I Found You Sleeping Next To Me, I Thought I Was Alone, You're Driving Me Crazy, When Are You Coming Home

--"Laid", James

to: breasier@yahoo.com
from: mojo.shivers@gmail.com

Dear Breanne,

It's all your damn fault. You know what I just got finished doing? I walked around my bedroom with a bunch of burnt sage in my hand trying my hardest to ward myself from any evil spirits that might wish to do me harm. Then, after that, I placed a small dish of sea salt by the window, again, in the vain attempt to protect myself. This is the advice that Amber gave me because I came home today and told her about the wonderful night I had courtesy of you. My only hope is that it works half as well as she said it would because I don't want any repeats of what happened last night.

I'm not sure if it's all the ghost stories we traded back and forth or if it is actually because this place is haunted like I've always suspected. I'm telling you that something just ain't right with the place. I've always had my suspicions that living next to a hospital is akin to living next to a cemetery--some wayward souls are always going to wander through looking for the way out. And I'm telling you that one of them may have just found his way to my room last night. It makes me ill to even think about it. I'm trying to remember the last time you spun a tale for me and to think if it matches up any with what happened to me last night, but nothing comes to mind. I so want to blame this on you and your unnatural love for ghost stories, but I don't know if I can.

Oh 'twell! See if this jogs any memories.

I had gone to bed about 1 a.m. I left the computer running, but had the television off. Because of this I knew it wasn't any loud noise from the set or the computer that awoke me. Also, because of this, I knew it wasn't due to watching anything right before I went to bed that might have given me nightmares. I went to sleep in a darkened room with the computer having already switched to standby mode and the computer screen pitch black.

At approximately 4 a.m. I was awakened from dreaming with the nagging sense someone or something was watching me. I shot up out of bed and opened my eyes to an incomprehensible sight in front of me. There, floating two or three feet diagonally above my bed in the direction of the far corner of my room was the shape of a hazy human, definitely male but enlarged to the size of a trash can lid size. Because it was hazy and because it seemed to be emitting its own light, I first attributed to some weird light coming from outside the window. However, within the first few moments, I saw it for what it was--some type of ghostly head way too close to me.

At first, I did what most people would do if they were in a similar situation. I panicked and felt my heart almost leap out of my chest. You know me, I fucking hate ghosts. I don't ever really want to one (I guess, again now) and I don't ever want to talk to one. I'm all for reading about them or listening to someone talk about them, but there's a huge difference between reading about falling out of a building and actually falling out of a building. That's what it felt like to me at the time, an irrational fear swelling inside of me that I was powerless to control. I wanted to bolt. I wanted to make a dash for the door, but I remained still watching this eerie head shape just looking down at me.

Then I got pissed.

I don't know what took over me, but I started growling at it like you've heard me do before. It was kind of instinctual, the way dogs growl at something before they start chasing after it. I growled at it as a sign to leave me alone and to let it know that I didn't appreciate being woken out of sleep by it. It was kind of a bold move, but I think something clicked inside of me to let me know, if I didn't let it know I was in control of myself, it would have just stuck around. It suddenly became very important for me to get rid of it. I sat upright and growled again until it dissipated.

I guess I chased it away.

The whole affair probably took twenty seconds from when I woke up till when it disappeared. But after that I couldn't sleep. I think I was more afraid of just laying there, wondering if it was going to come back, than of it actually confronting it again. I made sure to turn on all the lights, the television, and log back into the computer to make as much noise and illumination as possible. I wanted to create a hostile environment for it to come back to.


I locked you out

The next hour was spent trying to get tired enough to sleep straight away. It was also spent kind of blaming you because you have my filled with all these ghost stories that creep up at the weirdest times. There I was, trying to get some rest, but feeling very alone and a little scared. I was so annoyed with you the whole time because there was nothing to reassure me that whatever or whoever was haunting me wouldn't come back as soon as I went back to bed. Thoughts of staying up all night or waking up Amber to tell her what happened floated through my head. I kept debating what the best course of action would be. All I knew was that it was your fault because stuff like this never happened to me before I met you. You're too intent on trying to scare the bejeezus out of me and I think this time it finally worked. You worked my brain up so much it has finally accepted that ghosts are real. And now all manner of ghosts can invade my privacy.

I hate you.

I don't look forward to going to sleep tonight.

I wish you were here.

Yours Swimmingly,
mojo shivers