BANG!
My eyelids pop open.
My dream quickly scattered and forgotten.
Silence.
From somewhere close I hear a soft knock - then another, louder this time.
I’m wide awake now.
What – is - that …?
I squint through the darkness, my dilated pupils tentatively search the room. I hear rustling - it’s coming from inside the wardrobe.
Panic rises in my chest. I sit up slowly trying not to make a sound.
BANG! BANG!
The wardrobe doors start rattling on their hinges, then suddenly the rattling stops.
Silence.
My heart pounds and my mouth has gone bone dry.
I try to force myself to get out of bed and make a run for the door but my body won’t listen, I’m paralysed with fear.
KNOCK! KNOCK!
I jump. The wardrobe doors start rattling again.
What is it? Did a cat come through the bedroom window and get trapped in there? God no - how could a cat make that noise?
I focus on the darkness beyond the slats on the wardrobe door, but there’s nothing to see but solid darkness.
Sweat trickles into my eyes as I hear long nails start to scrape and gouge the wooden door from the inside, something, is trying, to claw its way out.
My thumping heart is going to pump itself right out of my chest.
Can I make it to the door? No - I’d have to pass the wardrobe to get to it, I’ll never make it.
KNOCK! KNOCK!
Finally, I scream and somehow finding my voice wakes my bodies flight mode. I throw back the duvet, my feet hit the floor.
The wardrobe door suddenly starts to open - very…very slowly.
A haunting lullaby whispers itself around the room, like a breeze – it’s softly calling my name.
I freeze mid step, terrified, bewildered.
Eyes wide, I squint into the now open wardrobe.
My heart misses a beat, it misses more than one beat - it almost stops dead.
A corpse - A walking corpse is floating towards me.
Her white pinprick pupils glare at me - devoid of all life, yet full of malicious intent.
Her brittle white hair, stands amok and glints like knives in the moonlight, adding to her deathliness. As swathes of her rotting flesh flutter around her skeletal body like flimsy rags blown about by an invisible wind.
Somewhere in the back of my mind I think I know her. I get a sense of the familiar. She feels so grotesque, so wrong and unnatural, she shouldn’t be here.
She smiles then; a hideous rictus grin revealing her crooked tombstone teeth.
I smell her rot, death and decay as she raises her pale withered arms in welcome.
Shockingly, when her ice-cold fingers finally touch my skin, it feels more like a kiss.
I understand now.
My time is up.
It’s too soon though - I'm not ready.
She takes my hand anyway and leads me through the wardrobe door.
And I sigh my last beautiful breath as I follow her into the eternal darkness beyond.
Bang, Bang, Knock, Knock
Copyright © 2024, Laurel Rafferty.
All rights reserved.
Good imagination and humour. I’ll keep reading your work. Keep going