The young girl walked down the cement sidewalk, the clacking of her high-heeled shoes echoing through the empty streets of the night. She kept a brisk pace, nervous and aware of her surroundings. This was the city, and walking alone was usually not the smartest choice to make, especially when you’re a seventeen year old girl. But her job hours left her with no other choice.


Surprisingly the streets were empty of any human life except for herself. There were no cars, no people; not even the distant noise of sirens could be heard. The neon-orange street lights illuminated her figure as she walked past closed shops and vacant restaurants. She was alone…

Was she alone? The girl glanced over her shoulder, making sure there was nobody following her. That’s when she caught a glimpse of what seemed to be a dark figure ducking back in to an alley. She continued walking, picking up her pace and trying to calm down. She kept telling herself she was just being paranoid.


Was she?


A sudden gust of wind blew through, and the sound of whispering could be heard. At that point she spun around, finding nothing but a street light blinking back at her. There was nothing there. She walked even faster, hanging on to her purse strap. She was almost to her apartment now. She was about to cross the last street when the she heard footsteps coming after her. She turned around, calling out to the wind, “Who’s there?”



She caught another sight of some sort of figure stepping back in to an alley. The girl slowly inched towards the alley, about twenty feet away. “Who is it?” she asked to no one in particular. “Who’s there? What do you want?” Cautiously making her way to the dark and silent passageway, she had just made it to the end of the building, about to peer around the side and see what was behind that wall, when unexpectedly she was grabbed by the arms and pulled in to the pitch black darkness. Squeezing her eyes closed, the young girl didn’t see who had grabbed her. Noticing that she was still being held, she opened her eyes and stared up at her abductor. Instantly she was overcome with terror and almost forgot to breathe.

The figure standing before her was not a man. It was not a person at all. It was just a shadow, a dark ominous spirit that had no face, no mouth, not even limbs. You could still tell however that it was staring down at her, blankly, as if waiting. By this time she had started to cry, fearing what would happen next.


Everything started getting fuzzy, hazy; she was having difficulty seeing and reasoning. The black spirit pulled her in, engulfing her in to his own shadow, pulling her in so far that there was no possible way of escaping now…




Allison sat up pin-straight in her bed, gasping for air. She felt small tears running down both sides of her face, dripping off her chin and on to her sheets. Allison wiped them away, clutching the blankets still, catching her breath. She looked over at her alarm clock sitting on the bedside table. Vibrant green numbers read 4:03 a.m.



Allison laid back down, resting her head on her pillows and staring up at the ceiling. “It was just a dream,” she whispered to herself. She began closing her eyes again, about to fall back asleep. “Only a dream…”