Ever since I was a kid, I have been afraid of the dark. Recently, that fear as been re-enforced and with it has come some old memories. Things I’ve been trying so damn hard to forget. We were just kids, I–– we only thought it was a game, just some stupid Boogie-Man type of urban legend. A game designed by some creep to scare kids. The legend of the game was spread all over our quiet little New Mexican town. None of us actually believed that it existed. We just could not comprehend the fact that some creature of the night could snatch us up at any moment that that it had the patience to wait.
To make sure you stayed scared. To understand what I am going to tell you, we might as well start from the beginning…
***
I was just a twelve year old boy. I wasn’t popular or anything but I had my group of friends. Terry Marsh, he was honestly kind of average looking, not quite skinny but not quite fat. Just there. Jason Brigs, he was the youngest of us but acted older but with his curly hair and baby face, it was hard to take him seriously for anything.
Last up was Sandy Lane; to me she was the most beautiful person in the world with her blue eyes and shortcut blonde hair and slender figure. I felt closest to her but I’d known Terry since before kindergarten. It was a cool Autumn day, school had gotten out and we were riding our bikes home for the weekend, peddling to our favorite spot before we had to separate. It was the top of a hill close to a line of trees.
We could see nearly the entire rest of the town from there. It looked even better at night, so beautiful with the lights from the houses and any other buildings that were around.
We had stopped to talk as Terry wanted to tell us something.
“What’s up, man?” I asked.
That day, Terry was looking tired but I didn’t wanna say anything in case what he was going to tell us had anything to do with it. It took him a moment to find the right wording, like he was gearing up for a class presentation.
“Yo, what’s up?” Jason said.
“Oh, sorry, I kinda spaced out.”
Sandy looked at me; I gave a slight shrug as I didn’t know what was going on.
“Is something wrong?” she asked.
He shook his head and finally came out with it. “Have you ever heard of the Shadow Man? I think we should summon him” he said. We all looked at him for a moment, complete silence and then… we broke out into laughter.
“Come on guys, I’m serious. Stop laughing!”
It was too hard to contain ourselves but eventually we all calmed down.
“Terry, that’s a game for little kids to scare each other with,” Sandy said. Terry rolled his eyes at what she’d said and continued with his presentation.
“I know, but some high school kids were doin’ it and––”
“And what, that makes it cool?” Jason asked.
“Guys, just hear me out.” he said. “If we can prove that we’re tougher than they are, we might actually be talked about. We’d be totally popular!”
Now, I wasn’t really buying it, I felt as if he’d had his own reasons for wanting to play that stupid game, like maybe he wanted to scare us or something, being the prankster that he was.
“Come on, who doesn’t like a good scare?” he said.
He sounded desperate, looked a bit nervous even but I wasn’t going to ask, not in front of everyone. Eventually, we all agreed. We’d leave our houses just before midnight and ride our bikes into the woods. It was a stupid idea but as kids, I guess we all thought it could’ve been fun. We never really got to break the rules so sneaking out of the house at night would’ve been so fun to us. Our chance to be rebellious.
Soon after that, we drove our bikes down the hill and separated down our respective streets. Terry and I lived right next to each other so we just came over to each other’s houses whenever we wanted. We were honestly like two families in two houses. We stopped outside of Terry’s house and got off of our bikes. It was then that I decided to ask him about what was wrong.
“You seemed really nervous back there, man. You look kinda sick, are you alright?”
“I’m fine, Josh,” he said.
I knew when he was lying but I just couldn’t say anything and I wasn’t gonna bring it up again as it would cause problems if I pressed further. He would tell me when he was ready. We talked for a moment about something else but I can’t remember what it was and we went inside our respective homes as if we had nothing planned.
When I went inside my home, my mother was on the phone with her sister Kate and my father was sitting in his recliner watching the News, I could never understand why he’d wanna watch it, still don’t now but it was his thing I guess.
“Hey, son how was school?” he said.
I told him it was fine and that it was pretty boring which it was. My math teacher Mrs. Benson gave out a pop quiz that no one knew how to do because she hadn’t taught us anything. She’d still give us decent grades either way but that was to make herself look good.
After a moment, I sat by my little brother Gabe, he was eight years old and looked more like my dad than I did.
“How was school, dude?” I asked.
