Strange Commotions

From the short story, Just This Side Of Midnight:  John Hudson was lost in the wilderness during a severe snowstorm.  He thought he’d found refuge. 

            It was the dark, inscrutable mansion called “Argott House” that I happened upon once while lost during the night of storms.  It was through its visage that I saw the living shadow, a murdering silhouette with a mind, an abomination that should never be witnessed by human eyes.

There was a strange commotion within the shadows, like a rippling, a wavering as if the shadows were in a panic over an invader in their midst.  It was then that it appeared.  The form grew upward from the shadows of the staircase until it took shape.  To my shock, I saw that it was now a silhouette, a shadowy profile of a man standing against the wall of the stairs about midway up.  However, there was no one standing there in order to cast a shadow.  I blinked my eyes to release the cobwebs left in my brain and looked more intently.  It was still there.  I began to arise into a sitting position, still staring at the surreptitious shadow.  As I did so, it seemed to react to my motion and turned toward me.  It was almost as if…as if the thing discovered my watching it and it simply melted back into the shadow of the staircase.  Not a trace was left. My head hurt and so I surmised that I had imagined what I had witnessed, wouldn’t we all?