NIGHT MADNESS

A short tale of fear, paranoia and dread.

     Hear the whispers, rasping hisses coming from somewhere to where you lie in bed. A hot night. An uncomfortable night. A sizzling night wind rustling the dried summer leaves. A raspy breath.

     Shadows. Dark and quivering. Shifting. Looming. Hulking. Threatening outside the window. In the closet. Under the bed. Out in the hall. Suddenly you feel like a little child. Fear creeps into your heart. Fear creeps into your soul. Pulling the bedding up to your chest.

     The window curtains billow into the room. There is no breeze. A raspy whisper. Something is moving out on the nighttime lawn. You curse for having your room on the ground floor. Hissing. Rasping. Scuttling. What on earth could be out there howling in the night?

     The streetlight on the corner flickers several times and goes out. A shriek cuts through the hot night from somewhere distant. Another scream. Closer this time. Shadows looming and shifting outside your bedroom window. Your bedroom door creaks open, just slightly. Suddenly, with a pounding heart, you wrestle with your memory whether you'd shut the door tightly. You usually do. You look toward the door, wondering at the fear you'd feel if you saw an eye in the crack looking at you.

     You struggle with your fear and mounting paranoia. This fear is silly, you tell yourself. You're thinking like a little child. The monster in the closet. The monster under the bed. Mama and Daddy, please make sure there are no monsters anywhere in my bedroom.

     The scream echoes through the night again. A cougar in the neighborhood? A skinwalker? Bigfoot? Werewolf? A person being tortured? The scream re-vibrates on your skin over and over again, a horrible physical sensation. No doubt it is coming closer. Coming closer what ever it is.  

     You want to get out of bed, dart to the window, and close it and lock it down tight. You're starting to freak out. You want to get up and go to your bedroom door and close it, making sure it is shut rightly this time. You wish you had a roommate. You wish you had a big dog. You wish you had a loaded gun under your pillow. Or at least beside your bed on your nightstand. You wish you weren't alone. Living single and alone suddenly just doesn't seem like such fun.

     A rasping whisper. Long dark fingers clutching outside your window. The hot summer night winds rustling the dried summer leaves. Heavy breath. The shadows of the thin spider like fingers shift and grasp.

     You can't breathe. Your bedroom door inches further open with a loud haunted house like creaking. You don't remember your bedroom door ever doing that before, either coming open on its own or creaking.

     Terror chokes you. Something dark looms up in the bedroom window. It screams. The fear rips through you. Your breath is gone. You'd scream but you have no oxygen in your lungs. Something looms in the slight opening of your bedroom door. You hear a scuttling and rasping. You collapse on your bed. Your heart is about to leave your body. You stop trying to breathe. A raspy laughing sound ricochets about your bedroom.

Reviews

[Horizon K.]

haha... what a tense build up!! I need to laugh now to get that tension out... anyway, I have no idea what creepy things were crawling around this room but I don't want to find out! I want to pass out and wake up to morning light! Really fun read, Tina!

[Tina Kline]

Thank you!

[R J Askew]

A fine piece of short horror writing. Great economy of words, esp in the opening graphs. Reminds me of Metallica's excellent SANDMAN.

[Tina Kline]

Thank you very much!

[Missphit]

You see? THIS is why adults still sleep with teddy bears, and don't lie and say it is a bedding decoration. I write horror and I can be just fine with all of the lights off and the creaking doors because I know I am the monster, but when you read about someone else's monster, especially when they don't tell you what it was ( thanks for that) you have nightmares!!
Great heart pounding thrill, think I will leave the bathroom light on tonight and thank God I am on the second story of my home :)

[Tina Kline]

Thanks very much!

[Eric Cox]

Oh yeah! eerie, spooky, mounting terror, so cool. Shadows of the night descend, I love your penning of this spooky tale.

[Tina Kline]

.......................thanks!

[Eric Cox]

You're woof welcome!

[Coyote Song]

A very frightful story. I got the sense the adult was regressing back to a child like state as the horrors all around kept building up to the point of a 'heart stopper!" What happened at the end? Paranoia can run right over us. leaving us in its grip. An amazing horror/thriller that did give me the creeps. Glad I didn't read this one at night! Superb storytelling here!

[Tina Kline]

Thanks!!!!

[Brother Rooster]

I know this was told from the perspective of an adult but it evoked so many images from my childhood...those exciting, frightening images that just flare up the imagination...the night time lawn, the flickering street lamp. I love that. It took me back and I had moments where I really re-lived those small yet thrilling moments. Really great. Simple and effective. A poetic narrative that I have come to recognize as a wonderful trait of your style, Tina. I've said this before...you should be in a book shop (your writing I mean:))!

[Tina Kline]

Thanks!!!!!!

[Colors]

Very intense/tension builder. good read

[Tina Kline]

Thanks!!!!