The Dark Room (Scholarly Tales from the Flipside - Horror 101)

Introduction: This story is provided compliments of the Flipside’s after-school program called “Horror 101: Reading and Writing Horror for Fun!” This story is one in a collection of short stories and illustrations written by SPPS middle school and high school scholars  from the upcoming iBook, “Tales from the Flipside: Horror.” Participating schools: Humboldt, Murray, American Indian Magnet (AIM), Highland Park, Farnsworth, and Washington Tech. 

By  Chang P. 

     I had just finished my chores at 9:56pm, this wasn't an unusual time
for me, lately I've been up late doing homework and chores. I took off my glasses and set them on my nightstand. The dark was the scariest place for me, I often have paranoia that I'm not alone and that something is watching me. I'm scared of falling asleep, in my dreams there are monsters that stare at me, I feel as if they know all my flaws and imperfections. In the silence of the stares, my mind goes crazy with the thoughts of all my insecurity crossing my mind and floating through the empty space which appears to be my bedroom. My dream repeated like this every night with the monsters getting closer and closer each time. I closed my eyes and turned on my low piano music to clear my mind of any bad thoughts, my eyes drifting into a deep sleep. I woke up in my dream, the monsters closer than ever before. My room felt cold and dull, I could see the glowing white of their pupils and long horns. Something was different this time, I heard mumbling, the silence that was usually there was no more. One of the monsters was talking to the other, it was quite faint but I could hear the suspicious conversation... 

   "She is going to find out” one said 

"Don't worry, tomorrow it will all be over, she will be one of us" said the other. 

     I could faintly see the scales and ridges of the first monster, their skin was dark red and had razor sharp teeth. My mind stopped and wondered what they meant by she is going to be one of us soon, am I she? I closed my eyes in the dream and eventually fell back to a peaceful sleep. 

     The next day I woke up in sweat like the others. Most days I didn't even want to wake up, people at school scared me but it's better than staying in this dark room. I got up, brushed my teeth and headed to my parent's room to tell them I was going to catch the bus. As I approached the door Something was off, it was pure silence. This was strange considering my mom always hums while she gets ready for work. I creeped the door open and saw nothing in there. I looked around for my mom's jacket or purse but everything was gone. "Maybe she left for work” I thought as I was about to leave the room I saw an unfamiliar notebook open, it was my Mother’s based on the loopy handwriting. Being as noisy as I am I took a little peek, at first it appeared empty but as I flipped through I saw drawings in the middle of the book, as if they were meant to be hidden. The drawings were of a creature much like the one I saw in my dream. But also it was different, the creature was younger and smaller. As I flipped through the pages I saw drawings of an empty room. My hands started to shake as I realized what was happening. 

     The drawings, the monsters, the sleep paralysis and cold rooms. These weren't drawings and the creatures weren't just monsters or a part of a dream. It was my parents' plot to turn me into one of them, a demon.