The Shadow Man

Others Stories | Feb 3, 2012 | 8 min read
80 Votes, average: 4 out of 5
Others Stories

The Shadow Man

I never seen the man enter my house. I was cooking my usual breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast when he first appeared in my kitchen.  He was perhaps seven feet tall, and...well, I don't even know how to give a detailed description. You see, he was basically a shadow. I could hear him, had even been touched by him once when he shook me awake, but  I had never seen his face. Except his eyes. That was the only part of his body that  you could clearly see. They were midnight blue. Such trusting, soft eyes despite he looked as though he came from a nightmare.  Never in my life will I forget these eyes, or what he came for.

Needless to say, but I never finished my breakfast that morning. Actually, my daily routine ceased to exist once I met the Shadow Man.  I had a mission in life, a purpose, as opposed to the sad existence I lived before. This shadowy figure gave me a reason to live.

The first day he visited me, I was frightened, but who wouldn't be? I stood there, spatual in hand, frozen. I was unable to move as if my feel were nailed to the kitchen floor.  Before I could scream, he spoke.

" Ian Walsh, I need something from you."

I swallowed hard. "F..from me?"

" Yes. I am here because I need you to carry out a few missions for me. I am sure you know that there are evil beings walking this Earth. These beings look human, but they are not. They are demons, placed here in this world to wreak havoc on the innocent, and take the purity in which God has created. My question is to you, Ian, are you ready to take a stand against the inhumanity?"

I replied, " Me? Why me? I am just a bank teller. I have no special skills. Hell, I can barely talk to women. And you want me to, what? Fight against crime?"

" Ian, the actions that these 'people' are far away from a crime," the Shadow Man answered. "A crime is something created of Man, but they are not merely crimes. Do you really believe a person would kill his own family? Do you truly feel there is existence in mental instability? No, sir. This is what Man has created in order to simply give these things a name. Demons possess the living and create the havoc. God did not create Man to kill. He gave human being life to create life, not destroy it."

I was stunned. And then I asked what I thought was a ridiculous question at the time, until now.

"Do you.. work for God? Are you an angel of some sort?"

The Shadow Man answered, " All in due time, Ian. Now you must answer my questions and complete each task I ask of you. Then you will know what I am."

"So. your saying, that I kill these people you believe are actually possessed by demons. What if I get caught? I will spend the rest of my life in prison!"

"You will not. I am here not only to send you on these missions but here to protect you. You will not be harmed."

Somehow I believed him. Although you couldn't see him, you know he was trustworthy. He was an angel, perhaps the Angel of Death, as I have always suspected. And if God himself sent this shadowy angel to seek me out and deliver vengeance for mankind, how could I not? So I accepted his offer.

The Shadow Man laid an envelope on my kitchen table. " Here are the first seven names of people I need you to find. Once you come into contact with these people, you will know what you need to do."

"Sir, how will I know that they have done evil? What if I harm an innocent person?''

"You will not. These names are people who have been possessed by demons.  It is not necessary that you know what they have done, just eliminate the demons. In ten days I will find you again."

"What I am supposed to do? Perform an excorcism?"

"No. I said eliminate."

Then the Shadow Man was gone.

I read the list of names.  I looked the list of the people up, found their addresses, and drove to their locations. It's funny, but in these moments I felt like I had been doing this all of my life. I have always wondered if he had given me some kind of power to carry these out, because even though I acted alone, I never felt that way.

The first seven people all lived in a boarding house the next town over. I guess this was this was like a boarding house of evil, I thought to myself. I parked two blocks down from the house and walked up the street. I had no idea what to do. As I walked in front of the house, I spotted a man in a hunting suit next door walk away from his truck. I noticed a hunting rifle left inside of the cab. I snuck up to the truck and took the rifle. It was fully loaded. I retirieved the loaded rifle from the cab, snuck through the back door of the house, and shot everyone execution style.

The next day I saw a news footage of the "murders" on channel 15. As the Shadown Man promised, I was protected. The reporter informed that the policed had no leads and not a single neighbor had seen any suspicious people around. It made me wonder if I had some sort on invisibility power. As apprehensive as I was to do it, after it was all said and done I felt almost invincible. After watching the news footage I was eager for my next assignments.

