A Kind Stranger

 It’s your birthday, and you’ve just finished celebrations with a couple of your friends, and after a long night’s drinking, it was finally time to go back home. Being offered a ride, you respectfully decline because your home is only a couple of blocks away, and you reason that some exercises would be good to brush off the light buzz you’re currently experiencing from the alcohol and the fun that you’ve just had.

It is a quite night in mid-October, that sweet spot when it is slightly cooler with a gentle breeze that heralds the departure of the scorching summer sun in lieu of the merciless winter’s bite. As you make your way home down this familiar path you’ve taken hundreds if not thousands of times, it dawns upon you. It is already 1:30 in the morning, and though your neighbourhood is safe, you can’t seem to brush off a slight discomfort building up in the back of your neck.

Trying to keep your composure, you think of the cold pizza leftover, the absolute perfect meal after a night out, and this thought offers some solace, but without even realizing it, your pace picks up. Perhaps it was the cloudy night that dimmed the moonlight, making the streets and buildings significantly darker than they should be, but try as you may, all sorts of demonic ideas and other supernatural stories you’ve read about in the past couple of months start barrelling through your mind.

Your apartment was now within your line of sight, and a sense of relief started to wash over you like the hot stream of water making first contact with your skin on a cold day. In a heartbeat, you hear rustling to your left, a noise that could’ve easily been ignored on a normal day, but in the moment, your senses were heightened by the uncanny atmosphere whose weight was on your shoulder. The previous comfort was all but a distant memory now, and as you consider booking it to the apartment door, a stray cat jumps out of a nearby trashcan. A silly giggle escapes you, but as the sigh of relief starts making its way out of your lungs, you look up into the distance, and instantly feel every cell in your body jump at once.

It was there, it was then, it was real, and he was here. Who was he? It’s difficult to make out the details. In the midst of the yellow street light, you can see that there’s a tall man wearing a dark coat and a top hat that seem to blend into his being, and his hair is protruding out of the gap between the two. His arms are tucked in, his hands are in his pockets, and he’s standing there motionless. You feel his gaze peer into your soul, but his figure yet eludes you. Startled and helpless, you can’t muster the strength to scream for help nor the courage to look away from the man for fear that he’d somehow rush towards you. Though unmoving, his presence alone is enough to strike fear into the hearts of the most seasoned men.

For what felt like an eternity, but in reality, mere seconds, you’re interlocked in a staring contest with the shadow figure until a spark of light coming from the complex to your right captures your attention. Instinctively, you glance over to the source of this flash, but realizing the situation you’re in, you quickly swap back to the man, only to find the silhouette gone as fast as it appeared.

Now the thoughts running through your mind are “Should I run? Should I hide?” Well, you can, but unfortunately, it is already too late. Though the shadow you saw wasn’t a violent one, he is the harbinger of pain and suffering, and the simple fact that your gaze met his meant that tragedy would soon follow.

And now, for the facts.

Shadow people are a phenomenon that is witnessed by countless people around the world, no matter their culture or ethnicities. Unlike other creepy monsters and local folklore, shadow people terrorize millions worldwide, and this makes them even more intriguing.

The man described in this story is thought to be a shadow person who’s not evil at heart since he rarely ever interacts with the witnesses, but after seeing him, they experience the inexplicable death in their family, friend circles, or any loved ones.

This terrifying tale has been given by multiple eyewitnesses who also shared the death of someone whom they held dear right after seeing this “abnormally tall shadowy man wearing a hat.”

Have you ever had an encounter with a shadow person? Were they friendly? Were they hostile? Or did they simply disappear the moment you laid eyes on them? For me, I’d thought I’d seen figures out the corner of my eye on multiple occasions, but since they disappear the moment I turn to look, I often attribute it to my overactive imagination. That said, after reading up on the matter, I’m going to start treating this matter with more respect.

Thank you for taking the time to read this tale, and I hope you enjoyed it!