The Shadow Man

Summer. Always a time for cookouts and pool parties, park visits and fire pits. It was always a cheery time. Even in the city. That was what Jeannie loved about summertime. Aside from the three month break she got from school and everyday brought something new, Jeannie loved the joy that dripped off of everyone like melting cherry popsicles dripped off of messy children’s chins. Like fingers, tongues, mouths and t-shirts stained red from the cooling treat. Jeannie loved the warm summer air and the occasional cooling rain showers. She loved the gentle breezes and the constant smell of flowers and people grilling. It was her favorite time of year. Every ache that weighed her down all year suddenly lifted away as soon as the school bell rang on the last day of school each year.

Jeannie lived in a pretty apartment downtown with her mother. Her parents had gotten divorced when she was really little. She almost doesn’t remember a time when they all three lived together. Her father lived in the commercial district of the city. Most of Jeannie’s friends lived either on the outskirts of the city or in dinky little apartments in the slums. Jeannie was lucky that her mother had a well paying job. They didn’t live in a high-rise like her father did but they at least had a three bedroom. Even luckier, the landlord didn’t charge them much for it. Kind of helped that her mother and the landlord were not only old friends but were seeing each other on the down low. Their landlord, Mr. Luca had been trying to get his divorce from his ex-wife to finalize for the past few years. Jeannie’s mom and Mr. Luca hadn’t started seeing each other until about six months ago. A few years ago, Jeannie’s mom had housed Mr. Luca in her office that doubled as a spare room. He’d showed up on their doorstep limping and covered in cuts and bruises. There were two very defined claw marks down the middle of his face, one over each eye. Mr. Luca had stayed with them for a few days so that his wounds would heal. Then her mom convinced him to leave his wife and file for divorce. She even talked him into applying for full custody of his two toddlers. The claw marks down his face never went away. He wore them like battle scars and kept his head up even when people started to stare.

Jeannie could even agree that the attractive older man deserved better than the abuse his wife doled out on him. In the past three years since then, there had been a battle for custody of the toddlers and Mr. Luca had almost lost but the matching clawed scars on the children’s bodies had been the tipping point. All custody privileges were taken from Mr. Luca’s wife, which set her off in the middle of the courtroom. Jeannie and her mother had gone to the hearing for moral support. After that hearing the judge and jurors had taken some time to decide on the divorce. That was over a year ago. Mr. Luca was starting to lose faith. If it wasn’t for Jeannie’s mother, he would have caved in a long time ago. Even Jeannie could see how good the two of them were for each other.

Jeannie was sat looking over Mr. Luca’s toddlers. It was one of those days where she had to babysit overnight. The kids were at her apartment and were to be sleeping in the spare room. The sun had set a long time ago and she was busy getting the two and four year old ready for bed. The clock that hung on the wall in the bathroom ticked just past eight forty-five and the kids’ bedtime was nine. The little ones were splashing around in the bathtub and playing pirates. They were both clean but Jeannie couldn’t bear to stop their play to make them get out.

When the water ran cold and the toddlers started to complain, Jeannie helped them out of the tub one at a time and dried them off. Step by step she got them each dressed in their favorite pajamas and bushed the tangles out of their hair. Mr. Luca’s oldest, Jodie, insisted that he could do it himself but complained when he pulled his hair too hard. The two-year-old, Sasha giggled when Jeannie took the brush from her brother and gently cleared out the tangles in the four-year-old's pretty blonde curls. When it came time for Sasha to get her hair brushed, she jumped at the opportunity and sat her little butt on the floor in front of her babysitter gleefully. Jeannie loved her wild spirally red curls. They hung so nicely around her face when it was dry. The seventeen-year-old wished her oily, bob-cut hair would look that good with such minimal effort. 

Hair brushed and pjs on, Jeannie collected the two children - one on her hip and one at her side - and led them to the spare room. Once they were tucked in at opposite ends of the daybed, she pulled a children’s book off one of the shelves next to the desk and started to read them to sleep. Slowly, but surely the two children faded off to sleep. Jeannie kept reading the book until she was sure that they were both fast asleep. Then she tucked the book back onto its shelf and quietly crept out of the room, pulling the door shut behind her. Back in the living room, the teen set out to watch some YouTube videos on the tv. 

A few hours passed by with no troubles. The kids were fast asleep and her mother wasn’t due back until morning. The more time she spent with Mr. Luca’s kids the more comfortable she felt about her mother’s relationship with him. Jeannie had always been an only child so the thought of having siblings made her immeasurably happy. When her father got remarried when she was twelve, Jeannie was overwhelmed with the idea of having a bigger family. Her grandparents on both sides had both passed away when she was pretty young. Not that it mattered to her because she never saw any of them. Both sets of her grandparents disapproved of their children having children. Jeannie’s mother got pregnant with her when she was in her last year of high school. Against their parent’s wishes, her parents eloped and moved away after graduation. Jeannie never got to meet her grandparents but that didn't matter to her much. Her father had a younger sister but she was in jail for possession of a large amount of cocaine. Her mother had been an only child herself.

When Jeannie was fourteen, her step-mother - Jenna - got pregnant. Jeannie never had any issues with her step-mom. Jenna had always been super nice to her and the teenager genuinely thought that she and her father were good together. She didn’t have much to compare it to because she didn’t really remember her parent’s relationship all that well. She had a half-brother on the other side of the city and he idolized her. Jeannie loved her brother, half or otherwise. She always volunteered to babysit whenever she could. The teen loved kids. So when her mother and Mr. Luca started seeing each other and he won custody of his kids, Jeannie was over the moon. All she could think about was her mother and Mr. Luca getting married and all of them moving into his super nice, rather big apartment on the top floor.

