Story Time: Who’s Afraid of the Dark?

It was a dark and stormy night.  A cliché I know, but true.  No one in the apartment but me and the baby, my 5 month old niece.  She was supposed to be asleep in the room at the back of our home.  Nope, she was crying instead, wailing more like it.  It was different however, which is why I walked down the hall a little faster than normal.  People who have spent some time around a baby tend to know what’s wrong by the way they cry.  I’ve spent enough time with her to know that wasn’t a cry because she just wanted her teddy.  It was a cry of absolute terror.

I got to her and tried to calm her down, but she continued to cry.  This was confusing, there wasn’t anything in the room, at least not that I could see.  That’s when I noticed the room itself appeared to be shaking.  Why I didn’t immediately notice this I’m not sure, but it did appear to tremble.  Then I realized it wasn’t the room.  It was the lights flickering, quite violently in fact.  I decided to quickly move the baby to the living room, not that there was any real danger to her, right?

From the living room I could see the light from the back room continue to flicker and then start to fade.  It faded into complete darkness.  This flickering and fading traveled pass the bathroom and down the hall, spreading to all the lamps in each room of the formally well-lit apartment.  The darkness was spreading quickly, and coming toward us.  As the darkness drew closer, her screams grew louder.

It came closer and closer…

…she got louder and louder…

…Closer and Closer…

…Louder and Louder…

…Closer…

…Louder…

…Closer…

…Louder…

…and then…

 

 

 

…Silence.

Happy Halloween!