VI

I took a picture of my bookshelf before I went to sleep, difficult as it was with the shadows staring at me and my inability to move a muscle.

Ex Umbrae was written in English when I woke up and went back to it. It's titled Out of the Shadows, just like I thought. And now I know why it's been placed between Poe and Smirke.

The author is listed as George Roscoe.

You have to understand. This wasn't just another book that looked similar to Ex Umbrae. Ex Umbrae is gone, and this new book is here instead, in the exact same place. I've scoured the entirety of my apartment for Ex Umbrae and found nothing. All I've found is a book with the exact same leather binding and the exact same bookplate and a title that means the exact same thing.

I opened the book and flipped to the last few pages, which had been blank when the book was still written in Latin. Ink flowed across them to form letters describing my actions at that very moment. When I touched the ink, it didn't feel right. It didn't come away on my finger. It was at that point that I realized the book wasn't written in ink at all, but in shadow.

I don't know what these things are. I don't know why they've chosen to haunt me, or why they've chosen to do it like this. I just know that I want it to stop.