Prompted Shorties

The Shadow

Prompt: Dampness lingers in the midnight air. Nearby, an unidentifiable sound pricks at your nerves, repeating every few seconds. Your breath catches in your throat as a long shadow cleaves through the light spilling from a street lamp just around the corner ahead of you. You consider turning back. ... What happens next?

Story:

October 31st, 23:58

It was bright here in our town's park for a midnight, but no trick-or-treaters in sight. I can already feel the winter breeze oozing its way in my trench coat. I see leaves spread across the park like colored pencil shavings, the streets dicing our town into unfair portions and the trees mid-way shaven into baldness.

Along across the intersection, near an alley I saw a shadow disappearing into the darkness. Though it was only for a split second my sharp eyes still saw that shadow, but it may be just some random cat crawling its way into its next meal. I walked along faster, not dreading the fact that I chose to walk from my girlfriend's house than to just take an uber home.

As I crossed the intersection and made my way to that same alley, I started to hear this sound - this faint clanging sound. It made me stop and look around. The place was still lit up by the bright street lights, yet it's making my heart race faster than the time I was sky diving with my best friend last month. I took a deep breath and continued my walk.

After 4 steps, a shadow made its way up at the street light, gripping the light bulb and crashing it. My eyes widen at the sight of the man-less shadow, I consider going back but as I looked behind me, it was pitch black there. Even the street light across the street was not working.

"W-what's happening?" I breathed.

Frightened, I crashed to the ground butt first. The shadow appearing again on the next street light in front of me, I force my body to get up but the fear of dying was not letting me control my body properly. Why did I think that I would die? I don't know. I keep backing up as the shadow slithers its way onto the last street lamp that I'm on.

The shadow spiralled its way into the light bulb, covering me in darkness. As I hear the last light bulb being broken, I screamed out of pure fear.

I hugged my knees, covered my head inside my knees like a cocoon and started crying like a baby. A few moments, something touched my shoulder. I screamed and backed away from whatever was touching me.

"¿Yddub thgirla uoy era" This guy said. It was bright and sunny, kinda like mid-day. What just happened? Did I really took that long to cry?

"I'm sorry what?" I asked.

"¿Ereh morf uoy era" The guy spoke again. Okay I'm freaking out, I can't understand him. I'm still in the same spot, but something's different. I dismissed the guy and looked around me. The park, the lights, the sun, the people walking, the words on the stores... It doesn't make sense, everything was reversed!

But where's my shadow?