Dark Alley
Isabella
When we were kids, we feared the dark, believing that’s where the monsters hid. But as we grew, we realized that darkness holds only silence and comfort, while the real monsters walk freely among us, wearing human faces.
The alley behind my mansion is usually silent at night, the kind of silence that presses against your ears and makes your heartbeat sound deafening.
Not in a frightening way. At least, not for me.
I’ve always craved silence and stillness. It may seem absurd to those who love being the center of attention, but people like me ache for a place where we can finally breathe in this tough, exhausting world. A place where we can roam freely without the weight of judgmental eyes. That’s why I prefer night jogs through empty alleys, deserted parks, or anywhere with fewer people.
Tonight, as usual, I’m here, where the only sounds are silence itself and the sound of nocturnal creatures. I don’t usually jog this late, but tonight of all nights, I feel compelled to linger a little longer in this quiet passage, untouched by human presence.
Well, maybe there could be someone out here but thankfully they remain invisible out of my sight.
Even though it’s empty and eerily quiet, this alley is safe. First, because I live in a gated community with advanced security and controlled access; only residents or staff can get in. Second, because this place is home to the high business class that are far too busy to waste time prying into anyone else’s life. And that’s exactly what I love about living here.
Despite the tight security and gated access, none of it could stop my shadow from chasing me. It stalks me every day, always at a distance, never causing harm, but tonight.. something about it feels different.
A flicker of movement catches my eye. My shadow shifts unnaturally, curling along the walls. My pulse spikes, every instinct screaming at me to run but curiosity chains me in place. I’ve been waiting a long time to discover what his true intentions with me, even though I know this is reckless.
Before I can act, my phone buzzes in my pocket. Ana’s name flashes on the screen. The timing could be worse, yet a wave of relief washes over me. I answer, gripping the phone like a lifeline. She’s probably worried because it’s later than usual.
“Isa? Are you still jogging?” Ana’s voice threaded with concern she can’t quite mask. “I told the chef to make your favorite food for dinner.”
I swallow, forcing down the terror prickling my skin. “Yeah… just… running a little late.” My chest staggers and I just sensed it’s not due to jogging but from the danger that is looming in front of me. I have a good lung capacity. I run seven km daily and never find myself this hyperventilating.
“You always say that.” She lets out a nervous laugh. “Besides, it’s way too late. You’d better not be in one of your dark alleys, or I swear I’ll come drag your ass out myself.”
Her words ground me. Somehow, she always knows where I am and what I’m doing.
Ana Rose was the unexpected stranger who entered my life at exactly the right time. When I was drowning in PTSD after losing my parents, she never left my side. She helped me reclaim pieces of myself when I no longer recognized the person staring back in the mirror. All I saw a hollow stranger with soulless eyes screaming at me for daring to be alive. Every day, I fought a war against myself, and every day, she fought beside me.
How can you still alive after what happened?
You brought bad luck to their lives.
You don’t deserve to live. You are the omen of ruin.
This voice kept poisoning my brain until I found no reason to live with this burden, THE BURDEN OF BEING CURSED.
I tried to free myself from this emptiness through several suicide attempts, before this girl came with a mission to save me from drowning in the oceans of my own suicidal thoughts. She did everything to light up one spark of life in me.
She sat with me, talking about all the colorful things that give someone a reason to live. What she didn't know is my world was already filled with darkness, and there was no way even a splash of green could enter this blackness.
She is, without a doubt, the kindest and most steadfast person in my world. She didn’t ask too many questions. She didn’t push. She just existed, steady and warm, like sunlight after a long, endless night.
“I’m fine,” I tried to smooth my voice even though I was hyperventilating from the jog. You are not hyperventilating from a jog. “Just… thinking.”
“Thinking about your fictional morally grey men again?...” she teased. “You’re ridiculous, you know that?”
I laughed softly, the sound shaky but genuine.
“Maybe. But someone must keep standards high.” Ana’s laughter carried over the phone, a balm against the shadows pressing at the edges of my mind. And yet, I couldn’t shake the feeling that someone is watching, waiting. I quickened my pace as much as I could to reach my car.
The alley seemed darker now. And somewhere deep inside, I knew that whatever was calling me from the darkness wouldn’t wait for long.
“Get out of that world you have created in your mind, before you end up alone.”
Touché.
“Either my man should meet all the standards I’ve created in my mind, or I’m good with my fictional boyfriends”.
What the hell is wrong with me? I’m in the middle of a dangerous crisis, and I’m talking about my obsession with book boyfriends who don’t even know I exist. My shadow would probably be laughing over my foolishness.
“Did anyone told you, you are too delusional”, I know she was shaking her head in disbelief. Like she always did.
"Delusional or not, just imagine, you fall for a guy with low maintenance, not manly enough, not physically strong, emotionally fragile. Eww, I don’t even want to imagine”. Okay, mouth, you really need to shut up. This is getting too much.
“Wait…”, she was obviously in shock because I don’t say so many words. “Who are you and what have you done with my Isabella”. There… I was right.
