It was a dark and quiet night for the most part, living in a suburban town meant most nights the loudest thing you’d hear was a neighbor’s dog waiting to be let inside from a light night peruse of their backyard. Yet something still woke me from my sleep. I didn’t notice anything at all in particular, I tried to close my eyes and return to sleep but the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. It’s like something deep inside my mind was desperately telling me not to go back to sleep.
I rubbed my eyes and peered around my room which was dimly lit by the night lights I had. While I was almost an adult by now I was still unsettled by the dark even in my own room. I threw my legs over the side of my bed and stretched, readying myself to stand up and head out to the kitchen to refill my glass of water. Maybe just a little walk down the hall would put my mind at ease, seeing my home as it should be.
As I put on my slippers I looked towards my bedroom door, a chill ran down my spine as I could see that it wasn’t shut all the way. I always made a point to shut my door and honestly most of the time lock it. I froze in fear. Just stuck debating everything possibility that would pass through my mind. I conjured images of monsters out in the hallway waiting for me, then I thought of my parents unlatching it for my dog who could have been wanting to come in.
If I’m being completely honest both seemed just as reasonable to me at that moment. I stood there for what felt like hours going over every scenario when it was probably just seconds. I did always have a knack for overthinking and worrying about things that could never happen. Even though I’ve seen plenty of horror movies in my life by 16, I knew deep down none of that was real. I was working myself up over nothing.
Somehow I found some bravery and reason to my thoughts and went to open my bedroom door all the way. I’d be lying if I said I kept the reason when I opened my door to see the dark unlit hallway. Why we couldn’t just have a small light in at least the hallway to find the bathroom easier in the night is beyond me.
I glanced to my right side to see that the door to my parents room was also open a fair amount, but that wasn’t unusual. The dogs loved to go in and out at night from their spot at the end of my parents bed to get their water in the kitchen. I decided I would bolt from my room down the hallway to the kitchen as fast as I could to the light switch.
Relief washed over me as soon as I reached the switch allowing the room to be lit up as if it were daytime. I grabbed a cup out of the cabinet and went to fill it with water but nothing came from the tap… instead of being confused I felt fear creep over my whole body again. The same uneasy feeling that had woke me just moments ago. What an bizarre thing… I turned the knobs for the water every which way but nothing came out. Through my suppressed panic it began to stand out to me the deafening silence in the room.
The faucet made no sound as I turned what should have been a rather squeaky old handle. It wasn’t just the lack of water it was the lack of anything at all. I stood still only moving my eyes around the room, not sure what I was looking for but desperate for anything to make sense. I set my cup down on the counter and I swore I saw movement in the corner of my eye. It was so subtle I’m not sure if it was anything or just my mind making up something to fill the silence.
Just then I heard my mother coughing from the carport, she did often sneak out for a late night cigarette most nights. It snapped me back to reality, I wasn’t alone and I wasn’t in danger I must just be more tired than I realized. I wanted to ask her about the water, had it been shut off perhaps I know money was tough for us recently.
I cracked open the side door just enough to poke my head out to ask my question when my dog burst through the opening knocking me over in the process. My mother glared bitterly at me for letting the dog out. He sprinted full speed out the carport right past her outstretched hand attempting to grab his collar and continued down the driveway.
I was picking myself up and brushing my hands over my knees as if it would wipe the pain off from the fall, as she stormed past me to her bedroom. I heard her yell at my father that I had let the dog out and he needed to go get it. I sighed to myself all this now over trying to get a glass of water I thought, how ridiculous this night would be.
“I’ll get the dog” I shouted from the kitchen on my way out the door, hoping they would hear over their own commotion in the bedroom.
I shut the door behind me and made my way down our street in the direction the dog ran. He’s a Great Dane so surely he wouldn’t be able to hid anywhere once I hopefully caught up to him.
I could hear behind me the commotion from my house echo out into the crisp calm of the neighborhood as my father made his way outside. I didn’t bother to look back and kept my eyes scanning back and forth over the sideway and street ahead of me. I had walked probably about 10 houses down before I saw my dog in a neighbor’s yard, using their tree as his own luxury bathroom.
I called out to him quietly and sweetly “George, come here George” trying to get him to come over to me and not take off down the road farther. When I took one step towards George I got the feeling again from earlier that I wasn’t alone anymore. I felt my muscles get stiff and my body freeze with fear. I just knew without a doubt that something was behind me, I didn’t dare turn around to see what.