“It was boring,” he said. “We watched a dumb video on rocks and I fell asleep.”
That gave me a good chuckle. We talked for a minute about how we wished we didn’t need school and even made a few jokes about the mean fat lady across the street. My dad tried to discipline us on that part but struggled to hold in a laugh of his own. My brother and I were seen as good kids so whenever we did something like that, it was always a surprise.
Before I knew it, the sun had set and it was now time for dinner. Mom had made meatloaf with mashed potatoes and gravy.
The meatloaf was a bit tough but the potatoes were to die for, I of course, loved the salt so much that I used a lot for my potatoes and it was amazing. My high blood pressure from now would disagree with me but as a kid, that wasn’t anything I’d ever had to worry about. My dad sat at the head of the table, mom across from him, and then Gabe and I sat on either side, across from each other. It was a good night and desert was ready soon after we finished eating.
We talked like always. Mom’s boss was sick again and she had to do all the work and dad’s brother, my uncle, hurt himself while riding his motorcycle. The same one he promised to give me when I turned eighteen. Mom told us that Aunt Kate would be in town next month. Dad let out a groan.
“What?” she said.
Dad looked at me, he knew he had to play his cards right or else he’d be on the couch again.
“Nothin’,” he said. “Did she at least say why this time?”
“Yeah, Phil left her.”
Aunt Kate and Uncle Phil were having some problems I guess. Something about one cheating on the other, I don’t remember as at the time I was just thinking about how that night was gonna go. Eventually, we all cleaned up and got ready for bed.
I sat in my bedroom for hours and hours, nearly drifting off a few times. Even with the TV on, it was hard to stay awake. Eventually I looked at my alarm clock, it was 11:49. Just then I heard a pitter-patter at my window, like small rocks colliding with the glass.
I got up and pulled back my curtains to see Terry, Jason and Sandy all outside on their bikes. They have me a wave, I waved back and changed clothes, put on my shoes and grabbed my coat before heading down the staircase.
I had to be very quiet; my parents woke up at the slightest of sounds so I crept down very, very slowly. Just then, I heard something. I turned around and saw Gabe walking from the bathroom to his room. I crouched low and held my breath for what felt like forever. Still, he didn’t notice me and I managed to get downstairs and out the door.
It was a bit colder outside than was expected but still, my coat kept me as warm as it could.
“What took you so long?” Jason asked. “I had to wait, I could’ve been caught,” I responded.
“Come on guys, it’s time to go.”
Terry kicked up the stand on his bike. I grabbed mine and did the same; we all rode for about, five, maybe ten minutes to the forest. On the way there, we got to see some of the beauty of the town’s lights but we didn’t stop to look. We just kept going and going until we arrived. We stopped at the entrance and left our bikes at the faded yellow sign that read: KEEP OUT AT NIGHT. We made our way inside the forest, following a old dirt path covered in leaves that we had to kick through to make sure we stayed on track. Each of us had a flashlight and followed Terry as our leader for the night.
Eventually, he stopped and turned to us.
“Look, if we’re gonna do this, we have to do it right. So no screwing around, got it?” he said.
“Whatever, man. This just better be worth it,” said Jason.
We kept walking and walking; I looked at Sandy and saw a glint of nervousness in her eyes. I gave her my hand and an assuring look that everything was going to be okay. I think it was obvious to everyone but Sandy that I had a crush on her. This might’ve been my way of getting an opening to make my move but nothing ever really happened.
What I do remember about that night was the sky. Pitch black without any stars or clouds in sight and the moon was a small crescent, barely providing any light at all. It was kinda eerie to be honest it made me feel a little uneasy myself. Jason was Mr. Tough and acted like nothing scared him even when he was on the verge of pissing his pants and that night was no different. We knew how we felt about the forest, especially at night but he probably felt better because he wasn’t alone.
For a few short moments, we all went back and forth, making fun of one another for being scared but in reality, it was just something we did to make ourselves feel better. At one point we all stopped talking and there was no sound at all. I stepped on a stick and didn’t even hear it snap. However, I could hear my own heart beat but the rhythm felt off. Almost like it was beating backwards.
