《Little Shadows (Volume 2)》


 Tale 1 - "The researcher"

    His coworker had been replaced by another, and only he noticed.


    He knew it when he grew a head taller from one day to the other, when his limbs became larger and nobody said anything. When his eyes changed its color and his voice its tone, he started to avoid even looking at him. To see him walk in the lab as if it was a day like any other, while his stretched body advanced barely moving its joints gave him goosebumps.


    His suspicions only grew when he started asking him obvious things. When he had the bad luck of being in the changing room at the same time as him, the last one asked the first one about the scars under his chest, even though he had been there as moral support for his surgery. When he approached without making a sound from behind while the other used his phone, he asked him about the girl that showed his phone¡¯s wallpaper, even though he had met his daughter many times before. And in several occasions he didn¡¯t react when his name was called, as if he¡¯d forgotten his own name until, when remembering it, he laughed with a smile so big it hurt to just watch.


    As the days passed, the changes started to become more repulsive. The bulging eyes without eyelids, the ribs and the spine started to show of how much he was slimming down, the hair became thinner and the skin paler¡­ And the height. The heigh that didn¡¯t stop augmenting was unbearable to the sight.


    When had it started? He tried to remember, in vain. Where did that good man, that had helped him in so many ways, had gone? He didn¡¯t see anywhere the gentle smile, replaced now by a grin that tried to look like one, with falling yellow teeth. The wasn¡¯t either sign of the hands that once made his heart beat faster with just a touch, now there were only some bony things left that cracked every time he moved them.


    He couldn¡¯t go to work with eased mind anymore. The sight of that being was too much, and he wanted to skip work many times. HE though of quitting, but he couldn¡¯t; he was legally tied to that lab and that organization. IF he was alone, maybe he could bare the consequences, but his daughter? He couldn¡¯t leave her alone, not force her to a life of persecution. He had no choice but to hold in the cold sweat that overcame him whenever that thing, once a loved man, appeared in front of his eyes.


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    He endured a month like this¡­ Two¡­ Three¡­


    By the fourth one, he felt he was going insane. How come no one else saw it? Why? The creature had such a height that it¡¯d started to bend to fit inside the building. Day after day he asked himself: where did it came from? What¡¯d happened to his coworker? Where was he now, while that beast tricked everyone posing as him?


    In a fit of despair, he sneaked towards the guard¡¯s office to see the security recordings. He saw with horror that the creature was also reflected there and went back in time trying to figure out when the change had happened. One month ago, then two¡­three¡­four¡­


    He found it. An accident in which their test subject had gone out of control and during which his coworker ended up in the floor, hit in the face by it. That was the only proof he had of something out of the ordinary happening to him. After it, they¡¯d done tests, but didn¡¯t find anything wrong with him. Had they missed it? Had he been affected by the test subject somehow? Or something worse had happened, something that ate at him from the inside and changed him inside out? Whatever it was, he needed to show that to his superiors, so they¡¯d do something about it, thus he saved the record in an USB and turned around to leave.


    The creature was by the door. He screamed. Then, with a voice like a grave out of tune note, it spoke:


    ¡°You can see me, right?¡±


    Before he could run away, it extended its long arms and took him by the neck with its claws. A kiss he¡¯d only dreamed about in another time, now seemed so repulsive that he stopped breathing. A tongue too rough and slimy extended through his throat, and tears fell from his eyes as he fought back to free himself. When it let him go, he fell to the ground, coughing and vomiting. He shook from head to toe, with the blood cold and the heart thumping.


    He felt dizzy. There was a numbing sensation going through his body that made him lose his senses slowly. Where was he again? What was he doing? Uncertainty made him pale. Had that beast infected him too?


    Little by little he stood up, but he wasn¡¯t the one controlling his body. Neither was he who left the lab, got inside the car, and drove home. He wanted to scream, cry, ask for help, tear off the skin that didn¡¯t belong to him anymore, all useless. He took out his keys and opened the main door. His daughter played with her dolls sitting in the living room¡¯s rug.


    When he hugged the child, the penumbra overcame him.

 Tale 2 - "Dolls"

    She takes care of the little girl. She''s unsure if it''s because she''s one of the only women in the office, but while the insinuation bothers her, there isn''t a lot she can do. To obey is her job, not to question the morality of her orders, nor it is to ask where did that little one came from.


    She''s a low rank intern, so she''s glad that at least she received a task that seems to show the signs of a promotion. Taking care of a witness can''t be anything else, or that''s what she tells herself, trying not to think of what''d happen if the opposite was true. however, she refuses to believe it: the conversations she''s learned to listen behind closed doors tells her that they''ve found traces of the test subject in the girl, as well as the corpses that arrived in white bags with her. Therefore, her job is to watch her. Take care of her. Make sure there''s nothing strange with her. And then? Her superiors didn''t tell her.


    The room where they have her has been adapted to resemble a small house without walls. On one side there''s the kitchen, on the other a small bed, and in the middle a living and dining room. She enters everyday at the same hour and leaves everyday at the same hour, while the girl stays, watched by the cameras. She prepares her food, she tells stories, she plays with her... but she never stays. Never answers her questions about where her dad is.


    To kill time, she sews ragdolls for her: a cat, a bunny, a bear, a lion, a bird... And as time passes, the girl stops asking questions. Did she knew her father wouldn''t come back? She doesn''t pry, she just sews more dolls.And more. And more. The innert bodies accumulate like the months the girl passes without seeing the sun. Maybe that''s why her skin starts to become paler, or the eyes cristaline, or the nails yellow. That''s what her bosses tell her, at least. And after so much time, is natural that she also starts to grow,or to grow thin by the controlled diet she gets, right? And what kind of children doesn''t loose hair? She doesn''t have to worry, just get in and get out when the clock chimes.


