I soak in the tub until my skin is pruning. It still doesn't relieve all of the tension in my muscles and bones. I'm sore all over, especially between my legs, but it doesn't even hold a torch to the turmoil inside me.

As much as I try to rationalize and accept what happened over the past few hours, my brain refuses to let it sink it. But I did get my answer. I didn't do anything. It was that evil shadow thing and I now hope it's gone for good.

The fact that I can't be sure makes my skin crawl, but I decide now is not the time to concern myself with that. Now is the time to be glad that I'm alive and try to soothe my ailing body.

There's a soft knock on the door. I still jump a mile, making the water splash against the walls of the tub. It takes me a few seconds to calm down and convince myself that there's nothing out there that can hurt me.

"Yes?"

"You've been in there a while. I just wanted to make sure you were okay." Daniel's voice is meek and exhausted. By his tone, I can tell that he wants to come in.

I want him to as well. Being alone isn't doing me any favors. "You can come in."

The door opens and he slides inside, his movements impaired by his own wounds. I know he broke a couple of ribs and his shoulders and sides are a myriad of purple bruises. This entire thing hasn't been easy on either of us.

I watch him as he makes his way to me and sits on the corner of the tub, by my feet. There's a haze in his eyes, but it's nothing like the swirling shadows. If anything, it makes him more human.

"I'm sorry to impose like this," he says.

I don't say anything because I understand. I do and don't want to be alone at the same time. And what we went through...

"I'm sorry I said those awful things to you."

He nods in acceptance and lets out a long breath. Things are both awkward and comfortable at the same time.

"So... You got struck by lightning, too?" I finally ask.

"Yes. A year ago. And my life went to hell ever since."

"But you've kept the shadows at bay for a whole year."

He nods again. Even if it's an impressive feat, he doesn't seem happy with himself at all.

"Do you think they're gone?" I ask.

"I... I don't know."

I don't either. But I decide not to worry myself with it just yet. There's a lot to process and now I'm confident that there will be a lot of time for everything. If I didn't die tonight, it won't be happening any time soon.

"So what's going to happen now?"

Daniel shifts and draws a sharp breath before settling in a comfortable position. "The investigation will probably run cold, just like it did when it happened last time," he says. "I'm taking myself off the case."

The news startles me. "Why?"

"I'm already involved. Too invested. And..." He bit on his lower lip. "I think we should stick together. I want you to move in."

His words send shivers down my spine, but the pleasant kind. I know that we barely know each other, but this secret that we share is greater than us. It makes me want to be with him, too.

"Just because we should stick together?"

He smiles, and even if it's exhausted, it lights up his face in ways that makes me forget the horror of his devilish duplicate. Yes, I can still look at him, still apreciate his beauty, still want him near. He is a pinnacle of strength, and makes me stronger, too. Being with him could never feel wrong.

"It's not only because of that." He scoots to the other side of the tub so that he can be near me, and I lean my head against him.

Even if I'm wet, he wraps his arms around me and holds me. 

And I finally feel at peace.

👥

Daniel is right. I'm called in for questioning a few more times, after which I'm left alone. After a couple of months, the trail runs cold and the press loses interest.

I go back to my job. Without Anika hovering over us, our department is doing much better, and I don't have to work long hours anymore. After everything I went through, I decide to prioritize my health anyway, so I take up working from home two days a week.

We settle into a routine fairly quickly in which we act like a family. He's a lot more loving and attentive than Steve, so I find myself bein happy in my domestic bliss, enjoying the time we spend together, the sex, and just feeling appreciated and important. After a few weeks I even stop checking every corner for shadows. 

Daniel is true to his word and pulls himself off my case. He also stops his obsessive investigation of his own closed case. I expect him to be more relaxed now that he doesn't have to deal with murderous shadows anymore. Instead, the more the time goes by, the more tense he appears.

"What's going on?" I ask one evening as we're having dinner by candle light.

"Huh?" he snaps out of his reverie. "What do you mean?"

"I mean you seem to be growing tense with every passing day. Aren't you happy?"

He focuses on me and the sadness in his eyes is chilling. "I am. I'm a bit shocked by it, but I really am. After I... After Andrea died, I..." He lowers his gaze and bites down on his lip.

