Chapter Four: Stay Away from the Shadow Man

After the burlap sack was pulled off our heads, we found ourselves facing a shadowy cloaked figure standing in the shower. He smiled at us and stepped out of the bathtub. "You don't have to be afraid of me," he continued. 

If my heart wasn't pounding so hard, I know we should definitely be afraid of this guy! The two clowns danced around us and laughed excitedly as they exited out the bathroom. Then, they closed the bathroom door on us.

He looked at his darkly handsome reflection in the bathroom mirror and grinned. He raised an eyebrow. Seeing how devilishly good-looking he seemed, the shadowy cloaked figure turned back to face us.

Mom and I started to back against the bathroom door. I turned the doorknob. But it wouldn't budge. The mysterious shadow man continued walking closer to us. He narrowed his eyes. "Let me explain to you why I'm here and what my purpose is for keeping you under my power and protection," said the Shadow Man.

Mom didn't want me getting close to this man. She grabbed hold of me and held on tight to me. "You should stay away from me and my son," Mom said, firmly. The Shadow Man laughed and didn't seem to be afraid of her. "I'm not kidding, mister," Mom continued, showing how brave she was.

The Shadow Man waved his hands in the air in frustration at us. He magically made the bathroom door swing open. Nearly knocking Mom and me to the ground. We backed away from the open door. Gasping in fright, we saw the stuffed clown marionette dolls standing in a row together. With razor sharp blade knives in their tiny clay hands pointed at us.

"Take these two boneheads to the basement," snapped the Shadow Man, angrily. "It will be a matter of time before I need to use them for my latest experiment on them," said the Shadow Man, informatively.

The little stuffed marionette clown dolls started jumping up and down excitedly. They quickly surrounded Mom and me. Looking with fear and dread, at the tiny clown doll creatures swarming us, there was nowhere for us to stay protected.

Then, the marionette clown dolls jumped on top of Mom and me. Trying to fight them off us, they started biting their steel plastic teeth onto our shoulders, forcefully. "Why are there so many of them, Shadow Man?" I cried, trying to keep a creepy marionette clown doll from pulling on my hair.

I danced around and tried to get the clown dolls from fighting with me and my Mom. They were strong for being little clown doll demons with a feisty need for playing with unnatural forces of dark ways of keeping them from getting us messed up.

Whatever was making them use force on us, was making it difficult for us to keep them attacking us. They were growling and biting us with their sharp, plastic teeth. I was trying to be careful to avoid getting stabbed to death with their pointy, razor blades they carried with them.

 Mr. Shadow Man was not done celebrating his victory while trying to capture Mom and me to go down into our basement. Suddenly, my flashlight shined a light in front of a stuffed clown marionette doll toy in its glowing evil eyes. He was trying to strangle Mom. When the bright light shined in its face, the little clown demon screamed and turned to dust! 

"No you don't!" Mr. Shadow Man yelled at me. He tried to grab my flashlight out of my reach. But I quickly blinded him in the face with the flashlight in my hand. His eyes started smoking. And he ran out of our bathroom, his face filled with smoke.

I couldn't believe it! They hate the light! I scared them off. I think we will not see the last of Mr. Shadow Man and his clown demon henchmen coming after us again. But I could be wrong. I took a moment to relax and check on my Mom. She was shuddering and couldn't stop shaking.

"Mom. It's okay. They're gone for now," I explained. Mom shuddered with fear some more. "You've got nothing to worry about," I continued. I don't think Mom was in the mood to pay attention to me. 

Another scary looking stuffed clown marionette doll popped its head back into our bathroom. He hissed at us trying to scare us again. I quickly grabbed hold of my flashlight. And shined a light in the creature's face…He exploded into dust!

I clicked off my flashlight! That was the last of them! I thought to myself, worriedly. "I don't know what to do to keep the Shadow Man from staying away from us, Mom?" I asked, trying to keep myself from trembling in fear. 

Mom shook her head; she didn't know the answer to my question, yet either. She gave me a hug and held onto me. "It's going to be okay, dear," my loved one said. "They seem to hate the light," Mom suggested. She took the flashlight from me and looked at it.

Mom showed me it was an ordinary flashlight. She didn't seem to think why they would hate being afraid of the warm glow of light? It didn't make sense. Why would they want to keep the light from avoiding their protection? 

Mom and I poked our heads around the bathroom door. Lightning flashed outside the kitchen window. There was the sound of pitter-patter across the side of the kitchen hall. It was running across into the living room. Like it was waiting for us to come out of the dark bathroom.

Mom grabbed hold of the flashlight in her hand. She turned on the flashlight. Shining a path of light on the floor, we saw where there were muddy wet footprints on the kitchen floor. There were messy footprints everywhere! 

 "Where are they coming from?" Mom asked me. I stuck close behind Mom and didn't know myself. "They're still close behind, I can tell," Mom said. I had to think she was right. Lightning flashed again from the thunderstorm outside the living room windows. 

Mom tried to turn on the kitchen light. But the light didn't work. We were trapped in a dark house. We only had a little flashlight to keep us safe from whatever was hiding from us to stay away from untold forces of darkness lurking in the shadows.

"Stay behind me, kid," Mom whispered to me. We crept closer to the living room. We noticed there was noise because it seemed like it was coming from the television set. Mom made me stay behind her, because she thought she saw something in the living room. Turning to look in the direction of our living room, Mom gasped. She pinned me back against the kitchen wall to avoid being disturbed or caught.

"What?" I whispered, worriedly. Mom put a finger to her lips to silence me. She nudged her way for me to look for myself at what she saw herself. I slowly turned to look in our dark living room again. 

This time, the television set was turned off. There was nobody there. I turned back to Mom's attention. "What could it have been?" I asked, suspiciously. I didn't want my Mom to get stressed out over the little scare with the unimaginary clown demons trying to take us over.

"Should we call the police?" Mom asked. I shook my head. "You're right. We can't explain it. This is something we have to fight on our own," Mom said. Suddenly, we jumped at the sound of our basement door slamming shut behind us!

We quickly turned around. The basement door clicked shut. I was scared to walk any further. But Mom forced my shaky legs to move toward the basement door. Lightning flashed again, brightening the kitchen in dark eerie shadows.

"Maybe we shouldn't get in there, Mom?" I begged. My heart was pounding in my chest. I was so scared of what we might face in the darkness. Mom continued looking brave and told her we shouldn't have to be scared of anything.

It was getting too late to be doing this kind of crazy stunt on us. But I knew Mom and I wouldn't be able to rest, until the wicked stayed away from our lives.