Chapter 21: Fright Night
When they at last came back home that evening, and found the house to their satisfaction, I ended up forgetting about dinner, as they had already "supped" with some foreign minister, and I would not be expected to cook that evening. It didn't matter. I wasn't even hungry. Everything that had happened that day had made me lose my appetite.
So, after having at last heard Jessica finishing the story about how "absolutely adorable" the minister had been, I climbed upstairs to the attic, and soon feel asleep, surprised that I was so tired; a peaceful sleep which was now so unfamiliar to me... My sixth sense told me that I was being watched, but I ignored it. I was sleeping... sleeping; sleeping in such a way that I hadn't in nearly five years…
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I awoke in the middle of the night, somewhere around three o'clock in the morning for no apparent reason, whatsoever, and felt that same, strange unmistakable sensation of being watched. I felt a great urge to look out of the newly repaired window, and to see what was going on outside of my prison; without knowing why, I did so.
Peering out of the window, and into the darkness below; my eyes somehow adjusted, and everything lit up in some strange new light; it was as if tit were day... I could see so well because of the golden moon, and its bathing over everything around for miles and miles in every direction.
I looked around my surroundings feeling a strange wave of euphoria; they were absolutely beautiful... as if something out of a strange and fantastic dream!
The trees of the forest yonder were lit up with the same, strange light of the moon... they were so happy and bright, and they were laughing... Laughing...? I wondered, wiping some of the dust and grime away from the window to get a better view... No, that couldn't be right, but I was taken aback, as the laughing continued, and then subsided... I was hoping that I was mistaken; hearing things, but then again, that laugh was just as unmistakable as the strange sensation of being watched...
But I wasn't mistaken. I couldn't be, and I realized that, when a dark figure emerged from behind one of the willow trees that stood in front of the mansion... My heart sped, and I knew who it was... Jacqueline!
I was frightened. This couldn't be happening to me. This couldn't be happening to me, but it was. She was there. She was there, and she knew that I had seen her, for she looked up at me; her grizzly eyes alit with a shine that I had never seen human eyes light up with before... She'll kill me, I quickly realized, as our eyes met each other, and her ruby lips curved into a smile, and her black dress fluttered in the wind, I'm done for! I realized, grimly.
I closed my eyes for a moment, and then opened them, seeing that she was right there at my window... The sight of her reminded me of a moment from one of my favorite novels, 'Salem's Lot, by Stephen King; though I had not read it in year, the nightmarish moment was practically straight out of it; She's the vampire, Beatrice… I thought, panicked; I couldn't think straight anymore. The room was spinning, She's the vampire, and you're the victim! You're the victim, and there's no bloody way out! Her long black nails clicked as they come into contact with the glass of the window, and then, they scraped against it; forming streaks in my dusty old window, and then, her eyes flashed wickedly, "You'll be dead soon," she mouthed, and then she was gone…
I'm safe! I thought, thanking God for his good grace, and then I passed out.
