Twisted Roads – Twisted Horror Stories by Matthew Tonks

A Secret to Tell

“B-B-B-But w-what if I’m r-r-right? W-What if w-w-we’re the shadows, a-and they’re us?” he stammers through trembling lips as he looks across the table.

Kelly grins broadly, openly amused. “Are you sure you’re not chasing the dragon?” he asks with a slight twist of his head, raising one eyebrow.

“I’M PERFECTLY CLEAN! I SWEAR!” Stevie cries as he launches himself to his feet and strikes the table. “I-I, I’m t-the sanest I-I’ve ever been, c-certainly saner than your sorry arse.”

Kelly allows a stifled chuckle to escape his lips before readjusting his tie and rolling his head across his neck. “What makes you think you’re saner than me? I’m not the one standing here rabbiting on about my shadow being the actual real deal, and me being its shadow,” he says, his words oozing sarcasm. “And might I also note, I’m the only one fully dressed,” he says, thrusting his thumbs into his chest and casting a disapproving glance at Stevie’s naked form.

“Clothes stifle the pathways! Monks in deserts regularly parade around in next to nothing, but that’s beside the point! It’s typical of you—always trying to control the narrative. Well, this time it ain’t happening, buddy! I’m in control, I’m the one who knows what is what, and you’re the patsy!” he spits, thrusting a shaking, pointed finger at Kelly. Seconds pour into minutes of silence, and then Stevie shakes his finger again, nodding his head. “EXACTLY!” he says.

Kelly stares at him in silence as his grimace grows more distorted. His trembling arm shakes into a blur before it slowly drops to his side.

“Exactly what, Stevie?” Kelly asks, shrugging his shoulders and raising his brow.

Stevie continues to nod, smiling knowingly. He pulls his lips tightly back over themselves. “Right,” he says.

Kelly shakes his head in wonder, rolling his eyes. “What, Stevie? What is right? What is exactly? You realise you’re not making any sense?”

“Is it me,” Stevie says, leaning in towards Kelly, “or is it you?” he says with wide, crazy eyes.

“I think,” Kelly says with a shake of his head, “I think it’s you.”

Stevie smiles. “That’s what a shadow would say. That’s what they would want me to believe. B-B-But I know now, I know how to see the truth!”

Kelly rolls his eyes and shakes his head again. “And how, how do you see the truth?”

Stevie holds up his phone, turns on the torch, and points it toward the wall behind them, his lips trembling. “T-T-There,” he stammers nervously.

Kelly looks over his shoulder at the wall, then back to Stevie. “There’s nothing there.”

“EXACTLY!” Stevie spits excitedly.

Kelly stares at him for some moments, then shakes his head. “I don’t get it,” he says with a shrug.

“You can’t because you’re no longer you, and your shadow,” he says, pointing toward the wall again as he holds up his phone’s torch. “Your shadow is you, and you, you’re no longer you.”

Kelly lets out a stuttered breath, tilts his head, and smiles. “And you, you should’ve stayed out of your shadow,” he says as a smile wraps itself around his lips, and Stevie is engulfed by his own shadow as it rushes from beneath him.