My name is Brandon, I’m 29 years old and I can’t escape the shadow that follows me.
It’s been a few months since I moved to Adams, Tennessee. I haven’t done much with my life but I have a loving girlfriend Rachel. She was willing to make the move with me, as she understood due to recent circumstances, I needed a fresh start.
I chose the small town of Adams because it felt secluded and far away enough that I could escape and take the time to heal from my past.
I moved into a small 2 bedroom house. It’s old and run down but it cost me next to nothing and Rachel and I both find it’s dilapidated look gives it character.
I was able to find a job at a storage unit facility called Life Storage. They needed a security guard for the night shift since their last one had retired a few months prior. I don’t mind working the late hours. I find it hard to sleep during the night anyways.
After a few nights of unpacking we had finally gotten the house looking more homely. Rachel didn’t help much but she had been cold since we left. I think she just missed her family and I don’t blame her, it’s my fault we moved so far away and I didn’t give her much of a choice to argue it. But nonetheless she came with me and were going to make the best life we can here.
Everything started off well, we stayed at the house most of the time and watched scary movies. My favorite are the ghost and demon movies like “The Conjuring” and “Sinister”. She loved watching them too, so we just enjoyed staying up all night watching them until we fell asleep on the couch.
Well finally my first day of work came. My shift is 7pm to 3am, Monday through Friday. I was excited to get back to making money. The small amount of savings I had was starting to dwindle and my boss had politely offered to pay me at the end of the week. At the same time I was really nervous, I hadn’t been around anyone in a few weeks and I’ve never been the most social. Luckily I was just working security by myself at night and I’d likely never encounter anyone except the 2 other day time shift employees when we switched off.
My first night at work went well, I had thought I’d seen someone but I figured it was likely just the anxiousness of it being my first night on the job. I had no issues the whole time, I just monitored the security cameras in the office and made my rounds around the area to check that no storage units doors were open. The day shift manager Ted had showed up and I was able to go home finally. I was completely exhausted, my body hadn’t adapted fully to the new sleep schedule I was going to start following.
This is when some things started to happen that put me on edge. I got home and I walked in and Rachel was still on the couch so I carried her up to bed with me. I go to the bathroom and I just kept all the lights off because I was so tired I didn’t want the light to wake me up. While I’m standing there going to the bathroom I hear a whisper.
“Brandon where are you?”
It sounded just like my girlfriend but I was so terrified I couldn’t move.
“Brandon please”
This time it was louder but still in a hushed voice.
I broke out of my fear and checked the bedroom. It was completely dark but I could see the light of the alarm clock reflecting off of Rachel’s face. She hadn’t moved. I’m completely overrun with dread. I take a second to think if I need to check the house for an intruder. But I realize it sounded just like Rachel and it couldn’t have been her, I must have just been so exhausted I was hearing things. I decided to just lay down and try to go to sleep and after a little while I finally did.
I woke up the next morning finding myself still thinking about the voice I’d heard the night before. Even though it was likely my mind playing tricks on me, my fear brought me to remember some of our favorite movies. I couldn’t stop thinking about it and started to wonder if it had sounded familiar to me or if I was over thinking the whole situation. Nevertheless I understood that I needed to focus on showing up for work. There’s not many jobs out here and I’m hoping to have Adams be my new home.
I prepared for work that day, said goodbye to Rachel and kissed her before I left, as I always do. I went to work and started my shift, trading with the midday shift manager Hank. He told me that they had been having problems with rats getting into unit 227. Apparently rats are a pretty big issue in Adams because I’d seen a few trying to dig their way into my garage. Luckily, I had no fear of rodents and I could deal with them if I needed to.
I sat in the office and made my rounds checking unit 227 and everything was quiet and calm. I needed this, the move and everything that had happened recently had just been weighing on my mind and it helped me to just start drawing. A Bob Ross quote that stuck with me was “It’s hard to see things when you are too close, take a step back and look.” I’d thought about that a lot lately and took it for more than just painting. I felt I could apply that to my life now. I just needed to slow things down and try to draw out my emotions onto paper.
As I’m drawing, out of the corner of my eye I notice something skitter past the camera facing units 200-250. It could have just been the bad connection, the TVs and cameras we have are easily from the 90s. I went to check anyway as I’d been drawing for a few hours and started to feel guilty I wasn’t doing anything. I started towards the units when I saw one of the overhead lights start to flicker. It looked to be right above unit 227. I thought maybe one of the rats had started to chew the wiring but it could also just be the antiquated electrical appliances.
