The Shadow Army - A Horror Story

Chapter 13 - With the Flick of a Switch

Grace peered at the security cameras. Of course there wasn’t one in the toilets, which would be disgusting if they did as people do all sorts in there, but there was one surveying the changing rooms. Grace cringed, there would have been some overweight man looking at them when they were changing! But despite her horror, she was glad for it because it meant she could watch the door. Nothing was happening, until she saw the chink of light underneath the door go out. With haste, she searched the controls panel and switched it back on again. It went out, and she turned it back on. Clearly Emma had more power than they guessed. In the chair, Lucy groaned and rubbed her head. “Wake up,” said Grace with no compassion, “or die. Your choice.” Grace had seen terrible things, and kindness wasn’t currently something she could give out. Her face was scarred and there were streaks of blood running across it. Lucy looked about and tapped Grace on the shoulder. Grace turned round and cocked her head to the side. “What?” asked Grace. 

“How are we doing?” Lucy questioned. 

“Fighting a losing battle, but not giving up. I know what their secrets are and we can fight against that. Target their weaknesses and play on them.” Quickly, Grace explained what she had heard about the shadows’ origins. Lucy’s eyes widened. “Emma did this?” Grace nodded sorrowfully. They got to work, cutting off the power in some places and turning up the lights in other places. That meant the demons flooded to the places with the lights. Slowly, those places died with power and they moved closer, every time, towards the changing rooms, until inside the changing rooms it wasn’t possible to move for all the shadows crowding together. Grace and Lucy high fived. Then, holding hands and squeezing tight, they flicked off the lights in the changing rooms...

“You’re going to die, too,” stated Blue. “You weren’t meant to come back and you shouldn’t be here. Dead people are meant to stay dead.”

“But I’m not meant to be dead!” insisted Emma. 

“But you were,” argued Blue. “It doesn’t really matter if you weren’t meant to because you were and you have to live with that,” Blue stifled a laugh. It was funny, but Emma didn’t see the funny side. Emma was lifted by some invisible force and the rope loosened. Emma flew at Blue, smacking into her. Blue wasn’t used to the impact, and fell. But before Emma could do anything else, there was a flash outside and it suddenly felt very dark and dense. Then the shadows started flooding in and filled the small space with their light and airy bodies. The room became very dark as they started piling in, demons too, desperate to live in the tiny cracks of light in the toilet. Grabbing her one and only chance and going by instinct, Blue went straight for the toilet, snagging on the noose as she scrabbled for space.

“Go to hell!” she screamed, and pulled the toilet handle as hard as she could.