To Sleep

...Perchance to dream-ay there's the rub."

  I haven't slept in years, decades really. I don't know precisely how come, and neither does anyone else. Ever since I can remember I have been awake at times when everyone else was not. It was scary when I was a small girl, attempting sleep in a narrow and growling basement. Even more so since my bed was placed facing a hall closet. This closet was home to my Mothers most beautiful dresses, each one of them was long and full. So full in fact that when the hour was right, and in a manner most sinister, they would seem come free from their hangers on a mission to devour me. Soon I would learn much about the placement of closets and the presence of things that are to keep me forever wakeful. But in the mean time I decided to make the most of the hours. I sneaked chocolate chips from the kitchen drawers (they were the quietest ones to open.) and if I was feeling brazen, I would help myself to a handful of my Fathers Wheat Thins. Armed with snacks and my beloved books I faced many a dark night and uneasy feeling.

 I knew early on that I was not alone in this basement. Not counting my snoring smaller sister I had company. I tried my hardest to ignore it, or get to sleep before it wanted to come out and play. However most nights I was unsuccessful and at the mercy of the unwanted antagonist. It seemed to be concentrated in the center of the house and interested only in me. It was loud and heavy and didn't show until everyone else was asleep. For a long time I never saw it, I could only feel something scary. Then one night my life was changed forever.

 Laying in my bed, my sweet dog sleeping at my feet I woke up with an overwhelming feeling of dread. Upon opening my eyes I discovered I was surrounded by a thick, heavy red mist. It was everywhere suffocating me and enjoying it. I was trapped in my bed, unable to move or cry. I reached down to get a hold of my dog, hoping that would shake me out of my nightmare. Finding her I was in for a shock. She turned to me with bright glowing red eyes and snarled, nearly biting my hand. I quickly covered my head and hid in the sheets. It seemed as though the mist was laughing and taunting me. This was the longest night of my life.

 The next day I tried to tell my parents about it, they dismissed me as someone with an over active imagination. Nobody believed me, so the thing in the basement continued to harass me. It did so until we moved. I never brought it up again while we lived there, and the mist only reappeared twice. 

 Years later my husband and I bought our first house, a block away from my childhood home. One summer night I took my dogs for a walk past the house. I was sure that whatever was there had to be long gone. But as the dogs and I got nearer to the house they began to bark and growl. Determined to face my fear and triumph I walked through the gate and looked into the windows (the house was again for sale).

I felt the thing. It resides there still, and it remembered me.