I’ve thought of these events over and over in my head, trying to figure out a way to start this, a way to explain to you all what happened…hoping against hope that if I tell my story, I can save someone, anyone, from the same fate as my best friend.
His name was Derek, and we had met back in high school; introduced to each other by a mutual friend. We graduated together, went to college together, and eventually became roommates and rented our first apartment together. It was a real bachelor/bachelorette pad…well, before she came along.
Now, dating had never been a problem for me. Not to brag, but I’d like to think that I was quite the looker and, admittedly, a bit of a flirt, so by the time I was in my 20s I had been through a few relationships. Derek, well…while he was a decent-looking guy, he lacked confidence and his small talk was abysmal. So I was very pleasantly surprised when one day he came home with a girl on his arm.
‘Alright, Derek!’ I thought to myself as I stood up to introduce myself.
“Hey, Derek, who’s your friend?” I asked, smiling and sticking my hand out to shake hers. She smiled warmly as she reached back to grasp my outstretched hand in hers. In hindsight, that first touch of her cold palm, like, a block of ice cold, should have been my first clue. She seemed to notice the taken-aback look on my face and laughed apologetically.
“Sorry, poor circulation in the wrists,” she said, pulling away a little too quickly. Derek laughed and put his hand on her back as he stepped forward.
“This is Lily. Lily, this is my best friend and roommate Anna,” Derek replied gesturing back and forth between the two of us. “Lily is kind of…my girlfriend,” He added a bit shyly. Lily smiled and leaned into Derek’s shoulder.
“We’ve been going out for a few weeks now,” Lily added. I blinked in surprise as he hadn’t even mentioned he was dating anyone. He must have seen the look on my face as his smile drooped a little.
“I had thought about telling you earlier but I didn’t want to jinx this,” He explained hurriedly.
“Hey, man, you don’t have to explain anything to me, I totally get it and I’m happy for you. The both of you,” I responded. Derek’s grin widened again.
We made a bit more small talk before the two retreated to Derek’s room, leaving me in the living room, watching reruns of shows on Netflix and that was that….for a while.
Lily became a regular part of our lives after that day and at first, I was really happy for them. Derek was a smitten fool and Lily seemed to care for him a lot. I didn’t notice anything was amiss until we were all out to dinner one night. I’ll admit that I’m not the most observant person but when I dropped my fork in the middle of dinner and bent down to pick it up…I saw something. I looked forward to where my fork had dropped to the side of Lily’s leg and reached out to pick it up.
I paused, however, when in my peripheral vision, I saw a dark shadowy-like glow emanating from Lily’s leg. I did a double take, focusing on her jean-clad leg this time but the shadow was gone. I hurriedly grabbed my fork and sat up again. As I placed it back on the table I felt Lily’s gaze on me and I looked up to meet her eyes. A cold shudder ran through me as her dark brown eyes seemed to pierce into mine, looking almost suspicious. I gave her my best smile, which seemed to relax her and she looked away, back to Derek who was in the middle of a story about his shift at work, oblivious to the quick and silent exchange between us. As the meal continued, I couldn’t shake off what I had seen. Was it the trick of the light?
I was pulled from my thoughts then when Derek suddenly broke into a coughing fit. He held up a hand as Lily and I both turned to look at him in slight worry. He reached for his glass of water and took a few gulps from it to recover.
“Sorry, food went down the wrong pipe,” He said, but it was then I also noticed the heavy bags that had appeared under his eyes that hadn’t been there a few days earlier. He also looked like he had lost some color to his skin.
“Are you sure, babe?” Lily asked, rubbing a hand up and down his back.
“Yea, I’m fine,” He said with a smile, although it seemed strained. Lily nodded and went back to her meal without a second thought, but I wasn’t fully convinced.
The week after that, Derek and I went out for a hike while Lily was at work and I noticed him starting to lag behind. Of the two of us, he had always been more of the athletic one usually leading on the hiking trails, but now he appeared to be struggling. The bags under his eyes looked to be getting worse and his pallor was even more sickly looking.
“Dude, are you sure you’re okay? You look like crap,” I said as we paused for another break.
“Gee, thanks,” He laughed.
“I’m serious, maybe you should see a doctor. You’re looking a bit pale there, D,” He tried to wave off my worry and went to step around me. It was then I noticed something else off, but it took me a second to realize what it was. His shadow on the ground…it didn’t look right. I turned to compare my own shadow to his and sure enough….his shadow looked like it was…fading. What the hell was going on?
I didn’t bring it up and tried to reason the strangeness away. A fading shadow? What kind of supernatural nonsense was that? I’d never been the superstitious type but, things were just getting weirder, and my friend didn’t seem to be getting any better.
The next time Lily dropped by, I began to study her, since the weirdness with Derek hadn’t started until she showed up. I began to notice things changing with her too. Her hair was shinier and fuller than when I first met her. Her eyes were brighter, her complexion clearer…it was like she was getting more beautiful as time went on.
