The shadow

'The Shadow' by M.W.Radford

William sat on his soft couch, sinking into the cushion, putting his freshly out of the fridge beer on the side table. With a relaxed sigh and a feeling of weightlessness he closed his eyes and felt the world and all of his worries just drift away. The silence in the room was deafening. What only felt like 5 mins had gone by when William opened his eyes with a startled jolt! He picked up his phone and checked the time.

"What?! I swear I was only sat here for a few minutes!!" He said, realising an hour and a half had gone by.

He leant over to grab the cold beer on the side table, although by now it was room temperature, and took a sip. Mid-sip he got the sudden feeling of dread, like he was being watched. William lived alone and all the doors and windows were locked, so to be physically watched by someone is impossible! He realised that in his peripheral he could see what appeared to be a little boy crouching on his staircase looking through the railings. The little boy had no features, he was just a silhouette, he didn't move, he just was as still as the air in the room. "Hello?" William said, slowly turning his head towards the little boy, "Who are you?".

The little boy said nothing, just continued watching William. "Little boy, why are you here?" William asked again, and again the little boy said nothing. William decided to try and ignore him and continued drinking his beer, turning on the tv to cause a distraction.

Another hour went by and William decided to grab another drink. Standing up he turned to walk out of the lounge and there, again, was the shadowy figure of the little boy. "Hello!" William said more firmly, "Why are you here? What do you want?". The little boy then raised his arm and pointed his finger at William. "What would he want with me?" Thought William. The shadow figure of the little boy then stood up and appeared to morph into the figure of an adult. William was absolutely frozen with fear! He couldn't move, his face, his arms, every part of his body went numb. What was this figure infront of him? It wasn't a ghost, it was unexplainable! He felt paralysed and prayed that the sensation he was feeling would pass quickly! He closed his eyes, clenched his fists and screamed "YOU HAVE NO PERMISSION TO BE HERE!! YOU HAVE NO PERMISSION TO DO ANY HARM TO ME!!". The air suddenly seemed to feel less heavy, like a thick smoke had just lifted. He opened his eyes slowly, realising the figure was gone, and breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank god for that!" He sighed, "what the hell was that?!". William walked back into the lounge, his heart still racing from what just happened. He sat back on the couch, the thought of having another drink was long gone. "I don't think ill be sleeping tonight" he said to himself.

The following morning William sat on his laptop, the experience of the night before was still heavy on his mind. Nothing he searched for seemed to give him answers. He decided to see if his friend Mick was available to talk, he remembered Mick was into all things Paranormal and was an amateur Paranormal Investigator. "Hey Mick, its William! Are you free to chat for a couple of minutes?" William said on the phone, "sure, whats up?" Mick replied. William explained to Mick what had happened in great detail. "You ever heard of attachments?" Mick asked. "Isnt that like a possession?" replied William. "Not necessarily" Mick said, "its basically like a spirit or demon getting a piggy back off you and not getting off!". "Ok so is this a demon? A spirit?" William asked. "Well, considering it changed form I can tell you now its not good!" Mick replied, "and I can tell you now, you will need help getting it off as it wont leave willingly!". "Ok so what do I do? How can I get help?" William asked. "I can help you" replied Mick, "I can also bring a Medium with me who knows how to get rid of attachments no matter how strong the attachment is". "Ok great!" said William, "when can you come do this?". "In a week" replied Mick. "A week?!" said William with a sense of fear in his voice". "Unfortunately yes" said Mick, "the Medium is away on vacation and we need her to make this work! What I can do though is post you a piece of equipment that will alert you to when this apparition is near, and believe me, it will keep coming!". That warning from Mick sent chills down Williams spine, he never thought in a million years he would be threatened by a spirit!

Two days later a parcel came to the door. "Oh this must be the piece of equipment from Mick" said William. He opened the box and took out the equipment, it was a black cylinder shaped item with an antenna. Accompanying the item was a note written by Mick. William read the note out loud. "Hi William, I have sent you a REM-POD. The REM-POD has an antenna on it that gives off its own magnetic field, if that magnetic field is broken the REM-POD will sound an alarm. Spirits have been known to be able to interact with it. Good Luck, Mick" the note read. William put some new batteries in the REM-POD and left it on the same step where the shadow figure was last seen.

Hours had gone by and nothing had happened, William started getting impatient as it was getting late and he was getting tired. "Sod this" said William frustratedly, "im going to bed!". As he was about to stand up and turn off the tv the REM-POD on the stairs started sounding the alarm and all the lights on top were flashing erratically. William turned to look at the stairs waiting to see the apparition appear. The equipment was still going crazy as slowly he saw a faint shadow starting to form right where the equipment was.

"Well, here we go!" said William, "you want me? Im right here!"

The End.