"The shadow in my room"

Therapy, certainly important for most people in the world, an activity where you tell all of your problems to a professional in seek for help, taking care of you mentally, so in search for help, so Terry decided to give it a try. A businessman who seems troubled, the reason is the "shadow" in his room, since his wife's disappearence, a shadow appeared on the room, making effects on his sleep, work and life overall, he was afraid to tell anyone since, because it was something almost as supernatural as a horror movie, ignoring his own feelings and health, yet now he decided to take a turn and reveal this to someone, desperately looking for help. His therapist then started making the questions, already knowing he has something to tell already:

"So tell me mister... how do you feel?"

She asked him this simple question, but as painful as it looked, he didn't stop himself at that very moment:

"I feel horrible, there is a shadow in my room that keeps looking at me, i thought i may be hallucinating, so i came here"

Despite the man's not fully understandable line, she continued listening to man, he was into something and it would take quite a while to get to know everything.

"Tell me more about it, i can see you've been struggling, when did the shadow appear?"

The man looked at the therapist's eyes and turned his head to the ground:

"It's been since my wife's death, i was afraid she wouldn't be found already, then that shadow in my room appeared, and... i knew she wasn't coming back, i don't know why..."

Confused once again, the therapist decided to ask another question:

"You know, ghosts aren't a real thing, yet i will listen to you, it may be something your own mind created to fill the void inside your heart, it seem you already know she isn't coming back, but you can tell other people, friends, family anyone"

The main moved his head rejecting that idea:

"Since i've moved out of my parents house, i've never talked too much to anyone, i didn't had many opportunities to approach other kids at school, always being left alone on the background, both my parents fought most of the time but somehow never divorced, i was stuck on that place and got out of there, since then, i lost their contact and never tried talking to them again"

The therapist frowned in response of the man's words:

"I'm sorry for this, must've been harsh"

Yet, the man gave a little smile looking at her reaction, as he felt a little bit more comfortable about the situation:

"It was a little, but i managed to find a job and a house for myself, then... i met her, she was the woman of my life, the way we met was almost as in a book"

Seemingly more happy, he got excited to tell more about his wife, getting open about his good memories:

"You know right? that thing with passing by each other and dropping stuff by accident, that moment when i saw her, i knew it, it was her".

Frowning a little bit as he got excited, he remembered something, but decided to continue his story:

"I remember the days on summer, we went to the beach, her skin, her face, her bikini, all in the right places, she was perfect, the most perfect being i've ever had luck to meet and she was mine, i thought i wasted all of my luck on meeting her besides the past"

The therapist smiled at him as he happily talked about the one he once loved:

"But she was everything i had"

Frowning once again, his tone also changed, his voice cracked a little, but he kept talking:

"Friends, family, colleagues, all were nothing compared to her, because i had none, neither her had any, then..."

His voice cracked once more, as he was about to cry, yet his position stayed looking at the ground and closed, as he was trying to get anyone as away as possible:

"She was gone, and that disgusting shadow appeared on her place"

His tone got agressive, as if he was talking about something completely different, gazing furiously to his therapist and he started yelling:

"i couldn't touch it, i couldn't feel it, cold and putrid, i've lost everything i had and that piece of disgusting crap tried to fill her place in my heart"

Slamming the armchair with force, a sound echoed through the whole room, indeed he lost his temper at that moment, but the therapist still was listening to him as if the moment she lost her attention, that man would go wild as he remained talking:

"I hate it, i hate the shadow in my room, i can't sleep, i can't eat, i can't wake up, i can't do anything properly, my life was turned in hell, the only place i could rest and the only person who cared for me was gone, and that thing... appeared"

Getting a bit more calm, he grabbed a bottle of water, drinking to calm himself of that situation:

"But yet, i had no one to tell it, i felt like it was a bad thing, that no one should talk about, that i should forget it and it would be gone... like i was getting crazy beyond reasoning, am i that bad?"

The therapist looked at him on his eyes, with a calming voice:

"Don't worry, despite everything you told me it, you're not beyond help, you looked for help, you tried looking for someone to take care of you."

Remaining calm and looking at her patient with a caring gaze, she took a look at the ground and kept talking to calm him down, afterall, even if he looks calm now, doesn't mean he's fully calm yet:

"you tell me your wife was everything to you, but you're still here too, she cared so much about you, so you should take care of yourself too and meet more people"

The innocently started listening to her more clearly, getting his whole attention drawn towards her:

"the world is not empty, i'm not telling you to replace her with something else, but you can find more people to be at your side, you can have friends, despite being the one alone all you have to do is push yourself in, try doing something, meeting new people, living your life and that shadow will disappear surely"

Confident, she got close to him, placing her hand on his shoulder for comforting the man:

"I know its hard to you, but the first step is trying, and you started taking care of yourself already by coming here, in order to get any more advice or say something, i'm here for you, remember, its ok to not feel ok and i congratulate you for taking that much of a huge step alone, you're really strong"

Yet for a second, she realized he was looking at her eyes, with an empty gaze, finding that situation quite unsettling, her hand got away from his back, and his gaze returned to the ground:

"That stupid shadow... every time when i look at it, it reminds me of her, her eyes, her skin, her clothes, her smile, i tried to move its face into a smile, but its darkened skin didn't let me"

The therapist, was seemingly confused, after all, what was this man talking about? "What is that shadow he so much hated?" "What about his wife?" The therapist lost herself on thoughts as the man stood up, his hands were closed on tight fists as he was about to get violent, yet with a calm tone:

"Since you've helped me so much, i think you deserve a reward other than only my hard earned cash"

His intense empty gaze upon his therapist was ruinous, she trembled in fear as she started to connect the dots of the story. Weirdly, the man didn't say anything about anyone looking after his wife, he said she was just like him, the way he described the shadow as the worst part of everything slowly revealed between his unsettling smiles the real nature of this man. Terry clearly isn't a stable person at all, his wife obviously wasn't perfect, no human can be perfect, yet he shaped her perfect form on his mind, and the worst of it on the shadow. The truth was that the shadow in his room, was nobody else but his dead wife's corpse on decomposition, her putrid smell, darkened skin, can't touch. No human being can handle the putrid smell of a body for such a long time, bad sleep, not being able to eat properly. The more she thought, the more she trembled as the man approached her and on a desperate move threw a lampshade into him, which broke completely, slowly making him bleed, his empty gaze got renewed and calmly a few words got out of his mouth:

"I guess, now there is another shadow in my room"