievous pleasure... The teacher had ran in the hall in pain, trying to find something to ease the horror. He ran to the principle's office and made her call an ambulance

After witnessing the EMT's take our teacher to the hospital, and watching Sam giggle as the ambulance drove away... I realized Sam was not like us... he didn't feel regret or guilt. Sam was not human...

"C'mon Zackary!... where's your sense of humor?" Sam giggled.

"I didn't think that was very funny..." I said with a pout and a sigh.

I walked outside with Johnny and Billy in the last recess, and from the look on there faces they didn't think it was very funny either... Regardless we then grabbed a ball from a nearby teacher and began playing a kind of ball-tag game that they had to teach me. It was about halfway into break when we saw Mike and a few other older kids, they all were glaring at us with a look of disgust and hatred...

"I warned you I'd make you pay Zachey..." Mike said with a despicable grin across his face.

Before I could even speak I felt one kid's hard fist collide with my face, and I felt a warm trickle of blood run down my nose. The others were getting beat silly as well, and when I was about to get up and run, Mike kicked me down again. I closed my eyes as Mike raised his fist... but there was nothing... no punch... no pain... I opened one eye to check what was going on and I saw Mike, but something was... wrong... Mike was frozen in his position, with a blank expression. Mike's eyes then rolled back into his skull and he grabbed his throat as if he was choking... I then saw a sight that still haunts me even today... Sam's huge, spectral hand shot out of Mike's mouth and back in again followed by blood pouring out of his mouth. Michael had crumpled to the pavement, and died in a pool of his own blood. The three kids had run away in fear, and Johnny and Billy called the police...

They said he died of a valve in his heart bursting, but I sure as hell know what really killed him...



After an early dismissal from school, I had walked home with Sam for a couple blocks. I thought to myself "Sam's games are no fun, they're hurting and killing innocent people". When I looked back at Sam I found his voice still cackling beneath those god-awful whispers. Sam looked up at me and stopped for a second, and I swear it was like he read my mind...

"Oh c'mon... Where's your sense of humor!?"

When we finally got home I knew what I had to do. I had to get rid of Sam before he kills someone else, so that night I grabbed my flashlight and I headed into the field where I found him. I knew the reason why he traveled in my shadow was because he didn't like the light, so this was my chance to test my theory

"Zach... why are we back in the field?" Sam looked around in confusion, "Are we playing a game?"

"Yes we're going to play tag..." I readied my flashlight in my pocket.

Sam looked at my pocket then back up to me, and smirked.

"Who's playing with us?... I think I'd like to know traitor..." Sam quickly enveloped me in his dark body.

Inside his body there was only blackness and his two eyes watching me from within. I felt a sharp pain all over my body, and I wailed in pain...

"You should have played fair Zach!" His eyes grew more intense and maniacal. "You'll get hurt if you don't play by the rules!"

I grabbed the flashlight in my pocket, and shined the light directly in his eyes. His body had returned to normal and I was freed from his grasp.

"Arrrgghh!..." Sam's body was burning under the beam.

Just when I thought I won Sam's arm had extended and tossed me away. Before I could regain my wits, Sam charged at me with blinding speed and knocked my flashlight out of my hands.

"Your going to play with me forever now Zachary... We're going to have so much fun!" Sam's arm raised, and smashed me to the ground.

Sam then grabbed my hand and was dragging me towards his now gaping mouth, I then saw my flashlight was just inches away from my grasp, so I pulled against his grasp, and with all my struggle I finally grabbed the flashlight. I pointed it right in his face freeing me from his iron-grip, without even thinking I ran to the house faster then I had ever ran before... Then I stopped and looked behind to find he had recovered, and he was gaining on me! I thought about the new yard-lights dad had put in before, and without hesitation I pulled the switch.

"Yeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaooooooo!!!!!!!!!" Sam had screeched in a ear-deafening volume. followed by silence... Sam was gone...



Today I still remember Sam... and sometimes in the corner of my eye... I see my shadow... waving to me...