It’s always there - watching me. I never get a moment of solace, a moment to myself. Wherever I go; it comes too. Sometimes it’s farther away, other times it’s close enough to touch; it all depends on where the nearest corner is.
For as long as I can remember; it has been with me. When I was young, I thought everyone had something just like it standing in their corners. Always staring without emotion. But when I brought it up to my parents; they condemned me and exclaimed their displeasure with what I was saying. I think they thought I was crazy.
Still, none of that changed a thing. It stood in the corner regardless. The tall, gangly figure with bright white eyes reminiscent of industrial light bulb’s was always with me. Day or night, rain or shine.
I once trapped it in a closet when I was around six. I had opened the door to look for an old toy and the thing appeared inside with its back pressed into the nearest corner of the small space. Without even thinking, I closed the door and immediately noticed its absence.
I had actually trapped it.
But, I didn’t understand (because I was so young) that if I opened the door again; it would no longer be trapped. Although, perhaps nobody could have guessed that outcome. With what I know now - it’s clear my experience was exclusive.
So, when I opened the door; it escaped and resumed its position in the corner next to my bed (its favorite spot.) I remember trying to do it again, but it wouldn’t enter the closet after that. I also remember trying to talk to it, but there was never a response. It would watch me do EVERYTHING without so much as a twitch or reaction. I soon found that the only place I could be free of it was outside, but even then; it would be somewhere - in some corner far out of my view but not any less present.
I grew up with this thing throughout the years and became accustomed to it always being there. As I started to learn more about myself and the world, I began to wonder if I had something wrong with me. It is NOT normal to have a seven foot tall - lanky black figure lurking in every close corner.
That’s when the drugs started.
I won’t go into too many details, but let’s just say I wanted to do all I could to make this thing go away. The problem was, nothing made it go away. No amount of oblivion separated me from that abysmal nightmare. Believe me, I tried things I’m not proud of and NOTHING worked.
So, I started therapy and managed to kick the bad habits. There was even a time I was admitted to a type of sanitarium.
While the method of treatment, the location and even the doctors would routinely change; it (the corner dwelling freak show) was the one thing that remained constant. When I was eating, there it stood in the nearest corner. When I was sleeping; it was almost right next to me and when I bathed; it was always there - watching like a dark sentinel.
And nobody understood. Nobody believed me. There wasn’t a single person that thought it could be something more than a sickened delusion and THAT wounded me deeply. How could I have been seeing something like this since the earliest I can remember? I figured there wasn’t any possible way my tiny mind could have been broken so severely so young.
Then again, some things you just can’t predict or imagine.
Eventually (with a lovely recommendation by one of my many doctors) I was released from the institution and sent on my way. The state took care of me after that because I was deemed “unfit” to function in the workplace. I wouldn’t really say that, but the entity would be at any job or place I went, so you could say it was a distraction. I honestly wished I could have done something because being stuck at home just brought it closer to me.
You know, even though it has always been with me, I never saw it move any part of its strange body. Not once. The only movement was from corner to corner, but its statue-like position stayed the same.
That is, until recently.
For the first time, since the beginning, I saw it move.
Now, initially I thought I had imagined it, but all that changed when it made eye contact with me. Picture this; you’re laying on your bed with a tall, frail looking entity looking over you from the nearest corner of your room. Suddenly, you turn your head out of curiosity and the thing that has always stood still, for as long as you can remember, slowly turns its head. What happens next is two wide, glowing eyes are staring directly at you.
I nearly left my skin. I don’t want to sound dramatic, but I fell backwards off the bed. After I scrambled to my feet, I noticed its eyes were still following me. At that moment, I questioned it, “What?! Now you want to engage with me? Now you want to show some sign of life?!” As you can expect; it didn’t respond.
And that’s how I lived. For awhile at least. To be honest; it wasn’t much of a change. Was I more terrified than before? Yes, but I got used to it rather quickly. I tried to speak with it several times and all it would do was watch me. I started to mess with it too by making its head go up and down and every which way as fast as I could. It gave me a little chuckle and lightened the whole situation.
But then, I made a mistake.
