“Shadow That Wears Your Face”
Chapter 1 — The Phone Under the Bed
The clock struck 2:13 a.m. when Yurei woke up to the sound of her phone vibrating.
Not ringing.
Not dinging.
Just a soft vibration… coming from under her bed.
Her breath tightened.
She never kept her phone under the bed.
Slowly, she leaned down and lifted the bedsheet.
The phone screen lit up, flashing a single message:
“DON’T TURN AROUND.”
Yurei froze.
Behind her, the wooden floor made a faint creak —
as if someone had just taken a step.
Another message appeared on the screen:
“HE’S ALREADY INSIDE THE ROOM.”
Riya’s hands trembled as she clutched the phone.
The glow from the screen barely lit the space beneath the bed, but it was enough to show the fine layer of dust… and the shadow moving across it.
Someone was standing right behind her.
She didn’t turn.
She didn’t breathe.
Another vibration.
A new message:
“MOVE ONLY WHEN I SAY.”
Her heart hammered against her ribs.
She typed with shaking fingers:
Who are you?
For a moment, there was no reply.
Then:
“THE ONE TRYING TO KEEP YOU ALIVE.”
A cold gust brushed the back of her neck — not a touch, but the feeling of someone exhaling, slowly, deliberately.
The presence behind her shifted.
The phone vibrated again:
“HE HAS A KNIFE.”
Riya’s throat tightened.
Her eyes started to water, not from emotion… but from the effort of staying perfectly still.
Another message came instantly:
“WHEN I COUNT DOWN, DROP TO THE FLOOR.”
Riya’s pulse stuttered.
“3…”
She squeezed her eyes shut.
“2…”
A soft metallic scrape sounded behind her — the unmistakable sound of steel sliding against wood.
“1—”
Riya dropped.
Her body hit the floor just as something sliced through the air where her neck had been.
A knife thudded into the wall with a dull, heavy sound.
A man’s snarl broke the silence.
Chapter 2 — The Intruder
Riya scrambled under the bed, her palms burning as they slid across the floor. The dust clogged her breath, but she forced herself deeper into the darkness.
From the doorway, the dim streetlight cast a faint glow across the room — just enough to see a pair of bare feet step toward the bed.
Slow.
Heavy.
Predictable.
Her phone vibrated again.
She covered the screen with her hand to hide the light and peeked.
“HE THINKS YOU RAN OUT.
STAY STILL.”
Riya’s lungs felt like they might burst.
The man crouched.
His face dipped low, inches from the floor, searching for her.
She could see only his eyes — dark, wild, shining with a strange excitement.
He sniffed the air.
“Come out,” he whispered. “I saw the light. I know you’re here.”
He reached an arm under the bed, fingers stretching blindly. They brushed the hem of her shirt.
Riya bit her lip so hard she tasted blood.
Her phone buzzed again.
“WHEN HE GRABS YOU, DON’T FIGHT.
I’M ALREADY IN THE HOUSE.”
Riya’s eyes widened.
What?
Someone else was inside?
The intruder’s hand closed violently around her wrist.
He yanked.
She screamed—
And from somewhere inside the house came the sound of a door slamming.
Chapter 3 — Someone Else Is in the House
The intruder froze.
His grip on Riya’s wrist tightened for a moment… then loosened.
His head snapped toward the sound of the slamming door.
Another noise followed — slow, deliberate footsteps moving down the hallway.
Not rushed.
Not panicked.
Almost… confident.
The intruder hissed under his breath and let go of Riya.
He backed away from the bed, his knife scraping across the floor as he grabbed it.
Riya pressed a hand over her mouth, swallowing a sob.
The footsteps stopped right outside her bedroom door.
Silence.
Then—
click.
The light in the hallway turned off.
Total darkness.
Riya’s phone vibrated again.
She hesitated, then shielded the screen with her palm and looked.
“HE THINKS YOU’RE ALONE.
YOU’RE NOT.”
Her chest tightened.
The intruder whispered sharply, “Who’s there?”
His voice trembled just slightly — enough for Riya to hear the fear hiding underneath.
A low voice answered from the hallway:
“Step away from her.”
It wasn’t a shout.
It was calm.
Cold.
Like someone who didn’t need to raise their voice to be dangerous.
The intruder backed toward the window, knife raised.
“Show yourself,” he spat.
The footsteps moved again.
Slow.
