The darkened veil
By Tristan Michie
Something had woken me, in the dead of night I had been forced from my slumber into the darkness. I had been dreaming, a peaceful dream of a warm summers afternoon. A warm breeze gently blowing through my hair, the sound of children playing somewhere nearby and all accompanied by the buzzing of bees, clumsily bumbling around the flowers. Then suddenly and without warning I was thrust from this warm, lazy dream world into the harsh blackness of my bedroom.
What had woken me? I could of sworn I had heard something during my transition from dream to reality yet no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't remember what it was. Maybe I had just imagined the whole thing.
My bedroom seemed eerily silent and unnaturally dark, the digital display on my alarm clock was off and the usual glow from the street lamp outside, was oddly absent. Had there been a power cut?
For what seemed an age, I lay motionless in my bed. Something about the way I was plucked from my dream troubled me, it wasn't as though I had been in a nightmare, far from it in fact. Was it merely the power going off that woke me, the extra layer of darkness that entered my already dimly lit room?
No, there had been something else. It almost felt as though someone had been here with me, in my bedroom. The thought sent a cold shiver down my spine, I lived alone; no one else was here.
I had been awake for several minutes, more than long enough for my eyes to adjust to the darkness that enveloped me, yet the room remained in a state of absolute tenebrosity. The more I tried to focus and look through the dark, the thicker and blacker it seemed to become. Was I still dreaming?
The room had taken on a cold quality, as though the temperature had suddenly plummeted, even under the duvet I started to feel icy tendrils starting to writhe over my skin. I could feel myself starting to shiver but was it the cold or something else? Even though I was lying in utter darkness something had changed, the room felt different, the atmosphere had... shifted. An uneasy feeling fell over me, all of a sudden I didn't feel alone anymore, someone was here with me.
Throughout my life I had never been one to scare easily but as I lay in my bed listening to the strange shuffling which had suddenly and without warning started across the room, I began to feel a very real fear. My heart was racing, my mouth was dry and my breathing shallow and short.
I needed to get out, throw myself from my bed and flee the darkness I found myself wrapped within, but it was no use; my body refused to obey even the most simple of commands. Instead, I just lay there listening. What was happening? I wanted to cry out for help but what would that achieve? No one would hear my screams, only the person who appeared to be sharing the darkened room with me. Maybe if I just lay still, hold my breath and pray, maybe they wouldn't realise I was there.
The shuffling had made it halfway across the room before it stopped, I listened intently for any sign of my intruder but there was nothing more. Once again the room was in silence.
The sudden beep that came from the alarm clock, indicating the restoration of power, made my heart leap. The glow from the street lamp outside my window filled the room with a faint glow, initially restoring my waning sanity. The familiar dull illumination from the street lamp coupled with the now flashing display of the alarm clock lent me a feeling of safety, it wasn't until my eyes fully adjusted to the dim lighting of my bedroom did I see it. In the far corner of the room, near the window it stood. A silhouette, a bent figure perhaps five foot tall, motionless and silent. My heart was pounding at an uncomfortable rate, every muscle in my body tensed while an uncontrollable trembling wracked my terrified form. Someone was in my room, stood in the shadows watching me. I closed my eyes tightly, I didn't know what else to do; I had become a child again. Hoping, no praying if I shut my eyes tightly enough then whatever haunted my darkness would leave me alone.
Slowly, I opened my eyes and scanned the dim corner of the room; nothing was there, no figures, no shadows, no intruders. I must have imagined the whole thing, the lack of light playing tricks with my eyes. I felt my heart start to return to a more normal rate, my breathing also started to calm. I could feel my whole body begin to relax.
Slowly my eye lids drew heavy, sleep was once again beckoning me to its embrace. The room and my bed felt warm once more, slowly I started to drift.
A sudden click brought me back from the warm depths, violently I jolted awake. The room was once again flooded with the same claustrophobic blackness it had earlier, the power was off again and with it the same chill permeated the room. My heart was racing, my breathing fast and short while every hair on my body stood up. A chill shot down my spine mere seconds before the power flickered back on for a fraction of a second, enough time to see a face inches from my own, pale and haggard with an abnormally large, gaping mouth, rimmed with thin black lips; it's cold black eyes staring into mine. And then darkness, leaving me whimpering like a terrified child.
something screamed right next to my bed, an ear piercing, shrill scream erupting from the darkness. Before I had a chance to even think about what just happened, it was on my bed, scrabbling and clawing it's way up to my face. My own scream finally joining it's own.
