Hello, my name is Noah I just moved here it’s a small town up in Canada, only around 3000 people, I moved here up with my aunt, but unfortunately she just passed away a few days after I arrived, but I do like the town and my old one sucked, so I’m planning to stay, or at least that’s what I thought.
When I moved into the house I got a small pamphlet in the mail, all it said was this
At 3 am every morning a shadow will come to your door, whatever you do, open the door and see the shadow, if you don’t, let’s just say, you won’t be able to tell anyone what happened
At first I thought that this was just a way to get me to move out, and somebody wanted my house, so I thought nothing of it, until I went to bed at 1, and at 3 am, I heard a noise outside my door, I thought that there was no shadow outside my door, but it wasn’t worth the risk, so I went out and looked, but there was nothing there.
I went back to bed, but I couldn’t sleep, if the shadow was real, I might’ve been too late, what did it mean by I wouldn’t be able to tell anyone else? Would I die? Would I have my mouth sealed shut? What would happen, I couldn’t sleep that night, and I needed around 5 cups of coffee in the morning.
Surprisingly, another pamphlet showed up, I opened it, thinking it might be some death message or something.
The shadow is invisible, but stays out for 5 minutes, it does this so if you do it and not see anything, you get scared, don’t fall for it’s trick
Okay, so that would explain it, but i still thought this couldn’t be real, I mean, come on, it’s ridiculous, it’s there! It’s invisible! There’s no proof of it! But we swear it’s there! Yeah, right, that’s what I thought, and it was a big mistake.
As it got closer and closer to 3 that night I got more nervous, suddenly this whole thing sounded much more real, so when 3 struck, I immediately went out of my door, only to see nothing again, but now I thought I saw something move, a faint sliver like something had appeared for a tenth of a second, it must have been the shadow. But I saw it, I knew it wouldn’t hurt me tonight, so I rested, barely.
This cycle continued on for days, then weeks, then months, at this point it was routine to go out of my door at 3 am, and then go back in, every single night, my sleep schedule of course hated it, but it was worth the price, whatever that price was.
And every single time, I saw the ghost, only every time I could see it more clearly, if I went out at exactly 3:02 I could see a small black outline for a few seconds, I thought it looked like an old lady, only to remind me of my aunt, she died at 92, not young, but still, I miss her.
I had made many friends in the town, and I finally decided for them to come over one night so we could watch football, it was going until 4, and the thing is, I almost forgot about the rule.
2:57, 2:58, 2:59, 3:00 my alarm rang, and I remembered, I immediately went outside the door. “Guys come out here, now”.
“Why? Oh yes! They just scored!”My friend said, I went along to him and slowly dragged him to the door, he got up, and went outside, now annoyed, but he went back.
I had no idea if only one person had to go out, or all, also I had no idea if when I wasn’t at home but at 3 am, it would still happen, but I wasn’t taking any risks, so slowly I dragged them out as they tried to get up and get back to the tv, and before 5 minutes, everyone had walked out the door, my friends were very annoyed though, they said they were doing it at their houses from now on, which I was willing to do, as long as it was before 3.
One day though, I realized something, almost this entire time I had been doing this for no reason, I had no evidence that the shadow even existed, I was ruining my sleep schedule for nothing, I convinced myself that the ghost I saw at 3:02 was just a hallucination or my imagination, somehow I convinced myself of that, and I said, I wasn’t going to open the door at 3 o’clock.
3 struck, and I waited, 3:00, 3:01, 3:02, 3:03, 3:04, and 3:05, suddenly the clock struck 3:06, and more adrenaline then I’ve ever had in my life took over me, my breathing started to get heavier and my heart was going so fast it was like I had ran a marathon, but I didn’t know why, it was like an external force made my like this, and soon, every door and window banged open, and something dragged me out of them, I couldn’t see them, but they were there, they dragged me out, knocked me out, and soon I woke up.
I was now in the forest, but an everlasting mist engulfed the entire area, I walked forward, I felt like a ghost, hollow, but I continued walking, up and up a hill, until I saw someone, my aunt.
“Aunt Mary?”I asked, suddenly, two dark and cold ghosts walked up to me.
“You have broken the code”They said, and led me to a small plaque, a grave, my grave.
“Harlend maradale, r.i.p 1954-2003, cause of death, unknown”.
There was also some more text.
Those who tell of the shadow, or do not go to look for the shadow, will soon become the shadow.
I didn’t understand. “What does this mean?”I asked my aunt who had said nothing before.
“If you tell someone about the shadow, or don’t look, like you just did, they will come and kill you, then you will become one of the shadows, everyone has one, but everyone has a voice inside their head telling them not to say anything, but the thing is, a shadow can only haunt you if it’s a family member that passed away, I was your shadow, and soon, you will become the next shadow”.
“Do I have a choice?”.
“No”.
After that, i walked around town, but nobody could see me, I really was a ghost, and soon at 3 am, I was teleported to my moms bedroom door, and she came out, she saw the pamphlet too.
Now, every night, I look at my mom, knowing I will never see her again, and she will never see me, I cry every night, and now, I’m grateful for every second I was alive, especially with my mother, because I know I’ll never get to have that, again.