u/ArtemisLex

I stayed at Ryan's for a couple more days, until finally, I got my shit together and left. His son, Adam, 13, was the only one who disagreed with my decision to leave.

Adam claimed to have seen his own shadow and communicated with it through ASL, but the only things he'd been able to translate were incredibly hard to decipher. At first, I was frightened, but then I started losing my patience.

The last thing Adam had signed was "they like it when you look at them."

"Is that a bad thing or a good thing?" Ryan had asked him. But Adam's expression turned deadpan which basically meant that whatever he was talking about he certainly never stayed long enough or elected himself as volunteer to find out.

Well, Ryan had clapped his hands, said "that's enough of that." And I toughened it out for as long as I could but eventually I began to miss my own bed, my own kitchen, and definitely my own shower.

Both Adam and even Ryan looked wary when I got up to leave but I promised Ryan I'd call if anything weird started happening again.

"But really," I said. "I'm sorry to have made such a big deal about this whole thing. I don't want you worrying about me."

"It's okay to ask for things, buddy," Ryan said.

"I can handle this, trust me. Thanks again." But I'd hugged him, promised to call.

It was weird coming back home, for one thing, I had a lot of mail, which was to be expected after being gone for a few days. But the moment I stepped inside, the house felt *normal*. I covered my eyes and turned on the tv, prepared to put it on the lawn if it started acting strange again, but to my shock, and I hate that I even have to say that, it was fine. It felt nice to be back.

That night, after a long shower, some freshly ordered pizza, some reruns of Family Guy and Ryan on speaker phone, I tried to pretend like the last few days hadn't happened. And it was starting to work. I could hardly remember that this was the same house I had just run from three days ago.

"Hold on Ryan, I'm about to lose you," I was telling him after I heard the telltale beep. "My phone's about to die."

"Course it is," he teased.

"Shut up." I laughed. "You're the last person who gets to call anyone irresponsible."

"Oh really? Because I remember when a certain some--" Ryan was still talking when the phone finally gave up and went dead. I pulled it away from my ear, my eyes locked on the black screen when my shadow appeared and I froze, dropping the phone out of my hands immediately on instinct. *Shit*

What the hell was wrong with me?

I leaned down to pick it up from where it had landed on the floor. In the background Peter Griffin's familiar laugh filled my ears as I looked for my damn charger, feeling insane as I held my phone screen-side down so I wouldn't have to face my reflection again.

And then I realized what the hell I was doing. I got up off the ground, charger be damned and instead found my remote and turned the tv off.

I waited.

My reflection stared back at me.

I waited some more.

And of course, nothing happened. But I still, exhaled a sigh of relief. Ha! I *knew it*. I *knew* it was all just in my head.

I knew I just needed a proper night's sleep--

But in the black glass of my television set my silhouette raised its hand while both mine remained perfectly still.

It signed: you left.

*What?*

I was dumbstruck. Please don't tell me this was happening *again*

I had so many questions like who are you? What are you? How many of you are there? What exactly did you say to Adam? *What the hell do you want from me?*

Instead I settled for: "yeah," I signed. "I left. What's it to you?"

"Why? Were you scared?"

"No," I huffed. "Dream on, buddy."

"No?"

I stared at it. "Why would I be scared? This is just weird, that's all. Obviously. So why would I stay? Who would?"

I couldn't make out its expression, but it tilted its head. "Why is this weird?" it signed.

“Is that a serious question?" I asked out loud.

"Did your dad do it again?"

"Huh? What the hell do you know about my dad?"

"Did he do it again?"

"Do what?" God this thing was annoying.

"Make you stop talking to me."

A cold sweat broke across my brow. "What the fuck are you on about?"

It wasn't easy, he signed like it was new for him, which suited me well since I was still taking ASL lessons to learn how to communicate with Adam and I was far from fluent. I still had to largely rely on Ryan sometimes for translation. But Ryan, of course, wasn't here. I thought briefly of calling him, but then thought better of it. Besides, my phone was still dead

"When you were little."

I shook my head. "I don’t remember that. Besides how could I talk to you when you don't even speak?"

His hands motioned the word: picture. "You used to draw for me."

He continued. "You were afraid of the dark."

A tv glowing in the corner tugged at the back of my mind. My childhood bedroom. My father telling me to turn it off. Black crayons. A piece of paper...a shape on the wall. "You would keep me company so I wouldn't be afraid. I showed Dad the pictures I drew, but he would tell me to put them away. That they weren't making my fears any better. So I...listened until I stopped seeing you."

