This is the fourth part in a series, so if you have not already done so, you might want to read Part I, Part II, and Part III before continuing.
Stacie and her aunt had only managed to make a dent in the fortress of boxes in the living room before they gave up and practically collapsed into bed. Stacie didn’t want to think about how long it would take them to finish the living room, much less the rest of the house.
Instead, she focused on staying vertical long enough to get into her pajamas and brush her teeth before flopping onto her mother’s old bed. She was tired enough to contemplate sleeping on top of the covers, but it was February in Iowa, and Stacie knew better than to take that lightly, so she crawled under the covers and fell asleep almost immediately.
Stacie was awoken in the middle of the night by the sense that someone was standing over her. “Aunt Sabrina?” she said, thinking her aunt might have come in if she needed her for something. But as she turned onto her back, she saw a figure she didn’t recognize standing at the foot of her bed. It was blueish-white, had long black hair, and appeared to be dressed in a robe. It was reaching one hand out to her when Stacie screamed and scrambled to the head of her bed.
“Stacie!” her aunt called, but Stacie was paralyzed as she stared at the figure at the foot of her bed, which grinned as it stared back at her.
“Stacie!” her aunt came running into the bedroom and turned on the light, at which point the figure disappeared. “What is it?”
Stacie blinked at the foot of her bed.
“Stacie! What happened? Are you hurt?”
“What? No. No, I just – I thought I saw something, but it turns out it was just a trick of the light. I’m sorry, Aunt Sabrina, I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“Jesus Christ.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
Aunt Sabrina looked at the clock on Sabrina’s nightstand, which read 3:31 AM. “Well, I’m certainly not going to back to bed after that.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I know. I forget that you city folk aren’t used to the dark.”
Stacie started to bristle at that, but then she realized her aunt was right. Without any streetlights, it was much darker here than it ever got in her apartment in Chicago. It used to creep her out as a kid. Maybe she had let her mind play tricks on her as some of those old fears started to come back. So, rather than taking offence, Stacie got the coffee started while Sabrina made pancakes.
To be continued…