Friday, October 23, 2009

A Whisper In The Night

It was very late at night, and I had just laid down in my bed to prepare for sleep. I had my blankets covering me all over like a shroud, except for the top half of my head. Even though I did this, the night was warm so I had a small fan blowing towards me. Everything was the way I liked it. I was soon drifting off to sleep.

It was easy to sleep in my house. It was a huge old house that had been in the family for years. The house was in a very quiet neighborhood, so there was almost never any noise from outside, not even with my open window. This night wasn't any different. The only real sound to be heard was the gentle blowing sound of the fan.

As I drifted off to sleep I began to hear an alien sound slip into my mind. It was a voice. The voice was only a whisper, but this whisper was as loud as if it was being spoken normally. It was a whisper that wanted me to hear it. It was slowly and rhythmically saying my name over and over. I didn't like it.

No, I didn't like this voice at all. It sounded purposely scary. It was coming from nobody I knew, or wanted to know. But it was still right there next to my ear whispering my name so loud that anyone could hear. How could it be? I was the only person in the house. Nevertheless, the voice still slowly called my name, drawing out each little sound of the letters to make them seem to go on forever.

I knew then that I must be dreaming. That had to be it! I now recognized that feeling of unconsciousness that only a frequent dreamer really knows. I didn't like this dream. The voice had the sound of evil to it. I didn't want to hear it anymore. I had to get away from this horrible voice that would not stop whispering my name in that slow eerie way.

From past dream experiences, I knew that I could eventually wake myself up. All I had to do was concentrate. As I slowly rose to the surface, back to the waking world, the voice finally began to fade. It didn't exactly get quieter. It just drifted into nothingness. By the time I was fully awake, all I heard was the calm whisper of the fan at my bedside.

I opened my eyes, sat up, and looked around the room to ease my fear and move my mind away from the nightmare that I had just suffered. I was relieved to see no ghostly apparition floating in the dark corners of my bedroom, and no sinister sounds drifting around the house. There was only me and the smooth quiet sound of the fan.

After easing my fears, I decided I could now go back to sleep. I laid my head back down and began to drift off. Just as sleep reached out to take me into its warm embrace, the voice slithered its way back into my head, slowly hissing my name over and over. How could I stay asleep if I was to be greeted by something as disturbing as this?

Consciousness flooded back into me! There was only one problem though. The evil voice was still there, and it was still reaching out to me with that sinister hissing whisper. I was too terrified to move or even open my eyes. What horrible sight would greet me if I dared try to look into the darkness of my room?

I laid there in my bed trying not to show any outer sign that I might be awake. My mind was racing because I knew now that this was no dream. I was fully awake! The voice was still going on and on, and I knew this had to somehow stop. I had to find the courage to open my eyes and look at my ghostly tormentor. I had to get free of this evil being!

I decided to move slowly at first to minimize the shock to my system when I saw it. I opened my eyes just a little bit, and was encouraged that it wasn't staring back into my eyes. I slowly lifted my head to look around the room as the voice still whispered out to me. I could now hear where the disgusting sound was coming from.

Right next to my bed this evil voice was coming from the very thing that had before given me comfort. The voice was coming from the fan! I questioned myself to make sure I was indeed awake, and I knew that I definitely was. I also knew in my heart that the fan was not the source of the voice.

Something from somewhere else, a bad place, was using the sound of my fan to communicate through. It had been the only sound in the room, so this evil being must have determined that it was its only resource. This evil creature was trying to reach out into this world through this seemingly mundane source. What could I do to fight against something like this?

The terror in my mind was growing with every second. And as I became more afraid, the voice seemed to get louder and louder. This evil thing must be somehow using my fear to become stronger! What would happen as it's strength grew? Would it be able to cross over to this world all the way? As if to acknowledge my worries, the voice seemed to become even more confident.

This had to stop now before it was too late! But what was I going to do? I reacted in the only way my sleepy mind could. To stop the plans of this evil voice, I lashed out with my fist and slammed it into the fan! The fan went flying across the room and tumbled to a stop. The fan was broken and not moving, and the voice was gone.

The room was now quiet. I listened again for the horrible voice, to make sure it was gone, but all I could hear was my own breathing. The air in the room seemed a little bit less oppressive than it had been before, and the night didn't seem quite so dark. I knew instinctively that this ordeal was now over, at least for tonight.

As I sat there on my bed, I wondered where this voice had come from and what evil thing it had wanted. I was also glad I had the strength of mind to resist it and ultimately send it away. I didn't know why it had come to me, and I didn't want it back. Even though it was all over, I didn't think I would be going back to sleep tonight.

I got up and turned on all of the lights in the house. I wondered what would be on TV this late at night. Maybe I could try to fix the fan when it became light outside. This was going to be a long night.

THE END?

14 comments:

  1. Wow Ratty, that's a fantastic story to start of Rat Tales. :-) It reminds me of Lovecraft's short stories. I look forward to reading the next one.

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  2. great story ratty! i am going to love this new site of yours. going to add it to my blog roll. have a great day my friend...hugz!

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  3. @John
    I'm already underway writing the next one. It will be darkly similar. I like that style. I hope to have it done by next week at the latest.
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    @Patty
    Thanks! I'm glad you like it. I won't be writing a new story every day, but I hope to have one as often as I can. These are a little more difficult than the nature stories, but I also hope they're a little better.

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  4. A nice little dark tale, my favorite kind. Being a fan of scifi and horror and knowing what might happen if you fix the fan my advice would be to toss it and get a new one.

    Pleasant dreams,
    SQ

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  5. Great story, Ratty!

    If I have this same thing happened to me, I would hide under the cover, and just turn on the light by my bed..

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  6. Ooh... edgy! You got me hanging in my seat. Had this been in book form, I would be curled in my warm bed with blanket over my head and flashlight to light the words.

    Forget about the fan, it's busted!

    New site. Cool!

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  7. What possessed you to right such a wonderfully chilling story? I was hanging on every word hoping for a good out come. Please tell me this is fiction. You should write books and give Stephen King a run for his money.Please don't give out my email address. Thanks.

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  8. @SquirrelQueen
    You'll see a lot of horror stories here because I really like writing things like that. SciFi is something I've never considered trying, but it might be fun. I do a little fantasy though. Hmm, fixing the fan might make a nice sequel. They always fix them in stories like this. ;)
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    @Icy BC
    Hiding under the covers is always the wisest thing to do. I have done it myself from time to time. There are things that like to yank covers off though...
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    @Tes
    Maybe the fan was sold and ended up in a resale shop. I wonder what happened to the next owner...
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    @Windie
    My inspiration for these stories comes from many different places. Usually it's just a very vivid imagination. I guess I'll just say that everything on Rat Tales is written as fiction. That's all I will say about it. And your email address is very safe with me.

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  9. You are one big tease... but you hear a lot of evil voices.

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  10. @Sharkbytes
    It was the voices that told me to write this. :)

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  11. Things that go bump in the night.....
    We all hear them, don't we?
    And we hope it is our imagination.
    But,maybe it isn't!

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  12. @The Retired One
    There's always a cause to those things that go bump in the night. It's those unexplained causes that can give us the most fear.

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