Sherry didn’t want to put the book down,
even though it was three o’clock in the morning and she had to get up in four
hours for school. She was reading The
Dark Half by Stephen King and it was scaring the hell out of her. She was only
half way through but she didn’t want to stop until she finished it. Sherry
stretched, rubbed her eyes and snuggled in a little deeper in her bed. The
circle of light from the book light was so bright that it blacked the rest of
the room out but Sherry was fine with that. When she read she wanted the whole
world to disappear; she wanted to get lost in the words on the pages and join
the world of the characters in the books, ignoring the real world around her.
Stephen King was her favorite author so when she read his books it was even
worse for the outside world. She was so engrossed in this current one that she
didn’t hear the scratching noise at first. The scratching continued, as did her
reading for a few more minutes until Sherry finally heard the noise. Her head
jerked up and the noise stopped. She blinked rapidly, her eyes adjusting to the
darkness.
‘What the hell?’ She thought to herself,
her heart beating a little faster as she peered into the darkness of her room. She
didn’t scare easily, but reading Stephen King always brought fear to the
forefront. Sherry squinted, as if that would help her see better in the dark,
waiting to hear the noise again. When she didn’t hear it again she returned her
focus back to the book. She continued to read the same sentence over and over
again, however, as her concentration had waivered. She waited, expecting to
hear the noise again at any second. A few minutes later, her wish was granted. Her
head snapped in the direction of the noise, but once again it stopped the
moment she looked in its direction. She stared into the darkness, waiting for
some creature to come out of the darkness and attack her. Her heart was still
beating fast and sweat had broken out on her forehead. She sat up a little
straighter and then didn’t move; afraid that if she moved it would bring
attention to herself, making her a target to whatever or whoever was in her
room. She turned off her book light, not wanting a spotlight, albeit a small
one, shining on her. She waited in silence a few minutes longer, the room
seeming to darken by the second, waiting for something to reach for her. She
jumped when a pair of glowing eyes appeared at the foot of the bed. Then she
hit herself on her forehead. ‘It’s just the stupid cat… of course it is.’ She
gave off a little laugh, looked at the clock and decided that a few hours of
sleep were better than none. ‘I should stop reading Stephen King before bed’,
were her last thoughts as she drifted off to sleep.
Sherry woke up the next morning thinking
only of her book. She couldn’t wait to finish it that night; she knew that she
would stay up all night to finish if she had to. So far it was her favorite
book of Kings and she had to know how it ended! She wasn’t a very studious
person so the only classes she really paid attention in were her favorite
classes: the English classes. School was from nine in the morning until four in
the evening, almost as long as a workday. It was exhausting but Sherry was so
close to graduating that she stuck with it. The whole day she spent daydreaming
about her book, her attention wandering in all of her classes. Finally the last
class was over! Sherry ran to her car and drove home as fast as she dared. She
did not have a life outside of her books and her cat, so she was always eager
to get home and start reading again. She had moved away from her family for
school and she was such an introvert that she hadn’t really made any friends at
school. There were one or two acquaintances but no one that was nearly as
interesting as the characters in her books. Twenty minutes later, finally
reaching home, Sherry rushed inside, fed her cat and ate an early dinner. She
then grabbed her book, some cookies and milk, her favorite blanket, curled up
on the couch and lost herself in the world of Thad Beaumont and Stark.
Once ten o’clock hit, Sherry got ready
for bed, grabbed her book light and lay down in her bed to finish The Dark Half. She was a hundred pages
away from the end and the story was getting really intense. She was so lost in
the book and her heart was racing so fast as she read the climax of the story
that she let out a little shriek when she heard the scratching noise again. She
looked up expecting to see Stark from the book standing at her bed with his
straight razor, ready to slit her throat. She then froze, knowing that the
scream had given her position away and knowing that she was going to die. She
squinted into the darkness, her heart in her throat, threatening to strangle
her if it beat any faster. The noise came again, but she could not pinpoint
where it was or what it was. She wanted to use the book light to search the
room, but was afraid that any movement would attract whatever it was to her.
She stared, unblinking, her eyes becoming dry. The darkness pressed down on
her, suffocating her, making her think that every shadow was a person. The
brightness of the book light made the dark seem so much darker and Sherry was
finally afraid of that darkness.
Sherry heard the scratching again and it
sounded as if it were moving around her room. Sherry’s eyes moved around
frantically, trying to find the moving shape, trying to locate the noise.
Slowly, as slowly as she could so that whatever was out there in the darkness
didn’t see her move, Sherry scooted down as far as she dared and moved the
blankets over her head. Sherry lay for a couple of seconds, a death grip on her
book not sure what to do next. Finally, taking a deep breath, she took her book
light and shined it around the room. When she saw nothing around her room, she
put the light with the book on the floor; there was no way she was going to
turn it off but at least it wasn’t a spotlight on her anymore. The book light
only gave off a small circle of light on the floor so the rest of the room was
once again shrouded in darkness. Sherry looked around then froze. One spot in
her room was darker than the rest of the room; so dark it looked as if no light
had ever existed in that spot. Her breathing became heavier as she tried to
discern the shape of that dark spot. Was it human, animal, or something else?
Sherry couldn’t tell and at this point she didn’t think it was her imagination.
Her fear was to real, that spot too dark. Slowly pulling her blanket over her
head, Sherry stopped moving knowing it was too late and that the thing in the
darkness had seen her. Maybe her blanket would protect her. Sherry lay under
her blanket, unmoving, taking shallow breaths and making no noise. Hearing
nothing, she worked up a little nerve and peeked at the floor. Her breath halted
as a shadow fell across the light, stopping in it’s beam. Sherry still couldn’t
tell what it was that was tormenting her and tears started to roll down her
cheeks. She felt close to passing out, her heart beating faster and her breath
getting harder and harder to get out. Sherry opened her mouth to scream but
nothing came out as the light was clicked off.
Sherry went back under the covers, the
blankets completely covering her. She lay in the darkness, not sure what to do,
the tears still running down her cheeks. Her breathing came faster and faster
as she waited for something to happen; for either her heart to explode, for her
to suffocate, or for something or someone to grab her. Once again, she felt the
darkness pressing down on her, smothering her, threatening to end her life. The
blankets felt stifling and she knew she was going to choke on them if she
didn’t get out from under them soon. Sherry heard another scratching noise and
a meow and started to relax. ‘OK… it is just the cat. I am going crazy. I
should really stop reading Stephen King at night…’ As those thoughts passed
through her head, Sherry started struggling with the heavy comforter, trying to
get it off of her. She then heard a howl and then something started to scratch
at her right leg. Ignoring the howl, Sherry started talking to herself, trying
to calm herself down. ‘The howl was… it was nothing. It’s just the cat… no big
deal… nothing else…’ Sherry swallowed, took a deep breath and dared a glimpse
under the covers. What she saw wiped her mind of anything else but fear. There
were no more thoughts, just the white noise of a terror filled scream. Looking
back at her had just been two bright eyes and a large smile filled with teeth. She
started shrieking at the beat of each breath, kicking her feet, all senses lost
as she tried to fight whatever it was that belonged to that smile. Sherry
shrieked and shrieked until she was out of breath and her eyes rolled to the
back of her head. She finally passed out, the last thing in her vision being
the vile face.
The only sounds that could be heard in
the darkness were chomping, slurping and sucking noises. Eventually the sounds
ceased and the darkness pressed in. The last thing that could be heard was the
scratching of the cat; all he wanted was to be inside so that he could see his
master.
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