The nerves overcoming me have me gritting my teeth together. I don't like where this is going. "After you what?"

He sighs and pushes his plate away. He hardly touched anything on it. "Eva..."

I narrow my eyes at him. "What? Say it."

"I tried, but I can't get over this. You do make me happy, but that doesn't erase what I did."

"You didn't do anything."

"Is that so? Then where did that thing come from?"

"That wasn't you!" Just like mine wasn't me.

"It was, Eva. It was. I killed them." And he sinks his face in his hands and begins to cry.

I'm stunned. A part of me wants to comfort him, but the rest of me recoils. I've seen those things. Those were the shadows. Not us. The fact that they took the form of our bodies doesn't make us evil. Doesn't make us killers.

"You didn't kill anyone. It was those shadows!"

"And where do you think those shadows came from?"

"Um, I don't know. The lightning?"

He huffs, and it's bitter. "Do you think they just fell upon us from the sky?"

"Yes. They never appeared before the lightning strike!" I know I'm making sense, but he doesn't seem to believe me. "It's all a stroke of bad luck that we were struck by that lightning and were forced to live through this. But it was not our fault."

"Those shadows are our anger, Eva," he says, sounding tired of the argument. "It was all inside us."

"Anger is a natural human feeling! It doesn't make us kill people."

He doesn't argue any further, but he doesn't lose the sadness or the tension either. We continue our meal, and once we head upstairs, I do my best to get his mind off his troubles with mind blowing sex. He falls right into it with enthusiasm, bringing me over the edge time and time again.

It's like our discussion made him even more determined to show me that he cares about me, that I make him happy and that he's never going to make me question him or his feelings again. By the time I fall asleep in his arms, there's a smile on my face, and I'm sure there's one on his as well. 

I did manage to drive his fears away.

👥

When I wake up, the first thing I see is blood.

I'm immediately thrust back into the madness I tried so hard to leave behind. It takes me a few moments to shake away the sleep and the shock and focus on what I'm seeing. When I realize where the blood is actually coming from, a knot lodges itself in my throat and I can't even scream.

I can't talk, I can't think. I can't to anything but stare.

Daniel's body is on the floor, right next to the mirror, red droplets splattered on its surface. A few inches from his bloody hand, there's a steak knife. In a fit of despair, I jump off the bed and kneel next to him, pulling his head in my lap. The movement nearly detaches his head from his neck and I'm a second away from throwing up.

Even if I can't let out a sound, the tears pour down my cheeks, blurring my vision. It's not enough to block out what I'm seeing. His throat has been slit and the blood is still oozing which means it couldn't have happened too long ago. I glance around for something to press against the wound, but stop. I know he's dead. Or at least I should know if I wasn't panicking.

Finally, the sounds start coming out, too. Screams, wails, sobs. I let myself cry before I try to make sense of what just happened.

I can't believe Daniel would just give up and kill himself. Why would he if he said he was happy? This makes no sense. This--

I halt my thought process and glance at my hands. They're covered in blood. His blood. What if...? God, what if....? Were they even clean before I rushed to him? I didn't check.

I lay him down gently, then stand and glance in the mirror. I look terrified, my hair disheveled, my pajama covered in blood. I'm like a banshee from a bad horror movie. But there's no blackness in my eyes, no sharp edges to my face. Could I have done this without knowing?

Something hisses in my ear and I jump, turning around. The lights flicker, but there seem to be no shadows. Then I realize that there's a thunderstorm outside and it was just lightning. Or was it?

As I turn back toward the mirror, I noticed a folded piece of paper on my nightstand. With shaky knees, I walk over and pick it up. It's a note from Daniel.

Eva,

I'm so sorry that you have to see this, have to go through this, but I can't do this.

I'm not strong enough to forgive myself and I can't live like this. I killed them, Eva, no matter how hard you and I both try to convince me otherwise. It was still me. My anger, my resent. I'm not innocent. I never was. And I can't bear the thought that I could end up hurting you as well. I almost killed you once.

This is why I think it's better and safer for everyone if I end it. This way, I'm certainly not going to hurt anyone ever again.

I loved them so much, Eva. Just like in the short time I spent with you I grew to love you, too. If I wasn't cursed, I know we could've been happy together.

