Can't You Hear Me Screaming?

Blood was streaming down my face and I knew I was letting out a bone chilling scream even though I could not hear it. I tried to wipe the blood away from my eyes, however there was too much of it and I began to wonder how I could be bleeding this badly, yet still be coherent and upright. I felt around my scalp trying to find the place I was bleeding from, but I could feel nothing but my blood soaked hair. Wherever I was it was pitch black and all I could hear was my own breathing. Or was it? I couldn't see anything and was beginning to think I wasn't alone. I began to feel my way along the walls, trying to find a way out when someone or something touched my shoulder. I tried to run as fast as I could, but I wasn't able to see four feet in front of me and ended up falling flat on my face. As I tried to scramble to my feet something pounced on me from behind and I tried to scream, but nothing.....

I awoke shaking and screaming in my own bed and it took a few minutes for reality to settle back into my brain and I realized I just had a really bad nightmare. I felt my head, no blood. I got up and ran to the bathroom mirror and saw that other than sweating profusely, I was fine, physically at the very least. My mental disposition was something else at this point, but I figured I just needed to get in the shower and start my day. I called my husband, who was already at work, to say good morning. He could tell by the tone in my voice that something was wrong. "You okay honey? You don't sound too good." I explained the dream I had and told him that I was just shaken up a little by it, but that I would be fine. "It just seemed so real, but at least you missed getting awakened by a screaming lunatic," I laughed at him. "It must be my mind running wild with Halloween right around the corner. I'll see you tonight."

Halloween was just around the corner and we had planned a big night full of tricks and treats for all the neighborhood kids as we do every year, but this year was going to be different, only I didn't quite know just how different it would be this year. We had spent the whole weekend before decorating outdoors for the holiday and everything was ready to scare and delight everyone who passed by or wandered up to our door. We had stockpiled loads of candy for a month as our visitors have grown into the triple digits at this point. The day before Halloween I was putting the finishing touches on our costumes when my husband entered the room. "Hey honey, I have some bad news. I am really sorry about this, but I have to leave first thing in the morning for a business meeting in New York tomorrow and I won't be back until the following day." He could tell by the look on my face that I was not happy about this. I hated when he left town because, even though I put on a good front for his sake, I hated being alone in our big house. I couldn't help but lay a little guilt trip on him. "You mean you're going to leave me all alone to handle all the Halloween traffic by myself? I don't know that I want to do it without you here," I whimpered. He gave me a big hug and said, "You'll be fine. Just make sure you look out the peephole before you open the door. If anyone is over six feet tall...." "I know, I'll invite him in for dinner," I replied with a tone of amusement and anger. "I don't think so," he laughed. "Don't answer the door is where I was going with that one." I hate to admit it, but I walked away sulking like a five year old.

The next day seemed to drag on forever, especially since I was up at four in the morning to say goodbye to my husband who had to once more remind me to check the peephole. "I wasn't born yesterday," I snapped. What can I say, I hadn't outgrown my five year old behavior from the night before, but I did try. I kissed him goodbye, hugged him tight and whispered in his ear, "I'm sorry for acting like this. I know you don't want to go and I just hate the fact that I have to be alone tonight of all nights. Have a safe trip and call me when you get there. I love you." He held me even tighter. "I love you too," he said and with that he was off. He called a few hours later when he arrived in New York. He apologized some more and told me that he would call that evening after his meeting. I spent the rest of the day relaxing as I knew I had quite a busy night ahead of me once the trick-or-treaters started showing up.

I must have dozed off at some point and didn't wake up until it was already dark out. As I wiped the sleep from my eyes I started to wonder why I hadn't been awakened by the doorbell, or worse yet, why my husband hadn't called yet as I had the phone right next to my head. There is no way I would have slept through the phone ringing right next to me and certainly not through the doorbell ringing since our dogs would bark every time someone came to the door. Now I wondered where the dogs were. "Putty man, Pepper girl," I hollered. Nothing. No barking, no panting, no dogs. There's no way these dogs would have been this quiet with all the people out on the street. l looked at the kitchen clock to see it was just after 9:00 p.m. which means I should have been bombarded with trick-or-treaters with the majority of them at my front door right now. I checked around the house just on the off chance that both dogs were asleep somewhere and maybe slept through all the noise as I apparently did, but they were nowhere to be found. As I headed towards the front door to go out and see if they somehow got out there was a loud, almost unbearable banging on the door that wouldn't cease. I slowly crept up to peer out the peephole and suddenly the banging stopped. I quickly looked out to see who it was before they walked away, but there was no one there and not just at my door. There was no one on the street it seemed, which made no sense at all. This was Halloween! Where was everyone? Suddenly, I saw someone, or should I say something, running down the street. Unfortunately, whatever it was moved too fast for me to tell what it was by looking out the peephole. I decided to go to the front window in the other room so I could get a better look at what was going on outside. As I turned to go the banging started again, but this time I was too afraid to look. I needed to check the street and figured whoever it is, I will see them walking down the driveway from the other window.

Total darkness is all I saw from the front window. There was not one single person or animal on the street, not to mention not a single porch light on at any of the houses I could see from my angle, and though the banging on my front door stopped, no one walked down my driveway. I then heard the doggy door in the back of the house swinging back and forth which meant the dogs must have been outside, but why didn't they come when I called as they always did. I turned lights on as I found my way to the back door, but there were no dogs and when I called them again, no sounds came. I was about to turn the light on in the backyard when the banging started again. Only this time it was at my back door. The door that contained the doggy door. The door that I just heard swinging as if something came through it, or maybe even out it, but if the dogs were inside, they would have responded earlier. I decided I needed to call my husband as I hadn't heard from him, but when I picked up the phone, it was dead. I found my purse and pulled out my cell phone, but that wouldn't be doing me any good either as I could not get any signal.

I didn't know what to do at this point and wished so hard that my dogs would show up or that my husband didn't call because he was going to walk in the door at any minute. It then dawned on me that I was probably having another nightmare although I was having a hard time convincing myself that this wasn't real, but I knew it was and I had to figure out what I was going to do. Suddenly the banging started again at the front door bringing me back into this reality and then within seconds it stopped. I decided I had to get out of this house and over to a neighbors' house as quickly as I could. I grabbed my phone and keys and headed for the back door since I didn't want to run into whatever kept banging on my front door. Just as I put my hand on the doorknob something came through the doggy door at my feet, grabbed my ankle and before I knew what happened, I was pulled to the ground and yanked out through the doggy door. It was so sudden and violent that I smashed my head on the metal casing of the door as I went through it, leaving a big gash across the top of my head and within no time I passed out. When I came to I didn't know where I was because it was pitch black. I stood up and realized there was blood streaming down my face and I knew I was letting out a bone chilling scream even though I could not hear it.