Late Night Studying

I sit quietly in the dark while the glow of my laptop illuminates my face. I’ve been staring at the screen for what feels like hours, though it has only been minutes. It’s getting late. I should probably be in bed, but I am fearful that I will miss some great stroke of genius if I do. My eyelids feel droopy and my body is feeling restless. I take off my glasses and rub my tired eyes. I crack my neck and stare up into the dark void where I know my calendar is sitting on my desk. The house is quiet and still and I can hear my breath as it enters my lungs, calm and steady.

I hear scratching at the window. What was that? My heartbeat quickens as I turn slowly to the window where the blind is closed. I strain to listen into the darkness as the scratching noise comes again, and I see shadows dance across the walls around me. It’s just the wind moving some branches near the window — then I stop breathing as I realise that there is no tree outside that window. I am frozen by fear. The scratching comes again, much louder this time, and against the window is a silhouette of a hand. I close my eyes tight, willing to wake up. This must be a dream. I open my eyes again, and the hand is gone. My heart is beating rapidly and I am sweating as I shiver against the cool air of the room. 
 
 A door slams in the hallway but I am the only one home. I get up slowly from the desk and move towards the door. I feel my way along the wall to find the light switch and turn on the light, but as I do the globe bursts, creating a flash of sparks. I am plunged into darkness.

I think I saw something in that burst of light. Was it a person? Is there someone in the house? Or is my paranoid mind playing tricks on me?

I am standing in the darkness now, trembling. I am frightened and I don’t know if I am alone. My phone lies abandoned on my desk and I have no light to guide me. My breathing is coming fast and I try to quieten it in an attempt to conceal myself. I hear a faint sobbing. It’s coming from the end of the hallway. ‘Who’s there?’ I call out into the dark void. As I take a step further, the sobbing gets louder. I reach the end of the hallway, my eyes still straining to see. I think I can make out a small figure crouched on the floor. I reach out a trembling hand to touch it. ‘Are you ok?’ I say as I step closer. The lights flash on and there’s a little girl standing in front of me wearing a white dress, drenched in blood. Her hair is matted together with clots of drying blood. She reaches her hand out to me, staring with black eyes like pools of emptiness. I scream and stumble backward, then fall to the floor. I scramble to get away, but something grabs my leg. Its fingers dig deep into my skin and I feel the sharp sting as it pierces my leg, then the blood as it seeps from the wound. I thrash and kick with my other leg, screaming and yelling for help. No one is coming. The thing drags me further down the hallway as I dig my nails into the floor to try to hold on. I am swallowed by the darkness…

I wake up screaming. I am sweating and shaking. I am sitting in the dark while the glow of my laptop illuminates my face. It was just a dream. My beating heart begins to calm down. I take off my glasses and get up from the desk. Time to call it a night. As I get up I feel a sharp pain shooting up the shin of my leg. I look down and see blood seeping out. Then I hear a scratching at the window.

© Sarah K. Gill on January 14, 2017.