The Shadow People: A paranormal short story (3 page)

Dani picked up her ink pen.  She began to write; one year ago Patricia died, but six weeks before that
they
came back…

Dani had struggled after her mother’s death. There had been expenses, and even though there had been a small insurance policy that had helped to pay her mother’s final expenses, there hadn’t been much else. She banked that money for a rainy day and struggled with ‘finding’ herself. She dropped out of school for a year and when she went back she changed her major two times while Patricia had already graduated with a Bachelor’s degree and found a nice job working for a small but prestigious company.

It was inevitable that Patricia would eventually move on and she did about 2 years ago.  She met a nice guy, got her own place and Dani was sad to see her leave the neat apartment that had been their home for the last two years.  But despite the fact that their lives had taken a different turn, they were still as close as ever, never going more than two or three days without speaking on the phone, via the net or meeting for lunch. 

One night, Danielle had gone out partying with school friends.  She hadn’t been feeling herself lately; or perhaps this sadness was her new ‘self’, one filled with depression and sorrow.  She thought that she had put that depression about her mother’s death behind her.  But lately she could not shake the feeling of foreboding.  It was the same feeling that she’d had when Mama had died; a sense of loss so deep that it made her stop in her tracks and sink into herself. 

To counteract that feeling, she filled her free time with too much drinking and too much partying.  Patricia didn’t approve and so she didn’t hang with her when she was in the mood to get wild.  Unfortunately getting drunk and partying all night didn’t cause the depression to go away. 

After one such episode of too much drinking, Dani stumbled home late in the night and stripped out of her clothes, falling into bed in just panties and her bra.  She didn’t even bother to cover herself as she was already mostly asleep when her head hit her pillow.

This time she didn’t even feel them coming.  One moment she was in a deep sleep lying on her belly, snoring obliviously.  The next her eyes parted and there were ten or more hooded figures surrounding her bed.

Danielle squeezed her eyes closed, now completely sobered, and she thought;
this cannot be happening! 
Why is this happening again?! 
This time she cried.  Hot tears spilled from the slits of her eyes and her mind shut down one creak at a time; the idea that they would keep coming preventing her from letting go of her growing hysteria.

And then it was the next morning and she was waking up, sunshine streaming through the slats of her blinds.  She jumped up out of bed, breathing hard, her eyes frantically searching the empty room.  Dani stood there for a long time contemplating the idea that she had taken Patricia’s demons from her.  Perhaps she was now leading the life that was meant for Patricia. Maybe she was just losing her mind. 

Dani didn’t mention their return to her friend.  This time she kept it to herself.

But she would not go back to sleep.  She stayed up for two solid days with absolutely no sleep.  And then she discovered something that she had never known; your body will just shut down if you don’t allow it to rest.  One day she was in class, listening to the professor’s lesson.  She was on a serious energy drink high.  Her body was jittery and her heart was racing.  She knew that she looked like a cokehead because she kept jiggling her feet, scratching her face and sweating profusely.

She focused on the words of her teacher; eyes wide opened.  And then the very next moment she was as completely asleep as if she was snuggled in her bed—but her eyes were still wide opened.  Dani saw the air began to waver right behind the professor.  It all happened so fast that she had no time to even be afraid, not at first.  Her eyes flitted to the wavering shape and by that time it began to solidify into the form of a hooded figure.  It quickly glided to her; just one. 

Suddenly, its voice came from all around her.  And this time when it spoke she knew what it was saying, could hear it clearly when there weren’t so many of them jumbled together. 

Let me in.

Dani leaped to her feet, knocking over her chair and books, scrambling away frantically.  She yelped in terror; the only sound that she could manage before landing on her butt.

“Danielle!”  The professor rushed to her but Dani scrambled away from him, scooting backwards and slapping him away as she shrieked in terror. 

The campus nurse told her that she was exhausted, hallucinating due to lack of sleep.  But Dani knew the truth. She couldn’t keep the truth to herself any longer. For the first time in her life she told someone other than Patricia about the demons. She explained that they had come when she was sixteen--but she could see by the way the nurse’s eyes moved away from hers that she thought Dani was crazy.  So Dani nodded in acceptance about needing sleep and hurried home.

Dani had no choice but to accept them and to live with their visits but never again allowing them to completely materialize; always beginning her prayers before they even got the chance to form. Just sensing their presence gave her time to dispel them.

And then one day she slept straight through without waking and she knew that it marked the end of their appearance.  As much as she wanted to find out more about them, Dani realized that it was her curiosity that had gotten her into this mess in the first place and now that they were gone again, all she wanted was to try to put them out of her mind.