Measured.
Drawing closer to the doorway.
Riya could see only a silhouette now — tall, unmoving — blocking the hallway light.
Her phone vibrated one more time.
“WHEN I SAY RUN, YOU RUN.
NO MATTER WHAT YOU HEAR.”
The silhouette stepped into the room.
And Riya finally realized…
She didn’t know which one of them had sent the messages.
The silhouette stepped fully into the room.
Moonlight from the window cut across his face just enough for Riya to see one thing:
He was smiling.
Not a friendly smile.
A knowing one.
The intruder with the knife shouted, “Stay back!” His voice cracked.
The silhouette didn’t stop.
Riya’s phone vibrated again.
Her stomach twisted as she read the message:
“RUN.”
Chapter 4 — Two Protectors
Riya launched herself out from under the bed.
The intruder lunged at her with a furious scream, knife raised—
But the silhouette moved faster.
A loud crack echoed through the room as the silhouette slammed the intruder into the wall, knocking the knife from his hand. It skidded across the floor, stopping at Riya’s feet.
“GO!” the silhouette barked.
Riya grabbed the knife instinctively and bolted out of the room, her heartbeat thundering in her ears.
Behind her, she heard a struggle—
fists hitting flesh, the intruder snarling in pain, furniture crashing.
Then a voice—
the same calm voice as the messages—
“Riya. Stop.”
She froze in the hallway.
The silhouette stepped out of the bedroom, breathing heavily but unharmed.
The intruder lay motionless on the floor behind him.
Riya backed away.
Knife still in her hand.
Her voice barely a whisper.
“Who… who are you?”
The man tilted his head slightly, as though amused.
“I’ve been trying to protect you for a long time.”
Her phone buzzed again.
She looked down.
A new message:
“DON’T BELIEVE HIM.”
Riya’s blood ran cold.
Slowly, she lifted her eyes from the phone…
to see another silhouette standing at the end of the hallway.
Two men.
Both silent.
Both watching her.
Both claiming to protect her.
And Riya had no idea which one was lying.
Riya’s breath came in sharp, shallow bursts.
Two silhouettes.
One standing close, the other at the far end of the hall.
Both unmoving.
Both watching her.
Her hand tightened around the knife.
The closer man took a slow step toward her.
“Riya, put that down. You’re safe now.”
Her phone vibrated again.
She didn’t even look up as she read:
“IF YOU PUT THE KNIFE DOWN, YOU WON’T MAKE IT OUT.”
Chapter 5 — The First Lie
Her pulse roared in her ears.
The second silhouette — the one farther away — spoke for the first time. His voice was rougher, but steady.
“Don’t let him near you. He’s not who he says he is.”
The first man snapped, “Don’t listen to him. He’s the one who broke in.”
The distant figure answered calmly, “Look at the bedroom door. Look carefully.”
Riya’s hand trembled as she turned her head.
The wooden frame of her bedroom door was splintered — but not like it had been kicked open. The damage was from the inside, as if someone had forced the lock from her room to get out.
Her eyes widened.
The first man stiffened.
He hadn’t expected her to see that.
Her phone buzzed again.
“ASK HIM HOW HE GOT INTO YOUR ROOM WITHOUT WAKING YOU.”
She swallowed hard, then looked at the man in front of her.
“How did you get in?” she asked.
He didn’t hesitate.
“I came through the front door.”
Her phone lit up instantly.
“HE’S LYING. THE FRONT DOOR IS STILL LOCKED.”
The man at the end of the hallway stepped forward into the light.
Riya could finally see part of his face — a cut across his eyebrow, blood trickling down.
He looked like someone who had been fighting long before tonight.
He pointed at the first man.
“He’s been inside your house for hours. Waiting.”
The first man’s expression hardened, the friendly mask cracking.
“Enough,” he growled. “Riya, come here. Now.”
Her phone buzzed one more time:
“IF YOU RUN, RUN TOWARD ME.
NOT HIM.”
Riya looked back and forth—
One man who smiled too easily.
One man who bled.
One stood between her and the front door.
The other between her and the back exit.
Both getting closer.
Both saying they were trying to save her.
Chapter 6 — The Stolen Phone
Her fingers tightened around the knife as both silhouettes stepped into the light—
And Riya realized something horrifying:
One of them had her missing phone in his hand.
Riya’s stomach twisted as her eyes locked onto the phone in the man’s hand.
