The Shadow Curse

“Hey, Carson!! Come up here and solve the answer on the board.” “Huh?” I felt a cold streak of drool on my face. I immediately wiped it off, not fast enough. “Eww… why are you drooling all over the place” One of the kids in the class said in a whisper loud enough for the whole class to hear, while staring at the horrendous drool-puddle on my desk. The whole class erupted in laughs. I felt anger and embarrassment swelled up in me as my fists rolled up into a ball. “Ring!!” the bell went. A bunch of 7th graders rushed past me, shoving me in the door. “Mr. Macondson you and me must talk,” Mr. Eugene said.

The rest was a blur. My mind went into autopilot. I started replaying previous situations in my mind as Mr. Eugene flapped his jaw about grades and how important they are. I was so absent minded I didn’t immediately realize that I was somewhere else… somewhere I have never been.

I saw a luminous forest around me as I stopped to smell the fresh air. I saw the shadows rise and distort taking the color out of the forest. The green trees lost their bright colors and turned them black. The shadows started to make a humanoid structure. I tried to run, but someone else was in control not letting me move. Soon, I realized that it wasn’t me.

I returned to my body and was happy to move again. Then, Mr. Eugene’s dead stare made me back away. His eyes weren’t human. My head pounded as I tried to figure out what was going on. My brain was being packed with information too big to comprehend. “Stop!!!!” I yelled. A series of images flashed in my mind. A man with a grin so big it almost touched his eyes, and I saw in the distance a sign that said, “Hill Creak”. Being pushed off the stairs. Darkness it-self grasping onto me pulling me into the deep abyss…

I gasp to breathe a sensation of fear rushes over me as I realize Mr. Eugene is gone. Two teachers show up at the door with worried faces. “What happened?” one of them said. “I err…” I said. My body couldn’t spit out the words. “Its ok if you just got scared,” the other one said. “Yeah” something in my body urged me to say. The teachers left and I picked up my bag and left.

“What is going on? Why couldn’t I talk when the teachers asked me a question? What should I do?” These questions hung on me till’ I reached home. When I reached there my big brother, Mason, had his feet put up as he watched the news. “Fifteen-year-old girl, Kathy Donivin, gone missing in Grong Forest at 4:15. Officials in Washington state are still looking for her. Evidence found is her purse, phone, hat and wallet.” The tv said. My eyes widen hearing this news. It sounds like the first image I saw.

I go up to my room trying to make sense of what happened. “School closes at 2:05, so the incident with Mr. Eugene happened before this. How did he know this and transplant this into my mind?” I said aloud. The only clue I remember is Hill Creak. I am on the move. I quickly search up “Hill Creak”. It’s half a mile away. I get on my bike and start to head to Hill Creak.

After 30 minutes of biking, I finally arrived. The sky started to change from the fiery sunset to the dark of night. Soon, the whole place is covered with darkness. I saw a boy walking down the sidewalk, his strode steady, but every few minutes he would look up from his phone and check behind him. I felt the presence of someone. I hid behind one of the bushes. Suddenly a man laughing appears out of nowhere his smile matches the exact description of the image. His face pale, his eyes black, and his ginormous smile. The boy turns around and screams!!!

I saw the boy run for his life. I vigorously thrashed into the man. Thump! He had hit a pole. He stood up and turned around, his face now broken. He ran to me and grabbed my arm. I relented, his body trembling while keeping grip. The boy in danger jumped up and landed a punch right in the gut sent him flying into the darkness.

I went to check if he was still alive. Now the night had completely taken over. I found a piece of paper. It had nothing on it when I shined my phone on it. “Thank you!! If you hadn’t showed up, would have died. Huff!! What does it say?” The boy said. “Your welcome, but this note says nothing,” I said. I handed it over, the note glazing at the moonlight, words appeared. “A tragic accident so sad. Killed by a person who has gone mad. Who decides who is good and who is bad? The apartment 1322 you should be glad.”

I frantically searched up “apartment 1322” a complex a few minutes away from here. I explained everything to the boy. “Err… I don’t believe I got your name, I am Carson,” I said. “I am Jacob, and I will be willing to help you save others,” Jacob replied. “Alright, just stick together,” I said. I biked to the apartment as Jacob ran right behind me.

“Here we are,” I said as we both screeched to a halt. The apartment’s white paint was scraped off and the doors had holes in them. We opened the door to the apartment complex. No one was at the front desk. “This place gives me the creeps,” Jacob said while shivering. Suddenly, a scream like-no-other cut through the atmosphere.

We ran to the stairwell. A girl was being kidnapped by her own shadow!!! Her shadow pushed her closer to the rail. By this time her body was halfway across the rail. Her shadow struggled to push her down as we climbed the stairs. Her shadow had a ghostly gait; she didn’t touch the ground instead she just floated. Finally, we reached the level where they were located. I ran into the shadow. I couldn’t see anything, and I couldn't feel anything. Then I felt a sensation of drowsiness wash over me. A white light was cast upon me. I felt woozy. I stumbled and fell. After a while my senses returned to me. It turned out that Jacob flashed his phone’s flashlight to destroy the shadow. The girl’s name was Jillisa. Jillisa was saved!!! We still have one more to go!!!

A sense of foreboding made me weary. I felt the air tense and the ground was mushy. I felt the apartment fall apart as a magnitude of energy broke each atom of the apartment. I slammed hard into the ground. I saw Jacob and Jillisa clinging onto the ground. The massive amounts of energy seemed to come from a portal. One girl screamed while darkness pulled her towards another man.

I crawled my way to the portal, subconsciously dodging the rubb le flying around me. I finally got close enough to the portal that the energy around me was subdued. I recognized the man evil face. It was Mr. Eugene!!! I ran through the darkness using my phone light as a shield. I pull the girl away from the darkness and into my phone’s light. She seemed young, maybe eleven or twelve. “NO!!! You can’t take her…” Mr. Eugene said, tears streamed down his cheeks. He looked between us once more and said, “It’s either her or me… I need to become human again. The demon king has put a terrible curse on me I will never truly live and always be a shadow if I don’t kill at least two people to replace me in the underworld. I need to do it before sunrise or else I’ll burn to ashes and the demon king will kill me… That’s why I wore a hat all the time to stop me from burning. I was thinking too fast and some of my foresight was shared with you. Please Carson!!” Mr. Eugene said crying on his knees. The night started to fade into an orange just like a reborn phoenix. “I don’t know what kind of deal you have made with the demon king; this still isn’t right!!!” I said. Then I shined my flashlight on Mr. Eugene burning his foot. He jumped into the portal yelling in a sinister voice echoing throughout the area “I will somehow come back and kill you all… And Carson just remembered that you condemned someone to eternal doom!!!!!!” then the portal disappeared leaving us to think about our actions and what we could have done better to save both of them.