The Grin in the Darkness (Fiction by JFWagner)
I pulled the smooth comfort of my cotton sheets tight around my body. It was disturbingly cold in the room tonight, an unusually cold night for the time of year. The chilling air found its way into my room through the tiniest crevices in the windows near my bed. The darkness was more absolute than usual too. The objects that could normally be made out in the darkness of my room, usually outlined at least in a grey dusting of shadow, seemed to be tucked in a velvety blackness as tightly as I was wound up in my sheets and covers. It seemed that everything in my room was trying to evade the numbing touch of the ghostly cold enveloping the world outside, a cold trying so desperately to get inside.
The wind outside blew ferociously against the panes of my window. Not far from my head, the howling anger of the wind was conveyed through the whistling windows. The wind would get inside despite the efforts of the brave panes of glass. The anger of the night was given voice through the winds as it beat upon the walls of my room and I lay trying to gain entry into the land of sleep and dreams. I never thought for a moment that it was the land of sleep and dreams that was trying to get to me instead.
As I tossed and turned trying to find a place of warmth beneath the covers of my bed, I felt a new sensation of cold. I felt an inner cold that I had not realized earlier. Slowly, as if to try to do so without letting anyone know my intention, I pulled my legs up close to my chest in a fetal-like position and tried to sway the freezing sensation. I thought for an instant that this is how it must feel when I am asleep. I thought foolishly for a moment that I was defying the decree of the lord of dreams himself by maintaining my state of vigilance in the waking world. As that thought passed through my mind, a bitter chill ran behind it and a shudder passed violently through my body.
I closed my eyes more deliberately, making a full attempt at slumbering. I resigned myself to the cold of the room and dismissed further notions attempting to explain my current state. In my minds eye, I could see myself curled up in the bed from above. I could survey the room in its infinite shadows from my vantage point above the bed. All in imagination, I could picture the stars peering between the blades of the blinds hanging within a hand reach from my bed. I could see the flaming red glow of the alarm clock across the room. I couldn't so much make out the time that it read, as I could detect the heat of that glow as it fought the cold within the four chilling walls of my
bedroom. In a far comer of the room, the corner to my back as I lay in the bed below, I could see an unusually dark area against the wall. I clenched my eyes tighter as sleep began to invade the clarity of my thoughts, in a futile attempt to stave off my entry to the realm of sleep for a moment longer. I needed to determine the source of this darkness. It seemed to be composed of the same velvety blackness that already claimed the rest of the comers in my room, but in this comer it seemed more concentrated. In this comer, the darkness seemed to be in a state of motion. I could feel myself drifting deeper into the cold darkness of the dream world as I began to give in to the call of the realm. Just before I crossed over the bridge between the land of those that walk awake and those that stumble in slumber, I could see something new in that corner of darkness. From that shadowy corner of darkness, a light gleamed from out of nowhere. With my last effort, I tried to picture that corner more clearly. I zoomed in from my perch above the bed and could make out the light more completely. The light reflected from the glistening and stark grin of the Sandman himself, dressed in velvety robes of shadow. In the instant before I fell across the plain into his realm, I could hear a whisper as chilling as the winds just outside my window. As I feel asleep beneath the cold covers of my bed, I heard the words, "It begins . . . "
***
With a start, my eyes broke wide open in the darkness of my room. My legs were tucked
uncomfortably close to my chest and I could sense only a vague tingly feeling in my left arm. Tucked beneath the pillow where I laid my head, my left arm felt limp and prickling in its current position. I tried to move it, unsuccessfully at first, to allow the blood to flow back to the screaming nerves throughout the sleeping extremity. That must have been why I was awakened. My mind must have been sending me a message, a signal, to wake up before I lost my arm to an uncomfortable sleeping position. It sure was comforting to know that the body could save itself in a situation like that, where the conscious mind was sleeping silently while the body functioned on autopilot. That must have been why I woke up.
Tap tap tap. . . Tap tap tap.
My ears picked up the sound immediately. Even in my state of half-life I could hear the sound so loudly that it must have been the reason I awoke. My eyes tried to adjust to the darkness in the room. Still covered so thoroughly in blackness as it was when I went to sleep, I fought the shadows to try to acclimate myself to the haunting silhouette of my bedroom. My arm was still too numb to respond properly so I felt it was silly to try and turn on a light to see where the noise was coming from. It seemed to disappear as quickly as it came to my ears at any rate. I quit my attempts at adjusting my tired eyes and closed them gently once again to regain my sleep. Then, as with most thoughts deep in the night, an unwelcomed notion entered my mind. "If it woke me up, then it couldn't have just disappeared so easily. It must have been quite regular to wake me up. Right?" So much for a slumber regained.
