The Shadow People by Ashley White (the read aloud family .TXT) 📕

gave me a short wave as a response. I took the groceries inside, placed them in their proper places, and began to make some eggs and toast. I made Annie’s plate, and called her in; I had completely lost my appetite. “Where’s Joey’s food?” she asked. “Joey? Who’s Joey?” I inquired. “He’s my new friend”, she smiled, “and he’s sitting right beside me.” I stared at the empty space beside her, and returned the smile.

“She has an imaginary friend; how cute!” I thought. “What would Joey like for breakfast?” I asked her. “He says a glass of orange juice would be nice.” She retorted. I opened the fridge, got out a glass, and poured the juice. “Well, here you go, Joey.” I said, talking to the empty space. While Annie and “Joey” ate their breakfast, I decided to go for a jog to calm my nerves, but instead of going towards town I sprinted the other way down the road.


I passed three other houses, each as seemingly vacant as the next. There were no children playing on the well-manicured lawns, no cars parked in the driveways, there was absolutely no one in sight. The warm summer air blew through my hair, and I was suddenly grateful Annie didn’t start school for another two months.

Assuming there were no neighbors to socialize with, it would be very lonely once she did begin school again. I turned around after about another mile and began home. I got there around one o’clock, but Annie was nowhere to be seen. “Annie?” I called as I walked through the doorway. There was no response. I began to look around the house for her, to no avail. I was becoming frantic. “Where on earth could she be?” I asked the empty house, half expecting an answer.


I ran outside. “Annie? Annie? ANNIE?” I cried. I heard giggling above my head, and looking up I saw her in a tree. “You get down here, RIGHT NOW!” I yelled, enraged. She quickly scrambled down from the tree, and I grabbed her by her shoulders. “Annie, don’t you ever do that to me again! It wasn’t funny; you scared me half to death!” I screamed. “Joey said it would be funny!” she wailed, tears streaming down her face. I let her go. “Joey’s not real, Annie. He doesn’t exist.” I said calmly. She stood there for a moment, her lip quivering. “He told me you’d say that...,” she muttered, and then she ran inside. I heard her bedroom door slam shut as I followed. “That’s exactly what I need right now.” I thought.

Later that night, I sat in a chair engulfed in one of my favorite novels. Something made me look up from the sentence I was reading; I heard a noise from Annie’s room...laughter? I put down my book, and slowly began to climb the stairs. As I stepped onto the landing outside her room, I realized that I not only heard her laughing but...she was talking to someone? Yes, she was definitely talking to someone. Thinking there was an intruder, I silently grabbed the paperweight off a nearby table. Stretching out my hand, I grasped the knob, and yanked the door open.


Then, I saw it...or didn’t see it. A black shadow remained imprinted for a moment in the middle of the room. As if it realized someone else had just entered the room, it flickered out. “Get out, Mom! You scared Joey!” Annie said angrily. I stared at her, trying to take in what she said. Joey was real. But what was “Joey”? I had no time to consider the possibilities because at that minute Annie was pushing me from her room. As she slammed the door behind me, I remembered a story my grandmother used to tell me when I was a child. I thought it was just a story made up to scare children into behaving...evidently not.

I found myself back in the chair, my book left forlorn on the floor. “How did that story go...?” I asked myself. I closed my eyes, and delving into my mind, I slowly began to remember. It was almost as if I could hear my grandmother’s voice as she said, "The Shadow People work for the Devil.


They come up to search for little boys and girls to take back to Hell with them. It doesn’t matter how loud you scream, or how hard you try to get away, if they want you they will take you. First, they will lure you in, and try to make you think they are your only friend and no one else cares about you. You must not believe them, child. If you do, once they have you where they want you, they will take you, and once you‘re gone there‘s no chance of survival.” Everyone had said she was senile, and in reality, she didn’t make it very difficult to believe.

What if she wasn’t senile? Had she been telling the truth all along? Then there had to be a way to get rid of “Joey”...to save Annie; but how? All at once, I remembered another part to the tale. The only way to banish these “Shadow People” was to deceive them into thinking they were welcome in your home. Once you’d done that you had to capture them, but you only had one chance.

You had to imprison them in something that ‘was always kept pure in your heart’, by taking and holding the item in front of the entity and chanting an ancient Latin banishment charm. Just the thought of condoning such an idea made me question my own sanity. Nevertheless, I remembered the book my grandmother had left me when she passed on. It was a book of words I hadn’t understood when she died. Quickly, I sprinted to my room and rummaged through an old box I had left unpacked.