But I can't risk it. I would never hurt you.

So I chose to say goodbye.

I hope you understand and won't hate me too much. I know you're strong enough to handle this.

I wish you all the happiness in the world.

Love,

Daniel

👥

The police mill around me. Even if I'm covered in blood, they know better than to suspect me. It makes sense that I would lean over and get dirty. The only fingerprints on the knife are Daniel's. There's a note. They obviously rule it as a suicide brought forth by the guilt consuming him. They reopen the case regarding his family just to mark it at solved and close it again.

They leave me alone.

But I can't breathe.

Yes, there was a note, yes, there were no other fingerprints, but I can't help but wonder. I know how devious those shadow creatures are. I know I was annoyed with Daniel the night before.

I know that I could've done it.

I'm sure I didn't. But I need someone to confirm it, to assure me. The new detective on the case is a harassed old man who probably forgot I existed the moment I didn't prove useful for his investigation.

There is no one.

I take leave off work and spend my days in Daniel's house, grieving.

My life took such a dramatic turn in such a short time. I can't believe that mere months ago I was married to Steve, running on the hamster wheel of a job from hell and a mediocre marriage. Then there was horror, and then, for only a few months, there was happiness.

And now I'm all alone. The only one left in a circus of madness, the only one aware of the strangeness in my life and Daniel's. Until he was gone, I didn't realize how much it mattered to have someone in my corner, someone to share the burden with.

I take up running again. Even if I no longer live there, and I put it up for sale, I still take the trail behind my old house. I especially like to run when there are indicators of a storm. Maybe deep down I hope that lightning will strike me again and I'll wake up to a time before all this madness. That maybe I dreamed this all up, my feelings for Daniel included.

He left a hole inside me. After everything, his death is the only one that truly touched me. The words of his letter still ring in my head at night when I'm vulnerable and just about to fall asleep.

And the more the time passes, the more I understand him. Why he did it. I want to hate him for leaving me to face this alone, but I can't when I can see how hard it was on him, how much he suffered from the moment his family died.

As the days go by and I lack the energy to return to work and any form any daily routine, one particular thought keeps plaguing me.

What if Daniel was right? What if those shadows are not a distinct entity, but part of us? What if the lightning didn't bring the shadows down to earth, but merely offered us the possibility to split ourselves? One part calm, one part anger. And neither of the two parts knew about the other.

If that is true, then it gets harder and harder to believe that Daniel killed himself. After all, it would take so much effort and a complete lack of self preservation instinct to slit ones throat. Suicide is usually something you do that doesn't kill you instantly but would lead to your death. Falling, hanging, cutting the veins. How could he even make such a perfect cut seeing how his hands must've started shaking with the pain?

I find myself staring in the mirror a lot, sometimes with a knife in my hand. I don't know what I'm expecting. Maybe to see my reflection distorted again and have proof that the shadows haven't disappeared. Maybe I'm trying to understand what Daniel must have felt when he decided to do it, if he did it. Share this experience with him, even if he's long gone.

Maybe I just don't fit in this world anymore.

Maybe I killed him.

Maybe I'm a monster.

Maybe he was right and we should end this before we hurt anyone else.

Maybe it's not that hard to slit your own throat after all. Not when you look in the mirror and your reflection distorts the moment the blade cuts into your skin. Not when you want to end that demonic apparition mocking you, making you unrecognizable to your own eyes.

It doesn't even hurt. My hand is steady. The blood pouring down my front, on my hands, is hot and smooth. When the darkness leaves my body, it's a blessing.

I won.

I will never hurt anyone ever again.

👥

Shadows swirl into the evening air. Outside, thunderclouds gather, lightning flashing in their midst.

The shadows know where they belong, so they retreat into clouds, biding their time and waiting. 

Waiting until it's time to strike again.

Waiting for their next victim.

THE END

Chapter WC: 2,688

Total WC: 34,646

What a ride it has been and everyone is dead! I bet you were all totally expecting that.

This was a nice little experiment for me but I think that I totally failed at writing horror. I do hope it was an interesting mystery/thriller for everyone.

Thanks for sticking with me and this crazy story and I certainly hope you had fun with it. I know I did!