The Darkest Shadow

Shadow1.jpg The Darkest Shadow
Some REALLY terrifying stuff has been happening to me. I don't know how to handle it. I'm getting too ahead of myself though, I should start with something like... Hi, my name is Jacob. I'm 16, and I live in the suburbs of LA. Too cliche of an intro? I don't know... I'm to frightened to care right now.

It all started a week ago. I was at some shop somewhere near the outside of LA, somewhere off some remote highway. My mom decided she wanted to stop there after coming back from a short camping trip with the family. After arriving there, we saw that it was a knick-knack shop, and a moderately sized one at that. Walking inside, an ominous feeling dropped over me, almost like a feeling when its hot outside and step into a cool building and the rush of coolness hits you, only this time... with eeriness.

I looked around, examining all the odd and somewhat normal-looking items. That's when something weird happened. A flash seemed to illuminate the right side of my field-of-vision. I looked over but there was nothing shiny... Just a book that had a crazily ornate hard-cover. It had silver and gold lining with metallic designs on the face of it. For some reason, it began to draw me in, like I wanted it, and honestly, I kinda did.

I found the decoration on the front very cool due to the style of decoration which I can't really describe, just a kind of style that drew me in. I inspected the title of the book and it was titled The Darkest Shadow. I was intrigued by the book and, having a love of creepy stuff like this, I decided to grab it and take it to the cashier.

Touching it was a mistake. As soon as I grabbed it, an intense feeling of dread, or fear, I'm not even sure, loomed over me. After about six seconds or so the feeling just ascended off me, or most of it at least because I still felt uneasy. I tried to ignore it and just figured it was hormones or the eerie feeling the shop had already given me to begin with.

"Is this for sale?" I asked the cashier, arriving at the counter. "You want that book? Are you sure?" the cashier replied, a sound of only what I can describe as fear in his voice. "Uhm... Yeah... Is that a problem?" I questioned, quite surprised with his un-enthusiasm to sell it to me, almost as if he knew something I didn't. "No not at all. Take it. Have it for free," the cashier said, not even touching the book. "Oh, okay, thanks," I smiled, happy but confused. "Bye-bye, then," the cashier said on my way out, or at least that's what I think he said. Who cares though? I had my book and I was pretty excited to get to reading. I haven't read a good thrilling book in a while, and this was free so, hey, what's not to be excited about. For some reason though, I couldn't shake off that I wasn't sure if he said "Bye-bye then", or something else. I swear he could have said "Bye-bye Jen."

We got home and I had some dinner. Taco's. The best. Sometime around 8:00 P.M. I decided to start reading the book. I grabbed it off my nightstand next to my bed. I pried it open and began to read. It had the thick smell of age to match the yellowing paper. The text was still readable so I didn't mind. The book was actually pretty cool and interesting. It was about a girl who had drowned in a bathroom after her husband found out she had an affair with another man. The man cut off the light while the mother was washing their 12 month old baby in the tub. The man drowned the girl in the tub in front of the daughter, and then proceeded to drown the baby.

Due to the guilt and realization of what he had done, he slit his throat and bled out. That's all I've read so far. I look at the clock. 12:42 A.M. I should get some sleep, I thought. I stood the book up on the nightstand, hoping the book would make my room more decorative. I turned my mini-lamp off and my room was flooded with pitch blackness. For some reason, I began to feel insecure, like something was watching me from the closet across my room. I closed my eyes and tried to shake off the feeling. I figured I was feeling this way because I read a scary book until 12:42 A.M. It wasn't really a good idea but I was just so drawn to this book that I almost couldn't put it down. My eyes had adjusted to the blackness of the room and now I could make out object in my room like my bookshelf, my Xbox, TV, my desk, and computer. I could see the outline of my sliding closet door. Something caught my eye, though.

The book on my shelf was producing a shadow the stretched to the roof of my room. I don't know how, seeing as my windows were completely covered by the shades so there was absolutely no source of light shining through the window. There was no light source at all, yet the book had a shadow growing out of it. I could tell because there was a shadow like shade emerging from it that was a darker shade then the rest of the room. As I stared at it, I realized it looked like the shadow of a human. That scared the crap out of me. I guess I just had set it up oddly on my nightstand... that's all...

