Chapter 10
They didn’t believe in shadow creatures. How could Tina explain so they would understand? They were adults. Adults didn’t see these things.
But other eleven-year-olds didn’t see them either. So maybe she was crazy. Maybe Jeff really did know what he was doing.
Monsters aren’t real, she tried telling herself. But a shiver ran down her spine in defiance.
This reminded her of her fears and nightmares after her mother died. Back then, she had feared Dad dying as well. How would she survive emotionally? Where would she live? How would she get by? Grandma was mean, always criticizing her and correcting her. Dad told her that Grandma used to beat him with sticks when he was little, which was the reason he never left her alone with Grandma. Tina didn’t have any other relatives besides her drug-addict aunt.
She faced her fear of her father dying by talking with him about it. She had seen programs on television of the dangers of obesity. And he had gained twenty pounds in the first two months after her mother died, and another twenty the next two months, frightening her. He explained that despite his outer “comfort layer” of fat, his heart was fine. Confronting her fear helped dispel it.
So maybe now she should do the same.
“Okay,” she said tensely, “I’ll try five minutes.”
“Great,” Dad replied, a smile raising his rosy cheeks.
She took a deep breath. “It’s only five minutes. Like Jeff said, I’ll be in the dark all night tonight.”
“That’s my brave girl.” He looked at her with proud, adoring eyes. This cheered her up immensely. He didn’t know his affect on her. If he did, he would look at her that way every single day, all day long, and she would never get tired of it. She wanted to make him proud more than anything. She would stay in the dark for the whole five minutes this time, maybe longer.
Jeff raised his hand to the light switch. “On your signal, I’ll start.”
She hesitated, cursing her weakness in her head.
“Ready?”
“It’ll be okay, sweetheart,” Dad assured.
She nodded, smiling half-heartedly. “Go ahead.”
Pitch dark …
It wasn’t that bad at first. Her confidence rose. After all, she had done it three times now and knew Dad and Jeff weren’t going anywhere.
But she could hear her breaths become harder in the silence … deeper, faster … then she noticed she couldn’t hear Dad and Jeff breathing, which made her heart slam against her chest, and she almost bolted out of her seat again. This would upset Dad. She remembered his proud face and how much she didn’t want to let him down. These thoughts fastened her down.
It came as a scraping in the corner of the room.
She remembered the play-table there, with stuffed animals around it.
The clawing and scraping moved along the wall above the play-table. She could easily picture one of those stuffed animals coming to life.
Her grip tightened on the chair’s arm rests. She wouldn’t let her fear control her. She would make her father proud. She would conquer this craziness by seeing whatever imaginary demon emerged, dispelling it through allowing it to come. Once it reached her, she would find it powerless because it was just in her mind. Then she wouldn’t be afraid anymore.
Scrape … claw … thud … sounded closer and oddly higher, as though it were climbing the wall to the ceiling.
Even if the creature were real, she could scream when it attacked, and Jeff would turn on the lights, so they would finally believe her and make her feel sane, and they would all fight this thing together. They would jump on it, punch it, and maybe kill it or call the police or FBI to cage it forever for research to make sure no other shadows hurt other girls.
Scrape … claw … now along the ceiling! How could it stick to the ceiling? Did it have suction cups or penetrating claws on its feet?
Barely aware of her actions, she rose off the chair, knees shaking. Using the armrests, she pulled herself back down. It was harder this time, but she succeeded.
Scraaaaape … claaaaw ... thuuuudd …
Didn’t they hear that? Were they even in the room anymore? Why weren’t they commenting on the sounds?
She sat rigid as a board, feeling terribly alone.
Scraaaaaaaaaape ... claaaaaaaaw … thuuuuuuuuud …
Her skinned crawled, and she wanted to dash out of the office back into daylight, but she held her ground. Dad would call this courage, but she knew better. She was afraid of moving, lest the creature hear her location and jump on her.
But maybe it already knew.
Maybe it could see in the dark. She stood up and took a few quiet steps toward the light switch, where Jeff hopefully still stood. She would grab onto him and flip the switch as quickly as she could.
Scraaaaaaaaaaaaaape … whooooshh!
Something with bristly hairs fell on her, crushing her into the ground.
She felt paralyzed by shock and couldn’t even fight back. She couldn’t breathe.
Its hot claws punctured her right wrist as it dragged her to the corner.