Shadow by Nicole K. Garrett (latest ebook reader .TXT) 📕

Nicki walked down that damp and foggy road heading home. It was a cold, dark, and windy outside on a dreary Friday night. Nicki wrapped her arms around herself and quickened her pace, getting nervous as the fog became thicker. She’d just come from her friend’s house where they’d spent hours talking about the horror movie that they saw earlier in the day to commemorate the impending fear that Friday 13th brought to everyone in town. To them it was something of a legend that’s been passed down  for generations of the mysterious happenings of this specific date.  Nicki herself was never one to show any emotion towards such a ridiculous folklore. But on a night such as this she had a reason to be a little more cautious.

            She could see her house in the distance as she continued down the narrow sidewalk. Not a few moments later she felt something brush against her shoulder as a dark figure dashed by and disappeared behind a street lamp farther along the path. She hesitated, and glanced back and forth along the street only to find a suffocating thick white fog and flickering street lights.

“Hello?” She whispered reluctantly.

“Who’s there?”

In response, the street lights began to flicker rapidly and blow out and the single light on her front porch light up as if it were beckoning her home. She stood, paralyzed in fear. She could feel a presence looming over her. Nicki inhaled sharply. Not knowing what to do, she fixed her gaze on the light post above her. There, contorted around the blown light was a noticeably dark shadow-like figure. It’s menacing inhuman, blood red eyes piercing through her, feeding off the fear that it could sense shooting through Nicki’s body.  The creatures grin seemed to exceed beyond its face, showing sharp, ragged, teeth filled with a dark and empty void.

Nicki forced her body to react as she took off down the street towards her house only to trip due to the lack of response from her legs out of sheer terror. She began to crawl along the ground trying to get away from the creature as it’s crawls ripped at her flesh, spilling blood.

“Somebody please help me!”

She screamed out to anyone that could hear her, but the town seemed to be deserted. Her finger tips started to bleed from clawing to fiercely at the ground in hopes to break free. The creature released its bone crushing grip ever so slightly, as if it were toying with her. Nicki took the chance to scramble to her bloodied feet to run towards the house. She frantically sifted through her keys glancing over her shoulder to find nothing there as she pushed through the front door, locking it on the way in. 

Tears streaming down her face, she sprinted up the stairs to her bedroom locking that door as well. She begins to bawl harder, her body full on shaking from fear and panic. Her cries were interrupted by the echoing rings of her beside phone. Unsure whether or not to answer Nicki picked up the phone.

            Silence.

“Hello, Nicki are you okay?” Her mom’s voice broke through, but it seemed far away.

“Mom,” Nicki whispered. “Mom, you need to come home right now. There’s something chasing me.” She wheezed out.

            The other end of the phone went silent again before the sound of static disconnected the phone.

“Mom…hello, are you still-”

She was cut short by loud banging and then a crashing noise coming from downstairs. Nicki went mute as she slowly set the phone back on its hook. Something else crashed, but this time it was closer to her room. She ran and hid in her closest, crouching in the farthest corner as she listened intently for anymore sounds.

After a few moments Nicki took a short sigh of relief thinking the entity had left, suddenly she heard heavy footsteps booming up the stairs, which seemed to shake the foundation of the house. Her breath hitched as the steps became louder only to stop at her door. She couldn’t help but start bawling because she knew this was it. She could hear the door handle jiggle

“Nicki?” The voice belonged to one of her friends, Jason.

“I called you and everything, but you weren’t picking up and I knew you’d be coming home late from Sasha’s house, so I decided to come and check on you.”

Nicki came out the closet.

“Jason?”

“How did you get in? Did you not see what the hell was out there?” She asked.

“Nicki, what are you talking about? Let me in.” He sounded frustrated.

“Jason, I’m serious. How did you get in here, I looked the front down” Nicki asked.

“Look, just let me in Nicki.” This time Jason voice was deeper and sounded more sinister.

Nicki knew something was wrong and backed towards the opposite side of the room.

“Come on sweetie, let me in .” This time it was her moms voice.

“Nicki…Nicki…Nicki.” Jason’s voice came through, and then her moms, and then a sinister voice snarling through the door.

The house started rumbling and the door was shaking, along with the piercing screams that sounded like lost souls in agony. The room started to burn as Nicki cried and screamed yelling ‘go away’ over and over again.

            The door exploded open and the creature came rushing at her full force, everything went black as they collided, hurling through the window.

“Nicki, wake up. It’s time for school.” Nicki’s dad was yelling down the hallway.

The alarm clock was going off and the early morning sun was beaming through her bedroom window. Nicki looked over at the clock and calendar on her night stand

6:10am October 12th, 1985    

Nicki breath out of relief.

“It was just a dream. You’re okay.” She reassured herself.

            Nicki got out of bed and walked to her bathroom. As she stood in the mirror and looked over her face she noticed scars and scratches that were bleeding.

“No, no, no, please, no.” She pleaded, tears streaming down her face.

She ran back to the bedroom and locked the door behind her then began pace back and forth with her head down. Something wasn’t right. The sky grew darker and time speed up. She looked at her night stand.

10:23pm October 13th, 1985…Friday

She nervously gazed out the window as if something were calling her.

There standing outside under the light of the moon with a bleeding grin displayed across its face was the entity. It mouthed something and the wind seemed to carry the words to her.

“It’s Coming.”

Images: Image found on Google.
Publication Date: 11-08-2012

All Rights Reserved

Dedication:
Reiteration of a short-story I wrote when i was twelve, but a more updated version.