Echoes

Part 26

I woke up early the next morning, so early, in fact, that it wasn't even light out. I knew it was technically morning by the small sliver of sunlight that shone from underneath my curtains, but the house was still mostly dark. I was dead tired and wasn't sure why I was even awake. I could barely open my eyes, my eyelids felt as if they had heavy stones attached to them, and my entire body felt as if it were made of bricks. I groaned, wishing I could push a button and suddenly return to sleep. It occurred to me that I needed some warm milk or hot tea to relax myself.

I blinked a few times and managed to clap my hands once, having a vague idea in my mind that this would cause a light to come on in my room and hopefully give me the push I needed to make a trip to the kitchen. All it did was hurt my eyes. I lay there for a few moments with my eyes closed, figuring that if I relaxed for a bit like this I would either fall back asleep or wake up enough to get the things I needed to help myself fall asleep again. It was almost working when the sensation of ruffling sheets caught my attention. Thinking I was caught in a weird position within my covers and just now noticing it, I shifted my body slightly. But instead of feeling relief from my discomfort, I was met with the sensation of pressure on my forehead, following by a sporadic, tapping sensation, as if something small and unidentifiable were dancing around on my forehead. Startled, I jolted upright, and the strange sensations stopped. I shook my head in disgust. I hated these kinds of nightmares, the ones where you felt as if you were being touched or vaguely threatened and didn't even know whether you were awake.

I moved to get up but was paralyzed by the sudden sound of loud whispering of words that were spoken so fast I couldn't even make them out. Where the hell was this coming from? Zoe was too far away for me to hear her whispering this loud without her being in the room. And even if she had been in the room, these whispers were from two or more people, whispering frantically to one another as if there was some sort of emergency and I was the only one who wasn't in on it. My heart began to race, and I sunk back into my bed and pulled the covers close to me, waiting for it all to pass. But it didn't. Soon the whispers became more discernible, and I could make out a deep, booming voice that had an almost robotic undertone, whispering loudly in what sounded like Latin. This deep voice was intermixed with shrill whispers from other, softer voices and high-pitched moans from lord only knew what. It was if the owner of the deep, booming voice was making the same announcement over and over again, while the owners of the shrill and high-pitched voices responded to him and talked to each other, and the others were moaning in terror in response to what was being discussed. I was horrified. The Shadow Man was in my room, and he'd brought friends. I was determined to will it away, until I saw the lights beginning to flicker.

"Shit," I breathed. I soon felt a hand on my shoulder. I didn't scream because I knew that would only terrify me further. And besides, it was Zoe, wasn't it? It had to be. I had followed River's advice and protected the house, after all. Zoe could have very easily come into my room, noticed my discomfort and the way I was curled up in a ball, and touched my shoulder to comfort me. Never mind that I hadn't so much as heard a footstep or the sound of her breathing, and that she had for reasons unknown remained completely silent as she approached me. It was her. It had to be.

The comforting lie I had constructed for myself was smashed into pieces when the grip became tighter than that which anyone would use to touch someone whom they weren't intent on injuring. The hand moved forward, from my shoulder and down my arm, allowing me to see that the hand that was gripping me was covered in unfortunately familiar skin. That sickly, inhuman, translucent grey skin with black veins that I had come to know far too well.

I screamed at the top of my lungs and sat up, flailing my arms in an attempt to get whatever it was away from me. I moved so far backwards that my back hit my bedpost, and I grabbed my pillow in a futile attempt at shielding myself from what I now saw before me: several figures with that same sickly, translucent, grey skin and black veins standing around my bed and staring at me. The figures seemed genderless and somewhat shapeless, besides having four limbs. I could make out the fact that they had noses, but the only other facial features I could discern were large, empty holes where their eye sockets should have been. Something moved beneath the skin where their mouths should have been, as if the vibrations from the sounds that issued from them were reverberating visibly. They began to move closer to me, but I started waving the pillow around at them.