Bedtime

Chapter 3
Shadows of the Night

Chapter Description: Andrew is interrupted during his late night gaming.

Andrew opened his laptop. Jessica was going crazy. That spell she recited before going to bed was complete bogus. If she was trying to scare him, then she was failing miserably. He didn’t have a job yet, sure, but he knew this other place he checked out would hire him and he just needed to give it time... he’d just kill that time in the mean time. Jess would see. He’d be more successful than her one day... and then she’d want to move in with him, out of her dingy apartment. Jessica couldn’t understand. In the meantime, there was just the game to keep him company. It was a headache thinking about all this during his extended happy hour.

Several hours later Andrew was still gaming. Shadows kept shifting out of the corner of his eye, but he was drunk and it was way past bedtime, so he dismissed them with ease. He was in the middle of a guild quest. All day long the other players had been asking him if he were alright, particularly since he’d been drunk all day and his playing had become very poor. Andrew just laughed it off every time.

As time went by, he found himself in the mood for another drink, so he excused himself from the other gamers, which earned him concerned comments about him watching his drinking, to which he assured them all he was fine. He thought he’d recalled seeing some wine in the pantry. He’d pay his girlfriend back for putting her out eventually, he always figured.

As he got off the couch, he felt cold, which was odd, because it was the middle of summer and he was drunk. Andrew stumbled his way into the kitchen and flicked on the light. He shivered as he pillaged the pantry for wine, a feat which took much longer at this time than when he was sober. Bingo. Having found the wine, he twisted the cap and took a swig. Good stuff. Before returning to the couch, Andrew decided he better eat something. He opened the refrigerator and pulled out a sealed dish that said, “lunch”. Andrew chuckled to himself, ’this is a really late lunch,’ he knew Jessica would be pissed that he ate her lunch, but he’d find a way to smooth things over with her. He always did.

Andrew grabbed the bottle of wine and container with the sandwich and sliced apple. He’d need more food than that, but it would do for now. As he made his way back to the couch, the power went out. “GODDAMMIT!” he bellowed. His laptop battery was pretty bad to say the least, so he probably had ten minutes before his battery died.

He hurried to the couch. On his way over, he felt a hand on his shoulder. Crap, he woke up Jess. She was probably too agitated to physically say anything. He didn’t hear her door open, so he wondered how she sneaked past him. At any rate, Andrew knew he crossed the line with that, so he turned around to apologize. There was no one there.

This had to be part of the “black box” hoax she was trying to pull. Andrew threw his head back and laughed. “Jessy, th-this isn’t working. You k-an come out now.” Silence was his response. Putting down the wine and food, he went to go turn on the light to let her know the jig was up. The light wouldn’t turn on. ’Damn, that’s right, the power’s out,’ he thought to himself. He had no idea where the breaker box was. “Jessy, w-w-we can talk about this. P-p-please turn the power back on.” Whatever happened, he had to get back to his game so he could at least log out, which he considered was probably a good idea to do then and there. Giving up on finding his elusive host, he decided to say good night to his online friends.

To his dismay, his laptop was already dead. Jessica had officially crossed his line. “JESSICA, TURN THE POWER BACK ON, YOU IDIOT!” The game would log him out automatically after an hour of inactivity, but during that hour he could literally lose everything. He didn’t get a response.

As Andrew blindly fumbled around, looking for a service panel, he kept hearing whispers. He told himself it was late and he was just paranoid, but the whispering continued. “Jess, you’ve made your point, you can come out now!” he snapped impatiently, starting to feel sober again. The whispering stopped.

Andrew gave up. Hopefully the power would be back up tomorrow, but if not he’d just go bum a local library. He slowly made his way back to the couch.

Something grabbed his ankle. He sighed. Jessica had been completely unresponsive all night. He thought she had work in the morning. The hold was light, but still there. Andrew looked down, ready to confront his girlfriend. There was no one there. He still felt the grip on his ankle.

He sighed again. If this was payback it was really elaborate. He supposed he had it coming. He had been freeloading for about a month. He bent down to touch whatever was gripping his ankle and felt a hand. When he shined his cell phone light on it he didn’t see anything.

The grip relinquished its hold on his ankle. Andrew figured Jessica was really screwing with him now, but this time he wasn’t so sure. He went to her door and knocked on it, “You in there, Jess?” he called.

He waited a few moments, “... yes, now go to sleep.” He heard a groggy voice reply. He felt a shiver down his spine. There was something, or someone, out there with him.

He dashed for the couch. ’didn’t the incantation say something about getting under the covers?’ he found himself wondering. He lay down on the couch, he could see unnatural shadows seeming to phase in and out in front of him, but they were apparently repelled by the flame of the candles.

’I’m alright if I stay on the couch,’ Andrew reassured himself. He felt his stomach rumble upon reaching this conclusion. He also had to go pee. The guy shivered. He’d try to ignore it till morning. Ten minutes passed. He gave in. All that alcohol needed a place to go. Surely the candles would give him some protection.

Andrew reached out for a candle. The air was freezing. He was about to chicken out, but submitted at the very least he had to relieve himself so he didn’t make a mess on the furniture. He took the candle.

He wondered why Jessica would even bring these things into the apartment. He didn’t know what they’d do to him, but wasn’t too eager to find out. Worst of all was that he couldn’t escape to his happy place in spite of them. He slowly made his way to the kitchen counter where he left the food and drink. ’Jess owes me for this,’ he told himself as he took a swig of wine. As he lowered the bottle he saw a pale face beside his own reflected in the window. He felt its cold breath on his neck.

Frightened, Andrew dropped everything: the food, the wine, and the candle. The wine spilled everywhere, but thankfully the candle was blown out during its fall. Andrews eyes widened. He lost his protection.

Hands gripped him all over. He was stuck and couldn’t move. Shadows materialized around him. Completely losing control of his bladder, Andrew felt his pants grow warm as the shadows turned pale and ghostly. They were dragging him toward the couch.

He still couldn’t move. Andrew didn’t know if it was their grip on him that prevented his escape, or if he was just paralyzed with fear, or even if the alcohol was impairing his strength, but all he could do was wait for their hold on him to weaken. He realized the spectral figures were guiding him towards the black box. Any opportunity and he would use all his strength to escape their grasp.

As he was nearing the box, they passed the remaining lit candle. Their presence weakened. It wasn’t enough to dispel them completely, but it was just enough to allow him to force himself onto the couch.

He felt the hands pulling him, trying to guide him away from the couch and towards the box, but the candle weakened them just enough so that he could resist. They kept pulling and tugging at him. Andrew kept resisting until the light of the candle finally burnt out.

Instinctively and out of options, Andrew threw the blanket over his whole body. The cold went away. The tugging went away. Andrew couldn’t feel the dread anymore, but knew whatever was out there had the upper hand if he poked his head out. He felt his wet pants. Humiliated, he began to whimper. ’I’m such a baby,’ he thought as he cried himself to sleep.