Lost in the Shadows

“Come on, Mort! I’m tired and wanna get some sleep!”

“Mellow out, Lara! These bags ain’t exactly light, you know. You’d think we were staying here for a month instead of a fortnight.”

“A girl’s gotta be prepared for anything, honey.”

“You said it, sister.” Julie walked up next to Lara. “You never know when a party might break out.”

“A party? Out here? You’ve gotta be kidding me.” Mikey groaned, carrying about as many bags as his brother. “Thought we all came out here for a break from London, not to party.”

“True but who's to say we can’t have fun while we’re here?” Lara winked at Julie, who snickered.

“What have we gotten ourselves into, brother?” Mortis rolled his eyes and trudged up the front walk to the large house.

“I think counting on any sort of relaxation is out.” Mikey followed then paused to look at the property. It wasn’t as large as the manor they’d all rented for All Hollow’s Eve a few years in a row but still impressive for its age. The outside was red brick and well-kept, the doors and windows had been painted bright white, and the gravelled courtyard was set for four people to enjoy an evening of sunsets and drinks.

“Come on, Mikey! We’re waiting on ya!”

“Coming, dear!” He hustled up to the open front door and set the bags down for a minute to have another look around. Hardwood floors covered every room on the lower level, with the exception of the white tile in the kitchen, and a wood burning stove was set in the living room. The furniture was more modern than he’d expected but at least it looked comfortable. Moving up the stairs to the first bedroom, Mikey piled his and Julie’s luggage next to the clothes chest and collapsed onto the bed.

“Isn’t this place stellar?” Julie came up just then. “I could stay here for a month or more.”

“Don’t think me and Mort could afford that. It was hard enough getting it reserved for the time we did, so I’d rather not push it. Think we just got lucky some other bloke cancelled.”

“Whatever you wanna call it, I love it.” She sat next to him. “But I’ll have to explore it later. I’m exhausted.”

Mikey looked at her. “What’ve you got to be exhausted about? I’m the one who did all the driving.”

“It takes a lot to pack all that stuff, you know.”

“Right. Anyway, time for some shut-eye.”

Julie looked out the window as the sun was setting and pulled the shades. “You know, you’d think with all the other modern amenities there’d be more lighting. This place is kinda dark when the sun starts to go down.”

“Now that you mention it, you’re right.” Mikey made note of the long shadows being cast by the furniture and other fixtures. “Almost reminds me of something out of Jane Austen or Oscar Wilde.”

“Or H.P. Lovecraft.” Julie shuddered and pulled up the blanket. “Let’s just try to get some sleep.” She fluffed a pillow and nestled into it.

“Right. See you in the morning.” Mikey kissed her and laid down. As his eyelids closed, the shadows seemed to creep closer.

A loud knock woke them both up abruptly. “Oy! What?!”

“Outta bed! Time for breakfast!”

“Bloody hell, Mort! What time is it?” It was hard to tell with the room being dark.

“Half past seven. Move it! We’re on the patio.”

Footsteps thudded down the stairs and Mikey threw his hands over his eyes. “Ugh. If we weren’t twins, I’d wonder how we were even related.” He tossed the blanket aside and put his feet on the floor. “Come on, Julie. Time to get up. Julie?” He looked over his shoulder and she wasn’t there. “Julie?” He glanced around the room but she was nowhere in sight. “What the hell? No way she was up before me.” He fumbled around for a torch or lamp switch and found the latter. Hitting the switch, the shadows were temporarily chased away and he saw that Julie truly was nowhere to be seen. “Now that is odd.” He peeked in the closet and washroom, finding both empty.

“Maybe she’s downstairs already.” He dressed, washed up and headed to where Mort and Lara said they’d be. He found them sitting at the outside table, his girlfriend among them. ‘Thank goodness.’ “Morning, love.” He kissed her forehead. “First time you’ve ever been up before me.”

“Don’t get used to it.” She let out a yawn. “Couldn’t sleep with all the weird shadows moving about in the room. More than once, I thought one had moved near the bed but could’ve been my overactive imagination.” She gulped half a mug of coffee. “Might sleep somewhere else tonight.”

