My paternal grandmother was always a superstitious woman, to the point where it was overbearing at moments. One thing she was very anal to us about was staying outside after the sun went down. "It's because wicked things always happen during those ungodly hours." That's what she told us often.
The night before my thirteenth birthday, my grandma suffered a terrible stroke. She was hospitalized for several weeks.
My younger sister, our cousin, and I were left to our own devices while dad and our Aunt Linda were at the hospital with grandma. Our mother was away on an important business trip during that time and was unable to return home.
"Lauren, Maureen, Joshua, all three of you are old enough to stay home by yourselves now." Dad and Aunt Linda gave us a run down of their expectations. "You all need to be in before night fall. Are we clear?" They were very clear. "Call us before you three head to bed for the night." Dad and Aunt Linda told us they would be back before nine.
Not long after their departure, Lauren, Joshua, and I were outside playing with our neighborhood friends, Brandon, Katie, and Wyatt.
"Lauren, Joshua, we need to start heading back inside now." Everyone whined and groaned. We were having a good time. No one wanted to stop just yet. However, I gave dad my word.
"Maureen..." My sister whined. "Can we play a little bit longer? Please?!" My sister and cousin begged. I gave them a firm no.
"We gave dad and Aunt Linda our word. It's time to go inside."
Maureen and Joshua continued to argue back. "Come on, Maureen. Mom's away for work and dad is going to be at the hospital until nine. One more hour, please? I won't tell if you don't tell." As the oldest, it was my job to lay down the law. I should have told my sister and our friends "no" or threatened to call dad for their defiance.
But in the end, I was still just a kid too.
"Let's play hide-in-go-seek in the dark!" Wyatt suggested.
The person who was deemed "It" had to wear a green, neon glow stick around their neck. The rest of us had to wear yellow neon glow sticks around our neck. Once found, the caught ones had to join "It" as seekers when found. As I thought about it, the game was stupid to play with glow sticks because it defeated the whole purpose of hiding in the dark.
No one wanted to be "It," so we all played Rock-Paper-Scissors to choose who. In the end, Wyatt was chosen.
"Ugh! Of course I'm 'It.'" He was sorely disappointed about being chosen as the seeker, but he also lost fair and square. While he counted to thirty, the rest of scattered into the darkness.
Half of our subdivision was still under development. Brandon and I hid in one of the unfinished houses. I hid in one room while he hid in the other.
We waited for what felt like an eternity. With the hour dwindling to its end, we decided to leave our hiding spots and re-group with the others. "Wait!" Brandon stopped me. "I hear someone coming." Quickly, we returned to our hiding spots, thinking Wyatt and the others had discovered us.
We waited and waited and waited, but heard no footsteps or voices. "I think we've won." Brandon whispered in my ear.
"We need to be heading home. It's almost 8:30. My dad and aunt will be home soon." If they came home and figured out we were still outside playing after hours, our dad's head would have exploded.
Brandon and I started to leave for the second time, until we actually heard Wyatt and the others that time. We decided to stay put again since the game was drawing to close anyways.
"Stop it, Brandon." I felt him stroking his fingers down my back. "You're being weird."
"What are you talking about? I'm not touching you. Also, why are you breathing down my neck so hard?"
"Brandon...how am I breathing down your neck while talking to you?" We assumed it was one of our friends pulling a prank.
"You can stop trying to scare us now. You've found us." Whoever it was said nothing.
"Um...Maureen..." Brandon touched my hand. It was sweaty and shaking, like he was terrified. He whispered, "We need to run. Now!"
Brandon and I bolted from our hiding place. Behind us, we heard thundering footsteps following closely. We never saw what was chasing us. We were too terrified to look. Whatever it was, it sounded like a large animal of some sort.
We didn't stop running until we reached the safety of our house. Thankfully, Lauren, Joshua, and Katie had made it inside too. "Have you guys seen Wyatt?!" Lauren yelled when she saw me.
"What are you talking about?" I realized Wyatt was the only one who wasn't present. Brandon and I learned from the others they had been attacked by a rabid animal in the darkness.
They thought it was Wyatt messing with them, but quickly realized it wasn't him. They heard the animal growling. Lauren even had three deep marks on the back of her thigh from where it attacked her.
"Maybe he's just messing with us." Wyatt was salty about being chosen as "It." I assumed it was all a prank on his part because he was a sore loser. Everyone else wasn't so certain. We would confront Wyatt the next day about it.
Katie and Brandon called their parents to pick them up; they were too scared to venture back out into the darkness even though they lived a few houses down.
Terrified of the night's event, Lauren slept in my bed. We hadn't slept together in the same bed since we were four and six.
"Maureen. Maureen. Maureen!" My sister nudged me awake with a sense of urgency.
"What's-what's wrong?" Lauren heard something at the window. We laid still for a couple minutes, listening. "I don't-I don't hear anything." I got out of bed to look out the window.
"Maureen, are you okay? Why are you shaking?" Staring back at me from the other side of the window were a set of glowing, yellow eyes. The most terrifying part about that experience was the fact that we were on the second level of the house.
I grabbed Lauren and we ran into our parents' room. We told our dad we watched a scary movie earlier and were having nightmares. "No more scary movies for a while." He told us as we climbed into bed.
Dad slept on the side of the bed close to the door; I slept on the side close to the window. I made sure I kept my back and gaze away from the window. That night, I didn't get much sleep at all.
The next morning, Wyatt's parents and the police came to our front door asking about Wyatt's whereabouts. To the anger and disappointment of our dad, we told them how we had been out after dark playing around the previous night. We had no idea where Wyatt was and we never saw him again after that night.
After spending almost a month in the hospital, grandma finally returned home to us. She wasn't the same, however. The stroke left her right side completely paralyzed. Dad and Aunt Linda had to put her in a nursing home which was a painful decision on their part. We kept her home with us only until her birthday passed.
"Goodnight grandma." It was my turn that week to put her to bed for the night.
"Wy-Wy-Wy..." She mumbled. Her speech had also been affected by the stroke. "Wy-Wy-Wy..."
I leaned in closer to hear her better. "What are you trying to say?"
"Wy-Wy-Wy-Wyatt... Wyatt!" Grandma raised her shaky left pointer finger. She pointed to the window. I saw nothing but a dimly lit street. I suspected my grandmother knew something about Wyatt's disappearance, but unfortunately she could never tell me what it was.
They never figured out what happened to Wyatt. Two years after his disappearance, Wyatt's parents sold their house and moved away.
·
No comments:
Post a Comment