It was three in the morning. It seemed like the whole world was sleeping but me. The silence, sinister. I felt the weight of the darkness pushing on me. My mind darted from one nightmare scenario to the next, the fear of the unknown overwhelmed me and I was paranoid about vicious intrusions.
My bedroom door was wide open. My eyes darted around the room, hunting for anything different, any dark silhouettes lurking in the darkness. I failed to find anything out of the ordinary. This only increased my paranoia even more. I felt as though I was fighting a war with the darkness, darting from one trench to the next, fleeing for my life. I groped around the darkness to find the light switch on my bedside lamp. I flipped the light... Light... Safety.
I immediately felt relieved. I listened carefully for any noises. I could only hear the buzz of electricity in the light above me that gave me a sense of safety, and the beating of my terrified heart.
Just as I began to calm down and convinced myself that everything was alright, I remembered that I left the back door unlocked and the window gaping open, inviting in the strangers that lurked in the shadows.
I soon found myself once again paranoid and quickly turned back to the light... Light... Comfort.
I knew the only way I could get to sleep was to lock that door and the window. The darkness weighed on me. Even with light streaming throughout my room, I still felt a little uneasy, like the darkness pressed up against my window trying to attack me.
I encouraged myself that all I had to do was quickly go down the stairs and down the hallway to the back door and the window that was splayed open. Who was I trying to kid? I was freaked out.
As I nervously stepped out of my room, the floorboards creaked underneath me as if it was a warning not to go out of the safety of my lit up room and into the horrifying darkness. I cautiously looked down the stairs in to the inky blackness below.
Biting my