Black Raven | Wattys 2018

Chapter Eleven

Not because you close your eyes and pretend nothing's wrong, means the problem's gonna go away. Face your fears straightforward or they will haunt you for the rest of your life. Life's short; there's no time to be scared.

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I woke up in the middle of the night with a headache and feeling disoriented. I stood up from the bed to find my way to the door. My sight was blurred, so I rubbed my eyes to try to make it better, but my head hurt like crazy and I couldn't see so well. I was going to turn on the light, but just inches away from the light switch, stood a shadow. I blinked and it was gone, so I just stood there for a while and thought I was going crazy. I turned on the light quickly and looked around the room. There was nothing, so I calmed myself down; but then, I started hearing a humming through the door. Cautiously, I opened the door and stepped outside into the hallway. There was nothing in the hallway, everything was really dark and I didn't see much, but I kept hearing the soft humming. Standing still, I called out, "Hello?" There was no answer. Chills ran through my spine and my skin bristled. The humming was coming from downstairs, so I walked in that direction. Once downstairs, I realized it wasn't exactly a humming, it was actually someone singing. I put my hand on the wall and brought my ear close to it too. I was trying to follow the sound. As I kept walking, the sound became closer and closer. A girly, kiddy voice sang softly, "...you are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are gray. You never know dear how much I love you, please don't take my sunshine away..." I went down the stairs that led to the laundry room, turned on the light, and stopped in front of a closed metal door. The song was coming from inside it. I tried to open it, but it didn't have a handle or anything, so I didn't know how to. The singing stopped and I stopped trying to open the door. The laundry room went cold and the lights went out. I could barely see, so I reached the shelf on top of the dryer and tried to find a flashlight. I found one, but it wasn't working that well, so I had to bang it softly with my hand to make it work. Light flashed from it and I almost had a heart attack. A little girl around six or seven years old stood in front me. She had really long, straight, blondish hair and big, caramel-brown eyes, which were staring strangely at me. She wore a knee-length, floral, pink dress and a pair of closed, white flats. Suddenly, she smiled kindly and said in her kiddy voice, "You're pretty". I stood there immobile and speechless; really frightened. Unexpectedly, the lights came back and, out of thin air, a young boy around 13 years old appeared next to the little girl. He scolded her, "What are you doing? You are going to scare her away. Your brother will be really mad at you". "No, I'm not and he will not."-She said angrily back at him. Then, the little boy that laughed and ran around the house days before, appeared too. He extended his hand to me; he had a red, small, bouncy ball in it. He smiled and said, "Let's play". kids from different ages kept appearing out of thin air. There were around 10 kids. I jumped when I felt someone touch me from behind. I slowly turned around and the little boy from the school's hallway was there. A teenage girl around my age appeared beside him. She looked at me from head to toe and excitedly said, "Hi". All the kids stared intensely at me. They looked really pale and lost.

I couldn't take any more of it; I was overwhelmed. I ran off. I bumped into Scott's chest at the upper edge of the stairs. "What's wrong?"-He asked with a worried face.

I grabbed his arm hard and dragged him downstairs to the laundry room. Without looking inside it, I said to him, "Tell me you see them, please".

He looked confusedly at me and asked, "See what?"

I stepped into the laundry room and looked around; there was no one there. I sat on the stairs, put my hands on my face, and started to cry. Scott sat down next to me, hugged me tightly, and comforted me, "Hey, don't cry. Everything's all right".