Suburban Nights

The Husband

My husband and I normally don't sleep without the other present. It's a habit that has come out of love, and I've noticed I often look forward to it. However, due to financial hardships, I've had to move back into my parents' house and cuddling in bed was the last thing on my mind.

I do admit that we still had plenty of space. It's a four bedroom house, and there was five of us.
We even had one spare bedroom because my older sister moved out the previous year. My husband and I decided to just move into my old bedroom. My parents had their own bathroom in the master bedroom while my husband, my sister, and I shared a bathroom in the hallway. Since we no longer had separate bathrooms to go to before bed, we had to take turns. My husband always insisted on going first. I didn't understand why until recently.

After doing my nightly regimen, I always walked down a dark hallway to my bedroom door. My husband was lying on the bed with his back facing me. I could hear soft snoring and steady breathing. Normally he waited for me to come back, but I knew it can be a little exhausting being around my family. I slowly crept into bed and set an alarm on my phone before I heard a quiet giggle. What was that? I turned my head to look at my husband, who was still facing away from me, but his breathing had quickened. Then in a split second he turns to me and exclaims, "HA GOT YOU!"

At first I was furious. Who does this? I nearly had a heart attack! But after I calmed down, we had a good laugh about it. He wouldn't stop, though. Every few nights, he pulled this same "prank". He though he was hilarious even though I made it very clear it was only funny the first time. Meanwhile, my sister kept me up throughout the night slamming the bathroom door because she insisted that she absolutely must use the bathroom every 30 minutes until she's fallen into a deep enough sleep. I was getting completely aggravated with the people I was living with, but I had nowhere to go. Eventually, I made the decision to keep myself awake in a different room as long as possible to make sure both my husband and sister were asleep before I was.

At around 2:30 AM, I decided that everyone should be asleep. The whole house was quiet, so I put away my book for that day and tiptoed upstairs, making sure to turn off all the lights behind me. You know that strange feeling you get when you're the only one awake and staring into darkness? Like you're being watched? It's an odd feeling that most of us like to ignore. I, like most people, ignored that feeling and made my way upstairs. While climbing the stairs, I noticed a sliver of light coming from the bottom of the bathroom door. Crap. My sister was still awake.

I passed by the empty bedroom and touched the door to mine. Strange, I don't remember the spare bedroom having the door open. I knew I was sleep deprived, so I decided I needed to go to bed as soon as possible. I closed the door to that bedroom, though. Just in case. I stumbled tiredly into my room and plopped myself onto the bed. I could tell my husband was actually asleep this time because the rhythm of his snoring was different but his back was still facing me. Still suspicious, I decided to stay awake and fiddle on my phone for a bit longer.

I felt myself starting to doze off so I tried to listen for the usual slamming from the bathroom door to signify that my sister was going to sleep. Instead I only heard a quiet creaking of a door in the hallway. Then a few footsteps towards my room. I felt a little panicked because i knew my sister wouldn't come to my room this late at night, and if she did, she wouldn't just stand there. With the phone screen still shining in my hand, I softly called out for my husband.

His snoring stopped and he became quiet. I knew it. He was pretending to be asleep again, but this time I was grateful because I was scared. He didn't respond at all, though. I called out to him again. Silence. Finally, the door knob began to turn. I quickly turned my phone screen towards my husband to see what he was doing.

What was next to me wasn't my husband. This creature resembled him but had a sickly grin from ear to ear. His face was twisted with a look of satisfaction that seemed to say, I finally got you.

[END: Story 1]