I awoke, breathing hard, eyes wide open, staring into the seemingly infinite darkness. Gasping for air, I looked around wildly, the only illumination with the room being from that of the display on my VCR, blinking since I had never reset the time after the power had last gone out. After a moment of looking around the room, I decided that I could finally relax… despite the fact that I was surrounded by such darkness, I could relax. I was in my room again… I was back from that dream… that… nightmare…
I laid back down, relaxing fully, the sweat trickling down my face, sticking to the sheets and bedding, my shirtless upper body seemingly rapped in the blankets. I gave a deep sigh before opening my eyes again, staring upwards towards the ceiling. A slight amount of starlight trickled in from the closed blinds and blanket placed up to keep light out during the day (since the blinds didn't always do the best job,) the sounds of chirping birds and crickets nowhere to be heard, a rarity at my house.
Pulling the blanket back slowly, I peered out the window and up towards the night sky. An odd sight fell before my eyes as I looked upwards into the sea of blackness, there was no moon to be seen in this sky, no pool of white that seemingly always marked the sky, rather it be a sliver or a full disk, the moon was nowhere to be found. I shook my head, closing my eyes for a moment. There had been a full moon the last time I had checked, and that had been… just this night.
I lay the blanket back as it had been and lay my head back upon my pillow, the darkness of my room slowly seeming to fade as my eyes adjusted for the lack of light. I sighed. I had no clue what time it was, for I had no clock within my room besides a watch in my closet, but even then I'd have to go get up and flip the switch to turn the light on just to read the time, and all my closet doors were closed. I couldn't get to sleep now… not after that freaken dream.
Like so many bad dreams before it, the thoughts lingered on my mind, however, slowly faded away, all sense of what was and could be within the dream dissipating before my minds eye, the memory of my dream leaving me, no longer able to recall what it was that had woken me. I then closed my eyes and pulled the covers slightly. Truth was, I didn't want to remember, I had the feeling that this was a dream that one did not wish to remember, a horrifying truth for one with an imagination as rambunctious as my own. No doubt it was a bad dream… the could be the only reason why I was sweating so badly, and I doubted it wasn't a romantic dream, for the signs of which, I will not speak of, were not present.
I would no longer be able to sleep this night, not at this rate anyways, although I could get up and find some drugs in my medicine cabinet that would putt me to sleep rather quickly if I so wished, but my conscious said that I should not, for I would have to wake up soon anyways, my parents would be leaving for work, and I would have to stay up so that I could wake my younger brother and sister up for school. Today was Tuesday, so it was my turn to wake up early and watch the kids, me and my sister traded off every other day. Fine with me, I had a show I watch at five A.M.
Bringing my hand up and over to my windowsill underneath the blanket, I groped for the remote so I could turn the TV on and get some light in this room, a little system I had made up, mostly because of the fact of laziness. Finally finding the remote, I took it from under the blanket and off the sill, and thumbed the button so the TV would turn on. Nothing happened. I thumbed the switch again. Still nothing. Mumbling my unlike on this matter, I turned the remote over and pulled back the back to it. Great, no batteries. My sister had most likely taken them, once again, for her CD player. As you might guess, this annoyed me, not only because now I couldn't use the remote, but also because I WOULD have to get up and turn on the light.
I mumbled some more, rather inaudible really, and swung my legs out from under my blankets after unraveling myself and brought them over the side of the bed, the floor feeling somewhat cool to my feat, overhead ceiling fan blowing a soothing breeze downwards. I stood and stretched, making sure not to hit the fan with my hands for I was 6'2" and it was easy to do so. I made my way over to my light switch and flipped it. Nothing. Okay, this was begging to get irritating. The power must have gone out while I was sleeping… someone hit an electrical pole or something, it was rare, but it still happened.
I shook my head, silently mumbling what I thought were curses at the time, I could have been wrong. Being rather ticked, I didn't know what I should do next, stand there, or lay back down onto the bed? Both ideas irritated me really, I wanted to do neither, I would have rather watched TV or read something right about now… I sighed, shaking my head slightly then brought my arm up against the wall and laid my head upon it as I closed my eyes. This was going to be a bad day for sure…
A slight sound caught my ear, breaking the silence that had been my room for the last five minutes, something other than my breathing. It sounded… very much like a slight hiss. The hiss of… static, like an electrical tuning device out of focus from a frequency. I slowly looked downwards and realized it was my boom box, laying against my TV. I gave an odd look, slowly crouching to touch the radio, sure enough, it's small red light glimmering in the darkness. This was rather confusing at first, but then I chuckled and shook my head. The Radio could use batteries as a back up power source in the case of the power going out, and I recalled leaving the radio on as I fell asleep the night before.
