THE SHADOW
May 18, 2021
PRESENT DAY
ZACK
"Zack, Zack, Zack."
The familiar croaky voice brought my eyes to open. As my visions became clear, I realized that I am at the same place where horror always begins.
The cold breeze engulfed my whole body making me shake uncontrollably, I felt the searing sensation of coldness in my bare feet. I can hear the familiar sounds of the rustling leaves, the waves of the lake, and the smell of this house.
I know every inch of this place. This is where I was born and lived for some years, this was the place where I always feel home and safe. But today, I am certain that I am in danger if I stay in this place longer.
I turned around as tears blurred my vision and realized that I am in the kitchen, in the right direction where the stove is placed, there is a window -- where I can hear the water sloshing from the lake.
As fear struck upon me, my eyes darted on my small hand. I found myself grasping tight on a knife, but I didn't notice eventually that I was holding its sharp blade causing my palm to bleed. I continued crying quietly trying to conceal my sobs. I'm not crying because of my wound but because of fear. Fear of this place, and fear of the unknown entity that alway tried to drown me whenever I dream of this.
Then suddenly everything disappeared, I was left alone in the cold room, looking like I am the tiniest person in the world. Unable to move, unable to speak.
In five seconds I will hear heavy footsteps in my direction coming from the shadow. The sound of my favorite lullaby that my late mother used to play in me before I go to bed will soon clang the whole room without a stop.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Three heavy footsteps getting nearer in my direction. In this dream, I don't have any control over myself, I am like an audience hiding inside my own body watching myself do whatever it wants.
Taking a long pause before drawing a breath, I started running again.
"Found you!" The darkest shadow in the black and white version of our lake house hurled a scream at me when it caught me running. "Don't you like this? I am just doing you a favor. No more suffering for you if you accept your fate in my hands. And no one will know when you die." I heard its footsteps louder, it's getting nearer.
"Run. Just run. Don’t stop." The same old words I whisper to myself whenever I come back to this nightmare.
"Goodnight, little one. It’s time to close your eyes,
The things you keep asking just let it all fly away
Like birds in the sky, they’ll soon find their way
But honey, just make sure to remember the promised I made
That wherever you go, even the darkest days
I will always be here with you, we will never be far away
Because, I will never leave you..."
As I run and run in the dark the lullaby keeps playing somewhere in the room. The footsteps approaching, the lyrics of the song are becoming unclear as it gets distorted changing into a deep, heavy, scary voice that seemingly comes underneath the ground.
As all the sounds uproar the whole room -- in the middle of darkness, I see an open door and the light coming from it dazzles my eyes, blinding me.
I covered my eyes using my arms as I held tighter on the knife. In this part, I will hear a cry from my mother.
"Don't go, Zack. Don't." I knew that I would hear her weak raspy voice whisper in my ears. But the truth is -- she's never here. She's just created by my imagination because of me, wanting to be with her. Besides my grandpa, when I was a kid, she’s also one of my safest places, my sanctuary.
I continued running in the direction of the door not obeying her words and the moment I entered it, I found myself outside the house. I am once again surrounded by the lake.
I always think whenever I’m in this part of my dream, what if I obeyed the whisper of my mother? Maybe the danger of this dream would stop. But I know that it would be impossible to control myself in this dream.
Every step I take, I'm getting farther and farther away from the house. I feel like I'm running in a marathon match, the trees are collapsing and the bright light coming from the sun's disappearing, but I never stopped running until I found myself at the end of the dock.
I tried controlling myself, I tried preventing myself from turning from behind me. Because I know what will happen next when I reach this end.
But in this dream, I don't have any control over myself.
A fume of breath escaped my mouth, gasping in exhaustion. I lost my hope by screaming in my head the moment I turned around. I saw the towering shadow hastily grab my neck in a rapid motion, strangling me, tighter and tighter. And before I could even raise the knife in my hand -- I felt the whip of chilly waves in my skin as my body collapsed deeper in the water.
The dark shadow, even knowing that I wouldn't survive the depth of the water, still it continued strangling me while pushing me deeper that made me loosen my grip on the knife. My lungs are getting tighter, unable to breathe, my eyes dilated in horror as my visions start to turn black. I can taste the salty water as it keeps pushing down my lungs. I tried to fight using my hands but I failed. I
I find myself losing my senses, being defeated by suffocation that is caused by the same old nightmares who never stops punishing me.
They came back. My nightmares came back to haunt my life again.
"Zack?! Zack?! Wake up!" I gasped as my eyes opened wide. My throat's dried, I can feel chilly sweats in my forehead, my whole body's shaking and now I'm back in reality.
It was hard for me to calm the beating of my chest, it took me seconds to finally get back on control over my body. With heavy breaths, I turned my eyes to the person who saved me from my dream.
It was Aunt Olive, an expression of worry and shock evident in her face.