“I’m serious” I pretend to sound serious as much as I can. Although, we are practically doing some shit show in front of my shadow. “I mean, so many words come out of someone who doesn’t know how to speak”. she managed to dissolve her laugh. So many touché’s.
Ana Rose was everything I had after my parents died. Before her, there was only darkness. Darkness so complete I tried to escape it the only way I knew how.
Gabriel, my twin brother, had already been taken into a tragic accident when we were thirteen, and just after two years of my brother’s death, my parents died in a car accident. I had completely lost my sanity, my world completely shattered. I was too young to bear such loss, and hope felt like a distant memory. That’s when I decided to end my life because what’s the point of living in this world being completely alone and after acknowledging what had happened to your family.
That night I also tried to take my life by swallowing plenty of sleeping pills and was completely sure that this time I’ll surely meet my family. But my house maid saw me just before I closed my eyes and when I opened my eyes I was in the damn hospital. At first, I thought that I was finally at peace but when my senses recognized the smell of alcohol, and medicines. I panicked and took my IV off from my hand. Hospital staff tried to calm me down. But they didn’t see how I fought against the storm that is mine alone for a long time. And this time there is no way that brings me back to life. That’s when I met Ana.
The hospital staff gave up on my stubbornness when my therapist had intervened, demanding to give me space. So they finally agreed to give me some space to breathe, to weep, to exist in the misery of still being alive.
I sat in the corridor, hollow, watching the marble floor blur through unshed tears. The world outside kept moving, but inside that hospital, time had stopped with me.
Hospitals are where people come to heal. But healing was the farthest thing from my world. Grief pressed me into the bench, and for the first time, I understood what it meant to feel both alive and already gone. To want to die and not be able to. I tried to cry, but maybe my tear glands were also broken.
I felt someone’s presence behind me, but I couldn’t bring myself to look. After a long silence, the person offered me a cup of what she claimed was the best hot chocolate in town. A rich scent of chocolate and vanilla filled my nostrils.
I didn’t respond. But that didn’t stop her. She seemed oddly determined to make me taste it, and it irritated the hell out of me. I have come here to process what I’d do next, and this strange girl was offering me a cup of hot chocolate. Screw her.
“You’re going to regret it if you don’t try this hot choco,” she said with a stubborn edge in her tone. “They put extra chocolate and cream, with marshmallows and candy canes on top. When you take a sip, it feels like you’re lost in heaven’s air.”
I didn’t take the cup. My eyes stayed glued to the floor, hoping she’d understand I wasn’t interested. At first, I wanted to scream at her to get out of my sight but then she did something I didn’t expect. She sighed softly and sat down beside me. Not too close, not too far. Just there. As if she knew how fragile I was. She didn’t ask questions further. She just sat with me in silence, sipping from her cup like it was the most normal thing in the world.
After a few minutes, she placed the second cup on the bench between us.
“I’ll just leave it here,” she murmured, her voice calm, kind. “In case you change your mind.”
I didn’t say a word. Her presence didn’t feel heavy or intrusive. Instead, it felt like a pause, like the world had finally exhaled for the first time. Just seconds earlier, I had been on the verge of losing control over her persistence yet now she was giving me something I thought I’d lost forever.
When she finally stood to leave, she didn’t look back. She just walked away, humming a tune I couldn’t place.
When I turned my head, I caught sight of her deep auburn hair, fiery in the light, tumbling in wild waves over a white turtleneck and blue jeans. Pale, flawless skin that glowed faintly under the hospital lights. A slim yet graceful frame, her movements delicate. I'd met many beautiful girls, but none surpassed the beauty of this stranger.
And then, after a moment, I did something I hadn’t intended. My hands reached for the cup without my permission, without my will. It was warm against my fingertips, the scent rich and familiar like something from a forgotten childhood dream, a feeling long erased in my tormented world.
I took a sip through the brown straw. It wasn’t just good. It was comforting. I didn’t realize it then, but it was the first time I had truly tasted anything since everything fell apart. The first time I truly felt the sensation of something that didn’t make me feel burdened.
It was my first encounter with this girl, yet it felt like I had known her before. When my gaze fell back to the bench, I noticed a sticky note pressed against the wood:
In case you want another hot choco, feel free to take my company.
—Ana Rose
At the bottom, she had left her number.
My lips curved into a smile at the memory of how she unexpectedly came into my life with a fragile ray of hope. If she hadn’t shown up that day, if she hadn’t wrapped me in her quiet warmth, I would have already lost my sanity or worse, I wouldn’t be alive at all. She resurrected me, reminding me how to feel, how to express emotions, though I’m still fighting with my demons. Back then, I had lost everything: every ounce of emotion, my grip on sanity. I was more like the living dead breathing oxygen but lifeless inside.
But right now, I need to focus on the present. I must figure out how to face my shadow without letting him destroy me. And for that, I need Ana to hang up the phone.
“Do you have any guy in mind?” The question was so sudden it stunned me. My heart stuttered, the world tilting closer.
Focus, Isabella.
You can run from him. A bead of sweat slid down my forehead.
“Isabella?” Ana’s voice pulled me back.
