The Darkest Shadow in a Decaying Home

Seth stared at the television with blood shot eyes. His gray and black striped cat, Missy, is asleep on top of his stomach. Pizza boxes and beer bottles litter his family’s old living room floor and coffee table. The curtains are drawn shut, blocking out the sun and the overflowing mailbox. The overflowing bills. A sour smell from dirty dishes and garbage fills the air. Seth himself stank from the lack of showers. He hasn’t been able to remove himself from the sunken couch, besides going to the bathroom. He has been in this state since he moved back home. Since he received the worst phone of his life when he was away at college. 

His parents and little sister are dead. Killed by a drunk driver.

After the funeral, he couldn’t seem to leave the house and the cat that was left to him. Couldn’t return back to school. Couldn’t leave the couch. 

Seth wiped his eyes with the dirty sleeve of his hoodie, waking Missy up. The cat stretched on his stomach then climbed up to lick his face. He gave her a little smile, but more tears came falling down. He tried to keep his eyes focused on the TV screen. Just seeing the walls of this house hurt.

“Do not cry child,” 

Seth immediately shot up from the couch and Missy jumped off him equally spooked. He looked around the room, the voice didn't come from the television. 

“Who’s there?” Seth asked as his sight caught on to the dark corner of the room. It seemed darker than usual. Seth reached over to the lamp but it would not turn on. The dark shadow in the corner moved. Seth leaped to his feet, Missy started hissing at the moving shadow.

“Who’s there!” Seth’s voice quivered.

“No need to be frightened, I will not harm you,” said the shadow. The low monotone voice echoed in the room, coming from all directions. Seth watched in horror as the shadow moved closer and took shape. The TV’s light revealed something in long, black, thin robes that seemed to flow on a nonexistent wind. The hands at its side were thin and pale with long fingers. Its fluorescent skin stretched to a breaking point over bone. The knuckles looked as if they were going to pierce through the skin. Seth looked to the face, to find nothing there. A white neck led up to a head hidden or missing in shadow underneath its hood. Where the face should be, only complete darkness was there. It resembled a bottomless pit destroying any flicker of light. The more Seth looked into the black void the more it seemed to swallow him. He blinked rapidly and looked away from the faceless creature. Fear, but some relief, filled him. Death has come. “Please be a quick and painless death,” he whispered. 

“I am not death.”

“Then… who are you?” Seth asked.  

“I have many names. None of which I claim. None of which hold importance,” The voice echoed. 

“What are you?”

“A choice. A way to seek your deepest desire. I come to all humans at one point in life, to give them the choice. I am the crossroads. Do you wish for me to fulfill your desire? To help ease the pain? Or do you wish for me to leave forever? The choice is yours to accept or reject me.” Missy hissed louder at the being. 

“Can you bring my family back?” Seth gasped, moving closer.

“I cannot raise the dead or change the past, but you can visit the past if you so desire,”

“Really? I can visit the past?” Seth couldn’t believe his ears. He sat back down on the couch, fear leaving his body. He could see them again? See his mom and dad? See his sister?

“Yes. But it will cost you,”

“Cost me what? My soul? Are you going to eat my soul?” Seth started to reel away again. The Being’s low and raspy voice made the hair on the back of his neck stand up.

“I do not eat souls, nor do others. Humans do that to themselves,” it answered.  

Confused but still curious, Seth asked, “What will it cost me?”

“The cost of one minute in the past is one minute of the future. An hour for an hour. A day for a day,"

“That’s it?” Seth could have sworn he saw Missy’s little, furry head whip in his direction, “Well… okay… so how do we do this? How do I visit the past?”

“By inhaling this,” The Being pulled out a small, silver tin box from his flowing robes. He cracked it open like a jewelry box and thick, dark, opaque smoke rose out.

“Open the lid, inhale the smoke, think of a time you would like to visit, and you shall be there. You cannot change the past. You cannot speak to anyone. You can merely only watch like a ghost dwelling in the walls. Close the lid to return to the present,” 

Seth stared transfixed at the smoke. He hesitantly reached out but Missy leaped and swatted his hands. Seth looked at the cat with astonishment. She has never behaved like that. He shook out the sting from the small cut she scratched on his hand, “No, Missy!”

The cat ignored him, hissing at the visitor trying and failing to swat at it.  

