It was about 10pm. Way past the point I was supposed to be sleeping, but for some odd reason, tonight I chose to stay awake. I actively chose to resist falling asleep. I can't tell you to this day exactly why I chose to do that, but maybe it was meant to happen. Maybe it was another connection. But we'll get to that later.
I tossed and turned under my sheets, gazing around my bedroom. It was a decent sized room, being that I was an only child. We didn't live in a large house, but the rooms we did have were spacious. I looked over almost every inch of the cream coloured walls, examined the various posters hung up around my room. Some of old bands that used to be around when I was that age, some of tv shows I used to watch.
I rolled onto my side and peered over my bedside table at the desk my computer sat on. It was a small desk with space for office supplies and a computer I could play games on. I was proficient with computers, thanks to my parents getting one for me at a young age to help with my understanding of them. My father always told me I'd be doing it for work one day, working with computers in some IT department somewhere. At the age I was at, naturally I wanted to be a superhero or a fire fighter, but now I see he was probably right and I guess it is kind of what I want to do.
My bed sat in the back corner of my room, with the door to the room at the foot of the bed. Looking down past my feet at the door as I now lay on my back I began to wonder if falling asleep was a good idea after all. There was nothing to do after dark. If I started messing around on my computer my parents would likely come down and tell me to go to sleep. I sighed and glanced just to the right of my bedroom door at the double doors that made up my closet. In there I had my school uniforms hanging up, all pushed to one side. I liked having some space left over, just in case I had to hang a bunch of other stuff up.
Just when I decided I should start closing my eyes, I saw it. I knew I did. The closet door began to open ever so slightly. Very slowly, very quietly, it started to open. Naturally as a kid, my first instinct was to hide under my covers; pull my sheets up over my head and hope whatever it was didn't get me. I shut my eyes and tried to keep my breathing silent in hopes it wouldn't think I was there at all.
After a few moments had passed I slowly pulled my sheets back down and peeked over them, looking down toward my closet. I saw a blur. A dark figure woosh into the closet and close the door just as silently as it had opened it. I shot up in my bed in a panicked state. I didn't know what to think. What had I just seen? A shadow cast from trees outside? But how can a shadow close a door? Maybe a breeze? But my windows were shut. How could a breeze have opened the closet door in the first place? My mind was everywhere at once.
I called for my parents, and my father came rushing over to my room, asking what was wrong. I pointed at the closet door and tried to explain to him, and he just smiled and shook his head. "No Sam, there's nothing there." he walked over the closet and opened the door. I froze with fear, but to my confusion, he was right. The closet was empty, apart from my uniforms all pushed aside. "Nothing to be afraid of."
"But dad, I saw it. I saw it open the door, I saw it go back in there." I could barely talk in my tired state.
"Sam, you probably just saw a shadow from the trees outside. Your room is perfectly safe. You're fine. Your mind might have just been playing tricks on you because you're so tired. Get some sleep, you've got school tomorrow."
And with that he walked back out of my room, and went back to bed, leaving me alone again with whatever I had seen. Needless to say, I didn't sleep much that night. But it did have quite an effect on me for many years to come.