The Victims⦻

16. My increasing fear of the night

ya know, when this slender man thing started, i hardly ever had nightmares. it was foolishness, a fun little escape from mundanity and generous comforts of regular life. but slowly, as my subconscious was inundated with more and more tales of him, he began appearing to me. in my dreams, in the dark corners of the yard, out of the corners of my eyes in the shadows of the house. slowly but surely, he appeared more often.

but since the midnight game was unleashed upon us, my sightings of a nefarious figure haunting the shadows of my life have steadily increased. it started as maybe one here, one there. then 1 or 2 every month. then around february, it was 1 or 2 a week. now, nearly nightly, i see his silhouette lurking in my back yard during my nightly cigarette, or under the tree when i look out my bedroom window. either he is getting more brazen or i am slowly losing my mind.

most recently, i was crashing at a friend's house just this past friday night. i awoke in desperate need to drain the alcohol i had so readily imbibed earlier from my bladder. i should have known. earlier, as we sat in the hot tub (myself, my friend, and his girlfriend), drinking wine and relaxing the week's stress away, i couldn't take my eyes off the treeline across the field. something didn't seem right, but i couldn't pin it down. and i dare not mention it again, they already think i'm crazy from the last time i told them about slenderman and the other nasties that go bump in the night.

so i get up to pee. there's no clock in the spare bedroom, so i check my phone. 2:55am. i just went to bed about 3 hours ago, and peed before i crashed. why do i have to go again? in the dark, i open the bedroom door and look across the hallway to my friend's bedroom. just inside the doorway, at the foot of his bed, a tall dark shadow stands, back against the wall, overlooking my sleeping compatriots.

quickly i step back in my room and quietly shut the door. 'bullshit' i say to myself, its just my eyes playing tricks on my, still in the fog trying to arouse myself from booze induced slumber. quietly i peak out my doorway again. there is nothing there. ok, it's go time.

i dart across the hall, turn on the lights, and do my business. i flick of the bathroom lights and grip the doorknob. standing there in the darkness, just an arms reach from their room, it dawns on me. their bedroom door was now drawn shut. it was wide open on my first excursion. and i never heard them get up. panic gripped me. i sure as shit can't sleep in the bathroom tonight. and everyone knows the only sure salvation from the terrors of the night is a thick blanket.

mustering all the courage i have accrued in my 24 years, i open the door and take the step of faith into the darkness. nothing grabs me. nothing swoops upon me from the shadows. ohthankgod. hurriedly i rush back across the hall and to the sanctity of the spare bedroom. i open the door, step in, and turn my back to the room to try to quietly shut the door again, feeling rather foolish.

the door across the hall was once again wide open. frozen for a moment, my mind pauses to consider these implications, and my body refuses to act upon any thought until a consensus is reached. obviously, he is not still in the bedroom. which means he could be anywhere now. consensus reached- back to bed. at least i can die comfortably in my sleep like i always hoped. assuming he is merciful.

from my blanket fortress of solitude, just overtop my labored breathing. i hear him. footsteps, down the hall, down the stairs. and then i hear the latch of the back door.

i awaken to the sunlight cascading in the windows, the previous night merely a hazy thought on the back of my mind. i get dressed and get ready to face the day. as i reach for the doorknob, last night's events wash over me. suddenly i'm terrified to open the door. but its morning, and i am safe, for now at least, and i don't have time this day for nonsense. thats something i can worry about after sunset.

Link:
https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/gj906/my_increasing_fear_of_the_night/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share