It Lurks Behind The Shade (3 of 3)

*Author's note*: This is part 3! Please click here to read part 1. and here to read part 2

"That took a lot longer than I was expecting," Dexter said quietly. We were walking down the hallway to my apartment. We got caught in traffic from an accident on the way to the burger place. The wait was long once we actually got there, and our food took forever to come out because they were so busy.

"Yeah, it's almost midnight. Our weird shadow or silhouette or whatever it is should be showing up soon," I murmured quietly. I didn't know how many of these apartments were occupied, and I didn't want to annoy my neighbors. I got out my keys, unlocked my door, and pushed it open. "Watch it not show up since I'm not alone."

"Wouldn't that be the cra—" Dexter stared ahead directly into my apartment, his voice seemingly stuck in his throat.

"Dex, what's up? What is—" My gaze followed his. A scream rising in my throat but refusing to come out, the horror dawned on me that we had not closed the shade before we left. We were both face-to-face with the... thing... that cast the shadow. It stood staring into the window.

At a quick glance, it looked like a person dressed in a red medieval jester costume except the costume seemed to be part of its skin. Its face was an unnatural pale white. It didn't have any visible lips, contorting its face into an insane grin, showing yellow teeth. Its eyes were the worst part. They were white voids, almost like looking into the static on a TV. I don't know how, but I could tell it was staring directly at us.

Dexter and I stood frozen, staring at the grotesque figure in the window. My heart pounded in my chest, my mind racing for a rational explanation that just wasn't there.

"Close... close the d-d-door," Dexter whispered, his voice trembling. "Close it, now."

The jester moved its head, appearing to study us. Then it raised a clawed hand and waved to us. It pointed down at the window, its implication clear—it wanted us to open it.

That movement was all I needed to snap me out of the trance. I grabbed the doorknob to my apartment and slammed the door shut.

We backed away from the door, breathing heavily. "What the hell was that?" Dexter finally managed to say, his voice barely above a whisper. I tried to answer, but no sound came out of my mouth.

"We need to get out of here," Dexter said, glancing around the hallway nervously. "A hotel, my house, your parents' place, Russia, the moon. Anywhere but here."

I nodded, my mind still reeling. Luckily, we had our wallets, phones, and keys, and had no need to go inside. We hurried back to Dexter's car, glancing over our shoulders the entire time. Once inside, he locked the doors and started the engine, driving away from the apartment complex as fast as we could.

"You think we should call the police?" Dexter asked. He was gripping the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles were white.

"I don't know... I don't even know what we'd tell them... 'There is a creepy jester in my window'? 'Some lunatic is hanging out in the alley next to my apartment'?"

"They might at least send someone to take a look if you tell them that," he offered, trying to sound confident but failing miserably.

"But send them into what? You saw that thing. There is no way it was human. What if they open the window?"

"Crud..." Dexter sighed. He pulled into the parking lot of a 24-hour store twenty minutes away from my apartment complex. He pulled out his phone and brought up the notes app. "Alright. Let's figure this out. What do we know?"

"The people that own the apartment know about it. At least enough to be afraid of it." He typed that in.

"Alright, that's one thing. It leaves at dawn is another. Think that means the sun is a problem for it?"

"I don't know. Let's classify the leaves at dawn as a fact and the sun being a problem as a maybe."

"Any other maybes?" I pondered that question for a moment.

"Well..." I said finally. "I don't think it's capable of opening the window by itself." Dexter typed that into his phone.

"I think you're right. If it could just come through the window and come inside, it would have done that by now. So we have two 'definites' and two 'maybes'."

"Are we confident enough in the idea that it can't open the window itself to go back?" Dexter let that question hang in the air before he answered it.

"I think so. You've been in the apartment about two weeks. You're still here." He sighed and started the car.

"You ready?" Dexter asked as we once again stood in front of my apartment door.

"No, but I'll go ahead anyway." I turned the doorknob. We had rushed away so quickly, I hadn't relocked the door. I pushed it open. The jester still stood in the window, its void-like eyes staring at us as we stepped into the apartment.

"I'm going to close the shade. Be ready," Dexter whispered to me.

"Wait." I sidestepped into the kitchen. The jester's head seemed to follow me, turning only slightly, watching silently. I pulled a knife from the drawer and sidestepped back into the living room. "Alright. Ready."

