I awoke with my heartbeat in my throat. I wasn’t sure, but my instincts told me something was alive, in me and outside. From my blurry sleep I caught the dark, massive shadow arch across the bedroom wall opposite to the window.
I didn’t move. I lay motionless as if frozen to the bed. Only my eyes moved – peering over the covers – looking for the dreadful return of the mass.
What was it? I listen, struggling to hear over my racing breath. Was it a dream? Maybe a illusion created by the re-entry of my astral body during sleep? My mind raced. My ears hunted.
Meanwhile, the shadow moved swiftly, but silently up the trail away from the house. Peering over it’s massive shoulders – still tuned to the racing heartbeat it channeled as it moved – the shadow could taste the adrenaline of the sleeper, bitter on its lips.
It would be back.
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