"He was the bravest man I knew, sort of like, my hero" I explained as best I could. "I just wanted to be like him." A smile tugged at my lips.

"It's okay," he signed, shrugging. "You were little."

I scratched my head. "So all these years, you what? Just waited for me? Didn't you get bored?"

He tilted his head. "Bored?"

"Yeah," I signed. "You know, bored. What could you possibly be doing this whole time? Do you not get lonely?"

It shook its head. No.

I laughed, scratching the back of my head. "Huh, why? I mean, what do you do when I'm not watching tv? Or looking at my phone or my computer?"

He pointed at me and signed: "watch you" like it was obvious.

"Me?" I questioned. "How? That's impossible. I'm not always here, you know."

My shadow signed: "you are."

And I froze. "Okay, what the hell does that mean?"

And then it hit me. "Can you always see me?"

It nodded.

"...So when I'm not home?"

"You are."

“No."

It pointed at me.

"You are always with me." Then it pointed to itself. "And I am always with you."

A chill shot down my spine. "Okay, I'm going to ask this carefully, *what* do you want from me?"

I watched its hands: "friend" it signed.

I shook my head. "No. Fuck no."

He stared at me, but I was beginning to get overwhelmed. "Look, I'm sorry, you seem..." I tried to choose my words carefully. "*nice* but I don't want this. Ahh, no offense"

It lowered its hands seemingly in defeat then raised them again. Then quite suddenly. "WHO?"

"What?"

"WHO IS MAKING YOU SAY NO?"

"Excuse me?" I asked. "Nobody."

"RYAN?"

"No."

"THE BOY?"

"You mean Adam?"

I had no idea what to do but stare.

"HIM?"

I knew exactly who he meant. "My father?"

"YES." It nodded frantically.

I raised my hands in surrender. "Listen calm down. Nobody is making *me do anything*." But it wasn't listening to me.

"HE TOLD YOU I WASN'T REAL. HE MADE YOU FORGET ME. HE MADE YOU LEAVE."

"No," I repeated, getting to my feet. "No." I shook my head, negating every word. "I live alone. I don’t have a wife. I don’t have kids. I have a childhood I can barely remember and a father whose approval I’ve spent most of my life trying to win. I own this house. I live two hours away from my parents who I barely see. I’ve always told myself I wanted to work for everything I had. My father's my inspiration. He worked hard for everything he had, with no help from anyone and that is what I always told myself. That maybe I stayed away from people because I like to be independent. But I know that's only bullshit." I leaned in real close to the screen. "You and I both know that's bullshit. Maybe I was afraid, afraid to ask for help, afraid to let people get too close to me and I think you know why. I could pretend I was ashamed. Pretend I had too much pride, but I think you and I *both* know why my life is so *empty*."

My shadow did not raise his hands again. It sat there. listening. I took his silence as an invitation to get my baseball bat. "I know what happens to people who are my friends. I've had to live with the consequences."

I think you guys can guess what happened next: of course, I smashed that fucking tv to pieces and it felt *so good.* The screen was nothing but shards and I just stood there for a few seconds, breathing hard, waiting.

But nothing moved. Nothing weird happened. No more jumping silhouette.

"Three strikes." *HAHA*

That night, I went to bed, slept like a rock.

The next morning, I brushed my teeth and looked in the bathroom mirror, practically skipping and singing show tunes. Of course, my reflection smiled back at me.

I winked. "Hello handsome," I laughed as I admired myself. Then I gave myself the bird. "And fuck you."

I even lingered a little longer than necessary just to check. But nothing out of the ordinary. So far, so great.

I walked out the door feeling like a brand new man.

I didn’t notice my reflection was there waving goodbye.

My entire world came crashing down when I got the call from my mother, I hadn't even made it halfway out the house yet. I was tempted to let it go to voicemail but my gut told me to answer. I picked up but it took a long time for her to say anything.

"Mom? Are you okay?"

She was crying. When she finally spoke her voice was raw and serious. I've only heard her voice like this at very few moments in my life and seeing this change in my usually cheerful mother, never failed to make me immediately uncomfortable. The last time was when I was 9 and she had to tell me my dog, Larry, "ran away" from home. "Honey..."

"Yeah?" I swallowed, but it felt like my heart was in my throat.

"It's your father..."

[Never Turn the Tv Off](https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/s/kX1iXIXlnY)

I stayed at Ryan's for a couple more days, until finally, I got my shit together and left. His son, Adam, 13, was the only one who disagreed with my decision to leave.

