Close Your Eyes: A Horror Story Collection

by Alec John Johnson

  Chapter 12

  I was so comfortable lying in my new bed. Everything felt right in the world. I was home. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. I had overstayed my welcome this time and I knew it. The chance of being caught by Hazel increased every second that I stayed here. Jacob had most likely left for work by now as it was nearly eight o'clock in the morning but I knew Hazel was still here. In the days that I had taken off here and there I had always noticed Hazel was there during the day time, always. The question now is how am I going to get out of this house undetected? How will I slip past Hazel with her being none the wiser?

  A terrifying thought just popped into my head. I took off my shoes last night. I took them off as I entered through the back porch door. They were sitting there neatly against the wall next to the back porch door next to an end table. Had she seen them? Had she already called the cops? Were they waiting for me downstairs? I could imagine Hazel at the bottom of the stairs with two officers standing side by side with her just waiting for me to come marching down the stairs to my demise. Three sets of eyes staring up the stairs patiently waiting. NO. That's not how this was going to happen. I was going to have my family and there wasn't anything they could do about it. They were mine and they were going to stay mine.

  If Hazel had seen the shoes that is just something that I'll have to deal with, for now I needed a way to get out of the house. I could creep down the stairs and slip out the front door but that would leave the shoe problem open. If they hadn't found my shoes they would, especially if I didn't come back for them soon. I sat there on the bed staring at the yellow wall but looking at nothing. Then almost like a flame igniting out of thin air I had an idea. I don't know where it came from but it was there and it was a damn good one.

  The ancient alarm clock on Jacob's nightstand, how could I have forgotten? This was my out. All I had to do was crank up the volume on the alarm, set a specific time, and let it rip. Hazel would come upstairs trying to figure out what happened and I would sneak past her, grab my shoes, and be out the door. It would be a piece of cake. I liked this idea but I still had to be smart about it. If I set the alarm for 8:24 AM it would seem odd to Hazel. Why was it set for 8:24? Clocks don't set themselves.

  Instead of setting it for a future time why not unplug the clock and have it reset to the flashing 12:00 midnight that happens when the power goes out? The alarm would go off and Hazel would just assume that either the breaker went out in the bedroom or that the clock was just old and acting up.

  I had to move the nightstand a little bit as the cord for the clock had snaked its way behind the nightstand and the bed frame. The darn stand was surprisingly heavy and I had to rock and back forth for it to move; left and right, left and right. Once I had maneuvered the stand out the way I pulled the plug on the clock and then popped it right back in a second later. As predicted the flashing red numbers reading 12:00 came up. I moved the nightstand back to its home and then got to work on the clock's alarm. It read 12:00 as well. I set the alarm for 12:05 and then turned the volume up as loud as it would go.

  Once I was sure the alarm was set I made my way out of the master bedroom and over to the boy's game room. This bedroom was much closer to the stairs and it would allow for a quick escape as Hazel walked past and into the master bedroom to investigate the screaming alarm. I walked into the game room and nearly tripped over a tower of Legos. Thankfully, I saw it coming and took a wide step to the left to avoid the tower. I still nearly lost my footing and came crashing into the tower like an awkward Godzilla. When I could actually stand again I pulled out my phone and checked the time. Two minutes had passed, I had a few minutes.

  I needed a decent place to hide. I couldn't risk being seen by Hazel as she walked by the room, but I did want fast access to the stairs. Behind the door seemed the most reasonable. It was obvious and cliché, but reasonable. I'm reasonably certain that she won't even give the game room a second glance. I know I wouldn't if that damn clock was going off. I'd be rushing up to it and begin slamming buttons down until the thing shuts off.

  12:04. One minute until launch. There I stood hiding behind the door in a room filled with toys and blocks waiting for what felt like a bomb to go off. My palms were sweaty. I hated sweaty palms. They only got that way when I was nervous, and I was ordinarily not a nervous person. However, this was an extraordinary situation and it was stressing me out to no end. I couldn't risk messing this up. If this gets fouled up I lose my new family and potentially my freedom. It was stupid of me to have fallen asleep over here. I wasn't ready. They weren't ready for me.

  --

  BZZZZZZ! BZZZZZZ! BZZZZZZ! BZZZZZZ! It rang over and over and over again. What a wretched sound. It had to be without a shadow of a doubt one of the worst things to wake up to. Who thought that sound would be a good idea? BZZZZZZ! BZZZZZZ! BZZZZZZ! The buzzing rang and echoed throughout the house demanding to be answered.

  I thought I heard someone heading my way, but I couldn't be sure. The buzzing made it difficult to distinguish other surrounding sounds. A minute passed and nothing. More time passed, and still there was nothing. I was starting to think that either she wasn't there this morning or that maybe she had her own music going on down there? How long would I have to wait in this empty room listening to this incessant buzzing?

  Five minutes passed. It was now 12:10. (Well, not really... in reality it's more like 8:30.) There was still nothing. No Hazel coming up the stairs, there was just constant buzzing. Finally, after what seemed like ten minutes I hear her starting to climb the stairs. Her steps sounded normal and quiet. There was no haste in them. She reached the top of the stairs and started to walk down the hallway. I couldn't see a thing behind this door until she walked past me. Once she walked past I'd be able to see through the cracks of the hinge, but as for now I'm totally blind. She could be inches from me and I wouldn't know it. I held my breath.

