The Shadow

This is how this started.

And Now....

Each night I walk up the stairs.

There is a light behind me which is on all the time, and this casts a shadow on the wall at the top of the stair.

I always see the shadow and it looks like a misshapen monstrous lump, which I suppose is a reflection of my character.

There are nine steps to the first landing where I take a right turn to my bedroom.

I strip and get into bed, tired after another day of working and walking.

As I climb those nine steps, well, it seems to get a little more difficult every day.

I don’t know if it is me getting weaker, or just my age. I have had COVID and have a lot of physical issues, but I always make it to bed.

I know there are people who could not live with stairs and feel sad for them.

Every day I climb those steps, and I don't know if it is my imagination, but the shadow seems a little darker and almost more detailed. I’m sure it is just my imagination, too much coffee before bed, but I think I can see eyes and a mouth, but it is just shadow on shadow and as I turn the corner to my bedroom the shadow is gone behind me.

It’s night again, and I climb the stairs, but I am finding it more difficult, I feel so tired although I don’t know if I should be drinking coffee to help me make it up. I see the shadow and it almost looks as though it’s coming out of the wall, though I know that is just my coffee field imagination, though I was sure I could now see a nose on the shadow face. My imagination is running wild. My sleep is disturbed, there is a shadow there but I don't know whether it is mine or someone, or something else.

I was tired when I woke, and it was so bad that I took the day off work and just stayed in bed, at least it was light and there was no shadow til sundown, but I did sleep, then woke up, made something to eat, watched a little television then decided I needed to get a good night’s sleep. Work would not be happy if I took another day off.

I walked up the stairs and the shadow was darker than ever then it left the wall and covered me, entered me, and took me. I felt like I was falling down a black well. My mind screamed, my eyes screwed shut and then I opened them.

What I saw I could not understand at first.

I was looking down the stairs, and I could not move. I tried but I could not move at all like I was glued to the wall. Then I realised I was the shadow in the wall.

Just then my body walked and stood on the first landing, turned and spoke with me.

“I have taken your body for myself. For fifty years I have been placed under a curse because I tried to take advantage of a woman and set fire to the caravan of a fortune-telling witch, who cast this glamour on me as a punishment, that I can never fully escape. You will have your body back in seven days and I will become your house shadow, unless I can find the witch and make her remove this glamour. I have tried before and failed, after seven days I am drawn back to the shadow and you will believe you have had a nightmare that lasted seven days”

I could not speak, I was just a shadow now. What would happen if she removed the glamour, would he keep my body? Then where would I go?

I saw my body descend the stairs to go who knows where, and in seven days would I find that I am now a shadow forever, or would there be some kind of redemption for both of us?

The Conclusion