“If I should die before I wake, I
pray my lord my soul to take. Amen.”
Little Lisa Grabets finished the prayer
and graciously climbed into her big fluffy bed, helped by her mother. Ann
tucked her daughter underneath the layers of sheets and blankets then turned
the gas down on the lantern next to the bed. She tugged at the long braid of
graying hair which hung over her shoulder and pecked a kiss on Lisa’s forehead.
“Sleep tight, okay? Need more covers?
You warm enough?”
Lisa shook her head and settled into her
pillow, comfortable and content as could be. A thump against the wall made Ann
turn and stare out the window. An old tree, now bare of leaves, rattled against
the house, its thin limbs shaking as if in protest to the bitter cold wind. The
barren desert surrounding the battered farmhouse the Grabets called home
whistled and whirled, making little dust devils. A stray tumbleweed skipped
lightly but quickly across the dust. She turned her gaze back to Lisa. Lisa
stared troubled out the window, her blankets up to her chin. Ann sighed.
“I’ll close the shutters tonight.”
She got up but a sound escaped from
Lisa’s mouth that sounded somewhat like a mix between a grunt and a whine.
“No mommy. I won’t be able to see.”
“Sweetie, there’s nothing to see. Shut
your eyes and go night-night.”
“But mommy…”
Ann let another sigh escape her lips. It
had been like this every night since they moved out to the Nevada hill country
a year ago. Away from the city lights, the car honks and loud party music, Ann
actually considered the move a good deal. She just wasn’t cut out for the city
life. Unfortunately, being a single mom but wanting a fast track to a lucrative
career, the tall skyscrapers and suits hadn’t been able to offer her much of
anything but more stress and less time with Lisa. She felt her little angel had
been resenting her for that.
But at least she had slept better in
that apartment. Out here, where life was supposed to be calm and peaceful and
quiet, so far it had been anything but. Night terrors, she called them. Lisa’s
night terrors were not much of a thing before the move. Ann contributed them to
being in a whole new place, isolated as could be, away from the car honks, the
party music, the blinding God damn city lights. Perhaps they would go away as
soon as Lisa got settled into homeschooling and no electricity and cold sandwiches
for supper every night. Ann admitted several times a day to herself that it
wasn’t a good decision, but the country was what she knew. She had been raised
hard by her father on a pig farm in Montana. All the backbreaking chores which
had come with it taught her self-discipline, how to work with her hands, how to
work hard so that she could further appreciate the little time she had to play.
Of course she had hated it and fought her father every step of the way. He beat
her into submission. She forgave his hard hand, knowing now that it had
actually been he who had sacrificed.
She often sat on the porch swing and
wondered what it was going to be like for Lisa. She was not yet old enough to
help around the farm, but one day she would have to. Ann often thought when
that time came that it would be much like it had been for her and her farther.
She could never be so rough on Lisa. She knew she wouldn’t be able to make the
sacrifices her father had made for her. When thoughts like these crept into her
mind, the tears welled in her eyes, but she would always be quick to wipe them
away for Lisa’s sake. She had to be strong for her, not heavy-handed strong
like her father but mentally strong. She had to make Lisa believe that
everything would work out in the end.
“I won’t be able to see it,” Lisa
whispered.
Ann snapped back from her thoughts and
stared concerned at her little angel. She knew the “it” which her daughter
spoke of. Something with huge green eyes with slits for pupils. Or hair coming
out of the ears. Or huge slimy fangs. “It” was the boogey man, the monster that
lies in wait underneath every child’s bed. A child’s imagination still amazed
Ann even though she could relate to it, having seen her fair share of monsters
and things in that stirred in the darkness of her own bedroom when she was
little. She had cried and cried and cried for her daddy to chase them away, but
he had never answered her. Many a sleepless night she had had, covers up to her
chin, staring wide-eyed at the dark shadow in the corner, certain that she saw
something there. As she got older, she gained the courage to finally close her
eyes and never open them, never look at that thing in the shadow ever again. A
few nights of successful sleep had cured her of her night terrors, because there
wasn’t ever anything there in the first place.
“There’s nothing to see, honey.”
She put her hand over Lisa’s eyes,
forcing them closed.
“Remember? There’s nothing to see if you
keep your eyes closed.”
“I know…” Lisa said softly. She didn’t
sound convinced.