Tap tap tap . . . Tap tap tap.
This time I got a fix on the sound as soon as the first tap rang out in the room. It sounded so loud because it was so close to my head. The sound was coming from the window next to my bed. I denied the urge to open my eyes this time to see if the tapping continued without a response from me. I tried desperately to place the origin of the noise itself. If the trees outside my window weren't planted so far from the house, I'd think it was a branch hitting the window gently in the wind. There was obviously an easy way to discover the source of the noise, I only had to open my eyes and look out the window. But for some reason I still did not trust the sound just yet.
Tap tap tap . . . Tap tap tap.
Again the noise stuck the window, a little louder this time as if to declare that it would notbe ignored. It was the same tap every time. Consistent in sound, in time between taps, and in depth. “What could make a sound so consistent on a window two floors above the ground and in the same place and space of time?” I decided, against my better judgment, to slowly pry my eyes open so as to give the illusion that I was still sleeping. How foolish? As if someone could or even would be outside the window watching in the first place.
My subtle effort let what little light still available to filter in through my eyes. Through the lattice work of eyelashes, I could see both windows in the room in an obscured fashion. They were outlined by the reflected light of the moon in an eery, ghostly, white shadow. That wasn't all that unusual at all. A warmth of comfort swept across my body as a sigh of relief raised my chest in a puff of relaxation.
Tap tap tap ... Tap tap tap.
This time my eyes were open, at least as wide as they were, when the sound rang into the room. I didn't see any movement from beyond the window when it happened, but then a new shiver of information sent a tremor of icy cold throughout the length of my body. How come I could see that ghostly white glow only in the window farthest from my bed? What happened to the light that should be outlining the window right next to my bed?
Tap tap tap. . . Tap tap tap.
More insistent than before, the tapping became more forceful, dragging me completely from my sleep. My arm seemed to be functioning once again at the capacity for which it was designed. It no longer felt like it was being colonized by a million army ants marching toward a prized picnic. In a moment spawned only by curiosity and lack of serious thought or patience, I began to work that arm loose of its pillowed hiding place. When I was certain that it was free, I calculated the distance from my pillow to the corner of the blinds that hung over the corner of the window. My math was never that good, but I felt that I could reach out and move the blinds just enough to look beyond the darkness and locate the source of the erstwhile drummer. In a moment of courage, I opened my eyes to their fullest and extended my arm from beneath my pillow.
Grasping the corner of the blinds between my thumb and forefingers, I slowly began to move the blinds away from the window. How long had it been since I had heard the noise now? I stopped for a moment and thought that maybe I had imagined the entire scenario. I began to move the blinds back in place when anger got the better of curiosity. How stupid of me to act like a child. What could possibly hurt me out there? Good point.
Blinds in hand, I moved the blades away from the corner of the window where the sounds had been coming from. Total blackness filled the area revealed by the movement of the blinds. Darkness can't make a tapping noise so it had to be something else. Something of more substance had to be beckoning me to the window. I guided the corner slowly back into its place of rest. At least something could experience rest this night. I pulled the covers and blankets from across my body to reveal the mismatched sweats and T-shirt I had chosen for bed. I would get to the bottom of this mystery even if it was the last thing I did. I took the chord for the blinds in hand with the intention of raising them for a clearer view of what was going on beyond the darkness when a new awareness was awakened. From behind me, I could see a glimmer reflected in the metal blades of the blinds. Where had I seen that light before? I turned around in a whisper of motion to catch the source of the light. In the same instant that I conceived its presence, the light had vanished. My eyes combed the darkness that engulfed the room, searching for that source of light. There was no light to be found in the room at all, not even the glow of the alarm clock that sat across its shadowed terrain on my desk. That's odd.
Tap tap tap ... Tap tap tap.
