As I turn around there it was… the same black shadow figure from the bus. I felt an overwhelming terror throughout my body, but I gathered all the courage that I had and shouted, “What do you want from me?” The black shadow did not respond but it started coming closer to me. I soon realized that some of the people passing by were looking at me, as if they were staring at some crazy person talking to nobody, because they didn’t see anything, only I could see this demented being tormenting me for no reason whatsoever.
Part of me was starting to think that I was going insane, that I just lost my mind, “maybe this is all just a nightmare, a stupid, horrible nightmare,” I said to myself, but deep down inside I knew that this was as real as it gets. I turn around and ran as fast as I could but now, in front of me, was another shadow figure. I quickly stopped and got closer to this demonic like creature and it was in that moment that it said something. Although they were just shadow figures with no mouth whatsoever, I heard a muffled deep voice whisper, “You killed one of us, now one of yours must die.” As I heard that I froze in terror and felt confused because I didn’t really knew about what the figure meant by that. I shouted to shadow that I didn’t kill anyone, that this must be a terrible mistake, but then the shadow figure behind me got closer and whispered, “Lier! Yesterday you killed one of ours, now one of you must die.”
I felt so lost… I didn’t kill anyone, I had dinner with my mom and went to bed early. I even had to deal with that stupid bug…
Suddenly all became clear, I did kill something alright… the black moth… that stupid godforsaken moth… they must be talking about it. I remembered the nervous look on my mom telling me that they were a bad omen as I tried to kill it, and it all made sense now.
I panicked, avoided those two shadow figures and ran, ran as fast as I could towards my home, what if these things can hurt my parents? Tears started to fall from my eyes as I thought about what could happen to them. I ran faster than I ever did without looking back. I got home and noticed that both my parents already left for work, so I quickly dialled their numbers and called them. Both were alright, and I told them that I felt sick and went back home, they both sounded worried, but I assured them that I just was a bit under the weather, nothing serious.
After calling them I went upstairs to my room and looked out the window, but there were no shadows to be seen, not even one. In that moment I sat on my bed and started to cry, out of fear, out of panic and out of desperation. If what the shadow figures said was really true, then someone has to die… all of this because of that stupid bug. I spent the rest of the day in my room, just cowering in fear and anxiety, looking through the window to see if those shadow figures would appear again. Josh sent me a text message asking if I was feeling better, but I ended up not responding.
At around 4 p.m. my mother arrived from work, she went to my room and asked how I was. I thought about not telling the whole story, but I was just too affected by it and I needed to let it all out. I told her about everything, the black moth and the shadow figures. She hugged me and told me that I was just tired from working so much in the past few days, that everything would be alright and that I just needed some rest. “I’m going to make you some tea”, she said. As she was leaving I could see one of those shadow figures in the hallway… just staring in my direction. I could barely contain my vomit as I saw that demonic thing again.
I closed my eyes and just tried to ignore everything, to just exile myself from all this but in my mind echoed the same words, over and over again… ”You killed one of ours, now one of you must die.” I opened my eyes and I felt like I was in a horror movie… My room was filled of those shadow figures… all lined up in front of my bed… saying the same sentence over and over again. The terror that I felt was so intense that I ended up passing out.
When I regained my senses there were no shadow figures anymore, I went to check on my mom to see if she was alright, but I couldn’t find her. I shouted “mom” but to no response… she was nowhere to be seen. I went upstairs and heard a noise coming from the bathroom, but the door was locked. I knocked on the door and asked if my mom was there, but there was no response… just the noise of water dripping. I was just so freaked out about all what was happening that I grabbed the key to the bathroom and unlocked the door. When I entered the bathroom I was brought down to my knees and I felt my heart shatter into a million pieces… I saw my mother laying in the bathtub… the water was crimson from the blood that poured from the deep cuts on both of her wrists… her beautiful eyes had lost all the brightness and colour. My dear mother… my best friend… my companion was dead… and on her forehead was a black moth…