The Black Shadow

Florence’s eyes shined like the bright sun on a summer day. She just kept saying “Thank you, thank you, I love it….Oh I sure love it.” She stood with her short blonde and white hair looking at the house her sons and daughters had bought for her and her husband. Her face had many wrinkles, her lips were small and as pink as a rose, and her eyes were blue as the ocean. It was a nice big house. It was a cream color with white at the top. It was two floors tall. There were big, green trees everywhere with a beautiful garden in the front. It was a perfect house, or almost perfect. Florence loved the house; it was what she had dreamed about all her life. She would always talk about what her perfect house would look like, and it was exactly the same as the one she was seeing right before her eyes. Her husband, John, just smiled happily, but he wasn’t as excited or happy as his wife. He wasn’t a really happy person since he had hearing problems, but he sure loved the new house.

Florence’s sons and daughters started to move all her and John’s things to the new house. The house had many windows and had four big rooms. It had a garage and a very large living room. The sun poured in from everywhere into the house. The house was located about fifteen minutes away from the main town. It was the only house there in that area; there were no other houses around only trees. In the afternoon Florence finished putting everything in place and thanked her sons and daughters again for the house.

At night, she was very tired like her husband. She went to bed and turned off all the lights. Even though she was very tired, she couldn’t go to sleep thinking about the beautiful house she had and the flowers she was going to put in her garden. Suddenly she heard footsteps going up the stairs. She was a little scared but she thought it was just nothing. Then she heard something break in the kitchen. She woke up quickly. Her husband was asleep so she didn’t want to wake him up. She went to the kitchen and saw a black shadow. The shadow seemed to have red eyes glowing like stars in the sky. It was tall and skinny and it seemed to be floating in the air. She turned on the light quickly, but there was nothing there, only a broken cup on the floor. She walked to the living room and turned on the light, but there was still nothing. She looked everywhere but didn’t find anyone or anything. She thought it was only her imagination and the wind that broke the cup so she closed the window and went back to sleep.

The next day she woke up. Her husband was already awake, making breakfast. She decided not to tell John what happened yesterday so he wouldn’t get scared. “Good morning, why did you wake up so early?” Florence asked.

“I don’t know I probably went to sleep too early and I wanted to make breakfast for both of us. I made eggs and pancakes,” John replied with a happy voice as he put the food onto Florence’s plate. He was as happy as a man who won the lottery. Florence hadn’t seen him that happy in a long time.

“Thank you,” Florence replied as she looked at John’s facial expression.

“Why was there a broken cup on the kitchen floor?” John asked.

“It must have been the air,” Florence replied.

“Oh, I love this house; it’s really big and peaceful. There is nothing bad about it,” John said with a smile on his face.

“Yes…Yes it’s really peaceful,” she answered with a strange look on her face.

After they were finished eating, John went to read a book as Florence went to fix the garden.

That night Florence went and closed all the windows, closed all the doors, put chairs in front of them, and turned off all the lights. She went to bed and was reading a book when suddenly she heard the footsteps going up the stairs again. She got scared for a little but then kept reading her book. She heard something fall and break in the kitchen but she thought she probably forgot to close a window. As she was about to go to sleep, she heard doors opening and closing and heard some voices. The voices were a little loud and scary but didn’t sound like human voices. A few minutes later Florence heard screams. She just covered herself with the blankets and fell asleep.

In the morning she woke up before her husband and saw that all the chairs she had put in the doors where still there, exactly where she had put them and the windows were all closed. She saw the broken cup on the floor so she picked it up. John walked into the kitchen and saw Florence looking confused. Her mouth was open and her eyes were looking carefully at where the broken cup was. She was more confused than a kid on his first day of school.

“What’s wrong? You seem worried and scared,” John asked putting his hand on Florence’s shoulder.

“Nothing, nothing I’m okay,” Florence said, in a very low, soft voice.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, what do you want to eat for breakfast?”

“Anything…”

After they were done, John went outside to walk around as Florence stayed inside to clean. As she was cleaning her room she noticed that there was a knife in one corner of her room, it was one of the knives she had in her kitchen. She went to the kitchen to check if the knives were in their place, but there were only two and she had four. She thought she probably had moved them, but couldn’t remember. She went to the other rooms and as she opened the closet of the third room she noticed a place that was red. The red looked like blood but it was dried. It looked like human blood and as if it had been dripping from something. Then there were some places with red in the blue carpet of the closet. She closed the closet quickly and went outside to walk around.

Florence was starting to get scared, but at the same time she tried to convince herself that everything was okay, that the house was perfect. At night, Florence tried to go to sleep and not hear anything. As she was about to go to sleep she heard the footsteps and something fall and break. John woke up and asked, “What was that?”

“I don’t know,” Florence said with a scared look in her face.

“I’ll go check.” John went over to the kitchen and saw a black shadow. It was the same black shadow as the one Florence had seen the first night in the new house. The black shadow had big, red, glowing eyes starring closely at John. Suddenly he had a knife in his stomach. He started to scream as the pain traveled through his body. He fell to ground screaming and crying for help. Florence woke up quickly and went to the kitchen. She saw John on the floor with a knife pierced through his stomach like in a scary movie. “OH MY GOD JOHN, PLEASE SPEAK TO ME!” She moved him and grabbed his hands, which were as cold as ice. When no one replied she turned on the light quickly. John had died on a dark Friday night. His eyes were closed and his face was pallid. His hands were on his stomach wet from all the blood. There was blood all in his white shirt. Florence began to cry. The tears went down as rain drops on a rainy day. She stood up quickly holding a knife and began to look around for whoever had killed her husband. Her hands were shaking so much the knife almost fell from her hand. “WHO’S THERE?” she screamed in an angry and scared voice. No one answered. Florence grabbed the phone quickly and called her daughter. She came and started to ask her what happened.

The next day the police came and took the dead body. They investigated what had happened for a month but they didn’t find anything. Florence stayed alone in the house. She always thought that a person had killed her husband because that was the only logical explanation for what had happened to John. Also, Florence didn’t believe in ghosts she thought they just came out in scary movies to scare kids. After her husband had died she didn’t hear any noises in the house.

Five months had passed since her husband died and she still didn’t hear anything at night. She lived there in the big house. She was a little happy but sometimes missed and remembered her husband and became to feel sad and lonely. She remembered her long life with John and how it had all ended in the perfect house.

One night, as she was reading her book she looked over at the clock. It said in big red numbers “11:00.” She closed her book and turned off the lights. She closed her eyes and covered herself with the blankets. Suddenly, she heard the footsteps and something fall and break. She got up from her bed but fell so she turned on the light and stood up and walked over to the kitchen with a bat in her hand. As she was about to go into the kitchen a knife pierced through her stomach. She fell to the floor screaming and crying for someone to help her but no one was there. As she laid there with the knife in her stomach she screamed “WHO ARE YOU?” The blood soaked her clothes as she shuddered. As she laid there with the pain she saw a figure that was all black. Her face turned pallid and her eyes opened wide. You couldn’t see the shadow’s face because it was covered with a black cloth. Florence’s hands fell to the ground as she died on that dark Friday night. The ghost moved the black cloth from its face and laughed with an evil laugh. It stood with its red evil eyes looking at Florence.

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