Locked Away

A Chapter by Enigma

Alright, here's Part 1: Locked Away.

I forget exactly how old i was but it was still the 90's so i'd say around 8 or 9. I've always been a big fan of stargazing and my parents had bought me a telescope for christmas the year before.

It was now summer and the stars were out in abundance that night as per usual, my clock said it was around 9pm. I got out my telescope, positioned it on the stand and gazed for a while. I came across a rather bright star in the night sky, i zoomed in for a closer look and it shone brighter, it dazed me and i fell off my stand, banged my head & blacked out.

When i came to, it was 1:30 in the morning, my mum was so worried and she said i'd been gone, she asked me where the hell i'd even been. One thing you have to understand about my home/neighborhood at the time, was that to leave my home i'd need to go downstairs, past the living room where my parents were the whole time & go out the front door into a culdesac where everyone knew everyone. But nobody had seen me leave or heard me leave, i just vanished.

To this day, my mum won't speak of it and i have no idea whether it happened and my mum is just trying to bury the memory or whether i imagined it.

The next bit however, is where it gets disturbing.

A couple of nights after this, i was lying in bed trying to get to sleep. I was an only child and pretty lonely, so i wouldn't sleep until both my parents and my dog were upstairs and heading to bed, too. I got so used to this regime, that i could recognise who was ascending the stairs based on their way of walking. For my father, it would be a brisk pace, stomping on the steps as he hurried up. For my mother, it was a slow shuffling. For my dog, it resembled the sound of a horse galloping.

I'd also like to point out that the structure of my room at the time meant not only did the door open towards my bed so that i could not see who came through until they had passed the width of the open door, but that the cupboard was directly opposite my door, so shadows would be a good indication of who was entering my room at night. Again, i knew my families outlines very well, making it easy to distinguish who was coming in.

This night, however, may not sound scary, but it is the result of much therapy and horrific nightmares the likes of which i could not begin to describe to you. On the occasion this memory creeps into my dreams, i wake up feeling like i've had a near-fatal heart attack. On one occasion, i stopped breathing in my sleep.

All i remember is it being very late at night, my door was open a crack as usual to allow some light in. I began hearing thuds downstairs, even that young i naturally assumed it was my Golden Retriever, Barney, stumbling around. Then i heard someone ascend the stairs. But it wasn't a shuffle, it wasn't a brisk stomping, nor was it a galloping.

It was a series of laboured thuds, like something being lifted up & successively dropped, though not with much impact. These thuds got closer & closer to the top of the stairs, before ceasing. As they did, a dragging sound started, when it approached my door, it was gently pushed open.

The last thing i remember is three joint tall shadows slowly rising up my wall.
I never saw what came passed my door, or rather, i don't remember.

I went for RMT (Recovered Memory Therapy) to find out what it was, but i ended up reacting very negatively to the situation, going as far as to scream, shout, run to the corner of the room, huddle up & cry silently while rocking back and forth.

Someday, i hope to go further and find out what it really was.