From behind me the echo came again. This time the sound was definite and deliberate. It teased me from the other side of the blinds as if to taunt and challenge me to come find it. Like I said, anger had replaced curiosity long ago and I would no longer play this game. I turned again toward the blinds and raised my hand to grasp the chords. Chords in hand, I shifted my weight so that I could assert the proper force to raise the blinds quietly and with control. I certainly didn't want to wake anyone else up with my frivolity. I slowly began to raise the blinds from their resting perch at the base of the window sill. I still could see no light emanating from the window's form. As the blinds continued to rise, I felt a cold shudder run through my bones and then a sound.
Tap...
The window shattered into millions of starlike shards as the night entered my room unceremoniously. Unprepared for the force, my legs fell beneath me and my hand got tied up in the chaos of the chords. A body had come through my window. I was certain of it. But where had it gone? The room was as stark a black as it had been before. The blinds were clanging high above my head as I sit in a mess on the floor surrounded by glass. My arm hung silently above my head, like a silly Statue of Liberty, suspended by the twist of chords. The wind was howling throughout the room as it had been outside, deafening my senses and leaving me chilled by its arctic blast. What had happened?
I frantically searched the shadows to locate who or what had entered into my safe haven. The light that I had seen tracing the shape of the windows before was now gone. I could not fathom why. The light that I had seen earlier from behind me was gone as well. The room was nothing but blackness and cold. . . and motions.
I could sense the movement from across the room before I could actually hear it in my ears. A slow shuffling, slithering motion approached me from across the floor. The sounds came up from the rug as they had so many times when I had wrestled with my sister and gotten rug bums on my knees. I remember those hurting a lot when I was younger. That was the sound coming toward me in the darkened chaos of my room. It was the sound of pain.
I frantically tried to loosen the chords that bound me to the blinds at my window. The wind made it inconvenient and hard to manage. Regaining some strength in my legs, I tried to raise myself higher to offer some slack so that my hand would come free of its own methods. Still aware of the sounds coming toward me from across the room, I became distinctly aware of another sound much less familiar. It sounded as if wood was splintering and falling apart. As I became aware of the sound, my bedroom door flew open and a glimmering light sprang forth through the open portal. Familiar and yet unknown, the light seemed to shine from a spiral of perpetual darkness in motion. It traced the form of a body with a light that appeared near its peak. The light of two glowing eyes. The door fell away into darkness and then I realized the source of the second sound. It was the floor giving way. The floor I was standing on was falling away into a blackened and bottomless pit as the sound of pain still lingered toward me. I worked my hand free in a last ditch effort to protect myself from the approaching uncertainty. A thought flashed through my mind quick as lightening because it had no time to linger. Where was my family? The eyes in the shadow form grew brighter and a grin appeared across a darkened visage. The glittering grin of evil. The sounds were still approaching across the floor and the structure appeared to fall away to mark their passing. What could I do? I had nowhere to turn and no methods to fight something that I did not understand or could even see. My pillow could not offer any resistance, nor my covers any solace. I was doomed.
Fear clenched my soul as I prepared to defy the madness that approached. An evil stood in the portal of darkness before me and appeared to enjoy my struggle. My God what should I do? The wind whipped from behind my head and I turned to peer outside. The darkness had already claimed the rest of the earth. I was the last to stand against him in his efforts to rule the night. I had no choice. No recourse. I jumped upon my bed in a congestion of movement as the shadows closed in and began to lure the foot of my bed into darkness. I turned toward the window, closed my eyes, and jumped through.
The wind sailed passed my body as I sank into a void of space. The only noise left to my ears was the wailing of the wind in its competition with my own screams. I just fell. No end in sight, I wondered if this was what death was like. No form or substance recognizable in my descent, the screaming began to subside and give way to a new sound, but no less familiar
Tap tap tap . . . Tap tap tap.
In a moment, I began to sense an end was near. The notion of an impact seemed immanent and I braced myself for a meeting with an unforseen surface. I prayed for my family and humanity. The only darkness left was the darkness of my own making as I clenched my eyes.
In an unforseen turn of events I bounced upon impact. I am certain that I bounced and could tell no one otherwise. I tried not to move at first, to try and get my wits about myself. I noticed a feeling both comforting and familiar. It was cotton and cold. It was my bed. In a jumble of covers and sheets, my body was interwoven with every fabric upon my bunk:. I had been dreaming. It was all just a dream. A nightmare to be more exact. The Sandman flexing his nightmarish muscle to show a punk kid who's boss. It was just a nightmare.
Tap tap tap . . . Tap tap tap.
Or was it?
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