Then I believed: Part 4

[Leep]

I don’t' remember how long it was until the next incident happened, but I know it couldn't have been very long. I do remember we were all in our beds asleep when my wife and I heard a sudden pounding noise that seemed to be coming from either the hallway or perhaps from outside on the porch. I did notice how-ever that, while the pounding noise was going on, the string that turned the hall light on and off was dancing in time with the noise. I kept this bit of information to myself as my wife was all to quick to take whatever happened in there, by now, in the worst possible light.
“What is it", she asked fearfully.
"Oh, it’s probably someone at the door or the kids next door fooling around."
I could tell by the grip she had on my arm as we walked into the hallway, that this did not offer much in the way of comfort. I walked to the window that overlooked the front porch and asked in a firm voice, "Who's down there?" There was, of course, no answer. My wife was fearful as we walked slowly back into our bedroom and got into bed. As she lay curled close beside me and wondered aloud who or what it was that had been knocking, the noise suddenly resumed anew in the hallway we had just vacated, four or five loud, measured pounding noises that set the walls shaking and the string dancing merrily on it's base.
I too was feeling no small amount of fear by this time and, with my wife clinging to my side and crying softly, I walked back into the hallway and stood there uncertainly. "What is it honey, she asked fearfully?" "I don't know, but I'm damn well going to find out."
There was another bedroom at the end of the hallway that was not in use. It stood directly beside ours and was occupied only by a bare double bed and the same light with the same type of string dangling from it.
I pushed the bedroom door open cautiously and, with my wife clinging to my side, I leaned into the room and reached and pulled the string light on. I then bent over slowly and peered under the bed from the doorway. I remember at the time how funny we must have looked with my wife mirroring my every move, as if we were joined together at the hip.
There was, of course, nothing in the room but the bed and the ceiling light. "See honey, there's nothing here to be afraid of. " As we leaned into the room again to turn out the light and pull the door closed, the pounding started again and as we were looking into the empty room, the back wall was moving in and out in time with the pounding noise.
There was little doubt in either of our minds what was happening then. The light string dancing merrily from the ceiling seemed completely out of place with the sudden air of wrongness that was now filling the very space in and around us. I walked purposefully right back into the main bedroom and we crawled back into our bed. My poor wife was crying beside me and curled up as close as you could physically get to someone. "Please honey, lets get Lori and go down to your mom's." I looked at my wristwatch and said, "Look, it's almost three o'clock and I have to get up for work in two hours." "I'll take you and Lori down to moms then." "These bas….ds aren't going to run us out of here."
There was an old worn linoleum on the bedroom floor and right after I had made this announcement, something picked up what must have been my wife's flip flops off the floor and slapped them down rapidly four or five times, rather loudly. This was more than my poor wife could take. She jumped out of bed and for some strange reason, grabbed two pillows and raced into our daughters’ room grabbing her with the same abandon. In five minutes we were back down home.
My dear mother looked at the whirlwind of confusion that burst into her home and merely asked calmly, "Again?" I looked at her with real concern this time and said, "I don't think she will go back there anymore Mom, and I don't think I blame her. " "I kind of doubt if I will either."
While my wife and daughter went upstairs to bed, I told Mom what had happened.
"You had better not go back there again son, I don't think it is safe anymore."
I agreed wholeheartedly.
My wife refused to set foot there ever again, and held true to her promise. Neither her or our daughter ever entered that evil home again.
But, I did, and I wish I hadn't, because the next time I was there alone.
I stayed away from that den of evil for a week or so, but our furniture was still there along with our clothes. So, I knew someone would have to go back sooner or later. I should have made it during the daylight hours though and not at night with the intentions of staying there alone.
I had been playing music that fateful night and on the way home passed the road leading to the house. If I had been playing in the other direction I would have passed my parent's home first and would have stayed there instead. But, here I was pulling in the driveway of our dream house.
Please excuse the sarcasm, I had been drinking, something I normally did on the nights we played our fifties and sixties music.
I remember walking up onto the old porch and walking slowly to the door. "What the h…ll are you doing here?" I asked myself, "It's only a mile and a half down to Mom and Dad's."
I told myself that this was my house and I'd be damned if anything was going to chase me away. I hope you don't get the idea that I possessed even the smallest amount of bravery. I assure you, if I had not been drinking that night I would not have been anywhere near what I called later, "Hotel Hell".
