Shadows In Motion

a deep thoughts & spiritual musings Blog

Sometimes, there really are things in the darkness.

Perhaps your children are telling the truth when they say that they saw a monster in the shadows?

Note:  This entry was update on April 9^th 2004.

I have an update to this story, but I will leave here the original version of this story as I had remembered it for several years. I believe that it is important for me to share just how frightening this experience was for me. It was, in fact, so shaking that my mind had buried several details about the encounter, even going so far as to replace people at the scene with the comforting symbols of my own parents.

Yes, the encounter itself in its most basic form was a simple one, but it was not the encounter that was so terrifying. It was the creature that I saw that night. Here is the experience as I originally recalled it:

When I was a young child I used to sit outside on the porch at night, sometimes with my family, sometimes not. This particular night I wasn’t alone. My mother, father, and a then-family-friend were at my left. They were talking, laughing, and in general seemed to be having a decent time.

Always the strange quiet one, I stuck to myself on the swing. I was, as I recall, enjoying a large, red, delicious apple as I swung back and forth. It was a beautiful night as I let my imagination entertain me in typical childhood fare.

It was to be a very untypical night. For a reason which I no longer recall I looked up from my apple and my comfortable swinging to gaze at the tree which stood near the street at other end of our drive-way.

That’s when I witnessed something which would change my life for many nights to come. To this day I still don’t know what it was.

It appeared to literally step out of the tree, or at the very least from standing against its far side.

Out of the darkness stepped something even darker. A thing composed of shadow, so dark that it stood out against the night.

As I recall it stood about seven feet tall. It looked straight at me and as it stepped around the tree it physically brushed the bushes out of its way with its right hand. The being, whatever it was, looked me straight into my eyes.

I was paralyzed. Not necessarily by some otherworldly power but by fear. I literally could not move. Here was this thing, gazing directly into my eyes, made completely of shadow - and it was walking directly to me. I wasn’t just afraid, I was terrified! So much so that the muscles in my body locked completely up. I couldn’t scream, I couldn’t move; I couldn’t even look away.

Unfortunately the other three on the porch didn’t notice that something was wrong.

This being - the “Shadow Daemon” or whatever you want to call it - continued walking directly to me. It was in no hurry. Its walk was deliberate, I dare say even purposeful. It was as if it knew that I was paralyzed and could not get away.

The light from the porch had no effect on it despite it being composed completely of darkness. It cast no shadow and it walked thru the light as though there was no light. Without concern for the light and with no fence around our yard to block its progress it had a clear path directly to me.

Luckily I have always been a stubborn person.

It got to within a few feet or so of the porch steps and it was then that I decided that this thing may take me, but it wasn’t going to get me without a fight! I was going to wound it as badly as I could… and the only weapon that I had was my apple.

Finally, in what seemed to be the proverbial last minute, I broke out of the paralysis and cocked back my arm, preparing to hurl the apple straight into its eyes as hard as I could.

It vanished.

I found myself sitting there, my arm back, apple ready to be used as my only and possibly last weapon… against nothing.

I was breathing very heavily, and I soon discovered that my little fingers had pushed nearly half way into the apple. Apparently when my body froze my fingers had dug into the apple without my noticing it.

My first question to the others was, “Did you see!?” They had not seen nor felt anything at all and were sure that I had completely imagined the entire thing. I know that I hadn’t - if it was merely my imagination then how did it physically move the bushes? The answer of course is that it couldn’t have. It was real, but they were the grown ups and I was the kid. How could I convince them?

I would not stop insisting that something was there, or had been. Much to their dismay and challenged patience I carried on about the encounter late into the night. Finally, my father had had enough and said that the next morning he would destroy the bushes around the base of the tree.

Little good that would do, but I was young and it was a strangely comforting thought that they would do something.

At least it was gone - or was it?

For a very, very long time after that night, every time that I went out onto the porch at night I could feel fear growing. It was a palpable outward presence, not simply an internal emotion.

I would feel the sensation grow as sure as one can feel a change in the weather. Occasionally, being a young boy who had read many occult books, I attempted to face the sensation and not run from it. I knew that I had to be strong, that I had to be commanding, but I could feel the thing getting closer as the feeling of fear grew stronger and stronger with each passing moment that I stood out on the porch. It was as if it was walking toward the porch again, and ultimately, my defiance broke and I always ran back into the house.

Yet, thankfully, for whatever reason this thing seemed to never leave my street. It was as if it was tied to the street, or perhaps to the tree from which it had originally stepped. Whether or not it was by choice I can not tell you.

I discovered this on the few nights that I walked down the street to “Broadway”, obviously the main street in the town. Either I was with a friend or I simply had a very big craving for a cheap soda. I was, after all, fairly young.

When I walked down the street at night I could feel it following me. The feeling of fear would appear, simple at first, and then gradually grow as it always done. As I walked down the street the hairs on my body would stand on end and every part of me screamed that something was very wrong.

I’d move from one patch of light to the other, always looking back to the other patches to see if I were really being followed.

Thankfully, I never saw it again. Not while walking down the street, or any other time.

Eventually, the feeling dissipated from the area and the sensations of fear slowly became less and less as the nights passed on. In what seemed to be at least a year later I was once again able to freely go outside at night. The presence had finally left.

That was many years ago. I’m just glad that it’s gone.

Although, I’ll confide in you that sometimes I fear that it’ll come ‘for’ my children if I ever have any.