Then I heard a whisper. “George” It felt like the sound was coming directly from my own head not from any particular direction behind me. I still didn’t dare to turn my head and learn where the whisper came from. I kept my eyes locked on my dog who seemed to not to be bothered by anything. Surely if there were some creature out here the dog would notice. Maybe it was just an echo I tried to convince myself. But even I wasn’t buying it completely.
I slowly went to reach my hand out forward towards my dog to grasp his collar when I felt a intense blow to the side of my head. The world blurred and I lost my footing, one moment I saw my dog in front of me and the next moment I saw the sky above me. In my dazed vision I saw a incredibly long arm reach out towards my dog with such intense speed George wouldn’t have time to react.
I was still far too out of it to move my body at all and only conscious enough to see the the blur of what happened to my dog. Right in front of me the arm that had reached out of the dark had grasped around George’s neck. The hand was so large it dwarfed the neck of my giant dog. My eyes traveled along the arm but did not see an end to it I couldn’t turn my head to the side enough to see where it was coming from.
I felt myself coming to more and more, with each blink I could see clearer and the ringing in my head stopped only to reveal a sound I wish I could unhear. I heard choking and gasping wet sounds from my dog desperately trying to breathe with that things hand squeezing tighter and tighter around his neck.
In my foolish bravery I stood up and thrust my fist as hard as I could at the arm but I made no contact with it. I went to swing again and nothing I couldn’t have missed what was right in front of me, it’s like my hands went right through it. I heard the whisper in my mind again “Come here…”.
Adrenaline coursed through my body instantly and I ran as fast as I could back towards my house. What had I just seen, nothing made any sense anymore. The sounds from my dog faded behind me and I made it back down the street to my house and burst through the side door. My hands were shaking as I struggled to lock both doors. I ran down the hall and to my room I tried to shut my door as calmly as I could and locked that behind me.
Surely the creature wouldn’t have caught up with me to see where I ran off to but there was no way I was feeling safe. I opened my closet doors as quietly as I could and crawled on top of the hope chest and hid myself behind the hanging clothes above me. I did my best to steady my breathing as I feared it could hear my loud panting from a mile away as I was trying to catch my breath.
The world felt so unreal in that moment like I wasn’t in the place I had always known. It felt different like the whole world was tainted by the silence and darkness of that creature. I choked as I tried to hold in my tears thinking about what happened to my poor dog. For a moment I wish it could have been me instead and my thoughts began to spiral.
I heard a loud crash at the front of my house the sound of the door being slammed open or broken clean off its hinges even. The creature found me but how! Did it really see me enter my house, could it smell me, or just simply sense me anywhere I might be? I heard slam after slam as if the creature was destroying the very house itself.
I wrapped my arms around my legs that were tucked into my chest and closed my eyes tight. Hoping if I didn’t see it that it wouldn’t be able to find me. It must have been for hours that the creature slammed around my house in vain search of me. I couldn’t stay conscious any longer, the adrenaline had worn off and the lack of sleep was catching up with me. Everything suddenly faded to black around me.
Sunlight peaking through the crack of my closet doors woke me up and I suddenly remembered last night and fear again crept into my soul. Would the daylight give me any safety or would I actually come face to face with the monster. I thought it better to hide away from the world forever all together than face that monster again.
I resolved to sit in my closest until I died but I heard my mother call out for me. “Are you ever going to come out of your room today?” Was everything okay?
I slowly opened my closest door and took one step out. I looked at my bedroom door, it was still shut. I walked over to face my door and held my breathe as I reached out for the handle. I went to twist it slowly my hand slightly shaking, it was still locked and I let out the breathe I had been holding allowing myself to calm just a little. I put my ear to the door and listened for a moment. I could hear the tv on in the living room and the sound of my dog playing fetch down the hall.
I opened my door then and walked out to see my house completely normal. Did I… dream it all? Was it just a bad nightmare was I really that out of touch with what’s real or a dream? How could that even be?
I walked out of my room and down the hallway. I went to the kitchen to grab some water and I saw a deep indent on the corner of our washing machine. Everything was normal except for that. Maybe…. It was real after all? I don’t know what to think.