No one remembers when the road first appeared.
It wasn't on maps. It wasn't built by machines.
Yet every year, somewhere in the deserts between forgotten towns of Arabia, travelers would find it — a narrow black path cutting through endless sand like a wound that never healed.
And once you walked it at sunset…
…you walked it with three shadows.
1
In southern Arizona, the American heat was supposed to be unbearable.
But Daniel Carter had crossed hotter places — Iraq, Syria, empty valleys where wind screamed through ruins older than history. After leaving the military, silence followed him home. He couldn't sleep. Every night the same dream:
Sand swallowing cities.
Doors buried halfway into dunes.
And a road leading nowhere.
So when a private research foundation contacted him — asking if he would guide an expedition into the Empty Quarter of Arabia — he accepted before they finished the offer.
They said they were studying geographic anomalies.
He knew better.
People only pay this much money when they're chasing something they're afraid of.
2
The team was small:
Dr. Laila Haddad — desert historian
Professor Greene — geophysicist
Omar — local guide
And Daniel — security
They reached the last inhabited village after three days. No electricity. No internet. No animals even barked.
The villagers stared at them as if they had already died.
At night, an old man approached Daniel.
"American," he whispered, "if you see a road after sunset… do not count your shadow."
Daniel smiled.
War had taught him: locals always tell stories to scare outsiders.
He slept peacefully for the first time in months.
3
On the fourth day they found it.
At dusk.
A strip of black ground, perfectly smooth, stretching across dunes that should have buried it centuries ago. The sand didn't touch its edges — it avoided it.
Like water around oil.
Laila trembled.
"This is in records… caravans wrote about it 900 years ago."
Omar refused to step closer.
"We leave," he said immediately. "Before the sun sets."
Professor Greene laughed. "It's asphalt! Probably volcanic glass formation."
But Daniel noticed something else.
No wind touched the road.
The desert howled around them — yet above the path… silence.
Then the sun touched the horizon.
And their shadows stretched long behind them.
Four people.
Five shadows.
4
No one spoke.
They counted again.
Daniel turned slowly.
Every one of them had an extra shadow — attached to their feet… but moving slightly late.
Like a reflection that blinked after you blinked.
Laila gasped, "Do not move!"
But Professor Greene stepped forward onto the road.
His extra shadow did not follow immediately.
It remained behind.
Then it snapped forward.
Greene screamed.
Not in pain.
In recognition.
"IT KNOWS ME—"
His mouth filled with sand. Not blown sand. It poured upward from inside his throat. His skin tightened like drying leather, eyes sinking inward while he stood alive.
Within seconds…
Only a hollow shape of skin collapsed onto the road.
The extra shadow stayed standing.
Then slowly turned its head toward them.
Even though shadows have no heads......