The Phantom

Chapter 14

The rise and fall of each breath was the only movement. Occasionally, the lightning would strike, a bright brilliance of absolute light, and in the brief moment that it lit up the room, that same wondrous flash would reveal a shadow on the wall. It was the outline of a man, in the simplest description, but to simply leave it as such does not do justice to the shiver that trails down your spine when you see it. It stands still, unmoving from one flash to another, as if it was a statue. Its arms hang by its side, lifeless, and its legs are together, attentive. It does not seem to be slouching or stretching, but simply standing. The head is tilted ever so slightly to the right, as if an unearthly gaze came from its eyes, though of course the shadow had none. It crept up across the floor, and rested on the wall.

Anywhere else, at any other time, and perhaps to anyone else, it could have just been a shadow, but if you knew, if you even had the slightest hint of who, or rather what, that shadow belonged to, that is when the chills would start. Your whole body would twitch suddenly as the cold creeps in, grasping you firmly by the shoulders, biting at your neck, and sweeping away your feet. You would cross your arms, cling to them lightly, and try to brush off the emotion, but when the lightning flashed again, and the figure remained, it would be too much, and you would run.

I did not.

I stared at that shadow for a very long time, my eyes taking in every detail for the brief moment that it could be seen in the darkness. I looked at the edges of its clothes, at the tops of the shoes, and the corners of the mask. I looked at its posture, taking in its unwavering resolve. I looked, and looked, and when at last I had seen enough, I raised my hand to wave goodbye, and the shadow waved back. I smiled, and I knew that even though it was just a shadow, it was smiling too. I knew because it was my shadow, and I was the monster that cast it.

I turned from the wall, from the door that the man had ran to hours ago, and my penetrating gaze lighted on the window, broken and cast open, where I watched the lightning crack one last time. It was time for me to go.

As I left the house, I knew that I had changed. I knew that something deep inside of me, something essential, like the last frail thread which had been holding my entire life together, had at long last given away, falling through the air like a torn spider's web. I knew it, but I didn't care.

My feet sailed over the dark sidewalk once I was outside, and the wind carried me along, and I allowed my body to drift in it, floating to where it would take me. It occurred to me that eventually it would lead me back to the hospital, but I also knew that it would not be then. There was no reason for me to return. Not then, not that night.

Instead, I simply wandered. I did not think about where I was going, or what I was doing. In fact, I did not think at all; I simply went. It was as if I was asleep, lost in a strange dream that I might never have woken up from. I was quite certain that at some point the rain stopped, the sun rose, day and the life that it brings went about as usual, all faces passing by the shadows without suspecting the sight that lurked between them, and eventually, the sun began to set again. For me however, it was like an eternal night. The darkness surrounded me, the cool breeze of sleeping souls floating me along, carrying me in the strange state until it was once again night. Of course, even then when I awoke, if I could even call it that, I was still unchanged from the night before. The spider's web was still gone, the last strand floating through the wind. It was who I was then, and whatever had caused it, perhaps even by simple chance, was surely irreversible. Not that I minded. Not that I could mind.

Faintly in the distance, like a scream heard in a nightmare the second you wake up, haunting your reality though you know it to only be an illusion, I heard a noise that drew me. A voice perhaps, and a familiar one, but not the voice. Instead, it was one that pulled on a chain tethered to my heart.