Shadow People

Timmy was having trouble getting to sleep. The wind was howling outside and branches, from the large maple tree outside his window, were scraping against the house. Timmy shared his bedroom with his younger brother Henry. Henry was two years younger than Timmy. Timmy was twelve and Henry was ten.

Henry had awakened earlier from a dream. He woke Timmy up, he was crying hard and loud. Timmy had asked Henry, "What are you crying about, you big baby?"

"I'm not a baby! I just had a bad dream, that's all." Henry replied.

"What was the dream about?"

"I can't tell you. The Shadow People told me not to."

"Shadow People, What are they?"

"I told you I can't tell you!"

"Look if you don't tell me, I'm gonna pound you."

"If I tell you, you gotta promise not to think about them, or they'll come for you."

"Sure I promise. It don't matter anyhow, I ain't scared of any Shadow People. They were just in your dream."

"So you promise right?" Henry asked Timmy very seriously. Timmy looked at him with stern eyes and nodded.

"They come out of the shadows. They show me things, scary things."

"What kind of things?"

"People dying and being hurt."

"Cool!"

"It's not cool it's really scary. They told me once that they show me these things because it makes them feel full."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I don't know. I guess it feeds them somehow."

"What else have they told you?"

"They told me that they won't take me into the shadows with them. They said they need me. They also said if I told anyone, that person would know about them and would tell others. They said if I ever told anybody they would know because that person would think about them-that would call them to that person and they would take them into the shadows with them. I only see them when I'm asleep. Anyone who see them awake will be taken and hurt."

"Sounds like a bunch of crap to me." Timmy said.

"Think what you want , just don't think about them."

Henry rolled over facing away from his brother's bed and went to sleep.

Timmy tried to go to sleep but was having trouble, then the wind started blowing like crazy and now he sits scared and trying not to think about the Shadow People.

There is a large crash outside. Timmy goes to the window and sees a big limb from the tree laying in the yard. He starts to go over and wake up Henry. He's scared he just doesn't want to admit it to himself. He doesn't wake Henry up, he's afraid he will tell him some more scary stuff. He finally goes back to his bed and lies down. He is about ready to fall asleep when he thinks, the moon must be full. Sure is an awful lot of light shining in through the windows. Then another thought occurs to him. This thought wasn't in words it was a vision of moonlight and lots of shadows. He saw something tall and thin walk out of the shadows. It was shaped like a man but he knew it wasn't a man, it was a Shadow Person. Timmy opened his eyes and looked around the room. Nothing there but the same stuff that's always there. He turned his head and looked into the far corner of the room where the shadows were thickest, nothing.

"Shadow People, just a bunch of crap." He said. He pulled the blanket up to his chin and looked down on the floor next to his bed. His bed cast a shadow onto the floor where he was looking. A long thin arm shot out from the shadow. The arm itself looked like a shadow. The hand opened on the end of the arm and grabbed Timmy by the face as he was screaming. Henry heard Timmy scream and woke up in time to see his brother's feet disappear into the shadow on the floor. He woke up also in time to hear his brother screaming for help. The screams diminished like they were getting farther away. Before the screams faded completely they changed. They were no longer pleas for help, they were screams of pain.


The End
By Mike Meehan
October 30, 2001