I woke up in a gasp and drenched in sweat. One again at 3am, my dreams haunt me of a dark figure choking me. Cautiously I try not to wake up my husband sleeping peacefully next to me, I carefully crawl out of bed to search for some water. How is it that my throat is so parched, and I feel so drained at this time almost every day. I head to my kitchen in the dark, confident in the familiarity of my home. Just as I am about the grab a cup, the loud ring of the doorbell echoes in the silent house. Alarmed of the noise as used to it as I am during the day, it is not welcoming at night. It rings once, but it is all it takes for me to rush to the door. Confused I gaze at the peep hole but get annoyed once my height fails me to really see who is on the other side. With a deep breath, I open the door. No one. There is no one at the door. I am greeted by a small gust of wind that blows a few leaves inside, but no one is there. I lock the door and return to the kitchen where my cup of water awaits to bring relief to the dryness of my throat.
A wet nose awakes me the following day, interrupting the sleep I found so late at night. I pull my dog, Ollie to hug him as I call out for my husband who is in the bathroom. “Honey, did you hear the doorbell last night at 3am?” I ask. It takes me a few times to ask him this before he comes to our bedroom and looks at me confused. “Who would ring the door at that time?” He replies. As I shrugged my shoulders, he reaches for his phone on the nightstand. “I will look at the cameras.” He says as his fingers clicks on countless images. I sit there playing with Ollie as my husband searches on his phone. “Nothing” he says with a sigh. He looks at me with a smile and invites me for breakfast on this beautiful Saturday morning. I get up to get ready and push the doorbell incident to the back of my mind. The only thing that makes me a bit concern is Ollie. As we leave for breakfast, he is staring at the corner of the dinning room. Just sitting there. He usually is licking us and jumping all over us as we leave the house. Not today. He sits just staring at the corner.
The rest of the day goes as serene and perfect as it can be. By evening, my husband and I are entangled in blankets on the couch with Ollie at our feet. We watch a few movies and order food to eat in. I love nights like these. Of course, my husband falls asleep first than me. As much as I try to tug on him to stay awake, he is blissfully asleep. I continue watching movies as Ollie lays with his toys. My eyes get heavy and soon I am found in the woods. It is cold and I am searching for logs to start a fire. I am desperate for it is dark and cold. Soon my panting is joined by someone else. I cannot see another person, but I know I am not alone. I quicken my steps and squat low next to a bush to hide. I stay low and quiet. I hear the crunching of leaves and suddenly, my head is yanked back. The figure has placed a plastic bag on my head is holding it tightly to cut off my breathing. I try to fight back but the figure overpowers me. I wake up sweating and Ollie is sitting on face. My husband wakes up alarmed “Are you okay?’ He says. I am trying to catch my breathe and answer lowly “Yeah.” We figure my nightmare was magnified when Ollie decided to sit on my face and made it worse when I could not actually breathe. As we sit there, just giggling of why on earth would Ollie sit on my face, the doorbell rings again.
My husband looks at the time and it is 3:03am. We both get up at the same time and head towards the door. “Who is there?” I ask. “Do you know how late this is!” my husband adds angrily. We get no response. As I try to unlock the door, my husband hands stop me and points at this phone. Once again, he looks at the cameras. He rewinds the footage repeatedly to see who the culprit of the door ringing is. He keeps nodding his head and leads me back to the couch. “No one is out there but look at this” he says quietly. He points at the light seen from our bedroom window visible on the camera. “We do not have the light on.” I say before he rushes from my side upstairs. He screams back “The light is off! How could that be?” As weird as that is, I assume the camera is playing a trick with our eyes. I convince my husband to let us call it a night. After he secures all the doors, he joins me as we head upstairs to our room. As we are settling in bed, I hear scratching on the door. I open ever so slowly and see Ollie there whimpering and scratching. Ollie usually sleeps downstairs in his bed without any issues. Looks like tonight, he as well is feeling unsettled.
My husband is at the kitchen island with batteries in his hands. When he sees me, he gets up and looks at me “The doorbell will not be ringing again tonight!” I laugh because that is not quite the option to resolve the problem. Jokingly I respond, “It must have been kids or someone who thinks it’s funny to ring the door at night.” As my husband reaches to hug me, he says “The joke is on them now.”
“Ollie!” I scream. Where is the dang dog? I briefly go to the yard and even upstairs, the dog does not come. I ask my husband who is playing video games and he shrugs his shoulders. I keep looking for Ollie and now I am starting to get a bit scared. As I enter the kitchen again, I hear a low whimper from the pantry. I rush over to open the doors to the small pantry of shelves and Ollie stuffed in the bottom area in between paper towel rolls. “Ollie, what are you doing in there?” I bring him out and notice there is a deep cut in his neck. I call out for my husband scared. My husband and I tend to Ollie’s wound but keep wondering how it happened. Ollie cannot place himself in the pantry and close the door. I do not feel safe in my home. I start to panic only to be reassured by my husband there must be a valid explanation…even if he cannot think of one.
By the time evening arrives, my husband and I have searched the whole house and secured every entrance. I even speak with our neighbors to inform them of the constant door ringing late in the nights. No one else has experienced this. My husband speaks to the neighborhood security and it is agreed he will monitor our home closely tonight. Not certain of what has happened over the course of the weekend, my husband and I just try to brush the incidents off. That night, we go to bed and fall asleep in an embrace, hoping we will be granted a peaceful sleep. I fall asleep quite easily. With my husband near and Ollie at our foot post.
Ding Dong! Ding Dong! Ding Dong!!! I hear from afar. I sit up on my bed and see my husband is not there. I call out for him, but he does not answer. I am scared. I rush downstairs. I see the front door is open. I go out and yell for my husband, but he is no where to be found. I call out for Ollie now and my dog is not answering either. The air is so cold and brings goose bumps to my bare skin. Certain I am stuck in a nightmare; I go back inside the house. Tears are falling down my face as I call out for my family. Suddenly, a stain on my floor comes visible to me. I turn on the lights in the foyer and see paw prints, bloody pawprints leading out the front door. I follow the paw prints to where they are coming from. By the look, Ollie is hurt and may have rushed out the front door. My face is wet from all the tears by now. I look at the time and it is 3:27am. I have a gut-wrenching feeling something horrible is about to happen. As I continue slowly following the paw prints, I see my husband laying on the couch in a pool of blood. I want to scream but simply weird shrieks come out my mouth. I rush to him to see he has been strangled by a cord of some sort. I throw myself as his lifeless body sobbing at this crushing reality. Begging for this to be dream. Trembling until I feel a presence. The air becomes cooler and I feel trapped. A dark figure hovers over me and I scream. I know I screamed. No one hears me. The intruder places a blanket over me, stealing every breathe out of my lungs until darkness surrounds me endlessly
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