The Shadow People

Dani wrote rapidly, scribbling into the notebook, no spacing between paragraphs or neat indentions; front and back of each page covered with closely written words. The two men flanking her were pecking away or surfing the web using their laptops. The fact that Dani was only using a ninety-nine cent notebook purchased from a nearby drugstore was not testimony against the cliché of sitting in a STARBUCKS cafe typing away on a laptop. In fact, it was just testimony to the fact that she was just too broke to afford one.

She picked up the large white ceramic mug with its green STARBUCKS logo imprinted on it and upended it to her mouth...only to come away with one lukewarm drop of Caramel Macchiato. Shit! It sucked when you forgot that you had already drank the last of a delicious beverage. She stared absently into the bottom, at the residue of caramel goo, contemplating sticking her finger into and collecting the last of the deliciousness. Instead she closed the notebook with a sigh, holding her place with her ink pen. Another seven plus dollar drink just was not in her budget so she dragged herself up, collecting her mug to carried back to the counter.

She resisted yawning, but knew that there was no way to hide the tired circles that had formed beneath her eyes. The guy behind the counter, wearing the name tag that read 'Tyler', gave her an appreciative smile. The corners of her mouth tugged upward into a responsive smile despite everything else that was going on in her life, but then she quickly hurried away.

Dani's mind lingered on the guy as she walked down the street. He never did more than to smile, but he remembered that she always drank a venti Caramel Macchiato with extra caramel and light whip. Sometimes she caught him looking at her while she wrote, her fingers scribbling continuously as she concentrated—not even stopping long enough to take a sip of her drink. She knew that 'Tyler' thought that she was concentrating too hard to notice him staring. But that wasn't true.

She had been a regular visitor to this STARBUCKS for the last four and a half weeks and there was not a day that passed when she wasn't perched in one of the chairs at a corner table, body stooped tensely over her notebook, her brain trying to make sense of things--or maybe not to make sense, but just to get it out of the dark recesses of her mind and into the light.

She'd passed this STARBUCKS a million times over the years, never once going in, but since THEY had returned she'd been a regular. It seemed...safe. Dani shivered as she continued walking to her nearby apartment, forgetting about the barista and the warm drink and the smile that she had exchanged with a handsome guy.

She wasn't afraid of much; not dark alleys, nor the interested looks of strange men. She was no longer that shy girl afraid of being in a group of people she didn't know. Yet the one thing that kept her roaming her apartment at 2 am, or pecking away on her old desktop with sleep glazed eyes--the one thing that scared her was the thing that she could do absolutely nothing about.

Sleep.

Dani entered her apartment and stopped to look at all of the benign shadows in the corners of the small space. This room seemed so innocent in the light of day, as the sun was just beginning to set. There was a time when she thought this was the most beautiful part of the day, but not anymore. Sunset would never be beautiful for her again.

She felt hot tears blur her eyes as sighed and stared at the ceiling wishing for this all to finally come to an end. When was it going to end?! Good or bad, it didn't matter anymore! The waiting was torture, not knowing how it was going to happen...

Patricia...She didn't have to even actively be thinking about her best friend Patricia and then tears would sprout in her eyes. She didn't need to revive memories of their friendship to miss her so deeply that her entire body ached. This loneliness had settled around Dani until she felt saturated in it. There was nothing else but this and fear.

She powered up the desktop computer, knowing that it would take a long time before it warmed up. It was a dinosaur of a computer, the same one that her Mother had bought for her on her sixteenth birthday...seven long years ago. Unintentionally thinking about her mother and Patricia and turning sixteen made her hands tremble and the panic slithered up her spine.

Her intent was to turn on the teapot so that she could make coffee but instead she settled into her ratty yet comfortable reclining chair. It was covered in an afghan that Mama had made years ago, which caused her feel very secure every time she sat in it.

Dani opened her notebook, disregarding the half finished sentence that hung there on the page-- disregarded, no longer needed, it's purpose already served--and she began writing about that day when this entire shit started; when they were sixteen and Patricia had told her a secret that she should have never spoken of...when that secret had then become hers to bear.

