My eyes snapped open, senses reinvigorated by the sudden clap of thunder, a warning of the inevitable danger that was to come with the lethal chill of the crashing, starry night.  My heart throbbed with fright, bickering with reason-- its every thump like the devilish beating of a drum.  

I was overcome with worry, the tenacious sting of the unknown evoking a disgruntled gasp from the very depths of my soul.  Anguish loomed deep within the inner makings of my mind, steadily blooming like a flower-- its beguiling beauty a tool of deceit.  Too tempting, too dangerous.

   Darkness filled the pit in my stomach, the floors, the walls, the windows, and everything in between-- not even a crevice of light left to be seen.  My bedroom wall had a life of its own, deep and ragged breaths replacing the eerie quietude.   Swirling winds cried their desperate pleas, left to the unknown oblivion of the harrowing night.  I was alone, my only company being the minor warmth of a blanket and the racing fright of my mind.

Bolting upright, I stiffened, frozen by the thought of the delusive entities I had so meticulously formed in my mind.  Paranoia pulsed through my veins, the only thing preventing me from turning around being the very thing that keeps me up at night- tossing and turning in an attempt to evade that terror.

My head slowly shifted forward, the suspense of my movements giving me the most terrifying of thrills.   

I stared into the bottomless void of emptiness, the menacing guise of the night.  It stared back, its dancing eyes cloudy and black.  Shadows unfurled into an endless expanse of indistinguishable features.  It had become one, preparing to swallow me whole until I was one with the malicious thing that we call the “dark.”  

It held no mercy.  It held no feeling.  There is no room for love or kindness or sadness in a thing that only knows the short triumph of revenge and hate.  It thirsts for more, always expecting a longer victory than the last, and always ending up with the same insatiable desire.  

Nothing is there.

My mom said it’s just the dark.   I know mothers don’t lie.

Right?

Nothing is there.

Dancing trees, snapping branches, and rustling leaves warned me with their rumbling battlecries, but words were not enough to stop the imminent danger of the dark.   The wind howled, grieving the loss of hope.  

Terror had begun its reign. 

  The fingers of the night clawed their sharp nails against the walls, brushing against my face as I shuddered.  My heart was up to my throat, words choked back by the fear.  Was this a battle I could win?

A gentle knock assailed the door as my head whirled round and round, a moan erupting from the floorboards as tears of utter agony spewed from my eyes.  My hand flew through the air, desperate to grasp some type of explanation- some type of excuse for these persistent sounds and feelings.  A glass was thrust from the table, hitting the floor with a muffled clatter.  

It had shattered.  Whatever that thing was would step on the glass and run away.  It had to.  

My feet longed to run, to hit the floor and never stop.  I had memorized this sequence, this horrifying dance once before- an elusive frolic through haunting, harrowing nightmares and teasing memories.  Part of me knew that dancing was not enough to stop the cruel, bitter reality, but who ever said it would hurt to try?

A shrill gasp escaped my lips before a raspy voice called out.  One that I could not even recognize, but one I knew was my own.

“Who’s there?”

The fragile whisper drifted, a shiver slowly creeping up my spine as I clutched the sheets.  Inundated by fear, I dryly gulped, my lips thirsting for the comfort of water- for the comfort of lonely company and plentiful solitude.  My thoughts were too jumbled to comprehend.  

Deafening silence met my call, perhaps worse than the fear that was to be surfaced by the answers of the dead and the living. 

Was it really?

Claps of thunder ensued, a terrible countdown to the end.  But of what?  Of dramatic words?  Of your story? Or of mine?

“It’s just me.”

A short squeak slipped from my lips, a powerful wave of panic rising as I scrambled under the sheets.   My heart lurched out in an attempt to escape the tragic fate of my body, but it was caged by the bitter truth of humanity- of immortality- of death.

Who are you?  Where are you?  No.

What are you?

Creak.  Thump, thump, thump.

I could run.  I should run.  My body won’t move- even the thought of movement seems too much of a feat to muster.  

Creak.  Thump, thump, thump.

Oh god, it’s coming closer!  Can you hear its whispers, sinful meaning embedded within its every action, breath, word, sound-

Creak.  Thump, thump, thump.

Air caressed my cheek, teasing me with all that I didn’t know and all that I did.  

Creak.  Thump, thump, thump.

I was an empty shell, remote and distant.  My limbs screamed in desperation, but I was too captivated by my own fright- imprisoned by my own feral fear.  I was gone. I am gone.   Help me.  Please!

Blinking, bold letters of red penetrated the darkness, a dim glow.  The single star in a vast sea of sky, the rippling darkness no match for the simple magnificence of a blinding speck.   

12:43

Then, it was no more.

I awakened into a world of light.  Groggy and tired,  I slowly lifted my body up on the bed, relief flooding through my limbs.   Horror is not a lasting sentiment.  Light and goodness wins.

After prancing across the room, I frantically fumbled with the light.  Pushing down on the switch would be a declaration of my fearlessness.  It would be like saying that I’m not afraid.

How true could that statement really be?

Before I knew it,  my bubble of light had been popped and I was flurrying back to my bed.  

I know nothing is there.  I do.

Settling into my bed, I closed my eyes.  

What was the time again?

12:42?

My eyes snapped open.  I could hear the hinges of my door creaking.  Creaking and creaking, an echo in my shallow, empty mind.

“It’s just me.”

I held in my desperate cries for salvation, silenced by devastation.  My hands twitched as my eyes screamed with a volume that my mouth couldn’t manage to generate.

A light hand brushed over my head as darkness swept over my world.  Clouds of misery swarmed my cheerful beaches, nothing left but remnants of the joy that had once been. 

Something is there.

It’s always been.

“Sweet dreams.”