It moved. I held still, petrified. I swear it moved. Their was not a doubt in my mind that made me think it didn’t. It looked like a girl with long hair. I was scared stiff. The shadows head slowly jerked sideways, as if looking at me in a two dimensional form. I turned in my bed, scared that it was clearly aware I was there. I closed my eyes and did not open them until somehow I fell asleep.

The next morning the day went through normally. It was a Sunday so I didn't do much. I decided to give the book another shot. I grabbed it from off my desk and read and read. I couldn’t set it down. I kept seeing the girl jerking her head towards me over and over in my mind, and I couldn’t set the book down. Eventually dinner came, I don’t know how. What I ate doesn’t really matter so I’m not going to go into detail about it.

I decided to get sleep early tonight. Reading the book didn’t sound like a very good idea, so I didn’t do it. I turned the light off and pitch blackness flooded the room again. Nothing wrong had happened this time. Once my eyes had adjusted, I saw the shadow again. Oh God, I thought, I don’t want to do this again. Suddenly, there was a faint sound coming from outside of my room. I listened harder, and it sounded like a baby crying. I looked up to see the shadow... but it was gone. Huh. Must have been my imagination the whole time. I looked down at the floor and yelled. The girl shadow was rising out of the ground, its head facing towards the floor. Oh crap, oh god, this is terrible. Thoughts were blurting through my head and then the shadow jerked its head towards me. I couldn’t move. I was stuck. It’s empty, lifeless eyes, pierced into mine. The baby crying crew louder, and the girl came closer, emitting a multi-pitched, demonic-like laugh. Her movement forward emitted a sound like nothing you’d ever expect. It was the sound that would emit like if you removed a game cartridge out of a device while its still playing.

I suddenly regained movement. I grabbed the book and ran for my life past the girl. I ran to our kitchen and grabbed a lighter out of the junk drawer. I threw the book in the stainless steel sink (which was dry at the moment) that way I wouldn’t burn down the house. I lit the book on fire and watched it burn. A feeling of joy washed over me. This should do it, I thought. I felt kind of proud. I really hope this would get read of the ghost.

Without warning, the sink blasted on, full power. It put the fire out almost instantly. “No no no no no no no no,” I cried in grief. I picked up the book and opened it up, only... the pages were blank. Confused, I flipped through the pages until I came across one that had a eerie girl grinning up at me with the words ”You shouldn’t have done that” printed on it. Full of fear and rage, I ran outside in the night.

Looking back at the house, I saw the girl grinning at me through the window. I turned my head and ran. I ran as fast as I could. My feet hurt because I didn’t have any shoes or socks, and I also didn’t know where I was going. I looked around and saw a well. I remember it because any time we’d drive around the suburbs to go to downtown LA, we’d pass it. I ran to the well and chucked the book as hard as I could. It hit the side of the well and dropped down and splashed in the distance. I sighed with relief and ran back home.

No sign of the girl. No crying baby. It was quiet. I checked on my parents and they were still asleep. I don’t know how they didn’t hear all the commotion. I went back to my room to go to sleep. I inspected the room and there was nothing out of the usual, especially no shadows anywhere. I felt a weight lifted off me, like this evil had been eradicated, or at least unbound from me. I smiled and went to sleep.

The next morning my mom said we were going downtown to do some heavy duty shopping. “Awesome, maybe I can get some games!” I said enthusiastically, and my mom rolled her eyes and smiled. “Come on let’s go.” We both got in the car and I hopped in the front seat. My mom started up the ignition and pulled out of the driveway. We turned down the street and drove down the road to downtown LA. I looked to the side and something caught my eye. I saw the well, and right behind it... was the girl standing in a freaky, crippled-looking position, her head cocked almost completely sideways, smiling at me. I held in my breath and swung my head towards the front windshield. My mom looked over me, confused. Then her phone buzzed. I jumped, scared for my life.

“Jacob, relax. It’s just my phone. Can you pick it up for me, I’m driving. It’s probably your dad.” I sighed and replied,”Yeah, sure.” I picked up the phone and hit the answer call button. “Hello?” I said. Then my blood ran cold. At the other side of the line, I heard a distinct female voice rasp,

“You shouldn’t have done that.”

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