While I was once again laying in bed, I just couldn’t shake this anger I had inside of me. Just seeing it in the corner of my eye really pissed me off. Its stare was reminiscent of a begging animal and that unnerved me while also fostering this deep rage within my being.
To add insult to injury, I was snacking on something. So, I turned and asked, “Do you want something? You’re always staring at me, you must want some, right?!”
By now, I felt insane. Who wouldn’t? I knew it wouldn’t respond, I still don’t know why I asked. However, I then acted on a very radical impulse and attempted to hand what I was eating to it.
And in less than a second, my wrist was shattered.
I didn’t even see it move and for a short time, I didn’t know I was injured. Soon however, the warmth grew and the burning, stinging, and immensely throbbing pain set in. I began to yell while holding my wrist with my free hand. The thing continued to stare with its beady, bright eyes fixed on mine; it wouldn’t even blink.
I called an ambulance and waited by the front door. It took a position in the corner of the living room (which was the one nearest to me.) I wouldn’t take my eyes off it until the paramedics arrived and when they did, I told them I tripped and landed on my hand. I could tell they were skeptical but it was more important that I get it treated and since it was only me there (according to them) they didn’t consider foul play.
If only I could have told them that the culprit was hunched over in the tight corner of the ambulance the entire time. If only I could have told the doctor that the horrifying thing standing in the emergency room was the reason my wrist needed full reconstructive surgery.
If only I knew what it wanted.
After some intense physical exercise instructions, I was sent home. My wrist would be in perpetual stasis for several months and the pain was excruciating, especially at night. I cursed at the thing in the corner whenever I couldn’t sleep but it had no effect. How could something have so little remorse for having committed such a horrible act?
I suppose when you look at humanity; it’s easy to see the irony in that question.
Anyway, life really sucked for those long months. More than usual I mean. I slowly rearranged my room (the bed was exceedingly difficult with a bum wrist) so that none of my furniture was near a corner. With my bed against the middle of the wall, I felt somewhat safe. I’ll tell you this though; it is SO hard to sleep when an entity capable of shattering your bones in one swift motion is constantly standing in a corner of your room. I wondered if it would do more after that incident, like, would it start talking to me? Or, would it suddenly cast away its corner perpetuity for a little more… intimate closeness?
I hoped not.
Like I said, those months were long and strenuous. I asked if its neck hurt from always having it turned towards me so sharply to no avail. What was I supposed to do? I tried poking it with a wooden dowel and nothing happened; it just kept those ridiculously large ocular bulbs fixed on me.
But, when I asked the most pertinent question, “Why me?” I actually got a response. Not the kind I hoped for, but it was something. After posing the question, it twitched, subtly. It COULD have been my imagination, but trust me, I’ve lived with this thing my entire life and believe me; it moved.
I almost smiled. Not because the horror in the corner responded to my query, but because its movement meant it was listening. Which meant it was intelligent enough to be able to understand my dialogue.
I brought all this up to my therapist and… well… let’s just say they were “less than enthusiastic,” about the whole situation. You see, to them this was simply another case of either paranoid psychosis or some form of schizophrenia. I honestly can’t blame them for thinking that because no amount of scientific discovery could back up my claims.
Hell, people online would believe me, but that hardly affected the outcome of my sessions.
Pills, pills and more pills. That was the “solution” to my unfortunate circumstance.
None of them worked of course.
Over the span of the next week and a half, I began to notice new and strange things happening to the entity. For one - hair; it had begun growing brown-ish wavy hair from its veiny, black skull. First a strand, then several locks and soon it had a full head of hair. That took about four days, and none of it made sense.
On the fifth day, and for the first time ever, I awoke to it facing away from me. I nearly died from laughter, I was so elated! But my joyous celebration was quickly snuffed out when I noticed small, white protrusions coming from its back. Anyone could tell it was bone and my happiness crumbled once again into fear. What was happening to it?
The sixth day, or rather, night was another instance of “things taking a turn for the worse.” I still had a rather annoying wrist cast at this time and was having some of my usual uncomfortable sleep because of it. After having fallen asleep, I dreamt of heavy shadows pressing the life out of me with darkened hands orchestrated by evil incarnate.
It was kind of fucked up, I’ll say that. But hey, I was kind of fucked up too.
