You wake up one day. To say you feel a little uneasy would be an understatement. It's that damn dream again. The same dream you've had recurring from  your earliest years. The nightmare. 
It all started when you were around ten years old. You were living in a nice house in a nice suburban area in the Northeast USA. Mom and dad, a couple younger sisters, the Bradyf*ckingbunch. Your bedroom was on the second floor, as was everyone's,  but you had the only bedroom with a rear facing window. The view from your room was very cool, a small forested area, about 100 meters wide, running parallel with the street. A downhill slope to another street below. Paths crisscrossed the entire area... it was after all, your playground. 
One day, your parents had saved up enough money to add a room, a family room. In those days, they were called 'Additions.'  The new family room would run the length of the house, in the rear, at the main entrance level. Since the house was also built on the same slope, and included a basement and garage, this addition would also provide a nice shaded area for a patio. The construction company sealed off the rear kitchen window, and cut a large arched entrance from the back of the living room, providing a free flowing floor plan from the old living room to the new family room. You loved it. The new room would not be two stories, so the roof was a small degree of pitch right up to your bedroom window. Many nights, you removed the screen and climbed out your window, to sit alone on the large roof, watching the stars.
On a night like any other night, you went to bed. A hot summer night, your window was wound all the way open. You fell asleep easily. At some point in the middle of night you woke up. You heard something that had startled you. It was not uncommon for an acorn to bounce or a squirrel to run rampant on the roof, but still...you listened carefully. Then you heard it. The sound of footsteps on the shingles. A soft sound on the gravel-locked asphalt, you knew it well, from venturing out there yourself. Unmistakably human. They started at the far corner, the lowest point. There the roof was ten feet feet off the ground, but the gutter downspout would have made an easy climb. Fear began to tremble in your veins. Slowly, the footsteps approached your open window. Then, they stopped. Whoever or whatever had crossed the roof and stopped at your open window. Your bed lay parallel with the back wall,  immediately under the window. And it was wide open. The only barrier a soft nylon screen. You laid in your bed frozen in terror. There were many other sounds, of which you could not accurately describe. At one point, you thought you heard a knife slicing down the screen. You contemplated jumping out of bed, screaming and making a run for the door, but the terror was so great you could not move. You waited and waited, but you never heard the footsteps retreat. At daybreak, you made your run for the door. When you left your bed, you thought you saw a shadow slip past you. Down the stairs and into the living room. An hour later, your father came down the stairs and listened  to your account. Then the two of you went outside to investigate. There was no evidence of an intruder. The both of you went to your room, the screen was intact, again no evidence of any intruder. He told you you must have had a nightmare.
Today, there is no roof under your window. But the nightmare is still there, recurring, morphing. In it, you are standing on a pier, jutting out into a lake. It is a bright sunny day. Then without warning, with a great deafening shriek, the sky turns black, and a winged demon so big it fills the entire sky, is bearing down on you. You hold your hands up to defend, like it's gonna matter. You see it's face. It's blood red eyes, bat-like nose, yellow blood stained fangs. At that point you wake up. Every time you wake from this nightmare a shadow streaks by you, in your peripheral vision. It's just a shadow, right?

Take Me To The Shadow

Why do I do this? Because, well...I know it might sound crazy, but I do it for you. It's a longer story, but ya, for you.

Take Me To The Shadow

DAG RIPLEY