Running Shadows

From: Charlie Solarius (SlayingMemories@aol.com)
Story type: Ghost
Location: Alley
Source: Form Submission

The mood seemed to shift from laughter to vigilance. My temples began to pulsate, unearthing something inside. A haze drifted over my eyes, as if someone cast a thick white sheet over my eyes. "Are you okay?" I heard my friend asked. I laughed and told her I was just daydreaming, but there was something in the air that night that made me hesitant to move forward. With my vision blurred, I began grasping at air, trying to hold onto something, anything, even if it wasn't there. "So, my boyfriend said..." her words faded in the distance, leaving traces of normalcy in the air. I stepped forward into unfamiliar territory, I could feel it by the sultry change in the settling air. I left behind my friends, family, everything that once meant so much to me. The alley, filled with cantancorous odors and trash beaten into the pavement, dissipated as I walked forward. "Shhh," someone said. At first, I thought I had returned to the familiar selfish, outlandish voice of my friend, but the air was still the same. The desolate vibrations echoed throughout the alley. I rubbed my eyes, trying to see who, or what, had found me. When I reluctantly removed my hands from my eyes, all I saw was a darkened silhouette of a man. The white sheet that once shielded my eyes suddenly lifted. All I saw was this shadow. At first, I didn't believe it. I was dismayed by the sight of such a figure and believed that my eyes were playing tricks on me, like the cliche goes. I reached out for him, wondering if I knew him. That's when the air shifted once again to a dismal stillness. At full force, he ran straight through me, intertwining part of himself in me. I gasped as he invaded my body and ran out into the distance, as if he ran through nothing. I felt invisible, vulnerable. I was the ghost to him. "We should get back," my friend said. I nodded, eyes glaring back at what I just saw; but, nothing was there. Not even a stem of shadow ceased to exist in that alleyway.