The room stayed quiet after the lights flickered.
Too quiet.
The nurse stood frozen near the foot of the bed, her fingers still gripping the clipboard. The words he had just spoken lingered in the air like something poisonous.
You were supposed to stay dead.
The monitor continued its steady rhythm.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
Kenji watched the corner of the room.
Not the nurse.
Not the machines.
The corner.
The shadow behind him stretched across the wall under the dim fluorescent lights. It looked normal again. Perfectly still.
Exactly where it should be.
But Kenji knew what he had seen.
It hadn't moved when he did.
The nurse cleared her throat nervously.
"I'm going to get the doctor," she said quickly.
Kenji didn't answer.
Her footsteps retreated toward the door.
The handle turned.
The door opened.
Then closed again.
Silence returned.
Kenji slowly swung his legs over the side of the bed.
The floor was cold.
Colder than it should have been.
His feet touched the tile.
The monitor reacted instantly.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
Faster now.
Kenji ignored it.
He stood carefully, testing the weight on his ribs beneath the bandages. The pain was dull, distant.
Almost… irrelevant.
He took one step.
Then another.
The room tilted slightly.
But his balance held.
Strange.
The nurse had been right about one thing.
He shouldn't have been awake.
He walked toward the wall.
Toward the shadow.
The fluorescent light hummed above him.
For a moment it dimmed.
Then steadied.
Kenji stopped an arm's length away.
The shadow stood on the wall exactly where it should.
His shape.
His outline.
His movement.
Perfect.
Except for one thing.
It was breathing.
Very slowly.
Kenji frowned.
His chest didn't move.
But the shadow's did.
A faint rise.
A faint fall.
As if something inside it was alive.
Kenji raised his hand slowly.
The shadow mirrored him.
Almost perfectly.
Almost.
There was a delay.
Just a fraction of a second.
Kenji lowered his hand.
The shadow followed.
Again.
A moment too late.
The monitor behind him skipped.
Beep—
Kenji turned slightly.
That was when the temperature in the room dropped.
Not a little.
A lot.
The kind of cold that made the air feel heavier.
The kind of cold that didn't belong in hospitals.
Kenji's eyes shifted toward the doorway.
Someone was standing outside.
Not moving.
Not knocking.
Just standing there.
The frosted glass window in the door blurred the figure into a dark shape.
Tall.
Still.
Watching.
Kenji took a step closer to the door.
The shadow behind him stretched slightly across the wall.
Too long.
Too thin.
Like something waking up.
Kenji reached for the handle.
Just as his fingers touched the metal—
The monitor behind him screamed.
BEEEEEEEEEP.
Kenji turned.
The heart monitor had gone flat.
Flatline.
But he was still standing.
Still breathing.
Still alive.
The door handle turned slowly in his hand.
The door opened.
The hallway outside was empty.
No footsteps.
No nurse.
No doctor.
No figure.
Nothing.
Just a long corridor of flickering lights.
Kenji stepped into the hallway.
Behind him
inside the room
the shadow remained on the wall.
Standing upright.
Without him.
Watching him leave.