Short horror stories

The big mistake

Before my girlfriend and I moved in together, my girlfriend lived alone in the house she owned. During the course of us dating and me spending the night, she finally explained some of the weird stuff going on in her home. Weird banging sounds happening at all hours. Other weird sounds. Seeing things from the corner of your eye. There were even a couple of times where she saw something walking around the house, she described it as being a robed figure almost like the grim reaper. There was also the feeling that something was watching you from behind. You know, that same feeling that causes the hairs on the back of your neck to stand on end. But the worst was this constant foreboding feeling coming from one of the unused bedrooms. These happenings scared her so much simply explaining it caused her to start crying.

Now, I'm skeptic about these things. I am that guy that would watch all those paranormal shows and find the logical reasoning for things happening. Since we were just dating at the time and I really liked her, I wanted to impress her. I wanted to show her my bravado and my lack of fear of the "thing" in the room.

"Get out of this house you douche!" I yelled into the room. "Do not bother her again, you hear me? Or, you'll have to deal with me! You do not want to mess with me!"

Big mistake. Really big mistake.

I spent that night at my girlfriend's. Sometime in the middle of the night I suddenly woke up to a night terror. I had them a couple of times before, I didn't experience anything crazy, but this instance felt intentional. It felt like I had poked a bear and it wanted to show me that it didn't want to be messed with. I woke up to being paralyzed, heart throbbing, being able to see and hear what was around you. I could feel my girlfriend lying down next to me and I could hear her breathing. This wasn't the scary part though.

The scariest part was hearing, yes hearing, something run out of the room and down the stairs away from me and towards the unused bedroom. I could hear it make it's way through the house, it is a small house, but whatever. I desperately tried to get out of this night terror. I tried telling myself it was a dream. I tried praying. I desperately tried to call out my girlfriend's name. I knew it was a night terror, but even still couldn't get out of it. Every time before I could get out of a night terror by reminding myself what it was. She somehow heard my whispered calls and woke me up. I did not go back to sleep that night.