Her phone.
The same one that had warned her.
The same one that told her to run.
The man closest to her smirked when he noticed her staring.
“This?” he said softly, lifting the phone just enough for the screen’s glow to touch his face.
“You dropped it when you ran. I was just keeping it safe.”
A lie.
She knew it.
The man at the end of the hall stepped forward, wiping blood from his face.
“He stole it hours ago. He’s been messaging you from it to lure you into the dark.”
Riya’s pulse spiked.
Her phone vibrated in the first man’s hand.
A message appeared on the screen.
Riya froze.
Because the message… wasn’t from him.
It was from another device:
“RIYA. DON’T LOOK AT HIM.
LOOK AT THE FLOOR.”
Her eyes dropped slowly—
And her heart almost stopped.
There on the hallway floor was a trail of wet footprints.
Not from the bleeding man.
Not from the intruder she’d seen earlier.
These prints… were too small.
Too light.
Too many.
They led from her bedroom
to the wall
and then…
disappeared.
Her breath caught.
Chapter 7 — Run or Die
The man with her phone noticed her staring and stepped between her and the footprints.
“Riya,” he whispered, voice lower now, more urgent.
“Don’t listen to him. Come with me.”
Her phone buzzed again in his hand.
He clenched it.
The message still flashed on the screen:
“STEP BACK.
NOW.”
Riya did.
And that tiny movement changed everything.
The man lunged at her.
His entire expression twisted—
no smile, no calmness, no warmth—
just pure, cold aggression.
Riya stumbled backward—
A hand shot out from behind her in the darkness
and yanked her into a different room.
The door slammed.
Someone’s hand covered her mouth.
Riya thrashed—
until she saw the face in the dark.
It was the voice from the hallway.
The bleeding man.
But he wasn’t looking at her.
He was staring at the door, breath sharp, muscles tense.
“That thing,” he said under his breath,
“has been in your house longer than you think.”
The doorknob rattled violently.
Riya’s phone vibrated again—
but this time the sound didn’t come from the hallway.
It came from inside the room.
There, lying on the desk…
was Riya’s real phone.
Screen glowing.
New message blinking:
“THE PERSON WHO JUST SAVED YOU…
ISN’T ON YOUR SIDE EITHER.”
Riya’s blood ran ice-cold.
Behind her, the bleeding man whispered:
“Give me the knife.”
Riya pressed her back against the wall, knife trembling in her grip.
The bleeding man’s voice was low, steady… too steady.
“Give me the knife, Riya.”
She shook her head.
He stepped closer, shadows stretching over his face.
His breathing was controlled, like someone trying very hard not to snap.
“Listen.” He leaned in.
“There’s something in this house with us. And it’s not him.”
Chapter 8 — The Man Who Knows Too Much
He jerked his thumb toward the door.
“It’s worse.”
Riya swallowed.
Her throat felt like sandpaper.
Her phone on the desk buzzed again — a message blinking violently:
“ASK HIM WHY HE KNOWS YOUR NAME.”
Her blood ran cold.
She hadn’t told him.
Not once.
Riya whispered, “How do you know who I am?”
The man froze for half a second — a flicker of something dark crossing his expression.
Then he smiled.
That smile was wrong.
Too slow.
Too… satisfied.
“I’ve known your name,” he said softly, “long before tonight.”
Her fingers tightened around the knife.
He stepped closer.
“Do you know what happens to a person,” he murmured, “when they’re locked in a house… with something pretending to need help?”
Riya’s eyes widened.
He was talking about himself.
Her phone buzzed again — hard enough to rattle on the wooden desk.
She lunged for it.
But the man grabbed her wrist mid-air, twisting it sharply.
Pain shot up her arm and she gasped, dropping the knife.
He kicked it away.
“You’re making this difficult,” he hissed, grip tightening.
“I’m trying to keep us alive.”
Her phone lit up on the floor, screen cracked:
“HE’S NOT TRYING TO KEEP YOU ALIVE.
HE’S TRYING TO KEEP YOU INSIDE.”
Riya’s breath shattered.
He leaned in, lips inches from her ear.
“There’s a reason I slammed that door,” he whispered.
“A reason the footprints disappear.”
His voice dropped to a chilling whisper.
“A reason you’re not supposed to leave.”
Her pulse hammered violently.
“Let me go,” she breathed.
“No.”
