Introduction

Temple Bar. Image Source: Tropical Island

Sean was walking home from his mate's house one night when he stopped in the street. His body froze in a paralysis and he couldn't move a single limb or even close his eyes. He stood there staring at the figure right in front of him. It was a dark and blurry shadow. Its features were unidentifiable. Sean didn't know if it was a human or some other type of animal. The figure was dark and looked as though it could have been Sean's own shadow standing in the middle of the street on its own. He knew it was not however. His shadow could never make him feel a fear like this. He had read of figures terrorizing the streets of Dublin and he had been told the stories of them coming about in the night but had never seen one before now. Sean honestly didn't believe those stories. He thought back to all the ones he heard; how shadow-like figures followed people around and demonized their thoughts. The shadows drove people to do mad, unspeakable things.

He thought that's all they were: stories. He never thought he would ever see the horror of one in person. But Sean didn't feel terrorized or a horror; he was just frozen and felt a fear that he couldn't exactly pinpoint. He was scared and that's all he knew for sure. The figure paralyzed him just for a minute claiming a dominance and power over Sean. Sean feared for his life but not because he thought the figure was going to hurt him but because he didn't know what the figure wanted from him, what was going to happen to him. He thought maybe the shadow needed help or for Sean to give him something of his. He wanted to grab the shadow if he could, but before he could have a chance to act on it, the shadow was gone. Before his very eyes, the figure vanished; Sean kept walking back to his flat not knowing what just happened or if anyone was going to believe him if he told them. He was going to tell yet another story to his mates, a one similar to others they had previously heard from other people, but Sean didn't even know if he could tell them of his occurrence because he himself didn't know exactly what happened. Sean concluded that his mind played tricks on him and that all this was was a story he had heard.

Sean was curious to find out more about his experience...