However, when I was suddenly jolted awake, I realized that my dream was more of a nightmarish premonition.
Because, angled over me like a four-legged spider, was it - the entity. The whites of its giant eyes pierced my soul and it felt like I had caught it in the act of something. Seeing it lording over my slumbering body paralyzed me. I tried to slow my breathing and keep it quiet, but the thing just stared at me as it always had.
I then made another mistake.
I tried to push it off of me.
However, it didn’t break my limbs (which I half expected to happen.) Instead, it ripped off every single one of my nails and once it was done; it returned to the corner and resumed its vigil.
I screamed like you’ve never heard a man scream before and if I remember correctly, I pretty much blew out my vocal cords. I didn’t end up going to the hospital for that because quite frankly, I figured they’d assume I did it to myself. Everything I was experiencing could have been chalked up to some sort of mental illness and I really didn’t want to go back to an institution. So instead, I bandaged all of my fingers and toes the best I could.
Now my floor, bed and even the walls going to the bathroom were smeared in blood. Unfortunately, I didn’t have anything strong enough to clean the stained carpets so for a couple weeks it looked like a murder scene in my home. But things didn’t end there.
See, there wasn’t any one feasible thing I could think of to solve this rather unpleasant conundrum of mine. As I explained, I couldn’t touch it. I didn’t want to go anywhere near it and I tried to maintain at least a ten foot distance at all times. However, after waking up and seeing it spread over me like that, I realized that what I wanted was far different than what IT wanted.
To add to all the confusion and terror, I came to the conclusion that it was going through a kind of metamorphosis. That was the only thing I could think of that would explain the changes it was going through. The hair, the bones and now - the nails. Long, sharp claw-like nails on both its hands and its feet.
It made me wonder if somehow it stole mine.
“That’s nonsense,” I thought to myself. I also thought that maybe I was imagining these changes in order to somehow increase the severity of its appearance in my mind. Why would I do that you might ask? I don’t know, why does anyone do anything? If I really was mentally ill, then that could explain mostly everything.
But then that would beg the question of just HOW messed up was my mind that NOTHING could fix it?
Cut to three months ago when another new development occurred. By that time, I had accepted my malevolent lifelong companions changes and adapted the best I could. I kept my bed where it was in the room but started leaving the light on when I slept. It seemed to help because I hadn’t woken up to the entity above me since the first time it happened. And, for all intents and purposes, I felt like things had returned to a relative normality (well, as normal as my state of living could get.)
That’s when it spoke.
It spoke with a voice that sounded like many. At first. Then, it lowered in pitch before jumping to one so high I had to cover my ears. When I looked at it; it was covering its ears as well, as if it was copying me. That was very unsettling.
Finally, its voice came back down to a tolerable level and it stopped speaking altogether. But only for a few deafening seconds. The next time it spoke; it was with MY voice.
It said, “Do you want something? You’re always staring at me, you must want some, right?!” Just as I had said to it once before although it didn’t make much sense as I was eating something when I had originally posed the question. I was far too disturbed to make that connection at the time though and simply continued to stare at it.
When I took my hands away from my ears, so did it and as I began to slowly rise from my bed; it began to move as well. But, it wouldn’t leave the corner, so its movements were awkward and nonsensical.
Then, it spoke again. This time it asked, “Why me?” I couldn’t tell where it was speaking from as it didn’t appear to have any sort of mouth but hearing my voice coming from that horrid thing seriously made my skin crawl.
I made a disgusted face and walked out of my bedroom. It reappeared in the corner of the hallway and I was forced to adeptly dodge away from it. As I walked through my house - the entity continued to move from corner to corner. It stopped speaking, but I noticed it had taken up copying my walking mannerisms; it would march in place as if it was mocking me.
Terrified and confused, I decided to sit in the living room and try to avoid eye contact with the thing. It remained in the corner to the left of my TV and kept a solid gaze directly on me. “What do you want, creep?” I asked harshly.
It stared at me, that much I know because I could still see it in the corner of my eye, but as far as I’m aware; it didn’t have a reaction. I turned the TV on and cranked up the volume in an attempt to mentally escape my current reality.
And then, it rushed at me.
