Horror Filled Tales For A Dark Night, Or Day

Late Night Alarm (a beginning short)

It's 2:00am. I look over at the clock on my nightstand and see the numbers glaring at me from the dark frame they sit in. I had heard something. I had felt something, that seemed unnatural to hear, or feel.. That same feeling was still here now.

I had opened my eyes and looked around my bedroom. I felt uneasy as I glanced around it, seeing just dark corners. I got out of bed and went around it to stand right in front of the foot, looking to the right side of the wall, and out its window. Something felt wrong, something felt eerily alarming and urgent. Like I should be aware of something, like I should be prepared to run. But I saw nothing. Just darkness and a bit of light that fell on the window frame, what seemed to come from the street lights, just a few feet away. I stood quietly breathing, not wanting to make a sound.

The urgency I felt came back suddenly, blaring at me from the corner of the wall that was at my right side, just a few feet from the head of my bed. I looked over, and felt almost like I could see an invisible figure move from behind it outside, inching closer to the middle of the wall, that was just behind where I rest my head. I froze for a moment, feeling an intense amount of energy from the other side. It started to move again, and I felt myself moving from the middle of my bedroom to going out its door, moving more quickly than I liked. I went down the hall and stopped to look at the front door, also at the right. I turned and walked slowly over to it, watching for any visible movements from behind it, through the small window that was at the top of the door. Any that I could actually see with my eyes without anything in the way except glass. When I got to the door I placed my hand on the knob and took small breaths, fogging the front door's upper small window..

There was nothing. My head suddenly turned to the left, as I felt that same sense of movement from beyond the wall, this time going around the corner of my living room. I open the door.. I hesitate for a moment before I step back and let my arm finish pulling the door back far enough for me to go through it. It was chilly, but far more colder than I remembered it being for a late Spring, as I had been outside not too many hours earlier and had come in to lock up, from putting an envelope into my mailbox. My breath went out from my mouth and into the night air like steam, and on the other side of the door the knob was lightly frosted over with ice. I still saw nothing as I stepped outside of my front door, looking at the same sights from around my neighborhood as were always there. My head had turned slowly, as my eyes took everything in. I felt unsteady to move, but once again I found myself walking to the left where my head had stopped, walking to the side of my house, where I had sensed the presence..

I turned the corner, not having thought of bringing some sort of defense like a knife, or some sort of tool with me. And as I went around and looked directly forward, I saw a figure in front of me. It looked like it was that of a human form and had a dark tattered cloth around it, like a cloak. The back of the figure was facing me, and the way it walked, it seemed like a little old lady perhaps was just walking through. I relaxed a bit and moved forward to see why she was out so late. I was afraid of startling her, so I walked a little quietly as I moved forward to her.

"Out for a walk?" I asked cheerfully. "Or have you gotten lost? " I had caught up to where she stood now, and moved around to the front of her to speak.

The elderly lady stopped her slow, unsteady walk now that I stood in front of her. Something felt wrong as there was silence so still around, that it felt like the entire environment around us had frozen still. And indeed that is what at first came from beneath the cloak, a cold chill and silence, as the "old lady" raised her head and looked at me not with kindly wrinkled eyes, or a nose, or even a face to match..

But instead a face that was dark, with burnt and ashen skin appeared, with a stretched out smile that was formed from a mouth that looked like torn skin formed it's lips. The nose was in the same appearance, but not bearing any noticeable recognition to an actual nose at all, just dark, ragged flesh. As the face continued to slowly move up to now be fully visible, two eye sockets appeared, with dark marble looking, large round balls in them that carried no shine of their own, but only reflected the light coming off of the streets. Two irises suddenly appeared in the middle from those eyeballs in the color of orange fire, with a reddish-yellow glow around them coming after, bearing the same terrifying gleefulness that the ragged smile on the mouth held. I stumble back, not able to move more than a couple of feet, steam coming from my horrified open mouth. The creature looked at me and what was said came out in an echoing and graveling voice, before my end came..

"Locks on houses sure are tough now at days, aren't they?"