Of Nightmares and Spirits, Fiona Estelle Hamilton [the reading strategies book .TXT] 📗

my own. “Tommy, do you feel that?” I heard her “say”. I did, in fact, sense something but what? “Why?” I enquired. I could hear the hesitation in her thoughts. “Because there’s something in her closet…” My fur bristled and I suddenly felt it.

 

The same feeling of dread from earlier, only this time much stronger then before. The fear was steadily rising in my throat, until a meowing sound left my mouth. I felt the young woman’s hand stroke the top of my head and down my back. “What’s the matter, Tommy?” She asked her voice gentle and warm.

 

I jumped off of the bed, determined to let her know something was wrong. I led her to her closet, meowing the entire time. She kept asking me what was wrong and if I was alright. I then remembered that humans sometimes cannot see and sense what we can. The younger woman picked me up and held me, as she so often did. She cooed in my ear that everything was fine and that I was being silly. The younger woman put me back down on the bed, stroked me a few times, and then left a couple of moments later.

Luna’s thoughts were terrified. “That…thing…It almost touched you. It was reaching for you. It was ugly. It was black and it had big, long claws. Longer than ours. Tommy, please don’t ever do that again. I was so scared! That thing wants to hurt us. It wants to hurt everyone. We’ve got to warn our family and get them out of here.”

 

That was the first time any of us experienced something like this, in our new home. Weeks had passed since this incident and other occurrences continued to happen. Thumping on the wall, footsteps, whispering, it all happened after the incident with the closet. We were becoming fearful of staying home alone. As much as we were relieved that our family was out of danger fir a short period, we were still fearful of what could happen to us. The women would be devastated if we were hurt somehow. I made all four of us stay together when the women weren’t home. If one of us got up to eat, one of us followed the other, to ensure his or her safety.

 

I believe the older woman began to slowly come to terms with the pact that our house was possibly inhabited by spirits or something worse. She said to the younger woman one day, “Sweetie do you ever have trouble sleeping at night?” The younger woman responded that she did, only because she thought the older woman left the T.V. on sometimes. The older woman reasoned she never leaves the T.V. on when she sleeps. The younger woman became fearful, thinking perhaps some people had snuck into the house. Her mother assured her that she had checked every corner of the house, shot gun in hand. Nobody was here but us. “Mama,” The younger woman said, “Do you think our house is haunted?” I heard the older woman give a heavy sigh. “Maybe.” Was all she said.

 

It became increasingly difficult for the women to sleep. Church and I stayed with the younger woman, Luna and Caesar stayed with the older woman, Luna occasionally curled up to the younger woman’s chest. The younger woman was almost asleep when we heard the sound of laughter. I felt the younger woman began to stroke my fur, frantically. “Did you hear it too?” the younger woman asked me, her voice shaking. I believe the younger woman already knew the answer, because after a minute or two, she said, “I’ll go get mama,”

 

“I will go with her,” I projected my thoughts to Luna. “You need to stay here. I don’t want you to get hurt,” Luna agreed to stay in the bedroom, and wait.

 

I felt myself being lifted by the younger woman; she picked me up and began carrying me with her. I didn’t mind though. I liked to be held.

 

The walk to the older woman’s room seemed longer than usual. The light from what I assumed was the moon, was casting shadows. Shadows are the only things I can see, and I can’t even see them sometimes. I heard the younger woman remark that the hallway seemed to stretch longer when it was dark. The older woman’s room was just upstairs, but it just didn’t feel as short as the walk was. Maybe the younger woman was walking slower, because she was scared. I rubbed her cheek to help her feel better. I heard her give a soft laugh, and felt her hand on my head, stroking it.

 

A moment later, there was another bout of laughter, coming from downstairs. The younger woman paused, my fur stood on end, the younger woman didn’t move. We heard it again. It sounded mocking, unfriendly. The laughter continued for another minute, then stopped just as quickly as it came.

 

The younger woman continued walking; we were almost to the older woman’s room when we heard knocking. It was coming from the walls. Once the knocking began, it continued as another sound began: Screaming. This time, the younger woman broke into a sprint, calling, “Mama! Mama!” At last we reached the older woman’s room, the shrieks and knocking sounded like they were getting closer.

 

I heard the doorknob turn as the older woman opened the door to rush us in. Within seconds, she was asking the younger woman what was wrong, thinking it was one of her night terrors. The younger woman was so frightened, she could barely form any coherent words. It took her a minute before she could tell the older woman, what was happening.

