The Shadow

The Shadow
The Shadow
It creeps in the darkness
Staying in the edges of vision
Only allowing small glimpses
While your tired eyes flash
Trying to catch a better look
At this nighttime stalker.

The Shadow
It's the thing that lives in the closet
It's the thing that lives under the bed
It's what really makes those bumps and creaks at night
Parents are just too scared to admit
Unlike myself, but do you know why?
Take a guess, take a venture
You are right if you said that I am the monster
That some people call the Shadow

The Shadow
It sits in the darkest corner
Under a desk perhaps, or a chair
It sits there watching you fight against the sleep taking over you
You sense its presence and sit bolt upright
You've no idea where its vantage point is so you look around
Slowly, carefully, cautiously, your eyes scan the room around you
They start at the top of each wall and work their way down
It could be anywhere, but you'll find it
You scan the room
You find nothing
You know it's there
You feel the hairs on the back of your neck prick up
Its gaze is upon you
but from where?

The Shadow
Its gaze boring holes straight through you
Closing your eyes, you concentrate on its gaze
Focusing your nerves,
Fine-tuning and adjusting them
Until you feel but one spot on your body
It grows strangely prickly, cold, and numb, causing you to shiver
You realize with a shock of fear where its vantage point is
Judging by the feeling atop your head…

The Shadow
It's right above you, gazing down from the light
Like some tortured and cursed angel of the night
Peering at you from over the lip of the shade
You sense it there
You long to look up, to see it, to know it's real and not a figment of somebody's imagination
But you are afraid
Afraid of what might or might not be there
Looking back
Afraid of what might happen if it's there
Afraid of what an idiot you'll seem if it's not
You can kid yourself that you're imagining things
That your eyes and brain are tired and playing tricks on you if you don't see it
Still, out of the very corner of your eye as you lie down on your side, careful not to look straight up, you notice two things
One is that the area around the light and the light itself seem darker
The other thing you notice out of the corner of your eye slightly unnerves you
The dark area nestled in the light appears to be moving
and breathing…