A Shadow

by Aimée Charlotte
(Belfort, France)

This happened few months ago.

It was night and I was in my bed. I was about to fall asleep when my cat ran like mad into my room (he does this every night) and starts meowing. I tried to make him calm down. My lamp next to me on the end table was always on, because I'm afraid of the dark (silly, I know). But that night I wish it wasn't on, so I couldn't see what happened.

It isn't something shocking or creepy, but it was really weird. My door was opened (I always keep it opened for no reason) and from the darkness in the corridor a shadow hand appeared. It wasn't my shadow for sure. I started moving in my bed, but the hand was still there, pointing to nowhere. My cat started playing with it, trying to catch it and I was staring at it. After five minutes, it disappeared. But after ten minutes, it appeared again. I haven't seen it ever since.

A months after this happened, my grandfather died. Then my grandmother got into hospital (I don't why, my parents won't tell me). And after a week a friend of mom's killed himself. She said his wife and daughter found him in the bathroom, hanging.

I don't know if these events are somehow connected, but since they happened, I started thinking about suicide, too. But there is something in my body that stops me. And I'm thankful it does.