Shadow Play

Thunder cracked through the ears of Katie. It woke her out of a deep sleep. Katie was a beautiful 6 year old girl, who lived with her mom while her dad traveled the world as a business agent. She missed her father, really, but her mother was always there to comfort her and assure her that he was safe. When she was 3 he had given her a teddy bear that was hugging a pink heart with her name on it, that also detached from the bear to use as a small pillow. She called it Pinky. It was her favorite toy.

She sat up with a look of confusion that turned into a look of annoyance as she realized what had woken her. She lay back down on her left side facing the door with a slight hope that her dad would come through the door. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Thunder shook the house until one last boom louder than the rest sounded, signaling the power to go out like a conductor signaling the end of a rather exciting piece.

She jumped slightly when she heard the pop of the electricity shutting off and reached for her flashlight. Her small hands gripped the pink flashlight. Katie wore a grin on her face as she skipped to her mom’s room. She opened the door and walked to her mom’s bedside. “Mom, the power is out,” she said nudging her slightly. Her mom just groaned. “Let’s make shadow puppets!” she pleaded. “It’s midnight,” her mom complained without even looking at the clock. Katie buried her face into her mother’s back and said, “Peesh?” which translated to ‘please?’ Her mother couldn’t help but smile. Eyes still closed she replied, “Ok, fine. But just for a little bit. Just let me get ready.” Katie giggled with glee and ran to her room to set up the area where they would have their fun.

Katie placed a stand for the flashlight that her mother had helped her make when she was three and set the stand on it facing a white, flat, blank wall. The light shone brightly against the white wall so much that it looked as if the wall itself was glowing. While she was waiting for her mom to join, she decided to make some “test” puppets. She started off with a simple rabbit, pointer and middle finger pointing up to make little bunny ears. The bunny hopped across the wall going virtually nowhere as there were no other objects or scenery to interact with.

She began to feel a strange sadness that her bunny didn’t have anyone play with. She sat there staring at the bunny shadow on the wall that was now unmoving. It almost seemed as if it was staring back—did it just blink? No. Of course not. She shook herself from the weird sudden sadness and began to play with the bunny again, until a dog came into play. She smiled as she saw that her mother had joined the fun with a dog friend to share with the bunny. The mother and daughter duo made the new friends dance and play, talk and sing. They had a wonderful time! Before they knew it, it was already going on 2 A.M. Katie yawned a big yawn to which her mom said it was time for bed. Katie lay down willingly and cuddled Pinky. She fell asleep almost instantly. Her mother smiled as her daughter curled up into bed and started to snore. She shut the flashlight off and left the room, closing the door behind her.

Everything was quiet now. The only thing that could be heard was the gentle ticking of the clock and the curtains moving like flowing water from the breeze rolling in from outside. While everyone was asleep the flashlight turned on and slowly—so very slowly—turned towards Katie’s bed, illuminating her head. It wasn’t as bright as before but was a soft glow now, just enough to see.

If someone had walked in just then, they might have thought that they forgot to shut the flashlight off or that it had a faulty wire, but no one else was there. Even if someone was, they surely wouldn’t have been able to explain what looked like little hands peering over the edge of shadow that created a halo around her bed. The hands were almost human like. Their hands were the only parts of them that were visible. They constantly gripped and un-gripped the shadow rim, as if it were tangible. Their hands moved in a way that would assume that they were anxious about an event. Their small voices went almost unheard to anyone but themselves except if you were to listen very closely and have excellent hearing. The whispers overlapped each other’s and sounded like a flowing river of voices.

“Is she sleeping?”

“Yes”

“No. I see her eyes”

“Those are only her dreams”

“She is beautiful”

“That is why we need her”

“She is perfect”

Their conversation continued like this, one voice flowing into the next until it seemed like nothing but a small roar. “Now is the—“the last sentence got cut off when Katie’s mother came into the room. The creatures hissed and hid back into the shadows as the light from the flashlight cut off as well. Her mother looked around the room a bit confused, certain that she had heard something. Katie was still asleep in her bed just like before. The mother closed the door and left the room.



