The shadow

My eyes opened up, and tears were coming out of my eyes. I looked outside; it was dark with the city's lights everywhere. While looking at a photo of Petra, my other cousin, and me, I told myself it was just a bad memory and that the things of the past should remain there. I needed some coffee; my brain was worn out. I went downstairs and entered the kitchen and took the coffee beans, milk, and sugar and started to boil some water. While waiting, the lights started to flicker, so I turned off the lights. The coffee was ready; I grabbed the mug and put in all the ingredients. I can finally drink it. I went to the table and sat down while looking at my cellphone, then I heard a weird noise; it came from the chair in front of me. I put my phone's flashlight on and saw a weird human shadow, covered all in black, but the silhouette was similar to someone, but I could not remember. It repeatedly called my name in a voice that was both sad and happy at the same time. I tried to hurt it by throwing my cup of coffee, but it did not work, so I started to run as quickly as I could to the light switch to see her true form, but when the light turned on, it disappeared. The shadow left a weird black stain in the place it was standing. I was so tired that I slept on the floor. This time I woke up to the alarm that I was hearing from my kitchen. I went to turn it off; the noise was pissing me off. It said Tuesday, 22, 6:30, 2023. While taking a shower, for some reason I could not remember what happened last night. Maybe the coffee was too strong for my brain to handle. Walking downstairs to the kitchen, I saw a kind of ink on my walls and floor.
— That is so strange. What did I do last night to make the kitchen messy?—I said to myself. I opened the fridge to grab milk, drank from the carton, put it back, and left my house.

The streets were still kind of dark; I started to feel dizzy. Those 3 hours of sleep will make a really bad day for me. The only thing keeping me awake was the noises from cars and people passing by. The more I walked, the fewer cars and people I saw until, at one point, there was no sound. I looked in every direction, but no one was there, especially at the supermarket next to me, and saw a strange girly shadow looking directly at my eyes; then my brain clicked. It was the shadow that I saw in the kitchen. My body froze; I could not move a muscle. Suddenly she started to get closer, saying, "Mike, Mike, you can see me, right?" The closer she got, the dizzier my brain got, and the more colorful she got. Her hand was about to touch me until I felt a hand behind me. She disappeared, and my brain was fine.
—Dude, are you alright? You look like a ghost —George said. I felt relieved it was not real; I was seeing things, that is all. Looking back at George, I said to him,
—Do you see that strange ink on the bench?
—No, maybe you need more sleep; you are acting a bit weird.—He replied. Maybe a good sleep in math would save me right now, but sadly we have history, and there is a test tomorrow. Talking to George made me realize we were late for school, so we ran as fast as we could to my classroom. Luckily for us, Professor Benjamin was in a good mood and let us enter.

Everyone was taking notes in their notebooks except me. I was not feeling good. Was that shadow really real?. Professor Benjamin was talking about an ancient myth about Earth; it was about places and species that were banished from Earth, like a combination of a human and a dog. It was nonsense. Imagine Earth having magic and a huge golem made of rocks trying to kill you. It sounds like those shows called "Anime" that Japan makes; it was called Isekai, I think. The places that he talked about were a massive icy castle surrounded by mountains, a bunch of towns, mining areas, ocean water, and other stuff I forgot about.
—Mike, do you want to go to the bathroom to wash your face? You look sleepy. — Professor Benjamin said. I left the classroom and went to the bathroom and turned on the tap. Man, that cold water felt good. I felt like a different person, but that did not last long. The strange ink was also here, but I could not do anything about it, so I went back to class.

The class ended, and I was walking through the hallway until I saw again that strange ink. It is like the longer I stay in a place, the more ink I see, but this time it was an arrow, and they were everywhere around school. The shadow was not here; was it trying to communicate with me? I started to walk, following the inky arrows. Every step I took made my surroundings black, and the people started to disappear. The arrows went all the way to the school's border. The ink made a hole in the wall so I could go through.
—Do I go or do I stay? No way I am trusting that shadow; it could kill me — I said to myself. I looked both ways, but there were only two walls, one blocking my way into school and an exit; it was only me and those two walls. I went running in the direction of the school. When I reached the giant ink wall, my body slowed down, my brain felt dizzy again, my eyes closed, and my body fell down.