Shadows

Short horror fiction

Hello Dearest Penguin People.

Here’s a short horror story about shadows gone bad.

Special thanks to P.Q. Rubin for little walking penguin guy…

combination of canva image, text and photoshop filter….

Natalie felt oddly light when she woke up that morning. Or perhaps untethered was a better word. She rolled on her side and saw her shadow seated in front of the dresser mirror. It was tracing the contours of its head, pulling at wisps of hair that wouldn’t budge without a body to mimic. Natalie rubbed her eyes. It turned to look at her, blank face accusing…of what she couldn’t know. It leaned back in the chair, arms crossed.

Nothing for it, Natalie got ready for work. She showered, made her morning coffee, checking occasionally to see if her shadow had returned. It had been finicky lately, fading in and out even in the brightest light. But she had never guessed it would shun her entirely. She tried one last time before she left, keys in hand. “Are you coming?” she asked.

Her shadow remained slumped in the chair, not even deigning to look up.

“Okay. I’ll see you later then.” She edged toward the door.

It raised its head a smidgeon.

“Yes?”

It waved her away.

Evil met her on the driveway. He stared up at her with one green eye, one blue.

She hung her head. “Oh, geez, I forgot.”

Evil, a burly Tom, had adopted her. No matter that Natalie was deathly afraid of cats. Evil didn’t care. He only wanted his daily handout and an ear rub. Consequences for non-compliance ranged from mice entrails in the birdbath to hairballs in the mailbox. With nothing to go on and no neighbors to claim him, Natalie had named him after his steadfast maleficence.

Natalie wavered, wondering if she had time to grab him a treat. He meowed. Of course, she did. Natalie turned toward the house and choked. Her shadow was standing in the window, hands planted on the glass. She pulled her cardigan close. Funny how something could peer into your soul without the benefit of eyes.

Evil tilted his head and stared at the thing in the window. After a long pause, he gave Natalie a curt nod. All was forgiven; no treat needed. He plopped his bottom on the cement, tail curved around his body. He kept watch as Natalie drove away, his gaze never leaving the window.

It was an odd day at the office. Co-workers commented on her appearance, not able to put a finger on what was different. Had she lost weight? Perhaps keto or hot yoga? One asked her in private, voice quiet, if someone had died. She had the air of someone who had lost a loved one. She just shook her head. In truth she felt naked, missing a part of her that she had never given a second thought to. The guilt only grew as the day passed. Was she honestly not enough to keep her shadow happy? At the end of the day, she thought she saw a co-worker’s shadow turn its head to stare at her. But then it righted itself and Natalie looked away. Truly, she had gone insane.

Her house was dark when she got home. She flicked on the lights, her wayward shadow nowhere to be seen. A part of her was relieved.

Natalie set her purse on her bedside table and opened the closet. Red eyes stared out from the darkness, hidden among the coats. She stumbled backwards, her shadow following her out. They stared at each other, the shadow’s eyes glowing like embers in smoke. They made the shadow so much worse, the anger now impossible to ignore.

“What happened to you?” she whispered.

No answer. Just a blink, then it slunk away.

She heated soup for dinner and ate self-consciously at the table while her shadow sat across from her and watched. Later she lay in bed, unable to sleep as it loomed over her, occasionally leaning down to give her a sniff.

The next morning her shadow grew teeth, soft glints of white in a curved smile. It followed her, jaws clicking open and shut. This time she didn’t ask it to join her at work. She said a quick goodbye as it sat on the couch, curling and uncurling its hands, its fingers unnaturally long. As the door closed, she thought she heard a muffled laugh.

Evil lay curled in a ball on the lawn. He opened his eyes when she offered him a small piece of turkey. He let it fall to the grass.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

There was a soft click, a squeak of hinges. Evil sat up, whiskers twitching.

She followed the cat’s gaze. Her shadow stood on the porch, the door gaping open even though she knew full well that she had locked it.

Evil gave her a little nudge. He had this.

He sat between the porch and the car as she drove away, licking his paws.

When she arrived at work, she found Harold and Jane from Accounting whispering over the coffee pot in the break room, their shadows conspicuously absent. This time they had no problem identifying what was different about Natalie. They pulled her to the corner of the room.

“What did you do to us?” Jane asked.

“Nothing. I’m as confused as you.”

Harold, sank into a chair, hollows under his eyes. His suit, usually immaculate, was rumpled as if he had slept in it. “Mine looked pissed.”

Jane turned pale. “Mine, too.”

They shuffled back to their cubicles. A small group of people had clustered around the photocopier. Sales reps on one side, the Department Head, Mr. Henley, and his assistant on the other. Two shadows were arguing, fists raised, silently screaming.

Mr. Henley cleared his throat. “That’s enough,” he told the shadows. The larger one, obviously his, turned on him with a snarl. It picked a coffee mug up from a desk and hurled it at him. He ducked, the mug shattering against a wall, ceramic shards scattering across the tiles.

Mr. Henley took a breath and faced the shocked room. “Everyone, go home.”

“What’s going on?” Jane asked.

He pointed at the floor where her shadow should be. “You tell me.” He stalked away.

Then a mass exodus as everyone grabbed their purses and briefcases. The streets were in chaos, entire buildings emptying out as people ran to their cars and got on buses. Natalie hurried past a storm drain, trying to ignore the row of red eyes staring out from behind the grate. Harold had parked across the street. His hands shook as he tried his key fob. He pushed it over and over to no avail. Beside him, a manhole cover flew up and landed in the middle of the intersection, spinning, then falling with a loud clang. Harold’s shadow reached up from the hole and grabbed him. It dragged him screaming into the darkness.

Natalie lost no time after that. She locked herself in her car only to hear a loud thump on the hood. A firefighter looked up at her through the windshield.

“Let me in,” he pleaded.

Before she could react a mob of shadows pounced on him and carried him off down the street.

She peeled out and somehow made it home, driving through the mayhem of panicked people running through the remains of smashed cars and burning buildings, the smell of gasoline and ozone filling the air.

She slammed the door behind her and leaned against it as she slid onto the floor. A giggle, soft and mirthless traveled across the room. Her shadow slipped behind the couch, then peered around the armrest, red eyes glowing.

“What did I ever do to you?” Natalie asked, not bothering to get up.

It crawled closer. It was wearing her lip gloss, a jagged slash across its face. It leaned into her, long and thin like a ferret, a forked tongue brushing her cheek.

Then Evil appeared in the kitchen entrance. He purred and stretched as if waking up from a nap.

Her shadow looked up; glistening teeth bared.

Natalie fled to her room and locked the door. But what about Evil? She couldn’t leave him alone with that thing. She inched the door open. There was a long yowl, then a lapping sound.

“Evil?”

She tip-toed back into the living room. Evil sat on the couch, licking his paws.

“What happened?” Natalie glanced around the room.

Evil coughed, little puffs of black vapor rising from his lips.

“You didn’t.”

He smiled.

“What won’t you eat?”

His smile only grew. He glanced out the window. Smoke filled the horizon while car alarms blared in the distance. Outside, her neighbors ran, screaming through the street. But here, inside her house, it was calm.

She poured a glass of Pinot, then joined Evil on the couch. The TV was on. Together they watched the city burn.

If you have the inclination…