Tiny Fingers nosleep

As a busy mom of three, I often have trouble sleeping soundly. I am all too often half listening for the pitter patter of toddler feet on the hardwood floor; for this surely means one of the kids is getting ready to squeeze their little body in between my husband, Dan, and I in the bed. Many a night has been spent with a warm and cuddly small person sleeping soundly in the middle of us, while he and I struggle to get a good night’s rest. All three of them have always lulled themselves to sleep by gently twirling my long, brown hair in between their pudgy, tiny fingers. I guess this makes them feel safe, and I’m not going to lie, it helps me drift off also. At least it used to. Before I can get to the most recent events, I need to give you some background information.

Our home is not what you would consider old, but the area does have some unique history. We live in Alton, Illinois, an area rich with stories of ancient Indian burial grounds and ghosts on every corner. When we purchased our home, we never expected to be adding to those tales of the paranormal, but we did. Early on when we had first moved into our house we started doing some minor renovations. It was during these remodeling sessions that my husband and I began to notice some strange happenings in our home. Mostly, he or I would hear voices, primarily small children crying, when one of us was alone in the house. Fearing what each other would think of our ‘crazy’ experiences, neither of us spoke of the incidents to one another. Only when our oldest daughter, Chloe who was four at the time, began to bear witness to some of the phantom voices did we finally break our silence. As it turned out, our experiences were eerily similar.

After I got off work from my late night waitressing job, Dan and I would sit and catch up on the events of the day. Most nights ended with him telling me nervously about how many times he had gone upstairs to check on the children because he heard them laughing and playing, only to find them all three sleeping peacefully. Some days we would hear horrible sobbing coming from the children’s bedrooms when all of them were laughing and playing. The children were oblivious to the sounds, and Dan and I thought that we might be losing our minds or experiencing some type of group hysteria. Whatever was in our house seemed to be innocent enough, so we tried to ignore it best we could, but things just got worse.

Children often have imaginary friends. Our oldest daughter had one before her twin siblings, Gabriel and Grace, were born, but shortly after, Dede-as she had named her, moved away and we never heard of her again. It is less common for children who have constant playmates to have imaginary friends, so we were very surprised when Gabriel, one of our twins, began speaking to Sammy. Sammy would show up to Gabe when no one else was in his room playing with him. We figured Gabe was just not getting enough attention from his sisters and had invented someone to spend time with. Soon though, Gabe started making alarming statements about Sammy. He told us how Sammy didn’t like his sisters and didn’t want them to live here anymore, and that Sammy hated when Gabe spent time with anyone but him. These thoughts seemed a bit odd for a three-year-old, so we began asking more and more questions, pressing Gabe to tell us as much as he could about his friend. Soon Gabe stopped giving us any information about Sammy because he said Sammy didn’t like him talking to us about him. No matter how hard we tried to get him to talk, Gabe became a vault on anything Sammy. The details we were able to coax out of Gabe, before he locked down like Fort Knox, were quite impressive for one so young.

Sammy, as told by Gabriel *Blond hair with big curls *Sad, blue eyes that look like he has been crying a lot *Same age as me *Skinny like he hasn’t eaten in a very long time *Blood under his fingernails *Funny when he tells me jokes but scary when he sees Chloe and Grace coming down the hall *Doesn’t have a mommy or daddy *Hides in the closet when everyone else comes in the room, but sometimes he is right there and no on else can see him. Sammy says he can decide who sees him or not. *Hates everyone but me. That’s why he makes noises to trick you and daddy. *Says he wants me to live here with him forever and he will find a way

I must say, I am no longer a fan of Gabe’s imaginary friend.

Recent events/Last week

The laughing and crying has stopped; both of us are grateful for that small reprieve. However, even stranger things have begun happening. I will break it down for you on a daily basis because otherwise it will be too confusing. Like I said previously, I work as a waitress/bartender until late at night. Dan is a teacher, so he works during the day. This arrangement works best for us because that means one of us is always at home with the kids, and we do not have to spend extra money on childcare. The bad part about it is that it also means we are alone in the house. A lot.

Monday

When I got home from work, I went in the restroom to take a shower and get ready for bed; my husband was already sleeping and so were the children. My routine is the same every night. Wash my makeup off, use the toilet, and then take a nice long shower. This night while I was washing off my makeup the lights above the vanity began to flicker off and on. I was super pissed because we had just had an electrician out to check all of the wiring before we moved in. Obviously he missed this outlet and now we were going to have to spend more money. I made a mental note to tell Dan in the morning and began my shower. The night went on without any more incidents.

Tuesday

Tuesday was one of those rare week nights when I didn’t have to work, so we got to eat dinner all together as a family. I was ecstatic to be spending quality time with the one’s I love the most, so I decided to make a nice big dinner of fried chicken and mashed potatoes-from scratch. Shortly into preparing the meal, I realized I was out of butter and asked Dan to please run to the grocery store up the street and get some. Taking advantage of the lull in cooking, I decided to feed the twins their meals so I could sit down and eat with Dan and Chloe when he returned. The four of us had been seated for roughly five minutes when a motion caught the corner of my right eye. I looked over toward the refrigerator where the movement had generated from and saw the trash can lid doing multiple 360 degree turns. What the hell? None of us had been anywhere near that trash can for at least ten minutes, and I would have noticed it flipping out way before now anyway. Needless to say I was terrified, but I tried to remain calm so Chloe didn’t become frightened.