"Okay." Dexter walked toward the window. I could practically hear his heart throbbing out of his chest. As he got to the window and reached for the shade, the jester motioned to him, pointing to the bottom of the window, the same motion, asking him to open it. Dexter pulled the shade down, obscuring it from view.

As Dexter collapsed onto the couch, I let out the breath I hadn't even realized I was holding in. The jester's silhouette was still visible through the shade.

"I think we can move 'Can't open the window by itself' out of the 'Maybe' section," he said after a long moment.

"Yeah," I replied, unable to think of anything else to say. This entire situation was too unreal. Dexter and I sat in silence for a few moments, processing what was happening.

"We need a plan," Dexter finally said, breaking the quiet. "You can't just live here with that thing showing up every night. It'll drive you insane. You already look like you've aged ten years."

"We need more information. I just don't think we have enough to work with," I replied, my brow furrowing.

"Think we can get more information out of Becky?"

"She's been more helpful than Lena, but she won't be back until the morning."

"Well, it's one-thirtyish now." Dexter shot the window a look. "I'm exhausted."

"Should we sleep here?" I asked, not exactly thrilled with the idea.

"That'll give us the most time," Dexter said, looking equally unhappy about it. "That thing can't get inside. No harm in it, I guess." He looked uncomfortable. "I don't think I want to sleep out here, though. I feel like it can see me through the shade. Can I sleep on the floor in your room?"

"Sure."

****************

I was running through the halls of the complex. The loud footsteps of the jester shuffled behind me. Doors moved past me as I ran up the stairs, panting. As I reached the top and opened the door, there it was.

"No!" I cried out as it grabbed me by the throat and lifted me. The static voids that were its eyes stared me down as it leaned in and licked my face with a long green tongue. As it pulled away, its face changed. It wasn't the jester. It was me, but the eyes...the eyes were the same as the jester's.

"CLARK, WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" I opened my eyes as Dexter and I rolled into the bathroom.

"What was that fo—" I began, then stopped. The last thing I remembered was going to sleep. How did we get out here?

"No time. RUN!" He pulled me to my feet as I saw a clawed hand wrapping around the window frame, and the jester pulled its head inside, its demented grin seeming to widen as it looked at us. Dexter didn't need to tell me twice; we ran to my apartment door.

Dexter threw it open as I looked over my shoulder to see the jester stand at its full height. My stomach dropped. It had not been standing in front of the window. It had been sitting. It had to be over seven feet tall.

I slammed the door behind me as we entered the hallway, anything to buy us a precious few seconds.

"Get to the car." Dexter ran down the hall, and I followed close behind him. I could hear the door to my apartment opening but I didn't look. I knew the jester was coming out. The front door and the parking lot were only a few yards away.

That's when the hallway started to distort and lengthen. Suddenly, the door was no longer a few yards away; it was further away than the hallway was long. I looked over my shoulder to see the jester moving its arms in a strange circle.

"It's doing this," I yelled to Dexter. We were both still trying to run to the door, but we might as well have been running in place, when our feet were pulled out from beneath us and we toppled to the floor.

The jester was only a little further along the hallway than my apartment door, its arms making a motion as if it was pulling rope. We both started to move along the carpet as if we were being dragged. It almost seemed to laugh as it pulled us along. Then something bounced off its face, breaking the spell. It was a stress ball.

"Over here!" Becky was standing in her office door. Dexter and I didn't ask any questions, at least not at that moment. We darted into her office and she closed the door behind us, fastening the lock. Dexter had run over to her desk and started to push it. I joined him and with our combined strength, we managed to get it in front of the door.

"One of you looked into its eyes, didn't you?" Becky asked.

"We both did. We were investigating, we opened the shade, and then went out....when we got back it was already there," Dexter explained as a loud thudding started against the door. "Thought you left at five?"

"I had a bad feeling, so I slept here," Becky said, nodding towards a door. "Got a full setup for when I don't feel like going home." The thudding continued.

"We have to get out of here," I said, my eyes darting around the room, settling on one of the windows, and started trying to open it. It hadn't been opened in a long time. The hinges were rusted.

"At dawn, it will go back through the window, and we can close it back in. If we make it until dawn, that is," Becky's tone sounded depressed. "It's four-thirty now."

