Night

Night

With a gulp of his own saliva, Sam woke up from his deep sleep by the loud and ferocious bark of his pet dog. Still half-asleep he stood up from his chair and started to look around his room with no idea of how he got there in the first place. "I must have fallen asleep while watching the program of some...... uh flowers?", he said to himself while rubbing his eyes as an effort to freshen up enough to go to his kitchen and get himself something to drink. After rubbing his eyes for what seemed to be like a solid minute, he walked towards the tv which was still on but had no channels on it, only fuzzy bars and lines. He tried changing the channels but to his no avail every channel was the same, it was all fuzzy bars and lines. After seeing this he just gave up with the tv and started to look out for his slip-on sandals so that he could go to his kitchen and make something hot to drink. "Where did I keep them?", he murmured to himself as he bend down under the table on which the tv was kept on to search for his sandals. As he tried to look deeper under the table, he found something which didn't resemble anything to his sandal but was enough for him to hit his head under the table. He was startled by a group of small mice who almost made the place their sweet home.
Still groaning in pain, he looked at the pieces of hay and old newspaper that the mice had collected under his table. "I need to buy the rat glue for these fucking rascals before they multiply like CRAZY!", he inner screamed to himself while massaging the lump which he had just received from the illegal immigrants of his house. After scaring out the illegal immigrants like the Americans and searching the whole space under the table, he still couldn't find his sandals. So, he just gave up on his sandals and just went to his kitchen barefooted and with a lump on his head. After reaching the kitchen he went to his water heater and started to heat some water to make some coffee for himself. As he was waiting for his water to boil, he looked at the clock at his kitchen and said to himself, "Huh, 3am...... Better to stay awake for the morning shift". Just as he was thinking about it, he remembered that his dog was actually barking ever since he woke up. It was perculiar as he was normally a silent, shy and friendly dog who actually would wag his tail even for robbers that would come to his home.
He walked towards the door that leads to his backyard and started shouting at his dog to stop barking. "Stop Barking CHARLIE BOI!".
But the dog just won't stop and kept barking. Not wanting to dirty his feet since he had no sandals but still being fed up of the continuous barking of his dog, he got down to his backyard and walked towards his dog who was still barking near the fence separating his house and his neighbor's. He picked him up and said, "Hey Charlie boy, what are you so religiously barking at?". The dog just kept wagging his tail but still didn't stop his barking. Fed-up with the barking he took him back to his house but the moment he laid him down, the dog just squeezed his way out from between his legs and went back to his barking.
"The fuck is wrong with this dog!",
"What did he find or saw?",
"A stray cat?",
"Or A THIEF?!"
Now feeling a little bit uneasy he went to his window and looked at what Charlie was barking at. He traced where his dog nose was pointing on and found out that his dog was actually barking at his neighbor Roy's house.
"Why is he barking at his house?",
"Is Roy playing a trick on him?"
"But wait, Roy had actually gone to his parents' house with his wife. Didn't he?",
"Did they come back?"
He then tried to check if any one was there at Roy's home. He looked at the windows of his house and found that every room was dark with the lights off, only for a room which seemed to be Roy's room. It was lighted by what seemed to be candle light and also, he could see a silhouette of someone on the windows screen. Now relief that there was someone at his house who most probably was Roy he went back to his water boiling.
The water boiled with the first whistle of his water boiler. He took out some premium coffee that he had kept for his guest and made some premium coffee for himself. Now with the coffee ready, he went back to his tv room and sat to watch tv. Only the news channels seemed to have come back but he didn't mind that and started watching some early morning news.
As he was sipping his premium coffee and watching the news, he still felt kind of uneasiness with Roy's home. He kept thinking, "Was that really Roy?'.
After finishing the coffee and still feeling the uneasiness, he stood up and walked towards the telephone near the window and called Roy's house just to check if it was actually him.
The phone rang,
Once....
Twice....
Thrice....
But on the fourth time, after ringing for like thirty seconds, the line just went out dead, dead with a muffed-up screeching sound. He tried to call him again but the call just won't connect.
As he tried to call him for the last time, the light suddenly went out and there was a blackout for like five seconds.
A sudden chill just passed through his spine; he suddenly felt his goosebumps, he could see his tiny hair standing up, giving a standing ovation to each other.
He suddenly hears his dog whining in fear. He straight on looks on for his dog through the window but couldn't see him, but he could still hear his whining. It was like his dog had just turned invisible and only could hear his voice. As he was looking out for his dog, he also looked at his neighbor's house to check if anything had changed. But to his surprised everything was dark. The whole neighborhood seemed darken to its very core with not even a ray of light. Even the light from Roy's home was gone and so was any resemblance of the silhouette he had seen earlier. An eerie mist seemed to had just swept through the whole neighborhood.
He then picked up his small torch form the kitchen drawer and went out to the backyard searching for his dog, only by following his voice. As he made his way through the dark searching for his dog. He ended up to find himself inside the old shed in his backyard. He used the light from his torch to look through between the piles of trash and old furniture that had been collected for years inside the old shed. And between two old chairs he found Charlie rolled up and still whining with fear. As he tried to pick him up, he felt something weird behind him. He could feel a presence of someone behind him. The dog started to whine more. He hurriedly turned back with his torch but couldn't find anything. But the eerie feeling still didn't pass, he himself started to feel scared with how things were unfolding. He quickly picked up his dog and started to run towards his house. He reached his house safely with his dog. But Charlie was still shivering and whining in fear but there was another thing, he was not the only one whining. Sam could hear someone whining in pain form the top floor of his house. He could hear the creaking sound of the woods being made with each passing footstep. The creaking sound and the whining became louder and louder and nearer and nearer. He was standing right Infront of the stairs connecting the top floor with the ground floor. He could hear the door of the top floor creak open. There were footsteps, heavy footsteps with a thud. Sam was as pale as the white sheets of curtain besides him. He couldn't utter a single word nor move a single muscle. Charlie too crawled towards him as both were petrified from fear. Heartbeat beating faster than ever, he suddenly remembered what the previous owner had told him before selling the house to him. The house was actually built over an old filled up graveyard. The footsteps were now closer than ever. As he was looking at the entrance of the staircase. He suddenly felt a cold hand on his shoulder. With all the strength in him and without even looking back, he ran towards the door to escape but his legs just gave up and he tripped right near the door. As he was stretching his hand to open the door, he could hear and feel the slow footsteps growing closer and closer. He was trying his best but he just couldn't reach the door. The footsteps froze and an eerie feeling of a hand stretching towards him could be felt. The hand was reaching towards him. But suddenly straight out form an Irish pot of luck, the doors opened and he fell down with a huge THUD!.........
He suddenly opens his eyes with brows covered in cold sweat.
"Hmm.... Where am I?"
"What was all that?"
"Was it all a dream?",
he said to himself as he woke up Infront of the tv with the fuzzy bars and lines. He turns pale with the cold sweat on when he suddenly hears his dog barking and the clock striking 3am of the morning....