His grip tightened painfully.
“You leave this room, you’ll see what I’ve seen. And you won’t survive it.”
She whispered, voice breaking, “What did you see?”
He slowly turned his head toward the dark corner of the room behind her.
Riya followed his gaze — and froze.
There was someone standing there.
Chapter 9 — The Shadow Isn’t Human
Not moving.
Not breathing.
Just a silhouette… as still as a cut-out shape in the dark.
Riya tried to scream, but only a choked sound came out.
The bleeding man pulled her closer, almost protectively —
but his voice was shaking now, the mask slipping.
“It followed me,” he whispered.
“It watches.
It waits.
It copies.”
His voice cracked.
“And once it learns you… it starts to replace things.”
Riya’s entire body went cold.
Replace.
Like her phone.
Like the messages.
Like the intruder.
Like… him?
Her phone vibrated one more time, and she forced her gaze down to read the screen.
“LOOK AT HIS SHADOW.
IT DOESN’T MATCH HIS BODY.”
Riya’s breath stopped.
Slowly… very slowly… she looked down at the floor.
The bleeding man stood inches from her.
But the shadow behind him…
wasn’t his size.
Wasn’t his shape.
Wasn’t even human.
It spread across the floor like a twisted, broken spider.
Something with too many legs.
Something stretching toward her feet.
The bleeding man whispered,
“Don’t look down.”
She lifted her head.
Trembling.
Eyes wide.
And she whispered back—
“I already did.”
His smile split wider—
unnaturally wide—
like his skin was learning how to stretch.
The lights flickered.
The silhouette in the corner disappeared.
And the shadow beneath the man began to move.
Chapter 10 — THE SHADOW FINALLY MOVES
Riya stumbled backward as the bleeding man’s shadow began to stretch across the floor.
Not faster.
Not aggressively.
But slowly… deliberately… like it was testing her fear.
The man tilted his head, watching her with those wrong, too-wide eyes.
“You shouldn’t have looked,” he whispered.
“It learns through attention.”
Her voice barely made it out of her throat.
“What… what are you?”
He blinked, as if surprised by the question.
Then he smiled — that broken, too-stretched smile.
“I’m what he tried to warn you about.”
Riya’s phone vibrated violently on the floor.
She crawled toward it, shaking, grabbed it with both hands, and lifted it to her face.
One new message:
“BACK AWAY.
IT CAN’T FOLLOW IF YOU STEP OUT OF ITS SHADOW.”
Riya’s heart hammered.
She looked down.
Her foot was touching the edge of the creature’s dark, spider-like shadow.
The bleeding man took a step toward her.
The shadow spread, reaching.
Riya backed up until her shoulders hit the wall.
The man came closer, voice low, soft, hypnotic.
“Riya… you don’t understand.”
He placed a hand against the wall beside her head, caging her in.
“It only wants one thing.”
Her voice trembled.
“What?”
He leaned in so close she could feel the warmth of his breath.
“To wear you.”
Riya’s stomach twisted.
Her phone buzzed again — but this time, the screen glitched, scrambling with static, the words smearing before finally snapping into clarity:
“IT IS TRYING TO COPY YOUR FACE.”
Riya’s breath caught.
Because the bleeding man’s features were… shifting.
His jawline sharpening.
His cheekbones smoothing.
His eyes narrowing —
slowly, subtly —
into something terrifyingly close to her own.
“No—” she whispered.
“Oh yes,” he murmured, voice thickening, deepening, twisting.
“You stepped into its house.
Now it steps into you.”
Her pulse thundered.
Her vision blurred.
Her hands shook.
She shoved him with all her strength.
He didn’t move.
Not an inch.
His shadow ballooned up the wall behind him like black smoke trying to peel away from the floor.
Riya’s phone buzzed again.
“RUN.
BUT NOT TOWARD THE DOOR.
TOWARD THE MIRROR.”
Riya whipped her head toward the mirror hanging on the opposite wall.
She didn’t understand.
Why the mirror?
What could it possibly—
The bleeding man’s hand closed around her wrist, ice-cold and too strong.
He leaned in, voice almost affectionate:
“Don’t worry.
You won’t feel yourself leaving.”
Riya raised the phone and smashed it against his face.
The screen shattered.
He didn’t flinch.
But his shadow did.
It convulsed — jerking like a spider caught in a flame.
Riya bolted toward the mirror.