Ann pecked her a kiss on the forehead
once more. She got up and before exiting the room, looked back at Lisa. She was
forcing her eyes to stay shut, trying not to peek. Ann held back a smile,
praying inside that Lisa would get a good night’s rest for once. As she shut
the bedroom door, she was plunged into an inky blackness which didn’t faze her
in the slightest. The ancient farmhouse hadn’t had electricity for quite some
time, and even when the power did manage to surge back on it was only for a
little while. The incessant blinking had annoyed Ann so much that she had taken
out all the bulbs in the house. She thought it better for things to be
consistent, reliable and stable.
She felt her way to the master bedroom
and immediately stole underneath the covers to knock the chill from her back.
Her teeth chattered underneath her tightly shut mouth and she shut her eyes
tight, trying hard to keep them closed. But thoughts kept drifting back and
forth rapidly across her mind and she gave up trying to sleep, sitting up and
staring blankly out the large double windows. She took great comfort in knowing
how cold it was on the outside and how warm and cozy she felt in her bed. She
let the calmness and warmth drift over her and within minutes was fast asleep.
************************************************************************
A shriek filled the house. Ann bolted
upright from her pillow and immediately made her way to Lisa’s room. The night
terrors. The God damn night terrors! She burst open the bedroom door only to
find the bed completely empty. She suppressed a thought dwelling within her
that something had come and taken Lisa and stole off into the night. Oh dear
God, please no. But out of the corner of her eye she spotted her.
Lisa sat trembling in the corner
furthest away from the window, her hands on her knees, staring petrified at
something outside. Ann hurried over to her and brought her into a tight hug,
rubbing her back and trying to stop the shaking.
“It’s
okay it’s okay it’s okay,” she repeated over and over.
“I
saw it, mommy, I saw it,” Lisa moaned into Ann’s shoulder.
Ann instinctively followed her child’s
frightened gaze towards the window. The wind had died down a bit and the clouds
had drifted past the moon, allowing its light to penetrate inside the bedroom
and cast long shadows everywhere. But she could detect nothing other than the
barren desert.
“Don’t let it get me, mommy.”
“Calm down, sweetie, just calm right
down,” she said as she rocked Lisa gently.
Ann stared at the shadows on the floor.
A stray cloud drifted past the moon, transforming the shadows into odd,
grotesque shapes. Ann shuddered. It was easy to see what had scared her little
angel so. Hard as she tried, Ann couldn’t help but see monsters in those
shadowy shapes. A hand with long, bony fingers and sharp claws. A face with
slanting eyes and a wicked grin. She shook her head, fighting off the
nightmares in her mind. Yes, Lisa had probably seen the shadows and got scared.
Ann slowly lifted Lisa back into her bed
and tucked her in. Lisa clutched at her arm, pulling her close.
“I wanna sleep in your room, mommy.
Please?” She looked into Ann’s eyes with her own big blue ones.
“Sweetheart, there’s nothing to be
afraid of.”
“Please mommy pleeeaaaase?”
It was so difficult to say no to her
sweet, innocent little angel. Had she ever appeared this irresistible to her
father? No, no it was impossible to ever break a man that rugged.
“Just shut your eyes…and keep them
closed, okay? Remember? Nothing can get you if you close your eyes.”
“But I can’t.” There was a longing,
almost pleading tone in her voice that irked Ann a little. She sounded
desperate, something Ann hadn’t ever heard in her child’s voice.
“Why not, sweetie?”
Lisa stole another scared glance towards
the window.
“It won’t let me,” she whispered.
“What do you mean?” Ann was beginning to
feel a tad annoyed, more so at herself than at Lisa. Why hadn’t she just let
Lisa sleep in her room?
“When it stares at me, I can’t move,”
Lisa said.
“Okay, honey, listen.” Ann took Lisa by
the hands. “It’s all in your mind. You see it because you want to. That’s all.
Come, now, come with mommy. You can sleep with me tonight, okay?”
“But it’s still out there mommy.”
“Enough, Lisa. Now come.”
Lisa ducked underneath the covers. Ann
put a hand on her hip and the other to her forehead. Not again, she thought.
I’m much too tired for this tonight.
“Lisa…”
“Noooooo,” she moaned quietly.
Ann heaved a huge sigh and decided to
let her curiosity get the better of her. She shuffled over to the window,
pulled up hard to open it and poke her head out.