But what caught my attention is the knife she’s holding -- the state of panic flashed in my eyes because it is exactly like the knife I had in my dream.
THE REUNION May 18, 2021 ZACK “A-Aunt Olive?” I muttered under my breath. Surprisingly Aunt Olive swiftly dropped the knife on the coffee table in front of us. I just came to notice that I am lying on the sofa in the living room and not in my room. I felt the tight embrace of my aunt, “I was so scared, I thought I’m gonna lose you.” She whispered. I sighed as I let down my walls, I hugged her back while my boy continued to shake. “You dozed off and then a while later you were having a seizure, I kept on waking you up but you’re not responding, I thought -- I thought --” As aunt Olive started to hysterical, I immediate
MISSING PERSONS [PART ONE] May 18, 2021 LIZZIE [Lizzette Cruz-Lucero | 26 ] "I already told you that I'm going to my grandparent's house. Why won't you listen?" I calmly said to my husband Grey on the other line. He was already mad at me the moment I answered his call. Because of one shallow reason that I left our daughter in my parents' house. I truly don't understand, if I choose to leave Cassie with a babysitter he’ll still get mad at me. "My point is, why do you need to leave Cassie behind if you can just let her come along with you!" I heard him scoff. "You know how much I dislike your family! What if something bad happens to Cassie in your par
THE CONTINUATION... *BLAG!* I abruptly woke up when I heard thumpings from a window. Because of panic, I became sober immediately. I looked to my left and saw a woman outside the window who seemed to be in her 40s, continuously knocking to get my attention. While her other hand’s sticking a paper in the glass. When I carefully looked at the paper that is where I realized that it wasn't just a simple paper but a missing poster. I looked in front of me and found out that the driver was gone. I wandered my eyes everywhere only to find him outside eating at a local eatery store. I noticed that the sky is getting dark , I guess it's 6 in the evening now. I feel a sense of pity in her drastic situation. She seems exhausted so
IF ONLY SOUNDS CAN SPEAK May 18, 2021 MADDY [Maddison Galvez | 24] Do you know what's annoying? It's when they call a cabin just a 'house'. What I meant is, there are tons of different types and styles of houses, and I think they must know that when they are asked what kind of house they own. I know it's stupid for me to get annoyed for a small reason but I can't help it. Zack told us earlier that their house is called the ‘Lake House’. When I asked him what the style is, he just described it as a house in the middle of the lake. I rolled my eyes in annoyance because of his stupidity, he jus
CONFUSIONS May 18, 2021 ZACK “G-Grandma?” It took her some minutes before she familiarized my face. She slowly put the knife down as she shifted her gaze to all of us back and forth. Finn stepped backward when he returned to his senses after the shock that grandma Debbie gave to him. When I look at them one by one I figured out that they all have the same face of shock and fright. "Z-Zack? W-What are you doing here?!" Grandma Debbie stammered firmly, redness striking upon her face. She looked at the others in disbelief, "And who are they?!" She pointed them using the knife in her hand. I immediately rushed in front of my friends and raised my hands in front of my chest as if I'
FORGOTTEN May 18, 2021 ZACK We went straight to my old bedroom when my grandma insisted that she'll walk Maddy, Jackie, and Lizzie to my late mother’s room located in front of the dining room. It's been so long since I last visited my mom's room. I can't even remember what it looks like, or what was the design of it, or when was the last time I entered it. When I’m here, I have never thought of entering her room. I just often lock myself in my old room as I read comics, or if not I usually just talk lots of stories with my grandpa while helping him do whatever hobbies he does from those days. But usually, I stay at the park near here just one ride away. My mother died a year after Chloe was
DON’T GO BEYOND May 18, 2021 MADDY Zack's late mom's bedroom is located in front of their dining room. Which explains the door that we saw earlier. I have to admit that I feel scaredy-cat towards Zack's grandma. Her prickly attitude and her stern face bring fear to me. She even made the guys leave when they were about to accompany us. She’s being freaking conservative, and I hate it. She’s making us wait outside for almost an hour now, but we didn’t say anything because we’re all so afraid of her. So we just sit silently on the dining chairs. Before she leaves us here, she told us that she's just gonna fix something inside. It contradicts
ONE STRANGE MAN [PART ONE] May 19, 2021 FINN [Finn Michael Torres | 28] The sunlight coming from the window awakens me. I stared at the ceiling for a while before I got up and took my phone on top of the dresser. I looked at the time and saw that it was already 6:30 am. I usually wake up earlier than this because of my work. I turned to Zack and Gab and saw that they're still sleeping deeply. I don't want to wake them up yet, but I also don't want to go downstairs without them, especially without Zack. The thought of seeing Zack's grandma again makes me uneasy. But still, I don't have anything to do here anymore. In the end, I decided to go down to searc