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By William Pauley III
Shadows dance playfully across my bedroom ceiling, light flickering like a
dying flame, before violently succumbing to the governing darkness. There
isn't enough passing traffic outside to entertain me for too long. My eyes,
always teasing, get heavy but never close. My eyes, obsessed with this
ominous darkness, seem to have taken a life all their own.
It will be morning soon.
Quietly, I listen to the humming of the outside world, a lullaby of sorts, as
the rumbling engine vibrations rock me to sleep. But my fires are forever
burning.
For a moment, my eyes nearly lose control, but regain its grasp when a
terrifying shriek causes me to leap to my feet! Frantically, I run to the
window and throw open the heavy drapes. Through the window, I see
nothing but darkened homes. No one else seems to have heard the terrible
scream.
Writing it off to imagination, now running wild from lack of sleep, I close the
curtains and return to bed. The war between my eyes and my mind still
grueling.
* * *
On the second night, nearly asleep, I am disturbed by the same shrieking
as the night before! Again, I leap to my feet and throw back the curtains.
This time there is a light on in the window of a neighboring home. A
silhouette of a woman can be seen through the blinds. I watch her as she
walks from room to room, slowly, calmly. A few minutes pass, the light goes
out.
I look around at the rest of the neighborhood from my bedroom window.
With apparently nothing to fret, I return to my bed, now cold from my
absence; the sun beginning to peak over the horizon.
* * *
It is now the third night in a row that this glass-shattering scream has kept
me from slumber! And this time, the screaming doesn't stop! I cover my
ears, but the screaming gets louder! I look out the window: NOTHING! Not
a soul awake! This screaming must be stopped tonight! I cannot sleep! I
feel maddened with rage!
I walk furiously out of my front door and out onto the street, the screams
so deafening I fall to my knees in submission! Again, I cover my ears and
pull myself to my feet. The screams pulse wildly throughout my brain! I
follow the shriek to its source: the house from which the silhouette paced
the night before. I kick the door in. The screaming so loud now that my
limbs tremble with fright!
The woman is in her bedroom.
Asleep.
But somehow, she screams.
Her mouth: shut.
But somehow, she screams!
I place my hands over her mouth and nose. Her eyes open with sudden
terror.
She is screaming.
She is screaming.
She is screaming.
Then, suddenly, there is silence.
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