The Dark

TWO RED SPIRALS BLINKED BACK AT ME from the dark corner of the lesser used bedroom in my home. No one went into that room anymore. It merely served as the passageway to the back balcony. It had been out of use and the door latched to keep the younger of four grandchildren out of the room and more importantly, off the second story balcony. The stairs had been removed as much as four years before the birth of the youngest child to prevent intrusions by unknowns who were sen loitering on the lewer section of steps or prying their way into the back room. For other reasons, the room was left empty except for the full mattress and a desk in the corner. The closet shelving had been disassembled and the closet light dismantled. There had been curious complaints by one of the older boys that voices in the night disturbed him as he studied his college books, and that there was some strange glow that bounced around the walls when he turned out the ceiling light for the night's rest. He kept his mother's dog in the room with him for that reason. Apollo was a comforter. It eased his nerves to hug the dog when the voices began their chatter and gave reason for added covers to avoid seeing the red glow that trailed around the walls near the balcony door. He moved out less than one year after begging in and being begged into the possibility of staying in one of the bedrooms and choosing that one particularly because it had the balcony. Now, it stayed empty except for the intermittent access for storing an odd peice of furniture or accessing the balcony on a cool summer night.

There were stranger situations like dogs leaping from the toof of the room beneath the balcony. Apollo and pups born while being housed and raised chewed through the safety rails over a period of days that seemed to send dogs into a panic causing them to emit screaming.. high pitched barking noise as they dashed about franticly in some attempt at escaping some unseen object at the balcony door. Each of six bull mastiff pups leaped from the roof, hurling themselves to the driveway below landing on their feet before taking off in full gallop as if to distance themselves from the house as best possible. A few days later, a college classmate made representation of herself as a Pentacost and "blessed" his room for him by flinging oil droplets from a bottle blessed by her clergyman which was supposed to ward off evil spirits. He moved out nearly a month later, unable to focus on his studies. The room was eventuall y taken apart and now lays empty... except for the bed. No sounds are heard... no whispers; only odd smells like incidental urine or fecal smells from a bulkhead along the inside of an outer wall. In the night, from rooms outside of that room, sounds can be heard. There is a man's voice that rationalizes with himself over and over but never speaking to anyone living or passing through that room. There is a second man... younger, perhaps... who trails around the basement, sometimes coming close enough to anyone who goes down to get laundry processed. He gets close enough to one standing near the washer, that he can be heard drawing breath but never seen. One that lingers at the lower end of the steps near the front door is also never seen but always complaining of what he "should have" done or had. He "never got to" do something in his lifetime. For fourteen years now that has been the daily observation. Hearing and seeing no one. Seeing things not there and smelling things unfounded.

Just the other night on Carillon Halloween Eve, I returned from attending the outing and hearing a sound in the back yard... or thinking I had, I unlatched the bedroom door, dashed inside through the darkness to the balcony door and fumbled at the lock to open the door. as I fumbled, I felt a coolness at my shoulder nearst the closet adn turned my hear briefly to see spiraled red eyes staring at me. Before I had a chance to rationalize the issue, I pulled the door open and back yard lighting lit the room enough to vanquish the shadow and eyes attached to it. It was the first time something was seen... seen in the dark.