The Crawling

The Crawling

There has always been something haunting me. Ever since I was a little girl, it has followed me; for twenty years I heard its claws tap on the floors, following close behind. I have never seen its true form, just always a dark shadow like figure. I know, or believe, that it crawls on all fours and has skinny legs. It moves like that of a cat, but if it walks slowly, I can see an image of a Geraff. I have never seen its head clearly, but I know it is small, smaller than any head I have seen before on a shadow like animal ... At least, I call it an animal. Its movements remind me of an animal, walking across the floor, but there is something about the strange shadow that reminds me of a human. Like a human child crawling across the floor, hiding from my vision.

I remember the first day I saw this ... Thing. I sat up in my bed, feeling protection from my pink pony nightlight that gave off a bright strong pink light. It sat, deep within my closet, amongst the darkness and clothing. I could see its frame, huddled down and staring at me with those strange blue orbs that were supposed to be its eyes. To this day, I am not certain if it was me or this thing, but one of us was breathing heavily. It might have been both. Perhaps, the creature and I were both scared of each other and did not know how to respond to one another.

I learned how to ignore it in my teen years, after spending so much time at a therapist's office. It was the constant threats of sending me away from my family and friends to a mental hospital that forced me to forget it. It wasn't hard; the creature only followed me and scampered away when I tried to look at it. There was no threat from the creature ... At least, not at that time.

When I left for college, the creature followed close behind. It was always there and its presence was getting stronger. I started to loose great amount of time, like my memory was erased or something, like I forgot something. There were times that I awoke in another portion of town without any logic as to how I ended up there. Then, items from my dorm started to go missing. At first, I thought it was prank caused by my dormmate, but when her own personal items went missing, I knew it was something else.

I did end up finding our things ... In my closet. They were hidden away in a box. Even though this was disturbing to me, what really disturbed me and I swore never to show anyone, was the other items I found in the box. Pictures ... Drawings, like how a child would draw, were found in the box. Each picture was of me and this little thing following me around.

For a long time, this thing started to haunt my sleep. It would sit beside my bed when my eyes would closed. I knew it was there, because I could hear the breathing and felt the cold presence of the creature. If it wasn't near my bedside, I could hear it crawling throughout the house. I can hear its claws tap on the floor now.

As far as help, I only did my own research about this thing. I never spoke of it around other people, because I knew it all sounded too crazy. I think there was a part of me that didn't want to think of it as reality. My only savior was my husband, who distracted me from the creature. I eventually told him of the thing and he gave his assurance that nothing was going to happen.

I guess the shadow didn't like him too much ... Bad things started to happen.

After that night, when he told me he would protect me from the creature, he started to get scratches across his face, then his back. These were not simple cat scratches, they were deeper and more demonic looking. This horrible thing happened to Thomas for about three months and then ... I was alone.

I awoke one morning after the three months and found that he wasn't laying beside me anymore. I called his work, but they said he was no where to be seen. His car was still left in the driveway and his clothes were still in the closet. Two days passed and I placed a missing person's report in to the police station.

Three years passed ...

During those three years, I never heard a peep out of the creature. There was no more scratching. No more stealing. No more missing time and there was no more crawling. A few weeks after Thomas disappeared, I found out that I was pregnant with his child. I faced the fear of raising a child ... Alone.

On the third year, I realized that Thomas was never going to return to hold his daughter. Everytime I look into her eyes, I think of him.

Last night, I watched my little golden haired child sleep in her bed. Her thumb was stuck halfway in her mouth and the pink pony night light that I use to own sat on her night stand next to her bed. I stood at her doorway, watching her sleep deeply.

My eyes slowly fell down to some movement under her bed ... And ... The blue orbs stared at me, watching me ... Waiting for me to leave.