Shadow Lurker by turokavenger4356[]
Art by pureen.
(The Shadow Lurker/ Unwanted House Guest was created by Ben Duff.)
April 2nd, 2013
Hello there, my name is Jack Hills, and I am perhaps one of the luckiest souls on earth. No, I didn't enter the music industry, become a millionaire or get hitched with a pretty girl.
I survived.
I had recently moved into a new neighborhood, seeking a new job, as I sucked in my last one and I was fired for that. After a couple of days and nights, I arranged all my things and got settled into the new house. The house itself was pretty big, with most of the stuff you would expect. The house of course cost a lot of money, so I was low in cash for the time being. I remember how mystified I was the first time I stepped into the house. Too bad I can never go back...
At first, I had to stay cheap due to the money problems I was having, but I got a job into the photography industry in the city and was back on my feet in a month or two. The locals around there were very good people and, in the crowd that occupied the neighborhood that I lived in, I got into a good relationship with this pretty woman I found on a website. We were really happy when we were with each other. Now, I will never get to see her again. The trouble all began on August 3rd, 2009. Me and my girlfriend had arranged a date the next day and I was so excited that I couldn't sleep, but I still tried to anyway. At about nine o'clock p.m., a storm rode up on the area and settled there for a while.
The storm was a very bad one, each strike of thunder shaking the very foundation of my house. I was wide awake at the very first flashes of lightning that pierced my sleeping mind. I continued to stay up for another five hours. Yes, the storm was that bad. I think the time was 12:30 or so when I remembered something. The week before, I was applying wallpaper to the walls of my room when I fell off the ladder and nearly broke my leg. The latter, of course, fell on the windowpane and tore a piece of it open. Therefore, there was a hole from the outside to the inside. The rainwater could get into my house that way and I didn't want to wake up and have a mess to clean up.
So, I went downstairs and got some tape, then stepped back upstairs to my room. About halfway up the stairs, a massive boom of thunder shook the entire house and knocked out the power, leaving me in complete darkness. Oh great, I muttered to myself. I got my camera from my pocket, turned on the flash and continued walking upstairs. Massive shadows were cast every time lightning struck the earth, giving me a chill down my spine. I finally got up to my room and, sure enough, a small puddle of water was starting to form underneath my window. I tore off some tape, applied it to the tear and cleaned off the water with my shirt.
I had started walking back to my bed, when I felt something pulling at the back of my mind. For some odd reason, I wanted to go back to the window. I had to. Being curious, I walked back to the window, camera still in hand. The rain was collecting on the screen and an idea came to mind. Perhaps, if I took a shot of the raindrops on the screen when the next flash of lightning came, it would make me some money. I had an assignment that I needed to turn in the next day: a photo of something around the house that I had to take over the week.
I readied to photograph the window and patiently waited for the next flash of lightning to appear. That happened, and it lit up the world outside. In that split-second of light, I...saw it. A face was staring back at me from the other side of the window. The skin on its face seemed to be near decomposition, making it look like something that crawled out of a grave. It wore what I presume to be a hooded cloak, as it had a hood over its head and the rest of its body was covered, leaving only its face visible. It was grinning in a malicious way and that smile could bring terror to anybody.
Then I got a good look at its eyes. Oh god. those eyes. They were bordered in complete shadow and emited a glow that illuminated the darkness. Those eyes stared into mine, as sheer horror filled my body. Behind those eyes, I sensed a malevolent intelligence, a demonic aura that nobody but the devil himself could hope to match. The eyes completed a face that could pierce any man's sanity. A face which I will never forget. A face that will haunt my dreams until the day I die.
My instincts kicked in, and I pressed the snapshot button of my camera, hoping that the flash would blind the thing and it would stumble and fall off the house. When that didn't happen, I scrambled away from the window, running in terror to my bed. Not thinking straight, I screamed before I put the covers over my head, as if that could possibly protect me from a monster. My mind reeled into overdrive as I panicked, not knowing what I should do. After a couple of moments, I heard a demonic, deep voice whisper:
"Legs hanging over the bed? Mine now!"
The thing on my bedside pulled the covers off of me and I screamed once again. But after I got locked in the thing's stare, I couldn't move. I stopped screaming because I literally couldn't do it anymore. The thing raised a hand and everything went black. A warm light filled up my vision when I regained consciousness. At first, I thought that I was dead and in heaven. I opened my eyes to find out I was still in my bed, the covers looking just like I left them when I first settled into bed the night before. What a terrible dream!, I thought. I had to work that day and my date was at 6 o'clock tonight, so I needed to be ready. I got ready, took a shower, ate breakfast and drove to work.
I had a smile on my face and I was relieved, knowing the entire experience was only just a really bad nightmare. If that did happen in real life, I would certainly be dead. A mile from my house, I realized that I had forgot my camera on my nightstand. If I didn't have a new shot for the assignment I was supposed to turn in that day, I was scared I would get demoted down to the bottom of the jobs they had. I immediately raced home and retrieved my camera from my nightstand. I put it into my pocket, got back into my car and drove to work again.
Before I got into the building, I realized I could use some leftover photo on my camera for my assignment. I turned on my camera, pulled up the camera roll and my blood ran cold. I stopped myself from screaming. The last photo I took was last night. It was... the thing's face. That terrible, smiling face. It was not a dream. It was a real event, as I recognized at that moment.
I left, sped towards my house, packed up anything I needed and drove away from that place. Everyone I know will be wondering what happened, what would make me move out so suddenly. I know that I will never see that life again and I will never have a normal life as so long as that demon is out. It can come back to haunt me anytime it wants... and it has. I constantly glance it out of the corner of my eye, lurking within the shadows.
Now I am residing in a new house in New Orleans, writing this for my blog. I've researched the creature as much as I can. The Shadow Lurker, as I now know to call him, can be anywhere in the world. He rides with the storms, for that's when he strikes at his victims. His victims, when they die, will have a look of terror frozen on their face. Everytime I hear about a murder victim that has that same expression, I know it was his work. I can just feel it.
I don't know why he let me live or why he keeps tormenting me but what I do know is this: If it is storming out at your home, the Shadow Lurker could be watching you at this very moment...