“Can we continue after I come home?” I managed, even though my heart was pounding wildly.
She hesitated, then sighed. “Okay, but promise me we’ll continue where we left off.”
Come on, Ana. I’m in the middle of a crisis. Just let it go.
“I give you my word,” I replied.
“Come quickly, I’m waiting for you.”
I hummed in response and ended the call before she could add another word. Sorry, Ana. I don’t want you to know what’s happening right now.
The truth is, I have no idea what I’m about to face. Worse, I don’t have a backup plan. My intuition is screaming at me to ditch this stubbornness and run straight to my car.
Is it a bad idea to wait for my shadow to find me? Hello, yes. Should I trust my intuition and come back later with a plan? You don’t have any other option, Dumbo.
Fine. I’ll let my intuition win just this once. Even if my curiosity will torment me all night, survival must come first. For the first time, I chose instinct over intrusive thoughts. I sprinted towards my car; thankful it wasn’t too far.
When I reached it, I unlocked my blue Mustang and was about to slide into the driver’s seat when a massive shadow caught my eye.
The hair on my neck bristled. My body snapped into survival mode within seconds. The figure stood close, not just close. Too close, his stare fixed on me. No… not just staring. Devouring.
He has been watching me in secret for six months. Never once did he hurt me, invade my space, or even attempt communication. It was as if he didn’t want me to fear him. He only watched, with a kind of intensity that etched itself into my bones. Whether I was jogging alone, driving, or sitting quietly in the library. I felt him. Always.
But this was the first time I had seen him so close. The alley was dark, revealing only his mask with some pattern which I couldn’t decipher due to the darkness. His height sharpened his presence, making him seem more dangerous, more feral. From the silhouette alone, his body looked sculpted, muscles straining against the dark fabric—a shirt? A jacket? The darkness made it impossible to tell. But one thing was certain:
This man was far too dangerous to be ordinary.
But what does he want from me? Why has he always kept his distance and never once tried to speak?
But here’s the disturbing part: even though he’s this close to me, I feel completely unharmed. His presence feels more like comfort than a threat. He radiates a kind of warmth that has been missing from my life ever since the accident, a warmth even Ana failed to give me.
What is wrong with me? Well, congratulations You’ve lost your damn mind, Isabella.
I want to sit my own body down and have a serious talk about why my chemistry is going rogue and why my nerves are betraying me in such a dangerous situation. But before that, I need to get out of here, before he twists my head into even more chaos. I know he enjoys unraveling my sanity, and it pisses me off more than I want to admit.
I turned the ignition and reversed the engine. The shadow stayed exactly where it was. He didn’t try to stop me, didn’t even move closer. He just stood there, watching my every move.
Screw this bastard. He didn’t even attempt to stop me, as I turned the steering wheel left. I won’t let him mess with my mind that easily.
I caught another glimpse of him in the rearview mirror. Still motionless.
What is he? A statue?
One thing is for sure. He’s playing mind games. And I won’t give in that easily, not without fighting. If he wants to play, fine. I’ll play. But I’ll come prepared.
First, I need to get the hell out of here. So, I pressed harder on the gas.
Screw you, Isabella. Your love for morally grey men is going to kill you one day.
What? I just like reading books about them. No need to judge.
Those romance stories bring me comfort. When your life is nothing but chaos and darkness, those books add a splash of color. They let me breathe. They let me see a fragment of light, even if it’s only for a while. You think they’re just words on a page, meaningless ink, but what you don’t know is that sometimes words are enough to fill someone’s hollow existence. That’s exactly what those books did for me. When I found no reason to live, they lit a spark in my empty soul, whispering survival into my bones.
But thankfully, there’s still a rational corner in my brain, and it won today. My logical side pulled me out of there, even though my irrational part screamed at me to stay, to ask him why he had been watching me in silence.
But this isn’t a fictional world. And I’m not sure if he can harm me.
Then again… if he wanted to, he could have already.
Can you please shut up for one second.
Six months is not a short period of time. And I’m not open to taking risks. If I ever talk to him, I’ll come with a proper backup, just in case his intentions aren’t harmless. And I better not delay this time. If he’s waited this long, that doesn’t mean he’ll wait forever. He’ll make a move eventually.
And I don’t know when that time will come.
Because the city may sleep
but the shadows never do.
Date: 29th July, 2010
Dear Isabella,
I started to write this journal not out of choice, but out of necessity. One day when you will find these entries, you’ll realize the world has never been what it seemed. And neither have you.
You are still too young to understand the weight you are carrying. Even your mother and I didn’t fully understand it until that night. The night we lost your brother.
They meant to kill you both. But your brother died in that fire and yet you appeared unharmed. Not a single burn, not even a bruise. That was the moment I knew. You’re not ordinary. You are a legacy wrapped in innocence. A living key to something far older, far more powerful than any of us imagined.
You'll find this journal when your mother and I will be no longer here. I am writing everything in this journal, warnings, and truths hidden in plain sight. You must follow them. You have to fight them. There is more to you than magic. There is a purpose. And danger.
Stay strong. Trust no one blindly.
We love you.
