Go for it @jca! Ju dragged me here!
And now…about a month ago Rick and I rented a cabin for 3 days, over the weekend, right on the Arkansas border. The cabin had a feeling of remoteness about it because it was set in the woods. I loved it!
That first night I was SO tired from the long drive and all the packing and planning that I couldn’t wait to go to bed. Crawled in bed alone at about 10:30 with a feeling of sweet relief. The bed was positioned under a window, which I opened to catch the breeze.
I assumed I’d just go straight to sleep, and I did. Except as I was drifting off a sudden feeling of sheer terror and horror would come over me, like a shadow moved between my eyes and my eyelids, and I’d be snatched out of my sleep. It caused me to jerk awake, as if someone, or something, had physically pulled me away. This went on and on, at least 5 more times, until I was just left lying there, exhausted but wide eyed, staring into the dark, which was almost impenetrable.
I got up and checked the time, thinking maybe I’d actually gone to sleep but didn’t realize it. It was only 12:30, so I knew that I hadn’t.
I went out on the front patio to smoke and ponder this nameless terror that kept jerking me awake. I was looking out toward the woods. It was so dark you could only see the silhouette of the trees, and see the gentle motion as the wind sighed through the branches and leaves.
I couldn’t see any of the other cabins. Couldn’t hear a sound. It was as though I was the only person on the earth, all alone…........Suddenly I remembered something and my blood just froze. I jumped up, ran into the cabin and crawled back to bed next to the reassuring warmth of my husband. I was trembling.
It was as though the fact that I had put a name on the horror caused it to leave me alone, and I was able to sleep then. (Until 5:30 a.m. when I woke up, got up to go to the bathroom and promptly ran my face into the door jam. SHIT THAT HURT!!! But that’s a different story…)
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I was the oldest of 3 kids, all girls. I was always expected to take care of them, for as long as I can remember. When I was 5 my mom would turn me and my younger sister, who was only 2 at the time, loose outside and I was expected to take care of her.
When I was 16 I had a nightmare. I dreamed my mom, my 2 sisters, ages 12 and 11 then, and I were all alone in this cabin. My Dad was not in the picture. The cabin was in the middle of nowhere, in some woods. It was night time and very, very dark.
I was standing in the doorway of the bedroom, where my mom and the girls were sleeping in one bed. The bed was under a“window.
After a moment I heard a scritching sound. Scritching and scritching on the window screen. Suddenly this huge, hairy, clawed hand ripped through the screen, grabbing for my mom and sisters.
Suddenly I found myself in another part of the cabin when I heard my youngest sister scream. I don’t know how I knew exactly who it was, but I did. And that scream….it sends chills down my back to this day. I have never heard a scream of such sheer horror and terror in real life, not even in the movies, and I hope I never do hear one. I will not forget that scream.
I jerked awake, trembling and sick, frightened and panicked. I actually went and crawled in be with my parents. I was almost a grown woman and I crawled in be with my mommy and daddy!
I never, ever forgot that dream and will never forget the scream.
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Sitting on the patio at the cabin the other night, I suddenly realized that the cabin, the bedroom, the position of the bed under the window, the woods, everything was an exact replica of the cabin in my dreams. I almost threw up at that point.
But once I realized it, the terror left me, and it didn’t come again. At least….not then…
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Good night @jca! Sweet dreams!
