The Ghostly Shadow

     Jamison woke up to a horrible crash. Startled and frightened, he quickly threw the covers of his bed over his head. The world seemed to slow down as his mind, like that of a frightened animal, pumped irrational fears into every nook and cranny of his consciousness. He slowly opened a gap in the sheets to quietly take in air and search for the cause of the loud sound. As he searched the room he noticed that nothing was out of place and nobody else had awakened. He then began to remove the covers from his head. Not soon after he had the whole comforter off and decided to further investigate what could have possibly happened. As he slipped his cold feet into his warm night slippers he noticed a very tiny sound that seemingly emanated from the kitchen. He quickly nervously pondered to himself whether he should check it out or play it safe and hope this was a dream. Deciding that it was best to discover the cause of all the eerie noises and the loud ruckus he pulled out his Grandfather’s old WWII sword from the closet and headed toward the kitchen. Closer and closer he crept, with the sound getting louder and switching from a quiet noise to that of metal scraping metal. Then when he was almost there the music of Tiny Tim played and he fell to the ground. Scared to death he waited for what seemed like hours before finally gathering his whits and getting up to finally confront the menace. With the music still playing, he unsheathed the shiny steel sword and ran into the kitchen screaming with all his might to see what was making the noise and........... nothing. Nothing was there. He started gasping for air and sweating profusely as he nervously turned every which way to find what had created the noise and where the music was coming from. With a loud crash of pot something jumped and he swung hard and furiously trying to hit the creature or person that was torturing him so. Still swinging, he finally saw the monster and as it reached out to grab him..... he awoke from his nightmare. After noticing it was over he heaved a sigh of relief. As he wiped the sweat from his forehead, he decided that he was NEVER going to party again. After everything was calm and he took a sip of water from the bathroom next to his room, he lied back down in bed and swore that must have been real. And as he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep, a long black shadow drifted every so slowly towards him.