Night Terrors Read Free

sliding glass door; they seemed like a thin barrier against what was out there.
    Come on, Kelly, she thought, pick up the phone.
    Finally, Kelly answered. “Hey, Jen. Kevin not there yet?”
    “He’s here,” Jen answered, talking a little too quickly. “He’s outside looking around. He banged on the sliding glass door earlier and scared the hell out of me and then he was inside and I know I closed the sliding glass door but it was open again -”
    “Hold on, Jen. Slow down.”
    Jen took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. I’m just freaking out. I think someone’s outside my house. I told Kevin not to go out there, but he went anyway.”
    As she talked on the phone, Jen felt a little braver; she walked to the vertical blinds and pushed them aside just a bit so she could peek outside. No one out there. No Kevin, either. She let the blinds fall back in place.
    “Maybe Kevin’s just trying to scare you again.”
    “Yeah, maybe.” But Jen didn’t think so.
    Jen looked at the stereo system; even with the sound turned down low she could still hear the static. “Will you do me a favor, Kelly?”
    “What?”
    “Will you check your radio? See if the stations are coming in okay.”
    “Why?”
    “Please, Kelly.”
    “Okay.”
    Jen walked from the vertical blinds to the TV as she waited for Kelly to check her radio. The picture on the TV was distorted, wavy lines interrupted the program. Jen picked up the remote control and flipped through several channels, all of the channels had wavy lines on them like something powerful was interfering with the signal.
    Jen jumped a little when she heard Kelly’s voice on the phone. “All the radio stations are coming in fine here. What’s going on there?”
    Jen just stared at the TV.
    “Jen? Are you still there?”
    Jen could feel the dark and evil presence now; it was like a blanket smothering her. It was so much stronger now. It was the interfering force on the TV and radio, she was sure of it. There was a killer outside. She didn’t know how she knew this, but it was as real as anything she’d ever known in her life. The killer was out there in the darkness and he was coming for her.
    And this killer was familiar to her. She knew him. She’d seen him before – in her dreams.
    “Jen!!”
    “Yeah,” Jen whispered into the phone. “I’m still here.”
    “You’re kind of freaking me out here.”
    “He’s here now.”
    “Who?”
    No answer from Jen.
    “Jen, you’re really starting to scare me.”
    Jen backed away from the TV and its wavy lines. She turned back to the vertical blinds. A blast of static erupted from the cell phone and blared in her eardrum.
    “He’s here,” Jen said into the phone, but she wasn’t sure if Kelly could hear her words anymore. “The Shadow Man I’ve seen in my dreams.”
    “ … Jen … what … Jen … can’t …” Static cut off Kelly’s words.
    A panic gripped Jen now, she wanted to run, but she didn’t know where she could she run to. The Shadow Man would know where she was going; he would know what she was going to do. He would be one step ahead of her.
    Another blast of static squealed in Jen’s ear from her cell phone. It startled her so badly she dropped her phone. She picked up her phone from the carpet, but there was no signal now. The phone was useless; it wasn’t going to work properly, not with him around.
    Jen jumped and screamed when she heard a pounding on the sliding glass door.
    Kevin! He was back!
    Jen ran across the living room to the vertical blinds. She was about to rip them open when a thought occurred to her – it hadn’t been three knocks. What if it wasn’t Kevin on the other side of the glass? What if it was the Shadow Man from her nightmares?
    She hesitated, listening, waiting for more knocks on the glass. “Kevin?” she called out. “Is that you?”
    No answer.
    There was a pounding on the glass; it almost sounded like the glass was reverberating, threatening to shatter.
    “Kevin! If