“There’s always the sofa.” Lara suggested, popping a raspberry. “Although I have a feeling any room in this place is gonna be equally as dark.”

“Lovely. A whole fortnight without a decent night’s sleep. I almost wanna go home to my own bed.”

“We paid for this place and we’re staying.” Mikey insisted, his twin nodding. “If you’re so concerned about not sleeping, go into the village and get some sleep aids. I’m sure there’s something that’ll knock you out.”

“Sounds like a brilliant idea. I’ll do that after we’re finished.”

“I’ll go with you. I wanna get some grocery items for supper tonight.” Lara said.

“Great. Looks like you boys will have the place to yourselves for a while.”

Mort smirked. “See if you can find any decent books while you’re out. Been looking for something new to read.”

“You run out of material to borrow from Daniel?” Mikey asked, taking a bite out of his toast.

“Him and Anne. Plus, I can only read so much on music theory and guitar tabs.”

“Still can’t believe that Daniel replaced Seth in the Silver Coffin Sound.” Julie mentioned.

“I know but he’s damn near as good.” Mort commented. The four talked until breakfast was finished then the women left to go do what they needed to while the men cleaned up. “How’d you sleep last night?”

“Okay, I suppose but Julie said she couldn’t sleep, which is amusing because she can sleep through anything. I did find it strange that she said the shadows looked like they were moving.”

“I heard that too but shadows moving? That’s impossible.”

“I don’t know. You ever hear of the Shadow People?”

“Shadow People? You’ve been reading too many creepy stories.”

“And you drop too much LSD before you go to sleep but that’s beside the point. There’s gotta be something to all those stories, and maybe this is the place to figure it out.”

Mort glanced around and shook his head. “Whatever, bro. Just don’t get yourself wrapped up into something you can’t get out of.”

“If I do, you’ll be there to bail me out like you always are.”

“And vice versa. Okay.” They finished the chore and sat in the living room. “So, where do we start?”

“First, we have to find a wi-fi connection.”

“What for?”

“Gotta do some research first.”

“Thought we came out here to get away from all that.”

“Circumstances change. Come on. There’s a coffeeshop down the way.”

“We’ve been here for four hours and all you’ve found is more and more obscure creepypastas, along with some half-arsed rituals.”

“I know I saw something here. Just be patient and order another espresso.”

“If I have any more espresso, I’m gonna be up for the next five days.” Mort grumbled as he walked away.

“Shadow People, Shadow People…” Mikey’s eyes were drying out as he stared at the computer screen, endlessly scrolling through Reddit posts. “Oh hell, this isn’t working.” He rubbed his eyes and groaned. “Maybe I’m just reading too much into this.” He decided to do one last search to see what popped. “Shadow People ritual. See if anything worthwhile comes up.” He sat back and read through the first page of results. “Freaked.com: How to Actually Summon a Shadow Person. Okay. I’ll bite.” He skimmed the “rituals” until he landed on one that may have had some credence. “Call a Shadowman, But Give It a Visitation Limit.”

“You finally find something?” Mort sat down with two lattes.

“Maybe. Listen to this…”

“Boys! We’re back!” Lara opened the door of the rental with Julie right behind her. “Hello? Mort?”

“Where’d they go? Think they’re asleep?”

“Not likely. They would’ve been up the second I called out. No. They must’ve gone somewhere.”

“The coffeeshop?”

“We’ll try there first. Let’s put everything away.”

“You can’t be serious! There’s no way this would work.”

“Keep your voice down, and I think it will work if I do it right.”

“It says you might need multiple people, and I don’t think our ladies will go for it. Julie would get scared to death.”

“So, what do you suggest, brother of mine?”

“Forget about it and let’s enjoy the rest of our holiday. Nothing’s likely to happen anyway.”

“There you two are!” The twins turned to see their girlfriends enter the café. “Was wondering where you slipped off to.” The women ignored the few other patrons staring at them. “What are you up to?” Lara asked, sitting next to Mortis.

“Ask him.” Mort sipped his latte.

“Mikey?” Julie looked a bit concerned.

