Candle Lit Nightmares

🌲The Gaps🌲

Tiger woke up in her bedroom, slightly sweaty and out of breath. The walls were painted the same black she had left them, posters of clips from Paranormal and The Walking Dead taped on the walls.

Her bare feet met the soft lush carpet as she got out from under her warm comforters. How did she get here? Tiger opened the door and was met with the same hallway that she and Weasel shared at their apartment.

The place was silent and Tiger started to worry that something had happened to Weasel. She went downstairs and noticed that someone was standing on the porch. Tiger cautiously pulled the curtain back and sighed in relief to see it was Weasel.

Weasel leaned against the rotting railing, her hoody covered in dirt and grass stains. Tiger joined Weasel and shut the door behind her.

   "Hey, what's today?" Tiger asked.

   Weasel slowly turned around, her face pale and her eyes glazed. She shrugged before looking out at the college campus that was literally right across from where they lived.

   "I think it's been a month. I don't really know for sure." Weasel said with not much tone in her voice.

   The two had a knowing look before just staring at the outside world. They both remembered nothing on how they had gotten home. The last thing they remembered was when they had sprinted away from the super market.

   The difference between the two was that Tiger was now in silk pajamas while Weasel was in a freshly dirty hoody. Tiger took a closer look and noticed there was a few blood stains as well.

   "Who'd you kill this time?" Tiger asked, trying to joke and lighten the mood.

   "I don't know..." Weasel replied.

   This seemed to darken the atmosphere and Tiger felt slightly uncomfortable. Weasel never usually acted so numb but here she was, being exactly that.

   One minute Tiger was on the porch with Weasel, the next she found herself in the kitchen, baking muffins. 'This is Nuts!' Tiger thought. She fought the urge to look for Weasel, knowing all to well that she might find something else.

   A dream she had made her think so. But as she pondered how this was the second time already of a huge black void in her memory, Weasel cane down the stairs, cleaned up and wearing fresh clothes.

   Weasel snuck up behind Tiger but simply tapped her on the shoulder instead of doing her usual scare attack. Tiger turned around and frowned slightly.

   "Did it happen to you again?"

   "What?"

     Weasel tried searching for what Tiger meant before realizing. She shook her head as her stared at Tiger in surprise.

   "It happened to me last week and then a few days ago but not today. What do you last remember?" Weasel asked.

   "We were on the porch when we just somehow appeared back at home." Tiger replied.

   At one point, they had joked about forgetting chunks of things when in 8th grade, but now they had only felt daze. What did they do? Who was around? The fact that there were chunks of things missing was scary.

   When the two had sat down, Weasel explained to Tiger that after that day appearing back home, they had searched the date and it had turned out to have been a whole month of missing memories.

   That would mean Weasel has a month a day of missing memory while Tiger had a month and another whole week of missing memory. The muffins had been finished and the two silently ate.

   "You make good muffins Tiger." Weasel complimented.

   Tiger only nodded as she tried to remember anything after getting back home. Maybe a warm shower would help? She told Weasel and Weasel had no arguments against it.

   The afternoon soon turned to midnight, and the two sat watching a horror movie. A big bowl of popcorn and two cups of Mountain Dew were near them as they were sucked into the world of My Bloody Valentine.

   "It's been a long time since we've watched this, huh?" Weasel mumbled as a murder scene was coming up.

   "Yeah. It's nice to re-watch this again." Tiger stated.

   The movie was almost done when the two girls jumped at a loud noise just outside their home. The two rushed to the window and peered through a crack from the curtains. Outside near their road were two humanoid creatures.

   They crawled at an alarming speed and Tiger had to cover her mouth from screaming and giving away their position. They obviously were looking for someone or something. They also kept glancing at their place and it was a surprise no one else had seen or heard them yet.

   "We should-" Weasel was cut off by Tiger also covering Weasel's mouth. 

   Things had been getting more intense since their sophomore and Senior year. It seemed whatever was out there knew that Tiger and Weasel were searching for them. Unknown strangers following them, unknown calls or texts that were chilling, and creatures like those outside their house stalking the night.

   It must have been at least 10 minutes before the creatures had left, abandoning their stalking spot. Weasel could have sworn she saw one of them make eye contact with her but brushed it off, deciding it was best she didn't ponder on it.

   To say the least, Tiger and Weasel ended up sleeping in Tiger's room and had their personal weapons nearby. While they laid down in the room, Tiger remembered a detail from before she again had memories missing.

   "Remember how I found you on the porch Weasel?"

   "Yeah?"

   "Do you know where that blood came from?"

   The room went silent. If it hadn't been so dark in the room, perhaps Tiger would have noticed the startled and empty look in Weasel's eyes.

   "No. But let's hope I had just got injured. Goodnight Tiger."

   "Night."