“Missy, stop,” annoyed by the cat he quickly grabbed the tin box. He glanced once at the dark figure, then looked around the living room. All the pictures he took off the walls, the mountains of garbage. The silence that seemed to scream at him. This room was completely void of family. 

He opened the tin box right when Missy leaped in his lap, inhaling the smoke with her owner. 

Seth coughed uncontrollably and his eyes watered. The smoke was so thick he couldn’t see anything. Missy started meowing and tried pawing at the smoke. But soon it cleared with Seth rubbing his eyes. When his vision focused, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He was in the same living room, but different. It was like seeing an old home video through a thin layer of gray. But it was his family’s living room from a distant memory. 

And it was Christmas morning. Red, green, and yellow lights glowed from a Christmas tree covered in white, cheap, fluffy tinsel. Seth heard the choo-choo of his father’s train set going around in circles under the tree. The curtains were open showcasing early morning snow. His mother’s fiber optic villages glowed in different soft colors on the bay window sill. Wrapping paper of every color covered with Santa Claus, candy canes, reindeer, and snowmen littered the floor. The animatronic Douglas Fir sang “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” in the corner. The entire room seemed like coffee, cinnamon, and pine cones. 

Seth was speechless as he watched his younger self ripping open toys with his sister. Christy. He hasn’t been able to even think of her name until now. He watched in awe as she tried ripping Barbie free from her box.

“Christy, honey, be careful. You’ll tear her hair out,” 

Seth’s knees wobbled at the sound of his mother’s voice. He turned to see his parents sitting together on the same couch he slept on for weeks. A couch that looked new and stainless. They both smiled at young Seth and Christy while holding cups of coffee. 

Seth couldn’t breathe. His eyes swelled as he ran towards his parents, “mom … dad …” He croaked. He wrapped his arms around them but his arms went right through them. They weren’t solid. They didn’t look at him. They didn’t see him. 

Right… a ghost. He was like a ghost. A visitor like the robed creature but invisible. Seth looked back at the tin box discarded on the floor. It was emitting a small cloud of smoke like incense. Missy sat next to the box, pawing at it. Seth scooped Missy up in his arms and sat back down to watch the scene before him. He watched as younger Seth and Christy played with their toys. Watched the Christmas Parade on their old, staticky TV. He watched them eat Christmas dinner. The dining room seemed to glow in a dusty, golden hue. Smells of ham, green beans, mashed potatoes, and pie swirled in his nose. He wished he could taste the food. 

Later that night, when the children were asleep, Seth watched his parents slow dancing in the living room. All the lights were off except for the Christmas tree and embers in the fireplace. “Silent Night” played quietly on the radio. The curtains were still open. The streetlamps in the distance shined light to the falling, soft snow. Seth couldn’t stop his tears from falling. 

“Meoooow,” Seth snapped his head over to where he saw Missy meowing and pawing at the tin box. He was immediately filled with dread. He didn’t want to go back to the present. He wanted to stay here. What if he went back and the dark creature took the tin box away? What if he can never come back? Ignoring Missy, he picked up the tin box, put his face in the smoke, and said, “again.” 

The smoke thickened once more, Seth coughed until his vision cleared to the same memory starting over. His parents on the couch, the colorful Christmas tree, smells of coffee and cinnamon filling the room. The perfect Christmas Day started over. Missy paced erratically in front of the tin box meowing over and over again. Seth paid her no attention. He blended her meows in with the tinny, cheap, songs of a busy Christmas morning. 

Seth lost count of how many times he replayed that Christmas Day. Missy eventually stopped meowing and laid next to the tin box defeated. 

Eventually, Seth thought of a different day in his past to visit. Halloween. He watched as groups of kids ran round the neighborhood, his younger self was dressed as a ghost. Seth laughed uneasily at the irony. His sister was a zombie and his parents walked behind them giggling to each other. All the mechanical little noises of the old Halloween decorations pinched his heart, especially the plastic witch cackles that filled every doorway. He smiled at the electronic echoing OoooooOoo! sounds coming from those hanging shaking ghosts. He stared at the huge Frankenstein animatronic that used to scare him. The wind rustled the leaves of orange and red trees and pumpkins scattered across every yard. The air smelled like bonfire smoke and hot rubber from cheap costume masks. Seth's feet sank in the mossy ground and wet fallen leaves. Later, little Seth and Christy traded candy and watched Halloween in the living room. They both hid under blankets covered in candy wrappers every time Michael Meyers appeared. Smells of pumpkin spice and burning candles lulled the children to sleep. 

