Secret Shadow

Scary Ghost Story - "sold Shadow"

“Sold Shadow”

More than a century ago there lived a family. It all started when Katherine’s mother was dying. Before she died, she lay in bed for 3 days unconscious. Modern doctors would says she was in a coma. Before her very death she woke up, looked around the room, saw her daughter Katherine and said to her in a very small voice:

- My dear Katherine. Just now I was in heaven, angels showed me everything what awaits me. But I also saw what awaits you. My poor daughter, on by one you will be carrying out coffins out of the house, and in those coffins will be your children, my grandchildren. As she said those words, she cried like she never cried before in her life.

Katherine was stunned by her mother's words, she didn't know how to react: was it all just nonsense, just a dream that her mother saw, or was it a prophecy of a person that did just visit heaven. Fear of losing her children was stronger than her doubts.

- Mother - said Katherine - tell me what should I do, how can I help my children, is it really my destiny to carry them all to our churchyard? Katherine's dying mother closed her eyes and whispered in a weakened voice:

- I don't know, if I did, I would tell you.

Then she opened her eyes for the last time and whispered with her last breath:

- If I find out how... then... I'll let you know... from there... somehow...

Katherine's mother was buried the next day, after three days Katherine's youngest daughter followed her grandmother into the grave. Strong and healthy girl's death was unexpected. Unexpected for everyone, except Katherine. When she found her daughter dead one morning, she knew, that it was the beginning of a tragedy her dying mother prophesized. One more daughter died after that, then Katherine's son and 2 more children after that. Katherine's neighbors stayed away from her house, afraid that the curse might fall on them as well. After one more son died, almost nobody came to his funeral and Katherine behaved as if she didn't notice that. Her husband was afraid she might go insane.

At night Katherine ran to the graveyard, not to her children's graves, but to her mother's grave. The husband found her there as she was hitting the grave, screaming:

- You promised me you would let me know how to save your grandchildren. You promised!

Katherine's husband didn't know about the prophecy, he was at work that day and Katherine promised her mother not to tell anyone about it. He thought he would find her on one of her children's graves, but she was on her mother's grave screaming about some promise. So he thought Katherine has gone insane.

One early morning. Katherine knocked on an old woman's window. The old woman asked her:

- Why are you here? I can't help you.

Katherine then dropped to her knees, crying and begging not to kick her out, but to help her in the name of Christ. She said that her dead mother told her to come here and that she wanted only one thing: to save the remaining three of her nine children. Then the old woman said:

- You can save your children if you sell your shadow, but that is a sin and I can't tell you how to do it. Accept it and go home, I can't help you with this, because I don't want to take that sin. I hope you understand.

After a couple of minutes the old woman heard a scream in her backyard. Her neighbor managed to get mad with grief Katherine out of the halter. After some time the old woman got Katherine back on her feet, asked for forgiveness and told her how to save her children.

- Go to the fair and offer people your shadow, and tell the one who will want to buy it, that the price is the lives of your three children. And remember, you’re not only selling your shadow, but your selling your life. When one of you children turns thirty three you will leave this world...

When Katherine jumped up from her knees, willing to give her life for her children, the old woman smiled bitterly and said:

- Now that is a mother’s heart. What can I say, you’re about to do a great deed and don’t want any reward neither from people nor from God. Therefore I will reward you, not myself, but through my daughter. I won’t be alive by then. When one of your children will be about to turn thirty three, find my daughter and tell her my secret word – the key, then she won’t refuse to help you with your sin. And now try to remember the word.

Many years later Katherine came to the old woman’s daughter and told her, what happened to her. She ran to the fair like the wind, but when she got there she was confused and scared. Katherine pulled herself together and came up to a woman.

- Would you like to buy my shadow? - Katherine asked in a very small voice.

The woman looked at Katherine as if she was insane and edged away. Katherine started coming up to people and offering them her shadow. Nobody answered her roughly, some gave her money and one woman gave her a bun. Everybody felt sorry for the insane woman – people were a lot nicer back then.

Katherine went through the whole fair and didn’t find anybody interested in buying her shadow. She sat by the fence crying, thinking this will not work. And then she heard:

- Are you the one who is selling her shadow?

Katherine looked up and saw a man dressed in clothes that were not from that time. His clothes were made of fabric Katherine has never saw before. The color of the clothes was black, but with some unusual spark. He was wearing a top hat and had a snake like cane. The head of the snake had life like eyes. Anyway Katherine thought saw at that moment.

The man leaned forward and it looked as if he had no spine. Their faces were so close, they almost touched. As Katherine was looking into his eyes she saw everything that was going around. It was almost like nobody noticed her companion, though this persons clothes were hard to miss. But nobody paid any attention to them.

- I said, are you the one who is selling her shadow? – the stranger lightly raised his voice.

- Me - Katherine whispered.

- And how much do you want for it? – the strange man asked.

Katherine pulled herself together and firmly answered:

- I want my children to live.

- Accepted! – the stranger said shortly, and before he disappeared, Katherine saw his pupils narrow and widen a few times. The last thing she saw where his fingers with incredibly long nails.

The man in the strange clothes disappeared. For a moment Katherine felt a piercing pain, as if her soul was taken out of her, then the pain left her body, but she had a strange feeling in her heart now, the feeling we have before something bad is about to happen.

Normal life was going around Katherine. People bargained, offered their goods, music was playing loudly. Katherine stood up, looked around, thought for a second and came up to woman who was standing nearby. Katherine asked her what she thought of the gentleman in the strange clothes, but from the look on the woman’s face Katherine understood that there was no gentleman or she just didn’t see him.

When Katherine got back to her village, she was afraid to go in to her house. The thought of one of her children dying when she was away scared her. But thankfully the children where safe and sound. Katherine and her husband never had to carry coffins to the churchyard ever again.

A lot of time has passed since then. A year before Katherine’s son turned thirty three she saw a dream. Two women came into the house. One was her dead mother and the other – the old woman who helped Katherine. They refused to sit down, because they just came to tell her, the time when she will leave this world is close, and if she wants to live, she should go to the old woman’s daughter and tell her the secret word.

Katherine came to the old woman’s daughter and told her the same story I told you.

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