The Child's Shadow

It all started on a Friday morning. I was sitting alone, lighting another cigarette, checking my facebook and seeing everyone having a life but me. All of my friends had moved on to college or had a job. What did I have, a writing career that would never start, ideas for songs, books, and video games that would only fester in my mind. I couldn't get into college because I was an idiot and said "fuck the ACT." I had effectivly ruined my life.

As I went out into the house to get a glass of milk something caught my eye. A shadow seemed to move by itself. I thought nothing of it, after all it's easy to get spooked in this house. I proceeded out to the kitchen, poured me a glass of milk, and went back to my room. My cat, Binx, was laying lazily on the bed, he barely recognized my presence. I then sat back at my computer and began to cycle through some of the "controversial" humor there was to find on Facebook. Now that I think of it, I practice schadenfreude alot. Out of the corner of my eye I saw it again, a shadow moving by itself. I turned but saw nothing, I went back to surfing the web and found I was on a completely new site. The site itself was not creepy, it was a web site for some hotel. I figured I had had enough of the internet for now and shut the computer down. I then turned off all the lights and went to sleep.

I woke up some time later to the sound of a child laughing. Not that pleasant laughter they make when they play but that laugh they make when they're burning ants or something. I looked around for the source but I could see none. The laughter became more twisted and lower in pitch. I jumped out of bed and turned on the lights. In front of me there was a small figure. It had no face, no clothes, no - anything. It was just a dark thing in the shape of a child. It reminded me of what a black hole would look like if it had been given shape. It reached out as if to touch me but I backed away, my stomach receiving a quick punch of revulsion. It simply laughed again and disappeared. I stood there sweating like I did during my P.T with JROTC. I tried to sit down but then I thought of something, "where was Binx?" I looked into his usual spots but I couldn't find him, then I looked into the litter box. He had been smothered in his own piss and shit. I took his body out of the box and held him to my chest and began to cry. I heard my brother, his girl friend, my mother all at the door yelling for me all the while the our four dogs were barking. I tried to contact them but it was no use. I was in my own hell.

All of a sudden the knocking and yelling ceased - and I was covered in blood. I dropped Binx and ran for the door. I bashed and crashed until the door gave way. I saw them lying neatly on the floor with the Child Shadow gigling behind them, I lunged at him, I strangled him, I stabbed him, I drowned him, I bashed his rotting head in. His blood was pink and cold, it felt like heaven. He finally died while I bashed his head with the refrigerator door. It was done, he was dead, I crawled over to my family and crashed, I cried and cried.

It's been eight years now. My prison cell is very cold and uncomfortable. But that doesn't matter, all the discomfort in the world doesn't match the fact that I still hear the Child's laughter.