"We have to last an hour and a half," Dexter muttered, helping me try to open the window. I looked at him. "I woke up from a nightmare. Your bed was empty. I went out in the living room and you were opening the window," he explained, seeming to read my mind. The window wouldn't budge.

"My apartment is attached to the apartment next door. We can try to get out that way," she said, shooting into the bedroom as a red, white, and black fluid started to trickle underneath the doorway, under the desk, and into the room.

We followed behind her, avoiding the puddle. She was in the process of unlocking a door. It popped open to another door which she started unlocking. The jester's head started to form from the puddle.

"Why is your apartment attached to the apartment next door?" Dexter asked.

"Leftover from when this place used to be a hotel." The door popped open just as the jester's arms started to reform, and it started pulling its body out of the puddle. We went through the two doors, closing them both behind us, then out the front door of the apartment.

"How long has that thing been here?" I asked as we headed towards the front door of the complex.

"Don't know. Dawn said it came with the hotel when her mother bought it. The hotel owner had been using that room as a storage room. Dawn's mom had it converted without knowing about that abomination until it was too late." We headed towards Dexter's car.

"Why do you even rent it out?" Dexter asked, feeling his pockets. He shook his head to me. No keys.

"We try not to. Every time it goes unoccupied long, or gets used as a storage, a homeless person breaks in for shelter...and that thing gets out."

"And you were gonna make me stay a year?" I asked. We headed to my car next, keeping a nervous eye on the apartment's front door.

"A year we wouldn't have to worry about someone breaking in. Lena hoped you would follow the instructions due to the low rent. I told her that was stupid, and I was right because here we are." We slid into my car, Becky taking the back seat. Luckily, I never took my keys out of my pocket.

"That's insane!" Dexter said, shaking his head as I started the car.

"Yes, it is, but can you imagine how bad it is when that window is broken?" Becky let that sentence hang in the air as I started to pull out of the lot. The street and buildings around us began to distort, just like the hallway had before.

“Crap!” I yelled. The jester stood in the apartment doorway, its arms twisting and turning. It gripped the air with its clawed hands and shook it. The road beneath us quaked as if made of rubber.

“Get out of the car!” Becky cried, frantically trying to open the back door, but it was too late. The car flipped onto its side. Dexter, not wearing his seatbelt, fell on top of me.

“Get off!” I yelped in pain.

“I’m trying!” Dexter fumbled to get up and open his door. I managed to pop my seatbelt. Becky, still strapped in, didn’t topple like we did. She opened her door first and climbed out.

Dexter and I scrambled out. Becky didn’t run but helped us crawl out. The jester was shuffling slowly toward us.

“Scatter!” Dexter cried and bolted to the right.

“It can’t follow all of us!” Becky disappeared to the left. I ran around the tipped-over car and headed down an alley across the street. I glanced over my shoulder long enough to see the jester pause, looking back and forth. Its lipless smile widened, amused by this game.

I weaved in and out of alleyways between buildings, running as fast as my legs would carry me. The city seemed to still be asleep in these early hours of the morning. I didn’t see a single soul.

Several blocks later, I stopped to catch my breath and checked my pockets. No phone. I must have dropped it when the car tipped over. There was no way to contact Dexter, Becky, or anyone else. No way to know if the jester had gotten either of them.

I started running to the right, the direction Dexter had headed, hoping we could meet up. I turned my head quickly in all directions, trying to keep an eye out for the jester. As I ran through the maze of alleyways, the echoes of my footsteps bounced off the buildings, creating a disorienting cacophony. My breath came in ragged gasps, but I couldn’t slow down.

I turned a corner and almost ran into Dexter. He was hunched over, hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath.

“Dexter!” I whispered harshly, and he looked up, relief washing over his face.

“Clark, thank God,” he panted. “Where’s Becky?”

“I don’t know. She went the other way.”

Before we could say more, a noise echoed from behind us—a slow, scraping sound, like claws on brick, that sent shivers down my spine. The jester was close. We started to run further away, keeping to the alleyways, trying not to stay out in the open.

"Do you know what time it is?" Dexter asked.

"No. I think my phone fell in the car."

"Damn. We just need to last till dawn, but I don't know how close it is."

"Hopefully soon. I don't know if I can run much more." As we dipped into another alley, we heard the slow shuffling of footsteps.

