You know that feeling when it’s late and you’re tired.  You know the one.  You just got back home from being with your friends.  You stayed out all night and watched a bunch of horror movies.  Or maybe you’ve been up the past few hours reading creepy stories in a book or on your computer screen.  You know it’s all silly and you had a good time.  You’ve entertained yourself and now it’s time for bed.

You’re at home by yourself like every night, but now your imagination is working overtime and your senses are heightened.  Those little sounds that you don’t normally notice; you now hear every one of them.  The little glints of light and reflections that you never paid any mind to before are now only fueling your imagination.  An imagination that is currently writing and telling you stories which you do not need to hear right now.

You walk into the kitchen and shut off the lights and can’t help but glance over at the window.  Is something out there?  Nah.  That’s silly kids stuff.  You laugh it off and go through the living room turning out the lights and as you do, you feel a slight need to take a glance over your shoulder.  What are you nervous of?  You do this every single night.  Why is tonight any different?

You laugh and shake your head thinking to yourself about how foolish you’re acting and that you need to get to sleep before work.  Walking into the bathroom, you grab your toothbrush and toothpaste and begin brushing your teeth as if everything is back to normal.  But then you look in the bathroom mirror.  In it you see a dark area.  Maybe it’s the bathroom closet or perhaps a reflection of another room through the doorway.  And though you know damn well that nothing is there, you still feel as though you can see something in that dark area through your mirror and you can’t help but slowly take a look over your shoulder just to make sure.

Goodness, what the hell is wrong with you?  Are you actually starting to believe your imagination?  You spit the toothpaste into the sink and laugh again, only this time it’s more forced.  Then you let out a nervous chuckle at yourself.  This is ridiculous.  You can’t help but laugh at the sheer absurdity of forcing yourself to laugh to calm your fears.  But then you catch a glimpse of one of those dark areas again.  The closet.  The kitchen.  It makes no difference.  What ever area that catches your eye, it sends chills through your body and you don’t know why.

As you leave the bathroom, you pause at the door and hold your finger over the light switch, staring at whatever direction happens to be the way to your bed, perhaps even taking a slow look around your surroundings.  When you’re ready, you flip the switch and a make kind of awkward half run, half walk towards your bedroom, perhaps accompanying it with some awkward sounds of fear and maybe a bit of giggle as if to reassure yourself that there’s nothing there, yet you still move with haste anyways.  Depending on the type of person you are, you may stop at the bedroom doorway or keep moving.  Either way, the result is always the same.  You never actually crawl into bed or even really get near it like you normally do.  You kind of leap into the bed so your feet aren’t within any reaching distance from the bottom of the bed.  You know there’s nothing under there, but your imagination says otherwise.

As soon as you’re in the bed, you quickly pull the covers up high and, if your bed is against a wall, you roll against it, back to the rest of the room.  Hopefully, your pillow hasn’t fallen onto the floor.  You really don’t want to have to reach down to get it.  You just want to go to sleep and let your imagination pass.  And you try to go to sleep, perhaps attempting to think happy thoughts.  If your imagination will let you.  But what if, what if it wasn’t your imagination acting up?  What if there really was something there?  What if you shouldn’t go to sleep?