Scary Story

My good friend Julie over at The Surrendered Scribe tagged me a while back to write a scary story, as part of a blog tour meme. Please don't look at the date of her post / tag.... Julie is the kind of friend who loves me even though "time" and I don't always get along, and most days I advocate the "better late than never?!?!?" approach to blogging. (Thank you for that, Julie!)

Her post was in response to the Mike Dellosso The Hunted blog tour meme -- what's your scariest experience? Hers really was scary, but mine's going to be a little bit different. Here goes....

My (almost) 5 year old daughter, Rachel, has an on again / off again fear of the dark. Thanks to cartoons they watch at daycare, she's added "spooky" to her list of favorite words. From time to time, she'll resist going to bed because the closet is open or a shadow looks "spooky" or she wants the door open more or where is her flashlight? or what is that light I see outside?

To help make her more comfortable, we have 2 nightlights in her room at all times. One is the standard plug-in nightlight that is light sensitive, so it comes on in the dark and goes off when it's light. She also has a low-watt princess lamp on her nightstand which we let her keep on all night, plus several flashlights in strategic places around her room.

One of her favorite flashlights is a plastic pig-shaped one, that Aunt Brenda gave her as a gift a few years back. There's a handle on the back and when you squeeze it, the pig's mouth opens to reveal the light, which stays on for 2 minutes before shutting itself off.

A few weeks ago, I was sound asleep when I heard something bump into the door frame of my bedroom. I heard someone walking toward the bed. I rolled over and sleepily opened my eyes to see who was there, when BAM! I came face to face with the brightest light I had ever seen at 3am, shining directly into my face like I was about to be interrogated. Half asleep, my heart instinctively started to beat faster, my mind started to race. Someone was in my bedroom, ready to.... what? Rob me? Kill me? Steal my children? I was blinded, I couldn't see who it was. I was scared and I didn't know what to do.

"Who's there?!?" I demanded, at the same time trying to kick Husband so he'd wake up and protect me from this evil burglar who had invaded our home and was ready to destroy our family and steal all of our worldly possessions.

"Oink! Oink!" came the response.

**sigh**

True story....