The Shadow

The ride into the country was a tiresome journey. The time seemed to drag on as we continued further and further away from our homes. The small car was full of bags of clothes and food. The air was so much clearer on the quiet two-lane highway. I could see for miles; the fields of crops and the small farm houses in the distances. And beyond all the buildings and grassy fields, I could see the mountains; they looked so clear today.
The dark color of the concrete grew darker in the late afternoon. The clouds turned dark and we heard thunder in the distance. The rain came down soft at first but became heavy shortly after. The road was barely visible behind the white sheet of rain. The yellow lines on the road continued father than any eye could see.
We heard a horrid screech and a loud crash that blended in with the thunder. The rain was letting up. We could see out the windows. There were red lights up ahead, and something that looked like fire. We drove closer to the lights and saw that there had been a severe accident in one of the lanes. A group of people were trying to pull the drivers and passengers from the burning cars. The sound I heard only moments ago echoed inside my head.
A woman crawled from her car and approached the lines of moving cars. A dark stream of gasoline trailed from one of the other overturned cars. She rested for a short moment, examining the stream. She looked up at the line of cars, and our eyes met briefly. Her skin was severely burnt and in some places, was still sizzling. Her eyes were cold; the color wasn’t clearly visible behind her piercing stare. Suddenly the small stream burst into flames. The growing flames engulfed everything in the stream’s path. The woman grew into a ball of fire. She continued to crawl toward the cars. Through the fire I could still see the white color of her eyes. Her stare became a permanent picture, frozen in my mind.
The cars in front of us began to move. Our exit was only a few miles down the road. The accident couldn’t be seen in any of our mirrors. We turned onto the off-ramp and turned at the light. Further down the road we arrived at our destination. A small log cabin sat in the middle of the woods far back from the road.
The front door was heavy as we opened it up for the first time in several years. The stale air inside rushed out into our faces. The dust made the rooms look centuries old. I walked into the bedroom and inspected the beds. I picked my bed next to the window. My brother carried sheets and blankets into the room. We made our beds and we were ready for the night. I went outside to lock the car and looked in the woodshed to see if there was enough wood for our vacation.
The thin wooden door creaked on its hinges. There was more wood than I ever remembered gathering. Regardless, I went back into the house. It started to rain again. The sky turned dark for the night. I listened to the soft tapping of the rain on the window. I started to doze off. As I closed my eyes to fall into a deep sleep, there was a loud knock on the window. I sat up in my bed and stared at the window. I looked outside, but nothing was out of place. The windowsill on the outside of the window was wet. I didn’t see anyone or anything for that matter that could have possibly tapped on the window.
The rain stirred up the swamp air, miles down the road. A white fog-like mist was closing in around the house. As the white cloud got closer to the house, I saw something; two legs moving under the fog. The rest of the body was hidden within the cloud. I focused on the slow moving body. I was standing at the window. The house was engulfed in the dense cloud of fog. I couldn’t see anything further than a foot beyond the window. My brother was awake now. He was standing next to me at the window. There was a loud knock at the door that made me jump in fear. He walked into the hall and stood at the door. He touched his hand to the door knob and the knocking stopped.
A tapping noise came from the other room. I ran to see what it was. The room was empty. The sound was coming from outside. Someone was scratching the wall or they followed the wall to the opposite side of the house. There was a loud tapping noise on one of the window in the other room. I ran toward the sound; leaving my brother alone in the hall. I entered the bedroom panting for breath. I looked out the window from across the room. I tried to scream but nothing, not even a small noise passed my lips. A dark shadowy figure stood in the window. I saw the bright glow of its eyes; a white that looked as clean as the fog. The eyes stared at me, piercing my soul.
I heard my brother open the door. It took me a second to look back toward the door. I looked back at the window, and the figure was gone. I raced to the door to lick it. My brother was surely gone. I grabbed my pad of paper to write this story and ran to a cabinet to hide. I crawled inside and wrote of these events. If anyone finds this, please give it to the authorities. I don’t know that I’ll make it ‘til night.
The window in the bedroom shattered. I heard the heavy body crawl through the window; a loud thud of the body falling from the window. There was a steady rhythm of footsteps through the house. The heavy body came into the kitchen where I was hiding. I saw the figure’s face. The face was severely burnt. She was coming closer to my hiding spot. It was the woman from the accident; the one that stared at me. She’s looking out the window above the counter. She dropped to the floor, staring at me through the door. She is going to tak