Catching herself daydreaming again, Jeannie turned her attention back to the video she’d been watching only to find that she didn't know what was going on at all. She reached for the remote to restart the video so that she could pay more attention this time. She hit the rewind button one time and everything went dark. Confused, Jeannie pressed the same button that her finger was on. She thought that it might have just been trick wiring, maybe a blown fuse. Jeannie waited for her eyes to adjust to the sudden darkness that surrounded her, even turning toward the window to find the light that would guide her to the fuse box down the hall. However, when her eyes found where the window should have been, there was nothing but darkness blanketing the city like a heavy fog. A city-wide power outage. Jeannie was never afraid of the dark. She always believed that there was no difference between light and darkness. It never bothered her to be curled under the blankets in bed in a pitch black room. But then again, she’d never known darkness like this.

There had been power outages more than a few times growing up but none of them had been this complete and it had certainly never been this dark when power failed. Power outages had always been a reason to get out of the house and do something fun with her mom. Sitting out on the balcony and playing card games or building a puzzle. Jeannie had never been alone when the power went out. If she was being honest with herself, she wasn’t alone then either. However the darkness of her apartment had never been so consuming. She couldn't even see her own hand when it was inches from her face.

Jeannie knew her home like the back of her hand but she couldn’t even see her hands in that moment. Her mother was staying over with Mr. Luca in a really nice hotel to celebrate his birthday. The landline didn't even have a dial tone and there was no way that the seventeen-year-old could find her phone in the darkness that enveloped her like a suffocating, toxic gas. And, come to think of it, her phone was dead the last she knew. Now it wasn’t getting charged so there would be no way she could call and check in with her mom.

Maybe fear was infectious because she’d never felt this sweaty-palmed anxious in the dark before. She’d never felt so consumed in the night. Never felt so suffocated by air. Was she actually claustrophobic despite what she always told her friends? When did the night start to feel like a mixer tying all of her nerves and muscles into knots? When did gravity start to feel so heavy as it pressed down on her? How were those kids able to sleep in a darkness such as this? Should she be checking on the kids? Where did that flashlight go that they kept for emergencies? Wait, would all the food in the fridge spoil before the power came back on? What was creeping around in the corner of the room?

Wait, there was something in the corner of the room?! A terrified squeak left her lips before she slapped a hand over them to keep herself silent. If there really was something lurking in the dark, Jeannie definitely didn’t want it to find her out. There was no way that the teenager was going to get up from where she’d curled in on herself on the couch. Her dark eyes never left the moving shape in the corner of the room. The terror got the best of her and she kept frozen in place, knees to her chest and one hand over her mouth. How she longed to be fast asleep and completely unaware like the toddlers were in the other room. The brunette was beside herself with fear. The only thoughts running through her head were of how stupid she’d felt for never fearing the dark before and self-depreciating reprimands about how she was almost an adult and afraid of the dark. She had just resigned herself to the fact that she was about to die - if not from the shadow lurking around her, then definitely from the way her heart raced without pause.

Suddenly, the lights cut on and the video she’d been watching blared at her through the tv’s speakers. Jeannie gasped so hard that she started to cough. When she finally caught her breath, she found that the shadow that had been haunting her was only her cat, Autumn. The feline pounced at her owner, curling up in the teenager’s lap and starting to purr like a motorcycle engine. Jeannie sighed in relief, petting the cat grateful for her support. Deciding not to watch the video anymore, Jeannie turned it off and tried watching her favorite movie to calm her down. Just as the movie started, the landline rang and scared both teen and cat out of their seats. Leaning over the arm of the couch to answer it, Jeannie noticed her mother’s cell number spread across the LCD screen. The seventeen-year-old almost dropped the phone entirely in her haste to answer.

Hearing her mother’s soothing voice talking to her down the line calmed her almost completely. When Mr. Luca’s voice sounded in the background, the brunette nearly passed out with relief. Even more relaxing was the sound of her father’s voice, closer to the phone and her step-mother’s laugh at Mr. Luca’s joke. With her family safe and soothing her back to reality, Jeannie looked up at the time on the analog clock that hung over the tv. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head when she realized it was well past midnight and the power had been out for close to three hours. She didn’t realize that so much time had passed that she’d been petrified in her place. With gentle reassurance, her parents and Mr. Luca eased their girl to peace. When he finally hung up with them, Jeannie felt worlds better. There really was nothing there in the dark that wasn’t there in the light.

Jeannie continued her movie and fell asleep about halfway through it. Unbeknownst to her, a dark looming shadow stood over her as she slept. It’s inky black shape undulating maliciously. And it’s dangerous, glowing red eyes flashing playfully. A deep, whispered, dark laugh brought goosebumps up on the teen’s pale skin. With one last look at his prey, the shadow figure disappeared while Autumn hissed at the place he once stood. In the morning, Jeannie was awoken by her mother and Mr. Luca arriving back from their night out. A little concerned, her mother ran her fingers gently over the three fading scratch marks down her arm. Suddenly the children in the other room screamed in unison, telling tales of a "shadow monster" in the corner of the room. Little Sasha even claimed that he’d been watching Jeannie sleep. The two-year-old started crying harder when she saw the scratch marks on her babysitter’s arm. She exclaimed that the Shadow Man had marked her. That she would never be safe in the dark ever again. And the funny thing about it, she was right… 

~Fin