Dawn Nightmares

conversations with the unknown

The weather made it hard for me to sleep so were the loud snores from across the hall. The bulbs were always switched off at that time of the night and the moon was shinning through the closed window. The darkness was moving everywhere in the hall. My eyes could not make out much light than the light lay at the far end where the window was at.

The darkness had always freaked me out because my eyes see things that should not be. When I open my eyes, I see creatures wandering around the hall. I told sister Theressa when I was ten but she said that I was Just being paranoid, "a couple of years will take away that damn fear, child" she said. Yet there I was, afraid of nothing but the dark.

And that was when I heard it, wild foot steps outside the sleeping hole, through the corridor that would lead you in different doors, sadly, the door of this hall was one of them. My heart automatically started to race. My face was already sweating and it was ironic that I had been complaining about the unfriendly weather. I was freezing awhile ago but then fear had made me to melt from the internal heat.

The footsteps sounded like they were not far from the door of the sleeping hall. They sounded slow and rhythmical. The toes slapped the floor and that waken something inside me. And the weight of the feet made the impact sound like a lightening. It was night and I was supposed to let myself rest. But then there it was, outside the door, there was a possibility that there was someone or something.

It could have been anyone, the priest, my mind reasoned. He might be here to pray for us so our sleep could be blessed, right? That was my mind trying to tell me that I was just being paranoid over mundane matters. Even if my mind reasoned with me, I was still frightened.

I covered my face with the duvet hopping that the duvet would protect me from the mysterious someone in the corridor. But again, the duvet was relatively thin.

I heard the footsteps stop. I assumed that they stopped just outside the door. A wave of cold air gave me goosebumps. I heard rats running and hitting the walls with there legs. They were running away from somewhere going towards the back of the room. I opened the duvet slowly and I peeped to see what was really happening but there was nothing, no sound at all.

I went back in the covers and listened. It was so cold now, not even my internal heat could broke this new wave of wild cold.

I got tired of waiting and then I decided to try and get some sleep. I was on alert but I still felt my eyes become heavy. I tried to sleep but I could not. In short, sleep and I wanted two different things.

I opened my eyes. I had slept! I know, I slept. " I dont know how long but I did" I thought. I did not know what was making my heart to race that way. I woke up like I was having a nightmare but I did not remember seeing anything in my sleep. Something in my mind turned. It was like a revelation or maybe it was a mare thought.

I had sat down on the bed after waking up with so much fear. I decided to lay down but let the duvet hung low over my body. It has covered my body except my neck and head. I looked at the window, I could still see the moon peeping through the window, it was still dark outside. I always wondered why they don't put a curtain on the window.

A sound at the door made my heart that had just started calming down into yet another race. I wanted to go check but I did not have enough courage to move from my bed and by that I mean I did not have courage at all.

According to the sisters, "you should never go toward danger". "If your hunsh tells you to go and then later tells you not to go, follow your soul" said sister Lisa, a short fat lady that liked to tell us stories of the so called outside world. So that is what I did. I covered my face with the duvet but I still left a little space for my eyes to see.