“Rather not say here. Let’s go back to the house.”

“You can’t be serious! Tell me you’re not!”

“Well, you want to sleep, don’t you?”

“Well, yeah, but I was thinking more along the lines of melatonin or Valerian. Not some ‘shadow people’ ritual. Are you bonkers?”

Mikey shrugged. “Think that goes without saying but it’s worth a try.” He paused as the looming dark shapes in the living room seemed to move in closer. “Might even make this place a bit brighter.” The others looked around. “What’d ya say, guys?”

“You are bonkers but what the hell? I’m in. This had better work, is all I’m saying.” Julie sighed.

“Ditto. Like she said, you better be right about this, bro.”

“Well, I don’t wanna be the hold-out. What do we do?”

Mikey took out a sheet of paper. “It sounds pretty simple but we’ll have to be exact, otherwise, it won’t work or something could go wrong.” His companions gave him strange looks. “Hey, I didn’t write this. Listen…”

“Glad there were candles left here. This place would be pitch black otherwise.” Lara shivered as they sat in a circle on the living room floor.

“Where’s the mirror? It said if it works, the Shadowman will appear in the mirror.”

“Should be over there.” Mortis pointed to the hanging mirror by the small desk.

“Switch me places, Mort.” The twins shuffled into place. “Better. Figured it’d better be me as I’m the one wanting to do this.”

“Should we not look at it if it does come?” Julie asked with a bit of fear but also fascination.

“You can look; just don’t talk to it. You don’t want it attaching itself to you.”

“Then why do you want to do it?”

“Because I can banish it if I have to.”

“How?”

“We’ll worry about that if it happens. Hurry up and get this over with. Seems as if the shadows in here are multiplying by the second.” Lara’s statement had hardly left her lips when a random breeze caused the candles to flicker.

“Okay, okay. Here goes. Oh wait,” he got up and went to the door. “Almost forgot a piece. Shadowman, Shadowman, he hates the day. Shadowman, Shadowman, come out and play.” Mikey knocked once on the wooden door and repeated the chant several times until all but three candles went out and the shadows in the room moved closer until they were right at the edge of the small circle of light.

“I think it worked. I see something in the mirror.”

“Hurry up and talk to it. I’m cold and this is creeping me out.” Julie scooted closer to the middle of the circle but the dark shape over her shoulder moved with her. “Mikey.”

“Alright, alright.” He squared his shoulders and walked closer to the mirror. Sure enough, there was a lanky, dark shape with electric yellow pinpricks for eyes looking at him. “Shadowman, Shadowman, I’m requesting you to leave this place and never come back again.” The thing crooked its head to one side. Mikey repeated the command twice more. The creature straightened up and let out a growl.

“Mikey. Hurry up.”

He didn’t break eye contact with the Shadowman. “Shadowman, Shadowman, I’m demanding that you leave this place and never come back again!” The thing’s eyes narrowed as it sounded like it was whispering something then it vanished, along with the deep shadows in the room. Mikey heard breaths being let out.

“Can’t believe that actually worked.” Mortis stood and flipped a switch. “Hey, now the lights are brighter and there’s more of them. Way to go, bro.”

“Always thought this place had lackluster lighting for how modern it was. Guess all the shadow people were the culprits.” Lara stretched and went to the kitchen. “Who’s hungry?”

“Me!”

She smiled. “You’re a bottomless pit, babe.”

“Only cuz you make great food.”

The rest of the holiday passed without incident or restless sleep and, before anyone knew it, it was time to head back to London.

“I almost don’t wanna leave but life, as always, intrudes on the fun.” Mortis sighed, looking at the old house.

“Are you sure we can’t stay longer?” Lara looked at her boyfriend with puppy eyes.

“Sorry, love. This boy can only afford so much holiday at once.”

“Same here. Let’s roll out.” Mikey climbed into the driver’s seat of his black Acura RDX and started the engine. The three passengers started chatting about what they had to do when they got back to London but Mikey was almost silent as he watched the house disappear in the rear-view mirrors. As he was turning onto the main road, he thought he saw a shadow flicker past his window.