Several weeks later Patricia remarked that Dani was back to her old self.  Dani had never mentioned this last visitation to Patricia; why scare her when her life was going so well?  But Patricia was wrong when she said that Dani was back to her ‘old’ self.  Dani was someone that felt as if she was standing on a precipice waiting to either fall or leap off… 

One week later Patricia was involved in a car accident; she was killed  instantly. The pieces all fell together for Dani. 
They
come and then someone she loves dies. 

And now they were back and there was no one else left to die that she gave a damn about … other then herself.

Dani had nearly forgotten that she was still in the Starbucks, so engrossed in her memories and in writing them down.  She stretched her stooped form, peered into the ceramic white coffee mug and noted that it was still half full of cold liquid.  She got up, feeling ten times her age and carried the mug up to the counter.

“Can you reheat this, please?”  The young man with the nametag that read ‘Tyler’ gave her a surprised smile.

“How about I just freshen this up for you?”  And then he winked as he whisked away the mug.

Dani stared at him as he made her a brand new drink.  He was tall; over six feet.  And his neat brown hair was cut short but still curled in a way that made him look boyish even though he was probably actually about twenty-five or so.  He had the type of peaches and cream complexion that hinted at a heritage that might be other than Caucasian.  His eyes were brown, but flecked with gold and she wondered if those flecks turned green sometimes …

She was still staring at him when he looked up from the espresso machine and met her eyes.  “So are you a writer?”

Dani tore her eyes away from his and glanced down at her notebook.  “Oh … no.  I just … ”

“Write for pleasure?”

“Yes.  I guess you can say that.  It’s not an assignment or anything.”  And it wasn’t quite pleasure, either.

“I hope you don’t mind me asking, but I see you come in everyday and I was curious.”

“Curiosity killed the cat.”  She muttered.

He slid her drink to her.  “But satisfaction brought him back.  I’m Tyler, by the way.”  He pointed to his tag.  “Tyler.”

“I’m Danielle; Dan-i.”  She said with a brief smile. He offered his hand and she shook it and felt something.  “Thank you for the new drink.”

He put his finger to his lip.  “Shhh.  I only do that for the regulars.”  He gave her a killer smile before returning to his other orders and she felt her heart race.

DANIELLE!

Dani sat up in her bed, her heart slamming against her ribcage.  It had rained earlier and despite the fact that she only took to her bed once daybreak was reached, the room was gloomy from the rainclouds.  She looked around, her eyes falling into every nook and corner and every shadowy crevice.  But they weren’t here; and they hadn’t been here in weeks.

In the weeks since their last visit Dani had become a nervous wreck. Now that she didn’t need to stay awake she didn’t even make her daily visit to Starbucks. 

Not actually seeing them did not reduce her anxiety because she knew that death would come soon.  She scrambled out of bed and hurried to her newest notebook.  She had written out the timeline, but although she had it memorized she stared at the facts written on paper. 

Six weeks.  It was six weeks from the time that their appearance ended until Mama had died, the same with Patricia; six weeks.

Now was almost a month since she’d last seen
them
.  Damn, she’d been hiding out in her apartment for nearly a month …

She warmed up the computer and logged into the internet.  She couldn’t allow her fears to keep her from finding out just what they were because her time was nearly up. She had just over two weeks left…

She began by searching key words: demon, devil, visitors.

Most of the hits that she came upon were religious references and she spent only a few minutes of reading about the origins of demons.  She went to some websites that dealt with summoning them but they all included references to the use of symbols and chanting words or using charms. Next she researched visitors; not confidant that she would find anything useful.

They come only when you’re sleeping; but it’s not a dream.  Mostly appearing at night, these visitors can sometimes infiltrate the daytime hours.  But mostly you will see them surrounding your bed…

Danielle wanted to scream in joy.  It was as if she had written those very words herself!  She searched through the long article until she found the exact reference.  It had been left by a commenter. 

When I’ve seen them, they are wearing cloaks, or something else dark.  Maybe we’re not talking of the same thing.  They come only when you’re sleeping; but it’s not a dream.  Mostly appearing at night, these visitors can sometimes infiltrate the daytime hours.  But mostly you will see them surrounding your bed.  They’re certainly not evil.  They’ve never done anything to hurt me.  So not sure if this is what your article is about; they wouldn’t be considered demons.  ~David~

Danielle read the article but it was evident that the writer was not talking of the same thing that she and ‘David’ had experienced.  She read the other comments and felt thrilled.  Others had written of their experience with these ‘visitors’ as well!

Like David said, they are not evil.  They are trying to tell you something.  I’m not afraid of them. ~Lori~

What does this have to do with Alien Abductions?  You are clearly talking about demons (which don’t exist outside of religious rhetoric) and which is not what we are talking about here, David.  ~C-illuminati~

They’re called the Shadow People.  And they are real.  ~David~  Check out this blog on it.

Danielle read the rest of the comments but there was nothing else from either David or Lori.  She pulled up the link to the blog.