Chapter 17: Falling

Every night for years, I had a dream where I was falling. I would turn round and round as I fell farther down the hole. It was dark and menacing, but before I fell, something would chase me that sounded a lot like a little girl. The thing is the way she sounded, scared me to no end. I remember one night. I had just closed my eyes and then I heard it, a gentle scraping noise coming from the end of the bed. Convincing myself that it was just something in my head, I keep my eyes closed and count to 100. When I am done, I hear it again. As I open my eyes, I feel the sheets begin to slowly lower as if someone was pulling them from the foot of the bed. When I see the shadowy dark figure emerge, I scream out into the night. Fearing no one will help me, I try to make my escape and end up flat on my face before realizing that my feet were still caught up in the sheets. Struggling to get back up again, I pull my feet from them and then run into the hallway. Not noticing that this isn't my hallway anymore, I keep running and running. Finally, when I glance at my surroundings, I hear the voice from the small child, and it is saying a rhyme repeatedly. Not wanting to look at what is following me, I keep running and realize that the corridor is longer and darker than it has ever been. I could swear that I hear my parents voice from ahead, so I keep going without noting that there is something wrong with this situation. Shaking my head, I feel the perspiration slide off my forehead and into the darkened hallway where the only thing I can see is a light from far ahead. Hearing the little girl's voice again, she mocks me and says with a sinister sound to her voice, 'Can't catch me, I just keep running and running. But do you know where you are going? I do and I don't think you will be happy when you get there." This time when I hear that, I stop running for a moment and glance back to where I heard her voice. That same shadowy, looming figure is standing there staring at me with a smile on its face. Then I see its eyes as they stare at me with big saucers made of yellow, that remind me of lemon Jell-O. When it starts to walk towards me, I back up slowly and fall over something lying behind me on the floor. She starts to chant again before I turn around and run towards the far-off light and wish that I had remembered what my mother had told me from the night before. It was something like, 'If you ever come across a shadow that bites, move into the light and it can't follow." I think that was it, but I can't be certain because when she said it, I wasn't really listening at all. Instead, I was playing my video games and watching a television channel. It's times like this that I do wish that I listened to my mother. Now that I keep going over it in my head, I am sure she said, 'If you ever run into a shadow that moves in the night, don't be scared. Just remember that they only exist if there is light from in front of you." So, stopping quickly, I walk into the darkness and wait to see if she was right after all. Because my mother is smart, and she is usually on the ball. However, when I feel something on my arm move, I dart out of the darkness to see the shadowy figure right behind me. Perhaps this time, she wasn't as right as I would have hoped she would have been. Feeling a cold hand on my arm, I turn just in time to see a figure of a little girl staring up at me this time, then she is gone. I hear her voice echo throughout the hallway from all directions, so I start to run again towards the light and hope that she doesn't catch me before I reach it. I still can't tell if it's a doorway or what because every time I think I am getting closer, it looks like it backs up. Hearing her voice even closer this time, no matter how far I go, I stop and take in a deep breath. Looking ahead, I watch as the light turns into a doorway before it slams shut and then all that's left is darkness. I hear her something or someone breathing heavily behind me before I feel a shove on my back, and I start to fall. Falling, turning round and round. I start to get dizzy, even though I can't see where I am going or where I fell from. It is so dark. All I can do is feel the air around me move and whisp past my face and hear the breeze rush up into nothing. Right before I hit the ground, I hear something loud like a train and then when I think it's gone, I hit something with such force that I bounce up and fly back up into the air before coming back down. Opening my eyes, I realize that I have fallen out of bed, and I am on the hardwood floor next to it. The room is still dark except for the faint light that is seeping through the closed door to the hallway. Years later, I still shake my head when I think of those nights of not knowing if what I saw and heard was real or part of a nightmare that kept recurring.