Hiding in the Shadows - Old Version (Other one is new one)

Prologue

"It will be fine," she assured, blowing off my fear as if it were a foolish thought. Along with her final words of reassurance, she stood from the foot of my bed and then walked to the doorway leading out of my room, into the hallways of the farmhouse, pausing as she rested a hand upon its white, faded surface.

Looking at me over her shoulder she said, "Don't worry, their just dreams right? It's not like the monsters and all those ungodly beasts are real. They can't reach out of your dream and really hurt you. They aren't a reality, and you need to realize that." With that, she was gone, leaving the lingering scent of her perfume to gently flow around the room. I was left alone in the dark bedroom, with a long night full of horrors ahead.

'I will be fine,' I thought to myself. 'There is nothing in this room that can hurt me,'

Never in my life I have felt like I was so wrong, and never have I hated myself so much for letting her leave me alone that night.

I sighed as I groggily sat up in my bed, feeling a sudden gust of ice-cold wind blow across me.

'I thought I closed the window last night... She must have opened it before she left.'

I'm not sure if it was the fact that I had woken up, or if it was just a plain and simple mistake, but I didn't even look around. So with all the time in the world, completely oblivious to the end that was approaching, I centered myself on my bed, pulling the thick quilt over me. Even though I knew it was wrong, I slowly dozed off, falling back into a dreamily state.

I never before have regretted falling asleep like I did then. I should have known that I had never opened the window... that I was never alone. I awoke to the loud chime of the town's bell tower, and slowly started counting chimes as I sat up, barely able to find purchase on the soft handmade pillows and blankets. Ten... Eleven...Twelve, it was midnight.

I looked around my room, my gaze ending at the foot of my bed, were two eyes shined through the darkness, leavening me paralyzed with fear. I opened my mouth but I was to late, and I knew I should have acted faster. The darkness seemed to be alive, spreading from the corner of my eyes, wrapping around me, gripping me in its stony embrace.

There was nothing I could do by this point, as the man crawled across the bed. His long spindly limbs gripping onto the quilt I had pulled from my drawer earlier that day. I pulled the quilt over my head, willing to try anything in a last and desperate attempt at survival. I was thinking it could give me a small layer of protection, or a small amount of time that I knew that was impossible.

As he got closer, with his bright eyes cutting through the darkness around us, he brought his hand towards me, each of his long and boney fingers closing the space in between. He seemed to pause before touching me, his hand frozen only inches above my torso. It was in these last moments as the other hand came down in a sweeping ark incasing the wicked steel dagger, that a wave of cold rushed over my body, reminding me that this was not a dream.

Finally, my breathing came to an end, as time seemed to slow to a stop and the world seemed to fade away bit by bit, leaving me to my own thoughts while hovering over oblivion...