The Closet

It all started when we moved into our house in Seattle Washington.  The house had four rooms and three bathrooms.  The first night we stayed at the house I heard what seemed like endless creaking coming from every direction.  Mother says it was because nobody had lived there for awhile so the wood was just settling. Irregardless, I didn't get much sleep that night.

The following morning it was my job to help my two sisters unpack and rearrange their room.  Being the only man in the house at 16 puts you in a place that you're used to doing all of the heavy lifting. Amber was always the most indecisive person In the family,  it would take her ages just to figure out what she wanted to eat from a fast food joint. Being like this,I had to rearrange her room multiple times until she liked the way it looked. As I was putting the final touch on her room, a half body mirror, I began to get an unsettling feeling in my stomach. It was a new house, so I put it off as anxiety.

Mary's room was simple, bed, TV, dresser, done. 

As I layed on my bed that night watching Full House on my TV that I propped up onto an empty box I realized that I should do my room before I went to bed.  Reluctantly I crawled out of bed to turn on the light. Slowly unpacking and barely able to stay awake I gave up,  hell I had  six weeks before school started up so my room didn't matter at the moment. I plopped on my bed and feel asleep within thirty seconds. I don't remember my dream from that night,  but I do remember waking up dripping in sweat to a disgustingly hot room.  I opened the window as wide as it would go and went downstairs to eat breakfast. After finishing my gourmet meal of fruit loops I decided to go work on my room some more.  Going through boxes was terrible,  you know how it is,  you have to go through every single thing in every single box,  and I tend to get distracted. As I was looking at my old knives I got from my father before he ran out on us I saw a dark figure out in my peripheral vision. Startled my head snapped up to engage the threat. My closet door was open and the shadow was all I was able to see.

Until that night.

I thought it was a dream,  I still think it was a dream. But this thing came out of my closet and stood in front of my bed.  It looked like a man. But his skin was snow white and had a leathery look to it. He had the look of the albino from the movie "powder."  I don't know why I didn't react,  a few hours ago I was ready to kill the shadow of my closet......... it wasn't a shadow. This... man...this... whatever it was was watching me this whole time. He put his pale finger to his lip and made a shushing sound.  I don't remember anything after that until I woke up, sweat soaked in a scorching room.

I tried to tell my mom,  I tried to tell my sisters.  Everyone thought I was crazy and needed to stop reading so many killer books and watching horror flicks late at night.

I wasn't going to stand for this. If I was alone I wasn't going to die. I didn't know what this thing was but it was in my house,  MY territory,  and it would have to leave. I laughed awake all night clutching my  largest pocket knife waiting for the bastard to come out.  It never did,  however I did hear unidentifiable whispers coming from my closet every once and awhile. As the sun Rose I noticed myself half asleep and suddenly felt a surge of pain in my right abdomen.  As I looked down I realised what had done this.... It was my knife, I left it open and my sudden jerk to reality brought it into my side.

Seven stitches, and they tried to keep me in the hospital that night.  But no way in hell was I going to key that man go after my family. I refused and started causing problems with the nurses. They sent me home with what they said were antibiotics.  Being used to knife accidents with me, my mother just went along with it and gave me my medication. I tried to stay up that night but it was virtually impossible,  I wasn't tired an hour ago but I couldn't keep my eyes open.