The Shadow.

It was a typical monsoon evening when I found myself alone in my room,the rain tapping rhythmically against the windows.The skies outside were deep grey,casting an eerie gloom over everything. The sound of distant thunder echoed in the background,adding to the somber atmosphere. I was trying to focus on my writing,little did I heard a sound, something felt off- a strange ,almost tangible feeling of being watched.

I shook my head,dismissing it as nothing more than an overactive imagination. My friends often teased me about my love for the paranormal,joking that I would one day write myself into a ghost story.I smirked at the thought and returned to write the story as I was drafting for my new Instagram page "Scribestagram". Yet the sensation persisted.The hairs on the back of my neck stood on the end,and I felt a cold breeze despite the windows were closed.I looked around my room,my gaze lingering the dark corners were the light from my lamp didn't quite reach.I took a deep breath and tried to ignore it,focusing instead on the keyboard beneath my fingers.But then the lights flickered.Once, twice before plunging the room into darkness.'Great' I muttered, reaching for phone to use as flashlight. But as the screen lit up ,the battery icon flashed desperate red before the phone died in my hand.I sighed in frustration.I knew I should have charged it earlier.

Suddenly a low whisper echoed through the room,soft but unmistakable.It was my name "Soumya......."

My heart skipped a beat. I froze straining to hear where the sound had come from,but all I could hear was steady patter of rain. The rational party of my brain told myself it was just wind,a trick of storm playing with my mind,but another part,deep down wasn't so sure.

"Soumya......"

This time the voice was louder,close.Panic began to set in me. I grabbed the closest thing to a weapon I could find-a heavy book-probably my RD sharma-and slowly backed up against the wall,my eyes were darting around the room,searching for the source of voice.

"Who's there?" I demanded,my voice wavering despite my attempt to sound brave.The room remained silent,save for the rain and the occasional rumble of thunder.I was about to laugh at myself about being so paranoid until I noticed something in the corner of the room. A shadow- a tall, humanoid figure-seemed to be standing just beyond the reach of the lamps dim light.I squinted trying to make out what was it,but the shadow seemed to shift,moving slightly as if it were alive.My breath caught in my throat.The shadow wasn't just a trick of the light-it was real.

Without thinking,I bolted for the door,my heart pounding in my chest.But as I reached for the doorknob,the door slammed shut with a force that rattled the walls.I screamed ,banging my fists against the wood.But it wouldn't budge,it was as if some unseen force was holding it shut.

"Soumya....."The voice was just behind me right now, a cold breath on the back of my neck. Terrified,I spun around,but the room was empty.The shadow in the corner had vanished,leaving nothing but the darkness in its wake. I could feel my heart racing,my thoughts a chaotic whirl as I tried to make sense of what was happening.

Then without warning the lights flickered back on. The room was suddenly bright and normal, as if nothing had happened. The rain outside had softened to a gentle drizzle, and the oppressive feeling that had been weighing down on I lifted. I stood there, breathless and confused, wondering if I had imagined the whole thing.

I was about to cautiously approaching the door when something on my desk caught my eye. The notebook I had been writing in earlier was now open, the pages flipping as if someone had been reading them. The pen I had left lying there was now standing upright, balanced on its tip, defying gravity.

I slowly approached the desk, my heart pounding. The pen suddenly fell over, and as it did, I noticed something scrawled across the open page of my notebook. It was written in a handwriting that wasn’t mine—neat, precise, almost elegant.

“I’m waiting, Soumya.”

I gasped, stumbling back from the desk. The words seemed to mock me,sending a chill down my spine. But before I could react further, the lights flickered again, and the room plunged once more into darkness.

This time, when the lights came back on, everything seemed normal. No mysterious voices, no strange shadows—just my room, as it had always been. But I knew that something had changed. I wasn’t alone anymore.The rest of the night passed in a haze of fear and unease. Every little sound made me jump, every shadow seemed to hide something sinister. I tried to distract myself with my writing, but my thoughts kept drifting back to the message in my notebook. Who—or what—had written it? And why was it waiting for me?

In the days that followed, I tried to convince myself that it had all been a bad dream, a product of my overactive imagination. But the sense of being watched never left me.I began to notice odd things happening around my room—lights flickering, objects moving on their own, and that strange whispering voice that seemed to follow me wherever I went.

I confided in Risha, my best friend, hoping to find some solace. But even Risha, with her usually reassuring words, couldn’t explain what was happening. “Maybe it’s just stress,” Risha suggested, though her eyes betrayed my own fear.

But deep down, I knew it was more than that. I had opened a door to something I didn’t understand,something that was now a part of my life.

The final straw came one night when I woke up to find the shadow figure standing at the foot of my bed, its dark form outlined against the pale moonlight streaming through the window. This time, there was no doubt in my mind—it was real. The figure didn’t move, didn’t speak, but its presence was suffocating, filling the room with an unnatural coldness.

In a desperate act of courage, I reached out to the figure, my hand trembling. As my fingers touched the icy air where the figure stood, it seemed to dissolve into mist, vanishing into thin air. But the cold remained, seeping into my bones.

I knew then that this entity—whatever it was—was bound to me. It was no longer just a shadow in the corner of my room; it was a shadow in my life, one that would follow me wherever I went.

And as I sat there, shivering in the darkness, I realized that this was only the beginning. The shadow was waiting, watching, biding its time. What it wanted, I couldn’t say. But I  knew I would soon find out.But For now all I could do was wait- wait for the moment when the shadow would make its move and my life will change forever.

My story had taken a turn as I never expected,one that blurred the line between reality and the paranormal.The shadow had find me and it wasn't going to let go....