Finally, after minutes of walking we made it to the spot Terry had picked out for us. It was an old tree stump; medium sized and looked like it had just been freshly cut down. There were multiple rocks circled around the stump almost like a sign of respect or something. The rumor was, the forest used to be an old burial ground back from the 1600’s and that the Shadow Man was the spirit of someone who died. Others seem to think that the creature is a monster made from the bad energy manifested throughout time but no one knows for sure.
Terry pulled off his backpack and dumped some candles on the ground before turning to us.
“Okay, here’s the plan,” he said. “Josh, I want you to gather sticks, Jason help me with the candles. Sandy, scrape some bark off the stump.”
We all did as instructed; I gathered sticks while Jason and Terry set up the candles and lit them. Sandy scrapped up as much bark as she could and placed it in the middle of the stump. I placed the sticks on top and Terry pulled out some leaves he’d taken from the ground earlier and crushed them up, sprinkling the pieces onto the pile. He then motioned for us to take each other’s hands and get in a circle around the stump. We did and stared into the flames of the candles for a moment.
“Okay, we say it at the same time. Let’s do this.”
Slowly, we each began chanting “Shadow Man, Shadow Man, come out, we know that you can. Come out and play until the end of our days.”
Nothing happened. We waited for a moment or two but nothing happened and Jason was getting impatient.
“Ugh, I can’t believe I came out for this!” he groaned.
Jason and the rest of us broke free from the formation and suddenly the candles went out. Terry grew a face of horror and just stared into the candles as if they were still lit. He was shaking uncontrollably.
“Hey, it was just the breeze, dude,” I said.
“It’s nothin’ to worry about,” said Jason.
No matter what we did, nothing could snap him out of it and then… he was fine. He acted as if nothing was wrong and led us back to our bikes. Sandy, Jason and I looked at each other, we knew something wasn’t right but had no way of knowing what was up. We grabbed our bikes and rode them back home. I went inside my home, Terry went inside his and I climbed the stairs to my room and changed into my pajamas before going to sleep.
The next morning, I could hear my parents freaking out and there was an extra two voices with them. I went downstairs into the living room and saw Terry’s parents. They said he wasn’t in his room and no one had seen him. I wanted to tell them that I saw him come home as I had been with him, but I couldn’t. It wouldn’t sound right especially if I told them what we were doing. It was like Terry never made it home.
I met up with Jason and Sandy, I told them what had happened and we all thought about telling Terry’s parents and the police what had happened but realized we would sound crazy. It’s not like the Shadow Man was even real, right? We drove around on our bikes with the search party and tried desperately to find him. We just couldn’t, it was like he vanished off the face of the Earth never to be seen again.
I week went by, Terry was never found and no one knew what to do about it. None of us knew what to say during the funeral, it was just so… strange. I felt uneasy, like someone was watching me but I couldn’t pinpoint exactly who or where they were. I looked around and eventually something standing by some trees caught my eye.
I couldn’t see much of it, I couldn’t see it at all really, but I knew whatever was looking at me was coming from the trees. The large, spindly trees. The same ones from the forest. Sandy, Jason and I hadn’t spoken a word to each other since the funeral but I knew that Jason and his family were moving away though I didn’t know why. I wanted to know how Sandy was feeling and almost called her a few times but I just couldn’t.
I didn’t even know what to say. Our entire town was filled with dread, an intense feeling of loneliness and I could feel it in my chest. I felt like my heart was going to explode because of all the emotions, emotions that were new to me. Things that I didn’t yet know how to handle and it was eating away at my very core. For the first time in my life, I felt truly alone.
Three days after the funeral I was finally able to get some sleep, no more nightmares of running in the forest from a creature in the darkness. No more emotions but— numbness as I slept. I awoke to a familiar pitter-patter at my window. The rocks. When I was finally able to register what was happening, I jumped up from my bed and raced towards the window. I yanked back the curtains and what I saw was not my friend. It was an unholy thing. A black creature, bone-skinny with eerie purple eyes. Eyes I will never ever forget.
Those were the eyes that made it impossible to move, the eyes that paralyzed me in place and not from any form of hypnotism either. It was fear, the fear of the darkness I’d had as a little kid, all of it came rushing back and I knew, I knew what this thing was. The Shadow Man was the darkness, plain and simple. Pure evil.
I slowly backed away, my heart beat getting faster and faster, louder and louder to the point where my chest hurt.
“Why are you doing this?” I managed to get out.
