Night Terrors

My Sunday morning, which usually consisted of watching marathons of Dr Who and Criminal Minds was now a marathon of me, pacing my room in my pyjamas.

Last night had to have been a dream. Yes, that was it. I had dreamed of the ominous presence becoming a guy with long, black hair and beautiful eyes and amazing cheekbones, hang on a minute, this guy was scary, stop praising him.

I stopped my pacing and took a few much needed deep breaths. This seemed to calm my nerves and I processed the information from last night. It was obviously a dream. I sighed went about my morning routine.

I got dressed and ate breakfast. Somewhere in my mind I was still fixated on last night. The shrill ringing of the phone made me jump and spill my cereal. I put the bowl down and stumbled over my own feet to grab the phone.

My eyes widened when I saw it was my Mum ringing. It was time for a chat with my Mum and those were usually quite painful. I decided not to tell her about my trouble sleeping.

“Mum, hi.” I answered.

“Oh, I thought you were ignoring me.” She snapped.

Mum and I had always had a tremulous relationship. I loved her though, no matter what. I managed a smile and reassured her I was just eating breakfast.

“Oh, that’s good to hear,” Mum said, her tone was curt. “Make sure you eat healthy. It’s not right for a girl your age to be that size.”

“I do eat healthy, Mum,” I quickly assured her. “I promise.”

She seemed satisfied with that and I took another deep breath. To look at us you wouldn’t think we were related. I took more after Dad. He was a tall man, but he was quite round. Mum was rail thin. We were polar opposites.

We then got onto Mum’s favourite topic. I knew it was coming, but it was a matter of pin-pointing it.

“Your brother is doing well,” She gushed. “He’s come top in his class and his professor says he has an excellent chance of becoming a surgeon. Isn’t that amazing? Can you imagine?”

I gushed along with Mum. Daniel was my older brother. He was just like Mum, tall with her beautiful dark hair and chocolate eyes. He was adored by everyone including me. I looked up to Daniel and wanted desperately to be just like him.

“Oh, hey Mum,” I interrupted her talking. “I just finished an essay and my teacher says that I’m doing really well and she’s impressed with my use of words.”

I heard Mum mumble out a quick congratulations and then she carried on talking about Daniel. I listened and said a few words here and there until she passed me over to Dad.
Dad was much easier to talk to. He was equally as proud of me as he was Daniel.

“Hello Princess.” My Dad’s chipper voice spoke.

I proceeded to go to great detail about my degree with Dad and he was always so supportive. We, then talked about Star Trek, something of a thing Dad and I had. We used to always watch it together at home.

After ending the chat with Dad I felt much better. The incident last night was pretty much gone from my mind. I knew I would sleep well tonight and be up for my lecture in the morning.

**************************

It got to five and I nipped out my room, heading to the shop to grab some dinner. I had to go through the lounge area on my way.

I could hear loud voices as I passed and glanced over briefly. Some of the guys and girls were together, laughing and joking. One of them waved at me. He looked friendly enough. I managed a small wave back before heading outside.

When I got home from the shop I thought about saying hello, but there was no one there on my way back through. The dorms seemed eerily quiet and for a second it felt like someone was watching me.

I looked down the corridor when I got to my door. The hallway was silent. I took a shuddering breath and entered my room. Nothing seemed out of place so I started my dinner. The rest of the day seemed normal until it got to bedtime.

I had been partially dreading this, but I knew tonight would go better. It just had to. No more nightmares, please.

I lay down, staring at the ceiling for a minute and a flash of last night ebbed at my mind. Him, leaning over, analysing me with those blue eyes. I winced and rolled onto my side, flicking off the lamp.

It must have been early morning as it was still dark when my eyes opened. That same dripping sound had woken me. My eyes darted round the room and I tried to move my body. I was stuck, paralysed in the dark. Fantastic.

