The Shadow of Rags (standard:horror, 1903 words)
Author: Alexander C. Quinn	Added: Jun 10 2002	Views/Reads: 3408/2071	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
The shadows of the streets at night can play strange games.

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

watching him. Gibbs stopped and let the stranger catch up to him and 
said, "can you spare any money brother?" The stranger replied, "I got 
enough for two forties I just need a place to go." 

"I know a place to go," said Gibbs. They went to the gas station, bought
some malt liqueur and went to a private spot behind the gas station's 
fence. It was a nice sheltered spot where old Gibbs spent many of 
nights drinking and watching the sky. They sat down with their beers, 
his name was Mike, but people called him Rags for the obvious reason. 
He didn't have much to say except that he was fairly new in town and 
had no place to stay. "Hang with me brother, I'll show you around and 
take care of ya." After finishing his forty Rags was asleep and Gibbs 
would follow soon. 

Gibbs slept great that night, he didn't notice all the sounds of the
city and the light off day until hunger pains pulled him out of sleep 
and into another day on the streets. Rags was gone and Gibbs was out in 
front of the gas station rustling up some money for food and more beer. 


Later on that day	Gibbs was sitting on the bus stop bench at Twelfth St.
enjoying yet another forty, when Rags shows up. "Hey brother its dinner 
time come with me." They went to the mission sharing the forty and had 
dinner, a watered down chicken noodle soup and stale bread. They hung 
out at the mission for the rest of the night and around ten thirty went 
to sleep on the mission cots. Gibbs was woken up by the sound of the 
nearby train tracks when he noticed something strange happening to 
Rags. He seemed to be changing shapes, transforming into something. A 
dark shape, melting into his own shadow. Gibbs thought he was dreaming 
this, but still pretended to be asleep so Rags wouldn't notice. 

The shadow that was Rags left the bed and levitated out the door of the
mission and down the street. Gibbs followed him to find out what was 
happening. Rags let him on a journey of about two miles, normally Gibbs 
wouldn't have followed anybody this far, but he couldn't stop now. The 
shadow went up to a man walking in front of a run down old house and 
merged into his shadow becoming the man's shadow. The man stopped 
walking and turned, walked up to the old house, kicked in the door, and 
went inside. Gibbs ran up and followed him into the bedroom. 

Inside the house and in the bedroom was an old woman laying in a bed.
She was extremely old and helpless, but the man with Rag's shadow 
jumped on top of her. He began punching her in the face and grabbed a 
plastic bag from the side of her bed and wrapped it around her head. He 
held the bag tight and kept punching her in the head, while he 
suffocated her. 

Gibbs had never seen such a disgusting act of violence before and was
shocked. When the woman was dead the man went through her dresser and 
stole all her jewelry. The man walked into the living room and the 
shadow left him leaving him confused and standing there at the scene of 
the crime. The shadow went out the door and Gibbs followed it again. 
This time went to the spot behind the gas station where Gibbs brought 
Rags the first night they met. Then shadow of Rags mutated back into 
the Rags that Gibbs knew and left him there sleeping. 

Gibbs left and spent the night just sitting on the bus stop bench in
shock and unable to put together the pieces of what he had just seen. 
Was it a dream? Was it real? Was he losing his mind? What the hell was 
going on? 

The next day came and Gibbs got some of the McDonald's food out of their
dumpster and bought another forty. He hung out by himself on the side 
of his home, the gas station. He didn't feel like talking to anybody 
and was extremely tired, when along comes Rags. Gibbs didn't say a 
thing about last night, but shared his beer and went down to the 
mission again. This time it was turkey sandwiches and mashed potatoes, 
much better than last night's soup. 

They went to bed at about the same time and sure enough the same thing
happened again. Rags turned into that shadow creature again and left 
the mission. Gibbs followed him just like last night, but this time the 
shadow didn't go as far. It went to an apartment building and found a 
man in the hallway who just left one of the apartments. Rags' shadow 
became the man's and he turned around and headed back to the apartment 
he had just come out of. Before he went in he broke the glass of one of 
the red boxes with a hatchet inside in case of fires. 

He ran into the apartment yelling, "You fucking bitches." He attacked
the two girls inside with the hatchet, hitting their hands as they 
tried to stop him. He got a good shot at one of the girls knocking her 
out with a huge gash on the side of her head. Gibbs was directly behind 
him when the shadow turned around and saw his watcher. 

Quickly the shadow left Rags and started coming after Gibbs. He ran as
fast and as far as could with the shadow chasing after him. He knew 
what would happen to him if the shadow caught up. He didn't want to 
kill anyone and didn't want to be killed. He ran to the gas station 
where it would be lit up enough to avoid any shadow. On the way Gibbs 
was wheezing and coughing and he couldn't run anymore. He fell to the 
ground and passed out, this was it he knew what was going to happen. He 
regained consciousness in a few minutes and the shadow was gone. It was 
staring to become light out and Gibbs was feeling extremely tired. 

He went back to his resting spot and saw Rags' body laying on the
ground, he was dead. That was it, it was over no more murdering shadow. 
Gibbs went back to the gas station to live out his usually day. He kept 
pretty quiet and to himself, he can't trust anyone now. He made it to 
the mission early every night and tried to sleep, but something 
happened every night. He would go to sleep on an uncomfortable cot and 
wake up in weird places on the streets with no recollection as to how 
he got there. 


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