The Dark Shadow (Revised 2025)

by Chris Dämn

Francis walks into the dark room and turns on the light, blinding himself for a moment. During that split second a dark shadow flies across the wall, followed by the sound of a glass breaking. He looks over at his coffee table full of papers, magazines, and dirty dishes. In the middle of the mess is a skinny black and white cat. On the floor, a pile of broken glass and curdled milk.

"Goddamned cat, should have left you a stray." Francis says, then puffs on his cigar one more time. He reaches down for the cat, but he stops as the light starts to flicker on and off. The light goes down to a dim flicker. "Fuck, I just changed that piece of shit bulb!" He turns around to get a new light bulb, but stops when he hears his cat scream in pain.

Francis turns back around to see what happened and says, "What the fuck did you do n.." Laying above his now dead cat is a large black shadow. He looks down at his cat, which is now inside out on the coffee table in a pool of its own blood. Francis screams, but the dark shadow flies at him and goes into his mouth. Now, unable to breath with the shadow halfway down his throat, Francis falls to the ground. His head hits the floor and white foam flies out of his mouth. He can feel the shadow eating away at his insides. The white foam turns into thick red blood as he moans and his body begins to decay.

The black shadow leaves Francis' decayed body and flies out the window. Just as the shadow is out of sight, Mr. Warstule from next door enters the apartment. He and sees Francis' half dead body lying in a pool of his own blood on the floor and begins to scream.