The bleeding man turned sharply, bones cracking as his neck twisted farther than it should.
He ran after her.
Riya crashed into the wall beside the mirror—
But the glass didn’t reflect her.
It reflected him.
Not how he looked.
But what he truly was.
A crawling mass of limbs and mouthless hunger, wearing a man’s skin like a costume it hadn’t finished stitching.
Riya screamed—
The thing lunged—
And the mirror shattered.
The room plunged into darkness.
And in the dark, she heard a voice — not his, not the creature’s, but familiar:
“RIYA.
YOU BROKE THE ONLY THING KEEPING IT OUT.”
Then—
Something grabbed her ankle.
Hard.
And yanked her into the dark.
Chapter 11 — Inside Its Mind
The darkness swallowed Riya whole.
There was no floor.
No walls.
No room.
Only cold air rushing past her as something dragged her downward — or upward — or sideways.
It felt like falling in every direction at once.
Her fingers clawed at nothing.
Then—
SLAM.
Her body hit something solid.
A floor.
A real one.
Wooden.
Old.
She gasped, pushing herself up—only to freeze.
She wasn’t in her hallway anymore.
She was in her bedroom, but wrong.
Everything looked the same… but off by a fraction.
Like someone had rebuilt her room from memory, but didn’t understand how humans think about space.
The bed was angled slightly too close to the door.
The window was a few inches too high.
Her own photos hung on the wall — but the smiles were…
incorrect.
Her face wasn’t smiling in any of them.
Every version of her looked straight at the camera with a blank, flat expression.
Riya’s breath hitched.
A whisper drifted through the room, brushing against her ear like cold cloth:
“Do you like your room?”
Riya spun.
The bleeding man stood in the corner.
But now… he wasn’t bleeding.
His wounds were gone.
His hair was combed.
He looked almost normal.
Except for one thing.
His eyes.
They were her eyes.
She backed away, trembling.
“What… do you want?”
He stepped forward, calm, pleasant, as if guiding a child through a museum.
“You broke the mirror,” he said softly.
“That kept it separate. Now you’re inside… where it keeps the pieces.”
Her pulse hammered.
“Pieces of what?”
He smiled gently.
“Of you.”
Riya shook her head.
“No. No—”
He reached up and touched the photo on the wall with her wrong face.
“These,” he said, “are the girls it learned.”
He traced one picture with his fingertip.
“This one lasted two nights.
This one lasted four.”
Riya felt her knees weaken.
“And you?” he whispered, turning to her again.
“You lasted the longest.”
Her phone buzzed — startling her — but the sound wasn’t real.
It echoed through the room like a memory trying to wake up.
Riya looked down.
Her shattered phone was suddenly whole, lying on the bed.
The screen lit up:
“YOU AREN’T IN YOUR HOUSE.
YOU’RE INSIDE ITS MIND.”
Her heart lurched.
She looked up.
The man’s shadow on the floor was slowly peeling upward, separating from his body like a second figure made of pure darkness.
Riya whispered, “Let me go…”
The man tilted his head, expression almost sad.
“Oh, Riya.”
He stepped closer.
“You don’t let go of a shadow.”
His own shadow rose fully behind him now — tall, twisted, bending at impossible angles.
He extended a hand toward her.
The shadow copied him.
Two identical hands reaching.
Riya pressed her back against the wall, eyes wide.
Her phone buzzed again — violently — the message appearing before she even lifted it:
“IF YOU WANT TO LIVE,
TURN AROUND.
DON’T LOOK AT THEM.
LOOK AT WHAT’S BEHIND YOU.”
Chapter 12 — The Reflection That Found Her
Riya didn’t want to.
Every instinct screamed not to.
But the shadow-man’s hand brushed her cheek—
cold, soft, impossibly light—
And she turned.
Slowly.
Terrified.
She expected another figure.
Another creature.
Another nightmare.
But she wasn’t prepared for this.
Because behind her was a mirror.
Unbroken.
Untouched.
And in that mirror—
She wasn’t alone.
Her reflection wasn’t reflecting her.
It was smiling.
Wider.
Wider.
Wider.
Until the mouth wasn’t a smile anymore
but a dark, endless curve—
Riya staggered back, breath shattering—
Her reflection whispered through the glass:
“Found you.”
Then the mirror cracked—
once—
twice—
And her reflection began pushing through.