Lying at the bottom was a careworn red velvet book. I picked it up and flashed through its dry, cracked pages until I came across a page with my grandmother’s scrawl at the top. It read: Shadow People. In the margin, she had written instructions of the banishment process...almost as if she’d known it would be needed someday. The tiny inscription clearly stated the words of banishment. To capture the Shadow in it’s vessel, you had to chant “EGO reprobo vos ut sedeo huic vas insquequo EGO solvo vos.” Once it was imprisoned, you must end the charm by invoking the words: “EGO solvo vos in lux lucis of sol solis ut vos may pereo quod nunquam vulnero iterum”, and release them into the sunlight at the exact moment the sun appeared over the horizon. Something that ‘was always kept pure in your heart’...“What does that mean?” I asked myself angrily. I knew I didn’t have time to try to figure it out, and I was wasting what little time I had left sitting there, doing nothing. I rose from my seat, and began the climb to Annie’s room. I would save my daughter.


I could hear the laughter echoing from within the room. Mentally preparing myself, I gently knocked on her door. “Sweetie, are you there? Can I come in? I have something I’d like to say to Joey.” I said, trying to sound convincing in case Annie had been fully manipulated. After a slight pause, I heard her say, “What do you want to tell him?” She didn’t sound like herself at all. “I just wanted to tell him that I was sorry if I frightened him earlier, and that I’m so glad he’s befriended you. He can stay here as long as he wants to.” There was yet another, longer pause. “He says you can come in.,” she said reluctantly. I slowly opened the door, still unsure of how to rid us of our houseguest.

I stepped inside the room, which had somehow become colder than the rest of the house. Looking around, I saw Annie sitting in the floor playing with her stuffed animals. Except...she wasn’t touching them. They were moving of their own accord. “Joey.” I thought in my head. Annie looked up at me; her eyes were no longer a deep, beautiful blue. They were cold, grey, and empty. I had to save her...I loved her with all my heart. “That’s it, why didn’t I see it before?” I thought. To save Annie I had to risk losing her, but if I didn’t try to do this, I would lose her anyway. Annie was the one thing I had always kept pure in my heart; she had to be the vessel in which I would capture Joey.


I looked out the window and saw a pink tinge on the horizon. I had to act while there was still time, and I knew where Joey was at. I seized Annie, pulled her to her feet, and restraining her in front of the floating stuffed animals I belted out, “EGO reprobo vos ut sedeo huic vas insquequo EGO solvo vos!” I had only looked at the charm once, but it was as if I knew its words by heart. At first, I thought it didn’t work. Then, Annie’s whole body began to tremble intensely, and she tried to run away. She almost slipped through my fingers until I realized what was happening. “I’ve got you now, Joey.” I said. I began to carry Annie out of the room and down the stairs, which took much longer than I expected with all the thrashing about she was doing.


I finally made it outside, Annie becoming as violently possessed as ever to escape. I only had a few precious seconds. Dragging her into an opening through the trees I screamed, “EGO solvo vos in lux lucis of sol solis ut vos may pereo quod nunquam vulnero iterum!” The last syllable passed through my lips just as the sun burst over the horizon. I knew I had succeeded when its rays fell on Annie’s skin. She instantly stopped struggling, as if paralyzed, and once her whole body was engulfed in the sun’s brilliance...she collapsed and fell limply to the ground. She looked so pale, almost...dead? Quickly, I bent down and fervently felt for a pulse; nothing. “No...NO!” I wailed in fury. My Annie was gone.


I started to cry, pulling her limp figure into my arms. My world...my everything...gone. This couldn’t be happening...my little girl was gone forever. It was too much for me to handle. I must have sat there rocking her lifeless form for hours because as long as she was in my arms she couldn’t really be dead. Then, all at once, I felt her take a shuddering breath. “Annie?” I asked, my heart full of hope. “Please, be alive...” is all I could think. Her eyes opened, her beautiful, sparkling blue eyes, so full of life. “Annie!” I rejoiced and pulled her into a bone-crushing embrace. “Mom...!” Annie managed to whisper. “You’re choking me!” I immediately released her. “I’m so sorry!” I muttered through my flowing tears. After the shock wore off, Annie began to ask what happened. The last thing she remembered was unpacking her room. All that time Joey had her in his grasp, but it was unimportant now. Joey was gone, forever. Joey had perished and he would never torment anyone again. “Don’t worry about, honey. Everything’s going to be okay now.” I said, reassuring myself as well as her. As we walked back inside, Annie asked, “Mom. What’s for breakfast? I’m starving!” We laughed.


Epilogue

As it happens, the people of Elliston were wary of us things that had happened in the house we had bought. Apparently, many children had disappeared there over the year’s, which explains