As I turned to go to the kitchen, I saw it again, the shadowy outline…it wrapped around Lily like an ominous aura. I turned back to look at her straight on but it was gone again. I blinked in slow realization and slowly let my eyes shift off to the side of her, and then looked at her using only my peripheral vision…it was there. The dark glowing cloud of mist surrounded the edges and curves of her body. I couldn’t help the small gasp that left my lips. Lily’s eyes snapped to me and she smiled tightly.
“Is something wrong, Anna?” She asked me in a clipped tone. I regained my composure quickly and shook my head, forcing a smile in return.
“Oh, no, I just…forgot to email my boss about something that happened at work…it’s no biggie, though,” I nervously laughed and waved as if to brush myself away from the topic. I could feel her eyes narrowing at my back as I retreated quickly to the kitchen, trying not to raise her suspicion even more. I heard her soft footsteps leave the living area as she padded back to Derek’s room. He hadn’t left his room all morning and I could feel it in my gut that things weren’t going to get any better. I still couldn’t convince him to go to the hospital as he kept telling me he was fine. I know, I know! I should’ve done something…forced him to go. Like that would’ve done anything to help him anyways.
Later that night, I opened up my laptop and began to Google search for anything about shadows fading or dark auras, almost hoping I’d find nothing. That this was all in my head and it was really me who needed help with these hallucinations that were all too real to me…but I found what I was looking for, and all it did was make my heart sink lower than ever.
They were creatures called Bakiekart or…Hollow Ones. Beings that were once human but had given into pure darkness while alive. The acts they committed had corrupted their souls so much that it died within them, leaving them hollowed-out shells with a neverending hunger to fill the emptiness inside and revitalize their otherwise empty forms. Without a soul, a human loses all warmth to their skin and cannot die nor be claimed for Heaven or Hell. They become stuck here on Earth. Bound to an immortal existence, they suck their victims dry of their own souls and swallow them up, shadow and all as the darkness surrounding them is born from the lack of a soul of their own…a shadow without their light.
I stared at my computer for so long that I almost didn’t register the figure standing in my doorway. I looked up when I felt cool eyes staring me down.
“What are you looking at,” Lily’s voice came out playful…however, it was also laced with something deadly…threatening. I swallowed heavily and tried to keep myself composed.
“Just reading some creepypastas online…what’s up?” I heard my voice shake a bit and cursed internally at my weakness.
“Must have been scary stuff…you look absolutely rattled,” Her tone was matter-of-fact as she stood there just beyond the threshold of my bedroom, just beyond the reach of the light from my computer. There was a heaviness in the air as the silence between us fell. Her figure in the shadows of the night didn’t do anything to abate the cold dread pooling in my gut.
“How’s Derek doing?” I finally asked, desperate to break the tension. I could tell, even through the darkness, that she was scowling slightly.
“He’s just fine. Why?”
“It’s just…he hasn’t been looking too well. He called in three times last week at his work, but he won’t go to the hospital. Could you talk him into it?” It was a dumb question…if she was this soul-eating monster thing, she wouldn’t give up her meal ticket…but it would confirm my suspicions.
“He doesn’t need a doctor, Anna,” She was defensive now. I could almost see her eyes narrowing at me…like she knew I knew something.
“But-“ When I tried to speak again, she cut me off.
“HE’S FINE! You need to leave it alone. He doesn’t need anyone but me!” She growled out before reaching in for my door knob and then slamming it closed, cutting off the conversation between us. I let out a shuddering breath and cried.
He didn’t die…not really, if you ask the doctors. He’s still technically alive, even if he is more or less a zombie. Three days after my midnight conversation with Lily she disappeared. Derek hadn’t come out of his room in a full day so I went to check on him. His eyes were glazed open and staring at the ceiling. His mouth hung open a little and drool was drying at the corner of his mouth. Other than blinking and breathing, he was unresponsive. I called 911 and watched my friend be wheeled away on a gurney. I couldn’t help but notice as they descended the stairs out of the building that while the gurney shadow could clearly be seen in the morning sun…Derek’s was gone. It just looked like a shadow on an empty gurney with no one on top of it. I was, of course, the only one who noticed this.
The doctors couldn’t figure out what happened. I was asked by both the doctors and the police if I knew what could have triggered his condition. All I could say is that I had been urging him to go to doctors for the past few weeks when he started to look unwell but had no true idea how or when it started. I know the last part was a lie, but what was I supposed to tell them? Oh, my best friend started dating a monster that emotionally sucks you dry until your nothing but a husk of a person?
Last I heard, his parents were discussing the decision of whether to keep him on life support or not. As for Lily, she had all but disappeared from the world, and I couldn’t help but feel a little relief that I wasn’t her next target. I know…I’m a bad friend. I should have tried harder to save him, but how could I have known?! How could I have stopped something like this?! The only thing I can do now is tell my story and pray that some of you will believe me and that my experience will at least help somebody else, anybody else, from the same fate. Beware of the Hollow Ones, or they’ll eat your soul, shadow and all.