Death and Other Fun Stuff (#Wattys2015)

Just Like I Promised

Sleep hovered over Anette's mind, blotting out her thoughts and feelings as she slipped into thick serenity. Her eyes were shut tight, and each breath was slow and deep, and the pleasantly warm blankets wrapped her body in a cocoon. A soft pillow cradled her head. The worries and ponderings that normally cluttered her mind faded away, to be replaced by a blissful emptiness.

She almost didn't register the low, rhythmic hum on the other side of the room. Her ears picked up the ragged sound, and her blank mind toyed lazily with the noise.

It almost sounded like breathing.

With a jarring wave of horror, the cloud of grogginess was brushed away. Anette's heart began to patter in her chest, and she kept her eyes shut tightly, her whole body frozen with fear. The breathing was broken and rough, dead sounding. And with each passing second that terror pulsed through her, it seemed to be nearing her.

Her mind sifted through panic- produced images of what could be approaching her bed. She was half tempted to open her eyes and peek through the darkness, but maybe, just maybe, if she ignored it with everything she was, the thing would go away...

Finally it was inches away from her face, and its cold breath caressed the skin on her cheek. She was edging towards hysteria, but didn't dare move a muscle. It must hear her thudding heart, it must sense the intensity of her terror. She could feel a presence, that awareness that something large was right by her. She was trembling now, and sweating violently.

Then came the voice, raw, emotionless, inhuman. The faint, delicate words met her ears- "I'm here, Anette."

For a moment, it felt like a bucket of ice water had been poured over Anette's frantic heart. Her lips parted, but her throat closed up, unable to produce a single sound. Then her scream pierced the night, one of horror and pathetic fear. Her eyes flew open instinctively, but nothing was there, her room was empty, but she continued to shriek, tears pouring down her face.

Her parents stumbled through the door in a moment, a blend of panic and sleepiness. In a moment, they were by her bedside, asking her desperately what was going on, and in a moment her little brother entered, confused. After a few minutes of sobbing, her shaking body calmed and her heart slowed to a comfortable pace, her terror dulling to a tense anxiety.

She stuttered out her story, but they didn't believe her, of course. Anette was constantly suffering from nightmares, and they dismissed this as another bad dream. But she knew that what she had just heard was very much real.

Her parents comforted her, and Anette brushed it away, mumbling a goodnight and an apology for waking them up. They left, yawning. But her brother stayed behind for a moment.

"I heard it, the breathing," he whispered. Caleb's eyes met her from across the room, wide and innocent.

Anette sighed and sat up in bed. "It wasn't like anything I ever see in the nightmares. It was real." She hated to bring her eight year old brother into this, but he was the only other witness.

Caleb turned to leave, closing the door behind him with a soft creak. But before he left, he added something that she had been trying not to think of- "Maybe it had something to do with what Kayden said."

She clenched her teeth to drive out the memories.

Anette laid down and shut her eyes, but sleep didn't come. All night she tossed and turned, tangling herself in her sheets, switching between hot and cold by the minute. Fear kept her heart thumping and her palms sweating. She couldn't shake the sound of the breathing, the thing's words, and what Caleb had said. As much as she wanted to banish the memory to the depths of her mind and forget it, her brother was right. That thing was probably connected to Kayden somehow, and the thought made her stomach twist.