Changes: Footsteps in the Silence

Revision as of 02:38, 3 October 2018

I was no older than twelve years old, the house we lived in was way older than that but we had lived in it less then five years. And I hated it. I couldn't sleep well, I always heard things move around, my chest drawer moaning and shaking, my doors creaking. Mum used to say it was because of how old the house was, but I knew better and I think that deep down she did too.

The cherry on the sundae after those long and fearful years was when I had my final exams before summer break. I had been studying loosely since it was literature and I had a really good memory, no real need to cram in knowledge: if I knew it I would remember it at the right time. As I was heading to bed my aunt, uncle, and baby cousins arrived and started a racket downstairs: music, laughter, things like that. Mum came up to check in on me and I told her I had an exam tomorrow and needed an really rest. She agreed and left my door open in case I needed anything, I thanked her and went to bed. If you know me you know I don't sleep with my door opened and even less without a night light on. I'm not ashamed to say that because that night light has saved me countless of times and I'll continue to rely on it no matter what. But that night for some reason I decided to turn it off and my room was shrouded in semi darkness thanks to the light post that was very near my window.

As I was falling asleep, tossing and turning due to nervousness, I decided to face the Wall and try to close my eyes. As I did so, instantly the room fell very quiet, nothing could be Heard from outside or in, and that's with my family's racket downstairs, too. The silence was eerie, pressing on my ears as if it was a physical thing, no buzzing, no white noise, just... silence. Then, as if it realized I could take no longer of that deafening silence footsteps started to sound from the wall at the end of my room towards my door. They were the clicking of hard, thick heels. Not the needle ones, no, chunky hard ones like boot heels, but a bit tinkier. They proceeded up my room with unnatural calmness, as if the thing that was walking was slowed down, it even seemed as if it was savouring it's walk. As the footsteps passed next to my Little bed I started to feel a bone chilling cold, the type that comes from within not without, the ones that makes you think you're dying. The hairs on my neck started to prickle and stand as the steps drew closer to my bed and I noticed the swishing of long cloth touching my covers. I realized at that point I couldn't move, I don't know if I was even breathing, I wanted to scream but nothing came from my mouth. It felt as though I was immobilized by some strong energy that kept me pinned to my bed without being able to defend myself.

As the footsteps progressed, though, I felt the soft touch of a hand up my spine, tracing a line towards my hair and then caressing my tresses lovingly, as a mother would their child. The hand was cold as ice and strangely ethereal, it was there, but if I focused enough I stopped feeling it. The touch was delicate, yet strong as iron, and very scaring, like it would whisk me away in an instant.

As the caress ended the footsteps started to vanish out my door and into the hall way, and the noise gradually started to go up in volume till it was almost deafening after such a complete silence. I regained movement of my body, my heart restarted beating or so it felt and the footsteps finally faded into the noise around me.

I heard my mum make her way upstairs check in on me again and leave. I don't know when I fell asleep and if I ever dreamed that night.

In retrospect, I think that's about the time when the oppressing feeling in my home subsided. It never really left but it actually let me sleep. I still would sleep with a nightlight on, but it wasn't that horrible anymore. I did tell my mum and she proceeded to bless the house, like any religious mother would. I told a few more people and they all agreed it sounded like Death had passed through my room in a way to an errand. It left me thinking that maybe I was dead and didn't know it, and I battled for a long time with that feeling... All in all, I think I'll never know what those footsteps were and I think I don't really want to know. I haven't heard them again and I hope I won't, but sometimes I still feel that coldness and the small caress on my hair and wonder if it actually left me or not.