Seth started this day over a lot.

He visited any day he could think of. School days, sweaty baseball games, trips to the museum and aquarium, Fourth of July cookouts and firework shows. He visited the time they went to Disneyland, different family parties, hours spent at the city’s carnival eating cotton candy and riding the Ferris wheel, Easter Sunday filled with coloring eggs, baskets, bunnies, and egg hunts. He visited birthdays, early morning fishing trips, and the day they found Missy as a kitten. She was abandoned in a church parking lot. He visited and watched these days over and over again.  

But then, Seth decided to visit his high school graduation. He watched himself walk across the stage and grab his diploma, shaking hands with the principal. He watched as he took pictures with his friends and talked to teachers about his future plans. Later that day, in the living room, he watched as his parents told him how proud they were of him. They displayed his diploma on the fireplace mantle. Pride and love shining in their eyes. 

“You’ll amount to great things. You are an amazing writer and NNC is lucky to have you," said his father.

“I am just so proud, sweetie. You will be the first in our family to go to college! Isn’t that exciting?” His mother said while hugging younger Seth.

Seth looked down as shame filled him. They would be so disappointed in him, he thought. He didn’t accomplish anything he said he would. Little does past Seth know, but he will drop out of school and come home. Come home to a deserted, neglected house.  

Seth’s eyes swelled, “Does it even matter if I didn’t finish school since they're gone? Is there any point now? Or am I disappointing them in death?” Seth asked out loud, that familiar, throbbing pain filling his chest. 

Suddenly, Seth hears moaning and looks to find Missy laying on her side and breathing heavily. Her tongue is out, she’s skinny with bones protruding. 

“Missy!” Seth screamed, “Oh my God, I’m so sorry! What’s wrong? We need to get you help,” Seth grabbed the tin box. He looked to his parents, smiling at his younger self, then back to Missy. He gathered her in his arms then finally closed the lid. Thick smoke filled the room, devouring his past and engulfing him and Missy in dark grey. Seth started coughing hard. His chest burned, his body ached, his breathing was wheezey, and his heart sounded like a beating drum. The smoke cleared and they were back in the present sitting on the floor. The couch is gone and the messy living room Seth left behind was worse. The ceiling was caved in, cobwebs filled every corner, rats scurried across the floor, the wallpaper was peeling, and the floor was rotted through and black. All the furniture was gone. A horrible rancid smell filled the air. 

“Missy, what…” Seth looked down to the cat in his arms. 

Missy was dead. 

He screamed and dropped her stiff corpse. But before he could wrap his mind around what happened to her, Seth noticed his hands. They were aged and wrinkled. Everything in his body hurt, especially his arm, and his heart was beating erratically. Seth looks around and finds a piece of a broken mirror near him. He grabs the shard to look at his reflection. Horror fills him when he sees a white haired, wrinkled face staring back at him; he drops the glass, shattering it to even smaller pieces. 

“Did you forget the price? Time does not stop. No matter what. Only humans stop,”

The low, monotone voice fills Seth with dread. Goosebumps scatter across his arms as he sees the faceless creature creeping out of the darkest corner of his decaying home.

“What happened?” Seth crocked, “I didn’t look like this a few minutes ago,”

“Yes you did. You did not notice. You did not see yourself as you are today because you were too focused on the you of yesterday,” The being’s faceless head tilted, endless darkness looking down on him.

Seth’s heart pounded in his chest, he tried to stand but instead fell to his side and started coughing up blood. He choked out, “you took advantage of me … you took my life,” 

“You did that all on your own. You made the choice. This was all in your control,”

“You… you…” Seth was wheezing now.  

“To answer your questions from earlier…” whispered the cold, echoing voice, “you did not disappoint them in death. You disappointed yourself in life,” 

Seth’s vision started fading, he could feel himself falling. His heart was so loud he could no longer hear the dark visitor. Seth reached out with the last of his strength and dragged Missy's stiff body to him. He squeezed her in his arms. His last family member. Seth closed his eyes and thought only of his family until his heart finally stopped.