In the hours of the morning just a little before the twilight I had awoken to darkness. It wasn’t uncommon or unusual for me to wake at this ungodly hour, yet there was something strangely unsettling, waking up to darkness. In the era which live, though many have written a lot about EMPs and how scientists backup the claims in cases related to insomnia, I’d be an odd case perfect to use in a scientific counterclaim, to this day I still sleep with the television on with both the brightness and volume at it’s lowest setting. The subtle flashing of the screen against my brightly colored walls, there is something that’s just comforting about it, so the lights of the television would lull me to sleep and on nights like these I’d go back to sleep with ease. This night was different. I had woken up to the darkness.

What I did next wasn’t out of the ordinary. I turned slightly in an attempt to grab my remote, and that’s when I saw it. I saw this tall silhouetted figure standing by my bookcase. The figure was just a little under three inches shorter than the seven foot shelf it stood in front of. Its shoulders were as broad as my uncle who’d lived in the room before me. I knew it couldn’t have been him, he hasn’t lived in this house in a little over a decade, and I always lock my door before bed. The only thing I could think of was my window. Back when my uncle lived here he broke the window to my room. I was a bit too young to remember how exactly he broke it, but we’ve always lived on the bare minimum as a family, pulling each other’s weight just to keep the house. So all renovations were actually the cheapest patchwork we could do. The window was no exception as it has no lock. To reiterate, my uncle currently lives with his girlfriend ten miles away, he isn’t the one standing here nor is it any of the other family members I live with, as my door has a one way lock from the inside. So at this point I looked at the window.

Sure I was frightened by the strange silhouetted figure, but I needed to know if it really was a break in or if it was just my overactive imagination. I am scared of the dark and I have insomnia, so the thought wasn’t far fetched. I turned my head just slightly while my eyes shifted. What I saw was deeply disturbing. My resolution to the no lock issue was to put a dog gate in front of the window along with a stick, this was so that a lot of noise would be made to alert every resident in the house including myself. If that wasn’t enough, I have window shades and curtains I set specifically just so that no one could peer into the room itself since I usually sleep nude. What I had seen really disturbed me because that window was left absolutely untouched. The window was exactly as I set it. This figure couldn’t have been anybody, and then a sense of dread washed over me. I turned my head back to face it, and what ever it was, the tall silhouetted figure stared back at me fully aware of my presence. If this was my imagination then there was something profoundly wrong about it. The figure that stood in front of me had it’s own presence, and now that I think back on that night, shouldn’t it have disappeared after I looked back at it? Wouldn’t it have gone away after I realized nothing was touched? Why was it that even before I looked back at it, I sensed it’s malice toward me, it was as if this thing was made out of pure fear. Maybe there’s just something profoundly wrong with me. Whatever the case may or may not be I was awake, and whatever this figure was, it was aware of me now.

I had hurriedly draped myself under the covers as my hand was searching for the lamp switch. Whilst I held the round switch in my hand I could feel it coming closer, and in my hurried panic there was this silence despite it moving towards me, in my mind I could see the figure coming closer and closer. My fingers stung from how hard I had flip the switch, I went round and round trying to turn on the lights, but no light came. The figure came even closer, I brought my hand in, and I could feel the satin sheets vividly as I gripped them tight. My eyes were shut just as tightly as I could feel it lifting my sheets, and just as I pictured it coming closer, I pictured it lifting up and sticking its face under my sheets. I felt it’s presence just inches away from my face. It was wrong. All of it was wrong. Despite my eyes bring closed, I saw this unnatural red glow coming from what seemed to be another set of eyes aside from my own, then what followed was a bright pearly smile that was unnerving. Breathing heavily, I sprang up in cold sweat, but the covers were exactly as they were they were before the encounter. It was exactly as it was when I fell asleep earlier as if I’d just woken up from an awfully vivid nightmare.

I took a minute to compose myself. I looked all around me and saw nothing. Still shaken, I reached out to turn on my lamp for some comfort, but the lights would not turn on.