"Hide," Dexter whispered as we ducked to the side of a dumpster.

"How did it even catch up?" I whimpered quietly. Dexter tensed up.

"I think it only walks slow like that when we're close. It's toying with us." The slow shuffling footsteps got closer. The grating noise of claws on brick kicked up again. My heart beat in my chest as the noise got closer...closer...then further. I looked to Dexter. He seemed to relax. He nodded at me.

Then the jester's head popped down, staring at us upside down, its yellow teeth bared, its hot breath on our faces. It was on the dumpster. Dexter screamed. I joined him. Our screams pierced the night as the jester swung its legs, setting them before us as its joints cracked, moving in abnormal ways, until it stood over us.

It gave us a little bow, almost like a performer would on stage, a hiss escaping its horrid mouth as it opened. A long green tongue crawled out, then the jester abruptly stopped. It looked at its wrist as if checking an invisible watch, then it looked to the sky as we cowered before it.

It moved its hands to its face, making an "O" shape with its mouth before waving to us and starting to walk away.

"It's...leaving?" I blurted out, confused.

"Look over there." Dexter pointed to a section of the sky that was starting to lighten, turning from dark blue to a lighter blue.

"Sunrise...it's heading back to the window." I exhaled, relieved.

"We have to stop it," Dexter said, standing up and tearing after the jester.

"WHAT!? WHY!?" I screamed after him.

"Think about it!" he called back. "Why does a vampire run away from the sun?"

"Because...it will destroy it," I whispered to myself. Of course. I tore after him. The jester was walking quickly in the direction of the apartment. Dexter was sprinting after it, holding a metal garbage can that I assumed he picked up off the street.

I jetted towards them, not really sure how to help as Dexter drove the garbage can onto the jester's back, causing it to pause as the metal garbage can crumpled around it.

The jester turned around and wagged its finger at him, raising its clawed hand. Hoping against hope, I raised my leg as I got there, landing my foot full force right in the middle of the jester's legs.

Its face twisted into an "O" shape again as it bent over, its hands moving down to between its legs, grabbing the area I'd hit. As I stood there in disbelief that it actually worked, Dexter raised the trash can and slammed it down onto the jester's head this time.

The jester fully toppled over in the middle of the sidewalk as the sky overhead lightened more. It looked up at us, the white static voids that were its eyes glowing red now as it hissed in anger.

"It's pissed..." Dexter said, raining down blows with the crumpled garbage can as I clubbed down as hard as I could with my fists. Our blows had no effect as the jester stood all the way up. I tried to plant another kick between its legs, but the jester anticipated this. It grabbed my ankle and lifted me by my leg as its hand wrapped around Dexter's throat.

It lifted him off the ground, Dexter's legs flailing as the jester hissed in his face. I flailed my arms, swinging wildly as I hit any part of the jester I could. Then the jester froze. The first rays of the early morning sun filled the street. It dropped us, both of us landing in a crumpled heap on the street.

The jester started to back up, doing anything it could to stay out of the sun's rays. It scrambled, looking in all directions before running towards a dark alley.

It was too little, too late. The sun's rays shone down on the jester. It writhed and twisted, its form becoming more distorted and grotesque. Its body became less and less stable, its skin started to bubble and boil, as it jerked and fell to its knees. With a final, anguished shriek, the jester exploded into a burst of light.

"I think it's dead," Dexter said, slowly getting up. "You okay?"

"My ankle is going to be a little bruised but...I think so," I said with relief.

************

We doubled back to the apartment where we found Becky waiting. She had headed back there when the sun started to rise, to be ready to close the window. When we told her the jester was no more, she was ecstatic. She called Dawn.

Dawn was not amused to be called so early in the morning, but her mood quickly turned to excitement when Becky told her the jester would never be a bother again. She handed me the phone, telling me that Dawn insisted on speaking to me.

Dawn told me that as long as she owned that building and I lived there, I would never need to pay rent or for utilities ever again. She also offered me a job alongside Becky and Lena, which I graciously accepted. The same offer was made to Dexter, and he took up residence in the unused bedroom in my apartment.

The oppressive feeling that had hung over my apartment was gone. For the first time since I'd moved in, it truly felt like home.

But...

Every night before bed, Dexter and I made sure the window was closed and the shade was drawn over it...just in case.

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Credit to Craiyon.com for images