In the heart of the decrepit Blackgate Prison, where the walls whispered secrets and the shadows seemed to move, there was an inmate named Edgar “The Whisper” Vale. Edgar was known for his eerie calm, his eyes always reflecting a chilling void, as if he peered directly into your soul.
Edgar was sentenced for life after being convicted of a series of unsolved disappearances. No bodies were ever found, just personal items left behind, stained with the victim’s blood. The prison was old, with cells that felt like tombs, and Edgar’s was the deepest, where light barely touched.
One stormy night, when the thunder roared like the anger of gods, Edgar received a new cellmate, Tommy, a young, jittery man, in for petty theft. Tommy was terrified, not just of the prison, but of Edgar, whose reputation was the stuff of nightmares.
As the night deepened, Edgar began to speak in a low, hypnotic voice, telling Tommy about the “Others” – entities he claimed lived in the shadows of Blackgate, feeding off fear. Edgar described how he didn’t just make people disappear; he offered them to these shadow beings in exchange for power.
Tommy, trying to dismiss this as a mind game, attempted to sleep, but the cell seemed to grow colder, darker. Shadows twisted into forms that shouldn’t exist, and whispers, not from Edgar but from the walls themselves, filled the air.
Then came the twist. In the pitch black, Edgar’s voice changed, becoming multiple, as if the shadows themselves spoke through him. “You see, Tommy, I’ve been here so long, I’ve become part of this place. But tonight, I’ll be free, and you… you’ll take my place.”
The next morning, guards found the cell empty except for Tommy, who sat in the corner, whispering to himself, his eyes now void like Edgar’s once were. The guards, puzzled, discussed Edgar’s mysterious escape, not noticing the new, faint shadow that slithered out with them, free at last.
Tommy, or what was left of him, only whispered one thing, over and over, “He’s out, but I’m the keeper now. The shadows… they stay hungry.”
And thus, Blackgate had a new legend, a new inmate to fear, not knowing that Edgar, or whatever he had become, was now part of the world outside, blending into every shadow, watching, waiting.