Pitch Black

What was that?

I thought, as I was startled out of a deep sleep. The room was pitch black. I couldn’t see a thing. For a few seconds, I wasn’t sure where I was. Then my eyes adjusted to the dark. I was in my living room on the couch. I must’ve fallen asleep watching tv.

But why was it dark? Pitch black to be exact. That was weird. Right? If I fell asleep watching tv, why wasn’t it still on? What about the lights? I never turn all the lights off. I could see into the kitchen from where I was. The illuminated time on the microwave wasn’t illuminated.

I sat on the couch for a while. Scaring myself more and more as the seconds ticked by. What was happening right now? Then I remembered that I was startled out of my sleep. By what though? A sound? A feeling? I wasn’t sure what happened except that I was alone in my pitch-black living room. Add to that the fact that I had managed to scare myself! So much so that I couldn’t move, it was almost as if I were paralyzed.

My mind began to race. Was it a power outage? The living room window was behind me, and I wasn’t even going to turn around and look out there. I squinted to look out of the kitchen window from where I was. I could see my neighbor’s kitchen light, shining into our shared courtyard. So that ruled out an area wide power outage.

Maybe my circuit breaker had tripped. That was a possibility. Circuit breakers trip all the time. Right? Although, I had bought this house about 3 years ago and it had never tripped before. But it was still a possibility. Right?

I’m sitting on the couch still horrified, but I remembered something. My kids. Where were they? Thinking back to earlier in the day I picked them up from school and daycare. We came home and had dinner. We ate hamburger helper, salad, chocolate chip cookies, and milk. Afterwards, we came into the living room to watch a show for half an hour before bedtime[NW1] .

After that, my memory is hazy. All I can remember was waking up on the couch in pitch black. Not only was it pitch black, but it was also eerily quiet. Like unnaturally quiet, especially in a house where 4 kids under 12 lived. And the dogs? Where were they? Where was my family? Panic began to set in. It snuggled up with fear and birthed hysteria.

My mind began to race. My thoughts were racing a mile per minute. Fear, panic, and hysteria were pressing down on me. In that moment I realized that I hadn’t moved or made a sound since I was startled out of my sleep. Instantly I felt the tears begin to well up in the corners of my eyes. Immediately there was a waterfall of tears falling down my face. It only took seconds to be in a full-on crying episode. The silence was finally broken by my sobs. The sound caused chills to rush down my spine. And slowly, hysteria began to grow into a full adult.

I bolted from the couch to run. I don’t know where I was going, I was moving on pure fight or flight instincts at this point. Unfortunately, I didn’t get far. I tripped, fell then realized that my ankles were tied together. On the floor I turned over to tear the restraints off. In that moment panic dominated all other thoughts and emotions. Through the panic I noticed not only were my ankles restrained but there was a chain attached to the restraint and the couch. I had only made it a foot away from the couch when I fell.

What the hell was happening? I was searching around the room in the dark, trying to fathom who had done this, why did they do this to me, and where are my kids? There I was sobbing again, loudly. Fear was back in full swing forcing my mind to race. Who would do this? How did this happen? Why was this happening? Hello hysteria, welcome back to the party.

Just then I heard something. It wasn’t loud. It was a soft sound. Like shoes on carpet. I spun around to see who or what was behind me. But all I could see was darkness. I blinked my eyes over and over in the hopes that they would focus and reveal what was lurking in the shadows. The depths of the darkness stretched to the corners of the room so I couldn’t see anything. Literally, nothing. How is this possible? The furniture, the paintings on the walls, the TV. How could it ever possibly be this dark?

A thought jumped into my head; I was dreaming! I had to be. Right? None of this could be real. I need to wake up then. How do we do that? In the movies people pinch themselves to wake up. So, I closed my eyes and pinched the hell out of my arm. Too bad when I opened them, I was still in the same room, position, and predicament.

Then I heard the sound again. And this time it was closer to the couch. Which I somehow found my way back to sitting on. I swung my head around and looked into my husband’s beautiful brown eyes. He was smiling. Full teeth showing and eyes bright and sparkling. He stepped closer to the couch, leaned down into my face and kissed me.

I did not kiss him back. I was shocked. Stunned. Confused. Why was he here? How was he here? This wasn’t possible. It was the most impossible thing that could ever happen. Ever. Instantly my fear, panic and hysteria changed to confusion, sadness and grief. I opened my mouth to ask how, and he spoke first.

“My love, how I have missed you. It’s so good to see you. Have you missed me?” he whispered lovingly.

“I have. Of course, I have. But how are you here? How is this possible?” I wept.

“My love, I tried to stay away. I tried to let you and the children move on without me. But I can’t. I need you all to come with me. Be with me. Forever.”

“How? How can we do that? That’s not possible. Please no. If you ever loved us, you wouldn’t do this. Where are they? Where are the kids? Please tell me now!” I yelled. I was full on hysterical at this point. What had he done with my children.

“My love they are fine. We were waiting for you to wake up. They are ready to go. All you must do is agree to come along and we can go.”

“No, I don’t want to go with you. The kids can’t go with you. We are not going with you.”

“My love, you’re not thinking straight. We belong together. We made a promise to be together forever.”

“Yes, we did.” I yelled “Till death do us part. And you’re dead! You’re dead!”

“My love, you belong with me. Were a family. Were I go you and the children go as well.”

“No. No. No. Where are the kids? Where are they?”

“They’re waiting for us. They’re safe. We just need you to come along with us.”

Hysteria, rage, fear, panic, and a whole slew of emotions were searing through my body. How was this possible? He’s dead. I saw his body. I laid him to rest. I had to figure out how to get out of this.

“My love are you ready?” he asked. He was calm and loving again.

“Yes, my love, I am. Where are the children so we can go together?”

“Follow me.” He said and leaned down to remove the restraint from my legs.

In that moment I didn’t know what I was going to do to get my children and get away from him. But I knew that I had to cooperate to get him to bring them to me.

Once the restraints were removed, He reached out for my hand, and we began to walk toward the front door. The house was still pitch black and we walked through the darkness with no problem. I looked up at him and fell into a trance. This was the love of my life. I planned to grow old with him. To welcome grandchildren with him. But he was taken away from me. Removed from my world until we meet again on the other side. How was he here? How was I holding his hand? How?

“Because our love is so strong. Your heart has been calling to me for the last 3 years. I am here now. We will be together. Forever.”

How did he know what I was thinking. I was immediately afraid. I had heard the old folks say that spirits will come back for the ones that they loved the most. But 3 years later? How? Why now? I was finally getting to a place where I had accepted his death. I thought I was ready to move on. But now with him right here, I wasn’t sure. I was so confused.

I squeezed his hand tighter and considered going with him. Being with him forever. It was the sweetest idea to me at that moment. He and, raising our children. Growing old. Graduations. Weddings. Welcoming grandchildren. It would be just like we had always planned.

I was ready to walk through any door to get to this reality. And with that thought I snapped back to reality. He was dead. For this new reality, I would need to be dead. My children would need to be dead. That is not possible. No way could I allow that to happen. No way.

I snatched my hand away from him ad yelled “you’re dead!” and ran away from him. As I was running, I realized that the pitch black was still a fact. I was running and screaming “you’re dead” repeatedly. I just kept running and screaming.

And then I woke up. On the couch. In my living room. The lights were on. The TV was on. My children were laying on the couch with me. Sleeping soundly. The sun was peaking out over the horizon. I missed my husband.

 [NW1]Change this sentence structure