~***~

Sweet sixteen parties never meant anything to Danielle, when she was not the most popular girl in high school, nor desired to be. She didn't want a car since she didn't drive, didn't want lots of high fashion clothes since the only thing she ever wore were chucks, jeans and t-shirts. She wanted a computer and to maybe have a sleep-over with a few of her friends. For her, that was a sweet sixteen!

When Mama surprised her with a computer, Dani had been in a state of sheer joy. She didn't think her mother would do it; could afford it but she had managed it. Dani understood the sacrifice. Her mother was single and there was no father around to help out. Mama worked two jobs to give them a comfortable life; and in return Dani did little to stress her out.

Her three best friends came over and they played on the internet, using a free AOL disc to surf the unknown territories of cyberspace. It was so fun, but Mama made them get off of it after three hours so they popped popcorn and watched movies and told horror stories. Dani was the best at telling stories. She wanted to be a writer and had already written a poem that had been published in the local community section of their newspaper. The new computer would help her write a real novel and that was her biggest wish; to be a published novelist.

Crystal began by telling them about an urban legend that ended with a veterinarian telling a family to step away from their newly found puppy because 'that's not a dog—it's a giant poisonous African rat!' Everyone laughed and shivered, but mostly laughed. Neecy told one about a maniac that had kept girls trapped in his basement as sex slaves and they began talking in hushed voices about sex. Sex was still a mystery that none of them had broken and contemplating a day when they would no longer be virgins seemed a distant dream. And then Dani had given them each a solemn look.

"Okay, what I'm about to tell you isn't a fake story. This is real." Dani noticed that the smile had fallen from Patricia's mouth and her eyes had taken on a strange look. Dani almost didn't tell it because of that stricken look on Patricia's face. With a slight frown, Dani put the look aside for later analysis and she plunged forward. "Does...anyone else see things before they happen?"

Charron nodded. "That's called dejavu."

"Everybody gets that." Crystal added.

Dani paused and then with a slight swallow she continued. "I saw my grandmother's funeral before it happened."

Neecy raised a brow. "Girl, I don't believe in that kind of stuff. Maybe you just think you saw it." She then reached for the bowl of popcorn. "When you think you have dejavu, you can't remember what's going to happen anyways. You only remember it after it's over."

Dani shrugged. "I remember it, and not just that...I've seen other stuff too." She was too ashamed to tell them that she'd had a dream about having sex and that it hadn't just been a dream—it had been more than a dream. She decided to keep that story to herself.

Dani didn't know the in the dream. But she remembered the both of them lying on a couch, making out; a very sensual dream considering that she had never even kissed a boy before. And then she'd touched his penis. It had been hard and ruddy colored. He was white, her brown fingers had closed around it and he had begun moaning and he gently removed her hand and he glided his erect penis into her body. Though she could not feel the boy, and she couldn't see herself because she was looking through her own eyes, but in her sleep her body reacted. It was what had awakened her. It was the first time she'd ever had such a vivid sex dream and her body throbbed. Dani had quickly written down every detail so that she would not forget. There were days when she would run the images of that dream through her mind—days when she wondered if any guy would ever notice her, days when she looked into the mirror and saw that the reflection returned the image of a person that was totally unremarkable. Then she would remember that one day a boy would love her and she would love him.

It bothered her that there was not much that she could see of him. Long dark hair had obscured his face, though she could see that he was very attractive, early twenties, and the most amazing thing about him was that his arms were covered in colorful tattoos.

After that dream, she always looked for a boy with dark hair and arms covered in tattoos; because that would be the boy that she would love.

At sixteen that dream had yet to come to life but instinctively Dani knew that it would. She took in the doubtful looks on her friend's faces; all except Patricia, who hadn't made one comment. She just looked at Dani as if she would say something but couldn't. Dani quickly changed the subject and they began talking about music videos and cute singers.

Later, as they were drifting off to sleep, she saw Patricia staring at the ceiling completely wide-eyed. The next day, when everyone else had left Dani asked Patricia to stay and help her get everything straightened up. Patricia was relatively new to their group of friends. She had only moved into town the year before. But she instantly fit in with them.

