What She Saw

After dinner, Aliyah’s mom kissed her good bye and headed off to her second job, which kept her away most of the night, but she was always home by midnight. She worked at the hospital during the day as a nurse and then at night she covered a shift at the local gas station. There was only one in town and it was always busy with townspeople coming and going. Aliyah rarely waited up most nights but she always woke up around midnight to see if the living room light had been shut off. They usually left a light on in the living room until Kate got home. It comforted both of them as Aliyah was home alone until then and her mom didn’t like walking into a dark house either.

Aliyah’s mom had a silver cross just like hers that she wore around her neck all the time too. They shared the same nervous habit of twisting their necklaces between their fingers. Kate had bought one for herself when she had picked out Aliyah’s, so they could share something unique. Aliyah felt like it almost connected them more…having the same necklace and same habit of twirling it when nervous or pondering something. She loved her mom, but more so she looked up to her. She was the strongest and kindest woman she knew… she just wished her mom would trust her with the truth about her father.

She messed around the house doing odd chores and things and then finished up her last bit of geometry and got herself ready for bed. She tried not to think about the fact that she was alone. Even though it was quite often a nightly occurrence she still didn’t like it. The normally pleasant and peaceful house would take on a different personality when all the lights were down and no one was there but her. She went through their little one-story bungalow and began her routine of shutting off lights and locking doors and windows. There was a low crime rate in their small town but being that her mom worked nights at the local gas station, everyone probably knew that Aliyah would be home alone until her mom got off work. No one had bothered her before but it was only just this year that her mom started leaving her home alone at night because her grandmother had passed away a few months prior, and she used to stay with her most nights. Kate tended to be slightly over protective of Aliyah probably because she was her only child, but also Aliyah thought that it had something to do with her father, she just didn’t know what. Most nights she could talk herself down enough to go to sleep but tonight she found herself extra anxious. Maybe it was because Halloween was this weekend; regardless she was not calming down rather she was jumping at every little random noise and dark shadow.

She took a deep breath and said a prayer while gripping her cross necklace and turning off her lamp next to her bed. It was pitch black in her room. She pushed away all her frightening thoughts and she lay back and shut her eyes. She did her best to relax and go to sleep, but she was feeling anxious. She must have finally dozed off because she awoke quickly when she heard what she thought sounded like footsteps. At first she thought it was her mother but as she waited patiently for her mother to come bounding in like she did when she checked on her daughter, she realized it wasn’t her. She suddenly became petrified and couldn’t move; she couldn’t even open her eyes. She lay there motionless and listened intently. Sure enough she thought she heard footsteps. They sounded as if they were in her house and coming in towards her room. Then she thought she heard what sounded like heavy breathing and a slight whisper every once in a while; although she couldn’t understand what was being said. She knew her best defense was going to be turning on her lamp and hopefully startling whomever it was enough that they would just flee the house so as not to get caught.

She counted to three in her head and then quickly sat up and turned on the light as fast as she could. She let out a loud panicked scream in the process because she could not find the switch on the lamp as fast as she would have liked. She was so scared she had almost knocked the whole lamp off the dresser in her hurried attempt to turn it on. The light came on and she expected to see someone running out of the house in a hurry but there was no one there.

Aliyah stopped holding her breath and sighed from relief, “Oh man, I’m really losing it now!” She said out loud to herself.

“This whole Halloween thing has me all spooked. Get a grip, Aliyah!” She was still talking to herself. She couldn’t help but feeling like someone was watching her but she was too scared to get out of her bed to check things out so she just left her lamp on and eventually dozed off squeezing her cross necklace tightly. Her mom finally came home and shut all the lights off and Aliyah was able to sleep peacefully for the rest of the night. In Aliyah’s mind darkness brought terror and loneliness, but light brought a new day and a new chance. A new chance at what she didn’t know; but no matter what, light was better than dark in her mind.