  She was close now. I could smell her scent even before she came into view. It was a mixture of some wild flowers deodorant, strawberry shampoo, and sweat. There was something else there too, but I couldn’t quite grasp what. Was it fear? Is that what I smelled? I couldn’t be sure, but she didn’t need to fear me. We’re family.

  A moment later she appeared through the hinge of the door. At first all I could see was cloth and fabric but as she moved further and further towards the master bedroom I could begin to see her more clearly through the crack of the door. She had her red hair tied up in a messy bun against her head and was wearing a brightly colored red t-shirt along with a pair of black sweat pants. I even got a glimpse of those painted toenails I saw earlier this morning under the boy’s bed.

  When she reached the master bedroom entry way she paused. As if she was unsure if she even wanted to go in and shut the alarm off. We sat there together for at least a minute her standing in the entryway and me hiding behind the door watching her through my limited view space. All the while the constant BZZZZZZ BZZZZZZ BZZZZZZ in the background going on and on again like a siren. After an eternity she eventually took a step into the master bedroom, and then another, and another. She disappeared from view. Now was my chance, it was now or never.

  --

  I edged my way out from behind the door and walked out of the room as quietly as I could. (I was mindful of the Legos this time, rest assured.) I was completely quiet; she wouldn’t have been able to hear a thing even if the alarm wasn’t going off. I peeked into the hallway to see if she was within sight, but still nothing. The alarm was still going off as well so I figured I had some time left before she reemerged from the bedroom. I entered the hallway and began down the opposite end as fast as I could. I reached the stairs and bounded down them taking them two to three at a time. I didn’t care about noise at this point, I’m sure that I was far enough away and the clock going off would mask any intrusive sound that I was making.

  When I reached the bottom of the stairs the alarm clock suddenly stopped and the house fell silent. It was only a matter of time
before she came back downstairs. I had to get out of here and quick. I took a swing to the right and entered their living room. It looked quite different while inside during the day time. It was more friendly and more lived in. Sadly, I didn’t have time to appreciate it though and I ran across the carpet as fast I could. I reached the hardwood of the kitchen and dining room and slid right into the dining room table thanks to my socks. Running from carpet to hardwood is never a good idea. The table made a loud THUD when my hip collided into it. Oh well, it couldn’t be redone and Hazel was still upstairs.

  I regained my balance and WALKED past the dining room table over to the side porch door. I creaked it open as fast as I could and hopped out onto the deck triumphantly. The keys whipped out of my pocket and I began to lock the door. The door locked with a satisfying click and I ran across the deck to the stairs and worked my way down. It was then, as I was running down the steps, a not so friendly piece of wood decided to split off and go right through my sock and into my foot. As the pain rang through my body it was then I realized I had forgotten something in the house.

  My shoes, my shoes were still sitting on the inside wall near the porch door neatly stacked behind the end table. It was too late to fix things now. I just have to hope that they do not notice the extra pair of shoes in the house.

  I decided against taking my usual way back home of treading across the grass and climbing the back fence. It seemed way too open and easy for prying eyes to see me. I'm not used to doing this in the day time. There was too much risk in the day time. Instead I worked my way around the house as discreetly as I could until I reached the front of the house. Since it was about nine on a weekday morning the neighborhood was mostly empty but I still looked both ways just in case. There was nothing to see or hear. I casually walked up to the sidewalk and started walking down the block back to my house.

  Throughout the walk back I did not see a soul which I was thankful for. I did not look the most presentable. My hair had that messy un-showered look to it, I had the beginnings of brownish beard stubble forming around my chin and just below my ears, and half my shirt was untucked while the other was either tucked into my pants or my boxers. I couldn't be sure. On top of all that I had no shoes. Just long gray socks that were now soaked with morning dew. After about ten minutes I arrived back at my house and hopped into the shower. I was at my desk at work at ten am. I blamed the tardiness on car troubles and no one even gave it a second glance. After all, I'd been a loyal employee for years, everyone has bad days.

  --

  I watched them again that night, like I do most nights. Since it was spring and the days were longer I had to come up with more clever way of watching without getting noticed. In the winter at dinner time the whole world would be dark and I could lurk in the shadows but now, now, with spring the days are longer and the damned sunlight pours right into my kitchen. I came up with a suitable alternative using my oldest girl's former room. It had a one of those thick wooden blinds that blocked out most sunlight. I removed a small section of this blind that would give me just enough viewing space to see everything going on while not illuminating myself to the world. It looked like any other defect in a shade that had been around a while.

  So, there I sat sipping coffee surrounded by dolls, toys, and tea sets watching my new family from afar. Had they noticed the shoes? I sincerely hope not. As I watched my thoughts drifted towards Hazel. How beautiful she was. How motherly she was. How perfect she was. Oh, and that lovely smell of hers. I had to see her again, but this time with me in control.