 

“I don’t hear anything,” the older woman argued. The younger woman and I heard the knocking again, only this time, faintly. The screams as well. The younger woman shushed the older woman and told her to listen. They stopped talking for a second and the knocking and screaming were clear. They were still faint, but very clear. There was silence between the women for a short period, most likely because the older woman was listening to the sounds outside. The screaming and knocking finally stopped all at once. I felt the weight of the bed shift and heard footsteps from one of the women. As the door creaked open, the older woman cried out: “Luna!” Luna’s footsteps were hurried, as if she was running. “Well it looks like everyone’s here,” The younger woman remarked. “I thought I told you to stay in the other bedroom! Why did you follow us?!” Luna’s thoughts were angry but were fearful as well.

 

“I didn’t come after you, until that horrible shrieking started! I was worried about you two!” I jumped on the bed to be with my family. If only I could see what we were up against, I could possibly help protect them better than I already am. At the moment, I think the older woman was holding Caesar because she was saying things like: “It’s OK,” and “I know you were scared but everyone’s alright now.”

 

“Caesar, are you going to be OK?” Caesar didn’t respond. I suppose the fear was getting to him, just like it was getting to everyone else. The older woman did not sleep for the remainder of the night. The younger woman didn’t even bother to go back to her own bedroom. If I’m right, she just laid some blankets on the ground, took a pillow and slept there for the rest of the night. Church and I lay with the younger woman, trying to keep her calm and perhaps help her get some sleep. I was almost asleep when Church woke me up. “Tommy, what are we going to do? Something really bad is in this house. We shouldn’t be here! We have to get out, but how?!”

“I don’t know. I wish I did. It wouldn’t be enough just for the older woman to do a cleansing. Whatever is in the house most likely wouldn’t be affected by it, if the spirit won’t listen to reason. If it’s even a spirit. Maybe this will be the final straw. Maybe we will finally get out of here.”

 

For a while, perhaps for maybe four weeks, everything was quiet. There was no more knocking, screaming, laughing, or anything like that. The women even began to sleep better. There came a night where the younger woman was staying up late, reading. I laid next to her, listening to her turn a page every few seconds. About three minutes later, the pages stopped turning. I bumped her on the arm. She probably just fell asleep. I felt her scratch my ear. She was awake, but I wondered what made her stop reading. My fur suddenly bristled again. Something wasn’t right. “Tommy…” She said. Her voice was choked off, as if she was trying not to cry. “Can you see it?” She asked.

 

I knew she didn’t really mean could I “see” it. She meant its shadow or outline. I did. The black thing was in her closet and was moving towards her bed. A few seconds later, she gathered me in her arms and left the room. I believe we left the home a mere two days later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Face

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”.

--Franklin D. Roosevelt

 

 

I had gone to sleep for the night. It was fairly early; somewhere around nine thirty p.m. I believe. Before I drifted off into sleep, however, my eyes opened in realization that I did not plug in my night light. Childish, I know, but even after all these years, I still do not like to sleep in complete darkness. As soon I saw the green glow, I knew I could sleep much better. Once again, I attempted to close my eyes and sleep, only this time I found I could not. No matter how much I tossed or turned, sleep would not come to me.

 

After about fifteen minutes of trying to sleep, I decided that I should get up and take one or two melatonin tablets. Doing so granted me a deep sleep within twenty minutes of taking the tablets. I do not remember what exactly I dreamt of, but when I awoke, I woke up with my heart racing and drenched in sweat. Strangely enough, my door was shut. When I went to open the door, I found it was locked. My door locks from the outside so there was no way to get it open. My mother’s room was next to mine, so I thought she would find it locked and unlock it in the morning. Not knowing what else to do, I climbed back into my bed and tried to go back to sleep.

 

I found it somewhat disquieting that my door was locked for no real reason. No windows were open; I knew it couldn’t possibly be the wind. There was no reason for the door to be locked, or shut, for that matter. I never shut my door. It makes me feel safer with the door open. Eventually, sleep held me in its embrace once more, even though there seemed to be too much worry weighing on my mind.

 

This time, I remembered what I dreamt. When I woke again, it filled me with horror. In my dream, my mother, my sister, and I are all going to a funeral. We are dressed in black; all of us are wearing black button up dresses. Who the funereal was for, I do not know. I do know that the person’s coffin was in the back of our van. We stepped out of our car and opened the back of the van. We took the coffin and began to walk with it to the church or funeral home. (I cannot remember exactly where we were taking it). It was then that one of us either lost our grip on the handles or tripped. The coffin fell from our hands and landed on the ground with a loud thud.