I barely had enough time to yell as immense fright filled my body. In a matter of seconds; it had reached me and it hurled my chair over with me still sitting in it. I fell out of the chair while it soared across the living room and hit the floor hard enough to knock the wind out of me. While I gasped for breath, the thing attacked the TV; it completely destroyed it, smashed it into a crumpled pile of plastic components, glass and metal.
After I had regained my composure; it stood in the center of the room and watched me. I didn’t move, I only watched back and the silence in the room grew by the minute. Eventually, it slowly receded back into the corner never once taking its eyes off me. It was then that I realized its eyes had begun to change much like the rest of its body.
They were becoming human-like and strangely enough, were the same color as mine.
I sat right there on the floor for the rest of the night.
When morning came and the sunlight was peeking through the windows, I fell asleep. When I awoke, I felt a burning sensation all over my body; it was like I had been roasted on an open flame. I lifted my shirt up to reveal several patches of missing skin on my stomach and chest.
And just as I was beginning to wonder about what happened, I saw the thing. Like always, it was in the corner, but now with various patches of skin on different parts of its body.
The more I looked, the more terrifying it became. The skin was spreading. Each patch was slowly creeping towards another - yearning for a connection. I backed against the wall and shuddered without so much as an inkling of what to do.
The entity hunched over (much to my surprise) before curling up into a ball on the floor. “Now’s my chance!” I thought and I got up to grab a knife from the kitchen. Upon approach, I could hear it breathing, which was something I hadn’t heard before in my whole life. Its body rose and fell with each strained breath but that didn’t stop me from attempting to plunge the knife directly into its head.
Things couldn’t ever be that easy.
The knife bent on contact and the blade nearly cut my hand. The entity had no reaction and after my failure, I decided to leave. Where I would go, I hadn’t the faintest idea. I just wanted to be away, or rather, out of my home while that thing did whatever it was doing. So I left.
I drove to a park close by and took a walk. It was calming, but no amount of strolling got my mind off the danger in my home. Besides, I couldn’t stay out all night long. After a few disgruntled looks from other people at the park, I went back home. There was a terrible sense of heaviness in the air, like the darkness beyond my door harbored pure hatred towards me. I knew that thing would be in there and you’d think I’d be used to it by now (given it had always been with me) but the things that had been happening to it recently were… concerning.
But I was delighted to find that upon entering my home; it was gone!
Freedom at last. My life and my home, no longer plagued by that thing. But after cleaning and going to sleep, I came to find that I was farther away from freedom than I could have possibly imagined.
A scream came from outside somewhere and it shocked me awake. I jumped out of bed and stood in the center of my dark room for a few minutes - trying to gather my thoughts. I had covered the windows with black curtains and was delighted to still be without the entity in the corner once they were taken down. When I looked outside, I noticed a small crowd had gathered near my lawn.
I was given a home in a sort of “community” cul-de-sac where most people have access to some of the facilities nearby. A laundromat, for starters. But, there was also a small gathering area with three benches, a water fountain and a bird bath in the middle of the cul-de-sac. However, the reason for the commotion was far more sinister than I could ever have imagined.
After throwing some clothes on, I went to see what was happening. I took a few steps off the porch and noticed they were huddling near the bird bath. Two women were standing with their hands over their mouths and there were several other people pointing towards the bath. I overheard some of the conversation between the two women as I got closer and it sounded like they were saying, “Who would do this?” And, “Only someone who’s sick in the head!”
As I reached the grassy edge of the gathering area - a man stopped me and said, “Be careful, it’s a real mess over there.”
“Why, what happened?” I asked while trying to look past him.
He sighed and crossed his arms, “Morbid shit, that’s what.”
“Am I not allowed to see?”
“Oh, by all means! I was just trying to prevent your day from being ruined.”
“I appreciate it, but the screaming woke me up so you could consider it already ruined.”
The man chuckled, “Yeah, well, I suppose you’ll have to let that scene over there,” he gestured with his head, “determine whether your day goes from bad to worse.”
I nodded and walked past him; it isn’t often that so many people are gathered here, so whatever it was must have been awful.
Awful was an understatement.
As the bird bath came into view, the first thing I noticed was red. A lot of red. There was blood in the bird bath both splattered on the stone it was made of and mixed with the water. Moreover, I counted at least five birds whose bodies were completely mangled beyond recognition. Some were even turned inside out.
