Shadow & Smoke

Chapter 5

The light trickled in slowly, everything still tinged in an overly bright blur. My eyes struggled to open under the weight of my drowsiness and it didn't help that I was laying comfortably in my bed.

My bed?

I shot up instantly—sending a shooting pain to my head as it pounded uncontrollably.

Looking around the dimly lit bedroom, I was seemingly alone. Instantly, the memories flickered back to me. I remembered being on the couch and being so fucking exhausted. I remembered feeling absolutely defeated. I remembered surrendering.

Then I remembered him.

Panicking, I noted that I was still alone in bed.

How did I get there? The last thing I remembered was seeing the figure of a man emerge from the shadows in my living room. I remember feeling like I was going to have a heart attack from the sheer shock of it all. I also remembered passing out.

Thankfully, I didn't recall the hard impact of the ground and somehow, I made my way comfortably into bed. Aside from my glaring headache, I was fine. I didn't feel like I had passed out and slammed into the ground.

Turning to look at the clock, it was nearly dawn.

Holy shit! I searched frantically for my phone. I had been asleep out for nearly ten hours. For someone who hadn't slept for more than an hour straight in the last few months, I had no clue how I did it.

My phone wasn't anywhere in sight so I mustered the courage to venture out of my room. Listening first, there were no sounds or indication that anyone lurked in my house. I creeped cautiously into the living room where nothing seemed amiss. The lights were all on the way I last remembered them.

Checking the room, I found my phone on the floor at the foot of the couch.

Weird.

I picked up the iPhone but it was dead after laying face down for so long. Going back into my room to charge it, I stopped dead in my tracks the second I crossed the threshold.

That unmistakable feeling was back.

I wasn't alone anymore.

Frozen mid step, I looked around desperately for the other entity but all I saw was the familiar shadow in the corner of the room.

Fuck.

The room was dimly lit having no lights on and only pale dawn breaking through my curtains. Shadows still loomed across everything and the furthest corner was noticeably darker.

I wasn't imagining it. The corner was oddly more dense as if a giant mass stood there unseen. Trying not to panic, I stayed where I was across the room in the doorway and I tried my best to focus my eyes on the darkness.

Knowing all too well how the shadows could play tricks on my eyes, I tried to reason with myself but I knew what I was seeing and there was definitely something creeping in the corner of my bedroom.

Opening my mouth, no words came out. Trying to move, my legs refused to cooperate. It was only when my anger surpassed my fear in the pit of my stomach that I willed myself forward and into the room.

I was angry that I was losing my fucking mind. I was angry that it was one thing after another. I was angry that my life was me constantly waiting for the next fucked up thing to happen. Whatever was happening to me, I felt completely fed up and if that was how I died, then at least it would be over.

Was I being dramatic?

Probably not, all things considered.

"Who...who are you?" I stuttered; no clue who or what I was even speaking to.

There was no reply but the dense mass in the shadow moved—or so it seemed from where I stood.

The return silence made me angrier.

Taking a step forward bravely, I paused and demanded of the shadow, "What the fuck do you want?"

Again, there was no answer but the shadow was definitely shifting in the darkness. That, I could see for sure as I got closer.

Why the fuck was I getting closer? I had officially lost my damn mind.

I should have turned on a light. I should have gotten the fuck out of there.

But, I did neither of those things. Instead, I stepped into the shadow—the deepest, darkest part of the obscurity.

I don't know what I expected but it wasn't that.

The cold hit me first.

The darkest corner was freezing. It had to be a good five degrees colder than the rest of my bedroom.

As for the air, it was denser.

Touching the space in front of, directly in front of the back wall of my room, the air felt like I'd put my hand into a massive cobweb. I recoiled instantly, snatching my hand back in alarm. Catching my breath for a moment, I attempted to reach out again.

The same odd sensation engulfed my hand but that time, something reached out from the darkness and touched me back.