Silence

Fear. Fear was one of my most worst enemies when I was younger, just as it must have been for everyone else when they were growing up. Waking up in the middle of the night, trying to scream but you couldn't make a sound. I have had my share of nights like this. Nights that I though I would never be able to sleep. These were the nights I remember the most.

It was a normal gloomy day in Oregon, the air was damp, droggy, it kind of made you feel like you were still asleep even though you were awake, you know almost in between what the worst and perfect day would be. It was a feeling of no change. I was sitting in my room, staring outside. The trees around my house were all sagging. It was fall after all, but there was something different, I didn't know quite what. It was probably nothing. Yah nothing as usual, days like this were so boring, just like the ten days before it, the same over cast, the same thing over and over again.

The night came, one of those cold nights no stars, there were clouds, but you could only see the ones around the moon, the sky was too dark to see the rest of them, but I knew they were there. It was just me at home sitting watching TV not doing anything as usual, just the same thing as every night. My parents were both over at the neighbors, drinking. God did they like to drink. Well its just what they do, drink, party, come home say the love me go to sleep and do it again! This was always normal. They would come home, reeking of beer and wine, their faces red and blushed, almost glowing. It was nothing bad, they were and still are great parents. But this night was different then others, sounds were not louder, but merely let themselves be heard more then other nights, little creeks in the wall made sure that they were heard. All the little shadows found their way into the corners in the room I was watching TV. I hated shadows. The shadows I hated the most were the hiding ones. The shadows that look as if they were hiding something there, something that I wasn't meant to see, something terrible. Those shadows were here tonight, they were cold shadows, deep, swallowing consuming shadows, but I shouldn't be scared, they are well... only shadows.

Well I went on watching TV, and there it was, that sound, I hear it every night. I hate that stupid sound. It comes then goes, but the way it comes its as if it wasn't even there in the first place! It teases me. Its a small thump, then a scratch. A thump like a fist on a wall, and then a scratch, almost like a child trying to annoy its parents while at a dinner table. It was the worst sound. It would come in once in a while, teasing me, like the shadows. It would come ever so often, grabbing my attention, but never really wanting to revile its self, like the hidden things that the shadows hide! That's it they must be connected. That sound must be in the shadows, not the wall or the other room, but the shadows.

At this point I have reached my peak of fear, but also my peak of curiosity. I turned off my TV, and started to listen. Nothing, not a single scratch, thump, pop, hiss, nothing. I started to think, where could that sound be? My room now free of sounds from the TV, grew loud with silence. At this time now it had to be late. The air in my room was now crisp, and cool, but why? There was no air conditioning on it was fall! Whatever that was not the focus of what I was trying to figure out. I want to find that sound. Well I have figured out that it was in the shadows, but now where have the shadows gone!