Adam claimed to have seen his own shadow and communicated with it through ASL, but the only things he'd been able to translate were incredibly hard to decipher. At first, I was frightened, but then I started losing my patience.

The last thing Adam had signed was "they like it when you look at them."

"Is that a bad thing or a good thing?" Ryan had asked him. But Adam's expression turned deadpan which basically meant that whatever he was talking about he certainly never stayed long enough or elected himself as volunteer to find out.

Well, Ryan had clapped his hands, said "that's enough of that." And I toughened it out for as long as I could but eventually I began to miss my own bed, my own kitchen, and definitely my own shower.

Both Adam and even Ryan looked wary when I got up to leave but I promised Ryan I'd call if anything weird started happening again.

"But really," I said. "I'm sorry to have made such a big deal about this whole thing. I don't want you worrying about me."

"It's okay to ask for things, buddy," Ryan said.

"I can handle this, trust me. Thanks again." But I'd hugged him, promised to call.

It was weird coming back home, for one thing, I had a lot of mail, which was to be expected after being gone for a few days. But the moment I stepped inside, the house felt normal. I covered my eyes and turned on the tv, prepared to put it on the lawn if it started acting strange again, but to my shock, and I hate that I even have to say that, it was fine. It felt nice to be back.

That night, after a long shower, some freshly ordered pizza, some reruns of Family Guy and Ryan on speaker phone, I tried to pretend like the last few days hadn't happened. And it was starting to work. I could hardly remember that this was the same house I had just run from three days ago.

"Hold on Ryan, I'm about to lose you," I was telling him after I heard the telltale beep. "My phone's about to die."

"Course it is," he teased.

"Shut up." I laughed. "You're the last person who gets to call anyone irresponsible."

"Oh really? Because I remember when a certain some--" Ryan was still talking when the phone finally gave up and went dead. I pulled it away from my ear, my eyes locked on the black screen when my shadow appeared and I froze, dropping the phone out of my hands immediately on instinct. Shit

What the hell was wrong with me?

I leaned down to pick it up from where it had landed on the floor. In the background Peter Griffin's familiar laugh filled my ears as I looked for my damn charger, feeling insane as I held my phone screen-side down so I wouldn't have to face my reflection again.

And then I realized what the hell I was doing. I got up off the ground, charger be damned and instead found my remote and turned the tv off.

I waited.

My reflection stared back at me.

I waited some more.

And of course, nothing happened. But I still, exhaled a sigh of relief. Ha! I knew it. I knew it was all just in my head.

I knew I just needed a proper night's sleep--

But in the black glass of my television set my silhouette raised its hand while both mine remained perfectly still.

It signed: you left.

What?

I was dumbstruck. Please don't tell me this was happening again

I had so many questions like who are you? What are you? How many of you are there? What exactly did you say to Adam? What the hell do you want from me?

Instead I settled for: "yeah," I signed. "I left. What's it to you?"

"Why? Were you scared?"

"No," I huffed. "Dream on, buddy."

"No?"

I stared at it. "Why would I be scared? This is just weird, that's all. Obviously. So why would I stay? Who would?"

I couldn't make out its expression, but it tilted its head. "Why is this weird?" it signed.

“Is that a serious question?" I asked out loud.

"Did your dad do it again?"

"Huh? What the hell do you know about my dad?"

"Did he do it again?"

"Do what?" God this thing was annoying.

"Make you stop talking to me."

A cold sweat broke across my brow. "What the fuck are you on about?"

It wasn't easy, he signed like it was new for him, which suited me well since I was still taking ASL lessons to learn how to communicate with Adam and I was far from fluent. I still had to largely rely on Ryan sometimes for translation. But Ryan, of course, wasn't here. I thought briefly of calling him, but then thought better of it. Besides, my phone was still dead

"When you were little."

I shook my head. "I don’t remember that. Besides how could I talk to you when you don't even speak?"

His hands motioned the word: picture. "You used to draw for me."

He continued. "You were afraid of the dark."

A tv glowing in the corner tugged at the back of my mind. My childhood bedroom. My father telling me to turn it off. Black crayons. A piece of paper...a shape on the wall. "You would keep me company so I wouldn't be afraid. I showed Dad the pictures I drew, but he would tell me to put them away. That they weren't making my fears any better. So I...listened until I stopped seeing you."

"He was the bravest man I knew, sort of like, my hero" I explained as best I could. "I just wanted to be like him." A smile tugged at my lips.

"It's okay," he signed, shrugging. "You were little."

I scratched my head. "So all these years, you what? Just waited for me? Didn't you get bored?"

He tilted his head. "Bored?"

