strange bedfellows

the true story of a very creepy encounter

in an old country house a mile from the nearest road i lay in fitfull slumber on a bed piled high with blankets. some of them heirlooms older than myself, passed down by previous generations. they smelled like time and age personified. the north carolina summer had been in the triple digits for weeks, the hottest july on record, and the tiny pitch black room was eerie and stifling. i was soaked with perspiration and laboring to breathe the acrid, humid air. not a breeze was stirring, not a single sound could i discern through the darkness. the dank atmosphere hung so thick and still one could have sliced it with a knife.
lying alone, wearing only boxers, i felt a strange uneasiness...as if i weren't alone at all. i was a guest in the house and it was the first night of a two month visit with my first cousin. i have always loved a good ghost story and i had listened in earnest as he entertained me with tales about the property. if the stories were true, there was no doubt this place had history. it was rumored the dwelling was built above a small cemetery and that the bodies had never been moved. then there was the story of the widow and her young child who had mysteriously died after driving up to the property in their car. the sound of a car pulling up to the house followed by two doors closing was frequently heard by occupants of the house.
my cousin informed me, with obvious and wicked relish, that the room in which i would sleep was where he once witnessed an apparition filling the doorway with a shapeless black mass which began at the floor and expanded to the size of a human form and moved toward him, only to quickly evaporate into nothing as if a cloud of steam had come up through the floor. he was frozen in his stride from abject terror and "damn near s**t" himself. after this story we finished our beers and said goodnight. i retired to the "ghost room" to lie down for the night.
the doorway to this room was, in fact, the very doorway mentioned in the last story. i had not felt uneasy initially when settling into the room. i carried out my usual ritual of readying myself for a night's sleep. without the benefit of the modern amenities of comfort, i.e...air conditioning, the heat was oppressive at the very least. one in the morning and still in the mid-nineties.
i decided that if i lay still, flat on my back, sans covers i would eventually fall asleep from heat and sheer exhaustion. i had closed the door for privacy and the room was black as pitch after i switched off the lamp next to the bed.it had been a very tough week for me, my life had been turned upside down by heartbreak and betrayal and my mind was racing as i lay back on the bed. surely, nothing could be worse than what i had just been through! my thoughts flew to my lost love and i began to silently weep, eventually crying myself to sleep.
i awoke to the sensation of someone slipping gently into bed beside me and the comforting feeling of a lover's embrace, strangely content and blissfully happy that i felt no heat from the body beside mine, i assumed that i was dreaming and that my love was sleeping beside me as she had done so many times in the past.there was no fear, i was safe in my baby's arms once again. then i realized suddenly that the room had grown cold and that the breath i felt on my face was freezing to the touch. immediately i was wide awake, my eyes open wide as i stared in horror at what i saw.
not two inches from my face was another pair of eyes looking directly into mine, moving rapidly from side to side as if searching for a reaction in my eyes. except for the whites of the eyes, which were transparent, they were as black as coal and seemed to have no substance. i lunged upright to a sitting position, looking for the lampswitch with my left hand and extending my right to repel the body next to me. although the room was dark, i could just make out a face and the outline of a body. it too, lurched forward, sitting up beside me and grinning from ear to ear. that toothy, unnatural grin was very unsettling, like a cartoon  halloween mask. was it human? yes, perhaps, but nothing like i had ever seen before.i heard myself yell at the top of my lungs "Oooohh, s**t! what the fuuuck?!!!!"
my visitor leapt from the bed, upward and backward, grinning that frightful grin all the way across the room and stopping at the door to leer at me. frantically groping, i finally found the lampswitch and the room filled with light. the leering figure, now apparently no larger than a child, instantly vanished into the fading shadows of the doorway, not to be seen again. needless to say i slept no more that night and never slept in that room again. my cousin got to add another story to his repertoire and i have since moved back home to virginia.
who or what climbed into bed with me that night i will never know. was it the child who, with his widowed mother, had died mysteriously...returned to seek the comfort and attention of a living soul?did i allow my fear to make me over-react?
or was it something much more sinister? i know it wasn't a dream because i never went back to that room, or for that matter, back to sleep that morning. whatever it was, it is an experience i shall never forget!

Reviews

[TL Boehm]

YIKES! Loved the atmosphere in this - the stifling room, the darkness and the absolute chill of the apparition. Splendidly bonefreezingly frightening write. I think I'd have pooped myself out right if I witnessed this first hand. Great descriptions. I can smell the "old" in the room

[quinfinn]

thank you so much for reading and your kind comments, Tammy

[Chidoriflower]

Oh, wow! I've always liked ghost stories. I always have a terrible feeling that something's breathing on my face when I sleep. That scared the goofy out of me. Awesome job, quin!

[quinfinn]

thank you so much "flower"

[Annabelle Lee]

spooky........ hmph.

[quinfinn]

pretty freeky, huh?

[Horizon K.]

Wow crazy story!!! I think you will forever wonder what that was! The creepy smile was the worst part!

[quinfinn]

true story, thank you for reading

[.]

succubus?

[quinfinn]

not sure, scary as hell!

[Larry Dyson]

love the telling of ghost stories..we who know the ether fear them not..for fear is the killer ..not apparitions..well told.. make mine a favorite..