It was strange that the two girls had taken so well to each other since Patricia was her very opposite. She was petite and dainty. She went to the hairdresser to have her long hair styled, she went to a salon to have her nails painted, she even wore designer clothes. Her honey brown skin and light colored eyes assured that she would be popular with the boys. And even though she could have easily hung out with the jocks and the cheerleader types that invariably made Dani cringe—Patricia preferred their geeky little group and didn't even date, her shyness making her even more appealing to the jocks than even the school sluts.

"Are you okay?" She asked her. "You got really quiet when I was telling that story."

"Oh..." Patricia gave her a look that seemed almost desperate. "You didn't make that up, did you?"

"No." Patricia said adamantly. "I can see things before they happen! I promise you I'm not lying!"

"What else have you seen? You stopped before saying what else..." Her brow was furrowed in an uncharacteristic frown.

Dani took a deep breath and told her about the boy with the tattooed arms.

After listening intently, Patricia raised her brow. "I didn't know you liked white boys."

Dani chuckled. "I didn't either." She thought about boys a lot; not about their color necessarily. Unfortunately, but boys didn't seem to think about her. She was tall and gangly and wore glasses. She felt like she would never get rid of the pimples that had sprouted across her cheeks and forehead and at the age of sixteen she was still an A cup! Boys went for girls like Patricia. And that was that.

Patricia was watching her closely. "Do you ever...see things...when you're not sleeping?"

Dani had an idea. "Do you?"

It took Patricia a long time to respond but then she nodded and took a deep breath. "Sometimes at night...these things come to me." She watched her carefully and then expelled a relieved breath. "They come out only at night-"

"They? Spirits, ghosts?"

"Demons."

"Uh, what?" Dani almost choked. "What are you talking about? Did you just say that you see demons?!"

Patricia was frowning. "I don't know what they are, actually. But there are a lot of them and they surround my bed at night."

Dani was a person secure with the idea of her visions, had been told strange stories of ghostly sightings by her Southern Grandmother for most of her life, considered herself open minded about the unknown. But what Patricia was talking about was a whole other story! Demons coming to her in the night?! Dani stared at her friend, speechless. Was she kidding, or a liar? Patricia had never struck her as a liar. So why would she tell a story like this?

"Well what do you do when they come?"

"Nothing. I can't do anything. I'm always paralyzed in my bed."

"Do they...do stuff to you?"

Patricia shook her head quickly. "They just...chant or...I don't know what they're saying but they crowd my room."

The look of shock would not leave Dani's face. She digested this information trying to sort out her feelings about what was said; attempting to accept her friend's words and find a reasonable explanation for it. "Well...maybe you're just asleep; maybe just having a nightmare?"

Patricia sighed. "I'm wide awake. I try to get up but it's like they are pressing me down."

"Are you scared? I mean, if you see these things, how is it that you can just deal with it?" Certainly if demons came to her at night she'd be a stark raving lunatic.

"Well...what am I supposed to do?" Patricia explained that they had been coming to her for many years, every night sometimes. Then it would stop for a long time and she'd almost forget about them—make herself forget about them.

"Why do you think they're demons?" Dani interjected. "Maybe they're spirits or..."

Patricia rubbed her elbows as her arms crossed in front of her. "I don't know what they are. They wear dark hooded cloaks. And they leave when I start praying."

Dani stared at her. Maybe Patricia was mentally ill...

"Danielle! Please tell me that you don't think I'm lying? I swear I'm not making this up!"

"Then there has to be a reasonable explanation. What do you think they want?"

"I think," Patricia's face became thoughtful, "they want me."

After a moment Dani moved to the kitchen and Patricia followed. She got them both sodas as she gathered her thoughts. They sat down at the small kitchen table and Danielle twisted her lip in deep thought.

"Patricia," she finally said. "I believe you're not making this up. Why don't you just ask them what they want?"

"No way! I'm too scared."

Dani licked her lips. "I'll ask them."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm going to ask them to come to me. If they come to you and you don't want them, then I'll ask them to come to me. And I'll ask them what they want. They don't hurt you, right?"

Patricia was staring at her. "No, but..."