I pulled the cord from the wall and the radio's hiss ended. Confused, I plugged the cord back in and it started up again. I brought my left hand upwards, trailing the wall to the light switch and flicked it. Still nothing. I stayed there, crouched by the radio, attempting to make sense out of all of this. Had there been a power surge and the light bulb's gone out? No… Could my dad have come in and taken the light bulb's for something? Most likely not, although he had done similar things, I would wake me first and ask permission.
I looked over and, sure enough, I could make out the slight figure of the light bulbs in there place within the light sockets connected to the fan. This was getting too weird. I shook my head and closed my eyes, but not before something caught my eye and I opened them once more. The farthest closet from where I was, was now open. I thought about this for a moment… hadn't I looked over towards the closets and seen that they were all closed? Maybe I was wrong… I must have been, because, even then, it was a sliding closet, I would have heard the door opening unless something…
The radio. I looked back down towards it, it's static hissing outwards still. Unless I was concentrating upon the sounds of the radio… I looked around the room once more, my eyes searching the darkness. This was stupid… I must have mistaken my looking at the closet door and it being closed. I shook my head and sighed. That stupid dream was getting to me… whatever it was. I laughed slightly, shaking off the slight fright that had occurred to me. Maybe I was just going crazy, I shrugged and went to stand, bringing my hand up to my door handle to help myself up. My door had a special type of handle, unlike most knobs, it was crafted handle, curling outwards and to the side, a perfect place to putt the palm of my hand so I might help myself up.
Placing my hand there and pushing down helped me get up slightly, and then my legs performed the rest of the work as I stood. My hand pushed the handle down slightly, but it clicked, no longer going downwards. This held no oddity to me, I often locked my door at night, a small switch upon the handle, when turned, locking it into place, just like any knob and such. Placing my hand around the handle, I thumbed I used my thumb to search for the switch. Nothing. "I turned my head to my door handle suddenly. The switch was gone, the lock for the door, it was… gone…
I Jiggled the door handle once again. Crap, nothing. This was now becoming to feel rather odd to me, and that dream hadn't helped much either. I once again jiggled the knob, and once again finding it not opening, I cursed to myself and turned, leaning against the door, arms crossed. That friggen radio was still hissing, it crossed my mind to turn it off right about now, if it wasn't for a new sound that I now heard within the darkness of my room. What?… What was that?… I looked around the room again, my hand slowly sliding back and gripping the handle once more, starting to jiggle it again, somewhat more forcefully this time. It was only a dream… it was only a dream…
The hissing of the radio seemingly grew louder. No, it couldn't have, it must have been my imagination. That radio was starting to get annoying… that sound… it felt like fear itself was making itself into sound waves and bursting forth from the radio and hitting my ears, chills running down my spine. What… what was going on! I could hear something else in my room, I was sure of it now, a footstep, a growl maybe, I couldn't be sure, I didn't want to be sure, I didn't want to know what was in my room with me. I shook the handle again hard, then pushed down upon it. I could break it if I so tried, I knew I could. The handle wouldn't go any lower than it had before, as if a dead bolt was in place now, the somewhat flimsy makings of the handle seemingly much stronger now.
The hissing of the static on the radio grew louder. It couldn't have… it couldn't be getting louder. That sound, racking my spine, making me shake. I couldn't take it anymore, the sound, the door not able to open. My heart was racing, I was breathing hard, shaking the handle hard. I slammed my fist towards the door, nothing but pain happening afterwards. I continued hitting the door hard with my hands, slamming on it in hopes that someone would hear me. Nobody could hear me… I had two other doors on the way to my room from the kitchen, my room disconnected from the others by a hallway and those two doors, and even then, a living room lay between the kitchen and another hallway, and finally the rest of my family's rooms.
I shouted my cries for help, but no answers came. I was hysteric, tears starting down my cheeks. I was afraid… something bad was going to get me, and I was afraid… somehow… someway I knew this was the end. I closed my eyes, hearing the sounds of oblivion coming at me, along with that wretched stereo's static. Slowly, I let myself crumble into a ball, my leg's losing their strength as I curled up, crying, my hand clutching the door handle in hopes that it might turn at the last second, but I knew in my heart it would not. My eyes closed tightly, and I clutched my legs to myself with my other hand, crying, the static growing louder and louder. I could not even hear the sounds of the intruder any longer… all I could hear… was…was…
Static.