This was the night the Shadow Man woke me from my slumber. After being jolted awake, I stood straight out of bed, so excited to see him standing over me.

" You were right, I was protected. Thank you. Do you have another assignment?"

The Shadow Man replied. " You did well, Ian. I do indeed have more names for you."

Almost jumping with anticipation, I yelped, "Give it to me!"

"Ian, I know you feel different now that you have helped rid the world of such of a few evildoers, but I need you to be reminded that this is not a game. You need to be serious when you carry out these missions of God."

"Y..yes sir. I just feel, well... a little powerful you know? It feel like a superhuman crime fighter or something."

The Shadow Man handed me another list of names. I ripped open the envelope and to my astonishment, I knew all of the people listed. They were my co workers.

"Are you serious?" I asked. "I've worked with these people for years. They are....possessed?"

"Yes, Ian, I am afraid so. No need to worry, as long as you carry out this mission carefully and accurately, you will be protected."

"Yes, sir. It will be done."

At this point you can probably tell I have gotten a little bigheaded. It had been two weeks since the boarding house mission, and the police still had no leads. I did feel in a sense almighty. I mean, it was like this was my sixth sense, and from the moment I killed the first demon, I got a hunger for it. I felt like the big man upstairs would be proud of me.

I went to work the next day, and in my lunchbag contained a revolver my grandfather had given me before he died. It was in a case in my attic until that morning. I almost couldn't fit the damn thing in my lunchbag, but I made it work. I had planned when I would execute my assignment. Before we officially opened our doors to the public. I knew that the security officers would not be in until an hour after. My coworkers and I were standing in the break room sipping on coffee before we began our daily routine of work. I knew that now was the best time. I pulled out the revolver and told everyone to line up against the counters. Some beg and pleaded, my boss told me I was a lunatic, but I knew it was just the demons trying to coerce me into not proceeding with my mission. Once again, I went with the execution style technique. After everyone was lying on the floor in a heap of blood, I placed the gun back into my lunchbag. I decided then that I would go ahead and eat my lunch. I had built up quite an appetite taking out the demons and had plenty of time to eat... or so I thought.

I was so excited about completely my next mission that I had forgotten that security came in at opening on Thursdays. I was restrained and arrested. Funny thing, I was not protected this time. The Shadow Man told me to be careful, but instead I was cocky. I assume I had pissed him off.

"What ya doin' there, Ian?" Jake asked.

Ian looked up from his small desk at the orderly.

" I am writing my memoirs, Jake."

The orderly shook his head. "Interesting. May I read what you've got so far?"

Ian handed his paper over to the orderly.

After a few minutes, Jake asked. " Ian, do you mind if I give this to Dr. Ferguson? I am sure he will like it. He is an avid reader."

Ian laughed and clapped his hands. "Indeed you shall! I want the world to know that I am a man working for God, or did. As soon as I get out of here, I will complete my mission for Him."

"Right. Well. let's take your medicine and you need to get some sleep okay. I will have this back to you in the morning,ok?"

"Aye, aye cap'n"

The orderly named Jake headed to the head psychiatrist's office on the fourth floor.

"Dr. Ferguson, I thougt you might want to read this. It's Ian's, he, um, he is starting the Shadow Man thing again."

He handed the notes to he doctor. The doctor looked over the pages.

The doctor replied, " Up his meds for a few days, mellow him out. We don't want this to get ugly like we did before. Carry on"

The order went back to the second floor. He hated to rat out Ian, for he seemed to be a nice guy, but he knew what he was capable of. A man with a sickness like Ian just doesn't killed fifteen people for no reason and claims a dark angel told him to do it. As he walked by Ian's room, he decided to take a peak into the small window to make sure Ian was okay. Jake blinked twice, a little surprised at what he thought he saw.

"Naw, it is just my mind playing with me. If I keep seeing things, I am gonna be Ian's neighbor in here. "

Jake headed for the break room for some coffee. Maybe he was just tired. His mind was just messing with him after a long night of work, he thought. He did not, absolutley did not see a shadowy figure standing next to Ian's bed.

The End

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Akshay Feb 4, 2012

interesting story..

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