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It Can
by Bob Henderson
Copyright 2002 All rights reserved
marentes3421@yahoo.com
I came home late that night. I walked in quietly because I though everyone was asleep. I walked past my parent's room and it was dark. That was good. They were sleeping. I walked into my room and slipped into bed not even bothering to change my clothes. It was dark tonight, darker than usual. It was also very silent tonight. All I could hear were cars passing on the road every once in awhile. As I said before everything was dark, too dark. All I could see was the closet door. There was a crack in the hallway door and the light shone in on the closet door.Then I heard something, a rattling noise. I know I heard it, it wasn't my imagination. I looked around and didn't see a thing. That is until I saw the closet door. The doorknob was shaking violently. I know it was real, I don't imagine things. Now I was scared. But I'm never scared. I'm never scared. But I was scared, very scared. I covered my head with the sheet and almost instantly the closet door swung open its as if whatever was in there had been watching me and knew exactly when to open it. A door to who knows where opened by who knows what.
I felt the breeze that the door gave off as it swung ajar. After that I stopped breathing because I knew. I knew that if I moved or made a sound that that thing, that person or whatever it was, was going to know where I was. Not that it mattered much, but I felt safe under the sheets, I felt protected. Now everything went quiet and I could only hear it walking, pounding or god knows what. All I could hear was a rhythmic lub-dub\lub-dub. Now I was really afraid. This wasn't happening, not to me. It can't be happening.
Then I closed my eyes, I though that would make it go away. God was I wrong. I could feel it breathing on the sheets over my head and I could feel it pacing quickly from one corner of the room to the other. As if it were looking for something. But I knew what he was looking for, and I prayed that it wouldn't find me.
All of a sudden the door to the hallway opened but at that very moment the nightlight that gave light to the hallway, went out. I got the courage to lift my head out of the sheets. And as I did I thought I saw a tail, wagging and going out through the door. Woe, I had been scared to death and it was just that damned cat! I got up and out of bed determined to find the cat and take it outside. As I was going out I stepped on a puddle. Oh no, I thought the cat peed on my carpet again. I hated it when it did that. I don't know why we had that stupid cat. Now I had to come back and clean it later. It felt weird though, it felt thick. As I walked out of the room I switched the nightlight back on. Then I headed to the bathroom, where I was most likely to find that cat. Then suddenly I looked at my feet and then behind me. There were my footsteps on the carpet, that was now marked in red. It couldn't be, it couldn't be. I looked around and sure enough there was a little path of that red stuff, from my bedroom to the bathroom. The bathroom door was now open a little and the light was on inside. There was something in there and I could see it moving.
I don't know why, call me stupid if you will, but I walked to the bathroom expecting to walk in and then suddenly open my eyes and realizing it had all been a bad dream. But that's not exactly how it happened. I walked in and it was bright, too bright. I shaded my eyes and turned my head. Too late, I guess, because I saw it and it most definitely saw me. I tried to scream, I tried to run. But nothing would come out and my legs wouldn't budge. I was standing there looking at what had once been my cat and finally thinking I was going to end up like him. This was how I was going to die, alone in a bathroom with a mangled cat. I didnāt know what to feel. I was sure that this couldnāt be, no way. But I also knew that this was very real, as real as the blood my feet were soaking in. I looked up knowing that I was going to die and yet wishing I didn't think that. This can't be, this can't be. I can't die. Not like this. I can't die. It can't be. Then I heard it. The most horrible voice I have ever heard. And all it said in its high pitch was " IT CAN"
FIN