One Day of Fright

“How would the two of you like to hear a story about me when I was quite young?” I asked my two sons as we sat by the campfire.

“Will it be one of those boring ones?” my oldest son, Michael asked me.

“Will it be a tale with lots of scary stuff in it?” my other son, Nick said.

“The both of you will get your wish for it shall not be boring and it will be scary.”

I saw their eyes light up and looks of anticipation. It was like watching our dog before getting a treat. I had two sons that were now at the age where they wanted constant thrills. Anything to make their hearts pump faster and send chills up their spines. Tonight, with the pitch darkness surrounding us, is a good time to tell them what I experienced many years ago. One of those events I didn’t truly understand, but it welcomed me into the world of the mysterious. The unexplained and the bizarre that many nowadays would love to experience. It doesn’t matter where you live in this world because unconformity enters all of our lives. The question is how far does it go off the path of reason?

“Are you ready?” I ask them as I bring up the memories of dread in my life.

“I’m ready,” Michael said.

“Let’s see if you can scare us,” Nick said with a challenging look.

I glanced at both of them, thinking of the many times I reminisced about this occasion. It was not pleasant at the time by any means, but telling it as it fades into history is a pleasure. Not a sadist by a long shot, but to teach people there are unpleasant things out there. Watching and reading of the abnormal brings to question, is it our wild imagination playing tricks or did it truly happen?

“Time to tell,” I thought.

It was another year to my grandma’s over the summer to spend a couple of weeks. Living in a one hundred-year-old white house that was gigantic to me. Many twists and turns to the place, and the rumors of others in the house that were not in the world of the living. But tales of grandma’s house are for another time. On this trip, I could spend the night with my cousins. The first time, and it would be the last time.

The first part of the day was like many as we walked through the small town, playing pinball and the one arcade game, getting a slushy drink, and just being kids. Everyone was older than me, but my cousin, Mike, who was a couple of years younger.

The afternoon quickly went by and we went to the cousins for a barbecue. I watched my cousin’s father for a bit as he tended to the hamburgers and hot dogs as he chugged down can after can of beer. Probably my first view of an alcoholic.

Soon, we were eating, everyone chatting away but me. During those years I was very shy, much of it to do with my speech impediment.

As we finished the meal, my cousin’s neighbors that lived across the street, and a little ways down, stopped by with their three boys. It wasn’t long that they invited my cousins to camp out in their backyard. I was too young and had to stay with my cousins. Thank God I did.

I can’t recall what I did with my younger cousin as the sun set and darkness crept over the sky. Usually, I have to go to bed quite early, but with my cousins I’m allowed to stay up late. We watched a movie, and soon called it a night when the older kids rushed into the house. I never saw faces so white and full of fright.

“What the hell is going on?” my cousin’s father cried out, finding out later he was quite drunk.

They all blurted out at once until the dad told them to shut-up.

“Tell me?” he asked his oldest son, Greg.

Greg told all of us they had gone into the house to grab some snacks to take to the tent. Once they stepped outside, they came to a sudden stop. From the entrance into the tent, they could see two glowing eyes staring at them. They were high enough off the ground that it couldn’t be their cat or small dog. They figured it had to be a wild animal, but that changed when seconds later, the two eyes combined into one eye, which made the pupil look like a reptile. Then the bushes to the left and right of the yard rustled at a frantic pace. Everyone looked at each other then quickly back into the house. The parents sent my cousins back to their house, not sure if they were playing a game or something crazy was going on.

“Let’s all call it a night,” the father said.

I went downstairs to sleep in one of the bunk beds with my older cousins. I closed my eyes, figuring another day was done. Next moment, I don’t know how long I slept, but woke up to my young cousin screaming upstairs. I couldn’t make out what he was saying, but at one moment he was banging on the front door, and seconds later, at the back door. I don’t know if my hearing was playing tricks, but there was no way someone could move that fast. I got out of bed while my other cousins were crying out that they couldn’t move. I went over to the stairs and looked up to a sight I will never forget. Mike was facing me and screaming that everyone looked like demons. His eyes were closed, but his face contorted in a way that I just stood there paralyzed. I was living in a real life horror movie. I prayed he didn’t come down the stairs and rip me to shreds. Instead, he turned around, opened the door, and outside he went. The others eventually came out, the paralysis ending for my cousins, and Mike coaxed into the house when he came to in the middle of the field.

“I think it’s best if you go back to your parents,” the father told me.

They were called, but before they arrived, the mother started going nuts, like she was possessed, and after knocking her husband aside ran outside and into the cornfields.

“There is no way you kids or I are going out to those fields,” the father said with a stern look. “With what has gone on, who knows what else is out there.”

Soon, I was picked up and back to grandma’s house to sleep in the same room as my parent’s.

“You need to be there to understand the terror that took place,” I told my kids.

“What could have been out there?” Michael asked.

“I don’t know, but it wasn’t good to produce vibes like it did. Pure evil.”

My two sons just looked at me.

“I guess we should call it a night,” I said, standing up.

I headed to the tent trailer, noticing the kids following me.

“I thought you were sleeping in the tent?” I asked them.

“If you don’t mind us sleeping in the trailer,” said Michael with Nick nodding his head.

“Sure.”

I chuckled to myself and wondered if I did a good thing or not. Time will tell.