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    Until one day the door doesn''t open no matter how much she shakes it, no matter how much she hits and screams for the people outise to open up.


    Lights flicker andgo down, and the place starts to get cold as if someone had just opened the door of a giant freezer. Smoke of a blue so dark is almost black in the darkness starts to fill the place, getting in her lungs and making her cough until blood comes out of her mouth. When he feels something grab her ankle, she screams and kicks to get it off herself without knowing what it is.


    The bear ragdoll she swe rises her head to see her with button eyes, without letting go, and creeps up her leg like an enormous insect. Soon, other dolls start to move and join it. The advance through her body, get inside her blouse, stretch the skin of arms and legs like sheets that they hold onto and that make her scream from the pain. She hits them, kicks and try to rip them off her body, but the leech-like ragdolls feel no pain. When she steps on one with too much strenght, the doll explodes like a cockroach and a black liquid comes shooting from his innards and through the seams.


    She runs, tumbles with everything in the room, falls to the floor and wriggles between the dolls that are stuck to her. Finally, a rat ragdoll gets into her mouth and shushes her screams.


    The girl appears before her eyes. From the floor, she sees how the eyes have lost their innocence to become red and jump outside the skull. The neck of the girl gets longer and longer, and it cracks obscenely until it becomes as long as her own body. The girl''s face ends up right in front of her, and she spoke with a deep and terrible voice.


    "You locked me up, but I forgive you. I learned a lot thanks to you."


    A sound like thunder was heard and the door fell. Two people with weapons appeared. She couldn''t see their faces, but they had to be guards sent by her bosses to save her. Then the round of bullets where shot, both towards the girl that had turned into a monster, and herself in the floor trough the ragdolls. The monster fell behind, the disgusting neck still as long as a cord that used to hold a head, and with a red puddle growing around it. Slowly, the blood joined that which came from her body, stained by the black that came from the dolls'' and that had splattered over her like paint splashes.


    As she lost consciusness, the penumbra overcame her.

 Tale 3 - "The Doctor"

    Working in autopsies wasn¡¯t exactly what his parents had wanted for him, but surprisingly it was more accepted than the fact that he had a husband. Who, on the other hand, worked offering funerals, so it was easy to imagine how it was their meet¨Ccute and subsequent love story.


    His husband believed he worked for the police doing autopsies of corpses to solve crimes. Fortunately, it wasn¡¯t the type of work where he could bring pictures or funny stories home, much less invite his husband to see him in action, so he accepted the lie easily.


    He didn¡¯t like lying. But how could he explain that he opened bodies of creatures that escaped human comprehension? Creatures like the one he had in front: girl¡¯s body, a half a meter long neck, and a head so horrendous that would¡¯ve made him shudder if he wasn¡¯t used to scenes like that. He also couldn¡¯t explain to him how those bodies reached his table¡­ Not yet at least. Not until the experiments gave positive results and he could tell him, proud, that he¡¯d been part of the process.


    He was afraid that his husband would change his opinion of him after knowing it, but trusted that he¡¯d understand. For the advancement of science, sacrifices are required. Test subjects are required, sometimes animal, other times human. And someone is needed that¡¯d analyze the remains when there¡¯s nothing more than piles of meat and blood, or the bodies mutate and transform in monstrosities like that one. The reward was worth it. Reward that, he hoped, he¡¯d share with him one day.


    And he was confident of being close to get one now that he¡¯d started talking with the voice.


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    It was very peculiar: a whisper mixed with the sound of breathing that came from an unknown place. It was rough like the rustle of the leaves in autumn, and cold like the mist after a stormy day. He¡¯d have liked for his superiors to also listen to it to receive a raise for having discovered it, but the voice refused, advising that it was best to talk between themselves first.


    And he loved to talk with the voice. It was fascinating. His researcher spirit shined through in their daily give and take sessions.


    ¡°What are you?¡± he asked to the voice.


    ¡°Nothing that exists in this world,¡± it answered.


    ¡°Does another exist?¡±


    ¡°As many as ways to die.¡±


    With his white gloves he stained his lab coat with black by extracting an organ from the girl¡¯s body. He put it over a tray of cold silver, moved it away and continued.


    ¡°Why did you come here?¡±


    ¡°You guys brought me here. Have you forgotten?¡±


    He took the scalpel and cut the throat, starting in the sternum and following a straight line towards the jaw. He put inside a pair of tweezers in the cut and opened the meat, which moved with a wet sound to let a black mucus spill to the table of operations where the body rested.


    ¡°You did this?¡±


    ¡°I did this.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡±


    The voice laughed with a sound similar to static.


    ¡°It¡¯s the same I do everywhere else.¡±


    With the tranquility of an artisan, he took several samples of the mucus in jars, labelled them and put them aside. Then, he approached a light and examined the neck bones.


    ¡°Why did you decided to talk to me? Why didn¡¯t you talk before?¡±


    ¡°Talking in this world is hard. But I learned fast. It¡¯s interesting.¡±


    Nothing inside that corpse could be called human. It was hard to believe that it once was. Whatever was the identity of the voice, it could turn humans in something like this¡­


    He needed to know more. If he could control that force, he¡¯d get something more than a simple raise.


    ¡°What is your name?¡± he asked. The voice let out a hypnotizing giggle.


    ¡°You can call me The Penumbra.¡±