In a small town, lost among the gray hills and brown fields, lived a man named Edward. His face was quiet and unremarkable, and his daily life was as dull and routine as most of the locals. He worked in the local archives, doing paperwork and rarely leaving his small dwelling. But behind that serene exterior lurked a man with a troubled past that he tried hard to forget.
Edward hadn’t always been like this. He had once been different-a man whose name had caused terror in the eyes of those who knew him. But a few years ago, after the events he himself had avoided remembering, he had gone to this forgotten corner of the world to hide from everyone and forget about his past. He hoped that here, in this gloomy and musty place, he would never be found again.
But one night his life changed again.
It started with a letter. It came without an envelope, just a single page with only one question written on it: “Are you ready to face what you left behind?”
Edward knew it wasn’t just a coincidence. He felt a chill run through his body. He realized immediately that he couldn’t ignore this message. It was more than a simple threat-it was a challenge. A challenge he couldn’t ignore.
He took the letter and went to the old house, which was now empty. It was a place connected to the days when he was a different person, a person who would not need to be spoken of aloud. Here, among the dusty walls and moldy windows, he had hidden his secrets. And now, it seemed, those secrets were coming out again.
When he entered the house, he saw the same darkness that had been there so many years before. Everything was in its place, as if time did not exist here. But in the corner of the room he noticed something new – an old box. It was on a shelf, and it was only visible because the moonlight was shining through a crack in the wall.
Edward walked over to the box and opened it. Inside was a small journal that he had once kept. As he began to read, his heart clenched. Page after page he recognized his own words, written years ago, but now they seemed like something else. They weren’t just memories – they were predictions, moments he hadn’t yet experienced but knew would come. And at the end of the diary was the final entry, “The shadow of the past will always find you.”
And now, now, many years later, the shadow had returned.
