Note From Lapland

Something Evil Lurks In The Dark

She pushed the over sized duvet off and scrambled out of bed, dropping to the floor with a light thud. It was pitch black, the black out blind doing its work, and she stood next to her bed staring into the darkness, her heart thumping. It was only the dark, she was only in her bedroom and yet, and yet, this walk to the door each morning, navigating the scattered debris, always made her jumpy.

She tentitively put a foot forward, her toe nudging something soft. She gasped and recoiled in horror clutching at the side of the bed staring unseeing into the black at the point near her foot.

Slowly she knealt down and reached out with her hand, a scream in her throat just waiting to come out. Just a teddy. She sighed with relief and picked ted up, holding him close to ward off whatever was out there, because she knew something was. Logic told her she was being silly, that there was nothing out there but more toys and books, scattered by her and her brother the previous day, but every inch of her body was telling her otherwise. Her skin could feel it, it tingled with hightened sensitivity reaching out through the air and picking up bad vibes.

Something was there.

She shut her eyes for a second and squeezed ted tighter. Something was out there and it was going to get her. Her mind hadn’t gone further down that route, she hadn’t rumintaed over what ‘get’ might entail but she was sure it was bad. She swallowed and looked out into the dark.

She’d be safe once she got to the door.

She reached out her foot again gingerly, patting the ground with her pointed toe before placing her foot on the ground and shifted her weight forward. One foot step. She reached her other foot farward and hit something hard, her heart leapt into the throat as she snatched her foot back, her mind whirling. Hard. Hard like lego. Or a plastic dinosaur. Monsters weren’t hard like that.  She reached her foot forward again, tentitvely, and knocked whatever it was out of the way. It rattled and clunked. Only lego.

She took a breath and tried to work out how close to the door she was now. Still a long way. She bit her lip and moved another foot forward, it found an empty space, two more footsteps and the door was close now. She could do this. She was so near.  She was sure she could make out the shape of the door ahead.

Soft! Something soft and squidgy! She bit back a whimper and tried to resist the urge to run back to her bed and hide under the covers. She stood on one leg swaying staring at the spot on the floor where she’d just put her foot, breathing heavily. Nothing happened. No sticky tentacles reached out and wrapped themselves around her leg. No giant claws flashed in the dark. Slowly, shakily, she stretched her leg out further, reaching over the squidgy thing and set it down on the hard floor. Her heart was thumping, her hands shaking. she just had to lift her other leg over it and she’d be okay, it couldn’t get her then.

She lifted her back leg up high and pulled it towards her. She wobbled, losing her balance.  She’d picked her leg up too high. Noooo! But she couldn’t stop herself, she fell hard on the floor, her hand landing on something that went squeak, her foot sliding back into the soft squidgy thing. Panic engulfed her, they were coming, they would get her now. She jumped up into a racing start position and flung herself up off the floor, legs slipping, creatures in the dark trying to claw at her, coming for her, she could hear them now, hear them over the drumming of her heart in her ears. The door! I have to get to the door! she pushed forward slipping but keeping her balance. She couldn’t let them get her. She slipped again, something jagged poking into her knee. Teeth! They were going to eat her! A scream welled up in throat as she smacked hard into the door and fumbled for the handle.  Behind me! They are behind me!

She found the handle and yanked the door open rushing into safety, they couldn’t get her once she left the room. She shut the door behind her, locking them in their dark prison and turned, staring straight into a giant pair of yellow eyes marbled in orange, black slits down the center, staring back, malevolent and unblinking.

The scream, high pitched and blood curdling, ripped through the quiet house, the fear and panic thick in the morning air, tearing through the dreams of her parents as though it had claws.

I leaped off the bed, flying through the air before I was even awake, an instinctive parenting reaction requiring no thought just primeval action. I landed hard and tore through the room, my mind racing.

‘Oh pussy’ came her little voice, all memory of the scream stripped from it. ‘Hello, pussy cat.’

In hindsight perhaps I should have told her we were getting a new cat and it would be arriving when she was in bed and saved myself from these new grey hairs.