"Yeah," I signed. "You know, bored. What could you possibly be doing this whole time? Do you not get lonely?"

It shook its head. No.

I laughed, scratching the back of my head. "Huh, why? I mean, what do you do when I'm not watching tv? Or looking at my phone or my computer?"

He pointed at me and signed: "watch you" like it was obvious.

"Me?" I questioned. "How? That's impossible. I'm not always here, you know."

My shadow signed: "you are."

And I froze. "Okay, what the hell does that mean?"

And then it hit me. "Can you always see me?"

It nodded.

"...So when I'm not home?"

"You are."

“No."

It pointed at me.

"You are always with me." Then it pointed to itself. "And I am always with you."

A chill shot down my spine. "Okay, I'm going to ask this carefully, what do you want from me?"

I watched its hands: "friend" it signed.

I shook my head. "No. Fuck no."

He stared at me, but I was beginning to get overwhelmed. "Look, I'm sorry, you seem..." I tried to choose my words carefully. "nice but I don't want this. Ahh, no offense"

It lowered its hands seemingly in defeat then raised them again. Then quite suddenly. "WHO?"

"What?"

"WHO IS MAKING YOU SAY NO?"

"Excuse me?" I asked. "Nobody."

"RYAN?"

"No."

"THE BOY?"

"You mean Adam?"

I had no idea what to do but stare.

"HIM?"

I knew exactly who he meant. "My father?"

"YES." It nodded frantically.

I raised my hands in surrender. "Listen calm down. Nobody is making me do anything." But it wasn't listening to me.

"HE TOLD YOU I WASN'T REAL. HE MADE YOU FORGET ME. HE MADE YOU LEAVE."

"No," I repeated, getting to my feet. "No." I shook my head, negating every word. "I live alone. I don’t have a wife. I don’t have kids. I have a childhood I can barely remember and a father whose approval I’ve spent most of my life trying to win. I own this house. I live two hours away from my parents who I barely see. I’ve always told myself I wanted to work for everything I had. My father's my inspiration. He worked hard for everything he had, with no help from anyone and that is what I always told myself. That maybe I stayed away from people because I like to be independent. But I know that's only bullshit." I leaned in real close to the screen. "You and I both know that's bullshit. Maybe I was afraid, afraid to ask for help, afraid to let people get too close to me and I think you know why. I could pretend I was ashamed. Pretend I had too much pride, but I think you and I both know why my life is so empty."

My shadow did not raise his hands again. It sat there. listening. I took his silence as an invitation to get my baseball bat. "I know what happens to people who are my friends. I've had to live with the consequences."

I think you guys can guess what happened next: of course, I smashed that fucking tv to pieces and it felt so good. The screen was nothing but shards and I just stood there for a few seconds, breathing hard, waiting.

But nothing moved. Nothing weird happened. No more jumping silhouette.

"Three strikes." HAHA

That night, I went to bed, slept like a rock.

The next morning, I brushed my teeth and looked in the bathroom mirror, practically skipping and singing show tunes. Of course, my reflection smiled back at me.

I winked. "Hello handsome," I laughed as I admired myself. Then I gave myself the bird. "And fuck you."

I even lingered a little longer than necessary just to check. But nothing out of the ordinary. So far, so great.

I walked out the door feeling like a brand new man.

I didn’t notice my reflection was there waving goodbye.

My entire world came crashing down when I got the call from my mother, I hadn't even made it halfway out the house yet. I was tempted to let it go to voicemail but my gut told me to answer. I picked up but it took a long time for her to say anything.

"Mom? Are you okay?"

She was crying. When she finally spoke her voice was raw and serious. I've only heard her voice like this at very few moments in my life and seeing this change in my usually cheerful mother, never failed to make me immediately uncomfortable. The last time was when I was 9 and she had to tell me my dog, Larry, "ran away" from home. "Honey..."

"Yeah?" I swallowed, but it felt like my heart was in my throat.

"It's your father..."

Never Turn the Tv Off

I grew up with a typical middle class household upbringing. You didn't leave the fan on if you weren't using it, the radio playing if you planned on leaving the house, and you especially didn't leave the tv on while you went about your day unless you wanted your parents to complain about the electric bill.

Well, here I am 30 years old, my own house, no kids, no spouse, working my own job with my own money to do whatever I want. And while occasionally that just means doing things like eating ice cream for breakfast or staying in my pjs all weekend without someone nagging me, or playing the radio as loud as I can without worrying about people living upstairs, I'm still mindful of leaving my electronics running all day if I am out of the house. Call me frugal all you want, but I find it tacky and wasteful.

