Lights

Ever since I grew up in my mother's house, since I was a little kid, I always used to see lights. Not natural lights, oh no. Two glowing, yellowed orbs burning into my soul from wherever there was darkness. It always used to scare me, but my mother saw to it that I always slept in her room once the lights began to appear. Mostly because I would freak out and nobody would get sleep until I got away from those terrifying things. Oddly enough, my sister, Shari, never noticed them. I assumed that they were just figments of my imagination when I turned 15. Oh, how wrong was I.

I woke up, at 3:34 a.m., in the middle of the night, needing a glass of water. I had a pretty bad night terror, so I was a bit shaken up, too. I got up out of my bed, and tiptoed out my door and into the hallway. As I was about to enter the bathroom, I saw them again. Those damned lights. The orbs were staring at me from the end of the hall. They... they seemed more like eyes to my more mature brain. But now, that brain jumped to the conclusion that those lights or eyes or whatever were threats. I edged forward to the bookcase we kept in the hallway, and groped in the darkness for a weapon. I picked up a heavy, Christmas snow globe my mom had bought for the holidays last year, and threw it as hard as I could at the lights, hitting them dead center. I heard a thump, glass breaking, and something fall to the floor.

I rushed into the spot where the lights had collapsed, and gagged as I felt a thin, gangly figure that used to hold those lights up. I felt around in the darkness, and nearly vomited as I felt the leathery skin soaked in a warm, sticky liquid. Blood. Shards of glass littered the floor, and a few were buried into the creature's head. I jumped up, and I was about to scream for mom, until I heard it. The sounds of roaring and hissing as windows and doors were bashed open downstairs. I felt my heart stop as my sister screamed in fear... or agony. Grotesque, demented shadows played along the walls as I heard footsteps and saw a shadow careening up the stairs. This mistake would be my last.

Whatever that creature was, it was not my tormentor. It was my protector.