“No mommy!” Lisa cried.
An instant blast of freezing, dusty wind
hit Ann’s face, causing her to cough violently. She peered out into the night,
craning her head in a wide sweep. If not for the wind, the farm would have been
eerily silent. Ann turned back towards Lisa.
“See? Nothing.” She closed the shutters
and pushed down on the window to seal it tight, enclosing the room in total
darkness.
“Mommy!” Lisa said in a panic.
Ann, a bit more used to finding her way
in the dark than Lisa, picked up Lisa and held her, rubbing her back, trying to
calm her as she made her way slowly towards her bedroom.
“Shhh, it’s okay,” she whispered.
“It was there outside my window mommy, I
swear,” Lisa said.
“I didn’t see anything, sweetie.”
“That’s cuz it hides, underneath the
house.”
Ann decided to play along.
“And why does it hide?”
Lisa’s answer didn’t come right away.
Ann found the doorknob to her room and opened it. She lay Lisa down on her bed,
feeling for the covers to tuck her in.
“I think cuz it doesn’t like grown-ups,”
Lisa said.
Ann tucked herself in next to her,
holding Lisa tight to her body. She knew she shouldn’t keep placating her, but
somehow she just couldn’t hold back her inner child. Lisa’s excited imagination
had won her over.
“What is it exactly?” The question
escaped her lips before she could stifle it.
“It’s huge and has lotsa colors on its
head and scary red eyes and fangs as big as my whole body!” Lisa said
excitedly. “It’s got a slimy fork tongue that it always hisses at me with!”
Perfect. Now she had done it. With Lisa
this ecstatic she would never get to sleep. But more importantly, Lisa was
bringing back the old night terrors from her childhood. As Ann stared into the
pitch black of her room she began to see long, bony fingers with razor claws,
faces with red eyes and large fangs. She shut her eyes, trying to keep them
closed.
“Shut your eyes, Lisa. Just calm down
and shut your eyes now.”
She gently scratched Lisa’s back until
she felt her little angel grow calmer as she drew closer to sleep. Soon she
could hear her daughter’s soft breathing. Sure that she was now asleep, Ann
climbed quietly out of the bed and felt her way to the window. The dark was
beginning to overwhelm her. She would open the shutters and let some of the
moonlight come in. Then and only then could she fall asleep.
She heaved up on the window. The cold
had it stuck tight, so that she had to try several times before she finally got
the window up. She felt for the shutter latch, unhooked it and pushed out. And
then she saw it.
It was just like her daughter had
described. It’s gigantic, oval-shaped head bore shades of yellow, maroon, and
emerald. The head was attached to a black, thick body. Large scales glistened
from the moonlight barely penetrating the blackness of it. Ann couldn’t tell
just how long the body stretched, for much of it was hidden beneath the house.
Large fangs opened wide for a thin red
fork tongue which hissed viciously at Ann. But what were most terrifying were
the eyes. Blood-red, with vertical slits for pupils, they captivated her,
horrified her, kept her from breathing or even blinking.
The large head swayed slightly from side
to side. The vibrant colors hypnotized her. The tongue darted in and out,
sometimes coming within inches of her face. Ann stood rigid to the spot. She
couldn’t move if she tried. The monster had her. It would surely eat her. All
those night terrors she had as a child had all boiled down to this moment. She
thought her father’s tough love had saved her from them, but she knew now that
her end had only been postponed.
Take me, she thought. Take me. Lisa,
shut your eyes. Keep them closed. Nothing can get you if you close your eyes.
Close your eyes!
Ann forced her eyes shut. This is it,
she thought. Any moment and the monster will take me. I’m sorry, Lisa, my
little angel. You deserved better, much better.
She opened her eyes and was greeted by
nothing but the cold wind in her face. It was gone. Vanished. Ann stood breathing
heavily, staring wide-eyed at the now vacant spot in the air where that
monstrous head had just been.
Had it been another night terror after
all? So real, so very real it had felt. Ann turned back towards Lisa, who
slumbered peacefully, her tiny thumb in her mouth. So innocent, so safe.
Ann fell back into bed, putting her arms
around Lisa, stroking her hair.
Keep those eyes closed, Lisa, she
thought. You’re safe now. She drifted off into a deep sleep, free from the
terrors of the night.