And maybe I take it a step further than most people but my tv has a sleep timer on it. All of my tech does, in the case that if I ever forget to turn them off, they'll turn off on their own.

Well, it was a night like any other, I was laying on the couch downstairs, texting my friends, while reruns of Regular Show played in the background. I wasn't watching it really, I was more distracted in the group chat. Ryan was cracking us up, and Amy was sharing photos of her vacation to Cancun.

At some point I got up to use the bathroom, and when I returned I realized the tv was off. No big deal, I figured I must have lost track of time and the sleep timer must have gone off. Nothing I wasn't used to and since I wasn't interested in watching more tv anyway, I didn't bother to turn it back on.

My mistake.

My lids were getting heavy so I said goodbye to the gc and reclined back on the couch, ready to crash here for the night, since another perk of living alone means I can sleep wherever I want to.

The whole house was in darkness save for the small lamp in my living room.

Now, I don't mean to brag, but I have a nice tv, one of those 70" babies that make my house the place everyone wants to come to to watch the game. I swear, this girl's a thing of beauty. Always crystal clear 4k with her. Naturally, my eyes drifted off to the black screen, kind of unfocused as sleep called to me beyond the horizon.

In the dark screen I could make out the outline of mundane objects in my house, like shadows. My lamp, the bookcase, the dining room behind me, the couch and my almost sleeping form, just murky black figures.

I was drifting off, no longer paying much attention when I sensed movement. My eyes flicked to the screen, and there it was, my shadowy counterpart lay on the couch, its head turned the way mine was, my reflection looking right at me, until it got up off the couch and walked away. I sat there frozen in shock, turning my head this way and that, certain there was someone else in my house. But then I felt a little ridiculous! Maybe I was the one who got up without realizing.

I stared at the screen again, certain all that would be staring back at me would be my own figure lying on the couch, but from what I could see, everything was there except me?

Something flickered on the screen again, a person, me, walking back to the couch while I lay there, immobile.

I got up immediately and turned on all the lights, grabbing a baseball bat from my glory days and brandishing it as a weapon I searched the house, calling for the intruder to show himself, but I found no one. I checked doors, windows, closets, but still nothing.

Finally, utterly and completely stumped I returned back to the couch, defeated. I looked at the tv again and all I saw of course, was my same living room, completely identical, and my silhouette staring back from the couch.

Again, I felt ridiculous. Ha, too many long nights playing Call of Duty boozed up or staying too late at work with very little sleep, I guess. I laughed and put my feet up, prepared to resume my almost slumber again when I noticed something...there was my reflection but it wasn't reclining, matching my movements the way reflections do, and should. Instead my silhouette was sitting up and waving?

I looked behind me. Nothing.

Immediately I found the remote, turned the tv on and the scary imposter figure vanished. Cartoon antics returned and pretty lights replaced its shadowy face.

I went to the settings and turned the sleep timer off, relieved, until click the tv shut off on its own. I figured maybe my finger must have slipped while I held the remote. A logical explanation really, it had to be the reason.

I closed my eyes, fumbling for the power button. I did not want to see my silhouette anymore. I kept trying but the tv still wouldn't turn on. I had no choice, I would have to turn it back on manually.

I crouched down on my knees trying to find the button on the side of the tv with one hand covering my eyes. It wasn't easy, in fact, it was near impossible, but luckily I found it and the tv switched back on, noise and color filling the space once again. I felt victorious.

I removed my hands from my eyes and breathed a sigh of relief.

Click!

It went off and my living room was once again submerged in darkness. But greeting me this time not on the couch, was my silhouette waving at me. Where I stood between the couch and the television, with some reasonable distance between us, my silhouette sat on the floor pressed against the glass. Somehow it had gotten even closer, we were face to face now, but it had no eyes and no mouth, in the black glass of the tv I could only make out its shape.

Experimentally, I turned my head, left. It followed and did the same as I did. I turned my head, slowly, right, and again it repeated the action as I did, just as slowly. I put my head down, making sure to keep my gaze locked on the screen before me and staying vigilant, but to my horror, my silhouette did not move along. It did not budge.

It sat there watching me.

Waiting.

Then, it waved at me again, but instead of hello, it waved slowly like it was saying a mocking goodbye.

I didn't waste any time, I bolted straight out of my house, my heart in my throat. I didn't even have shoes on.

I'm at my friend Ryan's house right now in his guest room where there's no tv. I've drawn down all the curtains, and I'm typing on my phone right now because even the lock screen going black is making me nervous. What the hell is happening, guys?