I felt my stomach lurch for one quick moment before settling again. I didn’t want to dry heave in front of everyone so I managed to suppress the urge. The two women who were covering their mouths backed away and I turned to face them. “Does anyone know what happened?” I asked while pointing towards the bird bath with my thumb.
One of them shook her head, “No, nobody has any idea. My husband noticed it from our bedroom window and we both came to investigate. It’s just horrible!” The other woman nodded her head in agreement.
“Nobody saw… anything? It’s one thing to somehow manage to catch a single bird and kill it - it’s another thing to catch and kill FIVE. Also, they don’t seem to have been shot, so we can rule out target practice.”
“If anyone has seen anything,” Began the woman, “They haven’t come forward. Besides, animal control is on its way to investigate, so I suppose they will give us their best possible answer.”
I muttered, “Sure.”
“What was that?” She asked curiously.
“Oh, nothing. Hey, if you find anything important out, could you let me know?”
“If there is anything to know, then I’m sure the property management will bring it to the attention of everyone.”
I thought about how the woman didn’t need to be so rude to me, but at the same time, I figured she was a little shook up. I ended up nodding and walking off - back to my house. Slowly but surely the crowd began to disperse and I watched animal control come and go from my bedroom window. Judging by the way it looked; they seemed just as confused as everyone else.
As expected, nobody ever came to my door to inform me and I suppose it was better that way. I didn’t associate with anyone, let alone the people who lived next to me so all things were as they should be. Except for one thing.
Where was the shadow?
The following week, I was awoken several times by various screams, emergency sirens and flashing lights. Each time the police would knock on my door and ask if I knew anything about this or that. Apparently, by word of the officers, a serial murderer was wreaking havoc in our cul-de-sac. Three of my neighbors had been found dead by way of profound dismemberment and even more “gruesome ends.” That’s the way one officer put it.
I felt terrible telling them that I knew nothing about what was happening. In reality, I had a feeling about the cause of this chaos, but I didn’t think anyone would believe me. It had to be the shadow… thing, it or WHATEVER you want it to be called. But why. What would it have to gain from slaughtering both birds and people?
Unfortunately, I didn’t have to wait long for an answer.
By the time the end of the week came, over TEN people had been targeted and killed in my quaint neighborhood. I was heavily advised to leave my home until the authorities caught whoever was doing the killings but I knew they never would. I didn’t have anywhere else I could go anyway, so I stayed. I think a couple others stayed as well, but none of that matters now.
After midnight yesterday, I no longer know who I am.
I was just getting to bed and was closing my eyes when a flash of lightning outside lit up my room. The light illuminated a twisted figure standing in the corner of my room with their head facing down. My whole body stiffened and I pulled the blanket up to help stifle my breathing. Then, the figure lifted its head and said, “Why me?”
I knew then that it was the entity and it had come to kill me.
I sprung out of bed and rushed for the door. From the corner of my eye (and in the corner of my room) I could see the figure slowly start walking towards me. I had no interest in communicating with it or finding out what it wanted - I didn’t care anymore. It started to rain outside as I stumbled through my house to the front door. Heavy footsteps were approaching and it felt like one of those dreams where no matter how fast you run, the thing chasing you is always right there.
When I did reach the door, I took a glance down the hallway to my room. It stood at the end of the hall under darkness and only the flash of the lightning outside would allow me to see any of its features. But I feared that if I stared too long or waited even a second more than I needed to; it would kill me.
So I opened the door and ran outside. I was in nothing but my underwear and left standing in the pouring down, cold rain.
The door to my home slammed shut and I was confused. Why would it close the door?
Suddenly, a light came on inside.
“What the fuck is going on?” I thought.
The silhouette of a person appeared on the other side of the living room curtains. Slowly the curtains drew back and what I saw has me questioning my entire existence.
It was me. I was standing in the living room window.
From there things are hard to remember. Everything about me is fading away, even my skin is turning black like the void. But, there is one final thing that has stayed in my mind since seeing that copy of me.
I think it said something, mouthed it rather, and I’m fairly certain it said, “I wanted you.”