The Sleepover

I make it back to the table my face red and panting. I sit down and put my head into my hands and hold it there for a second. Brittany reaches over the table and grabs my wrist. I can't even make eye contact with her, I just continue looking down at my food watching it get cold.

"Hey, are you okay?" She moves her chair closer to me. I lift my head and notice people walking by looking at me.

"Did something happen to you?"

I lean back in my chair and let out an exaggerated sigh. I put a smile on my face and grab my burger. I take a bite and look at Brittany. I can see she knows something is wrong with me, she should, she has known me since we were kids. I look away from her but she grabs my face forcing me to look at her.

"Tell me what's wrong" she started talking to me in a demanding tone, it was the first time she's ever spoken to me like that. I would be lying if I said it wasn't the kind of hot.

"I saw the shadow figure from the house, I think it's following me." My voice is a little shaky.

I start to tell her everything that has happened since we left the house and she grabs me and hugs me tight, I can smell her favorite cashmere scented perfume filling my nose. I wrap my arms around her and fall into her embrace. We finish our meal in silence, she calls her mom and asks if she can pick us up from the mall.

We waited for a few and her mom finally arrived to pick us up. We walk to the car and get in, I greet her mom and we take off. We drive to her house and we get out of the car and go into her house. We head to her room which is right next to the front door and close the door.

"Where's your dad? Working late again?"

Brittany walks over to her closet and opens it," yeah, he always works late lately." She takes out some clothes and stuffs them into a book bag. She opens the dresser and grabs some pajamas also throwing them into the bag.

"I'm sleeping at your house tonight, by the way, I told my mom already."

I turn my head slowly towards her dramatically "Well thanks for telling me" I jokingly tell her.

"Yeeeah, about that, I don't need your permission" she walks over to me and slaps my back "so yeah, you're stuck with me tonight." She laughs while putting her backpack over her shoulders. Her mom knocks on her door and asks if we're ready to go. I get up from her bed and we walk out the door into the car; Her mom drops us off after about a 15-minute drive.

We stand outside the house in the driveway remembering everything from earlier. We hesitantly start walking to the front door. There are no cars in the driveway yet, so we take our time going inside.

"Shit, we forgot to put the board away" I facepalm myself in disappointment. We both look at each other and take a deep breath as we walk into the house. You can feel the drastic change from the outside to the inside, the air feels heavier almost as if something is stuck in your throat. I can feel the hairs on the back of my neck standing and you can see the goosebumps on my arm.

Nervously we walk up the stairs taking each step slowly. We stand outside the door looking at each other periodically telling the other to go in first. After some back and forth and a game of rock, paper, and scissors, I end up going into the room first. I peek in the door hoping I don't see anything standing in the corner.

"Is it safe?" Brittany grabs my shoulder staying close to me.

"Everything is okay" I walk over to the board which is still on the floor and start to put it away. She throws her backpack on the bed and throws herself into my pillows.

"I call next to the wall tonight," she kicks her shoes off her feet and lays on her side looking at me, "I'm kind of tired, let's put a movie on!"

"Don't you want to change first?" She looks at me and pouts

"I don't want to get up now!" She kicks upwards throwing a tantrum

"Alright, but I'm going to get comfortable and be cozy," I smile at her and wink

She squints at me while getting off the bed, she grabs her bag and walks to the bathroom across the hall. I quickly change before she gets back and jump under the covers on the side next to the wall.

She comes back in and drops her bag on the floor. She stomps her foot on the floor looking at me with pouty lips.

"I called that side!" She said in a sad voice "Now I have to sleep next to the floor, what if I fall off the bed?"

"You could take the guest room or take out the sleeping bag."

She jumps on the bed and grabs my arm pulling me from the side of the bed she wanted. We start to wrestle until we both start to get out of breath. She laid across me and we both started laughing.

"Fine, take your side back."

She excitingly jumps up and jumps under the covers. She takes one of my pillows and grabs the remote for the tv. I lay down next to her as she scrolls through the tv trying to find a movie.

"Are you going to find something or are you just going to be indecisive?" I poke fun at her. She stops at a random movie and looks at me. She starts to poke my face as she quickly moves it so I wouldn't grab it. She looks at me with a serious expression,

"What was that thing from earlier? Why do you think it's following you?"

"I don't know what that thing is, I don't know what it could ever want."

We lay there talking about random things for the rest of the night. We start to grow tired as we both start yawning. My eyes start to get heavy as I fight to keep them open. Brittany fell asleep while she was trying to fight her sleep so she can stay up. I lay there fighting my sleep taking heavy blinks in between hoping it will keep me up.

In between blinks, I start to see a figure moving forward slowly. With every blink, it gets closer and closer. My body can barely react, the exhaustion was too much for me after today. I can feel the presence of someone or something in the room staring at me. My eyes finally close as I fall into a deep sleep.

As I lay there I can feel myself leaving my body. Eventually, I can see my body laying in the bed next to Brittany. I look around the room and I can see something in the corner of my room. I try to keep away but it quickly looks in my direction. It already noticed me. I try to find a way to get away from it but it lunges at me. I can barely get away before it latches its claws into my leg. I can see my body jerk in the bed as I scream in pain. I kick the shadow figure off of me as I start to run.

I run out of my room and run downstairs. I only make it before I see the figure standing there. I stop in my tracks and turn around to run back into my room. I turn around and see another figure standing on the top of the stair.

This one is different, the figure has a smiling face with humanoid features, It waves at me from the top of the stairs. Fear fills my body, as I realize I have nowhere to run to. I can feel the air get thinner with every step they take. They slowly, one by one take a step toward me. Unable to run I crouch down in the fetal position calling for help. I start to pray hoping anything, anyone can hear me. I feel their hands grab the back of my neck, I start to scream hysterically. I suddenly wake up back in my body jolting up from my sleep. I wake up screaming, waking up Brittany. She sits up and tries her best to calm me down.

"Hey, hey, it's okay, look at me" she hugs me calming me down as I start to cry on her shoulder. I was unable to speak as she sat there hugging, periodically kissing my head telling me its okay.

I look around the room as the lights were still off, I can barely see anything around me. The moonlight from the window beaming into the room illuminates the corner of my room where I can see the smiling entity waving at me.