The Corner

“Nicole, can’t you see them?”

“See what?”

“My friends, the shadow people. They’re in the corner. Two of them.”

“You’re almost 8. Stop with the imaginary friends.”

“You don’t understand. They’re real, and they’re looking at me. They want to play.”

“Go to bed. You’re seeing Dr. Marks tomorrow. Talk to him about it.” Nicole went to turn over in her bed away from her brother but paused mid-turn and looked at the corner of their shared room. Her eyes quickly adjusted to the dark but caught nothing out of the ordinary. She sighed, rolling her eyes, and finished turning herself over.

“He doesn’t help, and he asks too many questions.”

“You’ve only been to him twice, and I’ve never heard you talk about them. Maybe you should introduce them tomorrow.”

A bright beam of moonlight poked through their blue curtains lighting up the space in between their two beds. It gave the room a grey tint save for the corner where her brother claims the shadow people are. It was always pitch black in the corner even if the moonlight shone right next to it or in that exact spot. Nicole was always suspicious but never told her parents. She just rolled over every night so she didn’t have to see it and hugged her teddy bear closer as the familiar feeling of eyes watching dug into the back of her open neck.

“The shadow people told me they don’t like Dr. Marks.”

Nicole sat on the floor in front of her bed and hummed as she neatly folded her clean lavender-scented laundry and placed them into piles. Now and then, her eyes would dart to the corner of her brother’s side and quickly go back to her clothes. “So creepy,” she muttered to herself as she finished folding the last of her laundry.

The morning sun shone through their half-open window (Mother never let them open it further for there was no screen to protect them from accidentally falling out). The breeze from outside rustled the origami insects and birds hanging by thin strings on the ceiling of Nicole’s side. Her side of the room was set up to resemble a forest. Her bedding was green and brown to look as though it were carved from a tree and her bed frame was brown with used paper towel rolls and crumbled-up green paper shaped to look like tree branches. The space above her bed had dozens of crumbled-up green poster paper balls that were stuck together to make the top of a tree. Her walls had vines made out of cut-up paper towels and toilet paper rolls. There were also origami insects taped all over the walls.

Her brother’s side of the room was too messy to know what the theme was. He had toys of all types strewn about and his large toy box at the end of his bed was open. Stuffed animals piled on the bed where they met the toy box to “block the monsters away” which he had told his sister when she tried putting them away to make his side look more presentable.

The eyes still dug into the back of Nicole’s neck, so she pulled the black hair tie out of her chestnut-colored hair and let her natural curls bounce down onto her shoulders. She wouldn’t let her fear to get the best of her and kept humming her tunes to feel less alone. Mother and father refused to put a TV in the children’s room because they feared the children would never come out of their room again (which was entirely true though the children tried to argue otherwise).

“Hello, Dr. Marks,” Nicole heard her brother mumble from downstairs. She never understood why her brother’s therapist always came to the house for sessions, and her parents never told her why; they just brushed off her question.

“Hello, James! How are you feeling?” Dr. Marks replied. Nicole closed her dresser drawer, grabbed her favorite book, and sat on her bed flipping through the pages to look at the pictures. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a single orange maple leaf flutter through the window and into the dark corner. It did a few twirls before floating down onto the ground. Nicole put her feet up on the bed and rested the book on her knees low enough so that she could still see over it. Her body was completely still as she kept a close eye on the leaf. She could have sworn she saw the darkness move towards it, but she only told herself that her eyes were playing tricks on her because she was too focused. After a few minutes, she slammed her book shut and tossed it next to her.

“This is ridiculous,” she said to herself and got up walking towards the corner to pick it up. The minute her foot stepped onto her brother’s side of the room, however, the temperature of the air dropped. She thought it odd because she had been on his side of the room before and it had never felt this cold compared to her side. Still, she pushed the thought back and continued to creep towards the leaf. She bent down and reached her arm out muttering, “Stupid leaf.” Just then, the leaf shot up as if someone were holding it and went straight into the vent and Nicole was shoved back by a strong gust of wind. She stared wide-eyed at the vent and let out a high-pitched scream.

Nicole tried to tell her parents what had happened, but they refused to believe it was real. They told her it was just her brain making up stories because she was scared and that she needed to get over it. Nicole knew what she saw wasn’t made up, but kept to herself as she was tired of arguing with her parents.

After her brother was finished with his therapy session, he made his way back upstairs to their room. Nicole was sitting on her bed making a blue origami dragonfly to tape to the open spot on her wall.

“You scared my friends,” James said standing at the doorway. Nicole looked up from her project.