The sound of shuffling caught my attention and my gaze darted to the door. It wasn’t open this time and for that I was truly thankful. However, my joy was short lived when a shadow slipped under the door and travelled into the room. It trailed up the far wall, reshaping itself until I could see the silhouette.

If I had been able to move any part of my body I would have screamed or ran a mile. I didn’t care about being in my pyjamas. The shadow eventually formed and it was him. My breathing nearly stopped.

He practically floated over, stopping next to my bed and leaning over again to lock eyes with me. I could feel the hairs on my body stand on end and a shiver shot down my spine.

“Good Evening, Ellie,” His tone was playful. “Did you miss me?”

I wanted to say no, but my mouth wouldn’t move. Nothing would move and he smirked again. He was deliberately taunting me and I narrowed my eyes at him. This made him chuckle and I continued to glare at him.

Something cold touched my face and I realised he was stroking my cheek again. I stared at him, willing him to go away and for this to be a horrible dream.

“Your skin is so soft.” He murmured, more to himself than me.

He removed his hand suddenly and turned his attention to the door as though he had heard a sound. It must have been unimportant as his gaze flicked back to me. I fought to move my body, but nothing happened. He seemed to sense this and bit his lip. I decided that he did that when he was thinking.

“Your Mom really doesn’t appreciate you, does she?” He asked.

My eyes widened. He had heard my conversation with my parents. How could that be? He wasn’t even in the room with me when it took place. My eyes travelled to all the dark corners in my room then back to his face.

“How sad,” He grinned, coyly.

I narrowed my gaze at him, trying to make my eyes as nasty as possible to scare him away. He chuckled again.

“You look very cute when you’re angry.” He traced a finger down my face, pausing at my lips.

I closed my eyes and willed him to go away. My mind kept repeating that he wasn’t real, but when I reopened my eyes he was still there, smirking at me.

“This is no fun.” He grumbled, snapping his fingers.

In an instant I felt the feeling return to my lips. The rest of my body remained numb and frozen in place.

“P-please let me go. I won’t tell anyone.” My voice sounded meek and child-like.

He pouted for a minute then grinned again. Something about the action made him seem innocent, but when he leaned forward again I nearly screamed.

“But I like you like this.” His cold breath cascaded across my ear.

Was he going to do things to me? The thought filled me with horror. I knew now that I had to escape somehow.

“If you don’t let me go I’ll call the police.” I tried to sound threatening.

He recoiled and grinned again. He arched a perfect eyebrow as though daring me to move.
“Go ahead. Go get the phone.” He traced my face again.

“I’ll scream.” I allowed myself to smile now. If I screamed the whole building would know. Take that, you evil jerk.

“Go ahead, scream for me.” The tone in his voice altered and a shiver chased its way back down my spine. “What’s wrong? I thought you were going to scream. I can make you scream in other ways, maybe.”

I felt the colour rise to my cheeks and I felt warm. No one had ever spoken to me in that way, especially not a guy.

At school I had always been the slightly nerdy girl with a small collection of nerdy friends. My friends grew up, got boyfriends and then there was me. I was too nervous to speak to guys and when I did it was always a disaster.

“Are you a virgin?” He asked, coyly. He must have noted the way my cheeks reddened.

“T-that’s not your business, freak.” I snarled, embarrassment giving way to anger.

He chuckled at my sudden flare of temper. No, you total freak do not chuckle at me. I’m angry and you should be scared and want to retreat.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” He replied, pausing and thinking for a minute. “Jinxx.”

My eyes went to meet his and I realised he was telling me his name. Had that freak comment offended him somehow? It was common courtesy to introduce yourself to someone.

“I already know your name. Eleanor Winters, but I prefer Ellie.” He grinned.

I didn’t care what he preferred and he seemed to realise I wasn’t going to talk to him. He sighed and stood. He was going? Yes, he was leaving. The jubilation was short lived when he looked at me again.

“See you tomorrow night Ellie.” He disappeared then. It was as though he had never been here.

I glanced at my clock and groaned. It was nearly half six. I would have to get up soon for class.

Notes