The Shadow People Attack (Short Story) by Hanner Goenaga

A few years ago, he had a dream that he unfortunately doesn't remember, but he distinctly recalls its very strange ending. It was a landscape featuring a palm tree; at its base, there was a beautiful flower, a grassy field stretched in the background, and the sun was shining with high intensity. Suddenly, the landscape dissolved, and he began to see his room in the gloom, yet he was still asleep and his eyes were closed.

​In that moment, he saw a body swiftly peer around the upper-left side of his doorway, which had no actual door. He could only see a head, the top part of its chest, and the sides of its arms. It was a completely black being with no face or hair.

​The creature quickly dropped down and moved at high speed in his direction. It teleported rapidly from side to side, finally stopping at the head of the bed. There, it immediately opened its mouth wide on its face, showing him its thick, long black fangs.

​The monster had a tall, thin body. It was so gaunt that its ribs showed through its chest, entirely made of black, leathery skin. Suddenly, the image of his mother came running into his room, stopping at the entrance and standing there, watching what was unfolding.

​The look in her eyes, filled with the concern only a maternal figure knows, was fixed on the entity. It seemed she already knew that something highly unusual was happening in his room and had come to check. When the entity registered the presence of the female being, it looked back. Instantly, the woman rushed forward at great speed, heading straight for the spectre. They fought, grabbing each other’s hands and looking face-to-face, and she gradually forced it backward until they reached the foot of the bed.

​There, they both disappeared. The young man woke up in the darkness and there was nothing; just absolute silence, his heavy breathing, and the concentrated heat of the room. He wrapped himself in his bedsheet and writhed for hours until he finally fell back asleep. The next morning, his mother approached him, unsettled by something that had happened to her in the early hours.

​She gets up every day before sunrise to prepare breakfast. That morning, she was at the sink washing dishes in the cupboard when she suddenly caught sight of something or someone quickly walking out of her son’s room. She had seen a black shadow heading toward the patio door.

​She thought it was him, so she walked over with a knife in her hand to scare him. The refrigerator stood in the middle of the kitchen and the patio entrance, so she thought he was hiding behind it. When she reached that spot, she pointed the knife and said, "Boo!" But there was no one there, and the door was closed.

​She immediately looked toward his room, and there he was, sleeping in his bed. That night, he didn't know why he felt compelled to take a photo of the bedroom entrance. When he looked at it, there was a standing shadow, also faceless and hairless, diagonally positioned near the refrigerator in the background.