“Well they scared me,” she retorted. James ignored her and walked over to the corner. He sat down in front of it leaving a bit of space and grabbed the toy truck next to him. He placed it in between him and the darkness and moved it back and forth.

“I’m sorry about my sister,” he said to the emptiness in front of him. “She gets spooked easily.” Chills ran down Nicole’s spine as she listened and occasionally watched her brother converse with his “shadow friends.”

“Could you not do that while I’m in here? It’s creepy. Just… go outside or something.” She took a piece of tape and attached it to the origami.

“Mother and Father don’t let me go outside.” Nicole stuck the dragonfly to the wall. “They say the other kids are afraid of me.” The dragonfly fell and Nicole turned around to look at her brother who was still facing the corner playing with his truck. At first, she thought this whole shadow situation was just a joke. That he was making up all this stuff to scare her. But as she stared into her little brother’s eyes, she knew he wasn’t joking. She felt cold like she did when she was at his side of the room. She wanted to move, to cry out for their parents, but she couldn’t. Her terror was controlling her movements now and it told her to stay still.

The sun outside their window was starting to set giving the sky a bright glow that looked like rainbow sherbet. Birds were still flying around in the sky, but most were getting settled in their nests to retire for the night. Cars were still heard from the street next to their neighborhood, but it was a much quieter sound now that rush hour was over. Pots and pans were heard from downstairs, and the sweet smell of pasta sauce wafted under their closed door and into the room. Nicole’s stomach growled, begging her to go downstairs for dinner, but she remained rooted to the spot. She had pleaded multiple times to have her own room, but her parents refused each time. Frequently in the past, she would go to bed with tears in her eyes and silently cry herself to sleep as the eyes still bore into her neck. The only times when she would wear her hair up as if she were hot or it was getting in the way. When she kept her hair down and covered the nape of her neck, it made her feel more secure and helped shield her from the sharp stares of the corner.

“Have you told Dr. Marks about it?” She scolded herself for letting her voice shake but remained calm.

“Yeah, but now he wants to meet the shadow people. He told mother and father too, and they said he could see tomorrow.” The thought of Dr. Marks coming to their room made her feel better. To know that he would experience what she did and fix it gives her hope. Maybe she’ll enjoy staying in this room after all.

“I think that’s a great idea.”

The next day, Dr. Marks came over at 5:30 pm sharp. Nicole was on her bed reading a book when the door to the room opened. A tall, burly man with slicked-back black hair stepped in, James following suit. The man was wearing black dress pants and a white button-up shirt tucked in. He held a notebook and pen. “Hello. You must be Nicole,” he said.”

“Hi,” Nicole replied shyly. She put her book down and watched as James led Dr. Marks to the corner.
“This is it?” he asked, pointing. James nodded and sat on his bed. His face was neutral, but Nicole could see it was only a mask. He was nervous and angry at the same time. She didn’t know why, though. Dr. Marks was only trying to help him get better. At least, that’s what her parents told her. Whenever she tried to ask James, he would shrug and continue to play with the shadow people.

Dr. Marks cleared his throat. “Hello,” he said. There was no answer. “My name is Dr. Marks. I heard that you’re James’ friends.” There was still no answer. James fiddled with the ear of a stuffed dog.

“They don’t want to talk to you,” James said.

“I mean no harm. I just would like to get to know you.” There was still no answer, but Nicole thought she saw two dark figures slide down from the vents. She shook her head lightly and scolded herself for being foolish. “I’m here to help your friend James, and he’s told me so much about you that I thought I should get to know you two as well.”

Dr. Marks turned around and grabbed his notebook. He flipped open to the next clean page and began scribbling down notes. Nicole desperately wanted to know what he was writing but knew better than to ask. She stayed put and continued to watch. Dr. Marks put his pen and notebook back down and suddenly went still. Nicole squinted in confusion.

“Are you alright?” She asked, getting up.

“Don’t move,” James commanded. Nicole stopped. Her brother had never spoken in that tone of voice before.

“What is-” Dr. Marks began but stopped speaking when a shadow passed over him. He was lifted and shot into the vent like the leaf had been yesterday evening. Nicole stared at the vent. She rubbed her eyes and looked again.

‘This has to be a dream,’ She thought. ‘No person could fit in a vent that small.’

Before she could say or do anything, James turned to look at her. His eyes, instead of being light brown, were a dull brown void. Instead of being filled with twinkles of life, they had nothing but gravestones of emptiness in them. The whole room dropped in temperature, and Nicole shivered.

“I told you the shadow people don’t like Dr. Marks.”