"Then tonight, I'll ask them to come to me."

"I don't think that's a good idea-"

And because Danielle didn't believe that her friend was lying, but still couldn't quite bring herself to believe this story either, she plunged on fearlessly. "I'm not afraid of the unknown. I'll see if they'll come to me."

There wasn't much more to say and Patricia left soon after. It was Sunday and Dani promised her an update at lunch tomorrow in school. No sooner had her friend left did Dani proceeded to put the entire thing out of her mind as her lazy Sunday continued. That night, as she prepared for bed, she remembered the conversation with her friend as she slipped on sleep shorts and a night shirt.

Mama was already in bed. Working two jobs she was always tired. Danielle climbed into her bed and yawned. She'd had an eventful and full weekend. She reached over and cut off the bedside lamp and then lay comfortably on her back, allowing her body to relax into the mattress.

What are you? Who are you? Why are you coming to her? Dani's eyes were half closed as she thought these things. "Tell me." She whispered. Whatever. Nothing was happening and she was drifting towards sleep. "Come to me, then." She continued to whisper. "I want to see you." Dani yawned and thought, If you're coming then come now, right now. Come now.

And very suddenly, though there was no sound nor any movement, Dani felt that she wasn't alone. Her body instantly became alert. She lay in bed, eyes wide, not moving but listening to every creak of the small apartment. Her heart was beating fast and after a moment she prepared to relax and maybe even to laugh because she'd just scared herself.

And that was when the room began to fill with bodies.

So many bodies appeared that she couldn't even count them. Dani's heart slammed in her chest. The room was dark but the cloaked figures were unmistakable. Danielle had only a split second to witness this before her body prepared for flight, but as she tried to leap out of her bed and to run through her apartment screaming—nothing happened.

Danielle strained to move her limbs but it was as if something held her in place; no definable hands but unmistakably, something held her down. Her breath came out in loud pants as she tried to call for her Mother, but even her mouth would not work, her voice frozen in her throat, not even a whimper could escape.

Dani was in full panic. It had only been mere seconds since the images appeared. She squeezed her eyes closed against the sight of them but their image was seared into her brain. They stood, ten, twelve, maybe more, surrounding her bed, so dark it was hard to see them clearly, and there was sounds filling the room, sounds coming from them. They were speaking, all of them at once, softly...or maybe not. What she heard was low and yet it filled the entire room. It had only been seconds but she had no thoughts but for them to leave.

Almost tearfully, her heart beating wildly, Dani began to silently beg them to leave her alone. They didn't move, didn't reach for her or attempt to touch her but they didn't leave and the sound of their combined voices filled her head until she thought she'd literally lose her mind.

God, please make them go! Please Lord make them go away! And Dani began to pray furiously, begging god to protect her and immediately the presence disappeared. She wasn't sure how, only that they were no longer in her room and she was suddenly able to move, but too afraid to. She lay there with her heart beating loudly enough for her to hear it audibly, ears straining, mouth agape preparing to scream at the first movement. But there was no sense of presence. Dani knew that she was alone.

Her breath came out of her body in hysterical puffs. Nothing held her down but she couldn't move. They'd come! They were real and she had called them and god-forbid, they had come!

That next day at school Dani was quiet and did not speak one word of the events of the night before until she and Patricia were alone near the end of the day. Patricia gave her an expectant look, but Dani's expression told her everything.

"I'm so sorry." Patricia said.

That night Dani barely slept at all, but the visitors did not return and strangely, she and Patricia did not speak of them. Despite this, their friendship deepened and became more solid and as other friends drifted away and new friends were made, Dani and Patricia's bond became so strong that it was unbreakable. It was their shared experience that drew them together as much as it was there fear of it which kept them from speaking of it.

As time went on, Dani discovered the answer to the question that she had asked her friend; how do you see demons and go on with life as if everything is normal? The answer to that question is that you have no other choice. You sleep because you are tired, and wake up and go to school and in that way life continues to move forward. And when they did not make a reappearance it was easy to pretend that none of it had ever happened, at least for the next two years. And then they returned and with their reappearance began the downward spiral of her life.