IS

It was still dark out, but I knew the light of dawn would be arriving soon. I slowly passed through the kitchen and past the large clock on the wall that showed me 4:47. This gave me a small taste of impending relief, for I knew that if he was indeed here somewhere, he could not remain much longer with the light of day knocking at morning’s door.

Yet, this didn’t seem to lessen the fear that was crawling inside of me as I slowly made my way through each room, flipping on lights and checking dark empty spaces—when I found Midnight under Alley’s bed.

At least one more time it had appeared that the bleached-skin stranger had yet again been mistaken for being somewhere he wasn’t. It took several minutes to coax her out, but Midnight seemed to warm up to me even though she remained cold and shaky. It appeared that I would have a companion from here on, at least until the Stanton’s came home, anyway.

I held her tight, massaging her ears and neck as I traveled back into the kitchen for something she could eat. Remembering a can of tuna in one of the cupboards, I swung it open, when she frantically climbed over my shoulder and sprang to the counter, rearing back against the wall to the left side of the sink, hissing with ferocious spite at something behind me.

I was, for the moment, pretending to myself that everything was fine and nothing was amiss, while my chilled and paralyzed body was sending other signals to contradict this. “Midnight! What’s the matter?”

I knew deep down in the pit of my stomach, what the matter was. The pure terror of having to physically confront it was keeping me in a state of denial. Seconds later, I began to come to my senses. I slowly, without turning, moved to my left, to the silverware drawer for something--anything. The cat’s hiss had changed to an eerie whine or high pitched moan, as I desperately watched her eyes and body language for anything I could use before actually turning around to face my nemesis. Just when I felt my fingers glide over smooth steel, Midnight retreated quickly from the counter.

The familiar sound of the door wall sliding on its track was followed by a subtle breeze that moved the curtain ever so slightly in front of me, filling the room and dropping the temperature by at least ten degrees. The breeze would have been pleasant, if it had not been for the unpleasant stench that carried the announcement of his presence close by.

I lifted the wide, twelve inch chef’s blade from the drawer, and proceeded to turn about face to whatever was waiting.

Standing in the center of the deck, approximately six feet off the door, his ash white face was only dimly acknowledged by the kitchen’s light since I had never bothered to flip the switch to the deck light back on.

“What do you want? Why are you here?” I yelled.

At first, he showed no movement. In fact, his presence seemed like a horribly gruesome statue. I had to repeat myself once more with the question, “Why are you here?”

He finally lowered his stare to whatever object he was holding in both hands, before bending down to place it on the deck at his pasty feet. He rose back up, presented me with his haunting smile, just at the same time that the silence was shocked by the piercing volume of my cell phone, somewhere on the counter off to my left.

As quick as I looked to the phone and back again, he was gone, as if he had never been there. I felt scared but also confused. I couldn’t help but stare at the gift he had brought me. He, for whatever reason, had brought back my flashlight.

Could it be possible that this was some sort of peace offering? Or was this merely some kind of trick or game he was playing? Nervous confusion was rampant. I leaned out through the door wall to see if he really was gone before retrieving my old yellow friend, as my cell continued to cry out for me. I quickly moved back inside, closed and locked the door, and dashed to my phone. “Hello?”

“Dad?” a small timid voice inquired.

“Al? Is that you?” I then looked at the screen and saw my wife’s name and number, just before placing the knife down on the counter.

“Honey, is everything okay? Where’s your mother?”

“Everything’s fine here, but that’s why I’m calling you!”

“Honey, where’s your—”

“Dad, listen to me! I need to ask you something!” she interrupted.

I could sense the fear in her voice. It was silent for a moment while she swallowed, before continuing on.

“Mom’s eating breakfast with Grams and Pappa. She wouldn’t understand. I’m not even sure I do!”

“Al, what–-”

“I had a bad dream, Dad!” she interrupted again, with an excitingly worried tone in her voice.

“Honey, I’m sorry. Are you okay?”

“Dad! You don’t understand! It was so real!”

“Peanut, do you want to–-”

“A white monster!” she interrupted once more.

A chilling silence fell between us again. For the moment, I was frozen and unable to respond to anything. I had even stopped breathing, at least until she spoke again.

“Daddy?”

I desperately searched for something to say. My mind had, for the moment, been flushed of any real response that made sense to me.

“Daddy? Dad, are you okay?”

“Yeah-Yeah honey, I’m fine. No monsters here!” As I said before, I hate to lie. But then again, he wasn’t here, was he?

“Okay. Really?” was her response.

I could feel that she wasn’t quite satisfied, but maybe felt a little more at ease after talking to me and hearing the calm in my voice. “Everything’s good here, Peanut, just try not to drink too much of that salt water when you go swimming later. Okay?”

“Dad, you would tell me if something was wrong, wouldn’t you? I mean--what I saw—it seemed so real!”

“I’m fine honey, seriously. It was just a very bad dream, right?”

“Okay Dad. I love you!”

“Love you too. Talk to you later, honey.”

“Okay… be careful!” and then she hung up.

“What the hell?” I whispered to myself, and then lowered my phone down in front of me so that I was able to stare at it in disbelief. It was the only thing I had to replace her being here in person.

I now had two new things on my plate to gnaw on. I stood at the back window, watching the darkness fade away to yet another brand new and bright day ahead. I was still shocked by the words Alley had said to me only minutes ago.

“A white monster.”

How the hell could she possibly know this? The coincidence was far too great to even conceive. And why did he return my flashlight to me? I felt something incredible, but not likely pleasant, was about to take place—maybe tonight. I suddenly became angry with myself for letting excitement get tangled with my fear once more, a morphed emotion that I had grown accustomed to over the past couple of days. My anxiety kept me wired with now burning eyes, as I sat alone on the deck’s edge, inspecting the gash I had suffered earlier to my right thigh, when my cell again called to me from somewhere just inside.

This time it was Corey. We went on to compare news of excitement and despair, since we had last seen each other at the airport. Of course my news had been tweaked somewhat, making my experiences normal and humanly acceptable to her. Eventually, she would maybe know of the nightmarish terror I had experienced just before, and during her absence. Maybe I would tell her about the bike path and how I was chased that night, or the disturbing scene later that same night in Dave Gust’s back yard. How could she ever believe me when I tell her that Hercules had turned on me? And if it was even possible that she was able to handle any of that without deeming me crazy, I would then open the floodgates to the most insane experience of all—my encounter with him behind the school. But for now, I was a thousand miles from trying to approach her with anything that intense, so real, and yet, so absurd. “Love you, Hon,” I said as the conversation dwindled.

“Love you too. I’ll call you later tonight, okay?”

“Not if I call you first!” I jokingly responded, just before pushing the end button.

I tossed my phone to the couch. She hadn’t asked me about work, or anything relating to it. For all she knew, I was at the dealership. This made me happy because I didn’t have to come up with some crazy story. Although, what could ever qualify to match the craziness I had actually encountered last night! Absolutely nothing!

I fell back onto the couch and let out a sigh of relief, as the sun continued to make its grand appearance over the trees. Midnight reappeared, jumping up onto the back of the couch just to the right side of my head. She purred loudly for affection. I pulled her down to my lap and began petting her soft fur, anxious to respond. “Wow girl! You could use a bath! Did you roll in something?” I hoisted her up and around to face me. “Huh? What did you roll in, stinky?” I smiled and brought her in close to me.

The smell didn’t bother me, not really. I had made it through another night. As I felt myself drift away and then back again, a smile came to me in spirit, knowing that it was finally safe to slumber once again, that only my dreams could scare me now…