  Chapter 13 Hazel (IV)

  I may be losing my mind, or I may not. I suppose one who is losing their mind is not aware that they are losing their mind in the first place. Either way the past few days have been a struggle. This is all unbeknownst to Jacob and the boys as I still can't decide if anything is even really happening. All I'm having are bad 'feelings,' and re-occurring nightmares. But, these types of things happen and happen regularly to everyday folk. I'm conflicted. Do I bring any of this up to Jacob? I did once already and he was skeptical but met me halfway and changed the locks. Now I fear that I will look a little crazy if I bring up any of this nervous paranoia again. Even more crazy if I bring up the 'ghost,' word.

  The other day I woke up in the middle of the night from one of my now common nightmares. It was one of those dreams where you begin to scream as loud as you can partly to wake yourself up but also screaming at the horror that is unfolding in your dream desperately hoping that the scream will awaken you and rescue you from the terror. I was another third party observer in this dream. This dream was rather like the previous one, unfortunately. I was floating in the corner of my master bedroom watching the scene below me like it was some twisted television show that I had no control over. I was asleep alone in my bed. Jacob was nowhere to be found.

  The door creaked open ever so slightly. At first there was nothing but after about a minute in came the thing with the featureless blackness of a ghost. It stood there for a few minutes and as it stood I couldn’t help but stare right at it. No matter how intensely I looked at it I still could not make out any features. It was as black as an empty night sky. There was no clothing, no hair, no shoes, and most unsettling of all there was no face. There was just a deep solid black presence that when you looked too closely at it the outer edges would become fuzzy and out of focus like a poorly taken picture.

  It entered the room and drifted its way toward my bed. There were no steps that it took as it traversed the room but instead it just glided across the floor like it was performing on an ice rink. No movements were made by the thing as it closed the gap between us. When it arrived at the bed I thought that it would repeat the previous dream where it would kneel down and began whispering whatever the thing had to say. I sat there floating in the corner watching and waiting. I just wanted to wake up and get this over with.

  Instead of kneeling in front of my bed it quickly turned its entire body towards my floating persona and slowly raised its arm and pointed it's abnormally long black finger right at me. As it pointed the extended arm and finger began to lengthen and grow. As it grew the finger began to wave back and forth as if there was a strong wind in the room. I was frozen in place and could not move. I could only watch as the dastardly long void like finger reached closer and closer to me. As the finger extended the room began to fill up with a smoke like fog that originated from the hallway and that had been slowly drifting in. As the fog filled the room the only thing I could see was the dreaded finger reaching and reaching for me. At first I wasn't even aware that I was screaming but once realization took hold I focused on the scream more and more increasing its amplification hoping against hope that I would wake up.

  --

  I woke up just before one in the morning and did a panicky glance around the room. I partly expected to see the ghost emerge from the shadows with its extended finger reaching towards me, but there was nothing. There were only shadows. I knew I wasn't going to be sleeping any time soon. Not for a while at least. I glanced over at Jacob and he was sound asleep with a small but constant snore. I didn't want to disturb him so I quietly left the room and headed down the hallway. (Luckily, the screaming was only in my dream.)

  I needed to occupy my mind. I needed to distract it, to get it off of these dreams. I figured I could get some writing done or, more likely, late night television watching. I've got at least five to ten hours worth of recorded shows on the digital video recorder. I passed the boy's room as I was walking down the hallway and something struck me. Not physically, but something hit my brain like a steak knife into butter. It wasn't so much a pain feeling but more of an internal alarm. I HAD to check on the boys. There was no logical reason for it, I just had to and I had to do it and to do it now.

  I was still shaken from that terrible dream and now there was this. I turned the hallway light with a flip of the switch and took a moment to collect myself. It's amazing how much better a simple flick of a switch can do. One moment y
ou're standing in pure and absolute blackness and the next you're standing in your familiar hallway. Your pictures are hanging on the wall, your rugs are on the floor, and everything is where it should be. It's comforting and it helped lessen that impending doom feeling that was stabbing in the back of my mind.

  If there was 'something' in the room, or if something was going on with the boys I wanted to catch it by surprise so I flung the door open as fast as I could. The door flew open with a gust of wind and a slight squeaking of the hinges. I scanned the room like one of those automated security cameras that rotated back and forth indefinitely. I looked from left to right and right to left over and over again. Everything looked to be in place. Lucas was fast asleep on the top bed sprawled out in some inconceivable position and Logan was asleep on his belly with half the blankets kicked off of him and one leg hanging off the side of the bed. Other than the two of them there was nothing.

  That stabbing feeling in my mind was still there. What was I trying to tell myself? What did I need to do? I stood there in the doorway just staring into the room for a few minutes unsure of my next steps. I couldn't stand in the doorway all night and wait for a ghost, or whatever it was, to reappear.

  I took one more glance around the room and closed the door. The boys seemed fine and I did my best to push the stabbing pain out and focus on something else. Maybe I will write tonight, if anything it will help me keep my mind off of things. I headed downstairs and began to write. It was nonsense mostly, but it kept me occupied and allowed my mind to calm down. After a few hours of writing I felt like sleep was a real possibility again and at about three that morning I climbed the stairs and flopped into bed to get the much need three to four hours of sleep.