He snapped awake. It must be two in the morning. Just late enough, and just earlyenough to feel like the whole world is asleep. A feeling of being completelyalone. That feeling first comforts him. It relieves him. There is no one around tobother the perfect silence of the early morning. But as he lay there, unable tofall back to sleep, he felt different about it. The loneliness became something hedidn’t want. The silence sinister. He thought to himself of what they would say ina cheesy movie. Its quiet… too quiet. Haha. That cheered him for a second. Then hefelt the weight of the darkness. It pushed on him. Made him uncomfortable. Themind darted from one nightmarish thing to the next and fears of the unknownoverwhelmed him. The closet in his room was wide open and fully dark. His eyesdarted. They searched hard and failed to see anything in the darkness which onlymade the darkness scarier. He thought he might die of fear if this continued. Likea child he leapt from his bed and took a step and a half to the light switch. Heflipped it. Light. Safety. He felt instantly foolish. Not only was he standingnext to the light switch for safety at two in the morning but it was also one ofthe rare occasions where he was wearing his small, white briefs and nothing else.The closet laughed at him with its open door and unthreatening inhabitants. Theonly noises were the buzz of electricity in the light above and the shaking of hiscowardice heart. No, not cowardice, he decided. He actually considered himselfpretty brave. Perhaps that was only with the comfort of others. He turned out thelight. He walked back to his bed slowly. Slowly so that he would prove to anyonethat might be watching that he, in fact, wasn’t afraid of the dark. As soon as helay back in bed, trying to be comfortable with the aggressive darkness, herealized that he had left the basement door unlocked. Recent events had made hishousehold paranoid about nightly intrusions. Cars had been broken into, withnothing stolen, and suspicious characters had been spotted in the night.Suspicious characters always in the distance, just standing. Maybe it was hisparanoid fathers influence that convinced he and his brother, but if thesecharacters were so bold as to lurk about and break into multiple cars then whywouldn’t they go into an unlocked house. Now that he had terrified himself againhe got back up and turned the light on. Light. Comfort. He knew he had to go lockthat door. It was time for some bravery. He knew this was why he had woken up. Heoften woke up in the middle of the night when he had forgotten something importantthe day before. He rarely remembered what it was right away as well. So thisprobably wasn’t as evil a night as he had felt it was. The darkness weighed on himbecause he wouldn’t be able to fall asleep until that door was locked. Herationalized the best he could. He could still feel it however. Even with thelight on, darkness pressed up against his window trying to get in. Before hisimagination ran wild again he put jeans on to protect him and left his room. Hechecked his brothers room real quick. The four foot by four foot lump on the bedmeant his brother was safe and sound. He left that room. Entered into the darknessof the living room. He continued across the living room without turning a lighton. Again proving that he was better than the fears that slunk in the shadows. Heentered the kitchen. Darkness still. He flipped on the light. Light. Shelter. Thekitchen would be his bravery checkpoint. He had a brief moment of relax and thencontinued down the stairs to the left. Just a few steps down and the light of thekitchen seemed miles away. The basement exuded darkness. He was wrapped in itshatred as he descended the stairs. This basement was like a second room to him,typically. It was finished. It was clean. Everything fun was down here. But as faras he could tell, all that wasn’t even down there currently. It could becompletely empty down there right now. He reached the bottom of the stairs. To hisunsurprise the back door was agape. He felt like laughing, almost. Of course itsopen, he thought. That was his luck. If he thought to himself in advance ofsomething ironic happening, or rather typical for him, it would happen. The factthat the door was open almost annoyed him more than anything, which helped holdoff the fear for a second or two. Then he was hit hard again with the fright andloneliness of the situation. It was all him right now. His anger and fear pushedhim to run to the door and slam it shut. He locked it quickly too. He felt
Leave a Comment