<p class="MsoNormal">The next morning, the day proceeded as normal, Katie eating pancakes with orange juice while watching a bit of T.V. and heading off to go play, except she didn’t run off to go play. In fact, she didn’t really do much of anything. She barely ate any of her pancakes or drank any of her juice. She mostly just sat there, looking very lethargic. When she only took 2 bites of her pancake and took one drink of her juice, her mother asked her if she was ok. She got a tired, “Uh-huh.”, in response as she clambered off to the front room to lie down on the couch. She stared at the T.V. as if it were the only thing worth doing. She wasn’t even watching anything, just the shopping network. They were displaying a porcelain chicken cookie-jar for $50. Katie focused as the ladies hand were flowing around the item as she was explaining why this was such an, “Amazing piece for any collector.” Katie’s mom sat down next to her on the couch and started to gently caress her hair. “Are you sure you’re okay? You seem tired. I told you we shouldn’t have stayed up late to make shadow puppets.” Katie’s mother rolled her eyes when she said this knowing full well that she herself had allowed that to happen. Katie responded without even looking up, “I could feel them watching me.” Her mother blinked in confusion. “Who honey?”  “The little people. They kept staring at me. And they were too loud. They wanted to play but I was too tired to.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Oh, Katie, you just had a bad dream that’s all”, her mother tried to convince her. This time Katie sat up almost like she was suddenly full of energy, “No mommy, they were real. I saw them. But I don’t think they knew that I saw them” Her mother hugged her and told her that she’d be just fine. Katie cheered up and ran off to play.

<p class="MsoNormal">The rest of the day was fine. She played until dinner and then it was time for bed after some T.V. Katie’s mother carried her to her room and laid her in her bed. As she tucked her in bed, she kissed her on the forehead, “Daddy’s supposed to come home tomorrow. Around lunch time he said. Doesn’t that make you happy?” Katie nodded and had a huge grin on her face. She grabbed her mother’s face with her hands and brought her nose to her nose and said, “I love you.” And just as simple as she said that her mother responded with, “I love you too.”

<p class="MsoNormal">Soon Katie was left to the darkness of the room. Tick-tick-tick, the clock making its song was now joined by the gentle hum of the electric fan above her bed. Everything was calm until once again it became two A.M. The gentle glow surrounded her head once again. The hands surrounding the shadow rim came out once again. But this time there were no voices. Just silence. One of the hands reached out tentatively towards her hair and gently ran his small boney hands through her silky hair, and made a high-pitched giggle of excitement. That when the roar of voices came once again. They were in an uproar. This was the moment they had been waiting for. “Play with us”, they all whispered at different times. They grabbed her arms and hair and slowly dragged her toward the wall. She was suddenly sitting up when she realized what was happening. The creatures pulled her toward the wall in an unorganized manner. Individually they were weak but together they were strong. Two-hundred tiny hands had gripped her arms and hair. Some of the hands had covered her mouth so she couldn’t scream. She was starting to panic when she saw her arms going into—no – becoming part of the wall. Her arms were becoming a shadow on the wall. She tried screaming, but to no avail. Soon her entire body was transformed into a shadow on the wall. In the course of five minutes, she was gone from her bed and had become a shadow. And with that the light that seemed gentle at first extinguished.

<p class="MsoNormal">Her mother came into her room the next morning to find it empty. She searched the house for her but found no one. She called the cops to report a missing person. The police searched the entire house including the wooded area behind the house but found nothing. After the police had told her that the search had come up empty, she thanked them for trying and sat at the kitchen table clutching a coffee cup, taking several sips from it. By the time her husband had come home at one o’clock, she was still sitting there with the coffee cup taking sips from the now empty cup. “Hi Marie! I’m home! Where’s my little girl?” he said. No response. “Marie?” he called out, “Mari-?” he found Marie sitting at the kitchen table, hair a mess. “Marie, what happened?” he asked worried. “The little people. She said it was little people. She told me they were watching her but I didn’t believe her. Of course I didn’t believe her, why would I? They don’t exist. They can’t exist. Can they?” Marie sat there speaking to herself about what could have been done.

<p class="MsoNormal">Hector, Marie’s husband, was later told about the incident. Marie was also diagnosed with PTSD. They never found the girl. Several people lived in the house after the events that transpired and had no strange occurrences. Sometimes though when the tenants of the house are sleeping, the flashlight that was left behind in the attic will switch on and display a gentle glow on the wall and show the shadow of a small girl dancing with several small creatures.