I didn't sleep for the rest of the night, as you can imagine. I didn't know whether to be scared, confused, curious, upset, happy... There were all sorts of questions bouncing around in my skull. One thing was for sure, I had to see her again. You have to understand, this meant I wasn't crazy when I was a kid; this meant I saw what I thought I saw that night. It was real.
Needless to say, when I tried to explain to my friends at school the next day, they thought I was insane. I didn't tell my parents at all, as this was the reaction I expected to get from them. But my friends... I don't know, I figured I'd get something in the way of support from them.
"Dude, how much weed did you hit?" Ben laughed at me. I clipped him on the back of his head with my palm. "Ow! Asshole... Seriously, what you thought we'd believe you? You just give us that out of the blue and its real?"
"Yeah," Victoria started up "I've gotta say, I have never heard you lie before, but I guess we all have to start somewhere."
"I'm telling the truth!" I begged them "Seriously! It happened!"
"Well," Ben said, running his hand through his big mop of hair "If you're so damn sure about it, and you weren't just seeing things or having a crazy dream, then I guess I have to see it for myself to believe you." Ben placed his hands on my shoulders "Invite me over so I can meet this... Closet woman you have."
"Closet woman?" I repeated, getting the sense that he was making a joke of my situation. I can't really say that I blame him, looking back on it now. I mean, what would you have said if your friend came to you and said they had a boogeyman... Or boogeywoman... Under the bed.
"You boys..." Victoria shook her head. She sighed, rolled her eyes and continued to eat her lunch.
"Vicky, you coming too?" I had to ask. It felt impolite not to.
She put on a higher pitched voice than normal. "Oh mother, may I go sleep in a room with two boys?" she batted her eyelids. "Yeah, not gonna happen." She scoffed.
We both looked at her, analyzing her argument. "Yeah fair enough." we both said in unison. Ben and I had always been on the same sort of wavelength. Ever since we were kids we were able to finish each other's sentences and all sorts of stuff like that.
So, Ben came over to my place for the night that night. We played videogames while constantly stopping at every sound we heard, and glancing at the closet door with every shadow the trees cast through the window. It was a jumpy night and we were both on edge, myself moreso than Ben, as he was still unsure of whether to believe me.
"I dunno man," he finally arced up "maybe you just had a really crazy dream..."
"No, I'm telling you, I saw her. She was real, I..." I glanced down at my hand "I touched her. You don't feel that sort of stuff in dreams."
Ben paused the game and turned to face me "You touched her? You didn't mention that earlier." he pushed his glasses up his nose, hiding his eyes through their reflectiveness "So... What kind of touching are we talkin' here?"
I swung a slap at his head but he was ready for it and ducked out of the way. "Nothing like that, ya dick. I just... Held her still, by the wrists in case she was holding a weapon."
Ben took some time to process this "So... Were you on top of her, or was she on top of you?"
"I was on- oh come on. That's not fair, it wasn't like that." I sneered.
"Yeah right. Anyway, it doesn't look like she's coming out tonight. Look at the time." he nodded toward the clock. It was almost half past 3 in the morning. "We should probably get some sleep. Maybe the activity is what's keeping her away." He attempted to use logic to better understand the situation. That was a frequent occurance of his.
"Yeah... I guess so. I'm pretty bummed she didn't show up again though. I want to see her again so I know she's real." I confessed.
"Yeah, that's understandable. Anyway," he turned off the console and the tv. "let's get some sleep." he crawled into the mattress I'd set up on the floor for him beside my bed. I saw that he couldn't help but glance under my bed.
"I doubt she'll pop out and eat you." I laughed.
"Still... Would scare the shit out of me if she popped out from under there at all." Ben rolled over and faced the other way.
I lied back down on my bed and kept my eyes on the closet door, just in case she turned up. I was ready for her to appear so that I could offer a better apology, so I could show Ben that I wasn't insane. Sadly however, she never showed that night.