I turned the door knob slowly and stood in the darkness for a moment before I reached in the kitchen and flipped on the light. I walked into the kitchen and started to walk towards the living room and to the couch. After all, that was where I had always stayed before when I slept there alone.
Yeah, slept, there's a misnomer if I ever heard one.
This night however, I remember stopping just before I entered the living room and saying to myself, "The hell with this, this is my house and I'm sleeping in my own bed."
Brave words from a not so very brave or bright individual.
I had stayed in the living room alone on several occasions only to be awakened by some unseen but felt presence. I would awake drenched with sweat and rigid with fear. I would find myself unable to talk and trying to. I could only make sounds not words and could not move for the first few seconds. As I mentioned before, I would turn on the stereo and it would always be tuned into a Christian broadcast. At that moment I would feel safe and at peace. I should have walked straight into that room that night and turned on the radio as usual and saved myself a lot of sleepless nights in the years to come.
Instead, I turned sharply and walked up the stairs, pulling the hall light on as I walked past in the blackness. I walked past my daughter's room, past the bathroom and into the main bedroom. I slowly undressed and crawled into bed.
I lay there for quite some time, testing the atmosphere of the house with my ears, my eyes and my inner senses. All was quiet, too quiet.
I must have fallen asleep at some time, because I vividly remember coming suddenly and fearfully awake. I lay there alone in the room listening and as I did I reached almost directly above me and turned on the bedroom light. I heard then what had awakened me in the night. As I lay there I heard the sound of someone or something breathing heavily in the hallway and there was a light mist filling the hall. In the mist was the faintest of forms. As I watched and listened, rigid as a poker, the breathing sounds grew steadily fainter and the mist and the form within slowly dissipated.
The fear I felt was stronger than any I had felt there before and along with it this time was a real feeling of danger. There was the sense of evil there this time also, almost as palpable as the mist and the form within it that had been there just a few minutes earlier.
I prayed to my Lord and Savior to keep me safe and to give me safe passage from this evil place. I lay there for an interminable amount of time and crazy as it may sound, I convinced myself that it was all my imagination and reached up and pulled the string, plunging my room back into darkness. I looked at my watch and marked the time, three o'clock. I was determined not to fall asleep again, I could stay awake for a couple of hours I reasoned. It would be dawn in about two more hours.
I fell asleep once more.
The next time I awoke, I had already turned on the light before I had fully roused. There in the doorway was the mist again, much more visible and the form within was clearly manlike. I hesitate to say humanlike. The breathing sound was back also, four or five deep, rasping breaths like some one who has run too far and couldn't breathe. Each breath was slower and quieter than the one before, until like before, the sounds and the apparition melted slowly away.
There was no way out of the room except the entryway or the window, and I couldn't bring myself to turn my back on whatever was or wasn't there long enough to open it and clamber onto the back porch roof. I lay there, for the first time really scared that I had made a real error in judgement this time, and wondering and praying I hadn't gotten myself into real danger, the kind that I had no control or power over.
I was determined to stay awake this time and left the bedroom light on, if only for the illusion of safety it might offer. There are times when you try to stay awake so hard that you can actually fall asleep and not know it. You really believe that you are awake, though you are fast asleep. Your mind is still awake though, filtering out the natural from the unnatural, the danger from that which is only dreamt or imagined. I awakened with a start, angered that my body had let me down again. How could I have fallen asleep again?
There was, beside the bed, in the room with me this time, a mist that filled the bedroom, diffusing the light from the ceiling. The breathing was very loud and raspy; .and the form within the mist was clearly manlike. The form moved within the mist in time with the breathing. This time however, I had had enough.
I had no real choice; if I was going to move it would have to be now.
I stood up alongside the bed and inched my way to the bottom where I had dropped my clothes only a few hours before. I scooped up my pants and as I pulled on first one leg then the other, I pointed a shaking finger at the form and said. "You son…of a …b…..ch , you dirty son.. of …a b…ch, if you want this bleeping place you can have it.
I grabbed my shirt and shoes and bundling them under my arm, plunged blindly into and through the mist breaking into the hallway and plunging down the stairs, nearly losing my balance, tripping on some unseen obstacle and bouncing from wall to wall, as I careened down them into the kitchen below. I paused for an instant before I ran onto the porch, listening fearfully for any pursuit. They would play hell getting me back in there again, whatever they were.
I stood on the porch and yelled back up the stairs. You sons a b i t…c..es, if you want this place you can have it, go back to hell where you came from.
I never spent another night in that place, though others did later and I was instrumental in warning them before any real harm came to them or their baby.