Under the Shadows

“Under the Shadows” is one of the outstanding stories of the first biannual International Short Story Contest 2018 written by Ryan Yuen Lee, St. Clare College SanĠwann, Malta.

Under the Shadows

Chapter 1 - The video clip

It started on a Sunday evening, calmly sitting on a chair, sipping a cup of tea and eating a croissant with chocolate filling. I was sitting there looking at the sunset which was a bit boring, to be honest, but also amusing, in an interesting way. It was 8:30 pm and I just got ready to watch a small video. But… Something happened, as soon as I started watching the video clip, the screen was flashing bloody. I felt blind for a minute. I got up when the TV automatic turned off and I took a glance at the video clip. Monday morning at 7:43, I was brushing my teeth and also took a warm shower but I was still curious about the video clip.

This clip, I have found it 2 years ago and hid it under my bed. I had never understood the meaning of it. Today I will figure out what is within its secrets. I ate an egg sandwich with some bacon on the side and had a cup of coffee. I went out to work at 8:10 am and got in the red Audi R8 and drove off. I went to Silexor business office and went to floor 12. I scanned my fingerprint to enter my office and started my document with Mr. Smith. I need the document by Wednesday or else I would get my first strike or maybe get fired. At 4:10 I got back home with 3 friends and we planned to find out what is the meaning of this clip. We took a sound recorder and so we kept the recorder there while I would start recording. We were very excited when the video finished and listened to the noise. The noise of the video clip was very unclear ‘Bi teh oun tu luk ounder teh ishdw’ We tried to translate it and the results were ‘Be the one to look under the -------’ The last words where confused.

Chapter 2 - Mysterious Note

It was dark in the middle of the night and some of my friends joined me to sleep.

Tomorrow was a holiday for the USA. We took a nap. It wasn’t rather a nap, it was more like an 8 hours nap.

Tuesday morning 8:21, we ate some cereal with milk. We studied the video clip for about 2 hours and there was nothing. I found something in the center of the clip. It was a piece of paper that was wrapped around with a lot of tissues. It was a bit dirty, but we didn’t want to sacrifice the videotape. We tried our best to get more information. One of the friends went out to buy Max-Recorder-DJO214 it had the best quality recording sound which made it easier to record.

Just then I had forgotten about the document! As quick as light I jumped on the bed then bounced on to my chair and started the document while the other 3 were planning how to get to the note without destroying the video clip.

Chapter 3 - The Document

I continued the document from the middle like this.

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Chapter 4 - Darkness

After my document, I went out to take some fresh air, after a few minutes I started hearing some hissing sounds. All I Heard was… my name. ‘Lucassss?’ It mumbled. I thought it was a funny joke. But it wasn’t until it came to me… It was pale darkness. I shouted out loud ‘Hello, is anyone there?’ There was pale silence until a little flash of light brightened up a thing sitting in a chair. He said some words that made me very confused ‘Hello Lucas, how about you give me your little video clip and you will live a better life?’ I was confused ‘Hey my life is already good!’ I said. The thing said, ‘Not today.’ Then turned around to reveal its identity.