In her all to casual four-year old slang, Chloe looked at the trash can, which was still spinning, and asked me, “Mom, why’s the frash can acting crazy? The lid is being silly.”

Ok, so I’m not crazy, I thought.

“I’m not sure, Chloe bear,” I replied, “but it will be ok.”

I’m not sure who I was trying to reassure, her or myself. It wasn’t until a few moments later that I noticed Gabe’s eyes transfixed on the area directly behind the trash. He had a small hint of a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth; the effect was anything but calming. Never before had I seen such a sinister look on a toddlers face. At that moment, Dan came back from the store with the butter, and I filled him in with the story. It always amazes me how much we can believe what our own eyes see and at the same time have such a difficult time believing what others tell us; Dan thought I had officially lost my mind.

Wednesday

Wednesday I had to work, and to be honest, I was pretty happy to be getting out of the house. I had a hard time sleeping Tuesday night. Gabe had been really restless in his room, so I guess around midnight or so-I was too tired to even turn over to look at him or the alarm clock- he decided to come into our room and wedge himself between Dan and me. Normally, like I said earlier, this would have helped me sleep better, but that night Gabe was really rough with the hair twirling. I actually had a bit of a headache when I woke up Wednesday morning. My night at work went off without a hitch, but I did have to stay a little later than usual to finish up some monthly cleaning duties. When I got home it was almost 3 a.m., and the house was completely still. I quietly snuck into the restroom to begin my nightly routine. Just like Monday night, as I was about to take my makeup off the lights began to go off and on; only this time it wasn’t the vanity light it was the light above the bathtub. I’m no electrical genius, but I do know a little something about circuits and these two lights were on completely different ones. Not ready to fully commit to a ghost theory yet, I chalked it up to a totally shitty wiring job in the entire bathroom and went to bed. Dan was sleeping soundly as were all three children. I was already exhausted when I hit the sheets, so it didn’t take long at all to fall into a deep sleep. The only thing that caused me to stir throughout the night was Gabe’s hair pulling again. Too tired to roll over, my only clue that it was him was the slightly heavier weight in the bed than the girls would have made.

Thursday

Thursday was a repeat of Wednesday all the way from work to home. However, this night when I began to take my makeup off and the lights again clicked off and on, I didn’t stay in the bathroom. I went in to wake up Dan, so he could go check things out. If this were truly a short then we had a major problem. Funny thing was, I never had a problem with the lights during the day and no one else ever did at any time. I was starting to question the faulty wiring theory and my sanity all together. Dan was less than pleased with being woken up in the middle of the night and refused to get up and check.

"There isn’t anything wrong with the lights, Amelia. You really need to get some more sleep. I think it is getting to you", Dan said sleepily.

"Dan, I swear to you, the lights keep turning off. It has happened three days this week,” I replied.

Dan sat up in bed and stared down the hallway toward the bathroom. “The lights are fine. I haven’t had any problems with them ever. The lights are FINE,” he grumbled.

As if the lights could hear us, at the exact moment Dan uttered the word fine, the lights went off once and then slowly back on.

“Did you see that?” I asked. “I told you!”

Dan turned to face me and respond, but we were both cut short by the childlike laughter that came from the hallway. Too scared to speak or move, we just sat there waiting for whoever, or whatever, was out there to go back to their room or come into ours. There was nothing. No footsteps. No breathing. Nothing!

After what felt like hours, I decided to cover my head up like a scaredy cat and pretend nothing had happened. I didn’t sleep that night, but at least Gabe did; he didn’t come in to twirl my hair one time.

Friday-last night

I am officially freaked out! Dan has been at work all day today, and I have been home alone with the kids. I am exhausted from not sleeping for two nights straight, and I don’t expect to be sleeping much tonight either. Last night when I got home from work I came directly in and checked on the kids before going to take a shower. Everyone was sleeping peacefully, so I decided to take a nice, hot bath. While I was in the bathtub, I could hear small footsteps outside in the hallway, but no one responded to my cries of ‘hello, who is out of bed?’ Hurriedly I finished my bath and put on my pajamas. I was so terrified to open that door. I must have stood in the bathroom for five minutes with my hand shakily poised over the doorknob, all the while listening to the constant back and forth of the slow, shuffling feet pacing on the other side. I tried calling out for Dan, but my voice was lost in the lump in my throat. Finally, I decided to just do it. It had been a moment since I heard the footsteps move down the hall toward the kitchen. If I had the timing correct, I could catch whoever was out there when they walked back toward me. I frantically pulled the door open and thrust my head into the hallway, sure I would be face to face with a demon, but instead I saw nothing. Blackness emanated from all rooms around me. How could there be nothing? I remained a statue for one minute, then two. Still nothing. I strained my ears to hear any noise at all, but still there was nothing. Absolute silence and darkness met me at every turn of my head. Losing the last of my nerve, I darted to my bedroom and leaped into the bed. Dan was there snoring lightly. I would have woken him up, but I was shaking too badly. I pulled the covers up tightly around my face so that only my eyes were sticking out, and I watched the hallway for hours. I must have eventually fallen asleep because sometime right before dawn I was once again awakened by the tiny fingers of Gabriel wound tightly in my hair. Slowly rolling over to give him a hug, I gazed into the smiling face of Sammy.

Submitted March 11, 2016 at 01:38AM by alnoble http://ift.tt/1LUP0iz nosleep