Horror Collections

Shadows

Please note I wrote this story before my understanding of a psychosis, I also wrote this for a school project. I am mentally ill with a psychosis that causes hallucinations, however this does not mean that I'm excused for portraying mental illness as a scary thing to outsiders.
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I'm not insane, of course everyone knew that. They say that I am but I really am not, and a lot of people agree with me. I'm just a bit strange but I've always been strange. Plus I don't hurt people, in fact I do the opposite of just that. I help people, I've helped a lot of people. My friend Ivan does it with me, in fact he was the one who told me start helping people.

It isn't easy, really, despite what some people said. Some people thought I was hurting people but I didn't hurt people, hurting people would break my heart. Even my mother agrees and so does my father, they said I did the best I could. I only hurt a person once and that was on accident.

Like that one time my brother stole my toy, they insisted I'd save him, they whispered that the shadow people were in him and whispering the words of satan in his ears. Puncturing his skin, leaving marks and holes will make them exit his body, I thought.

        So I did.

I was punished for that, of course. Of course I was. My parents couldn't afford to have their child stabbing their other child. I was told that my behavior was unacceptable, so I worked on it. I tried not to hurt people from then on, which made it easier on my parents. My parents worked on making things easier for me too, my mother always dotting over me. It annoyed me, really. How dotting she could be, but sometimes I appreciated it.

I learned that stabbing people or hurting them would not save them from the shadow people. I learned that I could not leave a mark on their bodies.

I'm not insane, I promise. I just have issues sometimes, I'm an average college student in a small town. I survive mainly on take out and stuff I could cook in the microwave. I'm not insane, I promise. I just have issues sometimes. It isn't easy really, having issues. Having issues was not easy.

          I'm not insane but at least I admit I have issues.

I'm okay though. The issues were like the dark, sometimes I could stop them from overtaking me. But there were always shadows. Always shadows creeping in the night, ready to attack. Their filth and dirt spreading through out the room in small corners. Their evil and sin infecting those who even dare step in them.

How dare those filthy beings roam this earth, I would scorn them. Every corner, every alley, there they were. Grinning, breathing the same air we all breath. Infecting the light inside of us, infecting us with the words of demons.

Ivan said they're bad too, he didn't like the shadows either. "Those shadows," he often said, his lips curled up in a menacing scowl, "those damn shadows. I swear they're going to drag us all to hell one day."

          I agreed with him.

Those ugly, hideous shadows. Always lurking, always there despite the bright of the day. Whenever I saw people in them, I got angry and worried. I didn't hurt them, I never hurt people. I just saved them, I made sure that they saw Gods light. I saved them from the shadows, I have to save everyone from the shadows.

My mother tried to stop me, she knew the quest was impossible. My father was confused, he didn't know how to save people. The only person who was ready to help me was Ivan. Ican who stands just a bit shorter than me, his eyes the darkest black. I've always wondered if Ivan had shadows in him, but he insisted he did not. His black eyes were apparently my imagination.

Ivan is good at seeing the people with the most shadows in them, yes. He says they are as dark as the room the shadow people have trapped me in, he says that the people who are the worst kind of shadow people, yes. Yes, without Ivan I wouldn't have been able to do my job, the job God sent me on this earth to do. Ivan thinks I was sent to do this, he says it's been my destiny all of along.

The people who have called me crazy were just those who lived in the shadows trying to fool me. Like the children, oh those little children I used to go to school with. Who thought it funny to call me crazy. They thought it funny to call me crazy and insane. I'm not insane.

It was then that Ivan told me the people close to me could have shadows too. It startled me to realize that my dearest mother, the one who named me and gave me life could be a shadow person. As far as I knew, Ivan was the only person I could trust.

           He was the only person I knew I didn't have to save.

So you see! So you see, I do not hurt people! I simply do what I do best. I save them. I saved my mother and my father. They were hesitant at first, of course. But now they're perfectly happy with the fact that I've saved them. They act as amazing as I imagined they would once I saved them.

Now, I don't always see everyone I've saved. Sometimes they just go away, but my mother and father have always stayed with me and I think they won't leave me even if I've saved them. My mother and father along with Ivan were the only ones to appreciate my work.

There were so many shadow people in my old school. I tried to save them all, and the ones who I did save did not appreciate it. The other shadow people got mad at me for saving them, some called me 'monster' or said that I deserved to go to hell. Most of them seemed to scared to face me, I hope that I scared away their shadows.

"They tried to drag you to hell with them," Ivan said. "I was the only one stopping them from hurting you." I don't remember Ivan being there when I saved those people, but I guessed I got hurt so bad I didn't remember it. "They might hurt you and take you away, you've angered them," he warned.

I tried to run, but I only got so far before the shadows caught up. Ivan wasn't  with me as I ran, and he wasn't with me when they took me away.

When they took me away I was covered still in the dirt and sin of the shadows, I had still, the strongest weapon I knew to use against the shadows. They had pinned me down and I was forced to go to their dungeon. There was a big room, a big torture chamber where Ivan was, he said this was where they decided how to hurt me. How they were going to steal all the light out of me.

                 I was scared. For once I was scared of the shadows

It seemed like I was in there forever, Ivan sat beside me, silent as they decided how to take my light. In that small little room I prayed like I never prayed before, Ivan didn't pray with me. He just sat there, solem and silent. He had left again when they dragged me away for a second time.

Ivan is here now, of course. He stands next to me in this dark room, illuminated by single bulb above me. I can feel the shadow people watching, and I want to fight but I'm strapped down. I can't help but think of when I stole my brothers toy and stabbed him, maybe it's because my brother is staring at me through the glass. My mother and father are on each side of me, Ivan stands behind me.

"It's okay, Constantine, it's okay," my mother puts her hand on my shoulder, the small lines by her eyes were seeming to fade, my father messes up my hair, his own beer gut disappearing. "Don't worry," I hear Ivan behind me. "Your light will destroy all their shadows." That makes me smile and I hear them asking if I had any last words.

           "My work isn't over."