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+I was no older than twelve years old, the house we lived in was way older than that but we had lived in it less then five years. And I hated it. I couldn't sleep well, I always heard things move around, my chest drawer moaning and shaking, my doors creaking. Mum used to say it was because of how old the house was, but I knew better and I think that deep down she did too.
-It was a Tuesday, I can't remember the date but it was a few years ago now. I'd just got off work and I was stopping by the regular market. A quaint store just down the road from my place. I got all the necessities and was on my way to the counter when it caught my eye, a box of Fruit Loops. Glimmering under light from the white bulbs, at an absolute steal of a price. $2 dollars, for a 500g box, it was a miracle. A once in a lifetime deal, something humankind would ever see again. So I bought two boxes of God's cereal and headed for home.
+The cherry on the sundae after those long and fearful years was when I had my final exams before summer break. I had been studying loosely since it was literature and I had a really good memory, no real need to cram in knowledge: if I knew it I would remember it at the right time. As I was heading to bed my aunt, uncle, and baby cousins arrived and started a racket downstairs: music, laughter, things like that. Mum came up to check in on me and I told her I had an exam tomorrow and needed an really rest. She agreed and left my door open in case I needed anything, I thanked her and went to bed. If you know me you know I don't sleep with my door opened and even less without a night light on. I'm not ashamed to say that because that night light has saved me countless of times and I'll continue to rely on it no matter what. But that night for some reason I decided to turn it off and my room was shrouded in semi darkness thanks to the light post that was very near my window.
-I placed the boxes on the bench, looking over the receipt. I still couldn't believe how cheap they were. This thought stayed with me as I packed away the rest of my groceries and had dinner. I couldn't take my eyes off the boxes, they called to me, like some unattainable goal I would never reach. My mouth watered at the thought of ingesting their sugary goodness. I had a shower and went to bed, dreaming of tomorrow morning when I would be able to eat the loops.
+As I was falling asleep, tossing and turning due to nervousness, I decided to face the Wall and try to close my eyes. As I did so, instantly the room fell very quiet, nothing could be Heard from outside or in, and that's with my family's racket downstairs, too. The silence was eerie, pressing on my ears as if it was a physical thing, no buzzing, no white noise, just... silence. Then, as if it realized I could take no longer of that deafening silence footsteps started to sound from the wall at the end of my room towards my door. They were the clicking of hard, thick heels. Not the needle ones, no, chunky hard ones like boot heels, but a bit tinkier. They proceeded up my room with unnatural calmness, as if the thing that was walking was slowed down, it even seemed as if it was savouring it's walk. As the footsteps passed next to my Little bed I started to feel a bone chilling cold, the type that comes from within not without, the ones that makes you think you're dying. The hairs on my neck started to prickle and stand as the steps drew closer to my bed and I noticed the swishing of long cloth touching my covers. I realized at that point I couldn't move, I don't know if I was even breathing, I wanted to scream but nothing came from my mouth. It felt as though I was immobilized by some strong energy that kept me pinned to my bed without being able to defend myself.
-A loud bump from downstairs woke me in the middle of the night. A solid but meaty thump, like flesh against wood... Except I had tile. I grabbed my 20 gauge and crept into the hall, the dark played tricks on my eyes, the shadows all casting the same fluttering shapes along the walls. I made my way down the stairs, beads of sweat forming on the back of my neck as I approached the floor.
+As the footsteps progressed, though, I felt the soft touch of a hand up my spine, tracing a line towards my hair and then caressing my tresses lovingly, as a mother would their child. The hand was cold as ice and strangely ethereal, it was there, but if I focused enough I stopped feeling it. The touch was delicate, yet strong as iron, and very scaring, like it would whisk me away in an instant.
-I saw it standing there, a horribly deformed eldritch horror. It stood as tall as my ceiling, maybe taller as it hunched over my kitchen bench. It had no legs, a snake-like body clad in leathery white skin. His body forming into a neck and head, with a giant nose and clad in an aged bicycle helmet. A singular arm hoisted a box over its gaping mouth. My Fruit Loops and one box was already empty.
+As the caress ended the footsteps started to vanish out my door and into the hall way, and the noise gradually started to go up in volume till it was almost deafening after such a complete silence. I regained movement of my body, my heart restarted beating or so it felt and the footsteps finally faded into the noise around me.
-I watched on in horror as it finished my second box of loops and contorted it's horrific body to look at me. "Provide me with loops, brother." I gasped for air, it's oppressive gaze sapped the life from my legs, and the shotgun clattered to the ground. I couldn't move, I couldn't see, but I could think one thing alone. I had to acquire loops.
+I heard my mum make her way upstairs check in on me again and leave. I don't know when I fell asleep and if I ever dreamed that night.
-And so I write this tale, to tell you about the Long-Nosed Nobody. And if you see the Long-Nosed Nobody, do not fear, just provide him with LOOPS.
+In retrospect, I think that's about the time when the oppressing feeling in my home subsided. It never really left but it actually let me sleep. I still would sleep with a nightlight on, but it wasn't that horrible anymore. I did tell my mum and she proceeded to bless the house, like any religious mother would. I told a few more people and they all agreed it sounded like Death had passed through my room in a way to an errand. It left me thinking that maybe I was dead and didn't know it, and I battled for a long time with that feeling... All in all, I think I'll never know what those footsteps were and I think I don't really want to know. I haven't heard them again and I hope I won't, but sometimes I still feel that coldness and the small caress on my hair and wonder if it actually left me or not.
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 [[Category:Ghosts]]