The Shadow Man just stared at me. It stared for a moment and then a voice, it sounded old and raspy like a dead whisper and it said “You wanted me here and so I am. I will be seeing all of you very soon. Terrence was only the first.”
“Don’t–– please,” I said.
I was getting dizzy, light headed and fell to my knees. The voice chuckled.
“You have no idea what you’ve done, do you child?”
The terror in my body was building. The eyes began glowing brighter and brighter. My breathing became heavy and I crumbled to the floor, the burning sensation of vomit escaped my throat and left past my lips. I was shaking as sweat trickled down my face but I knew I had to fight whatever was happening to me. I looked back up at the thing and I knew that it was responsible for what was going on. It stared at me so intensely and then… it stopped.
Everything went back to normal and I got up. Whatever it had just done, it was a warning. A warning of what would happen if I were ever to resist its power ever again. I turned to run, I wanted to get out of that house but standing in the door way, paralyzed by fear was Gabe. My little brother and he was looking at it right in the eyes. I began to move him out of the room but as soon as my hand made contact with his, he went off in a fearful tantrum.
“What is that?!” he screamed.
I tried to calm him down; I tried to shut him up and close his eyes but nothing I did would work. He snapped out of it when our parents ran into my bedroom. My dad flipped on the light switch only to find me and my brother on the ground as we had fallen. I looked to where the Shadow Man was and he was gone.
“What the hell is going on?!” my father demanded.
I had to think fast and told my parents he saw me watching a scary movie.
“He just freaked out,” I said.
I gave him a look to shut up and he even though he was scared, he went with it. I would explain things in the morning. Mom and dad took him to bed and I closed my bedroom door and locked it. I cleaned up the vomit and got into bed with the intention of going to sleep. I just couldn’t. My eyes finally shut for an hour or two when the sun came up but I awoke to the sound of my parents screaming.
That morning was just the same as when Terry went missing. Right then I knew what had happened. Gabe was gone. Taken by the Shadow Man.
I ran out of my bedroom and saw my father on the phone with the police, someone would be there shortly. My mother was in tears, a nervous ball on the ground screaming “WHY?! WHY?!”
Soon she got up, running outside and began screaming for Gabe, the neighbors came outside as concerned as ever and my dad followed soon after. Looking through my window I could see Terry’s parents and the looks in their eyes told me they knew something bad had happened. There was an investigation, my father was even a suspect at one time as he knew both victims well, one being his son but nothing ever came of it and the kidnapping case was never solved.
We had another funeral, I got the same feeling of being watched once again and when looking towards the trees, this time I saw it. The eight foot tall thing that took my friend and brother. It was watching me, mocking me and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it. About a week or two later, Sandy contacted me. We met up at the top of the hill and the look in her eyes told me this was something I knew I wouldn’t like.
“I’m leaving tomorrow. I saw something I can’t explain and I can’t stay here anymore,” she said.
“I’m getting out before something else bad happens and I think you should do the same.”
“Can we keep in contact?” I asked.
Sandy shook her head to say no and while I was saddened by this, I understood but the guilt and terror outweighed it. It truly didn’t matter how I felt. After a moment she rode off back to her home and that was the last time I’d ever seen her.
***
As I sit here now. At the time of me writing this, I’ve since learned what’s happened to Sandy as well as Jason.
Jason committed suicide by lighting himself and his family on fire at the age of twenty-two but I have a feeling it was to protect them from being taken. Sandy went missing a year after leaving town and her father killed himself, leaving her mother, his wife all alone with nothing but pills and a bottle of alcohol. Sandy’s mother was committed to the psych-ward last month, calming she saw a shadow with glowing eyes. I guess I’m the only one left, he saved me for last.
I don’t have the strength to kill myself, I’ve tried so many times but just can’t. It’s as if someone or something won’t let me. I’m writing this because I want everyone to know what happened to me and I want the disappearance case to finally be solved. I’ve got nothing left but a shitty apartment and paranoia. I’m writing this as a warning, if you live in my old home town, do not play the Shadow Man game. It will ruin your life.
I am also writing this because there is a shadow in the corner of the room and it’s not mine. The glowing purple eyes make it obvious. If you have read this and you know who I am, wherever I go, I am surly dead. To my family, whomever I have left, I am sorry. I love each and every one of you but I have to go now. The Shadow man is waiting to collect…