I began checking all of the units and made sure they were locked and that there were no exposed holes or cracks. I made it to the flickering light when it fully went out, I sighed knowing that I had forgotten my flashlight in the office. The other lights in the area were still enough for me to see. I debated going back for it but I figured I could see well enough and decided to just feel around the unit door and make sure it was sealed properly. As I was feeling around, to my absolute horror it felt like another hand had touched my hand. Not just touched it but grabbed my fingers. I fell backwards completely mortified and couldn’t see anything that it could have been. The door was shut and it was completely silent aside from the low humming of the fluorescent lighting. I looked around trying to see if anything had ran off. I heard a loud snap and a pool of blood forming around the corner at the end of the row of units. I wanted to stay and investigate it, it’s my job but I couldn’t. I sprinted as fast as I could back to the office, I needed to contact someone, my boss, maybe the police.
I got back to the office and checked the cameras. The light that had went out was back on now, but now I could slightly see that pool of blood on the cameras as well. I went to call someone, anyone, but I realized my phone fell out of my pocket when I had fallen earlier. I tried using the phone in the office but they hadn’t replaced it in so long and no one ever needed to use it, it didn’t even have a dial tone when I picked it up. I knew I had to go back in there.
I worked up the courage after a few minutes once I caught my breath and grabbed my flashlight this time. I got back to the units. I flashed my light at the end of the units where the blood was. I slowly made my way back down the corridor grabbing my phone still on the ground. The light above me started to flicker again. I was fully shaking at this point. I decided to continue down to the end and turned the corner where the blood was and saw something I felt like I’d seen in a movie. A girl completely beaten bloody with stab wounds all over her torso. Her clothes entirely soaked through with blood. My senses were overloaded with a metallic smell. I was overwhelmed with guilt as though I had caused this. I could barely breathe. I wanted to run but I had to check and make sure she wasn’t still alive. I put my flashlight down facing the woman. I knelt down and went to pull her hair out of her face to check for a pulse. I moved her hair and I saw terror in her eyes that had far surpassed mine. She was crying so much it started to dilute the blood on the concrete. Her eyes were bloodshot and her mouth still pouring blood from it. She screamed “Why me?” I completely lost consciousness from the scream. It felt like my brain was going to implode.
I awoke a few hours later on the floor of the corridor. I immediately looked around to see where I was. I saw the blood still. My heart skipped every other beat. Then I noticed a contraption on the floor. It was outdated as everything else was in this building. It was a rat trap and in it was half of a rats body. This trap was not your typical trap that just broke the rats neck, it had completely smashed the top half of this rat and had sent blood all over. I wish this was enough for me to relax but with everything that had happened I couldn’t do anything but run back to the office.
It was 3am by this point. I’d finished my shift and saw Ted pulling into the parking lot. I went out and handed the keys off to Ted and didn’t say anything, I immediately started walking to my car. Ted turned around and asked me if everything was alright, he said I had looked like I’d seen a ghost. I chuckled nervously and told him that the rat trap worked. He gave me a look of understanding and told me not to worry, he’d clean it up.
I got in my car and made my way home, it was still so dark out and I wanted to be in anything but the darkness at this point. I live 30 minutes away and my drive is all highway and trees. No one’s out at this point and there’s hardly any lights along the highway. I was in a trance, still trying to grasp what had happened to me. Was I going crazy? I need to see a doctor, I think I’m losing my mind. I peered into my rear view mirror and I saw her again. This time her face completely pale, blood still pouring out of her mouth and holes like a black abyss where her eyes should be. She screamed loud again saying “Why are you doing this to me?” I slammed on my breaks and looked back in the mirror. She was gone.
I finally arrived home and made a slow lifeless walk to my bedroom and laid in the bed next to Rachel speechless. I was without emotion at this point, it was slowly becoming more clear. As I laid there, the shadow that’s been following me stood peeking its head out of the door to my closet. This time having eyes bloodshot and rolling into the back of its head, blood dripping from its mouth all over the floor and down the closet door. I believe it’s time I dealt with this.
I got up taking Rachel to the car with me. The entire time the shadow followed, screaming “Please stop” “I love you” “You don’t have to do this.” I stayed on my mission, the true reason I came to Adams. I drove to the woods next to red River. I grabbed my shovel and began to dig. Rachel waited for me in the car. I had finally dug deep enough. I brought Rachel to see what I had done. I stared in her cold lifeless eyes. Her body still stiff and starting to rot. The shadow still following. I laid her in the hole and buried her.
I wish I could forget. I still think about changing. But it’s who I am now, I must own it. This was just the first time and I have many more victims to claim. I will never escape this hell. Instead, I will claim more shadows that lurk around the corner.