Have any of you heard of shadow people? I mean, I know it’s somewhat of a popular urban legend, but have any of them ever stayed?
Let me take a step back. My whole life I’ve been surrounded by folktales and legends told by my senile Grandmother. Some of them are common, Paul Bunyan and David Crockett to name a few, but it was always late at night where my grandmother’s stories would change. These were the stories I grew most intrigued by. My Grandmother, a novice storyteller in the day, by night turned Shakespearean in her recollections. Tales of the Wendigo, the Jersey Devil, and most importantly the Shadow People.
As the story goes, anytime you’re in a dimly lit room alone, out of the corner of your eye you can see a figure. This figure can be in many shapes either short, tall, wide, skinny, solid, smoky, but every single time it resembles a human. And as any sane person would do, you would turn in their direction only to see nothing. It vanishes in an instant. I’m sure even a few of you have seen this phenomenon. Some people say they are guardian angels checking in, some say they are malicious deities waiting to steal your soul, but most people chalk it up to be tricks of the mind, shown only to people who are too paranoid for their own good when alone. I’ve even seen them from time to time and at this point it became a game to try and catch them out of surprise. My Grandmother knew better. She said one day she saw one too, but this time it saw her back. This motivated my antics even more.
Usually after mumbling a few vague details she’d lose it, staring blankly into the crackling fireplace as a distinct look of fear passed over her. As an impatient 8 year old I would get bored and wander to the next rambling drunk adult. The story never changed as the years went on and when she passed, so too did her stories.
I’ve all but forgotten about every other story but for some reason, the Shadow People stuck with me. Something about the fear in her eyes told me it couldn’t have just been words, there had to be some truth behind it. That’s what originally brought me to this forum. I would scour the subs to see if anyone had heard or experienced what my Grandmother had, but none I’ve seen match with my Grandmothers muttering. It was at this point after searching for 3 years that I began to give up.
That was until a few years ago, the day I turned 18. The night of, my family had just come home from a celebratory dinner at my favorite steakhouse. They were exhausted and everyone went to bed right away except for me. Still full of energy from finally being a free adult, I wandered downstairs for a midnight snack. My headphones blasting and a skip to my step I opened the fridge door and rummaged through the various consumables. That’s when it appeared.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw it, a vague figure, just like I’ve seen in the past. I do my “little ritual” of psyching myself up that this would be the time I catch it for more than a nanosecond. I turn my head slightly left then snap my neck in an instant. What I expected was nothing, what I got was horror.
15 feet away stood a being with white beads for eyes and a crooked row of false teeth smiling back at me. As the realization set in, my playful grin went away and so did it’s. My eyes couldn’t focus on its shape, it was eye level only because it was noticeably slouched. Its arms and shoulders were scrunched into its center, thinning its frame. It stood awkwardly, gazing at me, tilting its head in unison with mine.
What stared back at me wasn’t from this world. I felt like I was looking into a void whose presence was being rejected by our plane of existence. A structure carrying an Eldritch presence stood in my living room. I slowly turned my body towards it and moved backward, slow enough to convince myself I had a chance. With each step back it took a step forward, its pace matching mine. It wasn’t going to let me leave.
5 steps away on the wall was the light switch. In my childish panic I thought if I turned it on the Shadow would leave and I’d be safe. As I continued to creep, the Shadow would start to copy my movements. Not just walking towards me but walking like me. Its body would contort in impossible ways to keep its posture while matching my gestures. It would mess up sometimes and quickly correct itself. In retrospect, I wish I internalized this, but to me at that moment survival was at the forefront of my mind.
My hand grazed the wall and with it the being reached into the air feeling for something that wasn’t there. My fingers reached the switch and once they touched, the monster broke its stance and stood upright. It towers over any human and its width consumes the space around it. Before I could flip the switch it lunged at me, reaching for my face. The force knocks me down and with me the switch.
I sat for what must’ve felt like hours just staring blankly in the now lit kitchen. I had no idea what this all meant and all I could do was go back to my bedroom and sit on my bed. I didn’t sleep a lot that night, everytime I closed my eyes I would see the shape. Not a human, but not too far from it.
The next day, proof of the encounter showed itself as a lime-sized lump on my head from hitting the wall. Something my mother would painstakingly nurse with ice and other family remedies. My whole family would continuously ask me what happened. It wasn’t anything a shrug and a “fell off my bed,” couldn’t fix. Eventually after a week I had gone back to an afterthought, and I could start planning my next steps.
I wrestled with some ideas on what to do next. My grandmother wasn’t around anymore, and I wish I had pried for more information when I had the chance. If I had any shot at gaining any more information, my grandmother’s library was the key. She often wrote books before her arthritis grew.
At the time, I didn’t know if I’d gain anything but it was worth a shot. Only thing I know is that I saw it, and it saw me.