The two good, platonic friends promised to inform each other should one of them leave earth.
“But how am I to send you a message after I’m dead?” he asked.
“I’ll know when you don’t send me any email for a long time,” she said.
He was a simple man and accepted her logical answer.
The years passed. They exchanged greeting emails every major holiday. It was their tradition of maintaining connection to let the other know the person is still alive.
Covid came and left.
His emails stopped.
In his last email, he wrote he was struck by long Covid.
One night, a shadowy figure stood at the doorway of her bedroom. Her light was off and she was just about to close her eyes to go to sleep. She was terrified. She shut her eyes tight.
By some form of non-verbal understanding, she knew that shadow was him.
“What am I to say? If I say the wrong thing, he might haunt me!” She decided to keep quiet.
“Is he still there?” She forced herself to open her eyes.
The shadow was gone.
The next day, she tried to email him again to confirm that he indeed was gone. Her email went unanswered. She checked his business website. The domain was not renewed and the site was removed. That business was his life’s work. If the business was gone, it meant so was he.
He probably succumbed from post Covid-19.
That shadowy figure was the last visit from her friend.
Related:
This Scary Story Collection was inspired by Rojie’s prompt to “Tell a Scary Story” for Aug 24 2026. I’ve used this prompt for more than Aug 24. If you read her prompts, you might be inspired to write a lot too.
There are two more stories with shadowy figures here and there.
