September 9, 2016, Friday

I See Shadows

It was another normal day for anyone. People doing their usual routines, the scorching sun beaming it's rays down on the city of Valenzuela. The tiring event called school passed by in a flash. Though, it would have been faster if she were to sit in a corner and draw. The pencil scratching on the paper and the way her molded eraser easily deforms is one of the few things she liked about drawing. It was going to be her career in the future- well, she hoped. Her group of friends or rather her barkada would occasionally praise her for her works, though she knew that each one of them has a unique talent of their own. She would rather stay in the classroom and dive into the depths of her imagination if it wasn't for this.

A baking activity. She had no problems with cooking, none at all. The girl only disliked the idea of baking with a group. Her teamwork is poor, to the point where she'd rather do everything herself. But she didn't have the guts to say that out loud. Students from her school are very strong-willed and stubborn. They would do anything and everything they wanted whenever and wherever. It annoyed her to no end, but she had endured her classmates personalities for more than a few years now, so now's not the time to complain. It was just like every year, though with more concern than that last. They were doing all the cooking themselves. Did she complain? No, she did not. She didn't even say a word. Did she want to cook as well? She did want to cook. She wanted to show them that she can do it as well.

Did she cry out for help? No, she did not. It was a few weeks back when she started seeing them. The things her classmates would label as 'monsters' or 'ghosts'. She didn't know what to label them. They were all harmless. The shadows, as she would like to call them, only appear beside certain people, move on to another or stay in an isolated place. They didn't have the appearance of a human or any mythological creatures that were imagined by man. They were just one tall shadow with two white dots for eyes. They do have mouths, yes. She knows that they have mouths very well. After all she has seen them eat. It was accidental, a complete coincidence. On her way home with her father one night, she had saw it eating something that looked like a corpse of a stray dog in the playground.

It scared her. The poor animal looked like it had died of starvation and passed on with it's corpse in the grass. Other than the decaying smell and the rotting flesh of the animal, it was the shadow that bothered her the most. it's white beady eyes were red and it's mouth was coated in blood. Slowly it had leaned over to devour the dog once again. The sound was that of wet slippers being sloshed in the mud, but the image was gruesome. It was dark, so she could not see very well, nor did she want to see the horrifying event clearly. Swiftly, she ran inside the house (her father had finished parking) and could not sleep that night.

Everyone has a body clock and depending on the person's routines, their body adjusts. It just so happened that it was one of those few nights where her body would automatically wake up. She knows that she's awake, but she refuses to open her eyes in fear that the same monster would be right in front of her. Feeling around her bed, she could not find her cellphone and had no choice but to open her eyes to look for it. Thankfully it was just at the edge of the bed, she must've kicked it while she was asleep. Relieved and satisfied, she placed her device under her pillow and laid down. It was silent, save for the electric fan. Her favorite red curtains fluttering beside her due to the fan's wind.

It was quick, but in the corner of her eyes she sore she saw the same shadow from the playground (which was two blocks away from her home) staring at her with white eyes. They weren't red anymore, but the staring made her uncomfortable. Luckily, it was outside and had only been staring at her blankly, though the unnerving thought of it passing through walls left her awake that night.